Fans, why do you like ENT?

[Warped9]

I know I never post here. But I'm planning a website and although it will be primarily TOS-TMP centric I will be commenting on the Treks that followed.

That said it isn't my intention there, or here, to trash later Trek but to offer views on both sides. Of course my critique will be there but I also want to state reasons why others were drawn to the show.

So to that end I'm not here to comment but mostly listen to your views and insights.

Please, share with me here why you like ENT and what you see in it.

 

[JiNX-01]

I liked the idea of a prequel. We'd had three consecutive series set in the same time period. Going back and exploring the early days just sounded like fun. And for the most part it was.
It was funny to hear the crew getting all excited about going warp 5. Nervous about the transporter that everyone else in the Trekverse took for granted.

Enterprise returned in some measure to the TOS practice of giving us tough moral issues that gave us no easy answers (Dear Doctor, Similitude, Damage), great sources of discussion threads that still feed forums like this one.

The Andorians and Tellarites (one-hit wonders on TOS, and I believe ignored in the 24th C. shows) were fleshed out. The Vulcans weren't quite as pure as portrayed in TOS (and, save VOY, they were largely ignored in the 24th C.).

The show was probably the closest to the original, not just in structure, but the use of drama, humor and tragedy. The casting was also good, even if some characters were poorly developed over life of the show.

Characters are what bring me back to a TV series and I liked these right off. I quickly came to enjoy their relationships and care about what happened to them.

 

[Ro Boat]

I like ENT because it's good Trek. As it compares to other Trek?

A humanity much closer to our own; This leads to some real human reactions to situations as opposed to Trek space opera reactions.

A ship that doesn't outgun everything.

A Starfleet without so many rules, and a back story for why those rules exist.

Less self-righteousness.

Less deus ex machina.

Less predictability.

Trek had become very predictable. I think that ENT did a good job of trying to escape from that. I don't know if they always succeeded, but they tried. I think this meant that they tried to throw away some of the Trek writing crutches that had existed since TOS. I find this refreshing.

 

[Starbreaker]

The Human/Vulcan/Andorian relationship.
Season 3

 

[apenpaap]

The characters are great, though Hoshi should've been used more often and Travis didn't deserve being a main character.
It's got Jeffrey Combs.
The ship is easily the prettiest in all of Trek, IMO. I also like that it really felt as a weak, small ship. Hell, they didn't even have shields, ans they used conventional torpedos.
I also like the facty that they're all afraid of the transporter ansd use shuttlecraft instead.
I also loved the campiness of the first season, with thoise silly caps they wore on away missions.
The dark, threathening ambience of the third season is also very good, and the Xindi are very cool aliens.
The fourth season shows us the formation of the coalition of planets, and many prequel stories to the later series. The Romulan threat that was in the background of this season was a very good pointer to what the series was going to in the 5th-7th season. It sometimes felt like DS9 season 3 and 4.
The Mirror universe episodes were finally good again, unlike the last two DS9 mirror eps.

 

[commodore64]

Liked the idea of a prequel, thought the characters were all enjoyable, liked the idea of none of the characters being perfect and thought the writing usually had it's heart in the right place.

 

[Odin]

What I liked about ENT was how it focused on how earth developed its relationships with other civilizations. I like how the technology developed through the seasons, and how one gets a sense of what ideals and beliefs the federation was founded on. (And I think Enterprise NX-01 has the best looking design)

 

[lceb]

I loved the fact that it was close enough to our time, for me to be able to identify with the characters and understand their reactions, mistakes, hopes and fears being first out there.
It showed for the first time other important species, gave more information about Vulcans - who were fleshed as individuals and so were more real and interesting.
Although accused of bad writting it had some wonderful stories in all seasons, the excelent Xindi ark, the Vulcan and Romulan ark on Season 4 etc.
I don't care or know much about ship designs but I loved this one, graceful, not very advanced, big enough for people to live in without getting crazy, small enough to feel cramped.
And I would be a lier not to say that it had Trip, my fav Star Trek character besides Spock.

 

[apenpaap]

I also liked how "we" were from just a little, unimportant planet, instead of the de facto capital of the quadrant like in other shows. (There was this recurring joke in the first 2 seasons were someone would ask were they were from, they would respond "We're from Earth.", and they would respond "Never heard of it.")

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

I particularly liked T'Pol and the Doctor.
The Vulcans (as noted previously) were not quite as expected and hence more interesting. The emotional Vulcans also added something.
The Temporal Cold War (generally hated, I believe) seemed to add some interesting mystery although it didn't really go anywhere.
The lack of "perfection" in the characters also helped.
Similitude is one of the best Trek "issue" episodes across the series as a whole. There were a lot of stories I enjoyed (though season 3 wasn't really my cup-of-tea) and the occasional TOS references (particularly IAMD) were very welcome.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Out of all the Star Trek series, I generally keep returning to Enterprise for more. I'd like to think that's down to something deeper than having seen the others too often.

I love the characters, while being the less than moral humans he would've created, they do in fact hold true to the Roddenberry ideal - that of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Archer, interested me from the outset (being familar with Scott Bakula's other work) his Captain out there alone with no support, no rulebook or role models to learn from their mistakes. His 'quid pro quo' relationship with Shran, with whom he forms a bond, both skeptics of the Vulcan's agenda and yet building bridges that will ultimately lead to the Federation's birth. Trip, likeable Southern Engineer who's deep friendship with his Captain, manages to survive his occassional bouts of insubordination. T'Pol, initially an observer from a Vulcan government concerned about the impact of humankind's deep exploration. Growing more accustomed to the crew and their perspective, seeing how her race aren't right. Her relationship with Trip, which manages to rise above its somewhat exploitive origins and her struggle to maintain control over her emotions. At this point, I should also make it clear I loved what Enterprise did with the Vulcans and how they are everybit the race seen all the way back to the Original Series. I could continue to outline traits of the various other regulars, who are anything but cyphers in my opinion. Under developed in comparision to the big three for sure but I feel that was changing... even Mayweather got some action towards the end.

I love the technology - grapplers instead of tractor beams, phase pistols and EM rifles, airlocks and shuttlepod deployed from bomb bay doors underneath. When you're at a disadvantage, you have nothing but your wits to rely on and this show was about as far from Voyager's technobabble saves the day approach as it was possible for Trek to realistically get.

I love the setting - an earlier century than even the Original. I still believe this is the show with the most potential left unexplored. 2 reasonably good seasons, 2 excellent ones which kept me watching and yet still barely scratched the surface.

 

[Praetor]

While I'm not sure I qualify as an ENT fan, I think the prequel idea was very clever and I liked that the crew actually made mistakes and actually seemed to have a sense of wonder about things.

Technically, I also feel the show was very well done. The production quality itself is probably unparalleled by any previous Trek.

Oh yeah, and Andorians = win.

(I'ma gonna go turn in my ENT hater's card now...)

 

[Dar70]

While Enterprise did have its flaws, which now seem small and silly compared to nuT's (Star Trek XI) horrible interpretation of Trek, it was the closest than any of the Treks to TOS. The show tried to maintain a close continuity to what came before and took some very small liberties with it.(ie. Ferengi show up but are not named, small updates to technology) Some great episodes with "In a Mirror Darkly" and "Dead Stop" as two of my favorites and the Augments arc was excellent. We also get to see Colonel Green.

It seems so silly now that one fo the biggest complaints of Enterprise was its theme music. The shows biggest flaw was its finale.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It was closer in feel to TOS, which is my favorite Trek.

 

[bluedana]

I agree with everything that's been mentioned, and I was going to say something along these lines, but ChristopherPike beat me to it:

I love the technology - grapplers instead of tractor beams, phase pistols and EM rifles, airlocks and shuttlepod deployed from bomb bay doors underneath. When you're at a disadvantage, you have nothing but your wits to rely on and this show was about as far from Voyager's technobabble saves the day approach as it was possible for Trek to realistically get.

I stopped watching TNG because the crew was always RIGHT, and that bugged me. I couldn't get into VOY because the episodes I saw were so heavy on technobabble that there was no tension. I tried DS9, and I probably will go back and watch the rest of the series, if I can get past the fact that, in the end, the computer runs everything. So for me, ENT had the most appeal for me because: the captain and crew sometimes got it wrong, even thought they did their best (and by got it wrong, I of course mean, came to a different decision than I think I would have); got their butts handed to them, technologically speaking, more often than not; and had to rely on low tech solutions a lot of the time. Even when they went a route that seemed like it would end in technobabble, it was more, Well, we could try this...might work. And the cinematography and CGI was used so well that it really got across the idea of how incredibly vulnerable they were out there.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Out of all the Star Trek series, I generally keep returning to Enterprise for more. I'd like to think that's down to something deeper than having seen the others too often.

I love the characters, while being the less than moral humans he would've created, they do in fact hold true to the Roddenberry ideal - that of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Archer, interested me from the outset (being familar with Scott Bakula's other work) his Captain out there alone with no support, no rulebook or role models to learn from their mistakes. His 'quid pro quo' relationship with Shran, with whom he forms a bond, both skeptics of the Vulcan's agenda and yet building bridges that will ultimately lead to the Federation's birth. Trip, likeable Southern Engineer who's deep friendship with his Captain, manages to survive his occassional bouts of insubordination. T'Pol, initially an observer from a Vulcan government concerned about the impact of humankind's deep exploration. Growing more accustomed to the crew and their perspective, seeing how her race aren't right. Her relationship with Trip, which manages to rise above its somewhat exploitive origins and her struggle to maintain control over her emotions. At this point, I should also make it clear I loved what Enterprise did with the Vulcans and how they are everybit the race seen all the way back to the Original Series. I could continue to outline traits of the various other regulars, who are anything but cyphers in my opinion. Under developed in comparision to the big three for sure but I feel that was changing... even Mayweather got some action towards the end.

I love the technology - grapplers instead of tractor beams, phase pistols and EM rifles, airlocks and shuttlepod deployed from bomb bay doors underneath. When you're at a disadvantage, you have nothing but your wits to rely on and this show was about as far from Voyager's technobabble saves the day approach as it was possible for Trek to realistically get.

I love the setting - an earlier century than even the Original. I still believe this is the show with the most potential left unexplored. 2 reasonably good seasons, 2 excellent ones which kept me watching and yet still barely scratched the surface.

This.

Plus outstanding production values. And Jeff Combs' Shran.

 

[number6]

Out of all the Star Trek series, I generally keep returning to Enterprise for more. I'd like to think that's down to something deeper than having seen the others too often.

I love the characters, while being the less than moral humans he would've created, they do in fact hold true to the Roddenberry ideal - that of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Archer, interested me from the outset (being familar with Scott Bakula's other work) his Captain out there alone with no support, no rulebook or role models to learn from their mistakes. His 'quid pro quo' relationship with Shran, with whom he forms a bond, both skeptics of the Vulcan's agenda and yet building bridges that will ultimately lead to the Federation's birth. Trip, likeable Southern Engineer who's deep friendship with his Captain, manages to survive his occassional bouts of insubordination. T'Pol, initially an observer from a Vulcan government concerned about the impact of humankind's deep exploration. Growing more accustomed to the crew and their perspective, seeing how her race aren't right. Her relationship with Trip, which manages to rise above its somewhat exploitive origins and her struggle to maintain control over her emotions. At this point, I should also make it clear I loved what Enterprise did with the Vulcans and how they are everybit the race seen all the way back to the Original Series. I could continue to outline traits of the various other regulars, who are anything but cyphers in my opinion. Under developed in comparision to the big three for sure but I feel that was changing... even Mayweather got some action towards the end.

I love the technology - grapplers instead of tractor beams, phase pistols and EM rifles, airlocks and shuttlepod deployed from bomb bay doors underneath. When you're at a disadvantage, you have nothing but your wits to rely on and this show was about as far from Voyager's technobabble saves the day approach as it was possible for Trek to realistically get.

I love the setting - an earlier century than even the Original. I still believe this is the show with the most potential left unexplored. 2 reasonably good seasons, 2 excellent ones which kept me watching and yet still barely scratched the surface.

This is what drew me to ENT and made me a fan from the pilot onward.

 

[Captain Ryan]

What I liked about ENT was how it focused on how earth developed its relationships with other civilizations. I like how the technology developed through the seasons, and how one gets a sense of what ideals and beliefs the federation was founded on. (And I think Enterprise NX-01 has the best looking design)

That is very much the same reasoning of why I enjoy ENT

 

[The Sneeze Police]

I skipped VOY & DS9 after TNG, so maybe I didn't suffer the burnout that some fans felt?

Like others, I thought the production values were very good. I liked the style of the uniforms and sets. I grew up when man had not walked on the moon, and I remember NASA's attitude about their inevitable (& against all odds) success...and ENT seemed very grounded in the same sense of wonder & inevitable success. As with all human endeavors, things are not perfect, but somehow you believe that they will be.

After such a long break, ENT was different from TOS & TNG, when humans were not always right or always politically correct. I loved Archer (& Trip) for straining against the Vulcans, but coming around to understanding & respecting the Vulcans' approach to meeting new societies. Archer felt more like a Navy Captain rather than a Father-Knows-Best Captain.

I loved Phlox (and his suits)...I can't think of an episodw that wasn't better because he was in it.

 

[caisson2delta]

Everyone has posted great reasons and many of the reasons I loved the show. I have been a fan of all the series, in one regard or another, but this show was the first one that I was eagerly anticipating. I thoroughly enjoyed the look and feel of the ship. Many have stated that it looked too advanced, but I totally disagree. It had a real feel of a submarine in the stars. Also, the first time we've seen the Tholians and Gorn look so good. I was truly saddened when it was cancelled.