I really want to like ENT...

[SFRabid]

...

There was indeed a lot of awful writing! But that's the same with any Trek series. Might I point you to the first season of TNG? Oy! ...

Lucky for TNG it came at a time when fans were hungry for more ST no matter how bad. By the time ENT came out the bar had been raised and fans were suffering ST overload. Character development in TNG also started our very rocky. How many chief engineers did we have that first season? And how did JL suddenly become an engineer? Security officers, doctors, navigators, the bridge needed a revolving door. I cannot imagine TNG surviving if it had to follow DS9.

 

[Glacial]

Lucky for TNG it came at a time when fans were hungry for more ST no matter how bad. By the time ENT came out the bar had been raised and fans were suffering ST overload. Character development in TNG also started our very rocky. How many chief engineers did we have that first season? And how did JL suddenly become an engineer? Security officers, doctors, navigators, the bridge needed a revolving door. I cannot imagine TNG surviving if it had to follow DS9.

Pretty much. I watched the pilot, then maybe 2 episodes while it was on the air, but I was just thoroughly sick of Trek after 14 years of it on the air. I liked DS9, but Voyager just sort of drained the love out of me. "Wow, the Borg again! Who knew they were so cartoonish and easy to defeat?" Serious Trek fatigue.

Watching the ENT DVDs was an eye-opener, though. I guess when you're watching the episodes one after another, you can see things going on in the background a lot clearer than with 7 days inbetween. Or it might've just been that enough time had passed for me to give ENT a honest shot.

 

[redshirtguy1001]

Here is the thing. Enterprise I will be quite honest, pissed me off. Not because of the actors or the episodes but for one specific reason, I'm sure you know where this is going TATV.

That episode infuriated me so much that I hated the series for a long time because of that episode. I thought is this how Trek has to go out. I know a lot of people don't like Abrams but I am so glad that the movie was made to erase that memory of TATV.

Funny thing is that after the movie came out I started to take another look at Enterprise and that I realized that inspite of the final episode the series wasn't too bad, and in fact I thought Enterprise had less campy episodes than the other series did. In the end I think I do like Enterprise now, and that I just won't consider the final episode a part of the series. I'll consider Terra Prime the finale.

 

[Glacial]

Here is the thing. Enterprise I will be quite honest, pissed me off. Not because of the actors or the episodes but for one specific reason, I'm sure you know where this is going TATV.

That episode infuriated me so much that I hated the series for a long time because of that episode. I thought is this how Trek has to go out. I know a lot of people don't like Abrams but I am so glad that the movie was made to erase that memory of TATV.

Funny thing is that after the movie came out I started to take another look at Enterprise and that I realized that inspite of the final episode the series wasn't too bad, and in fact I thought Enterprise had less campy episodes than the other series did. In the end I think I do like Enterprise now, and that I just won't consider the final episode a part of the series. I'll consider Terra Prime the finale.

That's what I do. TATV, I think, safely defeats even the Space Hippies, Spock's Brain, and Turnabout Intruder episodes of TOS for the title of all-time worst Trek episode ever.

Apparently, it was meant to be a stand-alone Season 2 episode (obviously not set in 2161), but Frakes wasn't available or something. Flash forward a couple years, they're not getting picked up for a 5th season, and the brilliant idea strikes to dust that one off and make ENT's finale a TNG episode with inexplicably-bloated actors. God Almighty.

Frakes actually praised Bakula for his legendary good-guy-ness about sharing the finale with TNG actors, saying something to the effect of "If someone made the last episode of my show about someone else's show's characters, I'd be pissed off."

The one actually good part about it, the Picard-Kirk-Archer "Space, the final frontier" at the very end, had to be fought for by Coto.

What a trainwreck. It actually hurt me to see that monstrosity, especially given how seriously good Season 4 was.

 

[gupeter]

I sort of wanted to hat ENT and first but warmed up to it. I realized that if you look at it a certain way it has more a depth in regard to cultures, their history, interactions with others. As in with the Vulcans and Andorians.

Later after just watching it just here and there I got entire seasons. One thing is if you watch the three episode story arcs in a row it all makes sense and is like watching a movice.... not a weekly series.

 

[Glacial]

Later after just watching it just here and there I got entire seasons. One thing is if you watch the three episode story arcs in a row it all makes sense and is like watching a movice.... not a weekly series.

My thoughts exactly. When you watch it on DVD, it goes from being a yawn-inducing weekly show to a seriously good serial. The occasional awful episode aside.

 

[Guardian Bob]

I started watching season 4 again, and I shouldn't have. It makes me really miss the show and with there was a season 5+. Damn! However, I'm going to start reading the books. The show can really grab you.

 

[I am not Spock]

I think Glacial has a good point about Archer. In season one, he was not a good diplomat at all. He was very eager to please, and keen to be in space, but he f-ed up just about every first contact situation badly.

Later seasons saw him grow into a more confident and seasoned leader, and diplomat.

 

[I am not Spock]

I loved the fan-boyish season 4. But it makes me depressed watching it because I knew, when I bought the DVDs, that this was it. There was no season 5. At least when I first saw the episodes on TV, there may have been some glimmer of hope that someone would pick up the show for a fifth season.

Having TATV tacked on the end of the season adds salt to the wound. After enjoying all those great episodes, there's that turd at the end of the rainbow. Terra Prime should have been the finale.

 

[Glacial]

I think Glacial has a good point about Archer. In season one, he was not a good diplomat at all. He was very eager to please, and keen to be in space, but he f-ed up just about every first contact situation badly.

Later seasons saw him grow into a more confident and seasoned leader, and diplomat.

Exactly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjyM-3c5L6o

Season 1 documentary bit on Bakula, around 1:00 Bakula's talking about the character Archer. At 2:10: "I like the kind of leader he is, and I like the kind of leader I think he's going to become even more, where he's going..."

Blalock talks about T'Pol and how her and Archer are to grow closer over the course of the series too.

Character growth and change over the series was built right in from the start, which was a first for Trek.