I wouldn't have LOVED Enterprise without the 4th Season

If Paramount's asses were posed to cancel the series after season 3 had failed to bring in new (or old) viewers, and season 4 wasn't granted only to grant 100 episode syndication rights...

I'm not sure if I'd be so taken with it. In fact... season 4 really did it for me. I wonder if anyone else feels that way. It was quality Trek I'd not seen since the heydays of TNG.

 

So, did you watch before S4?
I loved Enterprise. As much as I enjoyed S4, I didn't need the weekly genuflections to TOS.

 

I can understand this point of view. I imagine fans of DS9 and Voyager having a very similar discussion because of the retooling both underwent midway through their runs. It divides opinion into those who think the show was better before or after the shake-up. I still don't think Enterprise had anything like that massive change in direction though... It was more like the series found it's groove and the cast all of a sudden looked comfortable in their roles. There was no Seven taking centre stage or Worf and "When Klingons Go Wild" attention seeking to make it news worthy. Perhaps Shran and a Romulan War would have filled that void for Season 5.

However, there really were enough elements during Season One and Three to have drawn me in. I loved every minute of Broken Bow and certain aspects that developed from that. The character interaction being some of the finest in the franchise, even if some stories were left wanting.

 

Nah--my favorite characters became guest stars in a "link to TOS" fanwank during season 4. Weakest of all the seasons for me.

 

I enjoyed the first 3 seasons for what they were, but they felt more like a prequel to TNG instead of TOS as it should have been. Risa, Borg, Ferengi, Naussicans. All from TNG.

 

You make an excellent point--but the actual Enterprise characters were what I liked, and they were center stage much more in the first three seasons. Those characters were more important to me than which aliens they encountered to tell stories that I enjoyed. Plenty of folks around here seem to indicate that more real Star Trek fans started watching with sesaon 4, but the numbers dropped, so if that's so, the show bled seasons 1-3 fans in the last season. I watched all four seasons and enjoyed every one.

 

i think that is only true of the first episodes.
the regular characters started to come forward in the vulcan arc and really with observer effect on even some of the secondary characters had some of their best moments since the first season which had more of an ensemble feel.

 

From what I've observed, the following statements are (generally) true:

Fans of Star Trek consider the fourth season to be Enterprise's best.

Fans of Enterprise consider the third season to be Enterprise's best.

To clarify, those that liked Enterprise for what it was - with its dynamic of characters and so on - considered the third season the best. Those who liked Enterprise simply because it was another Star Trek show, and thus appreciated its extensive connections to the earlier shows - liked the fourth season the best.

I fall into the latter category. I don't care much for Enterprise as Enterprise, I stopped watching it in the first run of the second season, and only came back a few years later after catching a fourth season episode on TV. Specifically, I saw Brent Spiner in a cell, decided Enterprise was probably still terrible (and long cancelled) but I'd watch it because it had Brent in it... and got sucked into the Augment arc.

The characters had never really held me or engaged me, but the crazy epic, utterly Trekkie plots of the final season were always a lark.

 

I felt season 3 was the best and that -- especially toward the end of season 4 -- it was retread TOS without a real rhyme or reason even if I liked the IAMD eps.

 

ENT's S4 reminded me of the best Trek of all time - DS9, S3-7. Before that, I was pretty critical of ENT, and said so right in this forum and those with long memories will attest.

 

Season 4 had too many TOS references for it to get me more excited about ENT. If it started out that way I'd have gotten TOS overload.

 

If it had started out that way, the TOS stuff would have been more spaced out. They knew they only had one season to work with.

Season four is what made me love Enterprise, too.

 

I liked ENT for the first 3 seasons but that amazing 4th year made me really love it and put it up there with TNG.

 

Loved Season 4 -- they had finally found their voice with Manny Coto - the short arcs were fantastic

Season 3 -- Blegh - I rarely watch the Xindi crap now

 

I watched most the first season but lost interest, it simply wasnt different enough from the last decade of Trek, just more of the same bland safe telly.

I gave it another chance with s3 when I heard they were doing an arc and found the first half bland and the second half entertaining but shallow.

its attempts at social and political commentary felt half hearted and it played against continuity rather then reinforcing it.

Im not saying everything needed to be a reference or already mentioned in another show but I did like somones suggestion that it would have been a better season if it featured the Romulans instead of the Xindi.

I stayed watching s4 after hearing about Coto coming onboard but It wasnt until 'The Forge' that I really loved Enterprise.

The fact the show was admiting its earlier mistakes with the Vulcans and doing something wiht it that made them fit without completely recon'ing them.

 

Yeah, that is my observation as well.
Personally, I liked about half of season four. The Vulcan Arc, the Augments Arc and IAMD in particular. i hated the Nazi Alien episodes, terra Prime, TATV and Observer effect.
This final season was promising, but Braga's comments about a season 5 shows they were STILL clinging to that horrible temporal cold war fiasco. So maybe it was good that 4 was the end. And seeing "Observer Effect", I am not sure they really were trying to respect canon (compare to the organians "errand of Mercy").

I hated season 3 tbqh. I, too, think they should have used the Romulans instead of the Xindi.
Instead of a Xindi council that was having pointless "discussions" about teh evil humaans, we could have witnessed the Romulan Senate forging sinister plans for domination. Though that should have been a part of ENT from episode ONE.

 

Definitely.

Seasons One through Three tried (and as I go back and see them now I knew they would have never pulled me in), but only Season Four got me to really watch the show. I became a strong supporter in S4, and would have been happy to see it continue into a Season Five, but alas, it was too late for ENT. As for quality Trek, some of us consider DS9 to be a part of that group.


J.

 

Mmmm. That's not exactly what I'd intended to infer. You mean Mayweather, Hoshi and Reed? Yeah, I did like them as well. They got the treatment Crusher, Troi and Geordi did in the TNG films. Pushed to the far edges of the page. Pity, really. Oh well, all of them got at least two good focus episodes.


TOS-references aside, I just think S4 was GOOD Trek.
ENTERTAINING Trek. That's all. Orion slave girls, Vulcans and Klingon bumpy foreheads aside. I think S4 has PHENOMINAL rewatching value. Great pace. Pulp and action. Far superior to... DS9 S1 for example (don't hate, I love DS9 as well ) which has virtually no rewatchability at all. Those Bajorian priest episodes. They're downers.

Oh, and to answer JiNX-01, I did watch ENT from the beginning, lost interest late in the 1st season, caught up at the beginning of the second season. And of course now, I've seen 'em all.

I stopped watching the first season because I couldn't believe how many times Archer got kidnapped and beat up! Equalled or surpassed the Voyager "Shuttle Crash Teaser" syndrome I'm sure.

 

No--I mean all the Enterprise characters from top to bottom were more interesting to me in seasons one and two. I did like the good ship Trip/T'pol in season 4 character-wise, but then the finale blew it to hell. Of course I'm one of those that has decided that the finale was a holodeck "choose your own adventure" bit based on real characters for Riker to use (sure, Trip died, but naturally he and T'pol stayed together 'til then).

I was so angry about TATV that I didn't watch any syndication Enterprised, dvds, or anything else before a few months ago. Then I caught the penultimate episode on the Sci Fi channel, and thought, "damn, I loved that show"! I bought the season 1 dvds, and watching them, I was just filled with joy. I just truly enjoyed every episode back then and couldn't wait for the next. I love seasons 1 and 2. Seasons 3 and 4 are o.k. as far as they go--I still love the show, but the first two were the best for me. I loved the characters and the new take on Vulcans, but hated the TCW.

So now I enjoy all four seasons on dvd and pretend that TATV never happened!

I was too young for TOS, but watched in syndication in the '70s. I watched all seven seasons of TNG when they aired, and about a season and a half of Voyager and DS9. I loved Enterprise--the characters, the ship, the uniforms, all of it. Some of the stories were derivative of other Trek, but I've read a lot of Sci Fi and never considered any Trek all that innovative as works of fiction. Solid tv, yes--but great sci fi? Maybe, sometimes. I loved the character interaction on Enterprise, and tons of other things, too.

I loved it long before season 4!

 

Season One was good for what it was: Humans struggling to get out there and explore. It was pretty slow sometimes, and I wasn't immediately sucked in by the writing.

Season Two was decent. It had its ups and downs. But, some of it I just can't rewatch with any interest.

Season Three was hard and awesome. I love the struggle and despair Archer faced in having to save Earth with a mission that lasted an entire season. That was some phenomenal Trek at its finest.

Season Four was fantastic. Having successfully grounded itself into its own identity the first three seasons, it was time for some Trekverse connections to be made. I loved every minute of it. And, contrary to what most Trekkies think, These Are The Voyages was a great episode, full of a bittersweet farewell to a Federation era that's never gotten its fair share of exposure.


I will totally listen to any Star Trek fan who complains about ENT because it doesn't appeal to their sense of fun, adventure, or because they just don't like the writing. But, the moment someone comes in with a "It contradicts continuity/upstarts TOS" bullshit nerd complaint, I simply dismiss them as tragic and unworthy of my attention. Close-minded geeks like that are one of the symptoms that killed the show, and weakens the entire survival of the franchise.

Just my opinion, mind you...