Okay, I'm in...

[seigezunt]

So, I just purchased season one of Enterprise, because it finally got low enough for my taste.

I've never seen the show, having tired of the franchise after the premiere of Voyager.

But I've been curious about Enterprise because I'm mostly a TOS fan, and I see references to some TOS aliens that were given short shrift in the other shows.

Wish me luck. Will I make it to the fourth season?

 

[Lindley]

If you can make it to the third, it gets a bit better at that point.

The treatment of the Andorians is really the only thing the show really did *well*.

 

[Sovay]

I've just started on Enterprise and I'm so confused as to why most people hate it, honestly I am. The first few episodes have been awesome so far. The only bad thing about it is the cheesy opening theme and even then you have to give them credit for having the balls to break away from the ST standard.
I was more engaged in it by the second episode than I was in TNG by the second series.

Good luck with it, I hope you enjoy it, let us know

 

[Count Zero]

The first season is actually pretty good. Other than "Acquisition" I can't think of a really bad episode. The second season requires some endurance, it's rather uneven (but it has some great episodes). Season three is great (well, maybe apart from "Extinction") and season four is generally considered the best (I prefer season three, though), but it has "Bound" and Space Nazis (and real Nazis).
I plan to introduce a friend of mine to the Trekverse and will start with a best of Enterprise, so I'd be curious to hear your opinion.

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I enjoyed the series from the first episode onward. I never wanted to quit watching. I would happily have watched 3 more seasons.

seigezunt and Sovay, have fun. And let us know what you think.

 

[Count Zero]

I enjoyed the series from the first episode onward. I never wanted to quit watching. I would happily have watched 3 more seasons.

Yeah, me too. Let's found a club or something.

 

[Middleman]

So, I just purchased season one of Enterprise, because it finally got low enough for my taste.

I've never seen the show, having tired of the franchise after the premiere of Voyager.

But I've been curious about Enterprise because I'm mostly a TOS fan, and I see references to some TOS aliens that were given short shrift in the other shows.

Wish me luck. Will I make it to the fourth season?

Stick with it dude and you'll enjoy it. There is no doubt in my mind you will make it through all four seasons. This series has found many, many fans in re-runs; I believe more than all the other series with the exception of TOS.

I've just started on Enterprise and I'm so confused as to why most people hate it, honestly I am. The first few episodes have been awesome so far.

I consider Enterprise to be a "Thinking Person's" series. It requires a little thought to go through the series and really get the point of many of the episodes. My feeling is that those who "hate it", either don't want to or are not capable of putting the thought into it. I mean really! What the heck is there to hate here!

I plan to introduce a friend of mine to the Trekverse and will start with a best of Enterprise, so I'd be curious to hear your opinion.

Awesome way to introduce a friend to Star Trek. I would start with "First Contact" first, then go right into "Broken Bow". You might as well then head into some season 3 episodes, he/she will be addicted for life.

 

[Middleman]

I would happily have watched 3 more seasons.

From your mouth to god's ears.

 

[Count Zero]

I plan to introduce a friend of mine to the Trekverse and will start with a best of Enterprise, so I'd be curious to hear your opinion.

Awesome way to introduce a friend to Star Trek. I would start with "First Contact" first, then go right into "Broken Bow". You might as well then head into some season 3 episodes, he/she will be addicted for life.

It remains to be seen whether this really is an awesome way to introduce Trek. I plan to just leave out the episodes I didn't like or found mediocre. Otherwise I want to progress in chronological order. This will cause some puzzlement when "Regeneration" and "In A Mirror, Darkly" come around, but oh well. It might be interesting to see those episodes from a different perspective, I guess.

 

[seigezunt]

I plan to introduce a friend of mine to the Trekverse and will start with a best of Enterprise, so I'd be curious to hear your opinion.

Awesome way to introduce a friend to Star Trek. I would start with "First Contact" first, then go right into "Broken Bow". You might as well then head into some season 3 episodes, he/she will be addicted for life.

It remains to be seen whether this really is an awesome way to introduce Trek. I plan to just leave out the episodes I didn't like or found mediocre. Otherwise I want to progress in chronological order. This will cause some puzzlement when "Regeneration" and "In A Mirror, Darkly" come around, but oh well. It might be interesting to see those episodes from a different perspective, I guess.

I don't know. Seems like TOS would be the best introduction. But these kids today...

 

[Count Zero]

I thought about starting with TOS, but then I got obsessed with chronology. Also, I figured ENT would look much better if shown as the first series because then all the episodes being retreads would seem new. (A cunning plan! )

 

[Middleman]

It remains to be seen whether this really is an awesome way to introduce Trek.

Well, I think it's a great way to introduce Trek to a friend, but what the hell do I know...I mean...I still root for the NY Mets!

I plan to just leave out the episodes I didn't like or found mediocre. Otherwise I want to progress in chronological order. This will cause some puzzlement when "Regeneration" and "In A Mirror, Darkly" come around, but oh well. It might be interesting to see those episodes from a different perspective, I guess.

I do think starting out with "First Contact" before you show him/her even one episode of Enterprise is the way to go. It also helps make "Regeneration" easier to grasp.

 

[ChristopherPike]

So, I just purchased season one of Enterprise, because it finally got low enough for my taste.

I've never seen the show, having tired of the franchise after the premiere of Voyager.

But I've been curious about Enterprise because I'm mostly a TOS fan, and I see references to some TOS aliens that were given short shrift in the other shows.

Wish me luck. Will I make it to the fourth season?

I imagine you'll probably get a big kick out of Season 4... it's chock full of TOS references, some subtle, others not so much. But I hope you stick it out.

If not, maybe with the help of everyone here, we can draw up a list of essential episodes not to miss.

The First Season is mainly back-to-basics exploration and can polarise opinion. I loved it, while others maybe thought it was too derivative of TNG or VOY. What made it different for me were the grounded characters and their reactions to experiencing all that unknown wonder for the first time. Quite hard to pull that off, if the target audience has become jaded or tune out because they've seen so much of that theme before. Hopefully given the distance now from all those 24th Century shows, these stories take on a fresher feel.

Be sure not to miss any episode featuring the Andorians. There are two in Season One and another one about their conflict with the Vulcans in Season Two. The episode immediately following the Pilot is a good one, revealing an unseen TOS race called the Axanars. The use of Shuttlepods and EV suit action is another appeal for me with Enterprise, with crew having to do much more than waltz down to planets or aboard other ships, going through a ritual suit-up. Just a shame about the gel rubbing in order to decontaminate afterwards that's all.

 

[cooleddie74]

So, I just purchased season one of Enterprise, because it finally got low enough for my taste.

I've never seen the show, having tired of the franchise after the premiere of Voyager.

But I've been curious about Enterprise because I'm mostly a TOS fan, and I see references to some TOS aliens that were given short shrift in the other shows.

Wish me luck. Will I make it to the fourth season?

YES.

If the stinkers in Year Two don't discourage you too badly. But there aren't too many bombs and turkeys in the first two seasons overall...or even the series as a whole really. Just remember...when ENT gets bad...it gets bad.

 

[Count Zero]

I do think starting out with "First Contact" before you show him/her even one episode of Enterprise is the way to go. It also helps make "Regeneration" easier to grasp.

I thought about that problem but "First Contact" loses a lot of its impact if you don't know anything about the Borg. That means we'da have to get into TNG beforehand which would defy the original idea of exploring the Trekverse chronologically.
"Regeneration" works pretty well on its own. Sure, she won't have that satisfying moment at the beginning that I had (because I always wondered what had happened to the Borg Sphere debris in "First Contact"), but instead she'll have that moment in "Q Who".
I foresee the biggest problem with "In A Mirror, Darkly" because there's no explanation what's going on and she won't recognise the cool twist at the end of that episode's teaser. It'll be a WTF-moment, I guess, but those can be great, too.

If the stinkers in Year Two don't discourage you too badly. But there aren't too many bombs and turkeys in the first two seasons overall...or even the series as a whole really. Just remember...when ENT gets bad...it gets bad.

But it's a kind of bad that's actually enjoyable, right guys? Hey, where did everyone go?

Honestly, I thought that even in most of the bad episodes, there were good moments and/or ideas (yes, even in TATV). Then again, I kinda like "A Night In Sickbay"...

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

I enjoyed the series from the first episode onward. I never wanted to quit watching. I would happily have watched 3 more seasons.

Yeah, me too. Let's found a club or something.

I plan to just leave out the episodes I didn't like or found mediocre.

Y'know, when I introduced my husband to "The X-Files" years ago, I left out the shows that weren't mythology, or that I didn't think were the "best." And he had a great time. Now we're watching the whole series again, every episode in chronological order. And some of his favorites are the eps I left out the first time around.

Moral: watch 'em all.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Honestly, I thought that even in most of the bad episodes, there were good moments and/or ideas (yes, even in TATV). Then again, I kinda like "A Night In Sickbay"...

Absolutely! Honest to God, look at TNG and compare with their bottle shows, or anything from the first two seasons. Enterprise has nothing to be ashamed of.

Okay, maybe Precious Cargo guest-starring Princess Fish-sticks...

Seriously, was that ever past its sell-by date!

 

[Count Zero]

Y'know, when I introduced my husband to "The X-Files" years ago, I left out the shows that weren't mythology, or that I didn't think were the "best." And he had a great time. Now we're watching the whole series again, every episode in chronological order. And some of his favorites are the eps I left out the first time around.

Moral: watch 'em all.

Well, she already complained in jest that we wouldn't be watching all of them, so we might deviate from my original plan (and probably return to it after "Acquisition" ).
Star Trek in general has some truly legendary bad episodes to offer, so I guess, to truly sample Trek, we'll have to watch some of them. I favour TOS in this regard, though ("Spock's Brain" is a classic, after all ). And we both like tv and movie trash (and juvenile humour).

 

[tim851]

The problem I always had with ENT is that it is 99% unoriginal. So many episodes were either complete remakes of other Trek-episodes or just slight variations on a theme. So it came to the question (for me): if you have no more stories to tell, why not be quiet? They just wouldn't let Trek die with dignity, they had to keep it alive long enough to be ousted by the network.

They missed out totally on the potential of it being such a distant prequel. They could've made it a show about the adventure of early interstellar space flight. Take Trek to a new direction. VOY was already showing sooo many signs of them running out of ideas for conventional Star Trek stories.

PS: If you think the theme song is cheesy in Season 1 & 2, wait 'til you hear what they did in Season 3. It's a perfect example how Berman & Braga had just completely lost touch with anything.

 

[Lindley]

I consider Enterprise to be a "Thinking Person's" series. It requires a little thought to go through the series and really get the point of many of the episodes. My feeling is that those who "hate it", either don't want to or are not capable of putting the thought into it. I mean really! What the heck is there to hate here!

Most of the so-called "hate" is simply disappointment. The show should have been better than it was. Taken in isolation I'm sure it's not that bad; but in the context of the time it was airing, there were problems.

As an example, take the ship's weapons loadout. They started trying to do something interesting with the missile-like things and the grappler, but made the mistake of having them be too wimpy; necessitating the replacement of those with (slightly renamed but dramatically equivalent) phasers and photons. Stuff we've seen before.

Context: All this while on Scifi, Stargate SG-1 was featuring a starship armed with nuclear missiles, railguns, and a few (captured) energy weapons. In many cases the armament doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but at least they were trying something different, while ENT lapsed back to the familiar and trite.

Then there's the captain. We're promised a "Han Solo" type, and instead we get a daddy's boy who shows little if any sign of actually deserving the command his father got for him. Which would be fine if that were the narrative intent; but it was clear from the start that the writers thought Archer was a lot cooler than he was, and that disconnect was patently obvious to the viewers.

Context: Meanwhile on Fox, Firefly was introducing us to an actual Han Solo type, and the contrast just makes Archer seem even more lame by comparison.

I'm not saying it was all bad. ENT did bring us some great characters like Trip; I always enjoy when Connor Trineer shows up on other series for a guest spot. But there were definite problems, and despite being pointed out early and often, little was ever done by the creative team to address them.