The Official: What do Niners Feel About Enterprise

[Photon]

Seasons 1-2 were OK
A few missed opportunities but overall it was OK

S3-Xinidi Arc was very good b/c it reminded me (in a few ways) of DS9, just didn't have the intense character dev.

S4-Really good. Tying up some lose ends w/TOS. Still hate how they handled the Romulans but....

All in all, I give it a B-

 

[Eyes]

I watched Broken Bow, then gave up halfway through Fight or Flight. From what I've seen, it has potential, especially in the later seasons, but at the moment I'm just not too interested in watching it.

Broken Bow was very visually impressive, compared to other Trek pilots, but the Temporal Cold War storyline wasn't very interesting, while the half of Fight or Flight that I saw didn't really inspire me to continue watching. The characters, apart from Reed, T'Pol and Phlox, just seemed to be cardboard cut-outs, and one of the main reasons I watch a TV-show is for the characters. In contrast, the characters on Voyager all interest me a lot more than Archer, Tucker, or Mayweather, the only ones I don't like as much are Janeway, Seven and Tuvok, but even those are better than those Enterprise characters.

I'll pick it up once I've finished watching Voyager, and who knows, I may like it almost as much as DS9, but we'll see.

From what little I've seen, I give it a C. Watch this space...

 

[Jono]

I'll give it a D-

Lost my interest after a few episodes of season 1 and only picked up for maybe half of season 4. Some good episodes in there but given it didn't make me want to see what I had missed I don't have a favourable opinion of the show.

Can't say I cared for the characters at all, which didn't help. There were all boring from what I saw.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I was very impressed with it. Especially with season three, and most especially with season four.

I think they should have gone the DS9 route more in terms of character development and recurring characters. I'm certainly biased, but the character of Shran BEGGED for more screen time. That, and I think the whole concept of a prequel demands serialization. The viewers want and expect to see how the universe they already know and love came to be. Stand alone episodes make that almost impossible to do.

The first two seasons, I'll admit, were nothing special. They were clearly an attempt to return to a stand alone episodic format like TNG. But still, I found them entertaining and enjoyable. Once the show became more serialized, however, it only got better.

I know that this will sound almost blasphemous, but I think it was better than TNG in some respects. The characters were developed, even if not enough. TNG characters ended the series exactly the same as when they started. Most ENT characters went through at least some character changes.

So, yeah, definitely a good addition to the franchise despite all its bad press.

 

[JustKate]

I disliked it quite a bit, but then again, I bailed, oh, early in the second season. I probably didn't give it enough of a chance, but on the other hand, life's too short to sit through a TV show you don't care for. At all.

 

[DS9forever]

I liked it, especially season four when they brought in Section 31. The characters were incredibly dull but the episodes are engaging and the SFX was excellent.

 

[JustKate]

You're right about the characters, DS9Forever - I meant to mention that in my post. I simply found them totally unengaging. If I'd liked the characters better, I'm sure I would have hung in there longer.

 

[JohnChod]

Although I did not watch a lot of the series, I must give ENT an F.

I actually watched all of season 1 - suffered through it, to be more specific - and kept hoping for better. It didn't happen and I dropped out after the first couple of episodes of season 2. I sampled a few of the Xindi episodes in season 3 - didn't find it interesting at all. Tried a few of the season 4 episodes that everyone was raving about - found them to be primarily puerile and perhaps best characterized as "fan porn."

To sum ENT up, I think that many of the stories were retreads, the writing was weak and inconsistent (this especially bugged me as I thought Bakula would be a great captain and the writers just destroyed any chance he had), and the characters two dimensional and weak. The premise could have been excellent, but they pretty much ignored it (same as they did with VOY). Character growth and development was a product of dialog, not demonstration (e.g. there was dialog about Archer being a great diplomat, but he let his dog run roughshod over the cultural taboos of a society). The attempt to demonstrate the awe at space travel and making it a novel experience for this crew was instead expressed as naivete, stupidity, and the absence of all common sense. Let's head for the decon chamber!

Despite all that, I won't attack anyone for liking what I found to be a horrible series. What you like is what you like. I'm sure that I like some stuff that other people think is crap. In fact, I probably pride myself on that!

 

[toughlittleship]

Its better than Voyager anyway. It was really Bakula who put me off the series. He made some strange acting choices. He's nearly impossible to listen to when he's playing the mirror Archer in Through a Mirror Darkly/On a Mirror Darkly or whatever that wankfest was called.

 

[He'sDeadJim]

Aside from Reed and Phlox, the actors/acting were cardboard at best and boring at worst.

Had some good battle scenes in S3 and very good special effects.

Scott Bakula was not good as a captain-never could figure out was he a bad ass like Sisko or a do-gooder, uber peackenik like Picard.

It could have been so, so good... but it just turned out so so vanilla and unfun.

The mentioned Xindi Arc was acceptable and S4 was OK

I would like to have the Romulan War fleshed out and not had to invent a new species (Suliban) or a new galactic problem (Temporal Cold War)

I would have like to seen the ship less tech and more in line w/what was before Ent-A

I give it a shaky C

 

[Sakrysta]

"A Night in Sickbay" was my last straw. And I didn't really like any of the characters. Phlox was the only one who was remotely interesting, and they made him too weird (shaving his tongue?!?).

Having never watched it I feel like an incomplete Trekkie, but I'd have to get the opportunity for free and have absolutely nothing else I wanted to watch. I don't see that happening anytime soon.

 

[DS9forever]

^ Its a sad state of affairs that "A Night in Sickbay" (AKA "The Breast of Both Worlds") was nominated for a Hugo Award. So many fantastic DS9 and TNG episodes didn't get that. The only explanation I think of is that Berman whored out Braga to the judges...

 

[Bones2]

I like Enterprise a lot, especially seasons 3 and 4, but much of the first 2 as well. Its big weakness was the characters though; it definitely loses out to the other shows in that respect. Overall though, I find much to like, and it's a damn shame it ended to early

Incidentally, what makes this thread "The Official"? Did you file a memo or something?

 

[PTRACER]

Aside from Reed and Phlox, the actors/acting were cardboard at best and boring at worst

Agreed. I just couldn't stand the crew and Scott Bakula's acting made Archer seem like an arrogant, irritating twerp. I never gave Enterprise much of a chance I guess, but the episodes I did see were quite dull and obviously the whole series created controversy by making stuff up that wasn't featured in ANY of the "future" Star Trek series...like the Enterprise itself, Jonathan Archer the name, Xindi, Suliban...

The ONLY welcome thing was introducing the Andorians and make them more than just an insignificant species who cropped up in a few TOS episodes.

 

[Photon]

I like Enterprise a lot, especially seasons 3 and 4, but much of the first 2 as well. Its big weakness was the characters though; it definitely loses out to the other shows in that respect. Overall though, I find much to like, and it's a damn shame it ended to early

Incidentally, what makes this thread "The Official"? Did you file a memo or something?

yep

 

[Kelso]

The characters were dull and the stories were dull. I loved the premise of the show and I didn't even mind the ship or theme song (I might be the only one.) What a wasted opportunity.

Incidentally, what makes this thread "The Official"? Did you file a memo or something?

We're having it notarized.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I bailed in Season 2--but that said, a lot of what I hear about the later seasons is very interesting (very much unlike the situation with VOY, where things continued in a vein I knew I would not be interested in), so I think sometime I will give the series another chance. So for now, no vote until I can do a proper one.

 

[Sykonee]

I skipped out on huge chunks of the show, catching the odd episode here and there if it happened to be on, but I never felt I had to watch it. I wasn't all that interested in a Star Trek prequel series to begin with, as prequels to nearly anything don't have the best track record -they're almost always inferior to whatever the original offered (Star Wars, horror movies, Dragonlance novels, baby 'toons). Granted, there are exceptions (B5's In The Beginning, Dragon Warrior 3), but it's far from the norm.

That said, I did enjoy any episode that worked with the "exploring in the unknown" premise, but what could have been a sci-fi version of the Age Of Exploration wasn't nearly as exploited as it could have been.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

I watched the whole series. The only characters that I liked were Phlox and ...um...
I didn't love Voyager, but after watching Enterprise I have a whole new appreciation for Voyager.

Some of the Xindi stuff was interesting but I don't really see why so many people think that the 4th season was so great. It's pretty unmemorable for me. I also don't get why so many people were so upset that Trip died. Jadzia was one of my favorite characters on DS9 but I didn't go around proclaiming: Jadzia. Not. Dead.

I'd have to give Enterprise a D+.

 

[Sykonee]

I also don't get why so many people were so upset that Trip died. Jadzia was one of my favorite characters on DS9 but I didn't go around proclaiming: Jadzia. Not. Dead.

It's more the way he was killed off than that he was. I was hardly a Trip fan, but even I knew that was a ridiculously awful way to kill a main character off.