The Official: What do Niners Feel About Enterprise

[Kegg]

And they didn't parse it in terms of captains (which is why Spock got mentioned). As I recall it was something to the effect of 'before Picard and Janeway... before Kirk and Spock... there was Enterprise!' With basically just the names of these characters flashing past the screen as a Don La Fontaine wannabe droned on.

This being my vague memory of it as I haven't seen it since before ENT aired, and anyway as observed a second version with a token nod to Sisko got thrown in.

 

[flemm]

But this thing about ignoring Sisko isn't unusual, people normally name things in threes and Kirk, Picard and Janeway are the three best known captains. It's like that book Steven Colbert read on that famous episode of his Report ("Only god could love Star Trek Voyager"), it only mentioned those three as well.

I gather the commercial didn't name things is threes, but in pairs of twos, so I think we can leave that argument aside.

As for the Colbert example, I didn't catch that episode of the Report, so I probably shouldn't comment on it But it doesn't sound all that similar. It sounds like the two main references (Kirk and Picard) were being used to mock a third (Janeway).

In the case of the commercial, the intent was to establish that ENT was carrying on the Star Trek legacy, so I think we can infer that the character choice was made with that in mind.

The pure popularity argument doesn't stand up to much scrutiny anyway, since Seven of Nine, Data, McCoy and Scotty (at least) would almost certainly have trumped Janeway in that regard. Janeway's popularity with regard to Sisko at the time is debatable to say the least, as DS9's ratings were always better than Voyager's.

So we can basically assume that the choice of the four characters were just the first four that came to somebody's mind (unlikely), or that they were the result of some sort of bizarre calculation whereby it was going to be 3 captains + Spock and somehow it was ascertained that more people knew and cared about Janeway than Sisko even though more people watched Sisko's show than Janeway's show.

Or we can suppose that Sisko was left out initially because DS9 was not perceived as part of the legacy that ENT was continuing, probably due to the notion (still floated from time to time) that DS9 was not really Trek because it was not mostly focused on exploration and not sufficiently optimistic. That doesn't make it some kind of major scandal, but that explanation is at least as plausible as any other explanation.

 

[Crimea River]

If you haven't given Enterprise season 3 a shot it might be worth your while.

This. Just started Season 3, and I'm already loving it.

I love Enterprise because - while it does have its ups and downs, every show does - it has some pretty dark themes, and the Temporal Cold War in addition has perked my fascination.

 

[TheGodBen]

As for the Colbert example, I didn't catch that episode of the Report, so I probably shouldn't comment on it But it doesn't sound all that similar. It sounds like the two main references (Kirk and Picard) were being used to mock a third (Janeway).

The three captains listed in that episode weren't by Colbert himself, it was a quote out of a book about God which he was mocking and he threw in the Voyager joke for the Trekkies, presumably. However, the book itself was commending the captains of Star Trek and those were the three it named.

The pure popularity argument doesn't stand up to much scrutiny anyway, since Seven of Nine, Data, McCoy and Scotty (at least) would almost certainly have trumped Janeway in that regard. Janeway's popularity with regard to Sisko at the time is debatable to say the least, as DS9's ratings were always better than Voyager's.

So we can basically assume that the choice of the four characters were just the first four that came to somebody's mind (unlikely), or that they were the result of some sort of bizarre calculation whereby it was going to be 3 captains + Spock and somehow it was ascertained that more people knew and cared about Janeway than Sisko even though more people watched Sisko's show than Janeway's show.

If Kegg is right in the way that the ad was phrased then it seems that what they were saying was that Enterprise is before the 24th century and the 23rd century, so they picked two of the leads from the 24th century shows and the two leads from the 23rd century show. That's the way I see it. When picking the characters from the 23rd century Kirk and Spock are no-brainers, and when thinking of characters from the 24th Picard is ahead by miles, and UPN picked the lead character from the previous UPN Trek. I don't see anything malicious about it, it was just UPN talking up their own show rather than a syndicated show that wasn't as popular as TNG.

This. Just started Season 3, and I'm already loving it.

The first half of season 3 is alright, but there's too many filler episodes which don't contribute to the plot. From Proving Ground on the season gets even better, and Azati Prime/Damage are fantastic. If you're enjoying the early parts of the season you should really enjoy where it is going.

 

[DarKush]

TheGodBen,

Wanted to reply to your reply of my post. First of all, I didn't judge the show by the marketing campaign, though I didn't like Sisko's initial omission. If you read my entire post I gave you reasons why I didn't like ENT initially and why I liked the last two seasons.

To everyone in general,

To be honest, I haven't read anything in the reasoning for why Sisko was first omitted that justifies him being left out. I think it was an oversight, whether intentional or not, that at least miffed me and I don't know how many other DS9 fans. I would think that ENT would want to bring all the fans from the previous Treks onboard, as much as they could get. How could DS9 not be in the legacy of Trek? It explored the human condition perhaps better than any Trek show except TNG? As for space exploration, DS9's crew explored the Gamma Quadrant, at least until they ran into the Dominion. As for the popularity of the other captains, as others have pointed out, that doesn't account for Janeway's inclusion in the first ad. Data, Seven, Scotty and the rest of the original TOS crew, were all more popularly known.

But I didn't judge ENT alone by the bungled roll out ad campaign. When I checked out the first season, I wound up not watching most of it, because unlike DS9, ENT didn't do a good job with character development, use of their ensemble cast, or developing and exploring the rich milieu of the 22nd century, like DS9 did with their neck of the woods. It got a little better in Season 3 and though Season 4 moved at a breakneck pace, sacrificing character development for plots, I really liked where it was all going and regretted its cancellation. Something I didn't think possible after trying to watch Season 1.