Hmm, let’s see…
The short answer:
Berman never watched TOS, only knew how to write 24th century era Star Trek, and never really wanted ENT to be a thing to begin with. Yet was expected to produce a pre-TOS show.
The very long answer:
ENT inherited all of VOY’s problems. The issues with ENT S1, S2 & the first half of S3 are also noticeable in VOY S6 & S7, from uninspired writing from burnt out writers to a generally generic and uninspired soundtrack. All while the writers spent their time trying to create a better VOY.
ENT used the TNG formula that was stale by the end of VOY’s run, and VOY was only using the TNG formula because UPN did not want VOY to be serialized like DS9. ENT only became more serialized like DS9 when the writer of DS9, Ira Steven Behr, made his thoughts on ENT known to Braga ahead of S3: “the show was a POS”. The declining viewership basically agreed with him in not liking the stories and/or characters.
ENT’s earlier seasons were as challenging and as memorable as TAS i.e. not very (and I’ve watched TAS). Despite ENT being marketed as a TV-14 show - all previous Trek shows were rated PG - which should have open the floodgates to more intellectually challenging Trek.
All this while trying to be a throwback to TOS in every way possible.
- The big 3 setup, even though the audience had been used to a TNG/DS9 ensemble cast for years, and had grown annoyed with a big 3 setup from VOY despite loving the characters involved (Janeway/Seven/Doctor).
- Lack of use of its minority characters, even though the audience had been used to minority characters getting development and character focused episodes regularly in TNG/DS9/VOY. The ENT minority characters got a single character episode a season each, if that. Which was really weird since it aired on a network that aired shows aimed at an African American audience. If anything, they should have been featured more frequently. Tyra Banks was the face of America’s Next Top Model, and Dwyane Johnson was face of WWE with his wrestling character. UPN should have had Travis Mayweather (and Hoshi Sato as well) up there with Archer, Trip and T’Pol as the faces of ENT. If cultural impact was a concern, they could have brought in Nichelle Nichols as a recurring character and ancestor of Uhura, tutoring the linguist skills of Hoshi or as a friend to the Mayweathers. UPN let everyone down here.
- Reliance on sex appeal. The nicest thing you could say was that it was equal opportunity and that everyone was half naked at some point. Though the main focus was on Trip and T’Pol; Hoshi wasn’t given much consideration despite Linda Park having done her share of modeling, and Mayweather was ignored despite his bicep game being strong. But there were other issues. The catsuit was just for ratings, with the neckline plunging almost every season as the show went on, whereas the miniskirts on TOS were considered empowering. Also, the catsuit was never seen worn by any other Vulcan women - or women in general, like the miniskirt was - just T’Pol, making it clear this was not about empowerment. And let’s not forget the cringiness of building towards Archer/T’Pol with T’Pol awkwardly falling chest first into Archer, and then the following season, the 40 y/o Archer suddenly regressing to a teenager in “A Night in Sickbay” when around T’Pol, despite not have a problem with women before. In comparison, the Trip/T’Pol neuropressure sessions were not cringy, though weren’t that far from the decon chamber scenes. And that the decon chamber scenes themselves never culminated in either a major outbreak on the NX-01 because someone decided they didn’t want to rub down with the gel after returning from an away mission, or the start of a romance between crewmates, is all that needs to be said about it.
- Invisibility of LGBT individuals. Except it was the early ‘00s, not the late ‘60s. One of the main characters on Buffy was a lesbian. 24 – which started the same year as ENT - had a lesbian character that worked with the antagonists in its first season, that later made returns in its second and fourth seasons. The Russian pop lesbian duo t.A.T.u.. had a hit song with “All The Things She Said” during this time that played on the radio. Even the WWE – though it was much more exploitative in nature – had LGBTQ stories and characters going on, with 2002 in particular being a significant year. Meanwhile ENT had
zero LGBT stories or characters. Except maybe the Vissians, and that’s more a first contact gone awry story. And a brief allusion regarding the multiple genders of Rigellians from Phlox in the same episode. There wasn’t even a passing reference to a couple of LGBT crewmembers, like ”I picked this trinket up for chef. He wants to gift it for his husband for their next anniversary.” ENT was not simply very conservative here, considering the time period, it was a step backwards. Not to mention that after having shows based around a black captain and a female captain, it was completely reasonable to expect the next show to be based around an LGBT captain. They were halfway there with Archer with his few dalliances with women, surely, they could have found one episode with a man, even if that person was a shapeshifting being.
- Having lyrics in the theme song like it was originally intended by TOS. It never occurred to anyone to simply get rid of the lyrics for ENT intro. Instead, the change made was for the song to go faster.
And the icing on the cake...
The show introduced this Temporal Cold War arc, but never involve any of the TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY characters - even though there were ideas for S2 for Picard, Seven of Nine and Guinan to appear in a Suliban story - despite the fact that it could have brought in ratings. Then the show ends the TCW and then starts featuring a few of the cast of TNG when the show was on the verge of cancellation and had both its budget and episode numbers cut and the audience had bottomed out by then.
Gee, I wonder why ENT was received so poorly? /s
And most of the things you heard were probably false. The most prevalent rumor was that Moonves hated Star Trek. That's patently untrue. He hated shows that were expensive to produce but still didn't make enough money in returns to justify their high cost. Which is what any good television producer worth his salt would think. If ENT was a ratings powerhouse, he wouldn't have cared that it cost so much to make. That's why there's such a prevalence of 'reality' TV shows: They are cheap to make and their ratings are through the roof. But somehow the fandom translated that as 'Les Moonves HATES Star Trek!!!'
(I am not defending Moonves as a person. In my opinion, the guy is a first-class creep. But he was successful tv producer, and his decision to cancel ENT wasn't out of any personal malice toward the show or Trek/sci-fi in general.)
I think if they weren’t so quick demolishing the sets, had immediately let Berman go after the show ended, and created a sequel show to ENT with Coto & Sussman heading it with the ENT cast, that could had created goodwill from the fanbase.