Star Trek: Enterprise....the suck, the suck, and the suck!!

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 3:43 am

Hate me as well, but I too liked Enterprise. I didn't think it was as horrible as you all think it was, nor was Voyager. Mind you I grew up on DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise so maybe I'm biased, but still.

It's a different view of the Star Trek universe which is never really explored. We have Kirk's era, we have Picard's era, we sort of know what happens in between the two, we know about as much about what happened before Kirk's era, but we know nothing about what happened in the very early Federation. Well, here it is. Earth's first "deep space" (mind deep space here is relative) starship. They don't know what to expect, they don't know what they will find, there are few protocols, fewer rules, and even less technology. This show can easily be equated to the Wild West: unknown territory, explorers venturing out, gun fights, Injuns (if anyone here is Native American I apologize for any offense, I'm going for an effect), making things up as we go along.

Is the Xindi story line unbelievable, well maybe, maybe not. You've got races from the 29th century meddling with the time line looking to get ahead or rather stop their time war before it happens and maybe start an empire while they're at it. Wars are pretty hard to start in the future if you don't exist in the present. Is it plausible to believe that a single, trail-breaking ship could take on five races? If it were a conventional battle with a unified front, hell no; but the Xindi were far from unified and may not have actually had as many ships as we imagine they did. Enterprise had only occasional encounters with Xindi warships as I remember it. I think that it is possible for Enterprise to have carried out its mission in The Expanse.

As for the Borg issue, as others have already said, it was a handful of Borg who had spent the last 100 years frozen solid. They took over a 22nd century transport ship which looked liked a barge compared to Enterprise and with limited resources managed to get it up to the quality of maybe an early 23rd century ship. Think of it like taking a Model T (wiki it if you don't know what that is) and turning it into a Prius when all you have to work with is the stuff in you average domestic garage. I think the Borg were done quite appropriately in that one.

If there was one weak episode it was probably the last one. As far as ending episodes go it was pretty weak. The writers were trying to create a sort of closure while again showing something completely new. It's weak in part because the final season had no overriding story arc which they had to close like in DS9 or Voyager and it was not even the open ended story line of TOS/TNG where each episode stood on its own, so they decided to give the crew one last jaunt before showing us the founding of the Federation which gets treated a bit like how the signing of the US Constitution gets treated in text books: it gets one little section; you read it and there it is.

I do agree with others that 1) they ruined the music when they redid it and 2) that there was no need to kill Trip; I think it would have been much more gratifying to see him finally break and admit he has a thing for T'Pol.

I suppose that I will pretty much accept anything Star Trek. The fact that I reject the newest movie means that I felt it was really, really, really, far off what I consider to be the spirit of Star Trek. I realize that most of you are probably TOS/TNG folks but I thought Voyager was the best of them all with DS9 a very close second.

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 4:25 am

Good answer   

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 5:01 am

I try.

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 5:59 am

I myself liked Enterprise also, had a strong moral background, I liked captian Archer he said how it was and thats how it will be. I know the Enterprise looked alot like an Akira, but hay, other than that you knew from the pepole in there what they said they could be counted on.

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 12:42 pm

the poll seems to be fairly even.

Hate me as well, but I too liked Enterprise. I didn't think it was as horrible as you all think it was, nor was Voyager. Mind you I grew up on DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise so maybe I'm biased, but still.

Ditto

Yeah, I basically agree with everything you said.  The problem I still have with the xindi, is that they re-wrote Archers character in the process, making him mean sometimes, psychopathic, or even just a wimp depending on the episode.  I didn't like the overall story line even if it made the slightest bit of sense.  It was like they couldn't think of bad guys for the past and make them cool enough, so they brought ones from the future to compensate. 

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 2:26 pm

If there was one weak episode it was probably the last one. As far as ending episodes go it was pretty weak. The writers were trying to create a sort of closure while again showing something completely new. It's weak in part because the final season had no overriding story arc which they had to close like in DS9 or Voyager and it was not even the open ended story line of TOS/TNG where each episode stood on its own, so they decided to give the crew one last jaunt before showing us the founding of the Federation which gets treated a bit like how the signing of the US Constitution gets treated in text books: it gets one little section; you read it and there it is.

Terrible episode, I agree. Though, I think so because of the choice of ending ENT as a holoprogram in the middle of a TNG episode.

I do agree with others that 1) they ruined the music when they redid it and 2) that there was no need to kill Trip; I think it would have been much more gratifying to see him finally break and admit he has a thing for T'Pol.

I liked the music, fits ENT and Star Trek very well. The Trip death could be just a historical inaccuracy in the Holodeck.

I've read that the death would posibly have been reversed if the show didn't die so early (hostorical inaccuracy).

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 3:26 pm

I've read that the death would posibly have been reversed if the show didn't die so early (hostorical inaccuracy).

Yeah, I've read something similar, also read that they planed to change the apperance of the enterprise a bit, kinda refit her.
here's how Doug Drexler imagined the refit would look like http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/2011-sotl-technofold-sneak-peek/

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 3:28 pm

To me Enterprise was quite good. Its just TOS I don't like because their effects and costumes were too cheesy. I mean, their phaser effects looked like MS Paint drawings. And some of their 'non-humanoid' costumes looked like a construction of plaster and house hold junk such as rugs and furniture. I would like a completely redone version anyway.

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 4:26 pm

...

I would love to see a station that actually expanded to fit a ship in a2.  we could just have that station couldn't we?

i've been suggesting someone put it in FO for MONTHS, (lord knows im not smart enough to do it) but no one listens  :(


ALSO,  why did the borg not introduct themselves????  there standard hail / greet / threat..

(WE ARE THE BORG) conviently missingfrom there,  resistance is futile... bit.

i loved the "explination" of quarks holosuite series 'vulcan love slave'

i loved the data plates all over NX-01 (very realistic to a military org.)

i loved that Trip got a piece of Tpol (i wonder if vulcan nips are blue?)

HATED phlox's zoo/sickbay

loved the Reed Alert

Hated Porthos.  THERE i SAID IT!

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 5:17 pm

AND WATER POLO as a sport 

really?

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 8:55 pm

Heeey! Just because not the United States is the best in it, waterpolo is still a great sport! Just try to play for about ten minutes, I'm sure you're be KO 
At least if I watch a game of waterpolo, something happens in the pool, not like in baseball 

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 9:45 pm

At least if I watch a game of waterpolo, something happens in the pool

Like someone taking a whiz?

posted on February 23rd, 2010, 11:35 pm

I liked the music, fits ENT and Star Trek very well. The Trip death could be just a historical inaccuracy in the Holodeck.

That's a hell of a historical inaccuracy. I mean I know history can get skewed some times but I would think that the computer would know with absolute certainty when Charles Tucker III died. It's like saying J.F.K. wasn't assassinated while riding in a car on a street in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22nd, 1963. Or that Martin Luther King Jr. wasn't assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4th, 1968 while standing on his hotel balcony. It seems unlikely that the computer would have the wrong information. Obviously it is an easy way of being able to continue the plot and not kill the character, but it's rather weak.

To me Enterprise was quite good. Its just TOS I don't like because their effects and costumes were too cheesy. I mean, their phaser effects looked like MS Paint drawings. And some of their 'non-humanoid' costumes looked like a construction of plaster and house hold junk such as rugs and furniture. I would like a completely redone version anyway.

Yes, it's lame and corny, but that's the charm of it. It's like the original Battlestar, it's lame and corny and has even fewer graphics than Star Trek but it's still a great show. If they were to redo it, they would have to stick pretty damn close to the original designs to get my approval. I think they have gone and put in CGI scenes for shots of the Ship entering and leaving orbit and such.

Yeah, I basically agree with everything you said.  The problem I still have with the xindi, is that they re-wrote Archers character in the process, making him mean sometimes, psychopathic, or even just a wimp depending on the episode.  I didn't like the overall story line even if it made the slightest bit of sense.  It was like they couldn't think of bad guys for the past and make them cool enough, so they brought ones from the future to compensate. 

That's part of the point. This is a trial for him, no captain has ever had to wage a one ship war before, hell, he is the first captain period. He is also burdened with the fate of all humanity; if he fails, humanity will, in all likelihood be wiped out and to make it worse he has the millions of people who already died weighing on him. He is also faced with the moral dilemma of what to do about the Xindi. Is it justified of him to potentially destroy a race which has never before been encountered just because they shot first. In the end he chooses the much harder path of trying to befriend the Xindi.

As for the whole bad guys from the future thing, there really wasn't much of it in there. This makes me think it was intended to go one of two ways: either a) it was always intended to be what it was, just a background prescience in the story; the bad guy is in the shadows, or  b) they [the writers] intended to develop the Temporal War idea much more fully, perhaps with more direct involvement or implications on Archer's time period, but either couldn't work it in or forgot about it or the show ended before they could move on it. I mean let's face it, writing stories involving time and time travel are hard when there is a continuity that has to be maintained (  ); and it's hard because we ourselves don't know a hell of a lot about "time" (which in and of itself is something of a human creation, or is it  ) so we are just making guesses about how it all works and using what has already been said about time travel.

Personally, I think having an enemy from the future which we can't see or touch is rather interesting, it's different; it give that feeling of having the strings of the universe pulled. Star Trek has never had something involving time travel be a story under current, nor has it ever really had an unknown enemy; the bad guys in Trek have always been very tangible and known. These weren't and it was nice. I think that the "classic" bad guys got some pretty good covereage, even the Romulans who are practically on the other side of the galaxy as far as Archer's Starfleet is concerned. Romulan space is actually quite a ways from Earth, and while we don't know the extent of Romulan territory in Archer's time, it's probably fair to say that it isn't as large as it is in Picard's time. Also we know that major conflicts (or contact) with the Romulans didn't occur until after the founding of the Federation (which may have triggered said conflicts). The fact of the matter is, Enterprise is one little ship bouncing from planet to planet in no particular order, it is really rather unlikely that they will encounter many of the more isolated species; hell some of them may be no more advanced than Earth is.

The only question I really had about Enterprise was: what warp scale are they using? It was never really addressed, but I would assume that it is the older, uncapped scale. If that's true it would mean that Enterprise's warp 5 is actually more like warp 6 on the new scale.

posted on February 24th, 2010, 9:35 am

the 4th season of Enterprise was one of the best Star Trek seasons ever (leaving aside the last episode, it's sad for a Star Trek series to end like this  , killing Trip was really unnecessary)

I'm just watching TOS... it's something very different. I can only understand its success when comparing it with other series of the sixties, comparing it with other ST series its quite bad, though. I don't understand why they always come back to this (ST XI/XII). There are some good stories, however, but due to low budget you really have to think about it to realize what the authors want to tell you. I'm watching the remastered version, so at least the space effects are good  .
The worst about it are those dumb barby women(7of9 and T'Pol obviously were implemented to follow the tradition of this ).
By the way: the original Battlestar Galctica Í liked much more than the New one, okay, it was as senseless as Star Wars, but cool, and you saw what you wanted to see: battles(it's still called BATTLEstar). The new series was horrible. Boring, 24 in space, no battles, ugly Zylons(which became humans  ), a strange blond bitch seducing a very stupid scientist(I wonder how he could pass any exams), and intrigues here and there, as well as evil terrorists, ehh, Zylons. One of the worst SF series ever. I must admit I only saw the first season, I had enough after it.

posted on February 25th, 2010, 3:48 pm

I've read somewhere that this "killing Trip"-thing was originally planned as an alternative timeline story for a double episode for Seasons 4 and 5, but after the cancellation of the last season was announced, the staff decided to merge this episode (Trip's death) with the original planned final episode (signing of the Federation Chart).