Did you think Enterprise would be rubbish?

[Qasim]

When enterprise was first announced I thought 'this is going to be rubbish' and it was

Did anybody else think like this?
Who reserved judgement until they saw it?

[MarshAngel]

I assumed it would be rubbish as well. First off i was a little stunned by the fact that they were starting another series so soon. After hearing the problems they were having in the scifi genre in wowing people with views of the future, I was sure they were going to wait at least two or three years so they could reimagine it a bit and come up with something new and exciting.

When they announced they were going back in time before Captain Kirk, I immediately thought WTF are they thinking? How limiting! I personally thought the original series was some corny crap... but then maybe I was born too late to appreciate. So going back before that didn't seem practical. How does one successfully engineer retro-futuristic tech... apparently they never got the answer to that question either.

Then they announced Scott Blakula was the captain and I thought: yawn.

Then the day it premiered I heard the song and thought: what the hell is that? That's so not Trek. By this time the chance of it getting a fair viewing from me had already been severly diminished but I watched the first episode or two.. none of which I now remember and was disappointed and my despise of Archer began even as my viwing ended.

So no I didn't reserve judgment but in fairness I gave them plenty of opportunities to make up for it by watching several episodes later on, including the season finale... still wasn't impressed. It was merely tolerable.

[Qasim]

When they announced they were going back in time before Captain Kirk, I immediately thought WTF are they thinking? How limiting!

Then they announced Scott Blakula was the captain and I thought: yawn.

Then the day it premiered I heard the song and thought: what the hell is that? That's so not Trek.

Thats excatly what I thought aswell and the opening sequence sucked

[Serebii]

I was a bit aprehensive about it at first but it grew on me. Yes they had their fair share of bad eps but when they were good they WERE good. Especially in Seasons 3 & 4.

Its a shame we lost it

[Darth Buddha]

I actually expected it to be good.

I expected first contact with the Telarites (which sucked, alas), with the Andorians (which was oh so cool, one of the rare gems in early seasons), with the Klingons, and a variety of other races. I expected fusion torpedos. Lasers rather than phasers. No use of the transporter. No silly "Temporal Cold War" to allow the writers to play hell with continuity, and no attack on Earth that is hard to reconcile with the Trek that "followed" in the timeline.

I expected Colonel Green, the buildup to the Federation, the Romulan War, and skirmishes with the Pirate of Orion (and/or the Orion Syndicate).

In other words, I expected Season 4 in Season 1. Even I didn't watch the show live, or even the day or week of broadcast from halfway through Season 1 through the end of Season 3.

Too bad Season 4 was too little, too late.

[Qasim]

I expected first contact with the Telarites (which sucked, alas), with the Andorians (which was oh so cool, one of the rare gems in early seasons), with the Klingons, and a variety of other races. I expected fusion torpedos. Lasers rather than phasers. No use of the transporter. No silly "Temporal Cold War" to allow the writers to play hell with continuity, and no attack on Earth that is hard to reconcile with the Trek that "followed" in the timeline.

I still dont understand how they messed up the timeline so much didnt anybody point it out to them

[Darth Buddha]

I still dont understand how they messed up the timeline so much didnt anybody point it out to them

Methinks they thought they were being "creative".

Remember that they also wanted to "distance" themselves from other Trek? Star Trek was absent from the title for the first two seasons, and they used a lyrical rather than instrumental opening theme (yes, I know TOS had female voices in it's opening theme for a while, but that was a choral piece without words). Their arrogance in this regard carried through, and sank the show. Perhaps they even sank the franchise itself.

[Qasim]

Perhaps they even sank the franchise itself.

Thats my greatest worry

At one time Star Trek was Sci-Fi now it lies in ruins

[DigiFluid]

Of course I knew it was going to suck. The same "creative" team that murdered Star Trek via voyager was going to be behind it.

[Matt G]

I'm not a Trekker but did give it a chance due to the 'temporal Cold War' sounding interesting. Then bailed after a few eps.

My Mum(family Trekker) just responded to the TV announcer's question "Now wasn't that worth waiting for?" after the pilot by shaking her head madly.

[Qasim]

My Mum(family Trekker) just responded to the TV announcer's question "Now wasn't that worth waiting for?" after the pilot by shaking her head madly.

I am guessing that she wasnt the only one

[CatGoddess]

When Enterprise was first announced, I figured that it probably wasn't going to be as good as the other series, but decided to reserve judgement and give it a shot. And, well, it had its moments ... but by and large, it was disappointing.

[Mio]

It had some really good episodes, and a ton of really bad ones. But did I think it would be crap? Not really. I didn't really know what to expect. I just wish they put season 4 first....they might still be on the air.

[Madeleine]

I was reasonably hopeful. It was coming from the same stable as TNG ( ) and DS9( ). But since it also came from the people who'd done Voyager ( ) I knew better than to have too-high expectations.

It turned out to be better than Voyager. But it was still decidedly for most of its run.

[Sci-Fi]

Many ST fans thought the franchise would take a break after Voyager barely got renewed for a 7th season and the declining ratings. Few remember that ST:Academy was 1st proposed (a fan favorite for a new series), then ST:MACO, and finally ST:ENT was approved.

A lot of fans didn't think a trip to the past was sustainable or interesting enough since much of the "historic events" was known. That being said, ENT blew it by not having the wonder and excitement of deep space exploration or the ST trademark of examining the human condition and the building of a better society for the future. Breaking canon or introducing new elements wouldn't have bothered the casual fan *IF* the stories were entertaining and there was a lot of character development with a subliminal social message. That's where it all fell apart. The characters and plots were bland, interchangable, one dimensional, and many times annoying. The TCW seemed more like a remake of "Quantum Leap" with Daniel=Al and Archer=Sam. Some ST fans proclaim "Don't blame the Xindi" for the TCW arc. Throw in the recognizable recycled scripts from other ST shows and movies and the lack of cast chemistry, and you have a recipe for disaster. T'Pol stripping during sweeps week or the half naked crew rubbing each other (even Porthos) with cream almost every week turned many off.


Photo from TrekToday

Manny Coto was brought into the series early in the 3rd season, but even he made a fatal mistake by ending the Xindi arc with a trip to the past with Nazi's and turning T'Pol into a drug addict (that was mysterious cured during season 4). Although many fans enjoyed the 4th season, the lack of budget really showed (ENT was still more expensive to make than any of the SciFi Friday shows, 2+ mil vs 1.5 mil per episode) plus some of the lowest ratings came during the 4th season when all the stories were penned just for ST fans, not the casual or mainstream viewer. That would indicate that even hardcore ENT fans weren't watching on a weekly basis.

In hindsight, the ST franchise needed a break after Voyager and/or ENT needed at least 2 years in development. The ENT Captain should have been a more enthusiastic, swashbuckling type of character, full of curiosity, and up to the challenge of exploring the unknown and not afraid to make mistakes...like Kirk or Pike was. More conflict or friendly banter between characters, plus character development and back stories. And less technobabble. Let's face it, some of the characters should have been replaced after the 1st or 2nd season to get a working chemistry. SG:1 and SG:A made cast/character changes and that appears to be working so far.

ENT could have shown through their interference with other cultures and the resulting consequences of those actions, the early development of SF's prime directive and the hard moral choices to not to do the right or human thing and let things naturally play out. ENT could of been darker or more complicated with it's story telling without compromising on ST core values to reflect the expectations of today's viewers.

Was ENT rubbish? It depends on who you talk to. Some just love the show while some long time ST fans feel it's "just wasn't Trek". Be glad ENT got 4 seasons. From the rating numbers, ENT would have been cancelled after the 2nd season on most major networks. Firefly avg a 2.9 for it's one season and was cancelled (FOX's lowest rated primetime show) but yet ENT with it's season 2 avg rating of 2.89 was renewed. DS9 avg a 5.3 in their season 6, Voyager avg a 4.032 in Season 4 and between those numbers is where ENT should have comfortably settled into. BTW, ENT avg a 1.90 in season 4. While some would compare that number with SciFi Friday, the cost of producing ENT episodes far out weighs the ability of a network to make money from those same numbers.