I've been running through each of the Star Trek television series and finally wrapped up Enterprise. I went into this series hearing many consider it the worst Trek series in the franchise (which seemed like a tough task, given that I just finished Voyager), so my expectations were low. I have to say, I think the slightly negative reputation Enterprise gets is unearned. Enterprise exceeded my expectations and I actually thought it was a pretty good series to the point where I'm actually upset it was cancelled after season 4.
Let me get some of the bad things out of the way first. Dear Lord that introduction music is terrible, even the updated season 3 and 4 theme was still unbearable. The Temporal Cold War story line is a neat concept and takes one or two interesting turns, but ultimately is just kind of boring and doesn't feel like it ever goes anywhere. In general the first two seasons feel like they kind of lack a sense of direction (this seems to be a recurring issue with most Trek series). The blatant teenage pandering this series has in the first season and a half is really annoying too. You could really tell they were trying too hard when it felt like T'Pol had to have a decontamination scene where she has to rub gel over herself every 3 episodes.
But then there was the stuff I thought was cool. Seasons 3 and 4 of Enterprise really jumped to another level in my opinion. The Xindi conflict of season 3 in my opinion was really well done, the writing felt like it found some the same magic that made Deep Space Nine so great. I really liked how so many things ended up interconnecting and ultimately playing a role in the resolution of that story line. I also want to give some special props to whomever did the makeup for the Xindi reptilians, those guys looked tough as hell.
If the third season felt like a reminder of DS9's greatness, then I'd argue that Enterprise's fourth season caught some of TNG's magic in a bottle. The Terra Prime two-parter featuring Peter Weller (yay!) was pretty great and felt like really great genuine "Star Trek". The weakest episodes season 4 have to offer are the episodes that wrap up some season 1 and 2 stories, but they're still entertaining none the less.
Also, the Mirror Universe intro to Enterprise deserves a special mention.
And then there's some of the characters I really liked.
--Captain Archer: He's not the best Trek captain but he grew on me. He's a bit stiff compared to Kirk or Picard in my opinion but I feel like he acts like a believable human being when presented with a tough situation. What I think I liked most about Archer was that despite there being no Prime Directive or really firm rule set on how he should operate with alien species, either pre or post warp, he tries to adhere to a non-existent higher standard because he feels it's the right thing to do. And when he's put in a situation where he has to go against his personal higher standards it seems like it really tears him up internally.
The biggest case of this is when he has to raid a non-hostile ship in order to get a new warp coil while in The Expanse.
--Commander Tucker (Trip): He's probably my second favorite engineer in all of Trek (second to LaForge). I'm a big fan of Trek crew members who come across as believable crew members, Trip does this really well. He seems to respect everyone who works above and below him, but he's not afraid to crack a few heads when he needs to get people in line. He's also not afraid to call out bullshit when he sees it, even if its from Archer (and he's smart enough to know when to back down
at least after one incident blows up in his face during the series
--Dr Phlox: Doctors on Star Trek always seem to be pretty solid in my opinion (okay, maybe except for the one/two punch of Crusher & Pulaski), Phlox continued that trend I think. There's nothing bad I can really say about the character. He's also probably the most naturally optimistic doctor in all of Star Trek (Bashir was more naive, in my opinion).
--Shran: Maybe it's just because he's played by Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun from DS9), but I always liked it when Shran popped up. He won me over permanently when during the middle of a large Vulcan vs Andorian battle he hails the Enterprise just to remind them "Now Archer owes me twice!".
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The last episode of Enterprise is a little bit of let down.
The last episode of Enterprise is basically an episode of The Next Generation. Riker is viewing a holodeck recreation of Enterprise's last mission during The Pegasus episode from TNG. It's not a bad episode but it's kind of a weird epilogue episode that was clearly rushed because they didn't plan on the show being cancelled. The Terra Prime two-parter before it feels like the "proper" finale in my opinion since it more or less establishes the birth of the Federation.
I'm glad I watched Enterprise and I honestly wish there was more of it to watch. I'd go as far as ranking it my third favorite Trek series. I'll definitely watch it again some time down the line.
- Next Generation
- Deep Space Nine
- Enterprise
- Original Series
- Voyager
Never thought my first thread on GAF would be about Enterprise
