Star Trek: Enterprise fans- Neat article on AICN about it

Cafe Society
1

The Blu-ray release of season two of *Enterprise *includes lots of interviews with the cast & crew. If you were a (frustrated) fan of the show you’ll enjoy reading about what went wrong with it. Pretty much what you’d expect: Too much tinkering by the ignorant network executives (a boy band on the ship!?!). I remember Braga got the brunt of the hate while it was on, but it seems like he knew the fans were right but constantly got overruled. When the series finale aired I remember Jolene Blalock actually saying she thought making it a TNG episode was insulting. Turns out Scott Bakula was pissed off about too, and Braga (who wrote that finale) considers it his biggest mistake.

Along with:

[ul][li]Doing too many ‘stand alone’ episodes was a mistake[/li][li]Not concentrating on giving detailed information thru stories about that crucial gap in the Star Trek canon (from present day to the beginning of TOS) was a mistake[/li][li]Not being able to have more guest characters get killed was a mistake[/li][li]The whole Temporal Cold War was a mistake (and not really his idea)[/li][/ul]
and on & on. I thought all these same things during the show’s run.

2

Well, that was almost interesting. I couldn’t get through very much of your link because my security software was making my computer go batshit crazy.
Anyway, I liked the story arc with the spheres. [It’s been so long since I’ve seen this series, I can’t remember if the temporal aspect was necessary or not). For me, the show took a nose dive after that story arc. Lizard Hitler guy comes to mind. As soon as I saw that episode, I thought to myself “Yep, this show’s done.”

3

A lot of the points noted by the OP seem to encapsulate the classic dilemma faced by any long-running entertainment: How to accommodate longtime fans who may want to explore a detailed universe that incorporates a long history, without alienating new viewers/readers by leaving them feeling lost and unable to catch up.

4

Really? Ain’t it Cool News (http://www.aintitcool.com/) is a totally legitimate (and somewhat well known) site. Although it does have an overabundance of advertising banners I seriously doubt it has any kind of malware. Though because of the ads I never use IE with it, always Firefox.

5

Very interesting; I agree with alot of what was in the article (though setting the entire first season in the Sol system is a bit much). I really enjoyed the arc format, especially the mini-arcs in season 4 (defiantly the best season) that felt very British. Speaking of Britain; I’m a little surprised there was no mention of LGBT characters at all given Dominic Keating’s comments about Malcolm Reed. Also I agree about the transporter; I’ve always hated it, and Enterprise would’ve been the perfect excuse to do stories without it. Hell they’ve couldn’t at least made in more primitive than the ones in TOS (like being unable to transport living matter, or needing a sending & receiving unit).

6

I couldn’t read the whole article in one sitting (jeezus, how many bullets can one person digest at once?). However, I did enjoy what I’ve read so far.

I really, really like Enterprise. Immensely. As a concept. As it actually played out… not so much.

I agree with Blalock’s comment on the lyrics of the opening song. I initially refused to watch the show because of what the mere idea of using a fucking Rod Stewart song as a Star Trek theme song indicated to me about the choices that would be made for the show (not that I hate Rod Stewart that much, but, for Star Trek?!? Come ON!). But at some point, I softened, and took it in, and began to appreciate the particular lyrics, combined with the visuals - a story of mankind’s historical steps from ocean exploration to flight to spaceflight to the Star Trek universe’s beginnings of exploring the vastness of space. It was, if you could allow yourself to be receptive to it, a beautiful and inspirational story that was in perfect harmony with Rodenberry’s original vision - if you could stomach fucking Rod Stewart.

The show itself, I had issues with, and had trouble appreciating on its own merits. I like Bakula, but I really, really wish that he would drop the smarm a few notches in just about every scene with him in it. He so very much definitely could have been the best captain (since Kirk, at least), if he could have only kept his acting at the right level.

The scripts were all over the place. Occasionally great, occasionally terrible, often mediocre. I actually really, really liked the temporal cold war shit. As a concept. As it played out… not so much. Oh, my god, it could have been so cool. Section 31. Temporal agents. Fleshing out all of the bullshit temporal paradox crap used in all of the other Star Treks, fanwanking and fanservicing it all into a beautiful holistic panorama of exciting narrative… but, alas. I think ST Online handled all of that much better, and they didn’t even do a good job (but in my imagination… OMFG such brilliance!).

I look forward to finishing the article, and learning more about what went wrong with what should have been the best Star Trek series since the original.

7

I had bailed on Enterprise when it first aired but came back for the the second half of season 3 and all of Season 4. I did eventually go back an watch much of what I missed.

Season three was a decent show but never felt like Star Trek. Season 4 was very good in spots and as someone in the article said, it should have been season 1. It was a show I would have liked to see more of.

Re: The Opening Theme. I have to admit while it is a terrible song, Enterprise’s opening credits gave me comfort airing so shortly after 9/11. It reminded me of the good Mankind an do and gave me hope when that was in short supply. Now, I just hear and awful song. :slight_smile:

8

Ye gods, do we really need to have LGBT characters shoved down our throats at every opportunity. ESPN and Yahoo sports do plenty of that.

9

Yeah, I feel the same way about straight people. Does every TV show and movie need to have straight people in it? I know I don’t need my kids watching that crap. Fucking Hollywood and its heterosexual agenda. Amirite?

10

I actually know a lot of Christian conservatives who would agree with that. They want sex kept separate from entertainment.

11

Star Trek ought to fit the bill, then. :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Who said anything about sex?

13

Intriguing. It does explain a lot, regarding the meddling.

Personally, the theme song grew on me, to the point that I actually liked it by the end.

Good to see Braga owns up to that disaster of a finale, too.

14

I kind of liked the finale, it made some other things make sense.

I realize that’s a loathsome and miserable opinion. I’ll go wash my mouth out.

15

I thought as a finale it was lame but I’m interested to read what other things made sense for you because of it. I really only remember Riker was doing research for some report or something.

16

Some of the characterization. Some of the scenes, some of the stories. It makes more sense if we think of it as a TV show rather than reality.
T’Pol and Trip never made much sense to me. Trip Tucker, Space Fucker never made much sense either, he got more alien poon than Kirk.

Edit- as a finale, it could have been less lame than it was. Would have made a good appendix episode maybe.

17

More sense, maybe. But for many of us who actually enjoyed the show (flaws and all) and were engaged with the characters (whether it made sense or not), it was effectively saying a) all that stuff you enjoyed… screw you, it may not have happened, and b) we’d rather spend time with decades old characters from another show (and the least interesting characters on the show at that, but the only ones who would deign to appear) than spend more time for a send off of the characters you’re invested in.

and, oh yeah, c) your most liked character is dead for no good reason, so fuck you.
As a post-hoc fanwank to explain away the show’s flaws, it worked fine. As a send-off for a show that had finally hit its stride, well… you can see how easily I got over it… :rolleyes: Imagine how I felt back when it aired…

18

Wait.

Are you guys saying the finale indicates that everything we watched was a fictionalized account, rather than the actual events?

19

I wonder who was responsible for the alien whales? Big arc in season 3. Seeing those creatures in tanks of water trying to be the big bad alien was hilariously funny.

Can’t recall what they were called. But they were aquatic creatures.

20

[fanboy]
They were one of the species of the Xindi. Although it’s pretty gimmicky evolutionary logic the different Xindi species, humanoid, arboreal, insect, reptilian & aquatic mammal (i.e. whales) all evolved into sentient beings. It was a clunky way of having very clear bad guys (the reptilians & insects), good guys (the humanoids) and those on the fence (the others).

IOW the Xindi whales were never really meant to be the bad guys, the reptilians were.