Why is Enterprise (the show) hated so much?
I realize it does have issues with continuity, but I guess that never bothered me much.
I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and also the stories.
If all the previous star trek shows had never happened some of you who do not seem to like it would you of liked it then?
Or was I just not watching close enough to see some really big blunders that should of ruined it for me?
I believe it is honestly one of my favorite science fiction tv shows ever, second to firefly I think.
So anyway, why didnt more people like it?
I thought they had too many time travel stories. I was annoyed by Bakula’s acting; he seemed to have leapt into a star ship Captain’s body and didn’t know what to do. 
The Manny Cotto stories verged on fan fic, throwing details just to show off. The decontamination procedure was silly.
They had Ferengi and Romulans when Terrans hadn’t seen them yet.
Things were improving though, and I’m sorry it was canceled.
I’m also sorry they killed someone off.
I liked it a lot the first two seasons. It had a lot going for it in terms of premise, cast and characters. Eventually, script rot set in.
In terms of gratuitous nudity, it was by far the best of the lot!
It was a show with great potential. In the begining, I think they did a good job. Towards the end, it was one complex time travel show and it sucked. What is the point in going back to the beggining of Starfleet, then having advanced technology through time-travel? It had great potential. I loved the characters. They failed to live up to that potential through very poor writing.
I would agree that some of the time travel was annoying.
I really liked the xindi arc though, I found that story very compelling.
Personally, what drew me to Star Trek in the first place (ST: TNG) was the scientific aspect and wonder of the universe.
The idea of a cowboy-like atmosphere with lots of space battles and hand-to-hand combat reads more like Star Wars for me, which is fine in small doses for me, but for an ongoing series, it gets a little old fast.
Plus, yes, I hated them introducing species that weren’t destined to have met for another hundred-plus years.
- The writing was quite often, awful. See: alien nazis.
- The acting was quite often, poor. See: Merriwether, Hoshi.
- The premise was that the show would reveal how they got to the Federation and Starfleet of TOS. Up until the last season, that is not what the show was about; instead, it was yet another redux of peril-of-the-week with reset to status quo ante by the end of the episode. And even then, that peril was something new and never heard of before (nor again), instead of TOS backhistory as promised.
- Time travel. Ugh.
- The series finale. Seriously, WTF?
It was an ill-conceived show from the beginning.
A ship named Enterprise? Before the NCC-1701? Really? Funny how it didn’t show up on the TMP display of previous ships named Enterprise, or on Picard’s wall. The fanwank that it wasn’t a Federation ship named Enterprise covers the latter, but not the former, which included a Space Shuttle and an aircraft carrier.
Add to that the fact that they decided to make time travel a central component of the show, and it just turned into a gimmick-fest.
“Oooo, prequels are hot now, let’s do a prequel.”
“Should we do the prequel everyone’s been begging for, Starfleet Academy?”
“No, we can’t get everyone there at the same time and keep our current continuity.”
“Hey, Bakula’s looking for work.”
“Oooo, time travel stories always score high on fan favorite lists! Let’s hire Bakula, write a whole chapter into canon no one’s ever heard of before, do a shitload of time travel, and that way if anyone bitches that we’re violating canon, we can say it’s a different timeline.”
“Brilliant!”
Missed opportunity. It should have been a TV version of the new movie.
The acting was generally pretty appalling. Bakula was the worst of the lot, every time he spoke it sounded like he was quoting from The Bible.
To say it again, it was a missed opportunity. It should have been amazing. They could have taken the best non-dated bits of the original series and jazzed it up for the modern age. Instead they took the blandest bits of Voyager and TNG and added time travel.
Ignoring continuity would be the only way to do the show properly. Unfortunately they only ignored aspects of the other series. They should have taken the basics of what Starfleet becomes and said “To Hell” with the rest.
Season 4 made me sad. If that had been Season 1 we’d still be raving about the series now.
Count me among the ones who says it was an idea with potential for greatness but was executed poorly. However I LOVED so many things about it-- Hoshi, the Vulcans, the whole right stuff aspect,…I usually like time travel stories, in the Star Trek universe in particular, but they weren’t up to the par of some of the other series-- the mirror universe episodes were the peak-- I enjoy watching it and it is better than Voyager, but there ARE problems with it.
I was a fan of Enterprise. I never understood all the animosity it got, either. Most of the negative assessments in this thread, I never felt…TRM
Seconded. More than any of the other shows it felt like they really were out on the edge of their known space, whereas TOS,& NG felt like they were making Federation milk runs. The naval vessel like aesthetic of the ship’s interior. Crewmen quarters were absolutely puny. Archer’s gee-whiz geniality slowly evolving into the hardened realization he’s the man functionally responsible for the safety of Earth from the alien hordes. Hoshi likewise growing a pair over the course of the show. The Borg ep was well done. *Shuttlecraft One * made me run away screaming from the show for 3/4 of a season. The last two seasons were great (Vulcan zombies! Space Nazis! E’prise getting massive damage that doesn’t get repaired in time for the next episode!) And it looks great on DVD.
But some absolute clunkers. I want to know whose wife/son/puppy Scott Bakula screwed to be punished with A Night in Sickbay. And the gratuitous decon and random underpants scenes- but at least there were lots of men-skivvies as well as T’pol in her sports bra.
I guess the reason I never had an issue with the acting is that I dont expect good acting from Star Trek (Think William Shatner)
I too liked the dark mirror universe episodes. I see how some people could get upset with the continuity but I think some of the episodes were really interesting and fun. But thanks for all of your answers no I Know, and I as I always heard growing up, “Knowing is half the battle”
I had issues with the time travel aspect which came up in the pilot episode. I was really sick of Star Trek and time travel for reasons that had nothing to do with continuity. While I saw a few episodes of the series because of my roommates the time travel storyline drove me away.
Odesio
I liked it better than the other series.
I stopped watching after the Xindi attack on Earth. It looked like it the show was going to turn into some hackneyed metaphor for 9/11.
The Weapon slicing up Florida was pretty cool.
I only saw episodes from the second half on (after the Xindi had destroyed Florida) and I really liked it. Yes, that includes the time travel episodes. When I got back to the US, I downloaded some of the earlier episodes and found them to be…pretty damned boring.
YMMV, obviously.
The weekly discussion threads here were pretty obnoxious.