With more and more old shows being streamed to the net these days I figure it’s only a matter of time till these come on board. I missed the last year or so of both Voyager and Enterprise. Any of the show in these series good enough to re-visit if they become available online?
Um… no.
In a Mirror, Darkly from the fourth season of Enterprise was good.
I am a fan of Enterprise - yes, I’m the one!
I especially like the first several episodes from season one, and the big story arc in season 3. In season 1 I liked the excitement the show had of going new places and doing new things - the sense of wonder. I also liked that the pre-Federation humans didn’t know everything, weren’t top of the heap, and didn’t necessarily do everything right or even well. I liked the idea of the temporal cold war as background, but they didn’t do much with it, sad to say.
IMO each of the follow-on Star Trek series humanized a species from an earlier series. STNG humanized the Klingons by having sympathetic Klingon characters, and complex Klingon stories. DS9 humanized the Ferengi much the same way, and had better enemies (Cardassians, the Dominion). Voyager had an ex-Borg character who looked GREAT in a catsuit. Enterprise humanized the Vulcans by showing how they were really smug bastards. 
And T’Pol looked GREAT in a catsuit.
I really liked season 3. I liked the intensity of the story arc. I liked that Archer and the crew had to do more and more desperate things to protect Earth, and we can see Archer paying the price. This being TV, Archer has the Big Reset before we can see the long term effects on him, but it was there. I also like how the enemy in season 3 is much like Roddenberry’s cultural idea - a unified culture of six different alien species.
I liked season 2 OK (yes, I’m the one), but not as much as 1 and 3. I thought season 4 had some good stuff, but since the show had already been canceled once at that point, it really wasn’t going anywhere. TOS season 3 had the same problem - hence “Spock’s Brain” :shudder: The Mirror episodes were fun.
I didn’t watch much Voyager. I did watch the finale, and realized I didn’t miss much.
I’m a huge fan of DS9, not that you asked.
Maybe we can start a support group ** Typo Knig. ** I liked Enterprise a lot and to answer the OP, if you liked the first three seasons you will like season four, especially the first half. Once the producers found out that the series was being canceled (for sure this time) they pretty much mailed in the last few episodes.
The first two mini story arcs were really interesting. The first story arc is about genetic engineering and the Eugenics wars. It also has Brent Spiner as the evil doctor.
The second three episode story arc is set on Vulcan. It’s a pretty good summary about the history of Vulcan. I’ll second ** In a mirror darkly ** as a fun two part episode.
I never really liked Voyager much even though I watched it, so I really can’t say if season seven is worth watching for you.
I’m DVRing Enterprise, and started a similar thread a while back asking if there were eps I should try to make sure to see. I managed to get all of season 3, so I’m looking forward to enjoying those. Due to the power blinking out at home the other day I just missed the first episode of the Brent Spiner arc, so I’m peeved about that. I’m very much looking forward to the Mirror Universe episodes.
“This is Empress Sato, stand by for instructions!”
I welcome our new overlords.
I personally felt that Enterprise was finally becoming what it should be in season 4, but of course then they had to muck it up by canceling the thing. The Mirror Universe episodes were fun, their lame moments well-balanced by T’Pol and Hoshi having a catfight.
Don’t watch the finale. Just don’t.
I also missed the last season of Voyager, though I did enjoy the finale. Personally I thought it started going downhill a few seasons before that, so I’d lost interest.
Ok, I don’t get this.
At all.
TOS had many complex, humanized characters. TNG and thereafter had carichatures with more makeup. The TNG Klingons were totally and utterly different from TOS Klingons, and not for the better. They rapidly became idiot space Vikings. The Ferengi got a little better in DS9… but not much. They were just slightly different, but still one-notes.
And seriously, I know it was probably meant in jest… but 7 of 9 was just stupid. There was nothing “human” about her except boobies. Which would have been fine, since the Borg are not known for their subtle character differences. But saying the later series made earlier ideas more complex because some chick looks good in skintights is… odd.
I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch anything from Voyager and Enterprise. What’s good is only in context of being part of those two series. They’re still dreck.
Watch Season 4 of Enterprise. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who have written many excellent novels set in the Star Trek universe, took over as story editors and were responsible for the Soong arc and the explanation of how the Klingons lost their ridges by the 23rd century. The mirror universe arc, as mentioned, was also very good.
Season 7 of Voyager was also halfway decent. I recall an arc in which the crew infiltrated a Borg ship and a run-in with the Borg Queen. Not Alice Krige from First Contact, unfortunately. Also, Barclay found a way for Starfleet to communicate with Voyager and Troi appeared in an episode or two. There was also one final episode with Q and his son, played by John DeLancie’s real-life son. The final episode, while using the stale concept of breaking the Temporal Prime Directive, also was a fairly decent close to the series.
I was a big fan of TNG and especially DS9. I know Voyager had some good episodes, although I’m struggling to remember them. I do remember being less than thrilled that they completely neutered the Borg. Then they brought in “Species 8472” to be like the new scary replacement to the Borg, and neutered them too. Honestly, though, my hope for Voyager pretty much evaporated once the Maquis decided to all just act exactly like Starfleet officers, about a season or so into the series. (I watched the next 6 seasons mostly out of loyalty to the franchise.)
Enterprise never really did anything for me. Even after they switched directions later in the show, it felt to me like they were trying too hard for “post 9-11 relevance”. Not that unsubtle social commentary is a new thing for Star Trek, but at least normally it’s not beating you over the head with the same metaphor for several episodes in a row.
The Thaw was one; one of the writers of Darmok had a hand in this.
B’Elanna trying to out-think herself in Dreadnought, directed by LeVar Burton.
One did pretty good with the concept of how a person, Seven in this case, would deal with being alone in space for an extended period of time.
Infinite Regress wasn’t original–a similar concept had been used in a “Quantum Leap” episode–and was the beginning of the end for the Borg. Seven cycling through all those personalities is fun to watch.
Barge of the Dead, an intersting study of Klingon mythology.
Year of Hell had potential, if only it wasn’t a Braga episode.
My point, in less of a jest, was the following.
In TOS the Klingons were The Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup]. They needed no history, or motivations, they were just the Injuns/Nazis/Yellow^H^H^H^H^H^H Dark Green Horde. They attacked The Good Guys[sup]TM[/sup] because they were the Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup].
In TNG, we had a major Klingon character among the Good Guys. We got to see Worf in almost every episode - see his honor, dedication, bravery, frailities, how he dealt with love, loss, and even fatherhood. We even had several looks into the Klingon way of life - Riker in the officer swap, Worf’s brother showing up, the almost Shakesperean episodes where Worf gets expelled from the Empire, etc. In TNG and beyond, Klingons were often opponents, sometimes allies, occasionally alien, but much more rounded detailed characters in TNG than in TOS. The had motivation and life - just like people! The were not just The Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup].
TNG started with the Ferengi as The Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup]. Like many ideas in series TV, TNG didn’t follow through with this very well, but the Ferengi were supposed to be one-note greedy capitalists. IMNSHO they turned out to be about as threatening as the weasel in the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons, but in TNG they were The Greedy Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup], and that was that.
In DS9 we had several prominent Ferengi characters, and again saw the good along with the bad. We got much more depth. Quark was still a jerk a lot of the time, but Rom and particularly Nog were very sympathetic characters. The Ferengi characters were even brave when called for - and The Greedy Bad Guys[sup]TM[/sup] are supposed to be Cowardly[sup]TM[/sup] as well. DS9 humanized the Ferengi - and more. In the episode where Sisko and Quark are being help prisoner by the newly-encountered Jen Hadar, Quark derides Sisko for his superior attitude when Ferengi never had global war or slavery, as opposed to most of hoo-man history. Nice score, Quark, though the idea that a purely capitalistic society would not have slavery is, well, alien to me.
TNG introduced the Borg, and for Bad Guys Without Motivation[sup]TM[/sup] there is no equal. OTOH, Voyager had a major character who was a Borg. OK, an ex-Borg, but as I recall from the first few episodes with Seven of Nine, she had problems adapting to her humanity at even a basic level, and wanted to go “home” to the collective. Very sympathetic. If I had watched Voyager more I might have appreciated Seven of Nine as a character, and not just as a pair of huge knockers. Though they were nice.
On to Enterprise. Throughout Star Trek the Vulcans were Good Guys[sup]TM[/sup], with very few exceptions. (The guy who challenged Sisko to a baseball game in DS9 was a dick. But it was one of their funnier, and most fun, episodes. Particularly nice in the midst of the Dominion War.) Vulcans were peaceful, science-loving, vegetarians, unwavering allies, the whole bit. But going back to the time of the first human-built warp 5 vessel, Vulcans were controlling, oppressive, smug, deceitful, dictatorial, occassionaly traitorous bastards. Rounded them out a great deal as characters, IMO.
And T’Pol had a very nice figure. Yes, they were going for the fanboy audience there. Works for me.
But the characterizations were less stereotyped as the series went on, IMO.
I really enjoyed ENT, but must admit, watching Shuttlepod One during the original run made me abandon the show for a season and a half.
‘Stinky’. 'nuff said
I picked it up again during reruns.
That was one of the reasons I enjoyed the show- the progression of the Vulcans from contemptuous, corrupted imperialist dicks who gave lip service to reason and logic, up to the start of their philosophical reformation that brought us the TOS Vulcans.
I admit, during the initial run of the series, I referred to her as T’its at the work lunch table ‘what the hell did *you *watch last night?’ debriefings.
Hoshi was toughening up nicely. Archer, not so nicely.
G-d, I hated that. Wasting one of the remaining episodes.
The Manny Coto stuff of Enterprise verges on fan fic, but it is better than the time war arc. They have to show Vulcan third eyelids and Celot, however you spell it.
And I agree, don’t watch the final episode.
Golf clap. (Or should that be “golf Q’lapah!”?)
After I’m done subscribing to your news letter, I’ll tell you my original, yet sophomoric, ST-Enterprise joke.
How do you know T’Pol will be in the room in five minutes?
Her nipples are crossing the door now!
My warp 5 handbasket is leaving shortly.
I’m sorry, I meant that I think the characterizations of the various species got less stereotyped as the various incarnations of Star Trek progressed. Well, the major species. I wasn’t talking about the performances of specific actors, or the portrayals of individual characters. I don’t disagree with you, I just wasn’t thinking that way, and didn’t say what I meant precisely.
I do love the bit in Broken Bow where Archer tells Hoshi to tell the Klingon to shut up, and, with the Universal Translator failing miserably, Hoshi yells to the Klingon “Shut! UP!!!” In English! 
That’s part of what I liked about ENT - everything was new, and cutting edge, and not quite working right. Malcolm catches a cold in one episode, fer crying out loud!
Y’know what I liked seeing in Enterprise (besides guys in their underpants)? Beer.
The only Voyager episode worth seeing is “Counterpoint”.
Do not watch the finale of ENT, as has been said.
Do watch “The Communicator,” “Cogenitor,” and the third and fourth seasons.
The first and second seasons have a few bright spots now and then, but overall they are weaker than Seasons 3 and 4.