Star Trek: Enterprise (Season 3) - What were they thinking?

Cafe Society
1

First off, let me explain how I feel about Star Trek in general:

I am old enough to remember watching (as a child) the original Star Trek episodes. We didn’t get to see many of them on first run, mostly because they came on at 8, when we were supposed to be in bed. I remember one of the nice things about visiting my grandparents in Chicago was that Star Trek was on at 7 Central, which let us watch. I watched the cartoon series avidly, and syndication was heaven. I knew the episodes by heart, could win trivia contests about Star Trek, and was pretty close to being a Trekker.

I’ve always been somewhat disappointed by the later series. I was filled with anticipation about the new series, The Next Generation. The movies had whetted my appetite for the return to television. But the change in philosophy from a generally drama series to the nebulous exploration of what makes us “people” that filled the ranks of the TNG episodes (along with the really, really annoying A plot/B plot format) left me with a taste of something not quite enjoyable in my mouth. Still, the episodes got better as the seasons wore on, and I actually found myself liking much of what they were doing. DS9 was a bit different, but I like Avery Brooks, and I liked Rene Auberjonois, and the plots were more dramatic, which helped. Voyager I never really got the hang of, and it didn’t help that by the time Voyager was being broadcast, I had stopped watching television much, so I wasn’t keeping up with it. Still, in all, the series that ran from the mid-80s through the 90s were acceptable.

I’ve always thought, though, that the time frame in which Enterprise was set would be the most interesting to explore. I was, therefore, quite happy when that show was initiated. I watched the first few episodes, generally liking them. But, again, I’ve not been a regular television watcher for any of this decade, and I lost touch with the series quickly. I don’t have TiVo, so I don’t get to do the “watch when I want” thing (someday, soon, I’m changing that!). I saw only one or two of the third season stories, and found myself confused, because, of course, I was entering the story in the middle, and the third season was totally different from anything Star Trek had ever done before.

So now, thanks to Netflix, I’ve been watching Enterprise from the beginning. As I had already thought, the first two seasons were decent. Yeah, they do some weird things with the universe (I’m disappointed that they didn’t decide to stick to canon; let’s not even discuss the Romulans, please). But in general, I watched the episodes and didn’t think, “ye gods!” (well, except for the Temporal Cold War episodes, those simply were silly). And several of the episodes were actually quite engrossing.

I just finished watching the Third Season. What were they thinking!!?? :eek: :mad:

These episodes are total drek. There is only one of the 24 that was worth watching (Similitude, the one about the Trip clone). The story line is utterly absurd. It reads like really, really bad science fiction, the sort that doesn’t even make it onto bookshelves but can only be found in magazines desperate for material. The acting left much to be desired (this new, driven, almost maniacal Jonathan Archer was awful, and the need to “sex up” T’Pol was stupid, as was the need to give her emotions). The whole thing was just awful.

And then, as if they haven’t been bad enough (I mean, really, using the old chestnut of having someone run away from an explosion to end the story line??), they go one step WORSE! They end the season with the Enterprise in orbit around an Earth that is alternate, with Nazis and aliens!!! I mean, it’s like waking up from a bad dream, only to find you are actually in a nightmare!!!

Now, up to this point, I’ve avoided looking at the story lines for the seasons until after I’ve watched the shows. I wanted to watch without any prejudice. But I’ve perused the Wikipedia on the fourth season and I have absolutely NO interest in watching this train wreck to its conclusion.

Which makes me ask: what were they thinking?? Here was a show that was handed a golden opportunity! How the hell do we become what we see in the Original Series?? And they totally MUFF it. :mad:

Yeah, I’m mad. Your thoughts?

2

I think the point that they officially reached the “we’ve run out of ideas” stage was the Season 2, Episode 23 episode “Regeneration”, where Capt. Quantum and crew encounter…

The Borg! :smack:
“We are Bergmana, Continuity is Futile, originality is irrelavent, you will watch the Borg episode, you like the Borg”
Share and Enjoy!

3

With FTL tech, you can REALLY jump a shark!

4

I think Season 3 was about the same time as the invasion of Iraq (2003), right?

I think they (the writers and producers) were trying for some examination of real world issues (“revenge” for WMD attack, war vs. diplomacy, all that jazz) as well as juicing up some disappointing television ratings.

Well (ahem), I find that I don’t mind so much, now. It bothered me at the time, because that was because of what I wanted the show to do versus what I saw as an unneeded distraction.

But my view of the show overall has mellowed with time, and I now am more open to such… distractions. wiggles eyebrows

I agree with the “aliens go back in time to Earth’s past, change it, become Nazis” as a bit of a campy stretch. They wanted to have a cliff hanger between seasons, I guess.

5

I’ve been watching Season 4 on HDNet; during the original run, I stopped watching when the Nazi aliens showed up at the very end of season 3. That was the last straw.

Having seen the first few episodes of S4, the buildup to the Vulcan/Andorrian war looks interesting; it reminds me a bit of DS9 (IMHO the best Trek series) and the Dominion war. There seems to be another parallel to DS9 – there seems to be some foreshadowing that Archer & T’Pol will restore Vulcan to Surak’s original path, the same way that Worf helped restore honor to the Klingon government.

6

With FTL tech, you can pass entire planets of sharks without noticing.

7

The quality arc from ST:TNG onward was pretty obvious. DS9 was, generally, not quite as good as TNG, I thought (with some exceptions); VGR was overall not nearly as good as DS9, and ENT was generally pretty bad. Y’know, I would be hard-pressed to name ten really good ENT episodes. When they resorted to cheap T&A like having Hoshi and T’Pol smear antibacterial goo on each other, or made an episode that actually condoned torture (around the time of the Abu Ghraib controversy), I turned it off and never went back.

Perpetual optimist that I am, though, I’m actually kinda hopeful about the J.J. Abrams ST movie.

8

They were thinking, ‘We’re on UPN, what are they gonna replace us with?’

9

Although I thought S1-2 of Enterprise were pretty mediocre-to-bad, and S3 was pretty terrible, I thought that S4 showed improvement. At least they were making a deliberate attempt to conform to established canon. It was uneven, but showed enough promise that I was disappointed when it was cancelled.

I disagree with the previous poster, however – in terms of the ST franchise, DS9 was the high point (although TNG was usually quite good). Voyager was a constant disappointment.

10

Well, at least the Mirror universe episode was pretty cool.

11

I’m only on Season 2, and while there were some groaning moments, so far, I didn’t think that they were too bad. I thought TNG was the best. I watch classic eps on Star Trek 2.0 and I really, really, have to groan. There are so many episodes where I clearly thought were inspired by illicit narcotics. DS9 was really good, but moreso the war stories. VGR was mostly yawn. But, so far Enterprise is not too terrible, though I have to ask was ENT cancellation really necessary?

12

I think I’m just too easily entertained. I liked Enterprise. Voyager, I think, was my favorite of all of the series, with the original series being my least favorite.

13

The Executive producers (Rick Berman & Brannon Braga) left for some reason at the end of season 3 and replaced with someone who actually liked Star Trek (Manny Coto). Whereas B&B were happy to ignore the rest of Trek’s history to tell the stories they wanted, Manny Coto tried to do proper prequel stories that fit in with the other series. There were rumors that B&B left unwillingly and wrote the season 3 nazi cliffhanger as a trap for Coto, but that may not be true. I do know thatseason four had the best episodes of ENT, mainly Coto fixing the mistakes that B&B had made. If he’d had more series I’m sure it could have ended up as good as DS9, but unfortunatly, despite ratings going up, the show was cancelled for being to unpopular. All I can say is, if you liked seasons 1 & 2 then you MUST watch season 4. Here’s a quick summary of what happens if you’re interested.

[spoiler]1) 3-part story explaining why Kilingons had knobbly heads, then smooth heads for TOS then knobbly again for TNG onwards
2) 3-part story explaining why the Vulcans are more emotional in ENT
3) First contact with the Opal planet :smiley: :wink:
4) a 2-part Mirror Universe episode, this one is more like the TOS one than the DS( ones
5) Bit and pieces leading up to the founding of the federation
6) appearances by old TOS races such as the Gorn, Tholians, Orions (+slavegirls) etc

The only bad episode is the last one, but that may have more to do with it coming after so many good episodes and merely being average, rather than being a bad episode as such.[/spoiler]

14

I’d love to know how certain tv shows would have went were it not for their being influenced by the war in Iraq… How would Battle star Galactica have fared without this “inspiration” (the first half of season 3 isnt so much based on the war in Iraq, but copied verbatim, right down to “insurgents” and “occupation”).
And go on, humour me; how did the klingon foreheads change?

15

It’s been a while, but if I recall:

Failed attempt at importing some of the genetic improvements from a sample taking from some of the humans that were involved in the Eugenics Wars on Earth. Like Khan Signh.

I’m sure if I got that wrong, I’ll get slapped down. Please, be gentle.

16

Just to expand on mlees answer.

A group of Kahns genetic supermen are found on another planet/moon/whatever. The Klingons find out and try using some of the same techniques on themselves. It works, but it also creates some sort of virus that, whilst doing very little actual harm, but makes the knobbly foreheads disappear. At the end of the episode I think Phlox, the Enterprise doctor comes up with a cure, but it won’t have any effect on this generation, but the next will be back to normal. It still doesn’t explain everything but it’s better than “We don’t discuss it with outsiders.”

17

I liked Season 3 a lot better than Season 2, and probably better than Season 1.

Season 1 wasn’t great, but they were still finding their footing, so I was willing to cut some slack. Season 2 was almost Voyager-bad, IMO.

Season 3 really appealed to me, having an overall goal for the season and actually working towards it and paying off on it by the end of the season. There were some individual eps that were pretty bad, but not as many as the previous seasons.

Season 4, for the most part, was great. If they’d started the series with this kind of storytelling, they probably would’ve made it the full 7 seasons that the other post-TOS series got. But by the time S4 came along, it was too late to save the show, too many people had it ingrained in their heads that “Enterprise sucks” and the Friday timeslot didn’t help.

18

I admit I was totally blah about the series when it first aired, and stopped watching early on.

Recently SciFi has has Enterprise Mondays, where they play several eps in a row and when I’ve been home (and better shows, such as House) aren’t on, I tune in.

Of course, I have had no idea up til not in what order they are, but having read the above spoilers (Thanks DC!) I realize the episodes I’ve really enjoyed the most have all been from season 4.

It really was the most enjoyable, most canon and best written.

19

The Cotos verged on FanFic at times. The episode on Vulcan had to show second eyelids. It had a sehlot that did not advance the plot. Their writing was by and large an improvement, though.
The Klingon episode is silly.
The final episode really sucks. :frowning:

20

FWIW, Coto had virtually nothing to do with the final episode. That was Berman and Braga’s ‘valentine’ to the fans, as they called it. Jolene Blailock called it ‘appalling’ even before it aired.