I was randomly channel surfing one day and the very first scene I saw of enterprise was one of the decontamination scenes. I immediately concluded the writers weren’t really targeting thoughtful sci-fi viewers, and the total amount of Enterprise I’ve ever watched was about 12 seconds because of it.
If people had ended up thinking it was a great take on the trek universe and a great show, I’d have given it another try, but it doesn’t sound like it’s particularly worthwhile.
Joking aside, based on the first three episodes I wouldn’t say that this is “Skinemax lite” at all. Maybe that will change, but I think that believing that the “fanservice” elements I pointed out in my original post and good story are mutually exclusive is close-minded. For all I know Enterprise will wind up in the crapper before too long, but it’s not coming across to me as fanfiction in space just yet. At least, no more so than the rest of what I’ve seen of Star Trek so far. I mean, this isn’t any different than this.
I’m gonna have to sit down and rewatch the series too some day.
Wait until the episode where Archer creates an interplanetary incident when he allows his beagle to relieve himself on a tree. 
Agreed, Phlox is one of the most interesting alien characters in Star Trek.
I didn’t mind the Borg episode. I felt it fit in the continuity from the film First Contact.
The first two seasons are kind of hit-and-miss. The third season is a long arc dealing with an alien attack on Earth and Starfleet’s response to it, paralleling the U.S. response to 9/11.
The fourth season feels more like Star Trek. The story editors were Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who wrote a score of the novels in the Star Trek franchise.
If you make it all the way through, the final episode is generally considered to be dreck. It was controversial and most felt it didn’t serve the series at all. Even the cast members felt embarrassed to take part in the finale.
I did a rewatch of some parts of Enterprise some time ago (turns out that was five years…), but since I didn’t want to go through all of it, I asked for a best-off episode-wise; so if you’re looking for some recommendations, you could have a look at this thread. I particularly remember this page with episode reviews being quite spot on.
I don’t doubt I’ll make it to the finale. I’m just wondering if it’ll be worth watching. 
I did a brief bit of Googling. I didn’t want to spoil myself too much but I did find T’Pol’s actress referring to it as “appalling.” Yikes! Chakotay’s actor wasn’t too pleased with Mr Braga, either.
Well, to be fair, Star Trek has always had “hot alien babes”. They weren’t always in catsuits:
I’m not a prude, but I think the difference is, in Enterprise (and Voyager) they put a crewmember in the catsuit in what I felt was “fan service” rather than plot driven. Uhura and Janice Rand weren’t dressed differently than the regular crew. Deanna Troi, well, I thought the “babe counselor” was too much and was happier when she started wearing a uniform.
But it was all overshadowed by decontamination! All they needed was porn music on the soundtrack to make the effect complete. If it was plot driven, it could happen off camera, and the crew could just complain about it. But showing it, with the crew out of their uniforms, with all its lovely closeups, and slooow rubbing, and dim light…did it just get warm in here?
As I have stated before, everyone know that
Admiral Charles Tucker III died January 31, 2222, in a bar fight in New Orleans. There are, however, legitimate doubts as to the name of the young lady being fought over.
I get what you’re saying about the decontamination chambers. If they’d ever have a scene like that in one of the other shows it would have been a series of completely flat, uninteresting shots, as if it was a documentary or something, but in Enterprise they zoom in all over T’Pol and Tucker’s chest and ass and it gives it a kind of weird PG-13 porno feel.
But it was a scene that lasted a few moments and in my view-through it hasn’t shown up since the pilot episode so it can be ignored (despite my half-joking mentions of it - and rest assured I’ll continue to half-jokingly point out and celebrate whenever I get more of it).
But come on. Remember this? I say that’s a far more embarrassing attempt at fanservice than any amount of decontamination could provide.
This part right here I find to be nothing less than genius on the part of the writers. After all, this is their first time out there, they should by no means have the savvy that Capt Picard or Capt Kirk would have.
The one part I don’t get is what’s up with all the 1950’s nostalgia? Heck, they even act like they’re stuck in the 50’s. Especially Trip, with his Small Town Country Boy persona: “Awe shucks! I think a girl likes me. Should I hold hands with her on the first date? Golly Gee!” Okay, that last bit was hyperbole, but you get the point.
Re: “Fanservice”
Just for the record, fanservice is a classic staple of old sci-fi books.
This is a common thing with the Star Trek I know. TNG and Voyager were stuffed with people who just so happened to be obsessed with 20th century America/Europe. I get that they’d be hesitant to have them visit, say, 21st century China on the holodeck, or 23rd century Betazed, or whatever, because the writers know nothing about what 21st century China or 23rd century Betazed would be like and obviously their audience is going to be familiar with their own era and culture, but hell, just make shit up. Show a little courage, writers. I’d like to see holodeck battles that take place in the era Q references with his weird human soldiers when he’s putting Picard and his crew on trial, stuff like that. It’s not like they have to worry about getting it wrong.
Enterprise was just too uneven to be successful. It was “Trek” enough for the fans; it wasn’t unique enough to attract new viewers. It stumbled along until the finale which is the worst episode in the entire series,IMO.
OP, there are great episodes (Carbon Creek, Christopher Street,several more from Season Three’s story arc being among them) and there are real stinkers (A Night in Sickbay was written by someone who has no idea of story plotting or pacing). It’s just a mixed bag.
Frankly,Enterprise didn’t break much new ground and that’s why it wasn’t successful. I own the series on DVD and while I break it out occasionally and watch a few, I can’t bring myself to watch the entire series.
Enterprise is interesting. Each season is almost its own show:
Season One is slower paced, more character driven and the references to Trek are often subtle and barely noticed.
Season Two is the same characters but more action oriented and slightly dumber. Basically Network notes galore.
Season Three is a script for some other Sci Fi show ported over to Trek. It is not bad but did not feel like Star Trek to me.
Season Four is the full one Star Trek Prequel most fans wanted.
I think Season 4 they knew they were being cancelled so started throwing in all the prequel references they had planned on using for the next few seasons.
The Mirror Universe episodes have a better title sequence as well. DON’T skip it!
Yeah, it is cool.
Unexpected (ep 4) was a very funny and sweet episode. I enjoyed Tucker tripping balls on the alien ship’s atmosphere and freaking out over the elevator because of his pregnancy hormones. Poor Tucker’s been getting it pretty hard this season.
I immediately knew I’d seen Ah’len before and went to look her actress up. It’s Julianne Christie, the same woman who played Dexa in the last season of Voyager, in a few episodes I watched last night, as it happens. She always manages to look statuesque and exotically beautiful even costumed as a weird-ass alien. The budding romance between Tucker and Ah’len was handled and written ten times better than most of the romances I remember from TNG and Voyager. Those programs had their share of well-written plots and dialogues, but, well, their romances always came across as being written by nerds who had no idea what they were doing (which may or may not have been the case ;)). I’m pretty sure the people behind Enterprise are the same ones behind Voyager but it was still a noticeable improvement.
Some hilarious moments:
T’Pol, while Captain Archer holds back laughter in the background: “Three days. You were only there for three days and you couldn’t restrain yourself. … This engineer wanted you to see her planet? Perhaps the next step would have been to meet her holographic parents. If I’m not mistaken, on some planets that is a precursor to marriage.”
Tucker: “We took a ride in a rowboat! … I’ve been in Starfleet for twelve years, do you think I’d jeopardize my career by messing around with some alien engineer on a three day mission? I considered myself a diplomat from the minute I set foot in that vessel! Well… There was that box of pebbles…”
T’Pol: “One of the first things a diplomat learns is not to stick his fingers where they don’t belong.”
Tucker: “I never had any intention of becoming a working mother!”
Doc Phlox, right as a crewman walks in: “You may soon be putting those nipples to work.”
Klingon in the holodeck: “I can see my house from here!”
Very good episode.
“For people without emotion, you sure have a flair for the dramatic.”
Well, the covers of the books, anyway.
