Giving Enterprise another go.....

[NakedMoleRat]

Wow, jeyl...you hit it right on the nose! Archer was clearly a bigot, and he did not even try to hide it. He also often berated his crew. He was always dressing down Tucker and yelling at him. He almost had a `worship me` complex to a degree.

 

[Jeyl]

Wow, jeyl...you hit it right on the nose! Archer was clearly a bigot, and he did not even try to hide it. He also often berated his crew. He was always dressing down Tucker and yelling at him. He almost had a `worship me` complex to a degree.

Oh, no. The Captain with the 'worship me' complex was taken long before Archer. Even at his worst moments, he could never top the monument that is Janeway.

And if anyone thinks I just grabbed a specific screencap from a random episode that just happens to fit my claim, know that this screencap represents THE FIRST TIME YOU EVER SEE HER! If first impressions are the most important, what better way to introduce us to a towering tyrant like Janeway with her looking down on us while we see her from the perspective of a prisoner who is on his knees working hard labor? I understand that this is Star Trek's first female lead show and that the producers wanted to make her tough and authoritative so no one would doubt her abilities, but their efforts are 'Marry Sue' on so many levels that Janeway is depicted as being so awesome and so right that the whole universe seems to bow at her greatness. Example? Picard will spend most of his time fleeing from the Borg even though he's commanding the flagship of the Federation with a crew of a thousand people in friendly space. Janeway, commanding a small science vessel with fewer weapons than the Miranda class starship and a crew of 140 will happily take on a Borg WARSHIP in the Delta Quadrant.

Archer on the other hand tries to come off like a super hero, spouting dialogue like "We can't be afraid of the wind,"* and striking a Superman pose by just skidding down a ladder. And that's the issue. Berman and Braga write him like this even though the execution tells a completely different story. He seems more like an every day guy who is pretending to be a super hero and despite his efforts, he always comes off as just a guy who makes mistakes. Having that inflated super hero ego doesn't do his character any favors when dealing with his crew and, as already stated, makes him out to be a huge, self-centered jerk.

*Despite that line, Archer becomes afraid of the wind two episodes later in "Strange New Worlds" and aborts his rescue mission.
ARCHER: Until the wind dies down. Try to manage till then.

 

[NuRF]

I enjoyed it for what it was. Very few episodes outright lost me.

In a Mirror Darkly is definitely an "unmissable" two parter.

Gotta agree with this. I enjoyed the show, it was fun to watch. And this is one of my favourite episodes.

 

[Edraven99]

I think conceptually the show had a lot of promise... but I read somewhere that the Paramount execs did *a lot* of meddling over the course of the show's run; i.e. the original show runners had intended that the entire first season was going to be more or less set on Earth to develop the characters and the launch of the Enterprise was only going to happen in the season finale - whether an entire season on Earth would have worked is another story entirely of course....

The whole temporal cold war thing was added in because the execs wanted a tie to the Next Gen and future Trek era and Season 3 if I recall was pretty much a desperate attempt to try and get ratings because they were sucking so badly at that point... so what better way than to have a shoot 'em up space battles every episode :-(

 

[renaissance_man]

I enjoyed Enterprise from the start and was sorry it didn't get to continue, thankfully I have the DVDs to watch.

 

[Treadwell]

And just to show how totally delusional Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were at thinking their portrayal of the characters were instantly likable, watch some of the episodes that were not written by the pair.

Not that it negates your points, but Berman was not a writer. All he did was give notes.

 

[Jeyl]

Not that it negates your points, but Berman was not a writer. All he did was give notes.

So "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes "Brothers" and "A Matter of Time" had no writers, no script and the actors and crew had only notes to work off of?

 

[Treadwell]

I stand corrected!

(No need to be so douchishly sarcastic, BTW.)

 

[renaissance_man]

Berman also protected the shows from the networks.
If you haven't heard this it's definitely worth checking out the BluRays for Enterprise, UPN wanted to put a "band of the week" on Enterprise in the mess hall and have their current album artwork shown over the end credits for the episode. Holy Cow, how wrong were the execs about science fiction story telling.

Can you imagine that?!!!!!
Let me set the scene for you.
The Xindi weapon has just destroyed a chunk of North America, killed millions, everyone is mourning their loses and UPN thought "hmmm, do you know what this scene needs? A bit of disgusting throw away pop music.... get Miley Cyrus' people on the phone she can do a guest spot stood in the wreckage"

For all the Berman and Braga bashing, please remember these people were constantly trying to protect the series from the COMPLETELY clueless network executives.

 

[NakedMoleRat]

Berman also protected the shows from the networks.
If you haven't heard this it's definitely worth checking out the BluRays for Enterprise, UPN wanted to put a "band of the week" on Enterprise in the mess hall and have their current album artwork shown over the end credits for the episode. Holy Cow, how wrong were the execs about science fiction story telling.

Can you imagine that?!!!!!
Let me set the scene for you.
The Xindi weapon has just destroyed a chunk of North America, killed millions, everyone is mourning their loses and UPN thought "hmmm, do you know what this scene needs? A bit of disgusting throw away pop music.... get Miley Cyrus' people on the phone she can do a guest spot stood in the wreckage"

For all the Berman and Braga bashing, please remember these people were constantly trying to protect the series from the COMPLETELY clueless network executives.

That would have been awesome! An intergalactic USO tour. Have ZZ Top appearing as Vulcans!

 

[renaissance_man]

Yep, and instead of anyone doing their duties or exploring space we could have just had Season 5 serve as an Interstellar "Enterprise Has Got Talent" and the crew could compete against other worlds.

I'm very thankful we had 4 Seasons of Enterprise saved from this kind of thing!

 

[Edwardowan]

Porthos was an adorable dog.....but how many were there? In the entire 4 year run he never grew up....he was a puppy forever! :lol

In the future they achieve the genetic ability to keep puppies puppies and kittens kittens their entire lives. The guy who invented it became so wealthy he was able to fund Zefram Cochrane's off the wall idea about some kind of warp drive technology. :lol

I enjoyed enterprise for what it was but it didn't get to feel like Star Trek to me until the 4th season and the interaction with the Andorians. I liked how they started to set it up with the Andorians and there was lots of potential there... otherwise all the previous posts about Archer and how out of character he would be is how I felt... and you never really felt like you were watching the same character in each episode. The writing was poor but I have to say I was never a fan of Scott Bakula and never felt he was much of an actor anyway. They may as well had given the character to Tom Selleck (who probably would have done very well now that I think of it! :lol )

 

[NakedMoleRat]

A little googling showed me there were 3 dogs in the series run. Just finished the last episode. What an insult to make it a TNG episode! The series had so many could have been....it is a shame really. At least season one is rewatchable for me. Time to get back to The greatest American hero and Six million dollar man again.

 

[Edwardowan]

A little googling showed me there were 3 dogs in the series run. Just finished the last episode. What an insult to make it a TNG episode! The series had so many could have been....it is a shame really. At least season one is rewatchable for me. Time to get back to The greatest American hero and Six million dollar man again.

ya that was a major cop out not only with the audience but with the Enterprise actors as well. Funny thing is the writers thought they were giving the Star Trek fans a special treat (I recall a promo about how the writers had planned some kind of special secret bonus for Star Trek fans for the final episode and were really excited about it) but it backfired on them as even the most critical Enterprise haters felt the final episode was a slap in the face to the actors and storyline of this star trek iteration. bummer. I get what it was they were trying to do to give it a bit of closure and to tie it all in with the rest of the star treks but it just didn't work.