My harsh but very honest review of Star Trek: Enterprise
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Star Trek: Enterprise
braidenrobert — 9 years ago(January 14, 2017 09:51 PM)
Ive just finished watching all four seasons of Enterprise and Star Trek: Enterprise. It would be too easy to say that the show was badly thought out - I would prefer to say that it was lazily thought out.
It was the same basic characters with the same basic stories seen for years in Trek - so much so in fact that virtually every episode was a copy or a derivative of previous Trek episodes.
The primary problem with ST:E is that it never found its own voice. What should have been an exciting adventure, exploring the events leading up to the creation of the United Federation of Planets, was just a rehash of what had come before, repackaged in a slightly new setting that never ever tried to be daring or original or even remotely interesting.
Its not that the show didnt try to be interesting, its just that by then Trek had become so shallow, so introspective that actual new ideas were an anathema to its existence. As a consequence the show chased its tail for four years, never knowing what to do or where to go, so they just yelled and had phaser fights and things blew up. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The main characters for the most part were uninspiring, and the actors, despite all efforts, never rose to the challenge. Perhaps the weakest link of all in the ensemble was Scott Bakula himself - Captain Jonathan Archer. Sure he looked like a leader and had a strong voice, but that was about it. For four years all he did was look pissed off and overact.
But Connor Trinneer aka Chief Engineer Trip Tucker, for whatever reason, seemed to get most of the attention. For a time in the second and third season he seemed to be the star. Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park and Dominic Keating barely saw the light of day for much of the shows run while Jolene Blalock as the Vulcan second in command was the deliberate eye candy for the fan-boys and despite being a solid performer her portrayal of the Vulcan eventually became dull and tiresome.
The greatest acting asset on the show, and yet perhaps the second most underused was Linda Park as Communications Officer Hoshi Sato. Park was a real powerhouse of nuance and complexity but she was relegated to the same lines episode after episode. Its a disappointing testament to the Producers and Writers that they couldnt see this amazing talent that was right there in front of them.
The show fumbled its way through two predictable seasons before trying to introduce a feasible threat by having the third season-wide story arc be a plot to destroy the Earth. Yeah, big deal. Of course we know the Earth isnt going to be destroyed - the history of the future has already been mapped out in all of the other Trek series. So whats the point?
By the forth season the damage was irreversible and the show limped on to its god-awful conclusion where we see Commander Riker and Deanna Troi of Star Trek: The Next Generation watching the events of the ST:Es crew (via Holodeck) on their final mission which leads to the creation of the Federation. Billed as a love letter to the fans it was actually a Dear John letter and couldnt have been a more hopeless, clumsy and just plain stupid way to conclude a legacy.
If you want to watch good Trek - and I mean GOOD Trek, then watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. ST:DS9 is fine wine, smooth jazz and intelligent mature writing all rolled into one. By comparison, ST:E is a kids show pretending that gun battles and explosions and hokey predictable stories will get and hold an audience. Wrong, very wrong indeed. -
m_andolfatto — 9 years ago(January 21, 2017 06:24 PM)
Enterprise was inconsistent for sure, but in my opinion, contains some of the very best Star Trek Episodes ever. The handling of the Xindi story arch was very good and the handling of the complexities of Vulcan - Human relations were well done as well.
Not saying it was the best ST series, but still worth watching and there is enough to appreciate -
jbaker1-2 — 5 years ago(July 02, 2020 01:33 AM)
That's nice, but when it comes to what movies/TV shows I watch, what books I read and/or what music I listen to, the only opinion that matters is mine.
There are 8.2 billion people in the world. 8.19 billion of them have never heard of and don't give a fuck about Charlie Kirk. Get over it.