The voyages of the first ever starship Enterprise.
I enjoyed Enterprise in moments, found it frustrating in others, but what sustains the enjoyment of a show for me is having interesting characters, and this is where it is not at the same level as other Trek shows.
The plotting of the series changes direction a number of times. It starts off one way: lots of individual stories with the occasional two-parter thrown in and a revisionist approach to the Vulcan race that doesn't really work. I found the episodes in the first two seasons pretty hit and miss, with some examples of rehashing plots from previous shows.
In series three it moves to a mostly serialised plot that has massive implications to the Trek universe. It is clear the show was at this point being influenced by events happening in post-9/11America. I found it a difficult concept to really buy into given there is (understandably) no reference to the storyline depicted in any other shows. That being said it does contains some good episodes and a compelling arc.
By the forth season the writers seemed to be trying to 'put right what once went wrong' (tee hee!) with the direction of the show and focus on being a prequel to the Original Series. It focuses on key events like the founding of the federation, the relationships between Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Humans, whilst at the same time trying to clear up some of the early mess it created with it's depiction of Vulcans
The characters have a mix of good and bad moments. Archer is probably the least popular of Enterprise captains, portrayed as an overly angry jock, who at times tries to be Jack Bauer and feels miles away from the lovable, disorientated time traveller Scott Bakula played in Quantum Leap.
T'Pol is a Vulcan science officer, which is not exactly an original idea, except Jolene Blalock was likely chosen for how she would look in the make-up and skin-tight uniform. The writing and portrayal of her character is quite inconsistent with emotion and she is at times overly sexualised.
Trip Tucker is about the best character and Connor Trinneer appears to be one of the most comfortable in the role. He is kind of a mix of Bones and Scotty, as a down to earth engineer with a Southern drawl. I kind of wished he was the captain, but then again he wasn't Sam Beckett before Enterprise.
John Billingsley as Dr Phlox works well but I would have liked to have seen him involved in more storylines as with The Doctor in Voyager. However, the Denobulan race has some very interesting culture clash moments that work very well.
Dominic Keating drew a pretty short straw as Malcolm Reed. He has plenty of screen time but the writers take many opportunities to assassinate his character with annoying personality traits and in the next breath expect you to take him seriously as a tactical officer.
Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato are the characters who really lose out as the show moves on. They are constantly there but given little to do of any significance, particularly Mayweather. Anthony Montgomery and Linda Park do their best with the material they have, but as main cast members they deserved better. (See 'In A Mirror Darkly' for their best opportunity to shine)
All the above characters are fine for the purpose they serve but they don't quite have the screen presence that we see in the other shows. Jean-Luc Picard is worth the annual fee of Netflix alone on The Next Generation, Seven of Nine and The Doctor frequently light up the screen on Voyager, Sisko and the Cardassians are always compelling on Deep Space Nine and the all time great trinity of Kirk, Spock and Bones goes without saying. The Enterprise characters are comparatively less memorable.
Most of my favourite episodes involved Jeffery Coombs as Shran who excels in pretty much all his cameos such as 'The Andorian Incident' and the series four trilogy 'Babel One', 'United' and 'Aenar'. Other standout episodes for me were 'Shockwave Part 1', 'Future Tense', 'Cogenitor', 'Twilight', 'The Forgotten', 'The Council', 'The Observer Effect', 'Affliction', 'In A Mirror Darkly 1 & 2' and 'Terra Prime'. I took the most enjoyment out of episodes that dealt with the beginnings of the federation and plots that were themed around the Starfleet Prime Directive.
There are a lot of missed opportunities in the other episodes and some weak efforts like 'Shuttlepod One', 'Extinction' and 'These Are The Voyages'. One to watch for being 'so bad its good' is 'Marauders', as it has to be seen to be believed as an A-Team inspired tribute to The Magnificent Seven. For me these are no worse than anything seen on the bottom end of the scale in all other Star Trek shows.
Overall it is a decent prequel that is worth watching if you like other Star Trek shows.
I enjoyed Enterprise in moments, found it frustrating in others, but what sustains the enjoyment of a show for me is having interesting characters, and this is where it is not at the same level as other Trek shows.
The plotting of the series changes direction a number of times. It starts off one way: lots of individual stories with the occasional two-parter thrown in and a revisionist approach to the Vulcan race that doesn't really work. I found the episodes in the first two seasons pretty hit and miss, with some examples of rehashing plots from previous shows.
In series three it moves to a mostly serialised plot that has massive implications to the Trek universe. It is clear the show was at this point being influenced by events happening in post-9/11America. I found it a difficult concept to really buy into given there is (understandably) no reference to the storyline depicted in any other shows. That being said it does contains some good episodes and a compelling arc.
By the forth season the writers seemed to be trying to 'put right what once went wrong' (tee hee!) with the direction of the show and focus on being a prequel to the Original Series. It focuses on key events like the founding of the federation, the relationships between Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Humans, whilst at the same time trying to clear up some of the early mess it created with it's depiction of Vulcans
The characters have a mix of good and bad moments. Archer is probably the least popular of Enterprise captains, portrayed as an overly angry jock, who at times tries to be Jack Bauer and feels miles away from the lovable, disorientated time traveller Scott Bakula played in Quantum Leap.
T'Pol is a Vulcan science officer, which is not exactly an original idea, except Jolene Blalock was likely chosen for how she would look in the make-up and skin-tight uniform. The writing and portrayal of her character is quite inconsistent with emotion and she is at times overly sexualised.
Trip Tucker is about the best character and Connor Trinneer appears to be one of the most comfortable in the role. He is kind of a mix of Bones and Scotty, as a down to earth engineer with a Southern drawl. I kind of wished he was the captain, but then again he wasn't Sam Beckett before Enterprise.
John Billingsley as Dr Phlox works well but I would have liked to have seen him involved in more storylines as with The Doctor in Voyager. However, the Denobulan race has some very interesting culture clash moments that work very well.
Dominic Keating drew a pretty short straw as Malcolm Reed. He has plenty of screen time but the writers take many opportunities to assassinate his character with annoying personality traits and in the next breath expect you to take him seriously as a tactical officer.
Travis Mayweather and Hoshi Sato are the characters who really lose out as the show moves on. They are constantly there but given little to do of any significance, particularly Mayweather. Anthony Montgomery and Linda Park do their best with the material they have, but as main cast members they deserved better. (See 'In A Mirror Darkly' for their best opportunity to shine)
All the above characters are fine for the purpose they serve but they don't quite have the screen presence that we see in the other shows. Jean-Luc Picard is worth the annual fee of Netflix alone on The Next Generation, Seven of Nine and The Doctor frequently light up the screen on Voyager, Sisko and the Cardassians are always compelling on Deep Space Nine and the all time great trinity of Kirk, Spock and Bones goes without saying. The Enterprise characters are comparatively less memorable.
Most of my favourite episodes involved Jeffery Coombs as Shran who excels in pretty much all his cameos such as 'The Andorian Incident' and the series four trilogy 'Babel One', 'United' and 'Aenar'. Other standout episodes for me were 'Shockwave Part 1', 'Future Tense', 'Cogenitor', 'Twilight', 'The Forgotten', 'The Council', 'The Observer Effect', 'Affliction', 'In A Mirror Darkly 1 & 2' and 'Terra Prime'. I took the most enjoyment out of episodes that dealt with the beginnings of the federation and plots that were themed around the Starfleet Prime Directive.
There are a lot of missed opportunities in the other episodes and some weak efforts like 'Shuttlepod One', 'Extinction' and 'These Are The Voyages'. One to watch for being 'so bad its good' is 'Marauders', as it has to be seen to be believed as an A-Team inspired tribute to The Magnificent Seven. For me these are no worse than anything seen on the bottom end of the scale in all other Star Trek shows.
Overall it is a decent prequel that is worth watching if you like other Star Trek shows.