I loved Enterprise. Dr Phlox is easily the best Starfleet doctor yet represented. But Jonathan Archer is an idiot.
Every S1 episode is this: new species met, half the crew gives advice on how to deal with them. Jonathan Archer decides to do the exact opposite and the rest of the episode is trying to repair that damage.
Don’t get me wrong, I find it funny, realistic, and relatable. But Archer isn’t a great captain.
I have a hard time deciding the best captain.
But yeah, Archer is the worst captain. Great portrayal by Scott Bakula - of the worst captain.
I love his character, I really do. When I say he’s a terrible captain, is because he consistently makes choices completely in line with his character that are awful. In universe it even makes sense. Starfleet didn’t expect much from this mission, it was politically motivated and his placement as captain was too. Vulcan high command is throwing humans a bone, the humans are throwing one of their own by placing the son of the guy who designed the ship at it’s helm. It goes exactly how you’d expect it to go, and then suddenly transdimensional aliens from the future blow up Florida and Archer is the only guy with a ship fast enough to do something about it. Thank God Trip and T’Pol were there or the humans would have been fucked
Thank God Trip and T’Pol were there or the humans would have been fucked
“Thank God Tripp (I think it has two 'p’s) and T’Pol were fucking.”
FTFY
I feel like some of that was on purpose. Like, the whole point of the show was our bumbling first steps into space, there’s gotta be mistakes. And it gives some latitude to explore plots that aren’t all “Flawless Space Hero Saves the Day”
I’ve seen the entire show and I still passionately hate the theme song.
I loved the original, ultra cheesy version of the the song. And yet, I absolutely loathe the second arrangement that tried to make it less cheesy.
So, basically it’s a case of Schroedingers Faith of the heart for me - I love it and I hate it.
It was all upbeat while the show took a dark turn in the expanse. It was the worst of moves in the worst of times.
I’m with you on that exactly. Never skipped for the first two seasons, always skipped for the last two. It’s cheesy of course, but it seems to capture the early 2000s optimism of space exploration and technology in general, showing the ISS and the shuttles.
Oh same. That weird jazzy abomination was just awful.
My father was an avid enterprise fan and that song was his alarm for years, he woke up at 7 and subsequently woke me, I have severe PTSD when I hear it
I thought the series kind of sucked, but I actually liked the song. I’ll show myself out…
The exact same thing happened to me. Enterprise got me hooked immediately. I loved Tucker and Phlox.
The theme song? Meh.
A few episodes in, I loved how well the track and the visual intro went along.
I didn’t like the added drums starting with S3, though.
A man of taste
Not a man, but thanks anyway ^^
Confirmed. Definitely not spez.
Still unconfirmed. Spez is neither man nor beast.
That’s just how the popular phrase is worded. Wasn’t trying to assume, oop.
Whilst I like the content, I couldn’t disagree harder
That’s fair. I started out fucking loathing it, and honestly I still hate it a little, but I also can’t help belting it out whenever it plays. The original version, not whatever garbage they used in the later seasons.
I love it. I hate the theme song. I love the show. There, I said it.
Now discovery. Oh boy. I reckon I’ll try again.
I just made another comment talking about Discovery and why I’d recommend giving it a shot. Especially if the inconsistencies in visuals or perceived inconsistencies in canon/lore are a problem.
Agreed. I think Enterprise is an excellent show. Wrt the theme: it captures the optimistic spirit of trek. Perseverance, discovery, opportunity, and belief in the human spirit. Granted, it’s definitely the ‘right-most dragon’ of Star Trek themes, but I’ll always have a soft spot for it.
This and Discovery are Star Treks I have not seen all of. I just can’t with that song. Either version. Discovery is a me problem, I saw new Klingons again and didn’t even wait for an explanation. I did not want to wonder or sit through the explanation. I have been thinking of getting back around on trying Discovery again.
Well, I can help answer questions on the Discovery front. I love all of Trek but Discovery is tied with TNG for my personal favorites.
A lot of people get put off by Discovery because it’s a very different beast when it comes to Star Trek. First thing that irked people was a visual reboot. The show stays within canon/lore, despite complaints otherwise, but there are visual inconsistencies the same way there are with Strange New Worlds. However the Klingons got a pretty severe redesign, one that put me off too. I didn’t bother watching Discovery until Season 2 came out and I had seen trailers of Pike. There is no real explanation for as to why the Klingons looked so different from what we know. You can argue that it’s the same sort of genetic impact that made the klingons look like just dudes with eyebrows in TOS but it’s a bit of a stretch. The second season remedies this a bit. They start to get closer to what we know for Klingons and by Strange New Worlds they’re a really faithful adaptation. Also, while the Klingons play a pretty major role in the first season, it’s not as much as you’d think. By Season 2 it’s even less.
I would recommend trying Discovery. The first season is rough but up until really recently (SNW and I’d argue Lower Decks) no Star Trek show has had a solid first season. They’re always rocky and trying to find it’s footing. By Season 2 they’re off running. The entire vibe and pacing feels different, a whole new fresh breath of life into the show. Each Season it finds its footing better. However the other thing to keep in mind is that it is very serialized. This isn’t like TNG or VOY where you can watch a random episode and still get, generally, the same consistency. It’s a story that’s meant to be told with each episode being a part of that story. The stakes are also stupendously high in comparison to most of Trek. Like galactic level threats. That can also put a lot of people off and get very tedious/exhausting. I understand it but that’s also just what the show is. The USS Discovery was bred for high stakes and she doesn’t respond for anything less. As the only surviving example of her Class, she tends to take that seriously. Literally She, you’ll know what I mean if you do watch it. Her crew feels the same. The Next Generation was boldy exploring but Discovery is courageously defending. Same Star Trek, different mission statement.
Sorry. I’m a fan of the show. It gets a bad rap sometimes because I think people just have their expectations set for something different. If you go in expecting high stakes Star Trek, with a dash of wonderful goofiness, then you’ll probably have a better experience.
tl;dr it good. plz try?
Thanks! I have caught some (3 in our house, one watches Discovery one watches Enterprise, I have seen some of each with them) but Discovery I had no idea what was happening, as you mentioned it’s meant to watch as a whole. Some of that second season did have me stuck looking even though I was lost, lol. I’m wrapping up a couple other series I’ve been watching so I may go ahead and try it again when those are done. Since you did give it such a glowing review (and I have admittedly been curious about that spore drive too)!
Well if you’ve ever got questions, feel free to ask! If I can’t answer then someone else can. There’s a reason I chose the name Stamets. The spore drive also happens to be cool as fuck. Sure it’s new and strange but oh my god does it look so fucking cool when the ship jumps. Also all the jokes about skipping along mushroom space are fantastic.
Yeah. I found the Discovery Klingons tiresome to have constantly on screen.
The new “old Klingons” are pretty cool though. I adore the revelation that Klingon technology has been degrading from it’s former glory for centuries. It explains a lot about how such a violent feudal society has 24th century technology. It’s implied that the Klingons are on their way toward a new dark ages after having previously achieved 26th century level technology.
Discovery would have worked way better if it had been set after voyager.
I don’t really see how it makes a huge difference either way to be honest. The show also gives multiple answers as to why the Spore Drive isn’t used beyond this one ship.
Plus, we got to explore an era we’ve never seen on screen (outside of The Cage) and we got to see Pike for the first time in 50 years which spawned Strange New Worlds. Pretty good trade off, all things considered.
I mean all of that could have been covered with strange new worlds being its own thing. The timeline just made the technology they had really wierd and the klingon look could have been easily explained after voyager as them getting closer to their true look and the worf look being a halfway point. Also getting away from secret spock relatives would have been great.
I mean all of that could have been covered with strange new worlds being its own thing.
Which only happened because of fans pushing for it after Discovery Season 2.
The timeline just made the technology they had really wierd
The only technology that doesn’t fit is the Spore Drive which was explained. Holograms being around kinda fit with holographic tech being shown in Enterprise. Plus Voyager said that holograms were used around the same time.
klingon look could have been easily explained after voyager as them getting closer to their true look and the worf look being a halfway point.
The look still sucked though. The issue wasn’t that the Klingons had an updated look, that was explained away as a visual reboot. The issue was the look was just outright bad. It looked nothing like the Klingons. Even if the show were set after Voyager, people would have still had a problem with the design.
Also getting away from secret spock relatives would have been great.
That’s personal preference. I liked seeing it. Also it’s not like that’s unprecedented. He didn’t tell Kirk about his wife, didn’t tell him that Ambassador Sarek was his father, and didn’t tell him about his secret brother Sybock.
Like I said, I don’t see how it makes a huge difference either way. I get personal preference but it’s not served any better by being set after Voyager than it was before. If it was set after Voyager we wouldn’t have gotten Strange New Worlds, wouldn’t have gotten the amazing display of Pike in Season 2.
Yeah, the strange new worlds spinoff of Discovery easily makes the show worth it to me.
Which makes me wonder how far they will go with the new casts of TOS characters. Kind of exciting
It started out as a fun romp where the federation was the underdog, them quickly spiraled into temporal war nonsense. Should have been more episodic.
Yeah. And the Temporal wars storyline was unsatisfying at best, and nonsense at worst.
Enterprise was at it’s best when doing “this is why we have the Prime Directive” episodes.
That “this is why we have the Prime Directive” episode with evolutionary predestination and evolution as a god figure was pretty awful, though.
Star Trek: Enterprise viewership is like most romantic relationships.
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Start out playing hard to get, and acting like you aren’t interested.
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After a little while you get your interest piqued, and keep going just to see what happens.
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Things start to get interesting for a while.
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Things turn boring for a while.
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Repeat cycle over and over until…
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All of a sudden it has been 5 years, and you realize you were right in the beginning. You weren’t that interested, and you could have spent all that time doing something more productive.
Narrator : “They wouldn’t have done anything more productive.”
😅😂😭
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Just listened to that. Jeez, how is the song in any way invoking star trek?
I have always felt the actual ST:E theme is the ending credits.
Some producer got involved and decided they needed to “distance” Enterprise from the rest of the Star Trek franchise, and they also wanted to give it a bit more modern vibe so that it felt like it was between now and when TOS takes place.
So they took a Rod Stewart song from Patch Adams, changed some lyrics, and slapped it over what is arguably one of the best Trek opening credit sequences…
I do love watching shuttle launches, but I’m not sure I’d call a bunch of public domain NASA footage the best opening sequence ever.
Oh it doesn’t. It’s the black sheep of Star Trek themes. I just love it for itself now. A star trek song I can sing along with? Sure!
Personally, it did help put me off enterprise
I just read a thing about this: The song was originally written for the movie “Patch Adams,” but never used. The producers wanted a pop song for the intro to make the show’s setting feel more contemporary. They originally wanted to use U2’s Beautiful Day (not a great choice either imo) but they couldn’t afford it.
Much more relevant is this masterpiece: Enterprise intro - Perfect Strangers mashup
I really don’t understand everyone’s problem with the Enterprise opening song. It’s not that bad and I thought the lyrics went pretty well with a Star Trek prequel series.
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Yeah it feels like it should be the opener for an old family sitcom like Full House.
I don’t think anybody was affected more by that abomination of a song than Jolene Blalock. She and her little outfits worked so hard to boost that show, and the producers threw obstacles like that song in her way. It’s no wonder that she freaked out, quit acting, and married Ticketmaster.
Wait what?
I’m not sure either. Jolene Blalock was the actress who played T’Pol. She was forced into those ridiculous outfits and into those frankly uncomfortable (at least for me) decontamination showers.
That being said, I didn’t hear of her ‘freaking out’. She married the CEO of LiveNation (Basically ticketmaster, so that checks out) in 2003. She also retired from acting in 2017 after a decidedly meh movie.
She was posing like a model in a runway in 2/3s of the shots. I’m not sure she minded it that much. They finally got her, Linda, Connor and Scott to stop the
softcore pornshowers at some point. I mean, you either stop it or commit to it and go full nude.
Yeah she even let the captain put the lotion on the skin for a solid 4 minutes.
Archer is my man!
IT’SBINA LAAAOOWW WAAAWW
Infuriating. I need this song to have shins for me to kick it in :P
You could find Rod Stewart and kick his shins
#Skip. Intro.
I fuckin love that song and all the visuals of Big E over the years make it even better. DS9 has the best music but ENT is my top intro all around
It took me exactly 2 episodes to start screaming along with the intro.
It’s like Nickelback
LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!
