Enterprise

[plumtreeblossom]

Last night I watched episodes 1 and 2 of Season 1 of Star Trek: Enterprise. I did it because it's the only Star Trek series I'd never watched any of (for the record, I don't watch TV on TV, and haven't for about 30 years. Only Hulu and Roku have brought me back), and for years I've been meaning to catch up and learn the Enterprise series characters, history, etc. I like the Star Trek verse a lot. It's been with me since childhood, and in the sci-fi trifecta of major religions (Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who), Star Trek is mine, in a loose sort of way. I want to like this prequel series. But these first two episodes were hard to get into.

A definite: for further episode watchings, I need to turn the sound off during the insufferable country-western-ish opening theme song. That music threw my head right out of Star Trek verse and into the next county, and I didn't feel like I was watching a Star Trek series at all until the appearance of a Talaxian character in Ep 1.

Captain Archer and his inner posse are SO good-old-boy American. They're bubbas. I know this series was created 10 years ago, but it was supposed to be set in 2151 CE. Were the creators going for a different viewer demographic with this? They must have been.

Jean-Luc Picard, you will always be the sexiest captain in my heart.

I do like the "primative" ship. I like the utilitarian, non-gendered uniforms. I like the skittish distrust of new technologies, like the not-quite-perfected transporter. What I don't like is the Dubya-ness of the human characters. And that facking theme song.

I'm not done trying it. I hope it gets better.

Comments

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

When it came out I watched a few Star Trek: Enterprise episodes. That's all I could stand. I hated that theme song, and also hated all of the characters except, I think, two. One was the Vulcan gal, the other was one of the guys-- I don't remember which one but I know for sure it wasn't "bubba" who remember wanting to do all kinds of violence to.

It didn't get better. At least not before I gave up.

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

I have some theories about Enterprise, not many of them good. They also made the Vulcan douches.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I was going to describe the Vulcans as douches! I wonder if the writers made them that way to go along with the fierce wave of anti-intellectualism that the Bush era ushered in. Vulcans in the other series weren't utter dicks and dickettes. T'Pol reminds me more of 7 of 9 (the snotty ex-Borg) than any other Vulcan.

What are your theories?

Been in my head for a while

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

Between 2001 and 2009, it felt like the Dark Ages of Star Trek. "Voyager" limped to its conclusion. "Enterprise" was disappointing. "Star Trek: Insurrection", and "Star Trek: Nemesis" ended TNG movies. There was no chance of a DS9 movie because that story actually had a sense of finality. Nemesis almost killed the movie franchise if it wasn't for the 2009 "Star Trek" reboot.

I believed that 9/11 affected Star Trek fandom. There are two primary reasons. The first reason was that, as a general reaction to the tragic events, the U.S. went more inward. We were more paranoid, more suspicious, more introverted. We no longer have the optimism and drive that made the 60's Space Race so cool. (This was what helped made TOS so poignant.) So, when "Enterprise" premiered, few people were really looking forward to seeing a show about exploring strange new worlds and have that wide-eyed sense of adventure associated with Kirk. So, in addition to cliched writing due to Berman/Braga running out of creative ideas years ago, an unnecessary theme song, questionable acting, twisting the Star Trek universe that old-school fans held dear, "Enterprise" was also a victim of poor timing. There's also the theory that "Voyager" and "Enterprise" were release in the wrong order. "Voyager" was made for the 2000s whereas "Enterprise" was made for the 90s.

The second reason that 9/11 affected fandom: TOS, TNG, and DS9 took great lengths to portray that the 21st century flat-out sucked. Here are some of the events that will happen between now and 2100:
*The extinction of humpback whales
*The extinction of the rhinoceros
*Sanctuary districts
*Bell Riots
*The end of baseball
*A little event called World War III with the so-called "Post-Atomic Horror"
While we are no where near this state, we can safely say that the 21st didn't start on a high note. So, we as Star Trek fans were going into a future that was less than rosy with stories that were subpar in quality. For a moment, there was uncertainty as to whether the themes of TOS would hold up in this day and age.
Or, it could just be a coincidence.

BTW, I recommend watching sfdebris commentaries on Youtube.

Re: Been in my head for a while

[strangeanimal.livejournal.com]

IAWTC. Also, I recommend watching the movie "Star Trek: First Contact" to get a good handle on what the pre-Star Fleet situation was. By the time Star Trek (the original series) came about, Earth was pretty much sorted, so the atmosphere on Kirk's ship was pretty much everyone getting along.

But First Contact and Enterprise took place in the "chaotic" early days, where they were figuring things out as they went along. The Star Fleet era, where everyone banded together in the name of Boldly Going, etc etc, hadn't happened yet, you still had the usual tribal mistrusts, so Capt. Archer et al were just acting like the average Earthling was.

And I wouldn't call Vulcans douches, they're more of a planet with a very well-developed sense of superiority. Literally, if your planet didn't have a ship with warp drive, they didn't contact you... they only contacted "well developed" planets, which is definitely snobby.

(/Trek geek)

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

We watched about half of the first season and couldn't keep going. Then I heard good things were happening and we tuned back in around the end of the third season and watched Season 4, which was better, but not what I'd call great.

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

"In a Mirror Darkly", while a wonderful episode, felt too little, too late.

[necturus.livejournal.com]

What I don't like is the Dubya-ness of the human characters. And that facking theme song.

The Captain Archer character reminded me a lot of Dubya.

I watched Enterprise for a while, but drifted away from broadcast TV in general. In the end it wasn't interesting enough to keep my attention.

Have you seen any of the fan-produced ST series -- in particular, startreknewvoyages.com? It's not half bad.

[vanguardcdk.livejournal.com]

I watched the entire series as it aired (except when pre-empted by baseball..gah..)

First season was pretty bad. Second season got a little better. Third season was okay, it had a season-long story arc which worked. Third season was also more military in tone, which you may or may not care for.
Fourth season was the best of the lot. They were trying to fix things but it came, as Iago said, too little too late.

They really botched the Vulcans. You'll see as you watch them, it's like they didn't care about the canon.

However, I really liked what they did with the Andorians (blue guys with antenna from the original series). Especially by fourth season the Andorians had some interesting interactions with the Enterprise crew.

[saturn939.livejournal.com]

We're making our way through Enterprise at the moment, too.

-Dee