Enterprise is what Deep Space 9 was.

[Aslan ch'Shran]

So once there was this little gem called Deep Space 9. Star Trek fans hated it - it was set on a space station, for pete's sake and we all know that Star Trek is set on a starship. Well, Deep Space 9 began to flex is storytelling prowess and gave us inklings of a war that exploded on our TV screens and became known as the Dominion War. But even through this all, a lot of Star Trek fans didn't give Deep Space 9 the credit it deserved.

It was only AFTER DS9 finished in 1999 and went into syndication that a lot of Star Trek fans began to catch it on TV, and find themselves not changing the channel. They found themselves surprised that they actually liked this Star Trek - and many others not just like, but love.

Fast forward two years later and in 2001 Star Trek: Enterprise premiered. Once again Enterprise faced a huge hurdle - the very Star Trek fans that were to support it were in fact doing the polar opposite and this time for even more 'serious' reasons. Star Trek: Enterprise dared to mess with Roddenberry canon by being a prequel to the Original Series!

The show was actually quite good, and in my opinion the best Star Trek show if one can forgive the occasional bad apple. Yes, Enterprise had some bad episodes amidst all the gems, but what Star Trek show didn't? But the matter of canon came up too frequently and hardcore Star Trek viewership dwindled when it was needed the most.

One can easily say that Enterprise Seasons 1 and 2 were the appetizer of things to come, much like the early seasons of all the Trek shows. But by the end of Season 2 Trek fans were already abandoning ship even as Season 2 ended with a fantastic and powerful cliffhanger, sending our intrepid crew into the Expanse in search of an alien race called the Xindi who had attacked our homeworld with a weapon of mass destruction.

Season 3 can be said by some (such as myself!) as being one of the best seasons of Star Trek ever. An entire season dedicated to one plot leaving the viewer on the edge of his seat in anticipation of what's to come.

Season 4 continued the push toward what would have become the Earth/Romulan war in season 5 if Enterprise had not been canceled. But the Trek army, made up of Roddenberry Canonites had already made up their minds and the show was doomed. It was canceled in 2005 even as it was gaining warp speed.

Once again the previous Deep Space 9 phenomena was felt... once the show was canceled and went into syndication, people started to watch it. To their surprise, that actually sat down and gobbled up entire episodes, shocked that Enterprise was actually good!

The worst culprit was season 4, a season that many Star Trek fans have already proclaimed as awesome now that the show is gone, a sign of things to come - things that unfortunately did not and can only be told to us now in book format (it begins with The Good That Men Do - you can buy it here http://www.amazon.com/Good-That-Men-Star-Trek/dp/0743440013/ref=pd_sim_b_3 or even get it in e-reader format).

So yes, we have now twice experienced this, what I call for a lack of a better term the DS9 effect.

I'm sorry, Star Trek: Enterprise. You were on your way to becoming the best of the Star Trek TV shows, had the fans let you.

 

[JiNX-01]

I knew when it left the air that Enterprise would grow in popularity in syndication. But I wouldn't call it the DS9 effect. I'd say DS9 (of which I was a fan) and ENT both benefitted from the TOS effect.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

Not a bad comparison. DS9 and ENT are the only Trek series I rewatch on any kind of regular basis.

 

[Kang]

same here, voyager too back in the day,

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Interesting comparison. I, for one, loved them both while they were on the air, and I still find them very watchable. Especially Enterprise in HD. I liked that both shows went at Trek from a different direction -- DS9 with the space station, the great supporting players and the complex storylines that lasted for years, and Enterprise with the prequel setting and the concept of idealistic explorers getting knocked around and disillusioned, but hanging onto their optimism for the future.

I do think that UPN deserves a boot to the head as much or more than any other factor in Enterprise's premature cancellation. That pissant little network wannabe didn't have enough affiliates to cover all markets, pre-empted the show mercilessly in favor of sporting events, and didn't do enough to properly promote it. I don't think any of the other Trek shows ever had to worry about being canned in the middle of their 7-year-runs.

I am glad that Enterprise has picked up a lot of new fans in syndication. I think it will age well.

 

[RegFan]

Enterprise is also the only Trek series that eventually became serialized besides DS9. And it was a good thing. S4, while it didn't have a single long story arc, mostly consisted of two and three part episodes.

 

[flemm]

What I can't agree with here is the scapegoating of "the fans" as a reason for ENT's cancelation. Even to the extent that we can identify a uniform group of hostile Trekkers that opposed the innovations of DS9 and ENT (already a dubious proposition), we must recognize that some fans oppose any new Trek product: in TNG's early years many long-time Trekkers were very vocal in their opposition to the casting of a new crew, just as many fans vocally despise the new movie.

TNG and Trek '09 succeeded because they found their audience in the mainstream, thereby rendering the vocal opposition of a small number of hardcore fans entirely moot. Despite early struggles and little promotion, DS9's ratings remained more than respectable for 7 seasons.

I agree that ENT's weak seasons 1 and 2 are quite similar to the struggles TNG and DS9 endured during the first couple of seasons of their respective runs. What I tend to disagree about is the reason you give for ENT's premature cancelation. It's not that "the fans" abandoned it, it's that the entire TV landscape had changed since the TNG/DS9 years to the point that ENT no longer had the luxury of spending two seasons to "find itself" and gather momentum.

 

[RookieBatman]

I agree with the OP that ENT S3 was one of the best overall seasons of any Star Trek series, but I don't think that's enough to claim it's "the best Star Trek show." You can say it's your favorite, sure, but if you're gonna say it's the best, you can't just ignore the first two lackluster seasons.

TOS is (and probably always will be) my favorite, and ENT gives it no challenge there. But I still was quite entertained by it, and it did have some strong characters. I thought the last two seasons were definitely getting better, and I agree it's a shame it was canceled. I would've really enjoyed seeing where they went with it in season 5.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

You can't really blame people for not liking Enterprise. Personal taste is personal taste.

 

[JiNX-01]

You can't really blame people for not liking Enterprise. Personal taste is personal taste.

You're right. But I've seen quite a few fans who abandoned Enterprise during first run only to return when it was syndicated to SciFi and then they'd post in the forum that it "wasn't as bad as they remembered."

If fans had given Enterprise the same chance TNG got (despite some of the worst episodes in all of Trek during the first two seasons), Enterprise might have gotten its seven years (despite the political issues at CBS/Paramount, because ratings = money and money talks).

 

[Aslan ch'Shran]

You can't really blame people for not liking Enterprise. Personal taste is personal taste.

You're right. But I've seen quite a few fans who abandoned Enterprise during first run only to return when it was syndicated to SciFi and then they'd post in the forum that it "wasn't as bad as they remembered."

Exactly.

 

[DarKush]

I agree with Flemm to a great extent. I think ENT unfortunately came during the age of drama and it seemed a bit stodgy and old hat beside new BSG, 24, Alias, and a lot of the other dramas and genre stuff that came out at the same time. The other shows were more compelling or attention grabbing, for a variety of reasons, and ENT struggled to find its voice in a very unforgiving time.

I found Seasons 1 and 2 pretty boring. There were a couple of episodes here or there, but the characters were undeveloped and the plots were uninteresting to me. The Season 2 finale was great and got into Seasons 3 and 4. But even with S4 it became more plot than character driven, and I think the era the show was in, it is all about characters, like House for example. Someone that lives an impression. ENT came across as old, tired, and not really pushing the boundaries enough to make Trek seem new and exciting. Over time I think the show got better, but still not as good as DS9.

DS9 perhaps didn't have stellar ratings, and its first two seasons were a bit slow, though the show gelled faster than TNG IMO. However, DS9 came out when there was less Trek fatigue and fewer genre competitors. It also added carved out a niche for itself with the Dominion War, doing something no Trek show had done before. Even when ENT did its season long Xindi arc, some were comparing it to DS9, and some didn't want to cover the Romulan War because they felt it would be too similar (I'm not one of those people; I wish they had covered it). DS9 did have better written characters and stories. Plus the writing staff seemed to be better at world building. ENT had a very rich milieu to dabble in, but squandered a good deal of time with planet-of-the-week episodes early on. I don't think B & B got that TV had become more arc-based by ENT's premiere. DS9 and B5 were ahead of their times in storytelling.

Referencing more TOS aliens, like the Tellarites, Andorians, and Orions, etc. earlier on might've mollified some of the TOS or other Trek fans. The show could've given us a real chance to explore Pre-Federation Earth, the nearby planets, etc. Also, they could've spent time setting up the Romulan War instead of focusing on the Temporal Cold War, a storyline they seemed to be making up as they went along.

 

[Aslan ch'Shran]

Referencing more TOS aliens, like the Tellarites, Andorians, and Orions, etc. earlier on might've mollified some of the TOS or other Trek fans. The show could've given us a real chance to explore Pre-Federation Earth, the nearby planets, etc. Also, they could've spent time setting up the Romulan War instead of focusing on the Temporal Cold War, a storyline they seemed to be making up as they went along.

True, but people who hate the Temporal Cold War complain about how much time they wasted with that angle, but if you actually go through and watch Enterprise, not that many episodes deal with it - it just comes up at key points.

I think season 1 had it in the 2 part pilot, one episode in the middle, and obviously the cliffhanger.

 

[SFRabid]

Interesting. I like the comparison. I never got to see much of either in original runs because local TV never carried them. Now they are my favorite two ST series.

ENT has my favorite main cast. DS9 has my favorite supporting cast. The biggest difference IMHO? ENT has the smallest cast since TOS. DS9 has the largest.

 

[caisson2delta]

I loved it when it aired and still love it now. It was mentioned that it was on a horrible network and can't agree more. Too bad it didn't start out on SciFi, it might have lasted 7 seasons or more. I also agree that there were too many fans throwing hatred at it, all because of seeing the ship for the first time. It really is a shame that current and future fans got cut short of some great, entertaining stories.

 

[gblews]

Someone that lives an impression. ENT came across as old, tired, and not really pushing the boundaries enough to make Trek seem new and exciting.

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Enterprise did things that had never before been done on any Trek shows including of course, DS9. From a Vulcan addicted to an emotion freeing drug, to a Starship with gaping hull breaches out of which flew doomed crewmen, neither TOS, TNG, DS9, or Voy had ever seen anything like this.

The OP was comparing ENT to other Trek shows, not other shows in general. It is no disgrace to have fallen short of the drama created by some of the most unique shows ever to appear on T.V. in 24 and early BSG, but just in terms of Trek dramas, ENT had it going on like no other.

 

[Tulaberry whine]

Someone that lives an impression. ENT came across as old, tired, and not really pushing the boundaries enough to make Trek seem new and exciting.

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Enterprise did things that had never before been done on any Trek shows including of course, DS9. From a Vulcan addicted to an emotion freeing drug, to a Starship with gaping hull breaches out of which flew doomed crewmen, neither TOS, TNG, DS9, or Voy had ever seen anything like this.

Except that from emotionally free Vulcans to drug addiction to crew members being blown out of bulkheads - Trek fans had seen it all before.

 

[Rek]

I guess is both where shunned at the start, but for complete different reasons.

I had been told by a friend that DS9 sucked before I had watched it. So I avoided it, saw a ep here and there on space channel. Never really enjoyed them.

Then I decided to just watch it from the start because I needed a Trek fix. I really, REALLY enjoyed the show. I don't think DS9 is something you can truly enjoy unless you watch it from start to finish. A lot of the eps are just for the characters and their development. If you have no real idea about the characters and their connection to other characters then you simply don't get drawn into the eps. There are eps, of course, with lots of action and fighting but there are equally the same amount that aren't super action-packed. So starting on a random ep for a new viewer might be a bad idea - it could lead lots of viewers to the impression that DS9 sucks.

Enterprise wasn't like that. You could start watching from any ep because even if you started from the begining you didn't really care about the characters(ok, you care if you like their looks. Sounds shallow but come'on...you know its true. Its fair to say there was more good looking main actors in Enterprise then DS9). It was more action packed, and chalk full of screaming and yelling. Which is fun, but not always.

 

[Aslan ch'Shran]

I totally disagree. Yes, some season 1-2 episodes did feel like something "we've seen before" but not all of them. Most of season 1-2 were actually filled with fantastic episodes if you can ignore the duds, and then season 3 picked up and never dropped the reigns. I seriously doubt Trek fans had seen anything like season 3. From the season finale of season 2 (which was an AMAZING episode and set up for season 3) to the entirety of season 3, we had one surprise after another.

Except that from emotionally free Vulcans to drug addiction to crew members being blown out of bulkheads - Trek fans had seen it all before.

 

[gblews]

Someone that lives an impression. ENT came across as old, tired, and not really pushing the boundaries enough to make Trek seem new and exciting.

Couldn't possibly disagree more. Enterprise did things that had never before been done on any Trek shows including of course, DS9. From a Vulcan addicted to an emotion freeing drug, to a Starship with gaping hull breaches out of which flew doomed crewmen, neither TOS, TNG, DS9, or Voy had ever seen anything like this.

Except that from emotionally free Vulcans to drug addiction to crew members being blown out of bulkheads - Trek fans had seen it all before.

To which Trek episodes (prior to ENT) do you refer, where we saw a drug addicted Vulcan and a space battle where we see Starfleet crewmen sucked out of holes in the ship's hull? Yes, there were some emotionally free Vulcans in other Trek series' (we saw that in ENT also), but which series (but ENT) showed a Vulcan purposely become addicted to a drug in order to become emotionally free?