Why was Enterprise received so poorly?

[Moviefan2k4]

I didn't watch much of "Enterprise", but from the little I remember, one possibility for its rejection could simply be that audiences had become accustomed to the types of stories being told in "TNG", "DS9", and "Voyager". The then-new show was essentially going backwards, telling "reverse history" from before Kirk's time...and it seems many were not happy about that. My own complaint about the series is partly similar - I think it was just far too advanced, to pass for events taking place before "TOS".

 

[HotRod]

I think it was just far too advanced, to pass for events taking place before "TOS".

Production design was the least of the shows problems. Beyond making the series look like Forbidden Planet or something similar, I think they did the absolute best job they could at creating a show about Earth's first deep space Starship.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Its not that there’s a lack of LGBT characters in Star Wars, its that the audience generally doesn’t care they are there. That’s not why they go to watch Star Wars.

It's 2019, I'm minding my own asexual business, thoroughly detrenched in the dirge that is The Rise of Sky Walker when in the last ten seconds, this massive rainbow springs outt'a the mouths of two ladies amid a celebration, kissing, and then I got to think back over the course of the last nine hours... Who the fuck are those two drones, and do they have interlocking action figures?

 

[Dukhat]

I didn't watch much of "Enterprise", but from the little I remember, one possibility for its rejection could simply be that audiences had become accustomed to the types of stories being told in "TNG", "DS9", and "Voyager". The then-new show was essentially going backwards, telling "reverse history" from before Kirk's time...and it seems many were not happy about that. My own complaint about the series is partly similar - I think it was just far too advanced, to pass for events taking place before "TOS".

Production design was the least of the shows problems. Beyond making the series look like Forbidden Planet or something similar, I think they did the absolute best job they could at creating a show about Earth's first deep space Starship.

ENT's production design was phenomenal. Giving it the aesthetic of Forbidden Planet, while an interesting take, would have been counterintuitive to what UPN was trying to do. They were advertising ENT as a show that 'fans and non-fans could watch' (however misguided that turned out to be) and having a show with production values aping a movie from 1956 would not have been a good way to achieve that.

My issue wasn't so much that they didn't make the show look like Forbidden Planet, but that they made the show look far more advanced than the show it was meant to be a prequel to, as the poster I quoted above mentioned. The visuals completely smacked of the show that had just ended (VOY), because the same people who produced VOY produced ENT. There was no real attempt at world-building or creating a visual aesthetic that was very different from the last three 24th century shows. Add to that the almost exact type of stories that could have been found in episodes of VOY (because they had the same writers too), and the end result was just more of the same thing they'd been doing since 1987. I personally found the show to be completely unbelievable as a 100 years-before prequel to TOS (although ironically it fits much better as a prequel to SNW than it ever did to TOS.)

 

[Sumire]

Hey! Those uniforms were the envy of actors in every other Trek from that era. They, if nothing else, definitely visually set the series before TOS!

 

[Dukhat]

Hey! Those uniforms were the envy of actors in every other Trek from that era. They, if nothing else, definitely visually set the series before TOS!

I agree that the jumpsuits were great. As were the shuttlepods. Everything else could have come straight from Voyager.

 

[Farscape One]

Regarding ENT being done by the same people as VOY...

While that is largely true on the production side, the writing staff of the first season had a lot of new people.

Antoinette Stella, Maria and Andre Jacquematton, Stephen Beck, Tim Finch, Chris Black, and Fred Dekker.

The only writers who came over from VOY (other than Brannon Braga) were Mike Sussman, Phyllis Strong, and Andre Bormanis (he was the science consultant who dabbled in writing and did a few episodes on VOY, then became a regular writer for ENT).

Though the only one of the new group that stayed for season 2 was Chris Black. John Shiban and David A. Goodman came aboard for the season. So season 2 definitely was more former VOY writer heavy than season 1, and I definitely agree about much of season 2 being very much episodes that could have been done on VOY.

It might be worth noting that Sussman and Bormanis were the only two former VOY writers that were writing for season 4. (Series finale aside.)

 

[FederationHistorian]

Regarding ENT being done by the same people as VOY...

While that is largely true on the production side, the writing staff of the first season had a lot of new people.

Antoinette Stella, Maria and Andre Jacquematton, Stephen Beck, Tim Finch, Chris Black, and Fred Dekker.

The only writers who came over from VOY (other than Brannon Braga) were Mike Sussman, Phyllis Strong, and Andre Bormanis (he was the science consultant who dabbled in writing and did a few episodes on VOY, then became a regular writer for ENT).

Though the only one of the new group that stayed for season 2 was Chris Black. John Shiban and David A. Goodman came aboard for the season. So season 2 definitely was more former VOY writer heavy than season 1, and I definitely agree about much of season 2 being very much episodes that could have been done on VOY.

It might be worth noting that Sussman and Bormanis were the only two former VOY writers that were writing for season 4. (Series finale aside.)

And S2, despite doing a lot of things right in terms of development – exploration of Denobulans, introducing Travis’s family, introduction of Tellarites, continuing the Vulcan-Andoria arc, showcasing mistakes in cultural contaminating pre warp civilizations - is a slog of a watch.

Maybe the audience was just tired of VOY writing by that point?

Though I think it shows that each show before ENT was represented in each season, in terms of writing.

S1 = TNG. S2 = VOY. S3 = DS9. S4 = TOS.

 

[evilchumlee]

My issue wasn't so much that they didn't make the show look like Forbidden Planet, but that they made the show look far more advanced than the show it was meant to be a prequel to, as the poster I quoted above mentioned. The visuals completely smacked of the show that had just ended (VOY), because the same people who produced VOY produced ENT. There was no real attempt at world-building or creating a visual aesthetic that was very different from the last three 24th century shows.

Bold emphasis mine. That's not entirely true... there was an attempt but those trying to make a truly unique world were shot down for various reasons.

Rather than going for a "Forbidden Planet" look, the initial ideas were to have the NX-01 feel much more like a submarine, which would have worked just as well. That I think was more of a practical issue in that it would have been more difficult to film in tight, cramped spaces.

The creative people were trying to get a distinct look, but the producers were fighting them every step of the way. The producers just didn't care, to the point of wanting to just straight up use an Akira-Class for the ship, despite that making zero sense. Big shout out to Drexler for making a NOT!Akira that worked well enough.

Realistically the biggest issue ENT faced was the executives. I don't think it was so much than "fans were bored of this storytelling". Ratings had dipped a bit, but not really all that much from Voyager. They just had what were completely unrealistic expectations for what they wanted it to do.

 

[Anna Yolei]

Production design was the least of the shows problems. Beyond making the series look like Forbidden Planet or something similar, I think they did the absolute best job they could at creating a show about Earth's first deep space Starship.

Yeah, the whole ship design being "too advanced" thing was a non-issue for me as a new viewer and frankly, if the show was better written, it would've been a non-issue for many more existing fans too.

Regarding ENT being done by the same people as VOY...

While that is largely true on the production side, the writing staff of the first season had a lot of new people.

Antoinette Stella, Maria and Andre Jacquematton, Stephen Beck, Tim Finch, Chris Black, and Fred Dekker.

The only writers who came over from VOY (other than Brannon Braga) were Mike Sussman, Phyllis Strong, and Andre Bormanis (he was the science consultant who dabbled in writing and did a few episodes on VOY, then became a regular writer for ENT).

Though the only one of the new group that stayed for season 2 was Chris Black. John Shiban and David A. Goodman came aboard for the season. So season 2 definitely was more former VOY writer heavy than season 1, and I definitely agree about much of season 2 being very much episodes that could have been done on VOY.

It might be worth noting that Sussman and Bormanis were the only two former VOY writers that were writing for season 4. (Series finale aside.)

It's worth pointing out that out of 98 episodes, Brannon Braga and/or Rick Berman, wrote a whopping **37** of them, nearly all of which were in the first two seasons that existing fans, many of whom still had a sour taste in their mouths over VOY's lackluster writing, decided was not worth their time to wait it out to a third season.

Make of that what you will.

I'll also quote this review of ANISB, written the same week the episode first premiered, and frankly I can think of no better way to convey what fandom was feeling at the time:

Evidently, the writers are not treating this as season two of a series, but rather season nine (or later) of an aging dinosaur. An episode all about the captain's goddamned dog you'd think would be reserved as desperate sitcom fodder for the latter seasons, not brought to light as episode #5 in season two. You'd be wrong, but you could think it. Whatever.

 

[evilchumlee]

I'll also quote this review of ANISB, written the same week the episode first premiered, and frankly I can think of no better way to convey what fandom was feeling at the time:

Fandom's are weird.

A cute episode in Season 2 about the Captain's dog? TERRIBLE ARGLE BARGLE HOW DARE THEY!

An episode in SNW in Season 2 that is a literal musical for some reason? OH MY GAWD BEST EPISODE EVAR!

 

[SCE2Aux]

For me, the execution of both those episodes is the crucial thing:

Conceptually, a cute episode about the captain's dog isn't something I have a problem with. I'm a sucker for slice of life stories, so I would be very on board with a low-key story. ANISB, however, featured some truly bizarre character assassination scenes with a petulant Archer, weird dialogue across the board, and very badly judged farce. I love ENT, but they really goofed on this one.

Subspace Rhapsody, on the other hand, conceptually strains the limits of what Trek can do, but they carried it off with such aplomb and gusto, that it hardly matters whether it makes sense or not.

 

[Farscape One]

While many hate "A NIGHT IN SICKBAY", and I can understand some of the issues (mostly about Archer and the Kreetasans), I actually like that one. Not only as a dog lover (I fully understand Archer's anger at them and how you will not be at your best when your family is in such bad shape, and our pets ARE members of the family... Porthos is like his kid), but also it gave us a fun look at what goes on with Phlox's menagerie of creatures. It was a good showcase for Phlox, too.

Regarding "Subspace Rhapsody", I get that some people love it. But I just couldn't stand the episode, though it did give some good character scenes (when they weren't singing and dancing). It's really because I simply don't like musicals as a genre. At all. Precisely why this is the only episode in the franchise I will never rewatch.

 

[fireproof78]

A Night in Sickbay bothers me because from a diplomacy level it's a complete failure. It's falling face first because you tripped, then blaming the ground. The dog has nothing to do with it.

And no, I don't care that much of Subspace Rhapsody either. So, find another windmill to tilt at over unfair fans.

 

[DonIago]

The entire premise of ANIS (appropriate acronym) bothers me. Archer seems to have brought his dog down to the planet without conducting any due diligence or being invited to do so. Said dog proceeds to behave as dogs can reasonably be expected to behave and consequently faces a medical emergency while the incident also sparks a diplomatic incident.

What was Archer thinking here, exactly? How was he a responsible a dog owner, a responsible ship's captain, or a responsible diplomat?

And then he doesn't even have the self-awareness to own that he's the architect of his own (and Porthos's) problems.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I just saw a new Transformers Prequel movie.

It looks like Rush Hour, with cartoon robots, to a classic Rolling Stones sound track, and that's exactly what Enterprise was lacking.

No seriously?

Has Megatron been black the whole time?

 

[Farscape One]

The entire premise of ANIS (appropriate acronym) bothers me. Archer seems to have brought his dog down to the planet without conducting any due diligence or being invited to do so. Said dog proceeds to behave as dogs can reasonably be expected to behave and consequently faces a medical emergency while the incident also sparks a diplomatic incident.

What was Archer thinking here, exactly? How was he a responsible a dog owner, a responsible ship's captain, or a responsible diplomat?

And then he doesn't even have the self-awareness to own that he's the architect of his own (and Porthos's) problems.

The episode made it clear that the genome of the crew and Porthos was sent to them. The Kreetasans could have simply told Archer to not bring Porthos... which is something Archer pointed out.

And as he said, isn't Porthos entitled to some fresh air like the rest of the crew?

 

[fireproof78]

The entire premise of ANIS (appropriate acronym) bothers me. Archer seems to have brought his dog down to the planet without conducting any due diligence or being invited to do so. Said dog proceeds to behave as dogs can reasonably be expected to behave and consequently faces a medical emergency while the incident also sparks a diplomatic incident.

What was Archer thinking here, exactly? How was he a responsible a dog owner, a responsible ship's captain, or a responsible diplomat?

And then he doesn't even have the self-awareness to own that he's the architect of his own (and Porthos's) problems.

Indeed, yes. This was a diplomatic mission, previous contact had gone poorly and needed to give a good impression as a diplomatic envoy. Unfortunately, as much as a I understand the love of dogs, they are not diplomats.

 

[DonIago]

The episode made it clear that the genome of the crew and Porthos was sent to them. The Kreetasans could have simply told Archer to not bring Porthos... which is something Archer pointed out.

And as he said, isn't Porthos entitled to some fresh air like the rest of the crew?

"Entitled to"?

 

[Cr0sis21]

A Night in Sickbay bothers me because from a diplomacy level it's a complete failure. It's falling face first because you tripped, then blaming the ground. The dog has nothing to do with it.

And no, I don't care that much of Subspace Rhapsody either. So, find another windmill to tilt at over unfair fans.

I dislike ANIS, but I also chalk Archer's attitude up to my personal headcanon of him being in waay over his head and vastly underqualified for his role.
I found Enterprise a lot more enjoyable when I thought of Archer as a subject of nepotism who means well, but nowhere near the upper echelon of qualified captains.