Why no love for Enterprise?

[Matt Pniewski]

So, over the last year I rewatched Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. Deep Space Nine and Voyager were big in my youth, as I had just missed Next Generation, which was and still is my favorite series.

By the time Enterprise came around I had become disinterested. Quite frankly, I hated it. Now in my old age (I'm 29. I'm not THAT old, I'm just cynical like that sometimes) I find myself realizing how unfair I had been to Enterprise.

Enterprise has probably the best cast since Next Generation, and far better writing that DS9 or Voyager. Deep Space Nine was good, but upon rewatching, I've realized just how much it falls apart by the end, with too many "rabbits' in the last few seasons (Rabbits=plot points that seemed to be pulled out of nowhere).

Now, why was it that Enterprise did not get the love and respect that it deserved? Why did so many people like me immediately turn away from a show that actually manages to capture what initially made Star Trek so great?

I mean, here it was, an action adventure program with the morality play element, focused on the science, technology, and exploration, with a bright, optimistic vision of the future. Captain Archer himself had the diplomatic insight of Picard with some of Kirk's rashness, and was clearly a more consistent character than Sisko or Janeway.

This is also the only Star Trek series that my Fiance is able to really get into. That's a plus.  

[Steel Sterling]

I think the worst sign was that they said they weren't going to care about
continuity.

I understood the special effects and props were going to be better than
the original series. I was prepared to accept "dramatic license" on those,
as they said they were going to do. I agreed with the reasons.

What I didn't like was the idea that they weren't going to integrate into the
Trek continuity. We could have had a story centered around how a little
planet with backwards-technology could grow to run the UFP in a few
centuries. We could have had the UESPA ships with their lasers.
Instead, we got something else.

A number of fans complained that the Powers-That-Be took the model of
the Akira-class starships, flipped it upside down, and announced that would
be the ship model. It was lazy, and produced scaling problems and gave
us an Enterprise with things present on the model that were not present
in the starship.

I had the same problem with Enterprise as I did with Voyager- I had to hunt
down the episodes, and they didn't re-run them at flexible times. I was at
work or leaving for work whenever they ran.  

[Matt Pniewski]

Steel Sterling

I think the worst sign was that they said they weren't going to care about
continuity.

I understood the special effects and props were going to be better than
the original series. I was prepared to accept "dramatic license" on those,
as they said they were going to do. I agreed with the reasons.

What I didn't like was the idea that they weren't going to integrate into the
Trek continuity. We could have had a story centered around how a little
planet with backwards-technology could grow to run the UFP in a few
centuries. We could have had the UESPA ships with their lasers.
Instead, we got something else.

A number of fans complained that the Powers-That-Be took the model of
the Akira-class starships, flipped it upside down, and announced that would
be the ship model. It was lazy, and produced scaling problems and gave
us an Enterprise with things present on the model that were not present
in the starship.

I had the same problem with Enterprise as I did with Voyager- I had to hunt
down the episodes, and they didn't re-run them at flexible times. I was at
work or leaving for work whenever they ran.

How did it not try to integrate into Trek Continuity?

If anything it did a good job of patching holes in the continuity that existed by a complete lack of continuity in the original series, where a Warp 8 limit is established early on, only to have the ship travelling at Warp 14 by the third season. The Squire of Gothos sets Star Trek much farther in the future than the 23rd Century as established later.

It never really contradicted established continuity, at least, not in anyway more grievous than other Star Trek shows already had. Even in Next Generation, where there was more attention paid to such matters, The Federation has an outpost dedicated to Genetic Engineering, which is illegal.


It had to make sense of this notion that nobody knew what a Romulan looked like despite all the history between the Vulcans and the Romulans. Which was a novel idea for one episode, but pigeon holded the writers. It only became more nonsensical when the Romulans became major plays in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The only MAJOR conflicts with continuity are with the Star Trek Chronology book.... Which was never meant to be Canon in the first place.