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Star Trek: Enterprise

I finished watching the final episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. I think I would be correct in saying that I had mixed feelings about it. To be more accurate, I’ve had mixed feelings about the entire show. I remember being pretty excited when the series first premiered. However, that excitement quickly died down when I heard the theme song. I was expecting something instrumental, like the rest of the Trek series. I didn’t get too hung up on it, and watched the show anyway. After the first few episodes, I realized that the show wasn’t that great at all. That actually, it kinda sucked. There was nothing new about it (except maybe, watching the Enterpise getting its ass kicked everytime). The whole story arc with the Temporal Cold War was just ridiculous and stupid. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga did a great job of thoroughly screwing up Star Trek.

Berman has been steadily departing from Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek ever since he took over The Next Generation. However, I guess he wasn’t bold enough to try anything crazy with that. Deep Space Nine started off weak, until Berman turned his gaze of destruction to Voyager. Once Michael Piller took over DS9, things got much better with the Dominion War story arc. Some people didn’t like DS9 because of its religious themes, due to the introduction of Section 31, and due to the fact that it was darker than the other Star Treks. I liked DS9 though, I thought it was really good. I never got into Voyager that much. Then there was Nemesis, that I don’t even want to think about.

But anyway, back to the topic. Enterprise was a chance for Berman to “do his own thing”, I think. First he removed “Star Trek” from the name. It was just “Enterprise”. Then came the theme song. After that, he just turned the series into an excuse to pander to testosterone-fuelled teenagers who wanted to see some T&A. Add the abominable Temporal Cold War story arc, and the end result is a steaming pile of crap. He succeeded in alienating a large part of the Trek Fanbase. I stopped watching it after the first few episodes of season 1. I didn’t get into it until two years later when I stumbled upon a synopsis of an episode from the third season. I can’t remember which one it was, but I decide to start watching it after that. I watched all of Seasons 1 and 2, and started following Season 3. Season 3 is how ST: ENT should have started off. It had an excellent story arc and a bunch of cool episodes (Twilight and Similitude). I later found out that Manny Coto had taken over the helm. This wasn’t surprising because the only thing that Berman did well, was destroy Star Trek. As they say though, it was “Too Little, Too Late”. Seasons 3 and 4 didn’t stop the cancellation of the series.

Season 4 was really good. I enjoyed it a great deal. They brought the stupid Temporal Cold War thing to an end, they gave a really good explanation for the smooth-headed Klingons, and concentrated on the formation of the Federation. The only disappointing thing was the season finale. It was cool to see Riker and Troi, and it was really nice to see the inside of the Enterprise-D again. But I didn’t like the fact that they had made the finale into a holodeck simulation on the Enterprise-D. Also, the episode takes place in the past (according to the TNG timeline), and is also part of an earlier TNG episode. Riker and Troi don’t look like they did in that episode, since they look a lot older now. It seemed to downplay the importance of Enterprise by simply making it a part of a TNG episode. Also take into account that they never even let us hear Archer’s speech at the signing of the charter.

Anyway, I guess it was inevitable. We can thank Dumb and Dumber (Berman and Bragga) for this terrible mess. I honestly think they should let the franchise rest for a while. But I hear that Berman is planning on making the 11^th Trek film. If the past is any indication of the future, then I predict that this one may be as bad as Nemesis. At the very least, I should say that in retrospect, ST: ENT wasn’t all that bad, and I did enjoy some of it. So I guess I’m a little sad to see it go.

And yes, I’m a Star Trek Nerd. I don’t give a shit if you think that’s lame, because I’m not ashamed of it.

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May 18, 2005 - Posted by vivin | Nerdy Stuff, Sci-Fi | enterprise, star trek, the next generation, tng