REVIEW: Star Trek Enterprise – The Complete Series Blu-ray

A well executed repackaging of the single-season sets that offers a tremendous amount of content for a great price.

The 5th live action Star Trek series divided fans when it premiered in the fall of 2001, with some questioning the need for a prequel set before The Original Series. After making a strong debut, the show struggled to find focus over the next three seasons and was teetering on cancellation when producer Manny Coto took the creative reigns from series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and produced what is generally considered the best season of the show.

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Unfortunately it turned out to be too little too late, and the show was canceled, becoming the first Star Trek series since TOS not to enjoy a 7-season broadcast run.

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The show has plenty of fans, however, and has received a more positive critical reappraisal the past few years, making now a perfect time to revisit the series on Blu-ray.

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All 97 episodes are spread across 24 discs and are housed in the plastic casing pictured above. The audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and superb documentaries that were produced by Roger Lay and Robert Meyer Burnett have all been brought over to this release. The set is currently retailing on Amazon for $77.99 and is, in my opinion, an absolute steal for anyone who hasn’t already picked up the individual season sets.

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Enterprise Cast Reunion feature

We posted reviews of the individual season releases a few years back, and if you’d like to learn more, click below:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4


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Shoulda gone the full 7….. was just getting really good…..

True, that last season was getting very interesting. Cancelled right when it was starting to get some legs.

I was really hoping for at least a couple of TV movies in the subsequent years, if anything but just to show the EarthRomulan wars…. But alas…

Add me to the list of those who were saddened by the cancellation soon after the show got good. I had read that Coto said there were 5th season plans to do a show about establishing “Starbase 1” and add Shran to the Bridge Crew somehow. When Coto as added to the staff that show really took off. Seems all it needed was a fresh head.

I’m watching it on Netflix at the moment

I still think the prequel concept has great potential (holding breath on Discovery). Retro Trek could have been so awesome if done right. Instead season 1 and 2 could have been Voyager or TNG episodes. I know that UPN didn’t help much and had no idea how to promote their own tv schedule.
To me seasons 1 & 2 are pretty much forgettable. Season 3 Xindi arc was great SF television, just lousy Trek. Season 4 is how the series should have started and what I think people were expecting in the first place. Alas, too late.
And don’t even get me started on the temporal cold war. I still want to smack Braga over that.

I have a lot more respect for Brannon after watching the bluray bonus material. The Temporal Cold War was pretty much a mandate from the studio or network since they wanted something futuristic and it was the trade-off made to allow Enterprise To be a prequel.
The studio originally wanted the new show to be set 100+ years after Voyager, but R&B didn’t want to do that. The argument being the Federation was already so evolved by the Tng era, where do you go from there from a dramatical standpoint.

Exactly my point.

Prequel was a fantastic concept. Just terrible execution from a clueless studio and a tired producer.

The final season was great as the bridge to tos but one aspect of Ent that seemed important early and got lost was it was a bridge between now and tos also.

The design of the show was evident of that. NASA style uniforms etc. It was relatable.

But then they just started telling their rehashed tng style stories. Boring.

Should not have launched the ent until the first season finale.

“the Federation was already so evolved by the Tng era, where do you go from there from a dramatical standpoint.”

The crux of my point regarding Discovery. You’d have to have another gimmicky “origin”– whereby either at some point prior to the show, or at the start of the show, the Federation is dragged into a new war, or is crumbling.

I wouldn’t mind, at some point, seeing a “Future Rome” concept, whereby the Federation is having problems being maintained, as it’s vastness brings about its own social and economic problems.

Of course, with no money, replicators, and every alien race being an ally, the economy is never a problem. Groan.

Why do people like you hate what star trek was – a utopian vision of our future without our racism, bigotry or poverty?
Are you so thrilled by the conflicts & suffering on the planet at the moment? Why do you always want to see Star Trek dragged down from a future we can aspire to our current day reality? this is what is killing Star Trek – making it indistinguishable from contemporary shows & post apocalyptic Sci-Fi shows.”Groan”

Hauke, I can confirm that. The studio demanded something from the future involved. This is what happens when the studio gets too involved.

The other thing I saw on the disc from season 3 was Rick talking about what I consider to be the lamest cliffhanger in the history of Trek. Evil Alien Nazis! Berman claimed he was just doing something crazy. Intentionally. And he finished it off with, “Oh well. It became Manny’s problem.” Not liking the attitude, Rick.

Yeah the Nazi thing was just stupid. I rewatched those episodes a few months back and it just feels so disconnected to everything around it. The problem was there was no build up to it. They found a way to tie it to the temporal cold war but it just rung hollow. There was never any talk in three seasons that aliens were trying to change Earth future directly, it was much bigger than that. Yes the idea of stopping the Federation from happening was always part of the plan but none of that felt connected to those episodes. They seem like they wanted a crazy ending to get people to come back and I honestly think it scared more people off than anything. I had completely stopped watching the show by then but when I heard that was the cliffhanger for season 3 I just had no interest to watch…and didn’t.

It is funny how people give Berman and Braga so much crap for Enterprise but if you listen to them they really did want the show to be very different. For example they wanted the first season all on Earth. I dont know if this was a good thing but it proves they didn’t want it to just be like the other shows. They were the ones who fought to go backward instead of forward and while I think that kind of made some Trek fans disinterested a bit (me included) I completely understood why they did that at the time. And they picked a great period too, at the birth of the Federation and when Starfleet was starting to get its sea legs.

But yes I think the real problem was they basically avoided all the things fans wanted to see in that like more connections to TOS, even if just broad ones. A real tie in to founding the Federation and of course the Romulan war. I don’t GET it to be honest they had all of this to work with and they just totally ignored it the first few seasons.

Whats funny is I watched the Vulcan arc episodes from season 4 literally yesterday and its just amazing the kind of story that told. That felt like a very TOS type of story but also gave us a very deep look into the Vulcans and then the surprise that Romulans were the ones who were instigating a war between Vulcan and Andorians. If they did that from the beginning fans would’ve been HOOKED.

Its all hindsight now, but I honestly would’ve had first season deal more strongly with the Vulcans and Andorians that couldve been leading into the idea of the Federation but gave us the Romulan war in season 3 and that could’ve lasted through 2-3 seasons while having other stories with it like DS9 did with the Dominion war. And then the final season focus on building up to the Federation. They had so much they could’ve worked up to but avoided it.

So I give them credit for trying to do something different but they missed the mark in the stories they were actually telling.

My issue with the first couple of seasons was their attempt to become an adventure show. More action, explosions, fire-fights and fistfights– space battles and sex.

In “Chaos on the Bridge,” Ira Stephen Behr comments that the first 2 seasons of TNG didn’t have enough “Effing and Effing” (fighting and fornicating)…. Enterprise S1/2 seemed to swing the other direction. Not that it was gratuitous by any means, but it was overkill for what I want out of Star Trek.

I don’t need big phaser fights and five minutes of rubbing oil over Jolene Blalock.

I don’t need five minutes of rubbing oil over Jolene either.

I’d be done in less than three!

I’m wondering if Chaos on the Bridge is available somewhere for rental. I have it in my Netflix cue but it’s got no release date…

It sounds like you don’t live in America. Its been on Netflix for at least a year there from what I can tell.

BUT, if you want to watch it, here it is on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zdq-LFAByU

Its the full video, only made in a smaller size window to keep it from being erased I guess. I don’t get how that stops anything but its there. Anyway, I’ve seen it three times lol. Twice on Netflix and from this link. Its just so funny to watch and Roddenberry comes off like a nut lol. Its a great watch!

Oddly enough, they were trying to get back to the spirit of TOS. That was clear. Everyone got on their case that TNG was too cerebral, too intellectual, not just rousing good fun a lot of TOS was. So I think when Enterprise came around they decided to give them a TOS structure with the 3 main characters: Archer, Trip and T’Pol as the the trio. But Archer and Trip was the Kirk and Bones and Trip and T’Pol had the more conflicting relationship although they did make it a bit rocky between Archer and T’Pol as well.

But yeah I remember in an interview Scott Bakula said they wanted Archer to be more Kirk like where he’s punching out aliens in one scene but seducing beautiful alien women in the other.

Which is why I’m a bit worried about Discovery because Fuller kept saying over and over again he want that show to get into the same fun spirit of TOS as well. It may not MEAN its fighting and sex but that is definitely the difference between TOS and the later shows. He could mean other things though but hard to say until we know more.

Damn you, I don’t even have an optical disk tray in my computer any more.
All the content of this set, on a single flash drive… is it too much to ask?

Bought myself first three-and-half shows and all the movies, and they are catching dust in the closet as I’m watching downloaded copies straight off my HDD. I don’t want to pay for yet another dust-catcher, no matter how cool the box. Who wants to juggle 24 disks around, anyway?

I have moved all of my series sets for everything into CD/DVD folders. All of Star Trek in one easy to locate folder in my bookcase along with another folder holding 24, House, The Shield, etc. Who needs the clumsy boxes anyway? Just glue the info sheets onto at the sheet that divides the series.

There are these flat metal boxes you can buy called Blu-Ray players. You connect them to your TV (the bigger the better the experience), insert the disc and away you go. I have rows of those boxes proudly displayed on a few shelves in my living room. I have the option to download and watch on my phone or laptop but why? I want to watch TV on my TV with the awesome picture and amazing sound. Not on my puny laptop where the best sound in on mere stereo earbuds.

YEah thats true but thats going the way of the dinosaur for most people under 30. I have a nephew he’s never even owned a TV. He watches everything on his computer. He’s 19 years old. Yes for people like us who I’m guessing was born before internet was invented at least we probably do both, especially if you are a Gen Xer. You’re old enough to still watch things on TV but young enough where you can adapt to watching things on computer and your phone. But millennials and younger are getting to the point they don’t see the point of a TV when 90% of their entertainment and information comes directly from their phones/computers.

Its going to be interesting to see where TV will be in another 20-30 years but I can imagine if nothing else there will just be as many streaming options as there are TV options now.

Thats the problem with DVDs nowadays. Everyone is on computers and you can just click a few links and can watch a Star Trek show pretty much anywhere at anytime. I’m on Netflix and Amazon and will be on All Access soon and I can’t for the life of me figure out why would I bother buy hundreds of dollars for cumbersome DVDS when I get the ENTIRE library for like $9 a month on one site alone? Back then when TV meant you had to sit at home and watch was one thing but now people watch TV on phones and tablets. Its just more accessible.

I keep saying I want to buy the entire series, every show and film and have it proudly sit on my shelf but its really hard to do now. I’ve already seen all this stuff dozens of times over already. Now I just watch it because frankly I can and watch odd episodes pretty much daily. Netflix and Amazon has made it so easy to do I don’t think about it. Even with the thought OK maybe with Blu Ray I’ll get a better viewing experience all the HD stuff is on Netflix anyway including the remastered TOS seasons. They give you no reason to buy any of that stuff. Even the extra stuff like bloopers and interviews is thrown on Youtube for free most of the time. You watch that stuff once and never again.

But here is a great example of what I’m talking about. I was told Orphan Black was a good show and I was thinking of maybe buying the first season from Amazon and if its not too much take a chance on it and buy it. So I go to Amazon and I realize they have the entire first three seasons already up and free for Amazon prime users which I am. So I not only saved myself the $20 for one season, I basically saw the entire show minus season four for free. And I hear that will be out in a few months as well so why would anyone buy the DVDs????

Discs are sooo old school it makes me wanna throw up. As a millennial, I live in a tiny apartment with outrageous rent in addition to my outrageous student loans, so how am I supposed to afford a TV and a blu-ray player and fork over another hundred to buy the things I wanna watch, when there’s so much online for free! And the older generations wonder why no one is paying for content anymore. Try living like a poor person!

theres still a small decent chance of a enterprise season 5,6 reprisal if the fans never give up supporting this series there is still a year-or so window of the cast still wanting to do it.

all that needs to happen is for cbs to burn in hell for netflix to pick it up, who doesnt want to see the romulan war, and season 5

Five years ago, maybe. At this point? I’m not really interested in Enterprise Season 5 or a Romulan War story.

Don’t get me wrong, if they did it i’d watch it and enjoy it, but it’s not something I have any real desire to see.

Well its about 90 years between end of Enterprise and Discovery so maybe they can revisit something from Enterprise. A very old Archer.

I imagine Discovery will be referencing a lot from Enterprise sort of like how Discovery did it. Enterprise had 100 episodes so there is a lot of history built up there, especially with the Vulcans, Klingons and Andorians. They were just scrapping the surface with the Romulans before it got cancelled.

And would love to see an aged Archer or T’Pol. We know Archer would still be alive thanks to the first KT film. And T’Pol would be around 150 years old which I think Prime Spock was when he went through the wormhole.

I meant how BEYOND did it lol.

LOL, you’re joking, right?

I’m hoping Netflix comes to the rescue and bring Enterprise back.

I always held out hope that when Star Trek returned, that’s more or less what it’d be.

It was just beginning to resemble Star Trek in its final 2 seasons, with the 4th season being the breakout. I watched the ratings curve drop incessantly from the first episode to the last, with occasional spikes. The enthusiasm for it began to renew itself in season 4 but it never translated into more viewers, difficult to do on Friday nights, though not impossible as H50 and Blue Bloods are proving.
Many people just gave up when word came down that #4 was the end.

Ooof … no. Season 4 got a better reception because I think people were pretty much desperate for anything that wasn’t Seasons 1-3. Watching it recently, it has not aged well at all.

The xindi story arc was awful. Berman thinking it was the first serialized story telling in Trek, forgetting DS9 showed he was ready to retire. Serialization was good idea. But when you choose a boring and silly story with weak writing then all it does it make your whole season terrible.

Desperately needed Behr to showrun the “war” story.

Well in their defense, that story was done around the time of the West Wing, 24, Sopranos, etc, which really influenced the way they told stories (could even have been another studio mandate). In the wake of 9/11, it was also a very topical story, something Trek traditionally excels at.

While the results were hit and miss (and overall a miss), I think I appreciate their attempt. Would rather they try to do something new than sit on their hands and deliver “same old same old” (cough voyager cough).

Where Enterprise suffered most for me was the characters. Throughout all of Trek– TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY– even when the stories were weak, we usually had a cast with charisma and charm that we grew to care about. So even in a bad episode there was still this group of characters you wanted to tune in to watch.

But on ENT, there isn’t a single character that worked for me, such that I’d ever want to see them again. You could have killed the entire principle cast in the finale and i’d have only shrugged. I cared more about the guest stars in some cases than for the crew of the ship…

I thought Trip was the best character. Second being Phlox, maybe because Phlox was the best actor on the show. And Connor played Trip almost perfectly other then “seeming” a bit dumb to be a brilliant engineer.

I would have made Trip Anti-Vulcan and angry. And have Archer go to bat insisting he wants him on the ship. And have Trip go through the arc of seeing things in a better light, making his relationship with TPol more meaningful too.

Oh and the decon chanber was ludicrous. Like, teenage boy stupid. Show should have been cancelled as soon as that first decon scene aired. Made zero sense. Like we’re to believe they have to physicallyt rub gel on their skin to decontaminate? What if they miss a spot? Oh wait, they did miss spots because they wernt NAKED! just stupid.

An edict in all the Trek sequel series’ is that the actors playing humans underplay their parts and the actors playing aliens overplay theirs. The only exception seemed to be Stewart playing Picard. As a result, I think the alien characters tended to be the most interesting on all the series’. For me, that meant Worf, Odo, Kira, Garreck, 7 of 9 and Phlox.

Also most of the aliens, especially on DS9, were non-Starfleet personnel so they could be much more open and flamboyant. I mean Odo, Garreck, Quark and Kira were all VERY different people but why they were so interesting. Their dynamics were all over the place and fun to watch.

Same with 7 of 9 and Phlox. Neither were Starfleet either and therefore they presented a different side to things and had no problem going outside the Starfleet line. Now with all that said I hope we get non-Starfleet aliens on Discovery as well. My guess is thats what the Klingons will ultimately be for.

TUP

The Xindi arc is not without its cheesy aspects, but it gave Season 3 and all of its episodes a driving motive. And we got some good episodes out of it. “Similitude” and “The Shipment” and “Stratagem” are unique and compelling stories that stemmed from the seasonal arc.

It is pretty funny how season 3 of Enterprise is the serialized season but it actually brought out some of the best standalones IMO in the season like Similitude, Twilight, North Star, Carpenter Street and E2. Similtude and Twilight especially were just great Star Trek episodes period.

Enterprise was DOA. The prequel idea was and is terrible. That’s because you’re constrained by the future. Not only that, but the ship could not help but look more advanced than the 1701.

Actually, I think the prequel concept was where the show really worked. Bad writing and weak characters dragged it down.

Very very very very very small minded people keep saying “prequel” sucks. Good thing they werent in power positions when Disney wanted to make Rogue One.

Nothing constraining Enterprise. Unless small minded fans think there is a possibility of Earth being destroyed every week. There was no mystery about Post Nemesis either. Were they going to destroy the Federation? Come on… stupid.

It’s just like, my small minded opinion….Man.

I didn’t like Rogue One much either. I wonder if they’ll steal the plans to the Death Star?

The problem with Enterprise is that it never boldly went. We saw the same old aliens, they even forced in the Borg and Ferengi.

I hope Discovery is good. Really I do. I think they’ll split the prime timeline off _ hence the split insignia. In the same way the Abrams movies removed the constraints of canon.

Funny that you mention the Ferengi on Enterprise… On the disc extras they spoke about some board in the writers room that Rick had set up called the Scrape Board or something like that. On it were ideas for a show that they were not allowed to do or even go near. After they did the Ferengi episode someone put up on the board, Ferengi take over the Enterprise. Supposedly Rick didn’t notice the entire rest of the season…

I know right! Ferengi and Borg had no place on Enterprise. That first episode, I was torn. Why were we seeing Klingons, why was the transporter used to solve the story. Why hadn’t we met a Suliban before? I always thought Spock was the first Vulcan officer? Hang on, there was an Enterprise before the Enterprise? What’s going on with the ship! Why isn’t it smooth with few windows like in TOS. How can the Akira class have been used in the past? Are the decon scenes Really just titillation? Is the Vulcan officer REALLY going to wear the tightest catsuit know to man, with high heels. Oh for the love of God! Is Malcolm really going to suck the life out of All his scenes.

Sorry. Could rant about Enterprise ad nauseum.

So your problem with Enterprise was execution. You realise that doesnt mean the idea was bad, right?

People have trouble giving life to their thoughts. You didnt hate the concept. You hated the execution. Has nothing to do with it being a prequel or sequel or whatever.

I did dislike the execution. Was so pleased when Scott Bakula was cast, but so disappointed that he brought none of the warmth and humanity that he displayed on QL.

I just think that a prequel causes more problems with canon than a fresh new approach. Certain events are preordained by canon and ignoring them creates problems.

I agree James and why I worry about Discovery a bit, especially with all the complaints about it so far (but they none are in any context yet). But its going to look vastly more modern than TOS no matter what people think. I watched a few TOS episodes the other day and yeah it does just feel really dated now even if the stories themselves are still generally good. I suspect its going to go the KT film route in terms of production style and look for a lot of complaining about it from the more vocal sect of fandom.

I could not stand Scott Bakula Captain Archer ( Cringe worthy) And killing off Tripp….yes…this show deserved to die. Now we are getting another prequel….? Whatever happened to moving forward ? Hey…well The Expanse is an awesome series. Just got into it.

Oh wow, another “hater.” Move along please.

Prehaps you didn’t read…my thing was The Captain. For the most part I enjoyed the series . The finale however was Terrible. I’ve been a Trek fan for over 40 years….so I don’t see how that is ” Hating ” I don’t like all aspects of Trek, but to me…it’s one of the greatest franchises ever. I hate having to explain to people. Sorry but I couldn’t come up with a better explanation than cringe worthy. But Captain Archer was HORRIBLE. Nuff said. As for the new series….I am looking forward to it. I hope they throw in a nice twist that it is in the Mirror universe.

I also am not sure I liked the retcon of the Enterprise as the ship. Did it really bring in viewers to call the ship Enterprise?

Spend the entire first year developing the new ship based on the prototype Enterprise…I can buy that. Homage to the Space Shuttle program. Then we can buy why the NX-01 was never mentioned before. And have them “officially” launch in a new ship. There are other cool names – Defiance being one they could have used.

Also there mission didnt seem one of exploration. The point should have been deep space, into the frontier stuff. Should have been riskier, scarier. Talk about the Deadelus and Valiant (didnt they disappear on deep space assignments?)

Just did some digging around and I didnt realise it but the Enterprise designers wanted to use the Deadelus/Essex design for the NX-01 but got over-ruled. Studio wanted something more familiar. Too bad.

I read just fine. You criticized the concept of a prequel.

Well I can not stand the stupid phrase “cringe worthy”. Its 15 minutes are up and it needs to die.

Prehaps you didn’t read…my thing was The Captain. For the most part I enjoyed the series . The finale however was Terrible. I’ve been a Trek fan for over 40 years….so I don’t see how that is ” Hating ” I don’t like all aspects of Trek, but to me…it’s one of the greatest franchises ever. I hate having to explain to people. Sorry but I couldn’t come up with a better explanation than cringe worthy. But Captain Archer was HORRIBLE. Nuff said. As for the new series….I am looking forward to it. I hope they throw in a nice twist that it is in the Mirror universe.

To each his own. I loved Scott Bakula as Captain Archer.

And why the hell havent they revived Quantum Leap yet??

I never felt Bakula was well cast. And I feel he overplayed the part. They tried to make Archer, T’Pol and Trip to be their Kirk Spock and McCoy. I really don’t think it worked all that well. That said, the show did get better as it went as that 4th season was their best. And even Baukla got a little better in the end.
Regarding that hideous final episode… I side with the many that really consider “Terra Prime” to be the actual final episode of the series. That would have been an excellent beat to go out on. Instead, Berman had to poop on the final episode that amazingly was worse than “All Good Things…”

I hate to agree with anything negative about Bakula because he is, by all accounts, a great guy and a fine actor and I LOVED Quantum Leap. But I agree he wasnt great for that part. It might have been the writing and direction…well, for sure lousy dialogue played a part.

He wasnt convincing as the hardass. He was great in those quieter character moments and I believed his relationship with Trip. But when he had to put his big boy pants on and be the heavy, it was no good.

I think a better creative choice would have been a senior officer with an axe to grind against the Vulcans and Archer, while understanding that position, being far more conciliatory as a Captain should be.

And ofcourse, it would have benefited from being more character driven with more Earth-based stories in the early going.

I’d have to agree that it was mostly the writing. He was solid in the interpersonal stuff with the crew, but when they gave him a mouthful of speechifying to do, not so hot. But he is a talented actor. Check him out in the Season 12 opener for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Laugh-out-loud funny.

“He was solid in the interpersonal stuff with the crew”

Precisely. He’s great in roles that requiring a father-figure, a caring, loving and empathetic person.

Good point. He might have been a better Admiral. Or less “close” with the crew and make it an even younger crew where the Captain is aloof and comes to be a father figure. In some ways, like Picard’s evolution.

Had the studio won the battle to kill off Archer (or a compromise where he was made Admiral), I would have been fine with Trip being promoted. That actor had more to give and the character more depth than the others.

“Precisely. He’s great in roles that requiring a father-figure, a caring, loving and empathetic person.”

I think he’s trying to be that type of character in “NCIS: New Orleans” and I really don’t buy it out of him there and am not really fond of that show either. . . “Quantum Leap” was great in my opinion, but . . . He just seems to be hard on TV shows he stars in, ya know?

Scott Bakula is best playing a caring, empathetic person. He has a lot of charisma, but not the same kind that Kirk had. They clearly wanted Kirk 2.0, but Bakula could not pull off the adventurous, suave, commanding leading man that they clearly wrote for Captain Archer.

Exactly. I have nothing against him as a person. But I felt he really overplayed it. Big time. Perhaps that is why he was a turn off in my eyes. Trip and T’pol was the best thing about that show. And poor Travis Mayweather….he really got the shaft in that series.

season 4 was how the show should have been to start with.

and it helped redeem the initial harsh portrait of the Vulcans as being a romulan plot.

shame about that series finale.

The series finale would have been okay as an anniversary tribute type of episode, much like Trials and Tribble-ations was. But to sign off the entire 18 year run of Trek with it was a huge mistake.

If it were a regular series episode it would have been terrible. Trip gives his life so Archer can make a SPEECH?! Are you kidding me?

Trip dying was so ridiculous and out of the norm. It sucked.

If the stakes were higher and the episode better prepared then Trip’s death would have had the potential to be a great dramatic tool. The series was over, after all. But it was such a terrible reason for him to sacrifice himself. Even if the aliens killed him outright it would have been better.

“These Are the Voyages” seemed to me to be a big FU to the fans. And from what I understand the cast of Ent didn’t seem to like the idea of their show being a sidebar for Next Gen either. The entire thing had problems the entire way.

To end the rant on a positive, the only thing that was good about the episode was the mashup of the “Space-the-final-frontier” speech. Although the change from “man” to “one” still makes no sense and reeks of PC-ness still to this day…

Trips death felt so forced. Like they hadnt been in a million life and death situations far worse? And Trip just leaps to Plan Z, the Nuclear option. Ridiculous.

“Man” to “One” didnt bother me because it had been changed in other series. While “man” is fine as far as meaning “Mankind”, as a series, the change to “one” worked for me because I feel its more fitting to be inclusive in a way that should be seen as inspiring for little girls watching the show in aww as much as boys.

The swap from Man to One bugged me the instant I heard Stewart say in in the first TNG episode. In fact, every one of my friends the next day were talking about how lame that was. It refers to mankind. As in humans. It was not a sexist comment. Changing it to “one” doesn’t work because it suggests they will go where there is no one. It implies that no other space faring species has ever found their way there. Which seems pretty arrogant to me. If little girls feel left out because of the use of grammar then it’s up to their parents or guardians or older siblings to explain that it is by no means an exclusive comment. As evident by the multi-gendered crew on the starships.

BTW… I really liked Kirks’s sign off from TUC. “Going where no man… Or no ONE… Has gone before.” Nice nod to the silly TNG version.

Disagree. Its from Picard’s (and humanities) perspective. Im assuming your a guy. Its easy for us white males to complain about political correctness. A little girl watching Star Trek shouldnt think its a man’s world. That flies in the face of everything Trek stands for. Yes, “man” is accepted as referring to humans but because humanity has largely been male-dominated. “One” is inclusive as Star Trek should be.

And if one little girl noticed the change and felt inspired to chase her dreams or become interested in space travel, then it was worth it.

I would shake your hand. That was one atrocious writing on their part. THE BEST character on the show and they off him….for what ?! Made no sense. Oh…they didn’t get the emotional reaction from the audience they wanted. They got the opposite. I like many, was PISSED OFF TO THE HIGHEST PISSTIVITY !!!

It was the last episode, so who cares?

lol.

Loved Enterprise from the off. ‘Broken Bow’ remains of my favourite pilots. The show had so much potential, and they were only beginning to scratch the surface when the axe fell. Funny how the reaction in 2005 to save the show was basically what we see now as crowd-funding, and how it was sneered at by the haters. If only CBS had been willing to listen back then.

Broken Bow had its issues. It was slickly produced and the concept and characters more fleshed out then other pilots. But the Klingon story was bad, smashed Canon in a pointless way. It was very evident the producers had a plan but ended up skipping crawling and walking and went right to running. A lot got lost along the way.

I wouldn’t say it smashed canon. First contact with Klingons was only briefly mentioned in a single line of the TNG episode called “First Contact.” Picard’s line is pretty vague, and can easily be justified to jibe with Broken Bow.

@Torchwood – well then at the very least it took a different perspective on “disastrous first contact”. At best it neutered the idea.

Yeah I thought Broken Bow was great. I can watch it over and over again. And I liked how it dealt with First Contact with the Klingons. Same time I don’t need to see it but thats my issues with prequels.

But it was a generally great pilot. Its amazing how the pilots all got better and better after TNG’s. They set everything up well and want to get you to keep watching. I think Caretaker and Broken Bow especially.

I binge-watched the full series on my DVD sets last fall, so I won’t be upgrading. However, I don’t think I’d seen the series in the 10 or 11 years since it was cancelled, but I absolutely fell in love with it more than I had during its original run. Many of my first impressions turned out to be wrong. I can’t say enough good things about Enterprise. I, like so many fans of this series, wish that the fourth season HADN’T been its last. Manny Coto is to Enterprise as Ira Steven Behr was to DS9: an absolute savior. I’ve launched into Pocket Books’ continuation of the series as a result. We may not have gotten seven seasons, but the adventure continues nevertheless.

And here’s hoping that Star Trek: Discovery takes at least a small helping from what Enterprise started. It would be nice to see some Denobulans (maybe Phlox in a cameo?). What about T’Pol in a cameo, as an attache to Ambassador Sarek? Statue of Admiral Archer at Starfleet Command. You see where I’m going with this … :)

My biggest regret is that we would not get to see a more fleshed-out, more in depth Birth of the Federation. Instead cramming it into a few episodes

It seems so odd that they chose a time frame soooo close to the Romulan War and birth of the Federation and decided to go out of their way to avoid it…

I’ve been watching this show on H&I again for the first time since it went off the air, and it truly was a catastrophe. So many episodes seemed to be filler just to stretch out their uninspired story arcs to fill the full order for the season. Watching Scott Bakula pace his way through scenes is just maddening, Malcolm just sucks the energy out of every scene he’s in, and on an on. While I agree the 4th season was the best, and I would have liked to see more of that, and there were a few good episodes here or there in the earlier seasons, largely speaking this thing is just not worth the time for repeated viewings.

“Malcolm just sucks the energy out of every scene he’s in”

LOL, I am just now reading this thread for the first time from top to bottom. . . It took almost all of it to get to a mention of Malcolm, LOL!

The only other one missing comment is Hoshi. I’ll give her a nod here, because, to me, it makes sense that a communications officer should. . . well. . . be able to understand and pickup strange languages pretty easily. Compare that to Uhura in TUC. . . I think Hoshi wins hands down, (I’m not a JJverse fan, but that fleshing out of Uhura there is far more of what a Communications Officer should be, if you asked me, than the poorly written Uhura found elsewhere [TOS]). With that, I feel like I’m digging myself into a hole and can’t get out of it without explaining my explanations, so I’ll just stop now.

I liked the Hoshi characterization as a communications officer, but I hated her personality. Way too whiney, even for someone who wasn’t core star fleet. Travis was an absolute waste of pixels and bandwidth. It’s those four who ruined it for me. topal was acceptable, Trip was OK but poorly written, and Phlox was brilliant. And the Macos were horribly cast. Sometimes the stories overcame the limitation of the actors, and characters, but overall, generally a poor showing. It’s the stories and supporting guest stars that turned the tide in Season 4, but by then the damage was done — if they’d started killing off some characters and replacing them, they might have survived. Then again, it’s almost certain that the cancellation was purely political. Oh and the Klingon ridge retcon three-parter was a total pointless excercises in fan indulgence, and writer’s egos.

I liked Hoshi a lot at first. But again, its the fault of lazy or tired writers that no one had any sort of arc or were fleshed out at all. Realistically, Hoshi and Travis would have been a good pairing based on their characters.

I assume the idea was Travis would be this young hotshot with space experience more than anyone else and would factor into saving the day and rising through the ranks. Not sure if its bad writing or the fact he didnt have the charisma or acting chops but they did nothing with him.

And they also fall into the trap of not wanting anyone to be “bad”. Like with Paris on Voy and how quickly they decided he had to be redeeming. Malcolm would have been a great a$$hole.

I love Star Trek but I couldn’t generate any interest in Enterprise. I’m in the minority here as I think it regressed with each season including 4. Enterprise had no point of view and nothing to say.

Too many episodes a season. I for one feel that is why shows with 10- 13 episode seasons are much better. They get to the point and there isn’t much time to rehash things we have seen already.

That model didn’t really exist then, but yes, that would have saved it …

I would disagree. I HATE the mini seasons many cable and streaming shows have. 10-13 episodes is nor a series. It’s a mini-series. Most of the short season shows I watch have the problem of the viewer completely forgetting EVERYTHING about the show by the time the next season rolls around 9 months later…

@ML31 – its sort of the viewers fault if they forget everything. Most series of this format will repeat the previous season as a lead up to the new season (HBO) or in the case of Netflix, its on-demand anyway. They usually include a recap as well.

ITs hard to argue with the success of the 12-13 episode trend. Larger budgets, better story telling, greater access to quality production and talent.

There were always filler shows when series were 20+ episodes. Bottle shows where the crew never left the ship so they could save money.

This is really the best idea. And recapping, reviewing, reminding is far too simple for the vast majority of people that its hardly a criticism.

TUP: “its sort of the viewers fault if they forget everything.”

I don’t know if it’s the viewers fault, or if it’s the guys who make the show’s fault. Who can a viewer complain to? The advertisers? That ends up killing the show.

The glaring example I wanted to scream to someone about was the old “24” show. I’m thinking it was season 3, Tony had gotten shot in the face in the first few episodes of the season, it wasn’t serious. (He wore a band-aid for crying out loud.) By episode 6 no band-aid, no scab, no scar, nothing. That show was supposed to be happening inside a 24 hour day. Who and where do you complain about that glaring oversight?

I think the show makers really do think we’re a bunch of dolts, when in reality a large number of us aren’t, and the crap they give/gave us makes us drop away from their show(s). In my view, continuity is key. It’s one of those things that I look for in a show I want to follow. It might be why I like the Star Trek canon and why JJverse is heretical in my opinion on too many levels. I actually like Enterprise because I like the IDEA of it (you know, ‘one small step for mankind’), what I didn’t always like is what they put on the screen for us (except T’Pol in her catsuits. . . those I always liked!).

What you describe is an error on the parts of the creative team/production. Its not an indictment of HBO-style shows. In fact its the opposite because 24 was a 24 episode Network TV show.

Looks real good but you can be certain that the audio or video will be

enhanced as technology allows then it’ll be yet another money grab.

So…overall it darkens this offer

4K before the end of the decade.

Don’t count on it. ENT was entirely CGI, and it was the fairly low res CGI of the era which would need to be totally redone, and while S1-S3 were filmed, S4 was shot on Sony digital cameras, so it is forever locked into 1080p. CBS isn’t even re-mastering the more popular DS9 and VOY, so you can bet ENT would be a distant third on that list.

Matt Wright,

Re: Sony Digital Cameras

Hmmm…I’m not sure how they were used on ENTERPRISE but I’m almost certain the Sony 900 Digital can do better than 1080p?

They were the very early Sony HD video cameras (Sony HDW-F900), the same kind that Lucas used for Episode II, they were 1080p native sensors. They could record at 1080p/24/25/30 or 1080i/50/60.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CineAlta
http://www.panavision.com/sites/default/files/docs/documentLibrary/HDWF900V-2247.pdf

Matt Wright,

Thanks, Matt.

Re: … 1080p native sensors

That pdf you referenced from 2005 says it had a 2,200,000 pixel picture element. It’s definitely NOT 4k but isn’t that greater than 1080P’s 2,073,600 and closer to 2k?

Sure, but the software that does recording only records to a 1080p format. Regardless, 1080p and 2k are essentially kissing cousins, either way that footage is locked into ~1080p. It’s not ever going to be 4k.

the finale also annoyed me by having no mention of events that happened during the romulan war and how they must have affected the crew.

Apparently the war had zero affect on the ship or crew…lol

Why did I not watch the show? Archer suuuuuks. I hated Quantum Leap also.

The sad part is that the actor who plays Trip doesn’t get more roles because he certainly has/hadmore charm and charisma.

Oh well.

I loved Quantum Leap, especially once it found its groove. Its really a show that is ripe for a revival and Im surprised it hasnt happened yet. There was talks of it years ago where Sam’s daughter would begin leaping in an effort to find her father.

When Enterprise was first on, I jokingly mentioned that Bakula had an unfortunate position as being Archer. If his contract negotiations had run into a stalemate, the writers could borrow from Quantum Leap and have Al show up on the bridge, “Sam! We finally found you!”

Archer: “Security, we have an intruder on the bridge.” but no one could see the intruder, and Archer is talking to himself a lot. . .

Finally as Bakula’s final episode ends, you see a flash of light and a new actor standing where Archer was standing with one of the crew asking, “Sir. . . Captain Archer? Are you okay?”

The new Archer actor’s first words. . . “Oh boy.” (of course) :)

Bakula was miscast in Trek. It was the first time they chose a celebrity as captain over a relatively unknown. And they entered into an overall production deal at Paramount to make it happen. It was a huge mistake that they ultimately paid for because his deal added so much to the bottom line. But Braga has an ego, which is why the show paid for an equally misplaced Diane Warren original Main Title Song. And Bakula was just the wrong kind of characterization for Archer. As much as David Kirk erroneously accused his father of being a boyscout, the description fits Archer perfectly. And that’s not what the first starship captain into deep space should have been. Further Bakula doesn’t have the capacity to grow that character, and Archer just languished somewhere between Dr. Samuel Beckett and his character on men of a certain age. He’s unwatchable to me on NCIS New Orleans — but he’s a celebrity with a following. That said, he earned that celebrity in my opinion with quantum Leap which he was perfectly suited for and did a great job,

Yeah I can agree with that Cadet, although I like the theme song. I thought it explained what the series was about…or at least what it was supposed to be about.

I watched a few episodes recently and the writing is so bad. Bragg and Berman were just awful writers by this point in time. The dialogue was atrocious. Every thing that happened was contrived and plot-driven.

I hadn’t seen The Expanse since it aired so I tried watching it and couldn’t even get through it.

I remember being very resistant to Bakula as Archer when ENT first aired. I’ve since grown used to him in the role, and now I find that I have a hard time remembering what it was that I was so resistant to initially. I’m curious as to how, exactly, people would describe Bakula being miscast: why type of actor should have been cast, and what were Bakula’s limitations with respect to the desired qualifications. The best that I can come up with is that Bakula doesn’t always ring true as a tough-guy, and there’s a lot of John Wayne tough-guy in Archer. Though I’d also say that Bakula’s limitations at playing tough-guy worked well at times in Season 3, when Archer had to become a ruthless, amoral type of person, which was at odds with Archer’s normal character—that same unease in Bakula’s performance then seemed appropriate. I don’t know…I find the whole Bakula/Archer issue rather elusive.

well, j j and co are ENT fans judging by the many call back to the show in the kelvin movies.

Probably won’t matter now that Brad Grey is allegedly out at Paramount. BR can’t be far behind. And there’s almost no chance of a 4th Kelvin film, at least with BR, and maybe not with the same crew.

If Paramount retains the rights, is there anything that stops them from making a deal with CBS to produce a film? CBS seems to have a better track record with delivering Star Trek….

What if a movie(s) or tv special(s) was made to conclude Enterprise tying all the loose ends? Same crew and for the romantics a happy end for T’pol and Trip.

I disagree the packaging is horrible.I had this set and had 2 discs that were cracked.The discs are hard to get out.The pq is bad for blu-ray.