lyb42

1000

Chris

Yeah, I can agree with that. And any shows that I'm interested in all seem to be airing at the same time on different channels.

CommanderM

One reason why fans like me never got into Enterprise may have been the genuine lack of interest in going backwards not forward into Starfleet's past . I dont know about any of you, but I am just not that interested in events prior to The Cage as far as watching Trek is concerned, no offense. Plus they did a lousy job of connecting Enterprise to the Original at least until that final season. Just an opinion folks, go back to your drinks

Chris

I was looking for more about how Starfleet came to be, more about some of the founding members and how we met, the implementation of the Prime Directive. The whole chase into the Expanse after the Xindi just didn't have enough focus.

Ouyyir i'ch'Rihan

I mentioned it before in some thread. The biggest hurdle the show faced was being a prequel. Prequels are very difficult to make interesting, while sticking to the story. The audience knows the ending, so the best way to interest them is giving something new, but it is very difficult to introduce new elements without being inconsistent with "the future." The best approach for Enterprise would have been to write a script for a three or four year show with a single story that detailed the birth of the Federation. Unfortunately, the concept of planning a series to go for only two or three years is beyond the scope of Hollywood thinking.

Chris

I was quite willing to watch a prequel, and I think there was a lot of TOS backstory they could have provided, but the writers didn't seem willing to make themselves familiar with the existing storylines to go that route. And of course they'd all want to think that they were coming up with wonderful new ideas.

Melanie Garcia

I've always wondered if they set Enterprise too far before the original series to fully connect it or if it was something between the producers of the series and the network that caused it to be disconnected like that.

lyb42

I think a well-written story can be found anywhere in the timeline. I will take a compelling back-story over a hackneyed continuation any day

Ouyyir i'ch'Rihan

The time period was not a problem. Although it would have been more suitable for a show focusing solely on humans beginning to explore space and meeting other races. A story focusing on the formation of the Federation would need to be set closer to the original series. Unless the plan is to have a thirty-year series.

That was not an Enterprise-specific problem. People writing episodes who obviously had never seen Star Trek and did not "bother" to read old scripts to familiarise themselves with the story before writing episodes, began in the last couple seasons of TNG.

Added to all the difficulties were things that made no sense. Humans were not technologically advanced enough to create tractor beams, but they were able to create a transporter? Vulcans and Andorians both had ships that were faster and more powerful than what humans had, but future Federation ships would be based on inferior human ships? The Andorians were made a major player in the early days. So what happened to them?

And when I recently watched DS9, I noticed a few ships that looked remarkably similar to the one in Enterprise.

Chris

Very true. That works for the occasional episode, but it would have been nice to have a bit more continuity, especially to have the characters make reference to previous events.

A tractor beam would seem simpler than a transporter to me too, but somebody has to have the idea to invent it.

Good point. I enjoyed the Enterprise episodes that featured Shran.

Ouyyir i'ch'Rihan

That was the only good thing I can think of about Enterprise. They gave the Andorians a tiny amount of development. It could have been a great show if they had done more of that: develop the Andorian, Vulcan, Orion, etc. worlds and cultures. Alas, an opportunity missed.

Chris

Agree with you there. Of course that would have required some familiarity with TOS storylines and they didn't seem willing to make that effort. More info about Denobula, Phlox's home, would have been nice, and no worries about continuity there.

CommanderM

No one thinks they are doing a bad job on Star Trek, or any other given show. Look at Rick Berman and his "Valentines" to the fans. Every time I hear about that, I cringe. Enterprise may have been one show too many and tey certainly wasted time, money and effort with some of those storylines. By season 4 things had improved, but the powers that be felt enough was enough, oddly enough.

Ouyyir i'ch'Rihan

According to what I have read, by the fourth season the show had too few viewers to continue it.

Chris

People got frustrated and lost interest in the third season. The fourth season was quite good and if the show had continued in that fashion, I think the fans would have come back.