It's over, and I couldn't care less. I loved this show. This show made me a Trek fan again, if only briefly as it may turn out to be. I recommended this show to every breathing person I know except my an old friend of mine who happens to question the possibility of space travel. By the end of the Vulcan arc I was at a zenith of excitement for the show... They should have never aired another one...
"The Forge", "Awakening", and "Kir'Shara" (episodes 4.07 - 4.09) were actually brilliant in their writing and entirely immersive in their visuals. The story made a large chunk of the entire three previous seasons have a point, larger than that of an unnecessary temporal cold war...
Slight tangent: Enterprise and the Temporal Cold War... Paul, you bragged about the show, but now you rip on the TCW??? You're a big fat hypocrites! No, I didn't say it wasn't enjoyable, I said it was unnecessary. Star Trek cannon (not fan-fic novels, but the shows and movies) had eluded and specified enough things about this era that they didn't need the TCW, they didn't even need view screens. Cut outside of the craft to some of those lovely cgi effects, and the audience knows what's happening, cut inside to characters who have to imagine what's going on... Never mind. This series was one botch job after another in the department of creativity... Most of the sins are clearly on Rick Berman and Brandon Braga's head... The cast and the writers did so much to make the show everything it was, not to mention whoever designed the opening title sequence... Okay multiple tangents... Forgive...
Where were we... ya, The Vulcan arc brought the seminal aliens of Star Trek to a point of connectivity with TOS. 85 episodes into the series that would serve as a prequel to the voyages of Kirk, and we have, what maybe eight, that serve that purpose? The rest of the time is spent with a historical event so monumental (the Xindii attack and the NX voyage) that it is never, NEVER mentioned nor has any consequences for the next 200 years, nor do we ever see the Denobulans in that time or the Xindii and the Xyrillian's two races inside federation territory with technology surpassing humanity's by centuries. We'll give this last bit the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps when they changed from the Gregorian calendar to the stardate system Starfleet academy's semester schedule was trimmed slightly, in the curriculum shortening, the term of the course Extraterrestrial Technologies, which was organized by species in alphabetical order.
I did enjoy Enterprise. I could swear I did. On with the story, after "Kir'Shara" well, here's a brief recap of the season....
"Daedalus" : Shitty transporter ghost stuff... No real fun.
"Babel One": Oooo, the series is flying high!!!!
"United": We gave a whole season and change to the Xindii plot, we'll give the cornerstone of the federation 40 minutes... Change the opening to say FUCK OFF TREKKER why don't you?
"The Aenar": I enjoyed. I'm a sucker for Shran. They know the fans were too. They even will squeeze him into the series finale, but they'll be damned to update that info on StarTrek.com
"Affliction" If I had had a Blog at the time, I'd have proof, but damn, I swear my phone was tapped (I'm kidding about that)...
"Divergence" We're firmly back to Trek two-parter rules here...
"Bound" Ehh, so what. If Anyone tells me it was good because of the girls, I say you need to Jerk off more. There are things I like for the sexy girls, it's called porn. Not Buffy, nor Smallville or insert show that someone you know watches for the primary reason that "_____ is so hot." I'm sick of hearing it. Get porn. Yes, I think Tina Fey is the sexiest woman on TV, because she's smart, sexy and funny. I'm not beating off to Tina Fey when I'm watching SNL.
"In a Mirror, Darkly: Parts 1 and 2" I don't get it. Mirror Mirror was fun, I know there was a Deep Throat Nine episode or 2 of this, was it consistent with Mirror Mirror? I don't see the logic... Lots of big gaping and contradictory plot holes, this was just for fun. It was fun. Even the bare midrifts (I didn't say I don't want sexy women on my TV shows, I just don't want to hear that they're a justification for watching what would otherwise be called crap.) and catfights, the last of the FX shot budget for the season damn near... Thank you for the full bodied Tholian, the costumes, it was enjoyable fluff getting as many checks on the list of shit we the fans were getting screwed out of by cancellation.
"Demons" A realistic (politically and emotionally, not necessarily technically) and well written recipe to get Rodenberry to spin in his grave. Majel is a tough looking lady, I wouldn't piss her off. But this is a necessary birth pang of Rodenberrys world.
"Terra Prime" I was liking, until the shit about the baby. Science Fiction is like a good Game, especially Role Playing Games which tend to have a complex fabric of rules. When you set something down, you can't contradict it easily. The emotional reaction and Flox's idiocy about this baby sink the episode... What do you mean? Been here... Done it... "E2" I don't care that he was an old starship captain and it was an infant. BOTH were their child, as any parent, the age of the child don't fucking matter. For never having been knocked up, T'pol has lost a son and a daughter...
When the credits rolled, we were halfway through the last night of new Enterprise ever... Then...
"These Are The Voyages..." Episode: #4.22 - 13 May 2005
This is Star Trek, never mind that the credits say "based on" it is... With an imitation Enterprise-D, a poorly reconstructed holodeck and a pitiful arch... Dear Paramount, the show was on for 7 season and is on Spike... A lot. Worse, it takes place during a good TNG episode. If you missed the seventh season "The Pegasus" episode of TNG (with Terry O'Quinn: Lost, Alias, West Wing, X-Files... Damn I bet he has a nice house, I didn't list SHIT that he's done.. All that, just a small bit of his list) You have NO IDEA what's going on with Riker. There's also the matter that Frakes and Sirtis are not 12 years younger than they are right now... None of us are, I weigh a small person more than I did back then. I'm not wanting to knock them for aging, but Frakes looks very close to how he appeared in "All Good Things", and Sirtis... May have had some work done. I'm not touching this anymore..... Their characters got married in the last movie... Like I said before, give em a kid, show their characters helping them with his/her homework and that's fine. We all get that. "The Pegasus" is WAY too obscure... Oh, and the rest of the episode. SUCKED ASS. Every one was phoning this in, and it looked cheap to boot. The only decent thing was closure, in a way, of the Shram character. You fuckers didn't even let Archer found the Federation, he was supposed to be George fucking Washington, no you gave us Samuel Huntington. Why would Riker look on that. My analogy isn't even appropriate... You have archer signing some stupid treaty that LEADS TO the founding of the Federation. What a waste. Berman, if you hate Trek so damn much, leave. Please go. Paramount hates it, Berman hates it, both conspire to drive the fans away, ditch the thing. Sell it to somebody who gives a shit.
The ending shot was appropriate... Seeing Enterprise trying to fit with the two ships of the two REAL and GOOD Trek series...
A long while back, before the Vulcan arc, I was talking with my friend Matt about Trek and Enterprise. I commented that it was really good, it never hits the high points, transcends being merely good like TOS and TNG did. No "City on the Edge of Forever"... No "Inner Light" from this show, but there wasn't too many "Spock's Brain" or "Shades of Grey" either. I should have known better... Enterprise had a clod at the helm that wouldn't take a chance on a "Spock's Brain" to get a "COTEOF"...
Berman got the last word, and buried Enterprise as a sub-par imitator, lacking in every way. Some of the best actors, sets, FX, and writers Trek ever had... Well, it wasn't Trek, it was just "Based on" Trek this whole time.
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