Having finished watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and totally out of Star Trek to watch, I turned to Enterprise. I remembered not having been too impressed when it came on the air years ago, but I decided to give it another chance. I had heard that the last two seasons were good, and although that made me feel like I was eating my spinach in order to have ice cream later, I started watching.
Here are my impressions at the beginning. Let’s start with the theme. It was nice, but it didn’t really say Star Trek to me. Now, the characters. My favorite at that point was Porthos, Captain Archer’s dog. My second favorite was Trip, the Chief Engineer. I hated the Vulcan Science Officer T’Pol, as I guess we were supposed to, since she was at best, critical of whatever Captain Archer was doing, and at worst, a spy. That part was a little strange. However, during season one, she started to show some reluctant loyalty to Archer. The other characters were fine, though it seemed the actors would have to grow into their parts.
Halfway through the first season, the scripts started to get better. The crew of Enterprise was making its own path. I was concerned that the show seemed to lack Roddenberry’s brilliance and vision, but by the end of the season, the scripts were definitely better and the 2-part season ender/2nd season beginner was excellent. I started to change my mind about the show.
As Enterprise got into season 2, it became quite good. Trip surpassed Porthos as my favorite character and I started to like T’Pol. She became softer and more feminine and by then, was definitely part of Enterprise’s crew, not just a pawn of the Vulcan Council. The second season finale was even better than the first, so I am really looking forward to seasons three and four. I will report my experiences with them later.
For now I’ll just say, don’t write off Enterprise. You might be surprised.