R.I.P. Enterprise

"With just the cat to talk to,
And I've so much to say".
- A Stan Rogers Song (can't remember the title)


in 1978 there was no Star Trek but there was Battlestar Galactica.

Again in 2005.

Much as I loved the first year of BG in 1978 and all it's campiness (Galactica 1980 was awful), the 2005 version is much better just as Deep Space Nine was much better than the original Star Trek, but owed everything to the series' that went before. On to Enterprise. Their 5 year mission continues on in syndication.

They did a lot right on Enterprise but they did the rightest stuff too late. With Next Gen, DS9 and Voyager all set in the same time frame, it was a good move to go back and going back to BK (Before Kirk) was a good move. But that meant we'd all want to see what we see in the latest Star Wars trilogy: it's ok to go back but you have to lead up to where it began. In SW we want to see Darth Vader evolve and Luke and Leia born. For Enterprise, we want to see events and species that lead right up to Kirk, Spock and Bones.

It was good that right there in the Enterprise pilot were The Klingons. YEAH. We all wanted to see the Human-Klingon war that had already cooled into cold war by Kirk's time. We did not get it. We got Ferengi and we got Borg. DUMBASS! These species were new to Picard - we Trekkers know our Trek history better than our own family tree.

Another thing Enterprise did was what all 4 series' after the original did way too much: re-hash old plots. I can't think of a perfect example here but I could come up with them very easily if I looked.

There was little direction by season 2. Season 3 did a year-long diversion which was very good.

Season 4 FINALLY showed us Tholians and those dog-faced people who hate the Andorians, and even Dr Soong's ancestor, but by the time the good stuff aired, Enterprise was cancelled.

I don't blame Enterprise for fizzling or UPN for cancelling it - after all, trek was bound to get stale after 19 seasons with one, sometimes two series going on.

Mr Berman, please give it a few years rest and let's come back fresh!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Good Characters from ENTERPRISE:

Archer, Flox, T'Pol, Trip and Shran (anything done by Jeffrey Combs always is),
The Vulcan Ambassador.

Characters that missed the mark:

Reed (good but inconsistent)
Hoshi (too "girly" in a 60s sitcom way but what a cutie!)
Travis (either he can't act or they gave him poor lines).

Best Guest Star (Shran considered semi-regular):

Brent Spiner of course!
Honorable mention to Joanna Cassidy: always a great actress! From Blade Runner babe to Vulcan wacky Mother.

Thomas