http://filmforce.ign.com/startrek/articles/557/557108p1.html

I've been reading up on Enterprise, I've been an avid Star Trek fan since I was about 7 years old, I jumped in around Star Trek: The Next Generation's 4th or 5th year, I've been following Star Trek since then, I own all the movies, all 10 of them. I could tell you things about Star Trek that most do not know. I've seen all but possibly (I'm not sure to be honest) 1 of the original 80ish episodes with captain Kirk, and unfortunately, I sound alot like John Kerry.

I foresee "Enterprise," the most recent series, dying a short death, and Star Trek going with it. UPN was thinking about pulling the plug, ign says the show sucks. Guys, the show, I can tell you, is not as bad as people might say it is. If you watch it, spend time to watch 3 or 4 episodes, you could easily get hooked, see that the show isn't that bad. You could see that the effort put into the show, graphically, set-wise, etc. shows. The only thing lacking is constant good writing. It has it's share of good episodes, and I think the show needs a chance to get on it's feet. I must say, the season 4 opener was not the best in ST history, but it was not the worst. It was very very satisfying if you can get over stereotypes of Star Trek.

Ladies and Gentlemen of Massassi, I ask you to watch this show before it dies a death it should not have so soon.

If this show is doomed, I desire that the creators of Star Trek, those who have kept the 5 series and the franchise going for 30+ years, as well as those who have joined in on Star Trek, in it's prime, or in it's worst times,... I wish that they end it well. That they, at the least, can pull off a series finale that is worthy, that they can end a series, and a franchise, properly, instead of the show dying after 10 more seasons. I don't want to see star trek being put down to the level of a "failed pilot" or "failed series."

2.9 million viewers for season 4 of Enterprise for hte season opener, a new low for Star Trek.

This series has quality that is far superior to that of The last series, Voyager.

The graphics, the story, and the characters are getting better. The Next Generation, the series with Picard, didn't get popular (really popular) until it's 4thish season, before that, no one watched it.

As I'm writing this, I'm reminded of 1999. In 1999 I joined massassi. My alias comes from V'ger. V'ger is a name that comes from the first Star Trek movie with captian kirk...which was a near failure I might add. I'm just a dedicated fan. But this franchise has so much that is not a failure. Look at star trek movies 2,3,4,6,7, and 8. Those are arguably the best of the 10 movies made so far. (you don't need to see one to understand the others either, they a have individual stories with generally the same casts)

Guys, I'm asking you to watch the Enterprise Season 4 second parter season opener. There is a 2-parter to open this season, and it's Tommorrow (Friday) night on UPN at 8:00 Pacific, possibly 8:00 in other zones. If oyu have the capability, or oyu know what channel UPN is on, I urge you to hunt down this show, because less people are watching it and it's being placed on a day where fewer people watch TV

Let me fill you in:
Enterprise takes place before the days of captain Kirk. IT's a prequal. THere is a "temporal cold war." A war between different factions over time. People from one time are sending back information to a rebel faction to alter history during this time period (the 22nd century). THe Federation, in the 29th century, are monitorying time. THey monitor that these people are altering time, and they are trying to put a stop to it. History dictates that Captain ARcher of the Enterprise has a large role in this Temporal COld war. THe federation of the 29th century sends back a man, Daniels, to help captian archer with various time alterations and problems throughout history, including the eventual destruction of earth in the 29th century, and captian archer being able to barely create a device to send himself back to change things back to normal. Daniels has various (about 4-8) encounters with Enterprise over it's first 3 seasons. This is a summary of seasons one and two.

In Season three, a test device attacks earth, and the young, early federation loses millions in florida. Captain Archer is again contacted by people from the future, but this time from the "Bad" faction. They actually help captain archer by telling him that a third faction is attempting to destroy earth because they have been told that earth will destroy them in the future. (confusing...yeah, but interesting). Captian archer is sent to a region of space to find the people who this third faction has contacted. He is sent to stop them from destroying earth. Eventually he finds these people, a group of 5 races known collectively as "the Xindi," and over a 1-year story arc, destroys a spherical weapon aimed at earth. Just like a typical season ender, the captian obviously is the one to set the charges and get killed at the cliffhanger of the season as the Enterprise arrives at earth just before the weapon (sphere, which captian archer is on) is destroyed.

Season 4...Captain archer is not dead. He finds himself in the back of a truck with German nazi's. Though it may sound stupid, and implausible, this season opener is actually dramatic and interesting. Set in an alternate Nazi 1944, Germany has taken over the Northeast, including DC and New York. Some citizens are allowed to walk as they please, just as some were allowed in the real france in WWII, and captain archer joines with a small resistance of about 4 people. One of a black woman, who lives in a home and still feels oppressed for her race, and there are two white gangsters. These people notice the captain's futuristic clothing says "enterprise," and they state that he's lucky he survived the naval enterprise being sunk. They quickly give him normal clothes, and the captian states that he noticed a man with red eyes when he found himself in a nazi truck (he escaped somehow I don't remember how...he ran or something). This man was actually an alien, a fourth faction, per se, and apparently the most dangerous aliens in the temporal cold war. Meanwhile, enterprise is in orbit, as it was accidently sent back to the same time as archer in the explosion. Badly injured, enterprise runs across daniels again. Daniels has suffered temporal travelling problems, and different parts of his body are at different ages, some parts old, some parts from the fetus. He comes with a message: the enterprise must stop the aliens helping germany from using their weapon on earth against the united states. Doing so would restore the timeline and would be a finalizing factor in the temporal cold war. Back on earth, captain archer discovers that a man has been helping a dark figure with red eyes. He asks the man to set up a meeting. Archer and his small resistance meets this figure, discovering him to be an alien. The figure, alien, guy, believes archer to be one of the federation members from the 29th century, asking him how he discovered their work in the 20th century. Archer, from the 22nd century, tries to hold his bandits from killing hte alien by stating "you better help me out and tell me what's going on because Ic an't hold them back" Then the alien gets shot because one of the gangsters gets restless, archer steals his communicator and tries to contact his ship, he gets transported up with the black woman because the other two guys get shot by nazis, and they discover that two other men from enterprise (the helmsman and engineer) have been taken captive by the germans while trying to contact the captain. The final scene is a giant weapon, similar to the size of the inside of the death star when they fire the green weapon, in a huge bay somewhere on earth.

Ok, it's complicated, it's a bit implausible, but it's frickin dramatic. The next episode ends the cold war, and the series should take off from here, it could take off from here. THe characters have 3 seasons of tough ratings and slow character definitions to get things right. THey can pull it off after this if they have the chance.

Guys...summed up, just watch the show.

The problem is that its all been done before. Didnt Kirk and Spock encounter Nazi's on their own during an original series episode? Star Trek has also reached the point where its impossible to make an episode about anything without stepping on the toes of some fact or history established by a previous episode- and time travel and alternate histories is a poor excuse to try and make up for it. Star Wars is also rapidly approaching the same fate.

I wacth Enterprise and I'll say that I enjoy it, but the time travel storyline is just getting old. They aren't doing a horrible job with it, but time travel as a major plot tool jsut doesn't work for me. Plus, all of this going on in what is going to be the Federation come ST, TNG, DS9, etc, just makes no sense. Despite that, I like the characters. There really isn't much problem there. It's the time travel crap.

So I imagine you're psychic since that episode doesn't air until tonight?

I don't know how many episodes of Star Trek I've watched, and I'd be interested in finding out, unfortunately no-one else knows how many episodes I've watched either.

At any rate I've watched enough of TNG, DS9, Enterprise and Voyager to know that the people who accuse it of being a "space opera" and a "weekly special effects show" are in fact correct.

From episode to episode, any character/overall-plotline changes move at a the speed of a galloping mollusc. A 'futuristic' moral(eg: Don't pick on robots, they're people too.) is shoved down your throat at the end of every 3rd episode.

There is almost a reset at the end of each episode, Voyager will never make it home from the Delta Quadrant, DS9 will never be taken over by those guys with green skin, and Picard will never lose to the Klingons.

The camera work, music and lighting are completely mundane. "Voyager gets hit: everybody shakes, sparks fly and lights dim temporarily". There is practically no stylistic shots in the series, it's just a succession of "routine corridor shot", over to "routine bridge shot", another "routine bridge shot", back to "routine corridor shot".

Problems are never solved in any interesting manner, eg:

Tupol: "We can escape if we sacrifice the others!"

Captain Archer: "NEVAR! Re-route the tertiary Gu'vok underwear-warmer to the main decombobulator and fire battered pudding from the port-side Burmese Mangle!"

Tupol: "But my minnie, we do not have a Burmese Mangle?"

er... you get the idea.

The intellectual level of most episodes is below that of DragonBall Z, and that's a ****ing Japanese childrens show.

Maybe if ST had a bigger SFX budget, a variety of young adventurous directors, some good script-writers, and some innovative musical directors, it might be worth saving.

-edit I don't know about the first series, but there was a "meet the Nazi's" episode in Voyager, and I *think* Enterprise as well.

I won't start watching enterprise until they make an episode where sam becket quantum leaps into john archer to set things right.

Veger- Enterprise is an interesting show, success wise. At first, I thought it sucked. I watched about half of season 1, maybe a third of season 2. I've decided the reason it as crap for the first few seasons is the fact that it had become just that, a Space Soap Opera. Only worse.. They developed several highly interesting, potentially great storylines (Temporal Cold War, Klingons, Sulliban, etc.), but they never went anywhere with them! They just abandoned all of them, without even a mention of the Temporal Cold War (the most interesting of all) until Season 3.

But. The end of Season 3 is where it really, really picked up. They had lost me. I'm only 15, but I've seen most TOS episodes, many TNG, every Voyager, and about half of DS9. I've seen, and practically memorized, every movie. I've swallowed the Expanded Universe whole, (even though it's horribly disorganized). I can spout of races, planets, alliances, weapons, technology, differences in technology and even how the stuff theoretically works. But Enterprise had lost my interesting.. Again, until Season 3.

They started with blowing Florida apart. That was a good move. :p It got interesting, and then as they developed the story line (Wow!) it got better and better. (Imagine that!) As the Xindi story arc progressed, I watched them more and more, and got re-interested in Enterprise. I watched the last 3/4ths of Season 3, and I plan to watch all of Season 4, if they keep the "Hey guys! Lets actually follow one of our bloody proposed story lines!" idea up.

Ghorg- It can seem that way (Space Soap) sometimes, but, especially if you look at the older episodes, they can often teach really interesting lessons. I believe TOS was the first show to have a black woman as a major reoccuring character, and I know for a fact that it had the first 'interracial kiss (Kirk + Uhura). It tought equality, respect, and many more lessons, as well as being intertaining.

Besides, it seems to be a general trend. The higher the SPX budget, the lower the quality of the show.

DS- The different thing about this is, the timeline is different. In this one, Nazi's have conquored the NorthEast America, and they're preparing for another push to get deeper in. They have more freedom from history, other shows, because this didn't happen in real history, or in any other show.

Oh, and the giant thing they showed at the end, Veger, was the building of the 'conduit' (the thing that helps them get back to the future), not a weapon.

flexor... that's awesome.

enterprise is a good show. a very good show.
i will never ever understand why they used that horrid song for the opening credits. that almost kills it for me.

i've seen all the star trek movies in the theatre. my mom made us all go to see them (except my brother). and when khan walked out she remembered him from the episode he was in. i had to wait 10 years before that episode was replayed and i tuned in.
so i come by it honestly. trek was forced on me by my mom and dad.

trek has always been a family thing at my house... my mom not so much. but back when DS9 was big, me my dad and brother and sister would all sit infront of the couch and watch the story and characters unfold. We own some form of every movie, weather we recoreded it of TV or bought it.

for some reason i am not hooked on Enterprise like the other series. Since my faimly got rid of cable 6 years ago my older sister had been recorign them for for us, and i and my brother would devower every 6 hour tape as if it were a box of chocklate ice cream. But these days, i tend to stop an episode 75% though to go do someing elce. Enterprise doesent seem to have the holding power as the others. and yah, the opening song was good till thay added drums and spead it up and such.

It looks like Star Trek will end where it started, come full circle if you will. This is what i mean: TOS was set to run for 5 years, but ended after 3. Likewise, Ent will end mostlikely at the 5th season, kicking at tempril loops and lost plots.

They do time travel too much. Why don't the Federation Time Ships just come and stop them? Also, I don't like Scott Bakula as a ST Captain. It goes against the ideal of ST Captains which is to make it more diverse than the last:
TOS: Fat White Man
TNG: Bald British Man, playing a French man
DS9: Black Man (though he was a Commander, not a captain). He becomes bald part-way through the series.
VOY: Female Captain. Also, Jeri Ryan is hot.

So logically the captain for Enterprise should be more diverse than that. Should have been a Gay Man, a Black Woman, or a Cat.

I also don't like the series in General. I watched most of the first season, and bits of the rest. This last season with the "Expanse" was really lame. I mean Florida gets hit with a giant laser (or something), and we have to go stop the extremeists responisble. I felt that the play on terrorism was a little silly, though really in style these days.

I also agree about Sam Becket jumping into Archer's body. Then Al will show up, leer at the women and tell Sam that Ziggy said he had to make sure that Cpt. Archer dies! That will save everyone!

In my opinion, the only thing that will truly save Star Trek is to stick with what worked best, and what worked best was a show like The Next Generation. No Star Trek series has ever come close to that one. They need to create a new star trek series in the same time frame that TNG was set in, and create some memorable characters like there were in TNG.

Nobody will ever forget Data, Captain Jean Luc Picard, and the rest of the main crew. The character development in TNG was phenominal, and the writing was crisp and fresh each episode. They need to bring this back.

TNG > All Star Trek series. Bring one just like it to TV, and I can guarantee you that the Star Trek franchise will be back up there. I don't like the whole idea behind Enterprise, DS9 or Voyager. They're decent shows, if you can stand to watch them. But TNG is the only one that I actually desired to watch, from start to finish, and then purchase on DVD so that I could watch over and over again.

TNG TNG TNG TNG

If you watch seasons 3 in its entirety, the "terrorist" thing makes a lot more sense. Unfortunately the writers must have been counting people watching it all the way through...which they don't.

Trekkies suck. GO STAR WARS!

I watch the very first three episodes of Enterprise before becomming completely disinterested. I've watched maybe 5 since then. None of them have even come CLOSE to re-capturing my attention. I don't even care what's going on, that's how badly they bore me. The last couple seasons of DS9 was probably Star Trek's high point. I love watching those. After DS9 though... things just seemed to go downhill fast.

The season opener is a two-parter. The first was last week, the second is this week.



yes. yes indeed.



sigh...I'll be honest I didn't see all of the last few episodes, I only barely caught the final episode due to school reasons and work :(.

phoenix- That's just what I'm saying. THe first ones sucked. They really did.

But they've gotten a whole lot better.

hinch- The timeships can't come back beacause in the future, the federation was destroyed. That, and we're assuming that these timeships are all powerful, which they obviously aren't.. (considering the Federation got destroyed..)

And Kirk wasn't fat... ****ner might be getting a bit pudgey now, but back then he was lean and mean, and slept with those who were green.

The sad thing is, there are rumors that the next Star Trek movies are going to be "prequels".. There's even rumors that they may bring back ****ner... And that they want to actually put his head onto a younger actors body.

I realize that. Spike was showing the first or second Episode of DS9 this morning. I was having trouble sitting through it. Most series do suck at the beginning, but once they pick up speed they can get drastically better.

I said I've watched a few episodes of Enterprise since the first season. Mainly whenever I catch them. The last one I saw was a few months ago. None of the ones I've managed to catch has interested me in the slightest. All of the stuff that's going on... I don't know anything about it, but I wasn't even interested in finding out. They just bore me... I think Star Trek is on the downward slope right now.

I also watch TOS, but I like TNG better.

Of course there's no cable here at college, so I don't watch either anymore. :p

I watched that show all of last season and it was great. I was a little confused at the end thoght. The zindi(how do ya spell it) ship was blown up and one orbital satlite was also blown up. Then they went down to the surface and some P-51 was shooting at them. Also the captain was in a nazi tant WTF!!:confused:

XXX-mas is coming soon. Do like I did, and ask for the TNG series on DVD. You can get season's 1-7.

I've liked (and disliked) all Star Treks in their own ways.

I will continue to watch Enterprise tonight

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/episode/6356.html

PREVIEW THE NEXT EPISODE, THEN WATCH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just to keep the show going, just watch this one, UPN is watching to see if this second part of the season opener will ahve more viewers.