What happened with "Star Trek: Enterprise"?

[Mikintosh]

I haven't seen much of the show (just the pilot), I'm going to get to it when I'm done winding through Voyager. But I was just wondering if you guys who saw the show during its run have an idea on why the show was so troubled and ultimately canceled. I know I was put off by the cast and the writing at first, but I never gave it a second chance. Did things get better and I (and the general public) never find out?

[Lord Dalek]

Bad acting (ie: Scott Bakula) and bad recycled writing (ie: Braga and Berman). Some of this was fixed when Manny Coto took over in the later seasons but it was too little too late.

[Michael24]

I watched during the entire four-year run and was never disappointed. Sure, there were the occasional episodes that were weak compared to others, but that's too be expected with any series. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the series. I liked the cast (especially Scott Bakula) and characters. For me, it was the first Trek series since TNG that I really liked and thought felt like what Trek is about. Very good series.

[DarkAngel]

Bad acting (ie: Scott Bakula) and bad recycled writing (ie: Braga and Berman). Some of this was fixed when Manny Coto took over in the later seasons but it was too little too late.
Yeah, Bakula wasn't a good fit as captain, easily the worst of the 5. And the yeah, the first couple seasons suffered from the same thing that plagued Voyager throughout. But there was at least an attempt (even if not entirely successful) to improve and do something different over the last two seasons. So that's enough for me to put it above Voyager.

Coto introduced some nice stuff in the final season, but the execution didn't always match the potential of the concepts and it was too little, too late. It's too bad he (or someone else) hadn't been brought on board sooner to introduce some of those things first season.

[Michael24]

I thought Bakula was an ideal choice for a Trek captain and did a great job. Certainly a more appealing one than Janeway, and probably my second favorite just behind Picard.

[bigddan11]

I thought Bakula made a good captain. He showed how much Earth personnel had to learn in space, and he helped stop a time rift war from happening. I have him fourth on the list though. Janeway is still behind him. The biggest complaint most people have with Enterprise is 1) It kept a Voyager style during the first 2 seasons and 2) The ship was more advanced than the Enterprise despite Enterprise having the greater technology.

[SirLemming]

It was a good show that took an unfortunate misstep: using time-travel as the main story arc in a prequel series. But it was still good, and a big step up from Voyager in my opinion.

Honestly, you can't expect Star Trek fans on the internet not to overcriticize a show. It's a law of nature. Just enjoy it for yourself if it's to your liking.

[I.R Joey]

I liked the show, there were some good episodes. Not as great as DS9 and Next Gen though.

Season 4 was really good.

[Arkangel]

The cast was incredibly weak, with many given almost nothing to do for the majority of the series.

The writing exemplified the worst of the Trek franchise-- plots recycled for the third or fourth time. And time travel-- a device which had been beaten to death in previous series-- was resurrected . . . and then, once again, beaten to death. Not to mention yet another World War II story.

The last season, which is hailed as a great improvement, was too little, too late (and overrated in any case, in my opinion).

The series finale was absolutely horrible.

[SirLemming]

The last season, which is hailed as a great improvement, was too little, too late (and overrated in any case, in my opinion).
I agree with that in a relative sense; I think the last season was hailed as the "finally the show is getting good" season, whereas I think it was a step in the right direction, but not miles ahead of the other seasons in terms of pure episode quality.

[Swordfish_II]

Well, for starters the whole "it's a prequel, but pretty much everything is exactly the same as the series set 200 years later" didn't help it much. It was just more "been there, done that" before the that was supposed to have been done.

The most egregious examples are season one's "Acquisition," where the ship is attacked by Ferengi, a group of aliens that was unknown to humans until Picard made first contact with them. But that was ok, because most of the crew was knocked out, and they never said what their species was.

Then nearly a year later, the exact same thing happens again in "Regeneration". Only this time it's the Borg. But again, it's all fine because they never say they're Borg. Just that they want some technology. But to be fair, Voyager already mucked this up with Seven's backstory.

Then they effectively sidestep the overall plot of the series and introduce a new, unknown enemy, the Xindi. Then drop the Temporal Cold War plot in the last two minutes of part two of the season four premiere.

Then it was mostly hit or miss until the abysmal finale.

[Arkangel]

I agree with that in a relative sense; I think the last season was hailed as the "finally the show is getting good" season, whereas I think it was a step in the right direction, but not miles ahead of the other seasons in terms of pure episode quality.
Good point. I agree with that characterization of it.

[The Guitar Slayer]

I'm an original series fan, so I hated the lore being tinkered with. Spock was the first Vulcan hybrid -- period. He was the first Vulcan that was in a line of command for Starfleet. Thusly, season 4, while it may have been good, irked me to no end.