Summary
Star Trek: Enterprisehas always had an unsteady place in theStar Trekfranchise, and one new viewer called the harsh judgment the show receives into question with a querying post on social media addressing other fans.
Star Trek:Enterprisebroke the franchise’s mold by going back in time instead of ahead and telling the story of humanity’s earliest exploits in space after attaining the technology required for effective space travel. WhileEnterprisewas unique and added many things to the franchise’s canon, includingthe story behind the name ofStar Trek’s Enterprise, which served as the primary location forStar Trek: The Original Series,opinions on the show have been mixed despite starting strong.
Part ofStar Trek: Enterprise’s mixed reception consists of fans defending the show and maintaining that severalunderratedStar Trek: Enterpriseepisodesdon’t get a fair shake from other enjoyers of the franchise. One new defender of the show is Reddit userVague-emu, who took to r/startrek to pose the question, “Why does ENT get such a bad rap?” Expressing their surprise at how much they enjoyed the show despite apprehension going into it due to the mixed reviews, the user clarified that they’re aware that the last few episodes are controversial. However, they feel that the writing is solid and the newly fleshed-out portrayal of the Vulcans was enjoyable, making them question the show’s poor reputation.
Several other denizens of the subreddit would proceed to weigh in on the issue, with many of the commenters agreeing on the same points of note, including the OP’s already-stated problems with how the series ended. Some of these widely held gripes include the sudden change in story focus brought on by the Temporal Cold War arc, the effort put into setting up theOriginal Seriesretroactively, and a host of issues with how the show treated established canon. However, most longtime fans in the replies echo the same conclusion: franchise fatigue. While modernStar Trekfans are worried about too many projectsbeing released asStar Warsdoes,Star Trekcommitted this sin first around the ’90s and early 2000s with multiple long-running series running into one another and movies of varying quality. This seems to be the broad consensus on why the show got such a poor reception despite its initial critical success.
These weren’t the only problems, as the writing also had issues, and evenStar Trek: Enterprisestar Jolene Blalockhas slammed how her character T’Pol was written. Other commenters also mentioned some individual pet peeves like distaste for the original showrunner’s philosophy on the franchise, theStar Trekepitaph missing from the show’s original title for the first two seasons, the opening theme, and much more–but the core issues do seem to be the ones everyone agrees on. Coming in after years of night endlessStar Trekcontent to capitalize on its previously unexpected success,Enterprisewas quick to wear its welcome due to overexposure suffered by fans, making all the legitimate faults the show had all the more glaring and turning minor mishaps and inconsistencies into capital sins. With time to cleanse the pallet, many fans admit to enjoying the show more on rewatching.
While a fan-requestedStar Trek: Picardspinoff project might’ve been canceled by Paramount, there’s still tons ofStar Trekcontent to come, as the IP is one of Paramount’s strongest and still quite rife with opportunities to expand and draw in new fans with more shows and movies in a similar vein toStrange New WorldsandLower Decks.Hopefully, the creatives learn from past mistakes and pace the new content accordingly.
Star Trek: Enterpriseis currently available for streaming on Paramount Plus.
Star Trek: Enterprise
A century before Captain Kirk’s five-year mission, Jonathan Archer captains the United Earth ship Enterprise during the early years of Starfleet, leading up to the Earth-Romulan War and the formation of the Federation.
