To celebrate the release of Star Trek Into Darkness, the Flickering Myth writing team look back at the classic sci-fi franchise. Next up for Star Trek Month is Andy Naylor looking back at Star Trek: Enterprise….
It’s 100 years before Kirk and the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, the prequel series focus’ on the early years of Starfleet and their initial contact with alien species on board the first warp 5 capable ship; Enterprise.
Star Trek: Enterprise gets a tough deal, generally mocked for being the show that killed Star Trek – when we all know that was every single movie containing The Next Generation crew that was responsible for that. Enterprise, however, was pretty damn good most of the time. It does have its faults and niggley problems, but nothing that warrants the abuse it receives.
Okay, okay it didn’t get off to the greatest start, the first and second seasons are a little unadventurous and contained far too many filler episodes in a bid to carry a weak season long story arc, but once it got into its groove it was downright superb at times. Episodes like In a Mirror Darkly and The Augment stories are in a brilliant class of their own. The Xindi plot really kicked Enterprise into gear and the show took on a slightly darker feel and seemed to grow up a little. It evolved into what the viewer expects from modern television and episodic stories with now on-going plot is not it. Thankfully, the Xindi came and the show didn’t look back.
One issue I continually have with Enterprise are some of the characters. I’m not sure if they are badly written or acted, but Reid, Mayweather and Sato are easily forgettable. You could put another actor in their place and I doubt you’d find anyone that would notice. I like to call it the Harry Kim effect. If there was an episode centred on any of those characters, in an attempt to develop them, I ended up getting bored and losing interest.
The last ever episode has to easily be one of the most insulting, laziest and appalling ways to end any series ever to air on television. Ever. I really don’t know what they were thinking. Yes, they had limited time as they show had just been cancelled, but that mess of an episode still awakens a furt deep inside of me today. And, to any future sci-fi writers out there, unless you can pull off a great story (Voyage Home style) stay away from time travel story lines, they are usually rubbish, Enterprise just highlights that point.
Star Trek: Enterprise may not be highly regarded, but it is a very good addition to Star Trek lore with its backstory and constant acknowledgement to its predecessors. It has aged far better than The Next Generation or Voyager and is still a very enjoyable series.
Originally published May 15, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
