Shark Bytes

This was the show where I realized Paramount & the dastardly duo of Berman & Braga were out to rape & pillage to ST franchise. As a Trek fan, more curious than faithful, I tuned in. Once the theme song came on I knew the show had jumped mightily!

Though there were some good ideas sprinkled throughout the series run (i.e. humanity's 1st steps out; Earth's relationship w/ the Vulcans; the Vulcan-Romulan relationship; the political situation between Vulcan, Andorians, & Telarites; the Klingon/Augments story; and, most importantly, the Alternate Universe arc), the show never really seemed to gel together throughout its life until its last year. Usually Trek spinoffs need 1 season or 2 to finally hit some kind of stride. By the time this one started to finally click it was far too late to avoid cancellation.

I still don't know which was worse: continually seeing them get their butts whooped on a weekly basis by some new race, or the show's repeatedly flagarant disregard for established Trek canon! Though it was great to see the show dive into and add to established franchise lore (i.e. explain why some Klingons had ridges while others didn't; exploring Andorian & Vulcan cultures; & the Surak arc) it was almost as if they were attempting to make up for things like the crew encountering Ferengi and Borg, or taking on the Romulans using technology that was beyond the capacity established by the original series.

While the Xindi War was definitely a take it or leave it arc, the involvement of the Next Generation era at the end of the series was the ultimate jump for this show.

I'll ignore the ridiculous statements of people comparing the plot of Enterprise to progressive propaganda. Bush sucks, get over it.

The show truly jumped the shark when GODWIN'S LAW went into effect: The Alien Nazi at the end of season 3. The show only got better after that mini arc. Too bad it was cancelled shortly thereafter.

There are so many JTS moments it's not even funny (some would cite the first moment of the premiere episode as a good starting point).

But for me, you just need three words:

Temporal. Cold. War.

The show jumped the shark as soon as it played that awfull American mullet rock intro that make me want to put a gun to my head and die. It had terrible plots, boring characters and never stayed true to the shows lore. They had a real chance to make something interesting in terms of the decisions they made with what they came against, they had no federation "ethics" and code of conduct to follow as well as the prime directive, instead they went through galaxy in a garbage scowl running off all the time because they were inferior. Most episodes followed the same plot 2 random crew members get trapped, marooned, inprisoned sometimes ones usually at deaths door, they try to work out how to get out while talking about there past and background *yawn*. Also Scott Bakulas acting is some of the worst I have ever seen I cringe everytime I watched him, he is so wooden, he was far better in Quantum Leap, a starship captain just didnt suit him. And the naked oil rub downs and half naked flashes of T'pol's t**s, come on if I wanted that I'd watch porn i get to see it all. :D

The Xindi did it for me. I thought they had a nice thing going with the Vulcans against the Andorians and the Humans showing what good natural diplomats they were. The early stages of the Klingon empire was interesting too. Then out of nowhere they are invading zoo animals? Way to estrange your only audience, guys. They should have taken a page from Firefly and made it more of a frontier story where the players are all familiar, but things are more primitive.

I agree that the romance was forced and I think the lack of chemistry between some of the actors didn't help. Many of the characters were rather bland (Mayweather). Good concept, poor execution.

It jumped on the first episode of the third season. First there is the business of the Xindi. Berman and Braga, obviously out of ideas decided to rip off Star Wars by having the villianous Xindi "Jedi Council" of aliens speak in subtitles. Cornier yet are the design of the aliens. One is giant fly (Greedo?), while another is a sea creature (Jabba the hut?) that communicates in whale song. Stupid! Then they remixed main theme. Obviously a cover tune of a Rod Stewart song wasn't hip enough so they mixed in a beat box and a few more electric guitars to up the tempo. Finally the decided to sex it by introducing a painfully written and acted romance between T'pol and Trip, complete with semi nude backrubs.

UPN obviously at this point decided to ditch the adult audience and loyal fan base to further dumb it down for the lucrative teen demographic.

Oops--almost forgot the MOST horrid thing about Enterprise: when the writers strayed from the "Trek Bible", You just can't have anyone seeing a Romulan until "Balance of Terror". What were those idiots thinkin'?

U too find it hard to say it JTS, and I wish it was still on. But there were 2 glaringly hideous parts to this series: the theme song and that damned dog.

I read all this about Blalock's bad acting. None were worse than Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather). Ugh, and that episode with him revisiting his family on that freighter. *hurl* Horrible acting all around. T'Pol's amazing rear end acted better.

I loved the show. Not everything about it of course. But overall, it was great. It was nothing like the bag of crud DS9 was. Only Babylon 5 fans would dig THAT show.

Hi-

I am finding it hard to say the Enterprise jumped the shark. Were there things that could have been done better? Yes-and don't blame the actors. The main problem I had was that we as viewers didn't know much about Captain Archer. Like who did he live with after dad died and how did it affect him? Flashbacks would have been nice.

The moments on the show when I learned something new about him were great. Ex: Boken Bow, Deadalus.

major problems with this show.

the klingons were too close to earth
the borg?????
Risa????
ferengi????
the Xindi???

why all this stuff that was never seen on TOS?

if they had stayed with how the Federation was founded and doen the Romulan war, they show would have been great.

but no.....
we have to liten to liberal crap all over the place.

Same crap, different name! They kept getting the same producers and writers that screwed up all the previous series. They definitely missed a great opportunity to go where the original series could not. They had endless possibilities and story lines associated with exploring new planets.
They killed STTNG and DS9 with time travel and alternate time line crap. Then, they killed Voyager with endless Borg wars (and I’m sure more time travel somewhere in there) . What do they do, COMBINE the horrible story lines in Enterprise. Now you have time travel AND endless wars! You think Rick Berman would have learned his lesson two or three series ago.

I say that Enterprise was an awsome show because it was closer to the originsl series. Putting left-wing messages is what really damaged the show and the final episode was indeed a disaster. We never learned who was the future guy bossing around the Suliban and how the timeline was changed. Another thing, it needs more Romulan involvement.

I agree with Guest (Oct. 18.2007). It's a great show, I loved it too.

Oh, and to say Jolene Blalock is a bad actress is just dumb. She didn't win the Saturn Award for being bad.

in keeping with the strict outline on this site, i'd say it jumped with the first episode: klingons on earth. i really had no trouble with the cast or the acting except for the similarity with 'voyager' down to the phlox/neelix character. it was 'voryger part 2'. truth is, this show was doomed with 'ST: first contact'. in TOS earth is a major player with tech equal to any of the "regular" aliens (andorians, vulcans, klingons, etc.) mccoy even mentions that the vulcans had been conquered. ST:FC and enterprise just threw away all of the established story and created a new mess with time travel, photon torpedoes, oil rubdowns, cloaking tech, and transporters. plus earth is a 4th rate power behind everyone else. this was a huge missed oppertunity. how about a trek universe before phasers and sheilds? a little imagination with, maybe, railguns and armor? where earth is a player and there's a real reason to form a "federation of planets". enterprise could have been fun and the waste of time mirror universe ep showed it could have looked cool. read an old star trek book called "spaceflight chronology" and watch "star ship exeter" on the web. you'll get a sample of what this show could have been (with care and imagination) instead of a repackaged 'voyager'. other posters have covered other problems of the show. star trek has a big, dedicated and preexisting fanbase. a built-in hit maker unlike babylon 5 or firefly. i dunno if that makes the PTB lazy or not care. like i said: a huge missed oppertunity.