Arik

Did it?

This is why an all-out UPN marketing blitz saying "Look at Enterprise now! It's so much better" wouldn't have worked. You can't say this became good without at least implying that what came before it wasn't. The article does a good job of hedging that with its language (unsurge in quality), but between the lines it still says "This is when the show became good". Doing so would alienate all the fans that are (were) loyal to the show.

"You mean, they're telling me that what I liked was really crap?"

So, if the flailing and failing StarTrek.com says the first three seasons of Enterprise weren't good, and that the fans didn't really care, does that make it true?

The fourth season still sucked. At least, the episodes that I saw. And the ones I watched all ended up on their list of "best of".

The original article is here.

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Deslok

ENT sucked and they knew it from the first slide in the ratings.

Season 4, while done by different people than the first three, did a great job in capturing some of the vibe that TOS had.

It's NEVER gonna be able to be what it once was. As good as I think Coto is, I don't think that one person could ever restore STAR TREK to what Roddenberry created. It's gonna take a team of different kinds of fans.

What eps specifically did you see from season four that you felt sucked?

EDIT: I just reread the "article" and noticed that there is no byline. The writer isn't credited anywhere I looked.

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Arik

Going off of the list linked above

I started (and couldn't finish) Home

Borderland (even with my namesake, this one was bad)

Observer Effect

In a Mirror Darkly I & II

Demons

And, of course, These Are The Voyages

Over all, season 4 threw a whole bunch of nods to Star Trek, but that's all they were. It was still the same dumb crew going on the same bland stories.

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Deslok

Okay, first I need to understand how you judge these things.

Are you judging season four against the other seasons of ENT or against all Berman era Trek, or against the entire franchise's history?

ENT 4.x sucked in comparison with the best of the rest of all Trekdom. But it was still a better direction than the previous seasons.

The pacing of the writing was better than in previous seasons. The chosen subject matter was generally better, and in some cases truer to the source. If the writing seemed pedantic, then you can blame the constraints put upon the production team by VIACOM who probably issued directives to Paramount to carry on business in a particular way.

It's impossible now for Paramount to deliver something soleley for the fans. Roddenberry had to battle the commercial interests at hand when making TOS and TNG. Today, the challenge is monolithic. It may well turn out that any Star Trek worth watching in the future is going to be produced by the fans and distributed on the net.

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Arik

I used a shorter, and more accurate, measuring stick. I asked myself "Did I enjoy this?".

That's what entertainment is all about! Producing something for a niche that will enjoy it. It's not my fault that Paramount keeps trying to market to some mysterious "average" viewer instead of the folks who would otherwise enjoy what they're putting out.

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Brikar

I was reasonably entertained by Seasons 3 and 4, but holding it up against the rest of the Trek shows and other shows outside of the franchise, they're pretty bland. Season 4 had the same problem as Voyager's 7th season where things would start out real well and then fizzle by the end.

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Bean

How could you not enjoy In a Mirror Darkly?? Yeah yeah, I know, it was really just anther nod (albeit a big one) to TOS, but it was fun to watch. I really enjoyed it and think it's one of favourite Trek episodes.

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Deslok

yeah, I really liked season four a lot. It wasn't perfect, but it was made of the stuff that we had been pointing out was missing from ENT at the very start. Character-wise, they had to work with what they had been given. I think they did a fine job of making the best of what they had. Imagine taking the hollow template that B&B had created and breathing life and depth into a formerly uninteresting tv show.

If they had done what they did in season four in season one, we'd not only be watching season five now, but it would probably be a much more rounded show than anything they ever made.

I think some hard lessons were learned by Paramount. I think they're embarassed on some level, even though their primary interest is in making money for the studio, and themselves. Bad publicity is one thing, but they don't want to be seen as incompetent.

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Cymro

I just watched "These Are The Voyages" again last night. It really was a truly shit episode. But, I was in awe of how great the production values were on that show. It's actually quite dissapointing to see it because it's such a waste on such an otherwise crappy show. I really loved the CGI Enterprise D.

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Brikar

I agree. That final montage was pretty damn sweet.

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"A million monkeys typing until the end of time will produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. Ten thousand monkeys typing for ten thousand years will write a Hemingway. Ten monkeys typing over Columbus Day weekend will give you a Dan Brown."

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http://benforrealz.blogspot.com