I just finished watching every single episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, from start to finish. Why? Because it’s the only season of Star Trek that I hadn’t avidly watched while it was on TV. The only episode I watched was the pilot, “Broken Bow,” when it launched. Now let me set the record straight by saying that I did not grow up on The Original Series. I grew up on The Next Generation and the movies of the ’80s. I did catch reruns of TOS on TV, but I have yet to see all the episodes (that’s going to happen within the next few months, since I’m watching Voyager start to finish now). I was well aware of the relationships between Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and their crew. I loved the movies, I could watch them over and over again. Even though I grew up with TNG and that is by far my favorite series, I am extremely well versed with the history of the TOS crew, on screen and behind the scenes.

Enterprise was doomed from the start because it was flawed. The first season was actually a pretty good intro season. It thoroughly captured the Star Trek feeling of exploration as well as the history behind the future. The crew’s mission was exploration, however the cowboy mentality quickly was overdone. I understand how the show’s creators were trying to bring back the camaraderie and friendships originally seen with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and they did a wonderful job with Archer, Tucker, and T’Pol. However, there was two radical differences between TOS and Enterprise that killed the Star Trek feel relatively quick.

First off, Kirk and his crew exercised cowboy diplomacy in the confines of structure and cooperation. Archer’s crew was defunct. Every episode seemed to be an authoritative tug-of-war between characters. Whether it was T’Pol constantly questioning Archer’s decisions all the way to the series finale, or Trip taking matters into his own hands and doing what is right for his own conscious, or Archer ruling cockily with an iron fist, the Big Three’s chemistry was not mixing well. Star Trek is supposed to be about embracing differences. Enterprise shunned differences between species by consciously promoting “human rights” and “human ideals” onto other species every episode. Hell, one of the most obvious instances of this occuring was during the fourth season episode “United” when Archer tells Shran and Gral to start acting more like humans. Furthermore, minor things such as the Captain having personal breakfast catering in the mornings and seperate dining quarters took away from the Star Trek feeling by separating the Captain from his crew. In Voyager, Janeway’s major concern was getting to know her crew better on a personal level. In Enterprise, Archer’s major concern was to get to know the crew better over a meal in his private quarters and then ignoring them for the rest of the season. That’s not Star Trek.

The second thing Enterprise did that steered it wrong was the exchange of a peaceful ship of exploration to a warship that had to meddle in everyone’s affairs. Star Trek is not a universe based on war campaigns. From the very first episode we get thrown into a war zone story arc regarding the Temporal Cold War. This arc haunts us through the beginning of the fourth season. The third season is extremely overwhelmed by the war theme. It is reflected in the storylines as well as the crew. Archer changes from being fair and compassionate to being ruthless and barbaric. Torture, piracy, trickery, and brute force are now the arsenal of Enterprise. Sure, there were wars in other series such as Deep Space 9 or mini war arcs like the Borg in TNG but the entire series did not transform itself around them. They still maintained the very ideals Star Trek was built on, something with Enterprise failed to do.

Overall I enjoyed watching Enterprise. I thought that character development between crewmates was superb, even though there were many plot holes and inconsistencies. I developed a kind of bond with some of the characters. The strongest character in the series was by far Dr. Phlox. He was flawless, and by flawless I mean that in every aspect: acting, development, consistency, and ethical standards. The strongest bond was with Trip and T’Pol. I wasn’t one of those fans that got a hard-on every time Jolene Blalock took the screen in her skintight Vulcan jumpsuit. The bond I developed was with Trip and T’Pol’s relationship. There was only one other time in all of Star Trek history where I’ve felt so emotionally strong towards a character or a character’s situation, and that was Data’s death in Nemesis. I found myself itching to learn with every episode of TPol or Tucker would just come out and say “I love you” to each other. They were meant to be, simple as that. Yet they were being forced apart by their surroundings and their own stubbornness. They should have ended up together. The passion and bond developed between those two was by far the strongest I’ve ever seen in Star Trek. It was un-proclaimed love for both of them. Not completing the obvious was a great injustice to the series. An even greater injustice was Trip’s death, as it was resolved in the shittiest way possible. Captain Archer lost his best friend, yet he was able to be all optimistic and smiles about it right after. “Dude, my best bud just died but I’m about to go out and floor these guys with my kickass speech!” There was absolutely no mourning for Trip. Not even T’Pol gave him proper mourning. His death was treated as if he was a red shirt. That’s something I can never forgive Bragga, Berman and Sussman for.

Enterprise is an overall OK series if you just want to watch for entertainment. If anything is to be taken from this series is the character development with each other, instead of their surroundings. The creators nailed pretty close to home to creating a family feel to the crew. They nailed pretty far from home on the things that make Star Trek what it is.