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 - Well written, acted, and filmed - just one thing wrong...As a long time fan of the Star Trek franchise, I tend to be among the more lenient fans as far as where the writers and producers take the stories. I suppose this is what to expect from a fan who was drawn in by Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed Enterprise as a series on it's own, but it is very obvious that there are differing views on where the fans wanted the series to go as opposed to the writers. I understand the producers desire to explore new ideas (Temporal Cold War, Xindi) but we Trek fans are nitpickers, and there were so many good opportunities to "fill in the gaps" created by the other four series. What caused the various conflicts with the Klingons and the Romulans? How was Section 31 started? And season four left me wanting for more about the early development of the Federation. There were some very notable episodes this season, particularly Carbon Creek, Horizon, and Bounty. Minefield makes you want for more of the origins of the Starfleet-Romulan conflict, and Dead Stop seems to foreshadow the Borg storylines better than Regeneration, as I feel it was unnecessary to actually have the Borg in Enterprise at all. The ultimate shame is that the last season was the one that the fans wanted, and was actually so good that I was anxiously awaiting the next episode after watching each weeks' story. It might be nice to see an occasional made for TV movie with this cast, maybe with a creative idea for a Romulan war (hint, hint.) I will say, though, if you are only willing to invest in a single season, wait for the fourth one. It's truly worth it. Rating:  - The Worst of the Four SeasonsIf in season one "Star Trek: Enterprise" lurched to its feet like an amnesiac zombie formerly known as "Star Trek: Voyager," it just resigned itself to keeling right back over by season two. Retread plots, inconsistent characterizations, and a thumb to the nose regarding continuity with the original series were just some of the offenses that helped drive millions of viewers away. Most of the blame rests with the producers, who seemingly saw fit to endorse these obvious shenanigans, and the writers, who took a paint-by-numbers approach to plot and dialogue. Scott Bakula, despite a fine turn in "Quantum Leap," continues to register "zero" in the charisma department; it's amazing that William Shatner is so often lampooned for his staccato and swagger in later episodes of the original series when Bakula, with his herky-jerky, angry-for-no-reason approach to Jonathan Archer, is just as affected in his acting style--he's simply not remotely as effective. The rest of the cast is fine. In fact, Connor Trinneer, Jolene Blalock, and John Billingsley easily could have carried the show without Bakula, even if the producers and writers insisted on propping up his bland character as someone of significance while making the others look like sycophantic observers. Too bad the U.S. ethnic minorities on the show generally get less attention than the guest aliens of the week or the many cumbersome and jargony phrases that no real person would utter, like "polarize the hull plating." However, many episodes of season two are blessed with topnotch special effects, so there are pretty pictures to look at, even if the pacing and music that accompany them are usually as directionless as space itself. By season three, "Star Trek: Enterprise" started to show signs of life, even if it had turned into a soap-operatic serial involving a "Star Wars"-ish race to stop a planet-killing weapon. The best season easily is its last--save for the high-school-quality "Daedalus" and the insultingly awful "These Are the Voyages." Cheers to Manny Coto for a valiant effort at breathing life back into a series so determined to commit dramatic suicide. Too bad he wasn't around from the beginning, when it would really have mattered. Rating: - Enterprise crosses into Season twoThe second season dealt with the completion of the Shockwave cliffhanger. Unfortunately the show really took a turn for the worse viewer-wise as many trek fans abandoned the show. I liked the idea of the temporal cold war but it was indeed a bit ambiguous and confused fans. Not enough appearances by the Andorians or Tellarites in season 2-two races that helped form the UFP. This show had so much potential and by the end of this season, with an exciting episode "The Expanse" ,we see a Xindi story-arc that would take us through all of season 3. In all honesty the seeds of failure were planted in the second season with some truly weak episodes, despite that the idea of this show remained bright, it was only the poor writing that drove off viewers. Cannon violations and lack of addressing important pre-federation issues was obvious. But I still loved ENTERPRISE...after all it was in its infancy as a series and a part of the lengendary Star Trek franchise. Rating:  - Enterpise ExcellenceI just completed an afternoon view of disk 1 of season 1. I found the visual and sound quality amzing. While watching Broken Bow, my immediate impression was a sense of wonder and 'wow'! It was amazing how these characters came together on Day 1 and captured our imaginations! The pilot episode was by far, the best Star Trek pilot ever released -- that is, the producers delivered a compeling story on the very first program! Wow! I am anxious to purchase the third season set---since the story lines were immaginative and made me remember what the Star Trek universe was all about. It is a pity that the Star Trek millions did not embrace a series, which was by far, one of the most compeling and brilliantly acted of all the franchize. On a side bar: I was amazed at the appearance of actors that are now some of the best shows on TV: The O.C. (One of the aliens is now Julie Cooper's mother...), Dangerous Housewives (The husband of Mary Ellen...), JAQ (The mysterious CIA agent...), and so on. Rating:  - Reboot or parallel timeline?With the second season, ENT continued to anger many long-time fans as Archer and his crew tangled with the Borg, the Ferengi and the Romulans long before TOS and TNG did. The back door excuse that continuity was maintained was that the crew never learned of their names (though the Borg issue remains very muddled). Brannon Braga -who was asked by a fan to explain the Borg episode Regeneration - seemed to confirm that this Trek was a complete Reboot of the franchise or a Star Trek that occurs in an alternate universe. There is something called Many Worlds, a parallel time theory that contends that most historical occurrences, such as the signing of Magna Carta and what not, did happen only that principles might have been slightly different.And that essentially, since Star Trek: First Contact, the entire franchise now exists in this parallel timeline. Essentially, what happens is the Borg and TNG Enterprise journeys into the past and changes history. Here, then, reality splits into two versions -one road depicting the changed history, and the other road is were the original reality exists before the change.In the end, it is the only way to explain the Borg episode and Star Trek: Enterprise. Had Braga and Berman basically thought this out, maybe I could've forgiven them for the drivel they put out for three seasons until Paramount and UPN let Manny Coto take over the last season (which has been the best since DS9). I'm sad to say that Trek really ended with DS9. All others, have just been pale imitations.
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