I avoided watching this for 20 (!) years, because the reviews were ambivalent. But it's really fun. It's not awesome, like the Kirk/Spock series, but it's also (thus far) not excessively moralizing like TNG.
This is the only Star Trek (for me) that captures the wonder of the original series. The writing isn't great, but that was never a thing with Star Trek. They're also a bit kinetic, say, with discovering new Warp-Civilizations.
I also really appreciate that the crew is basically white, except for one black guy that's not blackity-black.
Even the chicks are fine. The writing for the Asian chick is a bit insipid, but it accurately reflects the chick version of the 'hero's journey'.
Unfortunately, they've introduced Time Travel, so I guess a few of the episodes are going to be tedious.
Dealing with Space Time Continuum issues multiple times in a PREQUEL series (where they already have to go out of their way to make the tech look worse) just feels like a cop-out for lack of imagination.
Time travel in a series starring Quantum Leap...
I'm sure the guy who suggested that in the writers room is looking back at it saying "I'm retarded?"
He does, and so do the writers/producers who took over after he left. If I remember correctly, this was also due to studio interference, who wanted another "angle" and prevented the production staff from telling the story they wanted to tell. The DVDs for the show are quite interesting, as a lot of the extra content and interviews explore the failings of the show (kinda odd). The people responsible for the time war angle left at the end of season 3 (I think), which left the show on the alien Nazi time traveler cliffhanger season finale (LOL), which was quickly and unceremoniously wrapped up and never visited again in season 4 (under the direction of the new writers/producers).
One thing I sincerely miss with streaming services and digital-only downloads; the DVD extras..
I try to stick to physical media as much as possible. It's the superior form of content, especially with how much they're changing or removing stuff in real time. The only benefit to non-physical media is the convenience. I'd rather not sell my soul for convenience.
Don't mock Jimmy!
Not sure if anybody else got the joke...
Not to mention introducing alien species that we never see again after this, such as the Suliban and Xyrillians.
I'll give it credit for actually giving a satisfactory answer to the Klingon Forehead Problem near the end, though, as well as my favorite Mirror Universe episodes of the entire franchise, "In a Mirror, Darkly" parts 1 and 2.
The species thing isn't too far removed from how often Star Trek's played up small but powerful empires that in the end, almost never actually appear at any point in TNG, DS9, or Voyager.
The Tellarites and Andorians for example were fairly prominent in a TOS episode, indicating that they were major players within the Federation (Journey to Babel). Then of course there's the Tholians and the Gorn Hegemony.
If anything, Enterprise managed to bridge the gap in some ways by reintroducing some of these former cast offs and giving them some new life and attention.
That was a stupid and terrible answer, they'd have been best to just ignore it. The mirror eps were straight fire, though.
Indeed. There's even a scene later in the series where the characters sort of allude to how unpopular the whole "temporal cold war" concept was.
I want to know more. I've watched ENT several times and don't remember this.
https://youtu.be/PZMEvkuE-6w?si=44N5Hi5lr2RDqBPU&t=16
Obviously, in this scene Archer's supposed to be sick of it because of how much pain, stress, danger, agony, etc the whole affair's caused and how he wants nothing to do with it ever again.
Still, I think there was a subtle hint in there indicating that the writers were tired of it and wanted nothing to do with that plot element ever again. It was specifically the producers that had been insistent on the whole temporal cold war thing in the first place, and the writers had to try to force it into the plot for two years, no matter how stupid or annoying it was to begin with.
Thanks fren.