Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Why Enterprise Was Just Kinda…Ehhhh…

I caught an episode of Enterprise on SciFi yesterday. The crew stops at a mysterious space station that magically repairs their ship, with our captain wondering “What’s the catch?”

I had checked out Enterprise when it first “launched” and just didn’t find the show interesting enough to continue. In viewing the show again with fresh eyes, I was left with these thoughts on why the show was just mediocre at best:

It’s not just that Enterprise was formulaic, it completely lacked personality and spark.

I really do like Scott Bakula, but as a starship captain riding the new frontier, he’s about as exciting as a piece of dry toast. Even our quirky alien doctor in sickbay (who provides some sort of relief from the monotonous voices of the rest of the cast) isn’t enough to make this show come to life.

If I were to recreate Enterprise, I’d want to see a swashbuckling, dynamic, crazy-ass captain who was willing to do whatever it took to protect his crew. I want to see a captain bristling with so much spark and sexual energy, he’s seducing aliens across the galaxy. Oh, wait, that was Captain Kirk!

I want the other characters to be just as memorable and interesting. Even though Scotty was a terrible caricature of a Scotsman, we all remember his soundbites. Can you say that about anything uttered on Enterprise?

Enterprise…you blew it. I shed no tears for your demise.

As McCoy would say: “He’s dead, Jim.”