Enterprise comes home to DVD

As with Voyager before, Enterprise repeated the same errors. At its core, the show had promise. With very little of early Federation days nailed down, it seemed like a good idea to go back and tell the story. But instead of sticking with some of the canon that did exist, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman rebooted the entire Star Trek franchise, which angered about 10 million viewers. Season one continued the ever increasing schism between the fans. And while I liked Bakula on Quantum Leap, he -like Kate Mulgrew before him - was woefully miscast. The supporting cast, with the exception of Jolene Blalock, showed their limitations as actors (when they got lines). The stories were mostly retreds of previous Trek episodes and while both Berman and Braga were aware of the issues of continuity, they felt that if the adhered to it too much, then the show could not work. They continued to believe that Trek viewers -at least the newer, younger ones (and, admittedly, the group advertisers like) - were only concerned about the how weird the story was and if it had half naked females parading around. This misstep by them, by fulling ignoring the fans who had watched TOS, TNG and DS9, was increasing ENT's end week by week. Paramount can be blamed also, for not stepping in sooner. Berman and Braga's now almost incestuous relationship with Trek caused then not to see the forest for the tree's. Had they realized that fan base was deeply divided, and had they analyzed who was not watching Trek anymore instead of small band who were, maybe something could've been done. Then again, maybe its doom was already sealed by the time Insurrection came out in 1998. And then there is the fan base. They too can be blamed for this, as this schism did not begin with ENT. It really started with VOY. As a network show, VOY had different standards to live up too than it's syndicated brothers, TNG and DS9. Racier plots and emphasis on action and violence became the criterion, while a device called the Temporal Reset Button was used week after week. And while TRB is a useful tool, but to rely on it for every episode got you caught in a never ending loop of Easter Peep type stories; all full of air with no substance. Plus, people who were in there teens or early 20's when TNG premiered were not 15 years older, wiser and now considered less desirable by the advertisers. ENT was, I guess, designed for the guys and girls who were the same age as the ones who saw the first season of TNG. But these new groups of kids, now brought up on a diet of science fiction being everywhere, felt Trek was a dinosaur. So all that remained, in the end, was a few really dedicated fans who felt that, yes the show was not as good as it could be, but it still needed to stay on because it was Star Trek. I will concur to a point, but that's mostly because I hate reality shows and procedural dramas that have overtaken the air waves. Give me a good science fiction story that challenges the mind, then I'll watch. I once read that science fiction is a dangerous genre, for it can be seem as anti-Christian and anti-establishment. It brings up thought provoking ideas and presents a possible world were there is no hatred, no poverty, and no religion. It's the possibilities that scare people. But even as Star Trek has framed a lot of peoples lives, such as wonderful idea of a utopian world and taught us some good values, it has entertained us for nearly 40 years. Both VOY and ENT might be considered entertaining shows, but they are NOT the next step in Star Trek's evolutionary life that TNG and DS9 were.