Series star Jolene Blalock -who identified herself as a lifelong Star Trek fan - has said that the failure of this series was because "The stories lacked intriguing content. They were boring." She felt that the early scripts violated facts already established in other franchise shows and complained that the show substituted revealing costumes for character development. "The audience isn't stupid," she protested. For year three, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman decided that they would finally address some of the fan complaints that the series lacked any sort of continuity and launched a season long arc about Earth threatened by a mysterious race called the Xindi -who were, for all intents and purposes, organized much like DS9's Dominion. Through the next 26 episodes (which then would be cut to 24 due to faltering ratings), Archer and his crew would search the galaxy for the Xindi in hopes of preventing them from destroying Earth. While ambitious in a year before the return of serialized drama, the series quickly fell into the same pattern as the previous two seasons: poorly written stories that said nothing, acting that made most soap stars look like Oscar winners, and an almost F You! to fans of TOS, TNG and DS9. The show was not grabbing people viscerally, as freakier aliens, lapses in logical story telling, and lack of character growth were taking over. No one, including me, felt a need to rush home and see this show, because it was saying nothing. There was a message there, I'm sure, but it was buried under technobabble and increasing desire to hurt women. I'm often remember Trek motion pictures 1,2,3,4 and 6 because the story had revelance to today. Enterprise missed that boat, even though the Xindi arc was a mushy allegory about 9/11. Archer's moral compass was thrown, but ultimatley, he never any long reaching effects. Some will say a good leader has no doubts, but Star Trek tried to show you through the years that long after an unpopular action, the capatin still might feel pangs of regret. But not Jonthan Archer. He was tough as nails guy. Pfft, I say, as he became a tool of a jingonistic Rick Berman. Still, one thing that came from this season was Manny Coto. He tried to return a sense of balance, but because UPN were more concerned with who was watching Trek instead of paying attention to who wasn't, this series was doomed. And while a letter campaign was started to save the show, in the end, it was not that would give this series one more season. UPN was going to cancel the show after season three, and then Paramount -home of the Godfather franchise -made UPN a deal they could not resist. Cutting the $1.5 million fee UPN paid Paramount to air the show to $875,000 made UPN reconsider airing the show. It would return for 22 more shows, but from that moment on, no matter how much Coto improved the show, Enterprise was doomed. The 10.5 millions fans had dwindled down to 2.5. And the logic that escaped the story telling for so many years, pointed out that if no one is watching, why air it?
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