Why Enterprise Failed?

[Mr. Kaze]

Why Enterprise failed:

Voyager.

If fans had not already been fed a seven year diet of almost complete junk, they might have given Enterprise the three year warm-up that, let's face it, TNG needed, too.

Half correct. DS9 also killed Enterprise because DS9 didn't need the warm-up because it was happy to bootstrap in on TNG's already developed chunk of the universe.

Or, to put it another way, WTH did Voyager's and Enterprise's writers need time to get warmed up? For the love of Gaav, folks, we should be talking about seasoned professionals and they're turning out Tripe! and being allowed to do so for years on end. Just to do a quick comparison to Star Wars -- nobody has said that they "didn't care for the prequels but it's okay because Lucas just needs some time to warm up." Nobody says that FireFly failed because Whedon needed three stinkin' years to "warm up!"

ENTERPRISE started out with something like 13 million viewers with its pilot, and over the course of 4 years managed to loose all but two or three million of them...
If ENT aired on any other network, it would have been dumped after season 2.

And if it had been any other show, it would've started with only half as many viewers and lost them twice as fast. UPN, like most of it's initial fans, cut Enterprise wildly undue slack because it was branded as Star Trek. That's the short and the short of it.

Anybody remember that it took Babylon 5 something like two years to get from the pilot episode to having a funded first season? And that the "warm up" period was done in that first season? And that they were still facing cancellation after season 4 until TNT bailed them out? Amazingly harsh and cruel things happen to shows that aren't protected by the power of The Brand[tm].

Brands like ("Star Trek" and "Star Wars" and "The Matrix") are remarkable things -- they allow a molehill of success to be turned into a mountain of barely-related dung.

 

[VorpalBunny]

Firefly didn't fail. It wasn't even given the chance to fail. Fox Exec are morons...

Preach on, brother.

 

[D+1]

I'll agree four seasons really isn't failure.

I think you really can say it is. Not a failure in and of itself of course for the very reason mentioned, but it is a failure when compared to other Trek series as far as duration and viewership.

What I'd like to see is a Trek show that DOESN'T deal with Starfleet except in as superficial and tangential way as possible. What I want is a show that actually presents a look at ANY OTHER AREA of the Trek universe in depth and at length. The era doesn't matter then as such but for preference I'd also go with between ToS and TNG eras.

Edit: Oh yeah, nobody who has had any creative control over previous Trek series should be allowed within 10,000 meters. I think we all know who I'm talking about...

 

[Viking Bastard]

ENT failed because ENT was dull.

ENT was never all bad and better than the last few seasons of VOY, but it was
pretty dull. It never made you go 'whoah!'. A show needs a 'whoah!'.

The 3rd and 4th seasons, when they finally got off their arses, just came too late.

It made big promises, but did little in execution.

 

[Felon]

ENT failed because ENT was dull.

And that's really all that need be said on the matter.

 

[Ranger REG]

Half correct. DS9 also killed Enterprise because DS9 didn't need the warm-up because it was happy to bootstrap in on TNG's already developed chunk of the universe.

Wait a minute. You're blaming DS9 for killing Enterprise?

ROTFLMAO!!!!

Well, if it wasn't for producer Ira Steven Behr that lied to franchise head Rick Berman about keeping the Dominion War arc for just one season (but didn't) and the fact that Rick Berman was focusing on Voyager to meddle with DS9, then I can say with a smile on my face, "cool!"

Or, to put it another way, WTH did Voyager's and Enterprise's writers need time to get warmed up? For the love of Gaav, folks, we should be talking about seasoned professionals and they're turning out Tripe! and being allowed to do so for years on end. Just to do a quick comparison to Star Wars -- nobody has said that they "didn't care for the prequels but it's okay because Lucas just needs some time to warm up." Nobody says that FireFly failed because Whedon needed three stinkin' years to "warm up!"

Seasoned professionals? We're talking about Berman & Braga. If you were around long enough to have seen the latter half of VOY seven-season run, you already know how their works turned out. You might even hear my low opinion episodes after episodes of VOY since they brought aboard a Borg Babe.

When I heard that Berman & Braga are going to be executive producers of ENT, I decided -- after having thrown up my lunch -- that I will give them a second chance impress me.

That was a mistake on my part.

If there is one GOOD thing they did, is to let Manny Coto and the Reeves-Steven to write for the fourth and final season. I just got through watching the first part of "In a Mirror Darkly" episode (I taped my favorites), and though it is not about the Trek universe we both know, it was one hell of a great story! I can't wait to see how the second part end!

While I do believe that there are other factors -- after all, I'm a fan of conspiracy theories and a recent hater-basher of Les Moonves -- that contributed to Enterprise cancellation, one can't help but point at Berman & Braga for their inability to impress us.

 

[ForceUser]

Here we go again:the Voyager-bashers rears their ugly heads again..
(Were are the roll-eyes when you need them?)

Asmo

Voyager sucked, man. As Trek goes, it was subpar.

 

[Kesh]

That's what really gets me. Voyager had a great premise. The pilot absolutely rocked.

... and then it all went to pot. Within the span of a season, they had forgotten 90% of the original premise, and all that was left was "we're a long way from home." I really looked forward to the struggle between the two crews (lasted about half a season), the slow deterioration of Voyager as it got haphazard repairs (never really came into play), the social problems of being isolated from their own kind (barely came into play, mostly focused on Seven-Of-Nine), and the various conflicts with vastly different societies they encounter (from time to time, but mostly it was "Federation right, new society wrong").

 

[Ranger REG]

That's what really gets me. Voyager had a great premise. The pilot absolutely rocked.

Some of us would agree with you. But in the end, Rick Berman & Brannon Braga screwed it up. Now we added Enterprise to that list of failures under their executive producer's belts.

 

[drothgery]

That's what really gets me. Voyager had a great premise. The pilot absolutely rocked.

Okay, this I don't get.

I saw the Voyager pilot and immediately suspected that the show was going focus on the overly-mystical nonsense that plagued the worst episodes of TNG, and therefore would suck.