This show still seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of Star Trek series.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, of all the Star Trek shows, Enterprise ranks as the only series with a "Rotten" Tomatometer rating, which is based on the reviews from the critics. Enterprise's RT score comes in at just 56 percent, far behind the rest of the franchise's other television titles. Here's how the others rank on the RT Tomatometer (below):
Voyager (77 percent), Star Trek: The Original Series (80 percent), Discovery at (84 percent), Picard (89 percent), Deep Space Nine (91 percent), The Next Generation (92 percent) Lower Decks (93 percent), The Animated Series at (94 percent), Strange New Worlds at (94 percent), and Prodigy (97 percent).
Now, I don’t agree with most of those rankings at all. The Animated Series at 94 percent? No way, that is far too high. Prodigy is solid Trek, but the best of every Final Frontier adventure ever made? Nope. Discovery at 84 percent? With all due respect, come on, that's far too high. Same with Picard, which missed the mark until it reunited the TNG cast in season 3. And then there’s poor Enterprise.
A lowly 56 percent? The worst of any Trek series? Really? I don’t get it. To be clear, I’m not here to declare Enterprise is a masterpiece. It started with a truly great pilot, “Broken Bow,” floundered for a couple of seasons, and found its footing too late in the game to attract new viewers or recapture disappointed fans.
I can cite memorable episodes and arcs: “Demons," “Twilight," the “In a Mirror, Darkly” two-parter, and many more. I loved the prequel concept and glimpsing the early stages of future elements, such as red alert and formation of the Federation. Shifting to the 9/11 inspired plot took guts, and the sheer number of deaths caused by the Xindi—millions on Earth—really hit home.
Yes, Enterprise missed the boat in many ways. I was never a fan of the industrial uniforms, though I understood the intent. Too many promising characters went criminally underdeveloped. Malcolm Reed, Hoshi Sato, Dr. Phlox, and especially Travis Mayweather deserved far better. The Augments arc didn’t do much for me, and count me among those who cringed every time I heard “Where My Heart Will Take Me,” a reworking of Rod Stewart’s “Faith of the Heart.”
I think Enterprise’s reputation suffered and continues to suffer from the fandom’s collective hatred of the series finale, “These Are the Voyages...” As well-meaning as it may have been, dumping the entire four seasons of Enterprise into a Next Generation subplot and devoting so much screen time to William Riker did an injustice to everyone involved in Enterprise and the fans who’d stuck it out.
For any Trek newbies out there, try this: watch all of Enterprise… except the finale. Wait a couple of weeks and then watch “These Are the Voyages...” If you pretend the finale never happened or screen it with some space between it and the episodes right beforehand, you really might feel differently about the series as a whole. It deserves such consideration.
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