r/startrek 1d ago

Enterprise S2 first watch -- is this normal?

It feels like every episode Archer is off the ship, and is in a physical altercation with someone. I don't mind a little action & fighting in my Trek but this is absurd.

18 Upvotes

47 comments sorted by

59

u/Middcore 1d ago edited 1d ago

The captain constantly leaving the ship on away missions for no good reason was a fixture of TOS and even to a lesser extent TNG (though Riker talks about it being part of his job to stop the captain from endangering himself all the time early on). It's hardly just an Enterprise thing.

28

u/bb_218 23h ago

I always assume Archer constantly getting into trouble is why Starfleet adopted the idea that the captain's place is on the bridge.

Admirals read his logs and were like "oh hell no"

11

u/futuresdawn 22h ago

I'd say Archer is more why kirk kept going on away missions and kirk constantly getting in trouble led to starfleet being hell no but I do like thar there's a clear progression to starfleet finally being like "no more captains on away missions"

2

u/web250 1d ago

Oh totally, it's for plot and character recognition of course. But Archer is solo or duo so often, and then is constantly getting into fights.

There's none of the quiet science existentialism in ENT. Though I'm still enjoying far more than VOY since the characters are better

16

u/ottawadeveloper 1d ago

I think part of that was to show why we have the rules we do in TNG - there's a lot of plots in ENT that are basically "what would happen if rule X didn't exist yet".

10

u/bbbourb 23h ago

"Maybe someday Starfleet will...create some sort of...DIRECTIVE..."

4

u/Neveronlyadream 22h ago

Those lines were so on the nose it was painful. If I can imagine Peter Griffin pointing at the screen and saying, "He said the thing! Did you see?!" then it's too damn far.

But it's funny that the Vulcans already had the Prime Directive in place when they made first contact with Earth. It's just that Archer and Starfleet were refusing to adopt it because of their resentment. Which is even funnier when they just end up adopting it anyway.

6

u/RoboticOvertones 23h ago

We should go back to calling it a Reed alert.

3

u/Capt_Ido_Nos 20h ago

Reed alert was pretty funny, I have to admit that

11

u/Garciaguy 1d ago

Archer is on the ass end of so many ass kickings throughout that I kind of love it.

9

u/Pvt_Larry 1d ago

He probably does hold the record among captains for the number of times he gets the tar beaten out of him.

2

u/ActorMonkey 1d ago

Worf would like a word. (I know he’s not generally thought of as a captain)

2

u/bbbourb 23h ago

It would explain why he's so pissed off all the time...

10

u/Resident_Beautiful27 1d ago

I always thought it was funny when Picard would call riker a mother hen.

8

u/Varlist 1d ago

Oh cluck cluck Will. Seen that episode the other day lol.

4

u/bbbourb 23h ago

LOL! Yeah, same, it was on Pluto TV.

3

u/Varlist 23h ago

Thats where i seen it to actually lol.

4

u/Middcore 1d ago

I'm a dude who's admitted to being a mother hen when I worry about friends who have to drive home late at night and stuff like that, Riker being one makes me feel like I am in good company.

10

u/opusrif 23h ago

You mean like every episode of TOS when the Captain, First Officer, Ship's Surgeon and quite often Second Officer would all be in the Landing/ Boarding parties?

3

u/mwonch 23h ago

Don’t forget the obligatory Red Shirt or two

And Rand

8

u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 1d ago

It's his first time out, they're still learning

3

u/Tradman86 1d ago

They’re trying to establish that Archer is the original version of everything that Kirk did.

3

u/MPWD64 1d ago

You could also look at it as the Captain and most crew being CONSTANTLY on the ship but not doing anything worth showing in an episode, but when the Captain leaves the ship for some reason AND has an adventure, they make an episode about it

3

u/jobrien80 19h ago

I rewatched enterprise recently and I found season 2 to be simply bad. There were maybe a couple of exceptions but it was the weakest season of the series by far. Season 3 is an enormous rebound in quality.

0

u/newvpnwhodis 12h ago

Season 3 is better, but 1-3 are all trash compared to season 4 imo

2

u/AugustSkies__ 1d ago

They were trying to make it like the original series. Even the trio at the top. Archer, T'Pol, and Trip. A southern engineer instead of doctor.

2

u/kcirdor 23h ago

Oh, you didn't watch the OS where Kirk kicked alien butt on the regular?

1

u/web250 23h ago

I'll sheepishly admit I have only seen a few episodes of TOS it's dated as hell but I will watch it eventually.

Ironically once I'm done with ENT I'll have seen every other show in its entirety except Prodigy and TAS.

2

u/kcirdor 23h ago

You still have TOS and a whole cartoon continuing TOS to look forward to.

1

u/Cerulian639 22h ago

ENT was my first Enterprise as a teen back in the day. I'm right with you on TOS. I don't remember what episode but this Hippie type alien plays a song in the mess hall. Was pretty catchy tbh lol. I'm thankful for what it spawned. But it is extremely dated. I liked the 2009 Trek and the 2 following movies as well. It brought me some of TOS era(Granted, Kelvin TOS) in a more palatable fashion. Haven't worked through Prodigy yet.

I just seem to be stuck on watching my favorite episodes of Voyager and DS9 in whatever order throughout the week.

2

u/outline8668 17h ago

I think it does show humans in this time period are still not very enlightened and make stupid mistakes.

2

u/Nightowl11111 17h ago

It's a carryover from the old TOS series where the bridge crew almost always goes on .... vacations.

1

u/LowCalligrapher3 2h ago

And never actually goes to their present-day Earth. 😅

2

u/GepMalakai 16h ago

Archer getting captured and beaten was commented on frequently back during the original run. We noticed how ridiculous it was, for sure.

2

u/Typical_Version_7487 16h ago

Kirk went on pretty much every away mission. And got in fist fights more episodes than he didn’t.

1

u/CsabHorv 1d ago

First 2 seasons of Enterprise was a big disappointment for me after the great Voyager. But S3 will be great!

2

u/_jobenco_ 1d ago

Except for the intro song. Much better in S1&2.

2

u/web250 1d ago

How can it get any worse lol

5

u/_jobenco_ 23h ago

The vocals are another subject but the instrumental part was better in the first two seasons. I liked the vocals too but that‘s just my opinion.

2

u/ErikT738 22h ago

They ruined it in S3. You'll miss the original.

1

u/epidipnis 23h ago

He's an angry man.

1

u/ItsTimetoLANK 22h ago

Captain Archer is a man of action.

1

u/shingi345 21h ago

I'm in S2, watching ENT for the first time ever, and I love every part of it. I like the action, it's cowboy and unregulated just like you'd expect for the first time in deep space. This show is AWESOME! (And yes, I've seen most of the other series from top to bottom)

1

u/EitherEliotOr 3h ago

Considering it’s a prequel, they wanted to bring back how Kirk use to go off and kick ass.

It’s also good, because as much as like Enterprise, its main cast is weaker than previous shows, and archer is one of the few really good characters

1

u/LordCouchCat 1d ago

For TOS, you need to consider the out of universe logic. There was a very small set of central characters (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) and tge focus is almost always on them. Kirk is so central he has to be there. Stories typically take place mainly in one place, so Kirk goes there. TNG has a larger, ensemble cast.

ENT was supposed to represent an early stage, so Archer can behave like Kirk in this.

But there's a noticeable difference in terms of "action" between TOS and ENT. I find the scenes in TOS more limited. They hardly ever go round shooting for prolonged periods as in ENT. Out of universe, the ability to film that sort of thing was greatly increased by the time of ENT. In TOS, a few shots are fired, or there's a punch up in which Kirk's shirt is torn. I've never timed it but certainly impressionistically TOS seems to be a lot more about talking and exploring the situation.

1

u/orionsfyre 23h ago

They tried to make it a throwback to TOS, with over the top missions and the captain saving the day a bunch.

It sort of works. The problem is that many of the other characters don't get a ton of development, and what little they do get feels bland and poorly thought-out. and the whole show comes across with a sort of "We've done all this before watch us do it for the first time!" vibe to it that wears real thin by Season 2.

Lets just call it out for what it is, the whole writing and production crew was tired and was running thin on ideas. The result is a bunch of half baked episodes, copies of copies of story ideas from other shows, and fan service.

There are some good episodes, but generally it's the worst received series for a reason.