RIP, Enterprise
So, Enterprise is ending in two episodes (or, one two-part episode). I've been watching this season. After the overall awfulness of season three, it's actually been refreshing. But not engaging in the way that it was the first two seasons.
When they did the viewer marathon a few months back, I sat down and watched The Andorian Incident once again and became depressed. There were so many potential story lines, so much potential future history implied by that episode. The episode was rich because it tied into stories larger than its internal story, because it made promises about what we might see as the series went forward. But all those promises, all that future history, has not been fulfilled. The promised stories were never told, and the possibly epic history made banal.
Why did they chose to set a series in what has been considered an epic period of Federation history if they didn't have the courage or the interest to do the story-telling it requires? That was the true weakness of the first two seasons: the occasional interest in what needed to be occurring in the universe, versus utter disinterest in that background, those stories. A long-term story arc doesn't need to be a story that's explicitly addressed and considered in every episode, but it needs an always-present background awareness.
The Enterprise producers had the perfect background universe on which to develop their stories: this was the decade before the Romulan War, the decade that lead to the development of the Federation. Even if it was not always explicitly addressed, that knowledge needed to shape the universe, to influence how we saw these characters behave, how we saw these stories develop. Instead, we received an unevenness colored by the presumption of viewer stupidity: the producers and writers acted as though the viewers wouldn't "get" the background universe unless they were slapped across the face with it on occasion (that was what the temporal cold war was all about: a way to remind viewers once in a while that Archer was to be essential to the foundation of the Federation), yet acted as those viewers should forget that knowledge when it would disturb the flow of a non-"mytharc" story.
Season three was the absolute worse; it was arc storytelling for the lowest common denominator. We knew, from the temporal cold war hints of seasons one and two, that the Enterprise and crew had to survive. We knew, from TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY that Earth would survive and that the Federation would still emerge. Otherwise, Enterprise wouldn't be a prequel, wouldn't be part of the Star Trek universe. We knew that these producers weren't brave enough to change Star Trek history, to actually create another off-shoot universe that didn't lead to the universe of TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY, therefore, we knew what the outcome of the arc would be. Not just in a "this is the way stories generally end" way, but in a "this is the way this story HAS to end" way.
True, it was the same problem as was suffered by the series in general: as a prequel, the series had a defined story and defined historical events. But it was a problem in the short term rather than a problem in the long term, and a simplistic and limited story arc rather than a complex and political story arc. Stories of war can have individual stories of vast complexity and elegance, but the overall story of war is dirty and straight-forward. Especially when you know what the outcome has to be.
Season three was perhaps the most extreme evidence that B&B had decided that they didn't want to tell the story of this time period: it plucked the Enterprise and her crew out of the background stories they had been half-heartedly developing in seasons one and two, and threw them into a brand-new, shoot'em'up, us-against-the-universe story with a predetermined outcome. Even the choice of the locale indicated that separation: it took them to a separate story telling universe, cut off from whatever political and historical events were taking place in the wider universe.
Then, at the end, to add a 'nice' little twist to that predetermined outcome, they pulled out the evil aliens and Nazis! They obviously never learned that you don't want your viewers suffering mental whiplash and feeling as though they've landed in a sideways universe created by a bad high. There's a point at which suspension of disbelief is strained beyond all flexibility. The ends of the Xindi conflict and the temporal cold war didn't just strain that flexibility, they shattered it. A bad end to a bad story arc.
Season four was actually the only season in which the background universe was acknowledged and treated with respect. But too much had to be fixed, and too many promises had to go unfulfilled. It was a season of stories arcs because each problem created by earlier decisions had to be wrapped into pretty little packages and resolved. It was a season of overload: it told stories that should have been scattered through previous seasons, it compacted events that should have taken place over years into weeks and months. While finally giving voice to some of these stories, it also short-changed them: each week new events came forward and overwhelmed the fainter ripples from the events just past. We went from wandering aimlessly around the history of the period, to fast-forwarding through it.
Enterprise ends with a canon universe that has been tattered and deeply flawed by the decisions of its producers. It isn't the total disaster the universe was at the end of season three, but it is barely the canon Star Trek deserved for this period of its history. It was a series with an implicit mission statement that was often disregarded, a series with an implicit story arc that was often given little attention or interest. It was a series that held so much promise in just its concept, and so much failure in its implementation.
When they did the viewer marathon a few months back, I sat down and watched The Andorian Incident once again and became depressed. There were so many potential story lines, so much potential future history implied by that episode. The episode was rich because it tied into stories larger than its internal story, because it made promises about what we might see as the series went forward. But all those promises, all that future history, has not been fulfilled. The promised stories were never told, and the possibly epic history made banal.
Why did they chose to set a series in what has been considered an epic period of Federation history if they didn't have the courage or the interest to do the story-telling it requires? That was the true weakness of the first two seasons: the occasional interest in what needed to be occurring in the universe, versus utter disinterest in that background, those stories. A long-term story arc doesn't need to be a story that's explicitly addressed and considered in every episode, but it needs an always-present background awareness.
The Enterprise producers had the perfect background universe on which to develop their stories: this was the decade before the Romulan War, the decade that lead to the development of the Federation. Even if it was not always explicitly addressed, that knowledge needed to shape the universe, to influence how we saw these characters behave, how we saw these stories develop. Instead, we received an unevenness colored by the presumption of viewer stupidity: the producers and writers acted as though the viewers wouldn't "get" the background universe unless they were slapped across the face with it on occasion (that was what the temporal cold war was all about: a way to remind viewers once in a while that Archer was to be essential to the foundation of the Federation), yet acted as those viewers should forget that knowledge when it would disturb the flow of a non-"mytharc" story.
Season three was the absolute worse; it was arc storytelling for the lowest common denominator. We knew, from the temporal cold war hints of seasons one and two, that the Enterprise and crew had to survive. We knew, from TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY that Earth would survive and that the Federation would still emerge. Otherwise, Enterprise wouldn't be a prequel, wouldn't be part of the Star Trek universe. We knew that these producers weren't brave enough to change Star Trek history, to actually create another off-shoot universe that didn't lead to the universe of TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY, therefore, we knew what the outcome of the arc would be. Not just in a "this is the way stories generally end" way, but in a "this is the way this story HAS to end" way.
True, it was the same problem as was suffered by the series in general: as a prequel, the series had a defined story and defined historical events. But it was a problem in the short term rather than a problem in the long term, and a simplistic and limited story arc rather than a complex and political story arc. Stories of war can have individual stories of vast complexity and elegance, but the overall story of war is dirty and straight-forward. Especially when you know what the outcome has to be.
Season three was perhaps the most extreme evidence that B&B had decided that they didn't want to tell the story of this time period: it plucked the Enterprise and her crew out of the background stories they had been half-heartedly developing in seasons one and two, and threw them into a brand-new, shoot'em'up, us-against-the-universe story with a predetermined outcome. Even the choice of the locale indicated that separation: it took them to a separate story telling universe, cut off from whatever political and historical events were taking place in the wider universe.
Then, at the end, to add a 'nice' little twist to that predetermined outcome, they pulled out the evil aliens and Nazis! They obviously never learned that you don't want your viewers suffering mental whiplash and feeling as though they've landed in a sideways universe created by a bad high. There's a point at which suspension of disbelief is strained beyond all flexibility. The ends of the Xindi conflict and the temporal cold war didn't just strain that flexibility, they shattered it. A bad end to a bad story arc.
Season four was actually the only season in which the background universe was acknowledged and treated with respect. But too much had to be fixed, and too many promises had to go unfulfilled. It was a season of stories arcs because each problem created by earlier decisions had to be wrapped into pretty little packages and resolved. It was a season of overload: it told stories that should have been scattered through previous seasons, it compacted events that should have taken place over years into weeks and months. While finally giving voice to some of these stories, it also short-changed them: each week new events came forward and overwhelmed the fainter ripples from the events just past. We went from wandering aimlessly around the history of the period, to fast-forwarding through it.
Enterprise ends with a canon universe that has been tattered and deeply flawed by the decisions of its producers. It isn't the total disaster the universe was at the end of season three, but it is barely the canon Star Trek deserved for this period of its history. It was a series with an implicit mission statement that was often disregarded, a series with an implicit story arc that was often given little attention or interest. It was a series that held so much promise in just its concept, and so much failure in its implementation.