I also like Archer in Enterprise, despite most of the fandom really not liking him.
I feel it’s completely unrealistic to expect him to be as much of a polished and perfect Starfleet officer as, say, Picard or Pike are.
He’s doing all of this stuff for the first time, with completely inadequate training, very little in the way of standard procedures imposed by the Earth government, etc. he also doesn’t have captain’s logs from others to pore through and learn from.
He’s an ex test pilot who’s been given command basics that are completely inadequate for interplanetary exploration and diplomacy, and he’s expected to learn on the fly.
People complain that he’s out of his depth half the time, but that’s the entire theme of the show.
It’s actually somewhat fun - as a one off for a Trek series - to see humans not be hypercompetent and perfect, while at the same time trying to be. You can see that they’re not at the level of evolved sensibilities that we see in TNG, but they want to be. That’s their goal. They’re trying to be. And not half-arsed trying either, they’re genuinely putting as much effort as they can to better themselves as a species. They’re risking their lives to be a positive force in the galaxy, only to end up making a mess of it and sometimes making stuff worse, but it works as a series because you can see it comes not from malice, but from a desire to do good. They’re trying to impose good morals on a galaxy full of realpolitik and shades of grey. It’s like watching Superman, except unlike Superman they don’t have might to back themselves up, quite the opposite, they’re small fish trying to impose goodwill onto the great whites. I find that very endearing.
I miss Enterprise. It’s a great shame we never got to see the Earth-Romulan war and more of the political back and forth between the Federation founder worlds.
I think this isn’t really a minority opinion anymore. Not even just in comparison to the current crop of ST. It was a jarring tonal shift at the time. But I think Enterprise aged very well. I’ve rewatched the Xindi arc numerous times .
I also like Archer in Enterprise, despite most of the fandom really not liking him.
I feel it’s completely unrealistic to expect him to be as much of a polished and perfect Starfleet officer as, say, Picard or Pike are.
He’s doing all of this stuff for the first time, with completely inadequate training, very little in the way of standard procedures imposed by the Earth government, etc. he also doesn’t have captain’s logs from others to pore through and learn from.
He’s an ex test pilot who’s been given command basics that are completely inadequate for interplanetary exploration and diplomacy, and he’s expected to learn on the fly.
People complain that he’s out of his depth half the time, but that’s the entire theme of the show.
It’s actually somewhat fun - as a one off for a Trek series - to see humans not be hypercompetent and perfect, while at the same time trying to be. You can see that they’re not at the level of evolved sensibilities that we see in TNG, but they want to be. That’s their goal. They’re trying to be. And not half-arsed trying either, they’re genuinely putting as much effort as they can to better themselves as a species. They’re risking their lives to be a positive force in the galaxy, only to end up making a mess of it and sometimes making stuff worse, but it works as a series because you can see it comes not from malice, but from a desire to do good. They’re trying to impose good morals on a galaxy full of realpolitik and shades of grey. It’s like watching Superman, except unlike Superman they don’t have might to back themselves up, quite the opposite, they’re small fish trying to impose goodwill onto the great whites. I find that very endearing.
I miss Enterprise. It’s a great shame we never got to see the Earth-Romulan war and more of the political back and forth between the Federation founder worlds.
I think this isn’t really a minority opinion anymore. Not even just in comparison to the current crop of ST. It was a jarring tonal shift at the time. But I think Enterprise aged very well. I’ve rewatched the Xindi arc numerous times .