10 Reasons Star Trek Enterprise Deserves A Second Chance

Enterprise was the first ship to depart Earth for deep space. Along the way, it discovered several allies and made new enemies. This is a running plot device in all Star Trek series that has sadly faded a little in both Discovery and Picard. The fundamental mission for all Starfleet ships is to seek out new life and new civilizations. The five year journeys of both Kirk and Picard were centered around this fact.

With the afore-mentioned reasons notwithstanding, Enterprise at least tried to emulate that. The ship was, for the first two seasons, much like Voyager in that it was always implausibly clean, always robust and the crew were always well fed. As the outside universe has become a little more challenging, this view of the future becomes a bit more jarring. But it is the very exploration and discovery of new resources and ideas that is the driving force behind Star Trek. Take the final episode of the Next Generation. Q's entire argument is that, for one moment, Picard manages to see beyond the mundane and accept the idea of there being more in heaven and earth than can be seen by mortal eyes.

Viewing Enterprise with this in mind, a resurgence of the show should be given the licence to explore this side of the universe. Let the new technologies come to them through unconventional means. Let their encounters with other life forms be both wonderous and frightening. The show, so often hampered by perceived rules of canon, could have had the broadest canvas - everything was new, even that which had been seen before.