Bakula: Star Trek Enterprise A Victim Of Circumstance
2 min read
Scott Bakula, Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Captain Archer, has his own view on why Star Trek: Enterprise did not do as well as other Star Trek television series.
Over time, according to Bakula, Star Trek: Enterprise was improving, with the last season being its best. “”I felt like our show got better and better,” he said, “and the overwhelming conversations I’ve had with people are like, ‘Oh man, that last season was the greatest. You guys were just hitting your stride.'”
Bakula had been initially cautious about the series, due to the network on which it was going to appear. “I said to the cast going in ‘Please don’t count on seven years. We’re on a network with completely different rules.’ We made ninety-eight hours of television, a huge success by most standards.
“I have to tell you, there were so many political things that happened in the time that we were on the air, with networks being bought and sold and studios changing personnel completely. I never really felt like we had failed as much as we were victims of circumstance.”
Fortunately for Bakula, he wasn’t typecast and was able to move on to other projects after the demise of Star Trek: Enterprise. “”I think the difference is, on Star Trek they’ve tended to hire people who were not necessarily super well known going in. I came into it as a relatively well known actor for other work. It made it easier to continue on after it.”
Bakula can be seen this weekend at Wizard World Toronto Comic Con.
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Yeah Scott Bakula pretty much hit the nail on the head,Enterprise was getting better if it were possible I’d have taken those last three seasons from Voyager and given them to Enterprise. At least later seasons of it seemed to have some structure rather than hitting the reset button and doing the same thing all over again in the next episode like Voyager, plus Enterprise had more interesting characters.
ENT died from franchise fatigue. People were getting worn out after 15 seasons of Trek, and when ENT wasn’t perfect at the start they gave up on it immediately. If it had started two or three years later than it did, we would’ve seen a good six seasons at least.
It was the bad casting, and terrible characters. Star Trek could have gone on for much longer if Enterprise didnt kill it.
Yep, no more UPN… then the studio sells off all the props, costumes, sets, and how many times are they going to sell us the videos.. VHS, Laser disc, DVD, HD DVD, then next on thumb drives.. or Holograms….
I in turn think the ending of the final episode, should have been the BEGINING of each episode, I believe there was something lost there, inevitably, hindsight is a luxury to some, however when your dealing with networks, politics in acting, somethings you know that you cannot change
I so much agree with Bacula, the last Season of Enterprise was getting well. I wish so much that we could of seen the beginning formation of the Federation.
It was getting so good, then they got canned and ruined every good aspect with a shockingly bad last episode. The Next Generation had no right being involved with that series but they but their noses in anyway. What a shame.
⚅⚀thoughts
http://www.seven7houghts.blogspot.com
Er… but Scott, what HAVE you done since then?
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=imdb+scott+bakula
Network got bored fans got bored. I feel that it was trying to modernise in the wrong way with the season 1-3 story arc that would have worked with a new sci fi show.
(sigh) I wasn’t really asking. I was sarcastically pointing out that he hasn’t done a whole lot.
Also, never, ever post lmgtfy links. Yes, people who don’t bother using Google are annoying, but smug condescension is much more annoying (and that site was only funny the first time anyway).
A number of critics opined that he had done career-best work on Men of a Certain Age. I don’t watch the show, so I couldn’t tell you, but it also doesn’t seem his career has suffered.
It was on a network that many people, like me, didn’t have available to them. I caught some episodes at someone else’s home but had to wait till years later to watch it all. Loved it from the first which I saw elsewhere as mentioned. I think the first time I got to see all of it from beginning to end was when the DVDs came out. I think season 3 should have been done differently. That story arc for a whole season was too long.
The final episode was horrible! It’s the only episode I will never watch again! Otherwise I loved the series and think that if it had been on fox like TNG & DP9 it would have succeeded. I think showing the origins of a lot of the Star Trek lore was a great idea. The scene of the formation of the federation should have been a separate show and that whole TNG visiting the past thing was ridiculous. Also killing Trip was the worst thing they could have done and made the possibility of a future movie out of the question.
I actually re-watch some Enterprise episodes more often than all the other series episodes.
If Enterprise wasn’t a prequel, it would’ve faired better…
Circumstance? Sure, if you consider “circumstance” to be three years of poor ratings, and negative critical and fan reactions.
“I’m a victim of soikumstance! Nyuk nyuk nyuk nyuk!”
I would have prefered something else than a prequel, perhaps a show about Cpt Sulu and the Excelsior? Whatever… I will admit that Enterprise was getting better, like TNG, I think it took them a few years to hit their stride.
I agree with ‘Love the Show’. The show was just hitting its stride the last year. The actors were great and the stories were more challenging – except for the ending which, I agree, was ridiculous.They should have left STNG out of it. Also, Trip should have never been killed. Why they thought that would bring things to a close is beyond me. They cut off their nose to spite their face!
There could have been so much more.
The series did get better… but Bakula’s acting did not. Unfortunately, he came across so wooden. I just couldn’t relate to him at all.
The stories were boring and predictable. Every time the characters were working on some techo-babble problem with fake wrenches, the dialog there was just horrendous. Granted, most shows including House and others use the same trick i.e. breaking into a house or running a medical test and they talk about boring character development stuff. That’s not what Star Trek is, or ever was. It should have focused on leveraging sci-fi as a platform to explore social issues today, which is exactly what BSG did, and hence, very successful.
The last season of ENT was covering the territory of Trek canon with the mirror universe, Augments (Khan) and the early beginnings of the Federation. While this isn’t bad material, it was fun. Also another way of driving successful shows i.e. the 2009 movie, which was very fun.
As someone who found Enterprise a few years after its cancelation, I think Scott is right on the money. This was a terrific series that got better over time. We never got to see what could have been the best Trek ever.
If you get cable, you can watch Men of a Certain Age on Video on Demand for the TNT channel. Well worth watching, all three leads were fantastic in the show.
http://www.facebook.com/fighttosavemenofacertainagefromcancellation
I totally agree with you gift23. I initially watched the program 1) Because I was already a Star Trek fan, and 2) I loved Scott in “Quantum Leap”. But like yourself, I found Scott’s performance to be stiff and stale. I could never quite grasp where he was going with it. Eventually, it was the characters of T’Pol, Phlox and Trip that had me tuning in every week. That shouldn’t have been the case.
it was the theme song
You just described a good deal of overall good series out there. Which is why I get, he mentions to be getting to it`s stride in the later series.
I mean “seasons”.
Mr. Bakula seems to confirm what I have thought that Paramount was up for sale or merger . A buisness decision to end it for negotiations . A terrible loss .
You sound like a Star Trek burnout, why did you even watch the show and keep a ratings schedule for three years?
4 years . Any new episode is my favorite show . Kapla .