I still need to watch the episode and make my comments... sorry I missed the rewatch, was out to an early farewell dinner with my son.
I do want to make a general Enterprise-fandom comment, though, based on my experience and my feelings.
I was
very excited by Enterprise in 2001, after being outside of Trek fandom, and any fandom in general, for a good decade. (I was a mundane, lordy!) It was nice to be able to get back to the squee, and looking forward to new stuff and neat characters and interesting stories. I found a great group of people to follow along with from the very beginning; they influenced my writing and supported me.
Sometime around these eps now in the first season, people began to be complain-y. *shrugs* Not everyone is going to like everything in a show, and some people are going to be turned off by whatever and leave and not come back. Words were tossed around, opinions shared as fact, and repeated ad nauseum. That, along with the general negative Trek-fandom screeching of how awful the concept of the show was even before it aired began to seep into the discussions on a regular basis. Some fans went to early conventions and were a bit put off by some of the actors' antics (not namin' names, lol!), so it colored their perception of what had been a favorite character. They were sure to share all that negativity with the budding Enterprise fandom.
Oh yay.
All that coupled with my inability to watch the show on first-run (my UPN station ran eps five days later at 11:30 at night!) meant that
my squee began to consistently get harshed. I started to avoid fandom discussions for almost a whole week until I got to see the episode, because I began to realize that I didn't see the episodes in the same way as many others did, and hearing how disappointed they were in an episode, or how stupid a character was, really took away my personal enjoyment of the show. I went into it thinking it wouldn't be very good, and then found that I liked it but felt like shit during most of my viewing.
I'm so happy to be able to do a rewatch with people who actually do appreciate the show after ten years, including people who didn't see it the first go-round, those who took four years to cycle through the whole thing, and those who mainline it by DVD in a week's time. Much more enjoyable, there isn't that element of sneering disdain for everything related to Enterprise, and I can see new stuff both through my own eyes and through the eyes of others. What a joy!
Is it perfect? Oh hell no. Could some characters have been developed better? Of course. Were there inconsistencies from episode to episode, and Trek to Trek? Well, it's a television show; no matter how fervent Trek fandom is over a forty year span, actors/writers/producers are not going to be able to answer the question, "In episode 457, when the Horta is melding with Mr. Spock, what was its thought process in communicating with a carbon-based life form and how did it affect the rest of its race?" We as fans get terribly caught up in what we want to see and how we want to see it, and end up losing out on the overall enjoyment of a show because one or two thorns stick in our sides. And in the process, if we are loose with our words and use "charged language" as has been mentioned here at the Expanse, it can also affect our fellow fans, something that we Enterprise fen have banded together to get away from in other Trek venues.
Everyone has opinions (like orifices), and they are entitled to them. I want to hear them all, because I learn from them. I also want to express mine. But I have learned over time that the perfect is the enemy of the good, and I want to take care in how I express myself in a fannish venue in order to not harsh someone else's squee as much as I am able. Because it wasn't a pleasant experience for me the first time around, and I don't want to contribute to someone else's disappointing experience with this relationship between people who enjoy a common experience -- otherwise known as
fandom.
My two cents, and worth just as much. We now return you to your regularly scheduled rewatch discussion!
(Cogenitor, Fortunate Son, First Flight, Extinction, Similitude, The Forgotten, The Augments, Demons)
