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Watching Enterprise for the very first time
(startrek.website)
I'm finding it a very root-beer-flavored entry in the franchise.
Enterprise is a lot better if you assume the crew is supposed to be inept, inexperienced and kinda stupid.
That makes zero sense considering humans have been exploring for centuries and already come up with protocols to handle the situations that seem to repeatedly cause issues for the NX-01 crew, but maybe thinking isn't helpful for enjoying the show.
But hey! Look! Did you notice T'Pol has both TITS and ASS?? Incredible!
Yes! They are so fallible, and believably so most the time, that I really appreciated their missteps.
The only time I didn't appreciate thinking was when it decontamination time. I just pretend it is like watching an old b/w show with an embedded detergent ad: an unfortunate relic of its time that is just baked into it.
Decontamination time is fucking stupid. Like, the idea of it is good because we literally did that with Apollo, but in practice it's just a chance to have semi-erotic fanfic play out as canon.
What's so odd about those scenes is that the camera is far hornier than the actors. The crew is mostly very professional and chaste about decon, but the camera is leering at their bodies as they do it.
I drew the line at them dragging Porthos of all beings into it. Like they thought that would legitimize it.
The horniess of the early 2000s makes Gene's vision of the Original Series seem downright conservative.
Every day this world gets dumber and dumber and yet I'm still surprised by how completely incompetent and unstable the main ENT crew (sans T'Pol and Phlox) are. It is something that even by 2025 standards - which are just about the lowest standards for stupidity possible - these people probably could probably not get through a week working at Walmart without getting fired for like fighting a stranger or sexually harassing their coworker.