I watched my first Enterprise episode last night, at 8pm on UPN.

To quote In Living Color’s “Men on Film”: Hated it.

Campy “America in Space” intro and theme song aside, I was struck by how slowly the plot was developing. Twenty minutes — and at least two commercial breaks — into the episode, it was still showing shots of the Ferengi intruders salvaging items from the ship, with no progression at all. Okay, Ferengi marauders and their socks are all very amusing, but why was it taking so long for the story to go anywhere? Scene dragged into scene, and there was practically no action at all. Captain Archer’s handling of the situation was weak and unrealistic, and the resolution was an anticlimactic end to a long, dragging, pointless plot.

Why have Ferengi in the plot at all? While I noted that the screenplay was careful to protect the timeline by not mentioning the identity of these profiteering aliens, I think the whole idea of introducing Next Generation characters produces needless complications into what should be an exclusive pre-Original Series Star Trek show.

Well, I was pretty disappointed, but then, I’ve always been an Original 60’s Series fanboy. Still, I’ll keep watching. Through the generations, Star Trek has been notorious for having relatively unappealing first seasons, then getting better later on in the series.