Star Trek

I loved season 4.  In A Mirror, Darkly was pure genious in the way it combined Mirror, Mirror and The Tholian Web, and from there perspective being in the future.  I also like the final episode.  Everyone seems to hate that one and I just don't get it, it was good.

I would differ from you on the question of season IV opening strong. I thought the first two episodes of season IV were the worst episodes of the entire series up to that point. However, with the third episode of the fourth season, the show started to get my interest back.

My favorite episodes were pre-Xindi, pre-season III. 

And I would concur that season IV was ultimately mishandled. However, in general, Enterprise was mishandled because it sort of chose not to market toward gaining any new fans. It was designed for a more mature audience than what Star Trek has tended to initially attract over the years. You know, if you design a Trek show only for people 13-14 years-old and up, you probably miss more than half of your potential audience.

Loved season 4!!

If Enterprise would have begun with the material in the fourth season it wouldn't have been cancelled. I can't figure out how the producers think that they have to make a show for people who aren't fans of Star Trek rather than appeal to the fan base.

Although they finally did appeal to the fans by showing more about how the Federation was created at the end, it was too late to save the show from going off the air. Instead of doing the whole let's explore and find new races thing which every single show did, including DS9 before they got into the Dominion which is part of the reason DS9 was slow starting as well, they should have discussed how the relations with the Tellarites, Orions, Andorians, Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons got started.

TOS references is what I was hoping for in this show, and thank God Coto finally delivered some of them, but the whole Xindi thing was just an attempt to make the show edgier which it just didn't need. There were still a number of TOS things that could have been addressed such as more with the Tholians or Gorn or Deltans instead of random encounters with new aliens which didn't amount to much. Even the Temporal Cold War, which at first I thought was an interesting premise panned out to be nothing really in the long run and only served to make sure B&B didn't have to follow cannon.

The first two seasons aren't bad, there are some real gems like Silent Enemy and Vox Sola come to mind, but after a while, they were recycling old plotlines like escape from Rura Penthe and going to a planet where just being there changed them into the aliens on that planet.

Also, I wish they had made the show less reliant on technology. I think the most advanced equipment should have been the warp drive and the universal translator. The transporter, phasers and photon torpedoes, in my opinion should have been saved for 23rd century innovations and the ENT crew worked with shuttlecraft, ion cannons and plasma torpedos.

Despite all my complaining though, I really enjoyed the series and was very disappointed that it was coming to an end just when it was getting good.

I really like those multiple episode story arcs in season 4. The two-part Enterprise mirror universe episode is better than any of the mirror universe episodes from DS9 or TOS in my opinion.

That was also good how the different look of the TOS Klingons was explained in a season 4 story arc.

Why are 4th season episodes (4) 1-4 not avail;able for vewing?

To be honest, I found season 4 quite disappointing. I found the storylines where getting to the point of being ridiculous and silly, and what was up with the final epsiode? I think it was the final epsiode that really finished it off for me, Why did they have to make it a holographic recreation? Anyway thats just me. I haven't watched it in a while, maybe I'll rewatch it again and form an opinion that is a little more up to date. 

I did not care much for how Vulcans were
in the story ark which included THE FORGE.
I don't know why STAR TREK writers just
won't let these aliens be alien. Vulcans
were established as a certain way, and
now, ENTERPRISE has them acting all too
Human. I found the High Command to be
dysfunctional and absurd, for example ...

Hmmph. I was just about to say that season 4 got really good to me around episode 7 with the Syrannite/Vulcan thingy. 

The first two episodes of season 4 I was dissapointed in because they were still dealing with the Xindi incident. Parts of the Xindi incident were EXCELLENT, I'm not saying they weren't, but by season 4, I was just really ready for something new. I mean, you know, after 28 episodes straight of Xindi, Xindi, Xindi...

I think you hit the nail, right on the head!
Parts of these story arks were pretty good...
but that often had to do wtih the budgets, too.

Unfortunately, the writers not only wanted to
visit Vulcan - which is an awesome idea - they
also wanted that visit to be "dramatic." However,
Vulcans are logical characters. But ENTERPRISE
will just ignore that part and pretend like they
are really Humans with pointy ears ... because
these writers are lazy and not all that bright ...

I never really cared much for the negative tone in whih Vulans were set on ENT. I guess it makes for decent drama, at the expense of all that was done priorwhen developing th Vulcans as a race.

Oh, I agree, completely, they got the Vulcans
ALL wrong, in ENTERPRISE, but you know ...
that's what STAR TREK gets, letting Fabio work
on its scripts ...

And instead of improving those scripts, they'd
go to Jolene Blalock, "as you know, our ratings
are in the toilet, again ... could you ... maybe
... if it's not alot to ask ... take your top off, for this
show?" To which she'd happily comply because
... she's an artist.

Haha! Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought, as well. And while I  for one love Jolene Blalock's ample...artistic talents, you know, it might have been awkward for some parents expecting their 10-year-old was okay to watch Star Trek. So, in the in end, really nice supple...artistry, may in fact have somehow cost them viewers. Albeit certainly not in my house; I'm an art lover.

I don't agree. I found the Vulcans facinating. It's a whole culture that was going astray from their core beliefs. Then, in my favorite episode arc, The Forge/Awakening/Kir'shara, there is a revival. I found it quite interesting.

Hey, I liked it when T'Pol took her top off!

Nudity in Family Friendly shows like STAR TREK
may not always portend that show's demise ...
the trick of it is in the presentation.

Great, ENTERPRISE has a hot actress willing to
Do The Needful! But the way it was handled was,
frankly ... vulgar. Behold: T'Pol unceremoniously
drops her drawers for Trip! Plunk. Just like that.

I mean, yeah, it's great looking at her ... but like
you say, some kid seeing this, their parents aren't
going to be sharing their enthusiasm for it. Forgive
my using the term, again, but an "artistic" approach
to Jolene's RATINGS-GETTING reveals could've shown a
surprising amount of her ... and still been OK with Parents.