Here is probably my biggest complaint with Enterprise on a personal level. Despite Star Fleet being a supposedly military organization, they acted like they were putting on a play in Uncle Brannon's barn most of the time.

TOS had credibility in this area because the people who wrote it and acted in it were from that generation where military service was compulsary. GR was a bomber pilot. Jimmy Doohan was injured at Normandy.

Some of the sillier things -

Major Hayes calling Lt. Reed "Sir". Hello! A Major outranks a Lt.

Wondering what to call a "red alert".

Taking the ship out without any weapons mounted. Then not worry about it until the fourth time they encountered a testy bunch of aliens.

Not having set procedures in place. For instance, NASA had a whole set of protocols for the Apollo astronauts in case their capsule landed in enemy territory. Never happened, but they had a procedure for it.

It's a TV show Koshy , get over it .

It's a little more than that to those of us who post on boards like this, who have been loyal fans of this franchise since the 60's and 70's.


let's be honest, if Berman and Braga had called their show something else, had replaced all the "Star Trek" names and references with other names, and weren't building on someone else work, how long do you think Enterprise would have lasted?

Oh, about 9 episodes, about the same lifespan as "Threshold".

You build your house on someone's loyalty and good will, you should return that good will by being loyal to that fanbase. Instead, Braga stuck it in the eye of the long term fan at every oppurtunity. Oh, yeah, and he really, really is a sucky writer.

My point is , it's not supposed to be real.

But to answer at least one of your concerns .

I believe that Reed was an officer and Hayes was an enlisted man so it was ok for him to call Reed sir .

No, Reed was specifically referred to as "Major Reed". Now in today's military, a Major is in between a Colonel and a Captain.

Assuming that their ranks are close to modern military ranks, Reed was either an 02 or O3. Reed was a major, so he was an O4.

Yes, it's not supposed to be real, but it is supposed to be plausible.

Hi-
To answer your gripes. Hayes and his bunch were enlisted. Reed is not. As for why the Enterprise crew went out without full weapons when they took Klaang to his homeworld-they were in a hurry! The only one gripe I agree with you on is where did the officers do their training if Starfleet is so new? I mean we sometimes saw Archer's flight school graduation picture but where did he do all his training to be a Captain. I hardly believe Starfleet is dumb enough to just say since you are Henry Archer's son ok you're a Captain.

Hayes was referred to as "Major" Hayes, not "Chief" hayes or "Sergeant" Hayes (which would be proper titles for an enlisted man.)

Further, if he was an enlisted man, there would not be a conflict between Reed and Hayes about who was in charge of the MACO's, etc. That was a major plot thread of Season 3. (Actually, chain of command issues were frequently badly defined on the show.)

As far as "leaving before having your weapons ready". Why not go back and get them after the mission was over? Besides the whole silliness of the trip to Qon'os only being 4 days.

The lack of military realism is rife thoughout Star Trek.

As CroBob said, you have hippies writing warrior tales.

:o T'Pol's Spacesuit
Archers Space Suit

Hi Again-
I just wanted to say that your Archer space suit is the same as the EV suit. (Yuck-no offense.) I think the blue/purple or whatever color the bridge uniform is great btw do you know what color the bridge uniform is?
Thanks,
Archersgal1

But Roddenberry grew to hate the military aspects of Trek. When they added naval imagery into WofK, he was livid about it.

And Enterprise was all about laser fights most of the time, and then the macos came on.

Yeah, but GR didn't exactly have the greatest judgement about what made a good story and what didn't. (I submit "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture" as an example. The studio couldn't wait to kick him upstairs after that boondoggle.)

I highly recommend listening to Nick Meyer's commentary on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He says it right out, Star Trek is Gunboat Diplomacy. Roddenberry himself heavily drew from Horatio Hornblower novels in creating the character of Kirk.

Yeah, I agree, but those military aspects come and go throughout the different movies and series.

Ent, I think rightly so, was presented primarily as a ship of exploration and discovery. Of course, they discovered completely uninteresting things and rehashed plots most of the time.