Broken Base Cleanup

• The Star Trek fanbase in general is divided up between people who think Enterprise was either an ambitious-if-flawed series and those who think it was deservedly cancelled. The split likely occurred during DS9/VOY's run. Those who craved realism and space politics had their own show with DS9, while the TOS lovers had their seven years of VOY (If you hadn't kept up with DS9 or VOY, "Broken Bow" had two or three scenes that old-timers would probably find distasteful). Both sides got funneled into watching ENT. Toss in the TOS fans lured by the promise of classic Trek adventures, and you wind up with an unpleasable hydra.
  The Agony Booth: With a lot of old-school Trekkies (understandably) seeing Enterprise as an attempt to 're-do' TOS, and with a lot of new-school Trekkies (understandably) pissed that the new show wasn't going to build upon the TNG-DS9-Voyager continuity, the show went on to polarize fans like never before. If you feel indifferent towards Enterprise, chances are you're not really that into Star Trek.
• There is a serious divide among fans of the series over the closing "These are the voyages..." narration in the last episode. Some fans thought it was cool that they divided the narration up among the various Captains of the Enterprise, while others saw it as a Take That! to Scott Bakula, who (they argue) had earned the right to make the entire narration himself.
  • A similar break was caused by the 2009 reboot when Leonard Nimoy gave the narration rather than Chris Pine. This was fortunately resolved in the sequel.
• The Broken Base reached its climax around 2002-2003 when, coupled with the failure of Star Trek: Nemesis at the box office, Trek fandom fractured into "bashers" (those who could no longer abide anything related to Trek made by the then-current production regime) and "gushers" (who generally defended the current works, but were scorned by the bashers for blindly liking whatever was put in front of them). As the first Trek series that lived and died during the Internet age, Trek forums were frequently the site of figurative bloodbaths, with both bashers and gushers being banned for flaming each other. There were also some extreme reports of fans claiming to want to do physical harm to Enterprise's producers, and one forum saw an infamous exchange where a fan claimed to have gotten so upset at the news that the Borg were to appear in Enterprise that he smashed his television. When Enterprise finally did end, many fans divorced themselves from "Trekdom"; the JJ Abrams reboot (which divided the fanbase even more) won some back, but others moved on to other franchises.
• The Broken Base effect was further emphasized by the fact that whatever the showrunners tried to do to address concerns was slapped down: fans were upset the series didn't have Star Trek in the title. The title was added, and they were criticized for doing so. The "Temporal Cold War" plotline was abandoned due to being unpopular; they were criticized for abandoning it. An attempt at breaking status quo with the season-long Xindi arc was condemned by the same people who said they wanted Enterprise to stop being a clone of Voyager and TOS. Even the final season's "Hail Mary" pass of devoting most of the season to prequeling TOS and TNG, something fans had wanted since day 1, was rejected. Ironically, the series was officially cancelled during production of an episode that replicated the costumes and sets of the Star Trek TOS era. But by this point the base was so broken that had William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy become regulars the fanbase would have still turned up their nose at it.
• To any moderates or anyone with any opinions that fell between the battle lines, this Broken Base could lead to absolute lethality in the forums. God help you if you thought the series was a reasonably enjoyable, if flawed, prequel that despite problems actually did quite well with the material it had to work with, showing an imperfect crew who struggled in defining their place and the place of humanity in a quite often hostile galaxy - making mistakes along the way (probably unintended by the writers but which had greater meaning and ramifications within the context of the show) - with the improvements in season 4 making astounding retroactive sense out of many of the issues of the series and Star Trek franchise. There are a small group who feel that despite the wasted potential of plot lines and canon, and a handful of rather painful episodes that pop up here and there which are drowned in Moral Dissonance, hypocrisy and stupidity - like "Dear Doctor" for one - this was still a rather enjoyable show. Of course, expect to be called a troll if you voiced such an opinion at the time. You could get slaughtered (bloodily) in the forums from both sides for voicing any of this interpretation, particularly if you never payed any attention to any Word of God information given about the series, and ended up thinking that the series fitted in with continuity, or, horror of horrors, that the Temporal Cold War was an interesting mostly background arc that gave maneuverability and flexibility with regards to whether the series would end up leading into the franchise continuity or into an alternate timeline, giving a more dynamic appeal to a series that could otherwise have been boxed-in by franchise canon.
• On the other hand, there are some fans (especially those critical of the reboot) who dismiss any criticism of the show and blame fans for "ruining the franchise" by not supporting the show enough.
• The launch of Star Trek: Discovery has caused yet another fracturing of the base, with some claiming that Discovery has helped them gain a new appreciation of Enterprise, for at least trying to stay true to the spirit of Star Trek even if the execution wasn't always that great, and just as many claiming that Discovery shows how outdated Enterprise seemed even when it first aired (and that's before you get to those fans who love both shows, or don't like either of them).

KEEP

• There is a serious divide among fans of the series over the closing "These are the voyages..." narration in the last episode. Some fans thought it was cool that they divided the narration up among the various Captains of the Enterprise, while others saw it as a Take That! to Scott Bakula, who (they argue) had earned the right to make the entire narration himself.

UNSURE ABOUT (Rewrites needed if there's anything salvageable)

• The Broken Base reached its climax around 2002-2003 when, coupled with the failure of Star Trek: Nemesis at the box office, Trek fandom fractured into "bashers" (those who could no longer abide anything related to Trek made by the then-current production regime) and "gushers" (who generally defended the current works, but were scorned by the bashers for blindly liking whatever was put in front of them). As the first Trek series that lived and died during the Internet age, Trek forums were frequently the site of figurative bloodbaths, with both bashers and gushers being banned for flaming each other. There were also some extreme reports of fans claiming to want to do physical harm to Enterprise's producers, and one forum saw an infamous exchange where a fan claimed to have gotten so upset at the news that the Borg were to appear in Enterprise that he smashed his television. When Enterprise finally did end, many fans divorced themselves from "Trekdom"; the JJ Abrams reboot (which divided the fanbase even more) won some back, but others moved on to other franchises.
• To any moderates or anyone with any opinions that fell between the battle lines, this Broken Base could lead to absolute lethality in the forums. God help you if you thought the series was a reasonably enjoyable, if flawed, prequel that despite problems actually did quite well with the material it had to work with, showing an imperfect crew who struggled in defining their place and the place of humanity in a quite often hostile galaxy - making mistakes along the way (probably unintended by the writers but which had greater meaning and ramifications within the context of the show) - with the improvements in season 4 making astounding retroactive sense out of many of the issues of the series and Star Trek franchise. There are a small group who feel that despite the wasted potential of plot lines and canon, and a handful of rather painful episodes that pop up here and there which are drowned in Moral Dissonance, hypocrisy and stupidity - like "Dear Doctor" for one - this was still a rather enjoyable show. Of course, expect to be called a troll if you voiced such an opinion at the time. You could get slaughtered (bloodily) in the forums from both sides for voicing any of this interpretation, particularly if you never payed any attention to any Word of God information given about the series, and ended up thinking that the series fitted in with continuity, or, horror of horrors, that the Temporal Cold War was an interesting mostly background arc that gave maneuverability and flexibility with regards to whether the series would end up leading into the franchise continuity or into an alternate timeline, giving a more dynamic appeal to a series that could otherwise have been boxed-in by franchise canon.

WRONG TROPE

• Unpleasable Fanbase: The Broken Base effect was further emphasized by the fact that whatever the showrunners tried to do to address concerns was slapped down: fans were upset the series didn't have Star Trek in the title. The title was added, and they were criticized for doing so. The "Temporal Cold War" plotline was abandoned due to being unpopular; they were criticized for abandoning it. An attempt at breaking status quo with the season-long Xindi arc was condemned by the same people who said they wanted Enterprise to stop being a clone of Voyager and TOS. Even the final season's "Hail Mary" pass of devoting most of the season to prequeling TOS and TNG, something fans had wanted since day 1, was rejected. Ironically, the series was officially cancelled during production of an episode that replicated the costumes and sets of the Star Trek TOS era. But by this point the base was so broken that had William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy become regulars the fanbase would have still turned up their nose at it.

REMOVE

• The Star Trek fanbase in general is divided up between people who think Enterprise was either an ambitious-if-flawed series and those who think it was deservedly cancelled. The split likely occurred during DS9/VOY's run. Those who craved realism and space politics had their own show with DS9, while the TOS lovers had their seven years of VOY (If you hadn't kept up with DS9 or VOY, "Broken Bow" had two or three scenes that old-timers would probably find distasteful). Both sides got funneled into watching ENT. Toss in the TOS fans lured by the promise of classic Trek adventures, and you wind up with an unpleasable hydra.
  The Agony Booth: With a lot of old-school Trekkies (understandably) seeing Enterprise as an attempt to 're-do' TOS, and with a lot of new-school Trekkies (understandably) pissed that the new show wasn't going to build upon the TNG-DS9-Voyager continuity, the show went on to polarize fans like never before. If you feel indifferent towards Enterprise, chances are you're not really that into Star Trek.
• A similar break was caused by the 2009 reboot when Leonard Nimoy gave the narration rather than Chris Pine. This was fortunately resolved in the sequel.
• On the other hand, there are some fans (especially those critical of the reboot) who dismiss any criticism of the show and blame fans for "ruining the franchise" by not supporting the show enough.
• The launch of Star Trek: Discovery has caused yet another fracturing of the base, with some claiming that Discovery has helped them gain a new appreciation of Enterprise, for at least trying to stay true to the spirit of Star Trek even if the execution wasn't always that great, and just as many claiming that Discovery shows how outdated Enterprise seemed even when it first aired (and that's before you get to those fans who love both shows, or don't like either of them).