I thought the network didn't want the whole season one being building the Enterprise, which is why Berman and Braga didn't do it. I thought they WANTED to, but didn't because of the network.
Exactly that. That would of been amazing to see the Enterprise being built and Archer assembling his crew. I think ultimately they drifted back into doing episodes that were no different than those on TNG or Voyager. Where Enterprise got different it was far too late, the franchise was dead as far as the studio. I think Manny Coto would of been the refreshing change Trek needed but one has to wonder if it would of been enough to entice new people into watching or whether or not ratings would of remained flatlining. Looking back, DS9 stands apart as something different from TNG in tone and as they moved into seasons 4,5,6 & 7 the whole series became this serialised epic. It's a shame the studio went back and wanted a starship based series in Voyager which was in many ways a revamped TNG. Voyager again should of been something different, this crew became far too polished a Starfleet crew far too quickly when clearly there would of been real tension between the Marquis and Starfleet. Plus the very fact they were 75 light years from home but every week the ship was pristine and everything and everyone was just part of this happy crew. These people were lost, facing the possibility they'd never get home but everything was fine on the good ship Voyager...
There were these moments in Voyager and Enterprise that showed the potential of those shows but for whatever reason, they never went beyond what they knew would work. They played it very safe I think - not a bad thing but you can begin to see why people started loosing interest in Star Trek resulting in the need for a full on reimagining. Had they (Berman, the studio) been a bit more risky and a bit more willing to change the status quo then things might have been different.
The studio holds a lot of the blame for Star Trek stagnating though, they were cashing in and milking Star Trek for everything it had, they stormed the bank and robbed it of everything and left the carcass to rot until Abrams. They didn't allow Berman the time to develop these series properly and there it is. I think it was 2 weeks between Voyager wrapping and Enterprise starting, you'd never get that today.
It's really interesting watching the special features to a Enterprise because a lot of the problems Star Trek had are explained in those features. I mean... when one of the biggest executives at UPN in a pitch meeting suggested they put a hot new pop band in the restaurant on Enterprise (meaning the mess hall) to bring in ratings, you know you're just waiting for the axe to fall.
I think the way Star Trek was going, I'm pretty thankful we have the Star Trek we got because it would of died a slow and agonising death the way things were going.
At least now the franchise is relevant again, in the public eye again and alive!