I am not concerned about their losing viewers, they first and foremost aimed the show not at Trek fans but at fans of scifi, now all of a sudden it dawned on them that only Trek fans where watching and renamed it Star Trek Enterprise, they dug their own grave. As far as it being a probe, yeah thats an excuse I was simply saying that if a probe can do that kind of damage then guess what yor on the right track you certainly do not need to waste time studying your victims, of course if they did that there would be no way what-so-ever that Enterprise could catch up with them.
As for the marines, I am aware that there are a dozen or so of them running around, how about letting us see them in action. This has so far been the legacy of Enterprise lots of characters but never using them.
Finally I think 'Gasm is on to something, just once can we see Enterprise kick someones ass, it does not have to be a long drawn out battle but there is no need to constantly shoved down our throats that the ship is inferiror.