Well, I suspect that was because the show was simply so new. Now that we've all seen TOS ('cept for the li'l kids posting here), TMPs, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and now Enterprise, I think we all might have developed an instinctive sense of what we could expect, never mind the next episode, but what will happen after the next commerical!
I was fairly surprised by that passionate, if hateful, leader of the High Command- he'd kill his own!