Star Trek: Enterprise followed the adventures of Captain Jonathan and his ship, the NX Enterprise (Earth’s first long-range Warp-5 Star ship), in the days before the United Federation of Planets was formed. The show was great but was cancelled after four seasons.

The first Star Trek show I ever watched was the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise. I had some notion of watching the entire franchise in chronological order. I quickly gave up on that idea but did watch Enterprise before anything else. It was my introduction to the Star Trek universe and I feel some sentimentality towards it. It does take a while to find its feet, though. Recently, I went back to some of its early episodes, having now watched the other Star Trek shows, and they do drag a bit. The showrunners didn’t seem to know what they wanted Star Trek: Enterprise to be.

There was also an attempt to have a slightly more serialised story than other Trek shows, which might have been interesting. After a decade-plus of back-to-back Star Trek shows, a serialised approach could have reinvigorated creators and fans alike. But they also tried to force some ‘sequel elements’ instead of just being a prequel. The main story arc involved time travel and a ‘temporal cold war.’ It didn’t work and undermined the early episodes. That probably killed off a lot of goodwill.

A slow start is not uncommon for Star Trek. The shows often meander for a couple of seasons, with some good episodes and some bad, then start to get consistently good around season 3. This usually involves someone growing a beard (the events have coincided more than once). Nobody ever grew a beard in Star Trek: Enterprise, but it still picked up around (the somewhat controversial) season 3. And season 4 was amazing, perhaps some of the best Trek they’ve ever done. They got a new showrunner around that time. Then, just as the show was getting good, it got cancelled.

It was a minor miracle that they got a fourth season. The ratings weren’t great and had practically died off by the last season when they got moved to a graveyard slot. As noted, Star Trek shows had been airing non-stop before Enterprise. It followed closely on the heels of Voyager, DS9, TNG and a host of movies. There was, undoubtedly, some fatigue by that time, which probably contributed to the impatience with the slow start (that most Star Trek shows have). That likely doomed it.

But I want it back!

I can’t emphasise enough that season four was amazing. They dropped the Temporal Cold War arc from earlier seasons and created a series of partially self-contained multi-episode stories that began setting up the United Federation of Planets. The episodes had compelling story ideas and explored ideas they had only hinted at before. They also did a lot more character development. In short, the show finally embraced its ‘prequel’ status.

They embraced their ‘prequel-ness’ to the point of explaining the change in the Klingon’s design. In the original series, Klingons looked like humans. In later shows, they were made to look like aliens. This had been a joke before. In DS9, the characters travel back in time to the original series. The human characters are surprised by the change in the Klingon’s appearance, to which Worf, a Klingon, replies, “We do not discuss it with outsiders.” Enterprise season four explains it as a genetic experiment gone wrong. This arguably didn’t need explaining, but as a true prequel, season four provided one.

The season also had an ongoing story beat in which the ship’s bridge was gradually upgraded and changed to suit the character’s needs. Slowly but surely, it began to resemble the bridge layout of the original series. This would have presumably continued in future seasons. In fact, the ship’s exterior was designed so that they could later ‘retrofit’ it to look more like the original series’ ship.

What could have been.

Some of the showrunners’ plans for future seasons have been gradually revealed since the cancellation. Their ideas sound highly compelling and it makes the cancellation even more disastrous. For instance, the Andorian warrior Shran (an incredible character) would have become a show regular; a crew member of the NX Enterprise.

They would have also revisited the Mirror Universe, an alternate reality in which a fascist Earth has conquered its neighbouring worlds. In season four, there was a two-part episode set entirely in the Mirror Universe. It didn’t even feature the prime-universe characters. It was fantastic and season five was meant to have some follow-up episode. They even considered having the entire fifth season take place there (that might have been too much). I assume this would involve the prime-universe characters being transported to the Mirror Universe. We’ll never know. They do this in Discovery season one, though; perhaps that was adapted from the scrapped plans for Enterprise.

The Romulan War

The cancellation’s worst part is that we never saw the Earth-Romulan war. This is an important event in Star Trek lore; its consequences are still felt two centuries later and it’s a significant factor in the Federation’s establishment. It was set up during TOS, when Kirk encountered the Romulans in the neutral zone (a buffer between Federation space and the Romulan Star Empire). In that episode, the Federation doesn’t even know who the Romulans are (until the episode’s end). They just know that 100 years prior, Earth and Romulus had a brutal war.

Star Trek Enterprise, set 100 prior, was the natural place to explore the conflict. The comparatively unprepared Earth (just beginning to enter the galactic stage) and the absence of the Federation (not yet founded) could have made the conflict even more interesting than the original series had intended.

Alas, the first three seasons never touched on the Romulans. In season four, however, they finally began exploring it. A key story thread in Enterprise is that the Alpha-Quadrant (our part of the galaxy) is divided between the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites (and a few others). These factions, especially the Vulcans and Andorians, are constantly fighting. Earth then begins to act as a peacemaker between them.

In season four, the Romulans saw the emerging peace as a threat and attempted to destabilise the region with a ‘shapeshifting’ drone. This backfires. Earth creates a four-way alliance (Earth, Vulcan, Andoria and Tellar Prime) to deal with the Drone and the Romulans. This would have led, in later seasons, to the Earth-Romulan War and the alliance’s reorganisation into the United Federation of Planets.

Star Trek: Enterprise renewal?

There were sporadic fan attempts to get Star Trek: Enterprise renewed, but at this point, it seems unlikely. It’s been 20 years since the show ended. They could do an animated follow-up, I guess. But if the streaming service boom (that saw a host of old shows get renewed) didn’t lead to Enterprise’s resurrection, nothing will.

The final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise is also a problem. It’s set 10 years after the penultimate episode and is controversial amongst Star Trek fans. In practice, it was an episode of TNG rather than Enterprise. It involved Riker (from TNG) watching a recording of the original NX Enterprise as it returned to Earth from its final mission. It also featured a holographic recording of the Federation’s founding ceremony. The recording presumably occurs after the Earth-Romulan war.

As a stand-alone episode, it might have been a cool idea. It would have also helped to integrate Enterprise with the other Star Trek shows. But as the final episode of the entire show, it wasn’t great. It’s not about the show’s characters (they’re just a background element), which makes it an unsatisfying send-off. It also involved the unnecessary death of a beloved character, which further soured people on it.

Even if it did get renewed, after 20 years and the end of the streaming boom, season five would still have to work in and around the limitations that the finale created. I don’t think ignoring it’s a viable option. This, in turn, might impose restrictions on the renewed show’s own ability to have a satisfying conclusion.

It doesn’t seem likely that the Enterprise cast will ever reunite to face off against the Romulans.

I’m gutted.

Although this did happen when I was five and I’ve gone the bulk of my life without it weighing too heavily. I’ll probably be fine.

-Dexter