Last week Star Trek Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga brought up the idea of show being resurrected by Netflix. Now Scott Bakula is commenting on the possibility of a reunion. Find out what he had to say below, plus check out Doug Drexler’s campaign to get Enterprise season 5 on Netflix.
Bakula talks Enterprise Reunion and Fan Critiques
In a new interview promoting the release of the first season of Star Trek Enterprise, star Scott Bakula was asked if he would be on board for any kind of Kickstarter-funded effort (like was recently done for Veronica Mars) to reunite the Enterprise cast for a new season of the show. Bakula appeared to be open to the idea but was skeptical it could be done, saying..
I talked about that in the beginning, before Kickstarter was around. If the fans want us to do a movie or the fans want more episodes, why don’t we let the fans be investors in the show? This is eight years ago and it didn’t go anywhere. I’d love to do [a new season], but the big problem with our show is that it requires effects and sets. A lot of our sets have been sold. Our bridge is in Germany, assembled in a guy’s garage.
The actor also talked about the two things that people seemed most critical of with Enterprise…
There were two things that were somewhat irritating that came up in the period of time that we made that show. People either loved or hated the theme song and people loved or hated that I had a dog on board. It was a little obsessive and a little shortsighted, missing the big picture. It’s not that people don’t want to love your show. I always know that the guy who wore that sign, he wanted to love our show. He said so on the sign. But we’ve created a world where people have forums to speak their minds anonymously or not. You want to encourage that, but you also have to take it with a grain of salt. There’s going to be critics of everything I do, every day. We put our heads down and worked as hard as we could for as long as they let us, with great results.
Visit the LA Times Hero Complex for more from Bakula about Enterprise.
Scott Bakula says he would ‘love’ to do more Enteprise
Drexler Launches Facebook Campaign For Enterprise Season 5 On Netflix
Last week TrekMovie reported on Enterprise co-creator Brannon Braga’s comment about how fans should watch the show on Netflix because they track viewership and maybe they would be interested in bringing back the show. Braga’s comments inspired Star Trek visual effects artist (and designer of the NX-01) Doug Drexler to launch a Facbook group. The group has over 2000 likes so far.
Another campaign to save Enterprise
Enterprise on Blu-ray
You can order Star Trek Enterprise Season 1 on Blu-ray at Amazon.
Memo to Bakula,
No thanks!!!
@ 1
speak for yourself
YES, bring back Enterprise.
@ 2 Amen
Doing this would at least generate interest in making another Trek series. That being said, Enterprise had some low moments (Season 3) but it had finally hit its stride in the 4th season. It was canceled too early.
it’ll never happen because TPTB will not allow it, sadly… but folks can dream, one supposes…
I think this would have been a good idea…8 years ago. The thing is they haven’t been together in a long time. They look different. The same chemistry may not be there. On the other hand TOS was off the air for 10 years when TMP was made. They managed to recapture the chemistry.
If they could not bring Firefly back to life, don’t fool yourself that a season 5 of Enterprise will happen. I liked the idea of Enterprise, time travel has become a crutch for Star Trek writers. If you can’t think of anything new to write, default to time travel. I admit I have enjoyed some of the time travel, but any more and they better get a Tardis. I hope to be wrong, but I don’t think we will see it.
2. I whole heartedly agree.
I’d love to see Enterprise be brought back.
The formula had just hit its stride when they were cancelled. As bad as some episodes were, I loved these characters, and FAR preferred these four seasons to all seven of Voyager.
Would always love to see it done right.
Gotta wonder how you get the kuh-ching to pay for a new set, costumes, fx, et al. (New theme song, too, please!)
I would be fun to see the refit NX-01 with secondary hull attached.
I had no problem with the dog or the theme song. I just hated all the time travel stuff. That should be used very judiciously.
I’d rather bring back any other of the Star Trek series, but not enterprise
it did more harm than good to the franchise.
It could always be set around 2171, ten years after the Romulan War, using a different ship: a prototype Kelvin-type ship. Use the Kelvin set pieces. Make the show more planet based/BSG:B&C green screen/bottle show type, and there you go. Just make a series of 2-hour telemovies.
I personally love Enterprise, granted the first two seasons there were some not so great episodes. By the third and definitely fourth season, the show started to get its bearings.
Other Star Trek series took a few seasons to get in the groove. TNG season 3 – less Roddenberry (ouch, I know but its true), Voyager season 4 – when 7 came along, DS9 season 4 – Worf/Sisko shaving his head. Of course, there are great episodes beforehand, just like 1 and 2 of ENT. People complained about some canon changes but you can find that in every series.
I could definitely live without the theme song, though I loved the opening sequence. Also, I think some of the casting was a little questionable.
Earth/Romulan War + Ronald D. Moore = Big win for ENT
Build it and they will come!
I really enjoyed S4 of ENT (not so much for the other three), but all the same I think a fifth season of ENT would be too cost prohibitive. I just don’t see this happening. A shame too, as ENT was really getting good in S4.
If anyone wants a decent continuation of ENT, try the Romulan Wars books; they were pretty good.
Forget the theme song… the images were perfect but not the tune.
I agree a couple of years after.season 4.. maybe the destruction of the nx-01 at the beginning … new ship and lets go… eart/romulan war with ronald D. Moore.
But why in the hell the killed off Trip… bad move! Bring back Sim or something like that!
One more season or a 10 hours special on the war… 2 a least. Enterprise and the fans deserve it. By the way change the producers!
The last two seasons of ‘Enterprise’ started to gel with the cast and story line, too bad it was on the lame UPN network.
MJ,
I agree 100%. The truth hurts sometimes, especially for apologists.
“I’d rather bring back any other of the Star Trek series, but not enterprise…it did more harm than good to the franchise.”
Yep!
DiscoSpock = MJ
No. I like how it ended. I’m not mad about Trip’s death because it’s all about risking your life to go where no man has gone before. He killed himself for Archer so the federation, something that had not been attempted before, could happen. Restarting the series would be a disaster. Fans are gona push it, see it, and regret it because the show came to a final ending and will not feel right. Trip’s death breaks the chain of characters which is half the show.
@21. LOL Funny how you myopic fans of Enterprise have a tough time believing that the majority of Trek fans never really liked the show.
Here’s betting that any real sock-puppeting that is going on here is being done the 2-3 (at most) Enterprise fans who have posted here today, with I suspect this newbie, JP, being chief among them.
DiscoSpock,
JP has been around for awhile — JP is not a newbie. He/she has accused me as well as being MJ in the past, so I have been where you are now.
JP’s posts usually involve whining about MJ in some fashion. I can’t recall a post from JP that was ever about any other topic than his/her negative passion for MJ.
Just ignore him/her.
I gotta disagree with MJ and DiscoSpock about “Enterprise”. It was pretty good. Better than “Voyager”.
Yeah, I like the show, but it isn’t coming back.
The one show I’d like to get Kickstarted is a third season of “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”. Now that show didn’t get a fair run.
I am kind of uneasy about actors asking their fans to fund a new season of a show that they already get dvd/Blu Ray royalties from.
Good thing Read Dead that you disagreed — you just avoided JP calling you “MJ” as well. ;-)
PS: My own opinion on this n is in-between yours and MJ’s. I liked some of the final two seasons, but then the final episode really stank. So while I would have like to have seen the show given a 5th season, I don’t think trying to re-start it is that great of an idea. Let it rest. And certainly, them trying to charge $70+ for the awful 1st season is just plain highway robbery.
A continuation of Enterprise would be awesome, though the actors may have aged too much. After all, they can’t really set it eight years after Terra Prime (the real Enterprise finale), since that would set it in 2163. Setting Enterprise after the forming of the Federation would sort of ruin the point of the show.
#26.
Well, the final episode was pretty much a holodeck episode. I theorize Trip’s death was really a glitch in the matrix. Besides, in the “Enterprise” novels Trip faked his death so that he could go undercover as a Romulan on Romulus during the Romulan Wars.
I really liked the final two seasons. A lot of top-notch storytelling, especially during the fourth season. A shame it came a bit too late, though.
I think I’ll wait for the Blu Ray to come down in price. The dvds still look pretty good on my fourty-inch LCD screen.
This site got it wrong, Doug Drexler is not just strongly supporting this, he’s the main guy running it. This campaign is his!
Look, I realize that there are a lot of cynics out there on the internet who would dismiss this as ever having a chance without trying. But guys, look at it this way, what do you gain by trying and it not working out? We would all be were we started except those of us that supported this thing get to watch and enjoy more Enterprise, something most of us would do anyway.
I really can’t see a downside to this. Enterprise deserve one more season at least, or a Romulan War film or two. It’s ok if it’s some NetFlix production, I don’t mind. The show ended right as it was getting good!
@2 – Agreed!
” Our bridge is in Germany, assembled in a guy’s garage.”
lol
Hey guys,
Yea, a number of times in the past when some people have agreed with me on certain things, this JP troll shows up and insists that they must be me?
He is a harmless clown though; he makes me laugh!
reposted from previous thread as posted late so no one will have seen it:
STE movie in alternate summer 2009 where Enterprise been a TNG style success and seen out its 7 years on tv (as with ST09 it would’ve been 7 years since Nemesis). any similarity to ST09 is purely coincidental:)
Following its successful 10 year mission, the refitted NX01 is relaunched to confront a new threat to the newly formed UFPs outer defenses where they discover an advanced ship of unknown design has destroyed several federation ships and outposts. As they engage they realise they are seriously outmatched and flee but are pursued, take on heavy damage and are about to be destroyed when they are suddenly engulfed by a violently unstable anomaly – emerging in the late 24th century. There they find a future where the federation is in a desperate all out war with an advanced romulan empire led by a crazed revenge driven warlord. With the help of Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise E, Archer and his crew discover the ship which attacked them was from an unknown part of the galaxy and had the ability to create unstable quantum holes in space. Found by Romulans, they commandeered it back to the mid 22nd century to destroy the federation in its infancy, but were destroyed by the unstable anomaly they created when the NX01 unwittingly passed through and was thrown into the future. However Romulan ships of that period recovered debris/telemetry from the ship which was enough to slowly advance their empire to the point where they are imminently about to destroy the federation in the 24th century…
The crews of both Enterprises must work together along with a legendary vulcan former starfleet officer in order to save the past and the future….
Paramount Pictures presents….A Rick Berman Production…..‘Star Trek Futures Past’ (no colon)
starring Scott Bakula, John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Steven Culp, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Stephen Lang, Jeri Ryan, Brent Spiner, Conner Trinneer, with Patrick Stewart, and Leonard Nimoy
Written by Manny Coto, Mike Sussman, and Nicholas Meyer
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Tagline – Two Crews. One Destiny (a riff on the Generations tagline – like the way Insurrection took TUCs tagline)
IMDB style Trivia for the ST Enterprise movie (2009):
-Main characters = Capt Archer, Cmdr Tpol, Cmdr Tucker, Capt Picard, Cmdr Data (not B4 as is altered timeline), Nero (S Lang – crazed revenge driven Romulan warlord whose son was on board the destroyed timeship)
-Extended cameos = Cmdr Madden (Ent E 1st Officer – as in Nemesis deleted end scene), Capt Riker (USS Titan – in altered timeline was promoted to Captain long before end of Nemesis – helps the Enterprises out Sulu style), Cmdr Hansen (Titan 1st Officer – was never borgified into 7of9), Ambassador Spock (as in Unification trying stop the federation/romulan war)
-minor roles – all the rest in their usual positions/ranks (Geordi, Dr Crusher, Troi, Hoshi, Malcolm etc etc)
-titled ‘Star Trek Enterprise’ (no colon) in some countries
-a sequel to Enterprise and Nemesis
-third PG13 rated Star Trek film
-James Horners third Star Trek score
-Production Designer Herman Zimmerman’s seventh Star Trek feature
-Jonathan Frakes third time directing a Star Trek film.
-Nicholas Meyer was offered the chance to direct but turned it down, however he later agreed to co-write the film.
-Enterprise was close to cancellation by the forth season in 2005 due to low ratings, however massive fan support convinced Paramount to commission a fifth season which has been hailed as one of Star Treks best, leading to a further two critically acclaimed seasons. This led to the decision to revitalise the movie series with the Enterprise crew
-Plans for an eleventh Star Trek feature were halted after the box office failure of Star Trek Nemesis. However elements of a proposed ‘crossover’ film featuring several members of each series, as well as a prequel trilogy entitled ‘Star Trek: The Beginning’ were worked into this film.
-William Shatner was approached to cameo as Captain Kirk in a holodeck exposition scene but wanted a non holodeck Kirk role central to the action like Spocks – as a result the scene was discarded and the dialogue was added to Spocks character. Shatner had guest starred in the fifth season of Star Trek: Enterprise as a vengeful mirror universe Kirk.
-Leonard Nimoy initially declined to return as Spock. He agreed after Nicholas Meyer re-wrote elements of the script to make Spocks part more essential to the plot.
-Those considered for the role of Nero included Russell Crowe and Eric Bana, before Stephen Lang was cast.
-inspired by Yesterdays Enterprise (ship from the past encountering changed future, federation losing the war), and First Contact (villain attempting to destroy the federation in the past)
-Plans for a ‘Yesterdays Enterprise’ style crossover film featuring crews of two Enterprises go back to 1994s Star Trek Generations but the idea was discarded when it was established it would be too expensive.
-the NX01 emerging in the 23rd Century and teaming up with the remaining crew of the NCC 1701A was considered then discarded in favour of the TNG crew.
-the Enterprise E emerging in the 22nd Century was considered then dropped for the NX01 in the 24th century.
-Rumours surfaced in 2007 of an original series prequel film charting the early years of Kirk and Spock being developed. JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were rumoured to be involved. However soon after it was revealed Paramount had hired Jonathon Frakes to direct a movie with the Star Trek Enterprise cast.
-22nd century scenes set – 2162. 24th Century scenes set – 2387
-Budget = $100m.
-Box Office – $45m opening wkend. $125m US. $75m foreign = $200m ww
-Despite several rumours, there are no plans for a sequel as yet.
Spoilers (The trivia items below may give away important plot points):
-Enterprise crew deaths – Hoshi, Mayweather (opening attack), Madden (half way – replaced by Data as 1st Officer), Trip (end sacrifice), the entire Ent E crew (getting the NX01 back to the past)
-During Nero and Archers fight scene Nero states ‘I Know your face from earths history….’ Archers response of ‘I find that difficult to believe’ is intended to be a reference to his Quantum Leap character Samuel Beckett
-During the final battle the USS Voyager is seen to be destroyed
-Ships present during the final battle include the USS Excelsior, Reliant and all previous Enterprises.
-When Picard and Archer enter Spocks chambers, a photo of Kirk (William Shatner) can be seen on the desk.
-Near the end of the movie, Khan (Richardo Montalban) is briefly seen in a cryogenic stasis pod as Archer searches the gigantic cargo hold of Nero’s advanced Romulan battleship. (suggesting at some point between 2162 and 2387 in the changed timeline the romulans located the Botany Bay). The ILM effects team scanned Richardo Montalbans face from the 1967 episode Space Seed and applied the result to a stunt double.
No.
34 – but it already happened (in another reality :)
I loved the dog. It reminded me of Gene Hackmans character in Crimson Tide who also had a dog.
I’d actually rather see DS9 come back in some form. Movie or miniseries.
Ah, the fracturered universe of Trek fandom…
i think ENT wouldve worked quite well on the big screen – the big budget making the ship even more realistic, that particular era with plenty nods to TOS – all the cool foreshadowing, Scott Bakula as Archer, possible interaction with the TNG crew like the way TNG interacted with TOS for their 1st film.
the cast mustve been thinking a movie would be a strong possiblity in the early days as there was no way a DS9 or VOY film would go ahead, and TNG were about to have their final film (and even if Nemesis wasnt to be TNGs final film it would be unlilely theyd be still doing the films by the time ENT finished its run on tv), so there mustve been the feeling that ENT would more than likely be the next crew on the big screen at the end of the 7 years in a film possibly like the one described above
hearing the show wasnt doing too well and then was going to be cancelled early mustve been unbelivable, especially when the likes of Stargate was still going…and just when ENT had found its feet like TNGs 3rd season….
even now its still pretty shocking ….i know it probably worked out for the best as otherwise we wouldnt have had the return of the original characters with ST09/STID but even so i cant help imagining what an ENT movie wouldve been like :(
The fact that ALL of you folks commenting here even clicked on this article proves that you are in some way at least interested in bringing this series back, or at least SOME TYPE of Star Trek back.
By clicking on this article, you also ADMIT you are a Star Trek fan, or you wouldn’t even waste your time at this website, for that matter.
I grow weary of all these nitpickers, nay sayers, and Star Trek Trolls that hang out at Star Trek sites, finger on the trigger, ready to fire off these negative comments, like vultures, at the drop of a hat!
If you have nothing better to do than to critique critique critique Star Trek to death, then in the words of William Shatner himself, “GET A LIFE!”.
No way Netflix would foot the bill for this show, the investment of time and research of recreating the sets alone would be cost prohibitive. Not to mention, the slim ratings that sunk the show to begin with. No one was watching it. Add to that, the fact that it has no “cult” status like Arrested Development, which, by comparrison, is a cake-walk to produce. Get the same actors and put them on a couch and you’re ready to roll. I thought the show was ok, certainly liked it more than TNG and Voyager, but thinking Netflix is gonna revive anything from the Berman era is just wishful thinking IMO.
heres the poster:
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5967/mov8fd5844cb.jpg
Enterpise Season 5 – Make it so!
I liked Enterprise also. But I’m also a realist. Bakula knows it’s highly unlikely (partly as he mentioned because the sets are no more and the effects required to do it). Part of it also is it’s been 8 years now.
However, if enough interest is shown on Netflix, along with the Blu-Ray of TNG and Enterprise, it might just encourage CBS to look at doing a new show.
So while a lot of interest will not bring the old shows back, it can still lead to something we all want, a new show.
On the flip side, if all these ventures flop, CBS will likely decide it’s not worth it to do Star Trek on TV again (esp. since Star Trek is expensive to do), and it could be years before Star Trek is seen on TV again.
Yes, Mr. Bakula, you’re right, I hated the title song at first, but I’ve grown used to it over time. Sometimes I even think, when watching another Star Trek show’s episode: “it would be nice to have a song here instead of an orchestral theme”. :)
Loved the dog. Liked the reference in JJ Abram’s film.
LOVED the cast, character chemistry, very good acting etc. Way better than VOY, except for Picardo’s Doctor, who’s dope.
At any rate: yes, definitely! I’d really enjoy a new Enterprise season.
#43 Very true statements I’m sure. Too bad though, I really liked Enterprise.
NO SETS ARE NEEDED!
Did any of you guys see Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome? That was done almost entirely with green screen, as the old BG sets have been torn down, and it looked pretty darn good. The Enterprise bridge, etc., could be recreated on a computer, and few would be able to tell the difference.
what if some trekkie billionarie gave 30 million to do a 5th season – hire all the people, writers cast etc could they do it or would Paramount stop it
I have worked in the TV industry for 25 years. Whether it is Enterprise (highly unlikely) or something new, Star Trek will never return to standard broadcast television. It is too expensive and the ratings had dwindled too much.
When next we see a new Trek for TV, it will be done with some type of pay-tv model – Showtime, Netflix or some other entity. BTW – Netflix ponied up $100 million for 26 episodes (two seasons) of House of Cards. They could definitely be a player.
#39. Mock – April 4, 2013
The words aren’t Shatner’s. They are the words of the writer Robert Smigel.
#48. RichCD – April 4, 2013
The same was said of BATTLESTAR GALACITICA but someone figure out a way to do it.