In addition to all the new Star Trek Universe show panels from Mission Chicago we have covered, there was a fun panel for Star Trek: Enterprise, which celebrated its 20th-anniversary last year. On hand were show stars Connor Trinneer (Charles “Trip” Tucker), Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed), and Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather). The trio shared stories of their time on the NX-01 Enterprise, including some frank discussion about the series which ended in cancellation after four seasons. TrekMovie was there to report on the highlights.
7 years and movie?… that ship has sailed
When the moderator asked the group what it was like walking in for the first episode, the actors talked about how they were given high hopes for their future:
Connor Trinneer: We weren’t walking into a pilot, we were walking into a series. We had that luxury. So that was a little intimidating. We knew we were in it together. And we knew we were going to be together for well…
Anthony Montgomery: It was supposed to be seven years. We signed for seven years. They told us we were doing movies, because they didn’t do movies with DS9. They didn’t do movies with Voyager. So they told me that the fans love Star Trek and you guys are going be here for at least seven years, and you’re going to be doing movies and everything. And you guys know how that all turns out.
Regarding if they thought the show were more anticipating the show being big or worried it would fail, again they talked about the initial excitement, which soon turned to concern:
Anthony Montgomery: Really big, initially.
Connor Trinneer: But then, we wondered for a long time if we were going to be coming back to work.
Anthony Montgomery: That started in season one.
As for what was planned for the show beyond a fourth season, speaking for the group, Montgomery made it clear they were on a roll once they got to season four and it would only have got better:
Anthony Montgomery: They’d never told me where we were going, but I can tell you it would have been fucking great. What? Come on! Did y’all see season four? We have really stepped into our own by season four. So if we’d gone five, six and seven, man, I don’t know what it would have been, but we would have crushed it! I love that guy [points to fan] saying “you guys could still do it.” No, no, that that spaceship has sailed.
Dominic Keating, Connor Trinneer, and Anthony Montgomery entertained the crowd at Mission Chicago (Photo: TrekMovie.com)
About that theme song…
One of the more controversial elements of Enterprise was the theme song: Russell Watson’s “Where My Heart Will Take Me.” As a group they defended the theme and talked about how producers were very optimistic about it, although Keating noted he wasn’t a fan of the new version of the song used for the final two seasons:
Connor Trinneer: They were very psyched about it. They were really excited about it.
Dominic Keating: I got to say when they suddenly introduced a tambourine and the upbeat version of that song for season three, I got to say, that is some goofy shit. I am watching the show now and I am on season three and I can’t even listen to it. It is naff, really naff. The original song? I didn’t mind at all. I thought it was rather beautiful.
Anthony Montgomery: I thought it was fantastic. And it fits our series. It does. For what our show is and what it represents in the franchise, I thought it was a perfect song.
Connor Trinneer: I think I heard it for the first time and went, “That’s a song, that right there is a song.”
Dominic Keating: I thought it was rather fitting with the graphics and absolutely the human endeavor and flight and I thought it was pretty cool.
You can watch and listen to the original version again here…
Representing Florida and Britain
The actors also talked a bit about how they developed the cultural identities of their characters. Connor Trinner described how he was taken by surprise when the writers identified Trip coming from Florida about halfway through the series:
Connor Trinneer: I’ve had done a play in New York for about a year playing this guy from Oklahoma and all this said was [Trip is] a good old southern boy. I know Oklahoma is a tip of the South or south Midwest. Anyway, I went in with that accent and worked on that and knew it really well … and then they wrote that I was from Florida and I went to the producers and said I’m not doing Florida and they’re like, “They’ll never know.” And I was like, “People in Florida will know!” And sure enough there was a family that came on the Make A Wish Foundation to our set and they were from the town Trip is supposed to be from and they were just like, “I just want to thank you so much for nailing our accent.”
And Leicester-born Keating talked about how he was proud to represent Britain, and he was given some leeway in portraying a British character:
Dominic Keating: It was it was an honor. And if anything, I got slightly a wider berth how they were particular about what they’ve written. Connor, if you wanted to change anything, you have to bring up the writers’ room, didn’t you? It had to go through a whole order of command to change an “and” to an “or” or a “but.” I could just go, “A British guy wouldn’t say that.”
Dominic Keating, Connor Trinneer, and Anthony Montgomery entertained the crowd at Mission Chicago (Photo: TrekMovie.com)
More from Chicago
Okay, that’s really it for our panel coverage from Mission Chicago. Click here for all of our Mission Chicago coverage.
Find more Enterprise articles here at TrekMovie.
That spaceship has NOT sailed. If you had told me that a new series with a 80-year-old Sir Patrick was a thing or Kate Mulgrew returning in CGI animation, I would have probably said the same thing 5 years ago…
It’s the easiest thing to do and there ARE hints it will happen… Tilly’s snowglobe, Archer Spacedock… They included that stuff for a purpose…
I’d say an Enterprise revival is never going to happen, but they can always bring the characters back. In the past few years, we’ve had four Voyager characters and four TNG characters come back, so we could always see Phlox pop up on SNW or something.
Actually I read a few weeks ago John Billingsly WAS offered to come back to play Phlox on SNW…but sadly turned it down. :(
https://www.slashfilm.com/786461/why-star-trek-enterprises-john-billingsley-shot-down-an-offer-for-strange-new-worlds/
I can certainly understand his point on this though. He doesn’t want to get in the make up again and the role probably sounded like it was going to be for just an episode. It sounds like the same reasons why Dorn didn’t want to just do a cameo on Picard or something (and thankfully it will be more than that when he comes back next season). As fans of course we just want to see these characters back and Phlox probably was one of the most beloved on that show; but I never fault the actors for deciding against doing these roles again. They have their own careers and issues to think about. And it’s more than OK to just move on.
That said in that interview he did say he wouldn’t mind doing voice over work and so that opens the door for LDS and PRO at least. That’s probably what got Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran to come back for Prodigy.
It says he was offered a small role and turned it down and also told his agent to tell them he was already in Star Trek. Sounds like a different role.
He says he didn’t want to play old and fat Phlox in it. It sounds like he’s talking about that role specifically. And he also talked about how the producers don’t seem to perceive how many fans didn’t like Enterprise by the time it went off the air and thought it was odd they asked him to do it.
Seem like a weird thing to bring up if he’s supposed to be playing a completely different role that’s unrelated.
Either way he makes it pretty clear he’s not begging to be in Star Trek or play the character again in full make up anytime soon.
BUT knowing that now, maybe they might have replaced him with another character from that show, like saaaay,, T’Pol! I know, wishful thinking, but it’s at least in the realm of possibility now. It could be like when Jeri Ryan turned down the cameo to be in Nemesis they got Mulgrew to do it instead. Could be a similar situation.
a different universe and show and topics but the original Law and Order series, featuring Sam Waterston, has just revived its series from original that started back in 1990 and it is back for a 21st season, not that it took that long a break from being off the air; seems less with also first spinoff series Law and Order: SVU being on the ir for a long time somehting 16 years and th newest Law and Order series: Ogranized Crime on something like one or two seasons. only Star Trek series that feels out of time line and does not fit in Star Trek universe for me is ST: Discovery!
It doesn’t deserve to be brought back in my opinion. When “softcore” decontamination chamber scenes with hot looking Vulcans are the only thing I enjoy viewing on a Trek series, that’s a problem. ;-)
Agreed. I’m sure the writers had some more stories about the early years that they wanted to tell from that time period that could be worked into a big budget movie or a limited season TV show. The actors are not to old just like the cast from the original series were not to old to do big budget movies. However, I’m not sure I would want the current group of producers to be involved. Let the old team handle it.
Referencing bits from Enterprise (also a USS Archer in Nemesis) does NOT mean an Enterprise revival is on someone’s mind. These are just Easter Eggs designed to make fans happy. Nothing more.
No need to develop a complicated plot. Just saving Trip and bringing him back to life will be it.
One of the final corrections to the temporal cold war could be preventing his ridiculous death
Agreed!
The last real episode of ENT was “Terra Prime.” “These Are the Voyages” was ultimately a piece of historical fiction viewed in the 24th century. Like all historical fiction, it can take liberties with what actually happened for dramatic effect. There is nothing canonical to say that Trip died.
Section 31 could’ve faked Trip’s death in order to recruit him, and for the rest of his life he went undercover as an Oklahoman with a Floridian accent.
Speaking of historical fiction, I’ve been thinking that the changes in visual canon and the bad episodes, movies, and seasons can be attributed to degraded historical records being viewed by scholars billions or trillions of years further into the future.
I’d love to see the show come back… but I’d also be OK with Montgomery not being part of it. He was, hands down, the worst main actor ever to appear in a Trek show. Incredibly nice guy, but a terrible actor.
I don’t agree. I like him.
I think so much time has passed at this point that I’d be willing to reset my expectations. He sounds motivated, and clearly has had a lot of time to reflect. I want to see what they’d have in store for him and see him in action again before judging. (Of course, by then it’s too late, but humor me.)
This show had no shortage of poor performances, especially from Blalock and Bakula. For me that was one of the fatal flaws of the show, the two main cast members delivered some of Star Trek’s most wooden and unconvincing performances. Some of the supporting cast were great, but Montgomery thankfully had little to do. The Mirror episodes are pure agony for me because of Bakula’s cringey performance, to me some of the worst Star Trek I’ve ever sat through.
It’s weird because I always thought T’Pol was played great and one of the best characters even when I wasn’t a huge fan of the show. And she got stronger every season IMO.
Never had an issue with Archer either but he does seem pretty divisive in the fanbase even now.
I agree. I thought Blalock was outstanding as T’Pol and brought a sensitivity and subtlety to her role.
Her strained whispering sing-songy tone and gravely emotional outbursts have always bothered me, not to mention the absolutely gratuitous sexualization of the character which further sabotaged her for me.
OK fair enough. You can’t blame the sexual stuff on the actress though, the producers and network made that choice to gin up the teenage fanboys like they tried with Seven.
I felt similar about T’Pol. Originally was not all that happy with her but as the show went on she become more interesting and I started appreciating her more and more.
I never had a problem per se with Bakula. I accepted him because the show around him was pretty good. But I to this day say Capt. Archer was just not suited to his acting skills.
I hear you about Archer. Again I know this is a common belief for a lot of fans, so I definitely accept that. But I just always loved Archer, but maybe because I love Bakula in general. And it looks like he and Pike have the same laid back, keep it casual and everyone is your friend approach to leadership (or the anti-Picard way of captaining lol). Probably another reason why I like the new Pike.
How the hell would you know if he’s a decent actor or not based on Enterprise? They never bothered to write anything for him to act.
I have no strong opinions about his acting, because he almost never got to act. There were two real Travis episodes, and then maybe another two where he had a big role in a B plot. Otherwise, he never really did anything.
The only time I remember him doing anything was a kind of Bud White routine as a bruiser in the mirror universe stuff.
Can’t believe they are still defending that PoS title song. The only existing song that should have been used was Kansas’ Borne on Wings of Steel, and I’ve been advocating for its use for damned near ever. Heard it at a laser light show about a year before TMP came out and actually shot some super-8 of the E shots at a drive-in theater and cut them to a segment of Borne, and it worked great.
Faith of the Heart’s grown on me over the years. There was an episode where Travis visited his family’s cargo ship, and another one where he had to help talk down another cargo ship captain who was fighting a one man war against the Nausicaans. He also had a reporter girlfriend in Demons/Terra Prime. I think that’s about it for Travis episodes.
I going full kmart blue light special on this one — I also can’t stand that song for the opening, and I can’t stand that song period. That dude’s a Michael Bolton wannabee, and I don’t even like Bolton’s music.
Worst music ever, although the Uhura moon song thing performed by some Enya wannabee in Trek V comes close.
I must agree! I hate the tune, the lyrics, the man’s voice and the way he says “meh” instead of “me”. Just can’t stand it!
“meh” instead of “me” is something I’ve seen singing teachers teach. I remember being in a choir where we were instructed to sing “we” more like “weh”.
The instrumental version of that song on the expanded TFF soundtrack is fantastic.
I’ll check it out — thanks!
Not sure that is entirely fair. Odds are that in an ensample cast the odds that one is going to get less time are fairly strong. He certainly wasn’t invisible like the bulk of the Star Trek Discovery cast. He was necessary and did have his moments. I agree he was a fairly weak and uninteresting character, however. But he would need to back if they ever got something going again.
Loved the show but it was a bad prequel to TOS. Everything looked more spiffy and modern. Disco had the same problem. The only thing they did right that Disco didn’t was the look of what a Constitution Class vessel looks like with the Defiant In A Mirror Darkly. The theme song was fine. The tone of it being about exploration and new frontiers with the astronauts was inspired. The worst thing they did was that Riker episode i was livid for that to be the end of Enterprise. Trip’s death was a joke too.
We could have had the founding of the Federation and The Earth, Romulan War. As a follow up series or movie. But they wanted to reintroduce the old Star Trek with new actors. But call it Kelvin. Make it faster paced like a Hollywood tentpole action flick. Why they didn’t just do prequels with Kirk within Prime i don’t think i’ll ever get an answer to. Fantastic cast but none of its canon. I actually like those movies a great deal but Trekkies/Trekkers seem to think they are garbage or something offensive.
The Kelvin movies do drop references to Ent
To be fair about the Kelvin movies, they did hit the target audience they were trying to reach, which was new fans. The first two films especially are very popular with them based on fan reviews and critics. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough of them to make the films a bonafide hit but those movies were trying to appeal to a new base more than anything who wanted slick popcorn action movies since those are the movies that make real money in Hollywood.
It is the old fans where the films are very divisive. Like you, I do like the movies too,, but I never really wanted a TOS reboot/prequel either. But I have zero issues that they are big popcorn movies. They weren’t made for me and that’s OK. I like them, but I don’t view them at the level I do the previous shows and films.
I thought Enterprise did a good job looking like TOS’ past. Enterprise looked much more modern, while TOS looked more futurey. When the Mirror Enterprise crew visited the Defiant, it really felt like they were on a more advanced ship.
I loved ENT as well, although per TOS: “Balance of Terror,” I had expected the prequel series to have primitive space vessels which fought with primitive atomic weapons and allowed no quarter, no captives, nor even ship-to-ship visual communication, ships that looked like the Starship Bonventure and Daedalus-class starships.
In fact, I expected all of the prequel movies and shows to treat the franchise as a historical drama, albeit a future historical drama, and use period costumes, albeit future period costumes.
However, I agree with you that ENT did get the look of a Constitution-class vessel right, and that with a fifth season, we could’ve had the founding of the Federation and Earth-Romulan War as a follow-up series or movie.
Speaking of prequels, I would be interested in a mini-series set in the late 21st-early 22nd century, starting with the Postatomic Horror, the non-interference of the Vulcans, the colonization of Alpha Centauri and other nearest star systems, the Kzinti Wars, the founding of the United Earth, and ending with the disappearance of Zefram Cochrane.
Sounds like you would have loved it if Coto got his way. He claimed that if he had the show from the beginning he would not have even had a viewscreen. They would have crew looking in things like the Romulans did in Balance of Terror.
Yep.
I did like how ENT showed that subspace radio required the deployment, maintenance, and use of subspace amplifiers (“Fortunate Son,” “Silent Enemy,” and “Dead Stop”). In TOS, Spock said the treaty that established the Neutral Zone after the Earth-Romulan conflict a century before the first season episode “Balance of Terror” was set by subspace radio. Yet in second season episode “A Piece of the Action,” Kirk said, “They didn’t have subspace communications in those days.” Who were the they that Kirk referred to? If he meant Earth, the Federation of Planets, or the galaxy as a whole, then he contradicted Spock. However, just before Kirk mentioned they, he said Iotia II’s system was on the outer reaches of the galaxy. So did he mean these outer reaches? Now, with the idea of subspace amplifiers, one can strongly interpret that Kirk meant the outer reaches of the galaxy didn’t have subspace communications a hundred years ago, because the Federation had yet to deploy subspace amplifiers in those outer reaches.
And since the Phoenix (Star Trek: First Contact) and the Bonaventure (TAS: “The Time Trap”) are both claimed to be the first warp ship or “the first ship to have warp drive installed,” I would also be interested in a multigenerational mini-series about the Phoenix being massively updated and refit into the Bonaventure, while the original parts are collected, reassembled, and exhibited as the ship that Picard saw “hundreds of times in the Smithsonian.”
This show would start with First Contact and end with the disappearance of the Bonaventure in the Delta Triangle in the early 23rd century, at least a generation before TAS.
And the main characters would include Colonel Green, Khan Noonian Singh and his fellow augments, Cochrane, Lily Sloane, Lee Kuqn, Krotus, Stavros Keniclius and his clones, Sarah April who was the first medical officer on a ship equipped with ward drive, perhaps an intermediate refit of the Phoenix, Adam Soong and his clones, and the Watchers.
Sorry, by “Lee Kuqn,” I meant, “Lee Kuan.” Other characters that could be included are Vina and the crew of pre-warp ship S.S. Columbia, Ferris, Maltuvis, John Burke and Henry Archer.
. . . and Sally Archer, and now that their canon, Teresa and Ricardo Ramirez, Guinan, Renée Picard, Adam and Kore Soong, Martin Wells, Cristobal Rios, the former Wesley Crusher.
Spoiler, The the books set after series explain that trips death was a fake
Cool! That needs to be canonized.
Well, he did fake his death to join Section 31, so maybe they can make that a part of the Section 31 show.
Make it so!
Sorry you feel that way. But I thought they did a pretty good line walking the tightrope of making the show both look good for modern TV and still make it look like it could evolve into what we saw on TOS.
While Star Trek Discovery’s effort was an epic fail on every single level. Nothing on it looked right. Not one thing.
The last time they made “proper” Star Trek IMHO
Cool! Oh, and it’s “Britain” with one “T.”
The “Night Terrors” typo strikes again!
Though we pronounce it with no “T.” :)
Having recently rewatched Enterprise: My God, it has aged well, there is so much good stuff going on there that I didn’t notice 20 years ago, and I regret every complaint I had back then.
But I would not want to see those characters in the tender care of the current leadership
Agreed, its one of those shows that gets more appreciation on a rewatch some years later. The same thing happened to me on my last Enterprise rewatch too.
Fully agree Jake. I did a compete series re-watch first year of lockdown and loved it. The HD presentation also helped and some of the visuals were actually quite beautiful.
Also agree Jake! It’s the ‘baby’ in the classic Trek shows but it is already over 20 years old now (wow) and it has aged amazingly! I think they have all aged pretty well IMO (TOS is obviously the most dated but still holds up for the most part).
And I have said this many times on these boards but I stopped watching the show after first season. I just didn’t care about the prequel setting and a lot of the episodes felt boring to me. I didn’t have an issue with the cast, the show just never pulled me in so I gave up on it. First Trek show to ever do it. I didn’t watch it again until 2013, 8 years after it was cancelled. It was strictly out of boredom I even decided to give it another chance. Once I did though, I was kicking myself I stopped watching it because I started to love it from middle of second season on. I thought the show was great and I couldn’t believe how much I was liking it. When it got to third and fourth season I was in love with it. It’s amazing the episodes I thought were ‘boring’ then I totally love watching today. I have such a different appreciation for the show now. It was the most ‘Trek’ show in so many ways I didn’t really feel back then…or maybe just didn’t care.
I never ‘hated’ the show so much as it just didn’t appeal to me to want to even watch it and I was getting Trekked out at the time. Once I finally did just watch it and years away from all the Trek hoopla by then, I realized I would’ve loved this show if I just kept watching it like all the others beforehand. I really regret I didn’t keep watching it. I think a lot of us do now. It may have gotten more seasons if people didn’t bail on it so fast.
It’s the reason why I didn’t give up on Discovery when I had problems with that show too. I didn’t want to pre-judge it early on like I did Enterprise.
Enterprise is GREAT! I truly love this show!
I would happily choose a fifth season of Enterprise over another season of Discovery, Picard or another Kelvin movie. In fact it’s the only previous show I want to see back so they can end it properly.
I know the chances of them coming back are slim but considering both the casts of TNG AND (apparently) the Kelvin movies will be back next year, that’s the beauty of Star Trek, anything is possible. ;)
Star Trek Enterprise, with hindsight, is like watching Hamlet, as compared to the drivel inflicted on us with Discovery.
If Enterprise returns, it’s gotta have Shran.
Yes!
Manny Coto claimed that if the show were to have a 5th season Shran was going to be on Archer’s crew.
Cool!
….couldn’t agree more. Over the past couple of years I’ve really grown to appreciate ENT, compared to what we’re being given now.
To be fair nearly everything looks better compared to the bulk of what Secret Hideout has given us.
I feel really bad I didn’t even realize the 20th anniversary was last year? I hope they do something big for the 25th. I remember Voyager getting a good deal of fanfare for its 20th, and Enterprise deserves some appreciation nearly a quarter century on (Jesus). Despite the cringe late 90s acting (pre 9/11 first season) in the beginning, it truly grew into the very realistic, down to earth Star Trek it was advertised to be. It’s still in my conception the epitome of “modern” Trek, because Discovery is somehow a thousand times more cringe and corny than Enterprise.
Also, I love every panel with these three gentlemen. They and Billingsley were at Mission New York for the 50th and they were hands down the funniest and most entertaining panel of the week. I love how much they love and respect the fans. The cast of Enterprise is a class act through and through, and I wish their series had gotten the full run it deserved.
Don’t know if you heard about it but both Trinner and Keating just made a podcast together on YouTube a few months ago. It’s aptly named Shuttlepod. They bring on a different cast members every episode including Anthony Montgomery just a few weeks ago. That guy is hilarious.
But the show is great. I watched every episode so far! You learn so much. Love these guys!
Thanks Tiger2, I will certainly take a look (listen) to that. I love these guys and all the Enterprise cast as well! I’m at my third rewatch of the show since beginning of COVID, and it never gets old.
No worries Silvereyes!
And it’s shot on video so you’re watching them talk about it in a studio too. It’s not just audio and makes it more interesting for me. I have rewatched different parts of the show for a long time now but didn’t rewatch the entire series since I watched it the first time in my grand rewatch of the entire franchise last year. Enterprise was the first show I started with and had a blast. That’s how I really knew how much I fell in love with the show. I probably will rewatch it all again at some point.
Yes. Tragic that it went out after just 4 seasons and the final episode while well intentioned, was horribly misguided.
The problem I have with “Faith Of The Heart” is down to the lyrics. If it had been purely instrumental, I wouldn’t have been bothered in the slightest. There’s nothing wrong with the musical arrangement of it.
The issue with the lyrics is that it sounds like Gospel music, and in a show with a humanistic viewpoint like Star Trek, that’s entirely out of place.
agree – I honestly believe the song was a bleeding wound the show started with and never recovered from. It wasn’t *the* problem with Enterprise, but it was indicative. You think of TNG, DS9 and Voyager themes where you are happy to sit through the credits just to hear the music and then you get a song that wouldn’t make the contemporary christian music charts it’s so syrupy. Nah…they shot themselves in the foot from the off.
I re-watched Season 3 of Enterprise a few years ago and I enjoyed it. Mostly good, I’d say. I watched a few choice episodes from Season 4 as well (The Aenar, Borderlands, Cold Station 12, The Augments, Affliction, Divergence, In a Mirror Darkly Part 1, In a Mirror Darkly Part 2), had a pretty good time watching them.
I MIGHT give Season 1 and 2 another shot.
Yeah, I guess if they kept improving, Season 5 could’ve been good, especially if Shran was more involved.
In a way, it does seem unfortunate to me that they’re giving the TNG cast another send off in Picard Season 3. They already had 2 send offs (All Good Things, Nemesis). I don’t think the NX-01 Enterprise crew even got one send off, to be honest. They got resigned to a holodeck recording, in a story about… Riker.
I suppose if you want a proper finale for the crew, you’ll just have to set up a petition.
30,000 signatures got you ‘Strange New Worlds’, so I guess that’s the target. ;)
Try “Carbon Creek”, S2, E2. A memorable and very good episode in my view.
Demons/Terra Prime was a proper send off for them, even though there was one more episode after that.
Agreed. I think Demons/Terra Prime was a great way to send them off and would probably be talked about as one of the better finales of a Trek show if it wasn’t for the horrid TATV.
I, too, consider that two parter to be the true series finale. And it does work as a series finale, too.
Enterprise is the one Berman era show that needs a proper finish. Even a one shot streaming movie or special 4 episode arc to wrap things up would be nice. They got severely shortchanged in that department.
Agreed with all of this! I really Enterprise to come back, even in short form. But another poster said it, I don’t know if the current producers should do it based on Picard and Discovery anyway. I would prefer one of the old guard to work on it again.
Some folks should wear long hair. 😁
Season One would have crushed it had they done a Trek prequal right. I do think they had a great cast and crew but you can’t save a bad story set up and TNG again (but in the past) is just a bad series setup. Earth starting to explore the universe on some kind of Star Trek , Wagon Train to the Stars, Horatio Hornblower in space is a good set up, I don’t understand why the writers wanted to play Time Trek the Technobabble Generation again.
Watching Balance of Terror I thought we’d get primitive SpaceX type ships with warp engines, colonization, trying to fix Earth, nuclear weapons, machine guns (no phasers on stun), shuttles/fighter craft, no subspace comms (sorry Captain Archer, but it’s your call on behalf of all humanity), first contacts gone wrong, the Andorians thinking we are push overs, the Vulcans seeing us as over emotional primitives, the Klingons wanting us conquered and the Romulans wanting us dead and out of their way to take Vulcan. You screw up, you get stranded out there for the rest of your live. Romulan War, dilithium crystals, founding of the Federation – so many arcs. A first contact gone so horribly wrong we end up with the Prime Directive.
Instead we got peace with the Klingons, phasers on stun, transporters and the ability to make it all the way to the Klingon homeworld with full comms in the first hour……
I sometimes think they should reboot Trek with a new timeline starting with ENT.
First episode – Zephram Cochrane after some wins on an first contact and trade agreement with the matriarchal society on Alpha Century goes missing and hope is lost on a post WW3 Earth. Archer tries desperately to find his mentor while frustrated with the Vulcans seeing Earth as a bunch of illogical barbarians (with the Vulcan Ambassador having to constantly note to his fellows that Vulcans too have nuked themselves back to the stone age a couple times). Then he recieves a distress call from the Vulcan ship captured by a left over relic of the Vegan Tyranny which once destroyed space facing races in the region only to vanish. Archer sets out to save the Vulcan crew, fires all the nukes onboard as a distraction. The ship is crippled but in the process allows the spacewalking crew abandoning ship to board the complex and save the Vulcan crew. They return to Earth, the Vulcan embassy is impressed and gifts them what is left of the vessel. The science vessel is repaired with primative Earth tech making giving it weapons and shuttles/fighters. The Vulcan first officer does not understand why this primitive race would risk everything to save Vulcans against all odds, she requests permission to study the humans as part of the crew (and helping them use the sophisticated at the time Vulcan sensor systems).
Did they recapture some of the concept with Season 3/4 with Manny Coto. K’zinti on the way, Romulans, the Federation races learning about each other and working together. Yes. But the damage had been done, there was only so much that could be done. The horses had come home, the barn doors locked and the fire in the back already started.
I like many of your ideas. The SpaceX-type ships with warp drives, machine guns, and no subspace comms would fit the period between First Contact in 2063 and the launch of the DY-500 class S.S. Mariposa in 2123 (TNG: “Up the Long Ladder”). In the 2160s, Earth and Romulus already had the subspace radio (TOS: “Balance of Terror”), and the Federation already had an effective laser weapon (TAS: “The Slaver Weapon”) and starships with spherical or saucer-shaped primary hulls like those of the Starship Bonaventure and the Daedalus-class ships (TAS: “The Time Trap,” TNG: “Power Play,” DS9: “The Nagus”).
I have to say, that any time you get cast members from ENT together. You are promised a great time with these people. You can tell they are still good friends and enjoy being together at CONs. We had some wonderful one-on-one time with Anthony, Conner and JB on the Trek cruise. All of them are easy going and easy to talk with on ENT or any subject you have on your mind.
I don’t think any that any one show is better than the other at this point in time. We are going to have so many iterations for us to enjoy and re-watch with DIS, PIC, SNW, Prodigy, Lower Decks, etc. There is going to be something for everybody to like and say it is great, just take your pick. Overall, you have to admit every series, regardless of which you like or think is best, has both good and bad episodes. One cannot judge a series or the franchise for that matter because of one actor being stiff or the writing was bad or the look of the sets.
To compare them is next to impossible if you step back and think about it. Each series is unique with its actors, producers, writers, sets and for want of a better analogy, mission in space. That is not to say we cannot have a favorite show. My wife and I love to watch ENT together as that was on TV when we were dating. I watched TOS when it was in first run and still consider it my favorite, always will be. There are going to be people who now think DISCO is the best series, thats the beauty of Trek, there is always something new for us and for those to come
As for ENT having gone to 7 years if things went as planned? I would have been satisfied with that and enjoyed every bit of it. Over the years at the Cons, listening to actors and producers of ENT, you get a sense of where it was (or could have been) going. That premise was a great idea of a pre-Kirk/Pike era of history. I, for one, have always wondered how did humans get to the point of Capt Kirk on the Enterprise? How did we conquer space travel that way? Did we colonize Mars after all? The pre-Kirk Trek history has many questions to explore. I am sure I am not alone in thinking about that. You can have shows that look back to that history as well as look forward 80, 400, 800 or 1,000 years beyond Kirk.
LOL, less people watched Season 4 than Season 3, and less people watched Season 3 than Season 2. And if you look at viewership within Season 4, fans kept dropping out on the series every week through that season.
This reinvention of history that Season 3 and Season 4 under Coto vastly improved the series and were setting things up for a fantastic Season 5 simply does not hold up to reality. The series got progressively worse, and fan’s kept dropping out — that’s a fact that is supported by empirical data. It is what it is. Moonvies totally made the right decision — you don’t send good money after bad, and he set things up for the badly needed break the franchise needed. He totally made the right call.
Enterprise, combined with that last two lackluster TNG movies, showed that the Trek creative and production crew were tired out, running out of ideas, and just sticking around because it was a good paying job. Nothing wrong with this, as most of us have experience that sort of situation at some points in our careers, but the result for the viewer was frequently crappy, largely forgettable Star Trek.
actually the show was refreshed under mr cotto and the reeves stevens.
Viewers at the time didn’t think so. Viewers dropped the show every week on those seasons. The data conclusively proves this.
What killed ENTERPRISE was several things – the time-slot – Fridays, which was preempted in many markets for local High School Football (!) and the weekend rebroadcast wasn’t counted in the ratings. Second, the executive who had protected the series from being cut short even earlier left Paramount Television. Third, the person with the final say was NOT a science fiction fan. Besides, it would have not survived the UPN/WB Merger anyway – so it would have ended with Season 5 as it it.
Yeah all of this was true. Sadly we all seem to forget even if the show survived another season it would’ve died after that once UPN did. It’s no way it would’ve landed on the CW because that network targeted mostly teenage girls and they only brought over mostly cheap sitcoms from WB and UPN.
And one other thing you didn’t mention the TIVO/DVR era was starting then and a lot of people were watching the show that way but this was a time networks didn’t factor in those recordings at all or very little. If they did, it probably lasted another season at least before UPN went belly up.
If it was on Paramount+ today, I think it would do very well or at least doing as well as Discovery and the animated shows are. Mere speculation but considering how many fans today seem to want another season….
it took too long to do what mr cotto wanted in s4.
Yet, in both of those seasons, after High School football ended in December, the week-to-week ratings continued to drop nearly every week in the winter and spring. And there was no uptick after the high school football season ended on either of those years. So that theory is easily dispatched.
And Les Moonvies totally made the right call in cancelling the series, and in fact, he probably gave it year longer than he should have. Less people watched Season 4 versus Season 3, and within both of those seasons, viewers kept dropping the show in a steady and measurable downward trend. And if I’m expected to believe your conjecture that he cancelled the series because he did not appreciate sf and Star Trek, then we are forced to then believe that 12 years later he all of sudden decided he liked sf and Star Trek, and so greenlighted a completely new network that was grounded by multiple new Star Trek series? LOL That doesn’t compute. He like’s successful TV series that at the very least, maintain audiences, and Enterprise never did that.
Star Trek is a business, and Enterprise kept getting less and less viewers over time, a trend which Coto’s two seasons didn’t even stabilize, let along reverse. Of course the show got cancelled, as most of it’s audience had bailed out by Season 4 because they thought the show sucked. Sad, but true. Piss-poor TV shows eventually get cancelled as viewer drop them. That’s how the TV business works, and Moonvies of course had to make that call.
Not sure how this played but Enterprise was always a top two or three if not number one time shifted show on the air at the time. Also, when you look at the country on the whole there are not a lot of markets that locally broadcast high school football. I’m sure there are quite a few in Texas and a handful of other places. But it’s not even close to a nationwide thing.
That theme song sucked. Suuuuuuuuuuuucked.
I rewatched Enterprise on Paramount+ last year, and had it down for exactly how many fast-forward clicks it took to get through that Richard Marx-like elevator muzak.
I thought the song was awesome for the series and the show especially the lay out of the events. Yes the show started slow and off the wall but in reality, what do you think the Star Trek beginning would be like? Peace and boring? They came out strong and I wish they would have kept going.
Biggest injustice since the cancellation of the original series. It demonstrates why we should be a united fandom and stump for what we car about. Enterprise was imperfect, but in by season three the quality was there, and by four they were telling the stories they should have been telling all along.
And I loved the theme. The orchestral one we hear over the ending credits is dishwater dull.
As excited as I am about the hypothetical potential of (the unlikely) continuation of ENT, it would most likely be produced by Alex Kurtzman and thereby suffer the same ills and infirmities of the other Trek series currently under his purview.
And I really wish it weren’t so. I’d love to have a new, thoughtful TV series based on Enlightenment values, but the hard truth is that’s just not concordant with the era that we’re currently living through.