We are still looking over all the great panels held during the weekend TREKtalks2 fundraiser livestream event. The event ended with a rare appearance of Scott Bakula. The Star Trek: Enterprise star doesn’t do a lot of conventions or Star Trek interviews, but he showed up for his former co-star John Billingsley to support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Bakula touched on some of the same issues covered in last week’s TrekMovie interview with Billingsley, and offered some hope that he would actually return to the role of Jonathan Archer.
How Enterprise could have run for 7 seasons
One of the issues Bakula discussed was how he sees Enterprise‘s cancellation after 4 seasons due to problems at UPN. He points to changes at the Viacom-owned network during the 2001-2005 era when Enterprise was on the air, affirming his belief the show would have matched the 7-season runs of the three previous Star Trek series if it had been distributed through syndication (like The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine):
Had we been syndicated, we would have gotten an easy seven, easy breezy. And our numbers were beyond what anybody else had done when we started out, but the nature of network television… it was just a different animal. There were lots of changes in the hierarchy, of not only Paramount but of the network. And we were there at an kind of an unfortunate time. And yet I still have to say, gratefully, we got four seasons. But yeah, it would have been nice to do more. We certainly had more stories to tell, we have places to go, but it didn’t work out.
You can’t really point a finger at one person or another. There were so many elements to the beginning of UPN and the transition there in terms of [UPN President] Dean [Valentine] leaving [in 2002]. And just people at Paramount left also. A lot of champions that were Star Trek folks kind of left during the course of the four years. It was a strange time and volatile time. But we slugged our way through it. And I’m so glad that we got the four years because there was a moment when we were only going to have three and that would have been a real shame.
One year after Enterprise was canceled, UPN ceased to exist. The network combined with The WB to form The CW, a joint venture between CBS and Warner Brothers. Only a handful of former UPN shows made the transition to The CW, with Veronica Mars being the sole scripted drama to do so.
Scott Bakula with UPN president Dean Valentine at the UPN TCA party in 2001 (Getty)
Open to returning to Trek
When asked if he would follow in the footsteps of Patrick Stewart and other Star Trek veteran actors to return to the role of Jonathan Archer, Bakula was open to the idea. The actor says that if he got a call from executive producer Alex Kurtzman, he would hear him out:
I’ve been doing this too long to ever say never or no to anybody. I talk to everybody about stuff. So, sure.
He also indicated he is open to following other legacy actors in lending his voice to an animated Trek show:
I’ve done a bunch of animated voice-over work and animation, so I enjoy it. It just hasn’t come across my desk. But I do appreciate being referred to as “legacy” as opposed to “old Trek.” That’s very nice.
Bakula being open to a return to Trek may be a surprise to his former Enterprise co-star John Billingsley, who last week told TrekMovie he didn’t see that happening, at least not as a regular. Bakula made big news last year when he chose not to participate in NBC’s reboot of Quantum Leap, so he has a history of saying no.
Talking in general about how the Star Trek franchise continues to create new shows, Scott discussed why he still sees the franchise as relevant:
The reason that it stays relevant, sadly, is that we have most of the same issues still exists on our planet. We have not made the jump to figuring out that we’re all in this together… that’s straight out of the Trek playbook. And we got to settle that on this planet first, and we’re a long, long way from that, apparently, judging by how we’re living amongst each other. So those stories, they remain relevant and poignant. And however they’re parsed out in all these different incarnations, they’re valuable. I’ve always loved Trek because you gloss it over with the space stuff, but then you sneak all the hard stuff right through the middle of it. It’s a thing of beauty. It still is.
Scott Bakula as Jonathan Archer in “These Are The Voyages”
Thrilled to see new fans discover Enterprise
The actor also said he was pleased to know that people are still discovering Enterprise through streaming:
When we were in the midst of making the show and when we… got our fourth season done, we all talked about hoping that the show would be more appreciated as time went on. Because I felt like we achieved something pretty wonderful in those four years, especially, in my opinion, in the last two and a half years– that kind of building through the Xindi element and with the 9/11 component fusing the writers’ brains and minds and hearts. We were always hopeful, all of us. We had done a lot of good work and that we would hope that we would be appreciated as time marched on. I’m thrilled.
Bakula pointed to the show’s spirit of exploration as something he was particularly proud of:
I love that spirit of the show, which is what we were going for from the get-go. I liken it to the original show. And there was that that positive—my character had that going forward and that kind of wild west aspect of it all, but at the same time, let’s do something for humanity. Let’s put humanity out there in a good way. Let’s try and work with others. He didn’t go out with a lot of chips on his shoulder about who he would or wouldn’t do business with. Once he got past the Vulcan thing, I think he was pretty much free sailing. I was really, really pleased with where we ended up on the show.
Season 1 Enterprise publicity photo
Watch the full TREKtalks panel here, and if you can, donate to the Hollywood Food Coalition.
Keep up with news about the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.
The CW could have followed up Enterprise with a Starfleet Academy series.
The CW settled quickly into a marketing vehicle for Paramount/CBS and WB to sell shows internationally and to streamers. In some ways it was a kind of syndication Mark II. The shows were never profitable on CW ad revenue alone.
It’s unfortunate that Enterprise wasn’t given the opportunity to be seen as an investment in that way.
The stupidest thing CW did was follow up Enterprise with a Britney Spears/Kevin Federline reality tv show. It lasted like 2 episodes.
I assume you meant UPN? Enterprise never made it to the CW.
So much Enterprise stories to tell. The Earth Romulan War. The founding of the Federation.
The Earth/Romulan war would have been a great story to see on screen. I’m sad we missed it
Yeah still plenty of stories to tell in the 22nd century. I would love to go back there one day.
we need to see Archer team up with Picard in a P+ movie ‘Star Trek Days of Generations Past’
I like the sound of that… a lot :-)
I’m not sure how much value there would be in watching Archer pushing a wheelchair around.
Don’t have to do that. You could show him in flashbacks or maybe some form of holographic recording and, of course, there’s ALWAYS time travel.
Your comment is a little odd because Bakula is almost 70 himself, no spring chicken either.
So he’d be pushing around the wheelchair very slowly, sitting down from time to time ;-)
Lol
Probably because Bakula is just more active and fit for his age in general. We all love Patrick Stewart but he does comes across as a lot more frail these days. Bakula still does actiony roles like on NCIS.
Yet Bakula turns 69 in a few months….whoops! :-)) lol
We. Need?
No, we don’t. If you’d like it, that’s fine, but there are plenty of people out there who understand that Enterprise was a clusterf**k of a show.
There are plenty of people out there who understand that Enterprise was a clusterf**k of a show.
You said it. Failed series, less viewership every year (and within each season) as fans kept dropping out, deserved to be cancelled.
You have to remember this is the first enterprise ship to ever go out and explore. It looks outdated because it’s the very beginning of space travel by the Federation. You can’t expect great technology 150 yrs or so before capt Kirk.
Enterprise started out as a clusterf**k of a show but what star trek series other than TOS or SNW didn’t? They all happen that way. By season 3 and 4 Enterprise came into it’s own like every other Trek series did. It just didn’t get the chance to live on like the others did.
That opinion is not shared by everyone. As Wehmut posted today, and which I fully agree with, the first two seasons of Enterprise were actually superior to the final two. I am calling BS on the entire Many Coto Improved Enterprise narrative. The first two seasons were at least credible Star Trek, even though there were many boring eps and poorly drawn drama, while the last two seasons reeked of over-reaching fan service and dumbass storylines that were simply piss-poor Star Trek.
The Many Coto Improved Enterprise narrative is an urban legend — it’s a rewrite of history today by the small, yet vocal group of Enterprise fans who can’t accept that it was failed series. The fact is that in both of Coto’s seasons, not only did the viewership continue to be reduced from the previous seasons, but within each of those two seasons, fans kept dropping out week-to-week over the season. This is because it was bad Star Trek and as such fans were right then to bail out, and Moonvies was right to cancel it.
The thing is, Enterprise should never have had the whole future guy story. If it was going to be a prequel it should have just been that. A prequel. The whole guy from the future thing erased Enterprise completely because over the course of 22+ episodes you could never solve the resolution that people were tuning in for. and they meant it to go over multiple seasons which was never going to work. ever.
Fully agree on this point!
Remember… The Future Guy element was forced on the producers by the network. They wanted no part of it.
So we’re clear, when its said the first two seasons were superior, a decent comparison is to an old bottle of milk. The first two seasons, it just had that weird taste, before becoming a stinky, chunky mess the last two seasons.
Sorry. Manny Cato absolutely improved Enterprise. The show got noticeably better when he joined the writing staff and later took charge. This is hardly an “urban legend”. This is the consensus of fandom. Yes, the show did drop ratings the longer it ran. But one must remember the fans kept watching. They were the ones who saw the improvement after the general viewership was siphoning off. And at that point it really was too late to salvage given the goings on at the network at the time. They could have had a ratings spike and it was likely it still wouldn’t have made it through the merge.
I know there are Enterprise bashers out there. They are in the minority. Just as I am in the minority of TVH bashers. I know what that is like. But still must adhere to the reality that TVH was pretty well received by the general public.
Cato was awful. The last season was the worst thanks to him.
If you think Manny Coto is bad, imagine how others feel about Michelle Paradise and turning Discovery into a tedious bore and making it a Lifetime drama movie….in space. One of the worst show runners in Star Trek ever. She explained the Burn was due to some kid having a tantrum lol. Just so ridiculous.
There are a dozen episodes in season 4 of Enterprise I watch over and over again. Please list all the episodes you watch over and over again in season 4 of Discovery lol.
I strongly disagree. Season 1 and 2 for the most part very much felt like rejected scripts from Voyager. There was precious little ‘birth of the Federation’ stuff going on (and the few times they did are among the best episodes of those seasons.) Way too much Temporal Cold War (which never made a lick of sense) happening, and ridiculous ‘lets bring in the Ferengi and the Borg” stuff. Season 3 broke out and took on a Galactica-like gritty storyline, and then Season 4 finally lived up to the show’s original premise. On rewatch, Season 3 and 4 are much more enjoyable to me.
I agree season 3 was the break out season but I really liked season 2 as well.
I actually started to love the show by the second season. I think Enterprise got better every season. I think so many people including me was just tired in Star Trek in general by then, NOT happy it was a prequel (my biggest issue at the time) and yes the first season wasn’t great. But that’s a very common Star Trek trend lol. If it was the third or fourth show by then and not the fifth, more would’ve at least stuck around a little longer even if they still hate it by the end.
Although I will argue the new animated shows also had great first seasons, especially Prodigy.
It’s totally true that Star Trek wore out it’s welcome by that point. But here we are now with more Trek shows than on TV than ever before and it is going stronger than ever. So who knows? What I do know is that the whole future guy thing just didn’t work. If Enterprise was just a real prequel and acted as such it probably would have survived. BUt that whole future guy bs tanked it.
Because it’s only been a few years lol. Try 15 years later and then we’ll see. ;)
And we also have to remember most of these new shows only has 10 episodes a piece unlike the 25 episode seasons we used to get. The irony is we technically have more Star Trek shows but in terms of actual content it’s literally the same amount we got when two shows ran together in the 90s. And even less so because the animated shows are only 30 minutes.
And frankly people are excited to just have more Star Trek again in ANY form. I mean people complain about a lot of these new shows but they are still watching them every week. Because end of the day people want to be back in that universe again.
And while I didn’t love TCW I don’t think that was the sole reason people abandoned the show. I think there were tons of factors at the time, the biggest just being a prequel. That’s honestly I think one of its biggest issues. NO ONE was begging for a prequel at the time. No one is begging for more prequels now lol. Most people really wanted to keep going forward. Sure there were plenty of people excited over the birth of the Federation idea but I don’t think most cared at the time.
I remember people back then having the same issues asking why are they going backwards just like when it was revealed Discovery was a prequel. SNW got away with it for many reasons, the biggest being we now have four shows going forward again when it showed up. If it was the ONLY show like Enterprise was, people would still complain even if they really liked the show. Until Enterprise, people were used to going forward for 30 years at that point. Even ideas of TOS prequels like Spock and Kirk meeting at the academy never got off the ground because most people didn’t really want it at the time.
And of course that was the entire irony over TCW idea. It was the studio who pushed for it because they were afraid most fans didn’t want a prequel setting and wanted a way to still tell stories in the future if they had to. So even they weren’t convinced fans really wanted a prequel show.
Ironic about the prequel thing… I was actually excited for Enterprise when I heard it was going to be set before TOS. I thought that offered a new and fresh take over the sterile sameness we got from the other 3 spinoffs even though DS9 managed to put a positive spin on things.
I feel like you do about House of the Dragon. I’m just not interested in going back as it feels like the GoT history was well covered even in the run of the show. I’m FAR more interested in going forward in Westeros. I want to see where that world goes as they get advance in technology and in society. But that is not what we got, unfortunately.
The Enterprise premise did nothing for me when it was revealed. But I also really loved those 24th century shows. They are my top 3 shows in the franchise even now. But of course I’m just speaking for myself, I know there are plenty of people who wanted to go back and see first contact with the Klingons, wanted to see the Romulan war and all of that. I honestly never cared lol. Not remotely close. When it was revealed Discovery was going to show us the Klingon war I literally rolled my eyes…and still rolling them. ;D
But obviously I did ultimately come around. I love Enterprise today, really enjoying SNW so far and I now feel season 2 of Discovery was the best one even though I like it being in the far future. So obviously if something is good my mind can be changed. But overall I just think going forward is what Trek should be doing and obviously so do the people running it now thankfully, another reason I support Kurtzman,. But I think we’ll be getting more prequels as well. That’s fine, most of us just wanted a balance between the two, that’s all and now we got it.
It just used to really really irk me when ‘fans’ said you can’t do anything past post-Nemesis anymore and no one wants to see it anyway. I really hated these people lol. And yeah, they have been proven VERY wrong on both counts.
And I still haven’t watched the new GOT show either because yeah, like you,it just doesn’t interest me as a prequel. It’s not a Star Trek thing lol. But everyone including my brother who is a huge fantasy fan swears by it so I’ll check it out at some point.
I am watching it at the moment. But honestly, we aren’t seeing anything new. It just feels like GoT with new people. And the fact that it starts 170 before GoT… To me that is a negative. Not a positive. I’m FAR more interested in where the story goes from where GoT ended. They could even jump a generation and I’d be curious.
I never heard people say you couldn’t go forward from Nemesis. That makes no sense. It’s like saying they couldn’t go forward from TUC. (The era I WANT to see in a Trek show, just not one from Secret Hideout). There are plenty of shows that can be set in a just past Nemesis world.
I suspect like Star Trek, there will be plenty of GOT spin offs and one will be a sequel. But yeah the new show just doesn’t interest me much on that alone. But clearly it does plenty of people. It’s HBO’s biggest show since the LAST GOT lol. And I think it just won a Golden Globe for best series. So it’s obviously a really popular show. Like I said, I plan to watch it. I was going to watch it when it first started, but I keep pushing it off basically because the prequel setting just doesn’t grab me. But I’m still going to watch and decide on my own. It’s the same issue with the Lord of the Rings show. That’s a prequel too. But unlike GOT, that’s been HIGHLY mixed in terms of reviews so not really too bothered either way for those two reasons, but will give it a chance as well at some point.
As far as the ‘don’t go beyond post-Nemesis’ haters, believe me there were plenty. There is one on this thread in fact, A34. When it was just Discovery that guy went on and on how he thought anything beyond the 23rd century was a waste and said many times no one wants a post-Nemesis show and having one past that would get cancelled. We argued about it many many times lol. Now not only do we have four of them, it’s still funny Discovery ended up going forward more than any show probably will ever go forward!
Of course I expect him to post to say he never EVER said that although there are countless posts of him saying just that. This is why I wish we had ignore button but moving on. But I’ll at least be fair and it looks like he came around since he seems to like all those shows. He seems to like a few more than I do lol. So just like me with prequels, people can change their minds if the show just appeals to them.
Now I know most of those people were in the minority for sure but they were definitely around. I still remember one, can’t remember their handle, the day the Picard show was announced this guy was practically LIVID over the fact they were even making a show post Voyager lol. He got on my case directly about it because I was simply happy they were going forward again….in a show that’s literally about the future lol. This guy was so upset over it, it was bizarre. Like you do know this is all fiction right? And no one has a clue what the real future will look like 100 years or a 1000 years from now,, so what does it matter??? If you don’t believe me, find that article and you’ll see what I mean. There are just some people who thinks Star Trek just belongs in one period. Well they certainly lost that war now.
But yeah, they were obviously in the minority since we now four shows and they all seem to be popular to a degree.
No spoilers, but HOTD Season 1 does include some plot twists that have huge implications for the Targ dynasty’s earlier history on Westeros *and* GOT’s ending (both Dany’s story arc and potentially Jon Snow’s ultimate fate post-GOT). This is deliberate: It’s meant to change how you interpret those major events. The show itself isn’t flawless, but it’s actually much better than how GOT eventually became, and the overall quality in all aspects is much closer to GOT’s excellent earlier seasons.
HOTD also demonstrates the ways some important GOT characters weren’t necessarily acting in isolation but influenced by established cultural and political patterns of behaviour from their society over the centuries. For example, HOTD shows there were significant historical precedents, the behaviour of some core GOT characters makes more sense now, and so on. (HOTD has a lot of foreshadowing about GOT).
So it’s worth checking out for all those reasons.
Speaking of Jon Snow, last year it was confirmed that a sequel focusing on him is definitely in the works. Apparently they’ve been secretly planning this for a few years, but they’d managed to keep it quiet.
Honestly none of that really improves the story of GoT at all. Knowing that doesn’t make that show better. Or worse. It really feels more like Solo to me. Yeah, it’s OK but… Why? I’m finishing it out because I’m now curious the exact path it goes but honestly if I could not finish the final few episodes I don’t feel like I would be missing anything I haven’t already seen before.
Personally I’m less interested in John Snow than I am about Westeros’ future as a whole but if Snow can be used as a vehicle that goes forward then I am all for it. But part of me would like to see a generational shift forward. Yes, they don’t make these things for me. Got to appeal to the masses.
First off Jai, where you been dude??????
I don’t think I’ve seen a post of yours for over 6 months at least. I guess it just means you have a life and I don’t lol. I watched all those UFO docs forever now but I don’t think I ever saw you again lol. Or maybe you posted in places I never clicked on. It’s OK, it’s just funny.
As for your assessment of HOTD, I admit that sounds pretty good. It’s so far in the past, I didn’t really expect any real influence to the original show. Maybe I’m wrong but the gap bigger than what it is between PIC and DIS now. Or maybe a little less? So OK, you won me over! I’m going to check it out now. I actually watched some of the first episode but never turned in after that. I’ll rewatch that and start watching next week! And since I watched all those UFO vids you know I’ll watch this too lol.
Eiither way, nice to see you back!!
Hi there — Sorry for not replying sooner but I was offline during the weekend.
I’ve posted comments here during the past few months, but it was only a couple of times, and it was brief stuff on threads that were already fizzling out. Thanks for watching the UFO docs too, I hope you enjoyed them; there have obviously been a few more revelations since then, and apparently more stuff is in the pipeline this year.
The gap between HOTD and GOT is around 150-170 years, I think. Season 1 of HOTD takes a little while to get used to because of the completely new characters, and there are a couple of time-jumps (and repeated recasting of the younger characters) that are a little jarring too. But the story does settle down and take off after that. Acting- and charisma-wise, the two main actresses in the grown-up versions of their characters along with with Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith and Paddy Considine are particularly good. There is some great stuff from a couple of the regular secondary characters too.
Thanks for the friendly words :) I’ll post a reply to you under one of the new Trekmovie articles when I can in case you miss this one.
It specifically states it starts 172 years before GoT. And there are multiple time jumps that are pretty jarring to the viewer. At the point where I am there have been three (or 4? I honestly don’t remember there seem to have been so many) time jumps already and since the show started we are some 25-30 years after that. Meaning we are now some 145 years before GoT.
While I, and the producers, were no fans of the Future Guy stuff, that was not why the show went only 4 seasons. There was a lot more going on. I do believe there was a bit of “franchise fatigue” going on. A break would have done the franchise some good. I like Enterprise but even I was saying they should wait a season or two before going into the next show. Also, the politics of the goings on at the studio is what I believe killed the show more than ever nowadays.
Picard apparently played with a toy of the NX-01 as a kid.
Would be fine with seeing that provided it’s done by anyone but Secret Hideout.
The romulan war could be handled within an animated series.
The Rise of the Federation Novels would be a nice template for a conclusion in a regular Series.
ENT needs to return ASAP. If the X-Files could come back after a 15 year “hiatus”, ENT can do so too. This is the final thing that needs to happen to make me entirely happy.
The X-Files revival crashed and burned. If that could happen with a show that had the pedigree the original run of X-Files had, an Enterprise revival would be destined to fail.
I have to agree here. I wish the X-Files never came back. They screwed up the whole mythology 100%
Agreed. Using the X-Files revival as an example of why we should bring back Enterprise is like suggesting that we should bring back Sambos given Bennigan’s recent lackluster new start up that nobody really cares about…lol
I love Gillian Anderson and I wish she never came back as Scully
Agreed!
To be fair, the mythology had been a mess long before that. The revival just doubled down on the awfulness — and then some! However, I did enjoy a few of the monster of the week episodes, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.
Yeah no doubt. I was a HUGE X Files fan from literally day one when few people were paying attention to it at the time and was enthralled. But even I stopped watching after the 7th season because the mythology was just becoming an unyielding mess. To this day I have never seen most episodes in seasons 8 and 9.
I think many people thought when the revival started that they were going to basically start over to a degree, streamline it and wrap it up in a finite way and it only got worse lol.
Yeah, eventually it reached the point with the revival when the “written by Chris Carter” credit would come up that I had to brace myself for another terrible one.
He should’ve let someone else handle it. Darin Morgan maybe. His episodes were good. In my head canon “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” is the real series finale.
the standalone eps were definitely the reason to watch the revival
And how did that X-Files revival turn out? Lol
This would be like another Sex and City movie…groan! Lol
I’d LOVE to see Enterprise come back more than anyone here I would imagine.
The problem is I absolutely do NOT want to see it come back under the ineptitude of the people at Secret Hideout. I’d rather nothing ever happen again if SH was a condition of its return.
NCIS: TREK 🤔
Law & Order: DTI (Dept of Temporal Investigations)
I said this way back when CBS said they were reviving Trek…
Starfleet JAG.
Scott is an actor worth bringing back. And there aren’t many I can say that about left now.
I thought he was great on Quantum Leap, but I never like him as Captain Archer. I think he might actually be better as President Archer, if they want to do an Enterprise follow-on like Star Trek: The West Wing or something.
Like many Star Trek fans, I enjoyed *”Star Trek Enterprise”.* It was a great show to watch, with a great storyline. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was disappointed when *”Star Trek Enterprise”* was discontinued when it was. It would have been interesting to see where the story went. How the Federation formed.
totally agree with you!
You could also feature a new cast in the time period and have Bakula as President or Senator Archer (I think he became the Andorian Ambassador first, but you get the idea) who is the mentor character.
Nah, I want to see him finally been revealed as future guy. We all want to that don’t we?
The continuation of the Future Guy story and the return of Tucker is exactly the right stuff for this crew.
Will be a great stand alone movie. Could also be successfully attached to Section 31 or Discovery.
I still can’t figure out why archer would someday become future guy when he knows what damage future guy does?
I never liked the theory that Archer was future guy. It still makes no sense to me. I always thought it should be a Romulan trying to change the outcome of the Romulan war.
I don’t like it either. Why would he do this if he experienced all the bad things that future guy did in the first place? It makes no sense
Yep!
Archer goes from being a emotionally and intellectually constipated captain to an emotionally and intellectually constipated president?
Actually that pipeline sounds very reasonable now that I see it spelled out in black and white lol. Turned on the news lately? LOL.
Although perhaps the opposite of constipated? LOL
These days, it seems like every week another former Trek senior citizen actor shows that they are smelling the p plus cash. LOL
Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had enough Archer for the one lifetime.
We don’t agree often, but we do here. File Archer under been there, done that. He doesn’t get better with age.
Yep!
I’m not so sure. But with the evidence in front of us it certainly appears that Picard for sure did not get better with age.
Yes! All Star Trek characters deserve an opportunity. Absolutely. Would like very much to see crossovers with the Enterprise crew. There are a lot of good stories. The Future Guy. The Temporal Wars. The return of Tucker with T’Pol. And long due good/decent stories for Sato, Mayweather, and Reed.
A real finale. Crossovers with current productions. Mini series. Short Treks. A stand alone P+ movie. All of the above. This is something I have been waiting for decades. Really hope Archer and his crew are enlisted for upcoming projects!
I understand is all about money. But this crew really deserve better. I think I am not alone, many fans would like very much to see more Enterprise stories.
I think a healthy and logical application of discernment is in order here. No way do I just say let’s bring back ALL characters from past Star Trek shows as you are suggesting just because they can. No offense meant, but I find that ridiculous, not to mention, financially impossible. Their needs to be some intelligent filtering done here — not ALL, no way.
It should be done on a case by case basis based on both the new series being looked at and the history of both that character and the actor’s performance, and yes, the actors current age and health.
I am talking about the main cast. If they are willing to join, why not!?
It has been done with TOS, now with TNG. I am pretty sure we will see everyone from Voyager, and eventually from DS9. Lower Decks’ DS9 episode with Kyra and Quark was a really nice episode.
Some fans love Sato. Some fans Reed. I think they all deserve an opportunity for the actors and the fans.
Just to be clear. Is not bringing them just for fan service. They need a good story and they all deserve to shine.
Yeah I assumed that was what you intended, but still, not ALL of the main cast on all of the past shows should or need to be featured. Discernment/filtering should be applied. Again, as I mentioned, It should be done on a case by case basis based on both the new series being looked at and the history of both that character and the actor’s performance, and yes, the actors current age and health. Just giving a free pass to ALL former main cast members I think is ridiculous.
We are going to have to agreed to disagree on this. IDIC.
You probably heard me say this many times, but I think EVERYTHING is on the table and they all have a chance to come back. It doesn’t mean they will, but just seeing what they been doing the past few shows alone, it’s possible.
Matalas, McMahan and Goldsman has all said they either could see or like to bring back Enterprise characters in the future. Goldsman even suggested an anthology show with Archer once. Again that doesn’t mean ANY of this will ever happen. But why is he even suggesting it? Because he knows there are fans out there who would want it. No one is suggesting a Quark and Rom anthology season (but I would watch it lol).
But your main point is right, they have to come up with a good story to even think about it. And I don’t know if anyone is rushing to do anymore 22nd century stories, Enterprise or not.
All that said do I think we will see at least some Enterprise characters show up in the future? That is 100% yes! It’s not even a question. Dude they brought back Sybok, anything is fucking possible now lol.
Four of the five classic show’s characters have all appeared on these new shows. DS9 just got their last year as you stated and more of those will come. I will not be shocked the cast Voyager ends up on Prodigy soon. But those shows all happen in those time periods.
Enterprise is obviously trickier given it’s time period, but they will find a way. Maybe they already did. ;)
Let’s test that theory. Anyone up for a Reg Barclay series? Cooking with Neelix?
How about an Ensign Kim Series: Almost Famous 2 — I am Trek Legend
Or a Neelix Series: Star Trek Into Kessness
Trust me, you will find fans who will watch those too lol.
Ugghhh Neelix is a podophile. Seriously. he dated Kes at 9 yrs old and she was so ignorant and innocent and she had no clue what was going on.
I never looked at it that way but yes I know many did and why they ended that relationship. Ethan Phillips confirmed it.
They are aliens on the other side of the galaxy 400 years in the future, they don’t live on Earth or have to think like us at all. They have a completely different biology and cultural norm than we do. That’s why I loved their relationship, it finally showed an actual alien dynamic. Let’s be honest, Star Trek has ‘aliens’ on it, but 90% of them follow Earth norms for a reason, because it’s a TV show and it can’t be too ‘out there’. But sure I understand that, it is a TV show and one in the 90s where norms were more conservative versus today.
It’s like when the Traveler gave Wesley a chance to explore with him and people were calling the guy a ‘pedophile’. I just shake my head every time. It just proves as open minded we think we are as Trek fans, we’re still humans in our very human mindset in the 21st century and not the 24th.
And he dated Kes at 2 years old lol.
Yes I know what you are saying but still… Its disgusting.
You kind of proved my point. Imagine if we had same sex aliens dating each other on TOS. You can agree fans would’ve used the same word for it. They use it for the human characters on Discovery now lol.
But yes I get your point too and probably why it wasn’t a good idea to do it.
Actually I’ll keep it on topic with Enterprise and I will say one of the things I loved about that show from the beginning was that they had Phlox and Denobulans having a bigamist culture and had multiple wives and husbands. That was one of the few times, once again, they made aliens feel truly alien.
I don’t support bigamy personally (one marriage is enough as it is lol) but obviously others do which I’m fine with. Ironically no one seemed bothered by Phlox being a bigamist so I thought that was refreshing as well.
Yeah, a total creepy, gross-out and takes me out of the eps when they are together.
Yeah, that was very creepy and still grosses me out to this day.
Lets not go there. Optics (and conspiracy theories) aside, the show made it clear Kes aged in dog years. How that would have worked clearly wasn’t thought out, as she would have had to have died of old age during the shows run, had they not jettisoned her for the Borg catsuit.
Yeah, I understand why it put people off for sure and I certainly can’t blame them. But this is literally the entire point of Star Trek, to explore, wait for it, waaaait for it, strange new worlds and civilizations. And most life they do find is really not that strange considering the amount of life they find out there. Most of the Federation members are humanoid aliens that’s has some biological and cosmetic differences but pretty much human overall.
As far as Kes and the old age thing, they were clearly setting her up to live a lot longer. One of the other Ocampans she met was 15 IIRC and still looked young. I suspect her special abilities was going to be part of that development. I really loved the idea of a sentient species living such a short life. Now everyone seems to live up to a 150 lol.
They should have been recasting the role every two years, as THE CROWN does.
That said, this was a pairing between one of the most cringeworthy characters in Star Trek (Neelix) and one of the most boring (Kes, admittedly not the only boring one that cast). The show improved immensely when they showed her the exit and brought in Jeri Ryan.
Weird that you saw it that way. You do realize that since her species only live, what was it… 7, 8 years? That it they must procreate at some point before they are 8 Earth years old. You know what? Dogs are adult and ready to reproduce at what… 1? 2 max? Do you find that gross and disgusting, too?
Neelix a pedophile… I mean… Wow.
LOL :D
Linda Park is a Goddess
Yes she is!
I love her so much
Yes!
I am compelled to agree there.
I would like to see the Star Trek novel Federation adapted where, instead of Kirk and Picard, Pike’s Enterprise meet Archer’s Enterprise NX-01 in the singularity and pass of Zefram Cochrane from the 21st Century to the 23rd Century.
Best show. Especially liked the first two seasons. Would love to see them come back in a regular show.
I agree with you that the first two seasons were at least better than the last two. It’s funny, but the urban legend that Many Coto came in and improved the series is utter BS. The show went downhill in S3 and S4 — Coto sunk a ship that was already taking on water when he arrived.
You know what I would support — a complete reboot series of Enterprise — done right this time, with better casting, better writing, better music, and a starship design that doesn’t rewrite canon and insult my intelligence. And the universe needs to be made to look like a direct predecessor to TOS this time, not pre-TNG.
@ UpperDecks-NormalNecks – Yes, all of that. Plus better uniforms too. The boilersuit look on this show was awful too.
I’m not opposed to the idea of a reboot of Enterprise, but I think it would be a hard sell to create an aesthetic that won’t look anything like Trek.
How on earth does the starship design “rewrite canon”? With the exception of the Botany Bay, did we ever see century-old ship designs in TOS?
The ships Spock described in “Balance of Terror” are not what we saw on Enterprise. The producers basically turned the NX-01 into a scaled down Constitution class as quickly as they could.
I have to admit, it was the first season that originally put me off to this show. But second season was great (except Precious Cargo….ugh). But I like season one a lot more today. Still my least favorite but a lot of solid episodes for sure.
They screwed up the time line, from experimental warp drive vehicles to building the enterprise a just few years later.
Let’s be honest EVERY prequel show has screwed up the timeline at this point. Discovery is still the biggest culprit IMO.
Yep. Don’t get me started with Discovery…
It just shows me how well ENT did in retroperspective
It wasn’t a mere few years. More like 50 to 100.
Not sure why Enterprise gets dissed but it was as good as any Star Trek series. I would have loved to see it go seven seasons
Nearly every Star Trek show gets dissed lol. Have you seen people’s reactions to Discovery and Picard here and other places? It’s the nature of the beast. I think people who hate Enterprise has VALID reasons not to like it just like people who don’t like some of these new shows. Not everyone is going to love everything. That’s OK! It’s only when someone is attacked FOR liking something (or not liking something) when it crosses the line.
I love the show today but I don’t have a single problem with people who utterly loathe it. I never understand why others feel so bothered over these things. They are just TV shows, everyone will have their own personal thoughts on it.
Enterprise was a very controversial show at the time. But to be completely honest, it feels like every show and movie since has also been controversial to me except maybe Prodigy and SNW. And there are still detractors for those shows too. It’s been a rough 20 years for Star Trek and fandom, I’ll put it that way lol.
I still think he’s going to show up on Quantum Leap. Just sayin…
No doubt he’s waiting for the cash offer to be what he wants
yup yup
Agreed. He’ll be in the Season Finale, that’s why NBC has already renewed it for Season 2.
Great to read how Bakula feels about the four seasons of Enterprise.- sounds like he is proud of the work the cast, the crew and writers put together from 2001-2005. I hope he and the others have a chance to return and tell more tales of the NX-01.
For me personally, although I’m a legacy Trek fan from the 70s, I enjoyed Enterprise – especially the last two seasons. I also used the show, including the opening theme as inspiration to learn to fly and to start a new career in the commercial space industry, where I remain to this day.
Enterprise has aged very well today. There is a reason why more fans like it more today than it when it was on, including a lot of fans who didn’t like it originally like me. And the great thing is it has found a new legion of fans who are watching it for the first time today and they don’t have any baggage with it like a lot us old fans. They just watch the show. They don’t care the Borg or Ferengi showed up because it’s all new.
I was one of those fans who gave up on it early and now I’m one of it’s biggest supporters. It’s amazing how utterly ‘Star Trek’ the show feels today, especially when you compare it to something like Picard. The show also has tons of heart I didn’t appreciate enough at the time.
For me, I would take another season of Enterprise over Discovery, Picard or another movie. Well OK, the jury is still out on the third season of Picard, so that might be an exception. ;)
Haha, yeah even seasons 1 and 2 had some great stories. One of the episodes that really emphasizes the crew seeking out “new life” is Vox Sola. I especially like the epilogue when they leave the creature’s homeworld and you see the “Strange New World” where they are from!
Exactly! And I remembered being so bored watching Vox Sola at the time. Now its great lol.
For people who still think the show sucks, I definitely get why. The show DID have issues for sure…but what Trek show doesn’t??? And for the record, there are TONS of missed opportunities on this show. I don’t want it to come off like all rose colored glasses lol.
But I also think there were people like me at the time who was not only fighting the idea of a prequel but at that point it was just a feeling it had all been done before. Yeah it was in a different package but it was still things we seen before over and over again. That’s what happens when you watch something for 15 years straight lol.
But once I finally started watching the show, REALLY watching the show, 8 years after it was cancelled, I saw it with fresh eyes and I was kicking myself why did I stop watching this show lol. And this was also when STID had came out and I was sooo disappointed in not only that film, but the direction those movies were taking in generally. Again, this is the irony but I thought that the Kevin movies were going to go in the direction Enterprise did on day one and get back to exploring and feeling like the final frontier feel instead of boring uber-villains every movie. They finally did that more with Beyond (still my favorite), but unfortunately too little too late.
But Enterprise gave me that in a big way which I honestly didn’t even care about when it was on. I think they just needed to take Star Trek off the air a few years after Voyager and a lot of us would’ve saw it with different eyes and enjoyed it more.
To me a stand out from the first 2 seasons was “Dear Doctor”. That was classic Trek right there.
It’s really amazing how much I love Enterprise today. Bakula said it, the show was about pure exploration which I just didn’t appreciate enough at the time because we had so much of in multiple seasons in TNG and VOY. Frankly a lot of Enterprise just bored me in the first season. How many times have we landed on a planet and something goes wrong? And TCW just did not grab me and I love time travel stories. But I think it would’ve been nice to keep Enterprise as a true prequel. But the irony is we have not had a true prequel with any of the shows or reboots since.
I stopped watching it in it’s first season and never tried watching again until 2013. So when I say the show didn’t interest me, I mean it lol. But then once I gave it a second chance, I kicked myself for not watching it. Enterprise is the sole reason I’m (still) sticking with DIS because I didn’t want to pre-judge something so quickly again.
And today though, I watch Enterprise every week. I did a grand rewatch of the entire franchise chronologically starting New Years day 2021, Broken Bow was the first episode I started with in my 800+ hours voyage and it was pure joy watching that show. It was light, fun and full of adventure. And yes they actually EXPLORED and did a lot of it, something all the new movies and shows were missing at the time. By the time I finished, I was a little depressed because I wanted more.
And always loved Archer when I didn’t love the show. He and Pike have a lot of the same personality, except Archer definitely has a temper lol. Would love a fifth season!
It was originally planned as a prequel. First season was going to just be on Earth. The future stuff was added because of the network. Not sure how well a full season on Earth would of panned out. It was on the bluray documentaries for Enterprise.
I think doing the first four or five eps on Earth would be have been very cool, but not the entire season…then a couple eps where cool stuff happens on the shakedown cruises, then move to traditional eps.
This format could have been used to better establish the characters.
Oh yeah I know and I think that would’ve been great if they did a full season on Earth. But like you said, I don’t know how that would’ve went over too, but some of it could’ve startd on Earth at least. I think the episode First Flight gave us a nice insight into the kind of shows we would’ve gotten if it stayed on Earth. Another one of my favorites!
People complain that Enterprise was basically just TNG in the 22nd century but that’s because that’s what UPN wanted basically. Like Voyager, they just wanted more TNG. Berman really wanted each show to be its own thing but the network hands out the money and end of the day they didn’t really want a prequel show and a LOT of compromises were made over it like TCW.
In fact I found out recently UPN originally wanted a show to take place in the 26th century. They basically wanted to start over by going forward while Berman wanted to start over going backwards and you can see why there was so much friction from the start.
And I think I’m going to watch First Flight tonight now! :)
Yeah Berman and Braga didn’t know if they could write more characters that were even more “perfect ” than the 24th century characters. First Flight was a good episode. I personally really enjoyed Enterprise.
If I’m being very honest I definitely would’ve preferred a 26th century show. I think a lot of people would’ve. But I can understand by that point it would’ve just felt more of the same at that time to them just in another century. They wanted Enterprise to have a bigger hook being the show that basically created the elements of Star Trek we have today. Once I embraced that idea, I really came to love this show.
Bill and I were so proud to interview Mr. Bakula as part of this wonderful fundraising event for the Hollywood Food Coalition. The Trek Geeks certainly were aware that Mr. Bakula does not do a lot of interviews or conventions, and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to him. he was so wonderful and I would LOVE top see him return in live or animation form as Captain/Admiral/President Archer!
You guys did a great job! Thank you for this and was happy he agreed to it.
Thanks for doing this — nice job!
Ditto RE the above replies! I have often read that Bakula is very fond of his time on Enterprise as well as the time he spent with fellow cast members. Thanks for confirming those stories with an actual interview.
Now let’s see if Mr. Kurtzman and company can somehow give us a true conclusion to the series and elliminate that horrible last episode from our collective memories… as if it never happened.
I didn’t have a UPN affiliate in my area at the time, so I never got the chance to get into the show while it aired. However, I do feel each season is an improvement over the one that came before. Even though it still would have (probably anyway, due to production costs) been a casualty of the UPN/WB merger, a fifth season would have been amazing.
I was a preteen when Enterprise came out and one of the biggest problems with it is that it really wasn’t that friendly to a younger audience. I will say though that it does deserve a second chance and I hope it gets one.
Plus any chance to see/hear Jeffrey Combs again is nice.
Premature cancellation always tints the past a little rosy, but I would have happily watched another 3 seasons. I do agree it was hitting its stride.
Still say Bakula is not really realistic about what the syndication market was like in the 2000s though.
My wife and I would be among those who would enjoy having ENT come back. That is the show that was on TV when we were dating so it is very special to us in many ways. Through the conventions and the cruises, we have become closely acquainted with the actors, and relish that relationship. Scott shows his professionalism by not speaking ill of UPN or any honcho at UPN, but does speak truth to power about the causes. While there are detractors of ENT who did not like the show based on an earlier time, pre Federation, or not another 100 years past TNG-DS9-VOY. Having loved Trek since 1966, I, for one, always wondered about the time from Armstrong/Aldrin stepping on the moon to when Kirk set sail on the NCC-1701. That approximately 200 years of exploration must have or could have a lot of exciting history. No reason why we could not have a follow up series in the form of ENT to tell those stories.
I think SB is right. It should have continued.
ok. Revisit the era, sure, but for cripes sake kill that Enterprise theme song. That garbage Chicago / Journey knock off did more to kill the series from day one than anything else. And I’ll gladly die on that hill :)
I agree with those who say the show kept getting better as it went on. Once Coto came on board it really started to find its footing, imo. Sadly the way they ended it was just terrible. I wouldn’t mind seeing Archer/Bakula or T’Pol or Phlox back for a limited role in one of the new shows, as long as it made sense to the story.
Another agreement. My favorite seasons in order: 4-3-2-1. So that should tell you everything and I actually started loving it in season 2. I didn’t even love DS9 or TNG that early and those are my two favorites.
Coto was exactly what Trek needed. Someone who respected the source material and talented enough to make the right decisions. I heard it said that he had big plans for future seasons. Season 5 he wanted to add Shran as a permanent crew member. He said he had an idea for an episode called “Starbase 1”. He wanted to see an early version of Stratos. I’d be very interested to see his take on that world 100 years earlier. And I had heard indirectly that he was indeed planning to take the show up to and possibly into the Romulan war.
Unfortunate to think of what we could have had. And now we have… Secret Hideout. (sigh)
Has to be my favorite series ever id watch years of it
Mr. Bakula is more than welcome for a return. He did great and was easily one of the best Captains in Star Trek history. (Don’t let me rank, it is hard to decide…)
Yes starfleet adacemy with Wesley crusher