Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise
File:Enterprise NX-01 2001-01-300.jpg
Created by	Rick Berman and Brannon Braga
Starring	Scott Bakula John Billingsley Jolene Blalock Dominic Keating Anthony Montgomery Linda Park Connor Trinneer
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	98
Production
Running time	44 min. per episode
Original release
Network	UPN
Release	September 26, 2001 – May 13, 2005

Star Trek: Enterprise (originally titled Enterprise) was a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe that premiered in the United States on September 26, 2001, following the adventures of the crew of the pre-Federation Enterprise (NX-01), the first human-built vessel to achieve Warp 5.

Enterprise is a prequel to the other Star Trek series and movies. The pilot episode, "Broken Bow", takes place in 2151, ten years before the founding of the Federation and about halfway between the events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek series.

Enterprise was cancelled by UPN on February 2, 2005 after a run of four seasons and 98 episodes, making it the first Trek series since the original Star Trek to have been cancelled by its network rather than finished by its producers. Despite the announcement, production of the series was allowed to continue until the end of the season, with the final two episodes on UPN airing on May 13, 2005.

Milestones

Enterprise marked several milestones in Star Trek television production:

• the first Star Trek series to be produced in widescreen
• the first Star Trek series to be broadcast in HDTV
• the first Star Trek series to be produced on digital video [1]
• the first Star Trek series since Star Trek: The Next Generation to debut at the start of a TV season rather than at mid-season
• the first Star Trek series to have a theme song with sung lyrics (the theme to Star Trek: The Original Series originally had lyrics, but they were never used)
• the first Star Trek series to feature podcast commentary.
• the first Star Trek series (indeed, the first science fiction television or movie production in history) to use video footage taken on another planet (the Sojourner rover approaching the "Yogi" rock, taken by the Mars Pathfinder lander and used in the opening credits).

Plots

File:EnterpriseCast.jpg

The main characters from Star Trek: Enterprise

For plots of specific episodes see list of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes

Seasons 1 and 2

The first two seasons of Enterprise depict the exploration of space by a crew who are able to go farther and faster than any humans had previously gone due to the breaking of the Warp 5 barrier, presenting situations which are not entirely unfamiliar to Star Trek fans but allowing its characters to face them unencumbered by the experience and rules which have built up over hundreds of years of Trek history as in other Star Trek series. Enterprise takes pains to show the origins of some concepts which have become taken for granted in Star Trek canon, such as Reed's development of force fields and Archer's questions about cultural interference which would eventually be answered by the Prime Directive.

The Vulcans are often close by to offer help when needed, but believe that humans are not yet a mature enough species to begin exploring the galaxy and initiating first contact with other alien races. This generates some conflict as, in several early episodes, Archer complains bitterly about the Vulcans looking over his shoulder all the time.

A recurring theme throughout the first three seasons is the "Temporal Cold War", in which a mysterious entity from the future uses technology to help a species known as the Suliban manipulate the timeline and change past events. Sometimes providing bad information to the crew of Enterprise and sometimes saving the ship from destruction, the entity's true motives are unknown. A (mostly) human from Earth's future, Agent Daniels, visits Captain Archer occasionally to assist him in fighting the Suliban and undoing damage to the timeline.

The creators of the series also made the decision to focus increasingly on the three core characters of the series – Archer, Tucker, and T'Pol – in lieu of further developing the supporting characters (Sato, Mayweather, Reed, and Phlox). This format, based upon the similar "triumvirate" format used for the Original Series (which primarily focused on the trio of Kirk, McCoy, and Spock), began to emerge during the first season and has sparked further criticism from fans used to the ensemble format of TNG, DS9, and Voyager, and other recent SF series.

The fact that Earth is not yet the significant interstellar presence it would later become is underscored in the first two seasons with a running joke: whenever an Enterprise crewmember says he or she is from Earth, the alien's response is invariably, "Earth? Never heard of it."

Season 3

Low ratings encouraged the series' producers to seek a new direction. The third season changes the series' name to Star Trek: Enterprise and introduces a new enemy, the Xindi, whose goal is the annihilation of the human race due to fears that someday humanity will wipe them out.

The entire third season follows one long story arc, which begins in the second season finale "The Expanse" in which the Xindi deploy a prototype weapon which cuts a wide, deep trench from central Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people. Enterprise is refitted as a warship with the addition of MACOs, seen as the precursor to the heavily armed Starfleet security personnel in other Star Trek series, and travels through the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi homeworld and prevent another attack against Earth.

The third season, especially later episodes, has been received more favorably by fans and critics. The episodes "Twilight" and "Proving Ground" were popular with fans, as was the arc formed by the last seven episodes of the third season:

• "Azati Prime"
• "Damage"
• "The Forgotten"
• "E²"
• "The Council"
• "Countdown"
• "Zero Hour"

Some of these were written or co-written by Manny Coto, a writer who joined the series in its third season. Coto's other scripts, such as "Similitude" are also considered to be of a higher caliber than earlier stories, which likely contributed to his being promoted to executive producer and show runner for season 4.

The Xindi story arc carried over into the fourth season, being related peripherally to the two-part season premiere, "Storm Front" (being a detour as Enterprise returned to Earth), and "Home" serving as a coda to the arc.

Season 4

Season 4 - regarded by many fans as the strongest - produced a mixture of two- and three-episode arcs, along with a few standalone episodes. The general theme of the season appeared to be a focus on the prequel concept of the series, with many episodes referencing themes, concepts, and characters from past series. Season 4 saw the finale of the "Temporal Cold War" depicted in the previous three seasons. The fourth season also saw the much anticipated return of Brent Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the criminal mastermind Dr. Arik Soong in a three-episode arc ("Borderland", "Cold Station 12", and "The Augments") involving genetically enhanced superhumans known as "Augments". Coto has stated that his intent was to push the series towards the eventual founding of the United Federation of Planets.

Season 4 also addressed some discrepancies between the Vulcans of TOS and those depicted in Star Trek: Enterprise. The "Vulcan Civil War" arc ("The Forge", "Awakening", and "Kir'Shara") was hailed as among the most interesting and intricately woven plotlines of the series. In it, the characters meet T'Pau (a character who shows up in The Original Series in the episode "Amok Time") and the audience sees Romulans trying to undermine the stability of the balance in power between the Andorians and Vulcans.

The exploration element of the first two seasons (and previous Trek series) was downplayed in the fourth season, which was informally referred to as the "Solar System Arc" due to the fact that most storylines begin with Enterprise being assigned a mission from Earth, rather than simply encountering adventure through exploration. While many die-hard Trekkies welcomed the show's focus on introducing concepts from other Trek series, some critics bemoaned the decision to more or less abandon the "exploring strange new worlds" concept of the early seasons.

The series cancellation was announced prior to the writing of the final episode of the fourth season, which allowed the writing team to craft a series finale. The episodes before this were welcomed by fans - including a two-parter detailing how Klingons become more human-looking during the period of TOS (as well as showing Section 31) and a two-parter taking place in the Mirror Universe and featuring a starship from the TOS era.

The final episode of Enterprise, entitled "These Are the Voyages ...", aired May 13 in the United States, and was one of the most heavily criticized episodes the Star Trek franchise ever aired as a series finale -- much of the criticism focusing on the premise, which essentially reduced the finale to a holodeck adventure from an earlier Star Trek series. The episode featured guest appearances by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as their Star Trek: The Next Generation characters William Riker and Deanna Troi. The show took place during the TNG episode "The Pegasus" [2]. Brent Spiner, another TNG veteran who had guest-starred earlier in the fourth season, had a speaking role as Data.

Theme song

The series' theme song, a pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson, was a marked contrast to the sweeping instrumental themes used in all other Star Trek series. It was also the first such theme not to have been composed specially for Star Trek, having previously appeared (performed by Rod Stewart) in the film Patch Adams (1998). Like other aspects of the series, the theme song polarized Trekkies, with many loving the song and many considering it inappropriate for a Star Trek series. A new, more upbeat arrangement of the theme song was introduced with the third season, but this had no impact on the controversy, except to elicit criticism from some who liked the original one.

The song was known by several titles but most commonly "Faith of the Heart" (the title from Patch Adams). However, the official soundtrack CD for Enterprise, as well as all releases of the song by Watson, give it the new title of "Where My Heart Will Take Me." Only the first verse is heard in the opening credits; a longer recording by Watson exists and was released on the soundtrack CD.

Throughout the show's run, there was extensive internet speculation as to whether the theme song and opening credits would be changed. This speculation was fueled in October 2004 when the official website startrek.com posted an opening credits sequence in which Scott Bakula recites a modified version of the famous "Space, the final frontier..." speech (with the phrase "where no human has gone before" in place of "where no man" or "where no one"), accompanied by "Archer's Theme", the instrumental used as the closing credits music for the series. Although there was some internet-based speculation that this was going to replace the original credits, no such decision was made. Around this same time an alternate version of the opening credits using music from Star Trek: Generations and carrying a "Paramount Television Operations" notation, made the rounds on file sharing networks; this too was never adopted and there are doubts that this version was a genuine Paramount creation.

The two-part episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", which takes place within the Mirror Universe, featured a unique opening credits sequence and music intended to capitalize on the alternate universe setting.

Four different end credits versions were created during the show's run, although these were not seen in the original UPN broadcasts. The premiere episode, "Broken Bow" ended with an instrumental version of "Where My Heart Will Take Me" heard on this occasion only. Beginning with the second episode, "Fight or Flight", and continuing for the rest of the show's run, an instrumental piece entitled "Archer's Theme" was heard. The arrangement of "Archer's Theme" as heard in "Fight or Flight" differed from that used in the rest of the series. The two-parter, "In a Mirror, Darkly", reprised that episode's unique opening credits music. The syndicated release of "Broken Bow" replaces the instrumental "Where My Heart Will Take Me" with the standard "Archer's Theme" version.

On August 2, 2005, a recording of "Where My Heart Will Take Me" was played for the crew of the space shuttle Discovery as their morning wake-up call during the "Return to Flight" mission STS-114. The song was chosen as a special dedication from Deputy Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale.[3]

In a less well-known role, a slightly edited version of the theme was also sung as the "Athlete's Theme" live by Russell Watson at the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, in Manchester, UK.

Before the series priemiered, UPN ran a series of promos for the show using the song "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling, leading some fans to believe that this song would be used for the main theme as well.

Controversy

Even before it aired an episode, Enterprise was already one of the most controversial science fiction TV series in history.

Enterprise arguably polarized the Trek fan community and two "factions" emerged within fandom, particularly on the many Internet message boards devoted to the Star Trek franchise (Enterprise was the first Trek series to debut following the rise in popularity of online chat rooms and forums). Initially, the term "Gushers" was used to describe fans who enjoyed the series, while "Bashers" was applied to Trekkers who did not like the show. Each group tends to object to these titles. As the series progressed, the terms were modified to refer usually to only the extreme fans on both sides—i.e. "gushers" was used for those who rejected any criticism of Enterprise, and "bashers" for those who hate the show and refuse to be swayed—although in the wake of the show's cancellation the original definitions appear to be reestablishing themselves on Internet discussion boards such as TrekWeb and TrekBBS. It should be noted, however, that much of the critical backlash against Enterprise actually predated the series and was a holdover from criticism levelled against Star Trek: Voyager dating back to 1995.

Continuity

Many Trekkies were upset by the very concept of Enterprise, claiming that it violated the canon which has been established in previous series and movies. Brannon Braga, executive producer of the series, has gone on record as challenging the fans who make such claims to prove it; however, Braga does admit to having "bent" the rules. [4]

Previous series had defintively stated that James T. Kirk's U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701), as seen in the original Star Trek series, was the first starship to bear that name: this was corroborated by Star Trek: The Motion Picture (which featured a pictoral history of ships called Enterprise in the rec room) and the Deep Space Nine episode Trials and Tribble-ations (where Sisko refers to Kirk's ship as the "first" Enterprise), among others (it is worth noting that the pictures in The Motion Picture do not represent all vessels of that name, and also that a starship which appeared to predate the NX-01--actually a Matt Jefferies spaceship sketch for a tv series that was never produced--was included in the display). The producers of Enterprise have side-stepped this by saying that Archer's ship was not a Federation starship, and thus doesn't "count" as one. Many fans have taken offense to this, and have stated that a prequel to such a well-known and continuity-tight franchise should simply not have been attempted. They've also criticized Enterprise's attempts to rewrite the history of the various Star Trek series by basically doing things Kirk and Picard had done and claiming that the NX-01 did them "first" (such as encountering genetically-engineered supermen and fighting the Borg).

Others were upset that a fan-campaign (endorsed by actor George Takei) that the new Trek series should focus on "Original Series" veteran Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the USS Excelsior (featured in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) failed to influence Paramount management, including the Berman / Braga executive production team.

The final seasons of Voyager were also unpopular with many fans, and the fact that the same production team of Berman and Braga were going to run Enterprise turned some Trekkies against the series before production began and continued to be the source of complaints throughout the show's run.

Cosmetic aspects

In order to make the series distinct from the previous Trek series, the producers chose not to put the words "Star Trek" in the title, in an effort to avoid overuse of the brand name and to make Enterprise stand apart from its many forebears. This idea backfired, with many fans rejecting the series—or failing to learn of it—based on this decision alone. Early in the third season, the series title was altered to include the words "Star Trek". Rather than placating fans, this decision instead resulted in accusations of vacillation on the part of the producers and there is little indication that it succeeded in winning viewers.

The production style of the series also led to conflict amongst fans, with some criticizing the series for not replicating the style of the 1960s Original Series while others praised the show for not going for a retro look. The production team stated that they basically tried to make the Enterprise NX-01 look like a halfway point between a present day nuclear submarine and the starships of later centuries.

Another frequent criticism was that the NX-class hull of the Enterprise looked far too much like the Akira-class 24th century starship introduced in 1996's Star Trek: First Contact. The two designs look remarkably similar, to the point that there were widespread accusations that the NX-class hull design was simply a scaled down version of the Akira-design. This led to the widespread fan-buzzword to criticize the "look" of the ship: the "Akira-prise". (It should be noted that the term Akira class has never been mentioned on-screen, though the Akira class nomenclature is used in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual produced by many of the same production and technical staff from that series, and has its own entry and picture in the Star Trek Encyclopedia). Furthermore, it has been noted in some fandom circles that the NX Class resembles two other non-canonical vessels, specifically the FASA Role Playing Game Loknar Class and the Calon Riel & Mastercom Data Center Akyazi Class, which can be argued to be more closely resembling the NX Class.

Other arguments regarding the NX Class design focus around the "semi-canon" Daedalus-class. This design is supposed to be introduced after the NX-class, meaning that starships would abandon the 'saucer' design in favor of a more 'spherical' one, and then go back to it; however, the NX-class does not possess a secondary hull like the Daedalus-class and any of its successors (including the Constitution-class starships such as the Enterprise NCC-1701), so it is possible that following the Daedalus-class new ships were built with features from both of the old designs. While the Daedalus-class never appears on film in any incarnation of Star Trek, the design (which is based on an early Matt Jeffries concept sketch for the TOS Enterprise) has appeared as a desktop model decorating the sets of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and as such is considered canon in-so-far as depicting an earlier class of starship.

Controversial episodes

The season 2 episode "A Night in Sickbay" was a comedy episode widely derided by critics and Trekkies, although it nonetheless received a Hugo Award nomination and is often cited by the cast as one of their favorite episodes. Many frequent complaints which had followed the series since its beginning were present in this episode, and many fans upon seeing this episode left because they felt that no attempt was being made to fix them. This episode has often been cited on Internet message boards as the "breaking point" episode for fans who chose to abandon Enterprise. This episode was a "bottle episode", TV production jargon for an episode shot primarily on existing sets with a minimum of guest stars, which can allow a production company to recoup budget overages from other episodes in a season.

Another season 2 episode, "Regeneration", introduced the Borg and attracted wide criticism over its alleged breaking of continuity (although the previous series Voyager had already established that Starfleet was possibly aware of the Borg before the apparent first contact seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Q Who?"). Some fans liked the idea of this episode as it explained why the Borg were in the Alpha Quadrant (The Neutral Zone, The Best of Both Worlds). A frequent criticism was that when the ratings were declining on Voyager, the writers brought in the Borg as a near-weekly villain because they had been very popular in the past. Subsequently, many fans felt that making a Borg episode on Enterprise was an obvious grab for ratings.

Romance between T'Pol and Trip Tucker

The decision to introduce a romance between T'Pol and Trip Tucker in the third season also fanned the flames of criticism, as some critics regarded it as poorly executed or unnecessary; Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) also criticized the development.

Supporters of the decision countered that the Trip/T'Pol relationship is generally handled better than similar relationships in past Star Trek series. This view is countered by those who feel that Star Trek and romance should not mix in any long-term fashion, due to the perception of poor results from similar romantic subplots in previous series.

However, the pairing was also criticized by ardent fans who felt that such a relationship should instead have been established between T'Pol and Captain Archer, as had been hinted at several times during the first two seasons. T'Pol as a character was a magnet for criticism throughout the series, with complaints being heard regarding her mode of dress, her emotional nature (which the series explicitly established as a major facet of the character), and in particular a third-season story arc in which it was revealed that T'Pol had become addicted to a substance analogous to a drug.

Xindi arc

Perhaps the largest point of contention, however, came with the season 2 finale, "The Expanse", which introduced a new species known as the Xindi, who launched a catastrophic attack on Earth that killed millions. This and subsequent events are never mentioned in any other Trek series, something many fans see as questionable, considering the huge impact of the event. Many fans counter this argument, noting that not every event in later series are mentioned in preceding series (eg Voyager doesn't often mention events that took place in TOS, TNG and DS9).

It is made clear, however, that the Xindi attack was caused by intervention from the future, giving further evidence to support the claim that parts of the Enterprise series take place in an altered timeline.

T'Pol's love scene

The producers of Enterprise were faced with a controversy of another kind with the 2004 episode "Harbinger", which included a love scene in which the top of T'Pol's buttocks were briefly shown. Aside from complaints from some fans that such nudity was inappropriate for Star Trek (despite similar nudity being shown in Star Trek: The Next Generation), the episode was also scheduled to air not long after the Super Bowl XXXVIII controversy in which Janet Jackson exposed a breast on live TV — an event she and network officials claimed was an unplanned "wardrobe malfunction" — leading to an upswing in censorship in America. As a result, when the episode was finally aired on UPN, the scene was censored. Viewers in Canada, however, saw the uncensored version. Also, the uncensored version appears on the DVD version.

Final episode

Controversy dogged Enterprise to its very conclusion when "These Are the Voyages..." sparked heated debate and arguments over its appropriateness as a finale. Fandom was split among those who felt the episode was a poor conclusion, and others praising it as a fitting conclusion to the 18-year "modern Trek" franchise. Several Enterprise actors were vocal in either their opposition or their support of the episode.

An ongoing debate among Trekkies is whether the cancellation of this series should mark the end of televised Star Trek. In an ironic twist to the years-long fight to bring Star Trek back to television in the 1970s and 1980s, there are a growing number of Trekkies who feel that the concept has worn itself out and should either be retired or laid to rest for a number of years. A "Kill Enterprise" movement was created by Polish Trekkies in response to fan-based efforts to save the show (i.e. while the Save Enterprise movement raised money for a newspaper advertisement and planned rallies in the wake of the cancellation announcement, Kill Enterprise supporters threw parties and sent thankful e-mails to Paramount and UPN). Declaring victory, the Kill Enterprise site designers attempted to recast the site as a forum for discussing future Star Trek productions and as a petition in favor of the next Star Trek series being made by J. Michael Straczynski.

Enterprise's producers, as well as Paramount itself, have stated that Enterprise will probably be the last Star Trek television series for some years to come, although it is possible the movie franchise may continue as there is already talk of an 11^th Star Trek film. Manny Coto, in April 2005, announced that he was already prepared to pitch a new series idea to Paramount. In April 2006 it was announced that J. J. Abrams has been hired to write the next Star Trek film.[5] Although work on that project is still in its early stage, the new production has already garnered criticism from some fans similar to that attracted by Enterprise as widespread rumors emerged in the media that the film might be another prequel; Abrams and his writing staff, as of June 2006, have yet to definitively confirm or deny these rumors (see Star Trek XI).

Ratings troubles

The threat of cancellation

File:Star Trek Enterprise.png

Crew patch for the Enterprise.

By the third season, due to a growing dissatisfaction among fans, ratings were still were continually declining, and the threat of cancellation loomed among Enterprise. (See List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes for the Nielsen Ratings.) This, along with the poor box office performance in 2002 of Star Trek: Nemesis, cast an uncertain light upon the future of the Star Trek franchise in general. While some placed blame on the current production staff or on the concept of the series, others blamed its parent network UPN for not promoting the series and allowing major affiliates to preempt it on many occasions for local sports coverage: fans frequently pointed out that after its pilot episode, commercials for "Enterprise" did not appear on other television channels at all. Another major factor was that UPN's target audience and programming had changed drastically. Star Trek was no longer complementary or even compatible with the direction of the network. Many fans also reported that they chose to watch UPN's weekend rebroadcasts of the series, which were not counted in the ratings. This led actor Connor Trineer, in an interview with Starlog magazine, to unusually request that fans not watch the weekend replay. Another factor cited for the show/franchise's decline was the fact that, as of 2005, there had been continuous Star Trek production for nearly 18 years, and executive producer Rick Berman in part blamed "franchise fatigue" for the show's poor reception.

In response to reports that the series was headed for cancellation at the end of its third season, several fan campaigns to save the show were launched: most notably those of "The Enterprise Project" and "Save Enterprise". The former purchased several full page advertisements in the Hollywood Reporter to encourage the network to renew the show. The ads were funded by donations from fans and excess funds were donated to charity in the names of several cast members.

On May 20, 2004 it was announced that Enterprise had been renewed for a fourth season but that the show would move from Wednesday to Friday nights. Paramount cut its per-episode price and reduced the number of episodes from 24 to 22 so that the series would be more financially attractive to the struggling UPN; it is assumed that one reason why the show was renewed was so that Paramount would have enough episodes for proper syndication should it be cancelled (100 episodes are generally deemed necessary for this, although Enterprise's total output is considered close enough with 98 episodes). This move echoed the rescheduling of the original Star Trek to a Friday night time slot (see Friday night death slot) for its third season prior to its ultimate cancellation.

Paramount Network Television president Garry Hart was quoted in an August 2004 New York Times article that Paramount and UPN stood by the series and hoped to see it continue for several more seasons. Only days later, however, Hart resigned his position and this, combined with the departure or reassignment of other Star Trek supporters within Paramount and UPN during 2004, placed the future of the series in doubt.

A new co-executive producer, Manny Coto, was brought in for the fourth season. Coto decided to retain the "arc" concept of season 3, but reduce it from one arc for the entire season to several "mini-arcs" of two or three episodes, with a few standalones. In order to attract more viewers, particularly Star Trek fans who had not found Enterprise or the previous Star Trek: Voyager to their liking, the producers brought in Brent Spiner, a veteran of Star Trek: The Next Generation, to appear in three episodes of the fourth season. In addition, the producers attempted to attract viewers by terminating an unpopular story arc (the Temporal Cold War) and scheduling numerous episodes that served as prequels to storylines from the Original Series and TNG.

Beginning in the summer of 2004, and continuing throughout the fourth season, rumors persisted that William Shatner would reprise the role of James T. Kirk in the series, however an agreement could not be reached.

The fourth season got off to a slow start in the ratings on October 8, 2004 due to the Friday time-slot, preemptions by local sports in some markets, and by coverage of a presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry in others. The ratings also continued to be affected by the "rerun effect" when first-run episodes were rebroadcast over the weekend by UPN affiliates in time slots not registered by Nielsen. Enterprise fans continued to indicate that they chose to watch the weekend showing rather than the Friday broadcast, or chose to "time-shift" the program using their VCR or TiVo equipment. In October 2004, it was announced that Enterprise was the 25^th most popular Season Pass on the TiVo television recording system in the United States.

In December 2004, it was reported that Enterprise was the top-rated dramatic program on UPN, although by January 2005 it had fallen behind the law drama Kevin Hill, but it remained ahead of the critically acclaimed mystery series Veronica Mars. (In May 2005, UPN cancelled Kevin Hill but renewed the low-rated Veronica Mars on the basis that it better fit the network's newly desired female demographic.)

The internet gave rise to near-continuous rumors and speculation regarding the show's future from the earliest days of the series, and this reached a fever pitch as the fourth season began and Nielsen ratings for the show, although an improvement for the Friday night timeslot, still dropped in comparison to the previous season.

Cancellation and aftermath

Speculation as to the future of the series came to an end on February 2, 2005, when UPN announced [6] that the series had been cancelled and that its final episode would air on Friday May 13, 2005.

In the days immediately following the cancellation announcement, the Star Trek fan community remained divided between those who were upset by the news and by those who welcomed it. Some fans, posting to online newsgroups and bulletin boards, blamed Berman and Braga for the cancellation, while others blamed network head Les Moonves, who was identified in the media as the individual who made the decision to cancel the show.

During an online chat at startrek.com on February 11, 2005 [7], and later repeated in other media, Scott Bakula stated that the major reason for the show's cancellation is that it no longer fit the profile or desired demographic of UPN (the network's schedule primarily consists of so-called "urban" sitcoms and reality programming). He also said that major changes to the management of both Paramount and UPN during 2003-2004 resulted in past supporters of Star Trek departing the organization (most notably the aforementioned Garry Hart). Bakula said the series was to have been cancelled at the end of the 2003-2004 season, but support from Hart and others earned the show one final year.

Soon after the cancellation announcement, Enterprise received its fourth consecutive Saturn Awards nomination for Best Dramatic Series.

On February 15, 2005, during the ratings period known as "sweeps week", the enterprisefans.com joint group ran an advertisement [8] in the Los Angeles Times, paid for by fan donations, exhorting the American Sci Fi Channel to pick up the show. The ad received wide press coverage from, among other outlets, the Associated Press, BBC and CNN. Later that month, a group of fans held a rally in front of the Paramount Studios facility in Hollywood.

Around this time, several fan groups including Save Enterprise joined forces to create TrekUnited.com, and announced a drive to raise money via fan donations to finance a further season of Enterprise. On March 1, Trek United and Save Enterprise announced [9] that three anonymous individuals connected with the fledgling commercial spaceflight industry had pledged $3 million to the cause, although millions of dollars more will be needed in order for this effort to be successful (approximately $30 million US is the goal of the campaign, based upon estimates of the cost for a full season cited by John Billingsley and others[10]). Critics of the initiative have labeled it unrealistic, but supporters have said that it is a symbolic gesture.

Another fan based effort spearheaded by Washington, D.C. lobbyist, Dan Jensen, sought Members of the United States Congress to sign a letter supporting the values and legacy of the series which was to be sent to Paramount in late March. On March 1, Jensen and supporters of this effort announced that Florida Republican Mark Foley had become the first Congressman to agree to sign the letter.

Production of the fourth season concluded on March 8, 2005, and by the end of the month, Startrek.com was reporting that the Enterprise sets had been taken down, marking the first time that Stage 9 at Paramount Studios has been without Star Trek sets since the late 1970s. The website did not indicate whether the sets have been preserved in storage or if they have been destroyed.[11]

As of April 13, 2005, Paramount and UPN remain adamant that the cancellation of the series is final and that the studio is not interested in continuing the current incarnation of Star Trek and Startrek.com revealed that studio officials had actually denied TrekUnited's fund-raising efforts as early as mid-March. TrekUnited officials, however, still claimed to be in talks with Paramount over the future of the series.[12]

On April 15, TrekUnited revealed that it had joined forces with several Canadian film production companies to put forward a proposal to Paramount that would see further seasons of Enterprise filmed abroad (most likely Canada) and jointly produced by Paramount and these several unidentified production houses. [13] On April 16 TrekUnited revealed that it was Canadian producer Al Vinci who had been negotiating with Paramount Network Television President David Stapf on a co-production with established Canadian motion picture and television producers, backed by US$18 million from private investors. Then Trek United announced that the studio had formally rejected the idea and that promised refunds for those fans who had donated to the cause would be issued beginning on April 18.[14]

The Web site IGN Filmforce, reporting on rumors that Paramount had actually decided to cancel Enterprise after its fourth season as early as midway through the second year, quoted an unidentified "executive involved with Enterprise" as saying this scenario was "very likely".[15] Soon after, Scott Bakula, in an interview with Sci Fi Wire, reiterated his belief that management changeovers at Paramount in 2003-2004 left Enterprise and the Star Trek franchise without strong support, adding that as recently as 2004 now-departed management at the studio had expressed interest in developing a feature film based upon Enterprise.[16] This was later denied by Berman.

The local sports preemptions that had plagued Enterprise through most of its run continued unabated in a number of major markets as its final episodes were broadcast in the rest of the country, including the Boston and New York City UPN affiliates. The Orlando affiliate chose to broadcast professional basketball games in lieu of the series. Similarly, Boston's WSBK-TV, for example, moved the series to Saturday night beginning in April in order to accommodate local baseball coverage, although it did air the finale on May 13 due to the fact the Boston Red Sox game scheduled for that night did not begin until later in the evening. Several affiliates reportedly preempted the finale for local programming.

In May 2005, UPN announced that starting in the fall, WWE SmackDown!, its longtime professional wrestling series, would move into the same Friday night timeslot vacated by Enterprise, a move coinciding with reports that UPN does not plan to renew its contract with WWE in 2006, bringing to a close another TV franchise. (However, in January 2006, it was announced that UPN would merge with The WB to form a new network, CW, and SmackDown! was announced as one of series scheduled for the network's inaugural 2006-2007 season.)

UPN continued to air reruns of Enterprise for only a month after the series finale, with the last network-broadcast episode, "In a Mirror, Darkly Part II", airing on June 11, 2005 -- this despite initial announcements that reruns would continue throughout the summer. With disruptions from local sports programming, many areas never had the opportunity to see all the episodes that had been aired elsewhere. In August 2005, Startrek.com announced that the syndicated rebroadcasts of Enterprise, scheduled to begin in North American markets on September 17, would not be offered in original broadcast order.[17]

DVD releases

In October 2004, Paramount announced that it would release the four seasons of Enterprise on DVD in North America during 2005. There was concern raised in fan circles that the announcement of a DVD release, coupled with Paramount advertising television syndication for the series beginning in the fall of 2005, indicated that the series was less likely to be renewed for another season. It has yet to be revealed whether these two developments had any bearing on the decision to cancel the program since Voyager was offered to syndication midway through its run with no impact on its network status, and TNG, DS9, and Voyager all saw episodes released to home video during their runs, long before those series ended.

The first season DVD was released on May 3, 2005 and includes a nine-minute blooper reel, as well as a selection of deleted scenes – the first time either of these extras has been included with a Star Trek series DVD release. The second season was released in North America on July 26, again featuring bloopers and deleted scenes [18], followed by Season 3 on September 27, and the final season on November 1.

Cast

Regular cast

Picture	Performer	Rank	Role	Position
	Scott Bakula	Captain	Jonathan Archer	Captain and commanding officer of the Starship Enterprise.
File:TPol2003.jpg	Jolene Blalock	Sub Commander (later Commander)	T'Pol	First Officer and Chief Science Officer.
File:ST-CharlesTucker.JPG	Connor Trinneer	Commander	Charles "Trip" Tucker III	Chief Engineer.
File:ST-MalcolmReed.JPG	Dominic Keating	Lieutenant	Malcolm Reed	Chief Tactical officer.
File:ST-HoshiSato.JPG	Linda Park	Ensign	Hoshi Sato	Chief Communications officer.
File:ST-TravisMayweather.JPG	Anthony Montgomery	Ensign	Travis Mayweather	Helm officer.
File:ST-Phlox.JPG	John Billingsley	Doctor	Phlox	Chief Medical Officer

Enterprise has the distinction of being the only live-action Star Trek television series that never experienced any changes to its core cast during the duration of its run. T'Pol is the only character to change rank during the series.

Recurring characters

• Admiral Maxwell Forrest, Archer's superior officer (Vaughn Armstrong), killed during the fourth season in "The Forge", although a Mirror Universe version of the character appeared later in Season 4.
• Captain Erika Hernandez, Captain of the Enterprise's sister ship Columbia and onetime romantic interest of Jonathan Archer.
• Soval, a Vulcan ambassador (Gary Graham) who came down very hard on the Enterprise crew in early seasons, but became a valuable ally, later.
• Silik, a Suliban (John Fleck), killed in "Storm Front, Part II" at the start of the fourth season.
• Crewman Elizabeth Cutler, a young, inexperienced crewmember (Kellie Waymire) who appeared several times during the first season, and was briefly a romantic interest for Phlox. Waymire died in 2003, but her character was mentioned by Dr. Phlox in a later episode.
• Degra, a Xindi-Primate (Randy Oglesby). A recurring character during the third season, murdered in "The Council".
• Major Hayes, leader of the MACO team during the third season, killed in "Countdown" (Steven Culp)
• Shran, member of the Andorian Imperial Guard and an ally of Archer's (Jeffrey Combs).
• Crewman Daniels, a temporal agent from the 31^st century (Matt Winston), who supposedly died several times.
• Michael Rostov, a member of Tucker's Engineering team who has appeared occasionally (Joseph Will).
• Chef, who heads up Enterprise's kitchen, is mentioned in many episodes spanning all four seasons but is never seen, except in the episode "The Catwalk" in which his is only seen from the waist down. In "These Are The Voyages", Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) is advised by Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis), to take on the role of Chef in his holodeck simulation of Enterprise.

Original novels and relaunch

Like the Trek series that preceded it, a series of original novels based upon Enterprise was launched by Pocket Books soon after the program debuted.

During the run of the series, however, only five books were published (not counting episode novelizations), a low number compared to the other series. The sixth original novel, Rosetta by Dave Stern was released February 2006; as a result, no Enterprise-specific novels were published at all in 2005.

As explained by Pocket Books editor Margaret Clark, it was decided to scale back the number of books published not due to low sales or lack of interest in the prequel series, but due to the fact that the televised series often conflicted with planned literary plotlines, or beat the book series to the punch entirely. For example, the novel Surak's Soul by J.M. Dillard, includes as a major plot point- the aftermath of T'Pol killing a person during a mission. Before the novel was published, however, the TV series aired "The Seventh," an episode with a similar core plot point, which forced last-minute revisions to Dillard's book. Later, the novel Daedalus by Dave Stern, which included flashbacks to the early days of the NX program, also needed to be revised to avoid conflicting with the already-broadcast episode "First Flight" which also featured a look at the early days of the NX program. (The title Daedalus was later used for an unrelated fourth season episode of the series.) In a May 2005 posting at the TrekBBS, Clark explained that the recent lack of Enterprise novels was intended to avoid any further potential storytelling "land mines" since "Season Four kept doing stuff we wanted/planned to do".[19]

Now that the televised series has concluded, the writers are free to compose stories without fear of being preempted or contradicted by the show (save for any restrictions put in place by the finale episode). In May 2005, Clark announced plans for a new series of Enterprise novels that will constitute a "relaunch" similar to that of the literary continuation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Although a publishing schedule for this new series has not been announced, Clark indicated that the books will cover events in the six years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages...". [20]

Template:Spoiler An original novel, Last Full Measure, was released in April 2006. It takes place during the third season Xindi Arc and therefore isn't considered part of the relaunch (Rosetta takes place during the fourth season and likewise is not considered a relaunch volume, either). However, Last Full Measure does contain a "framing sequence" that serves as a preview for the Relaunch. Controversially, it suggests Trip Tucker did not die in the events of "These Are the Voyages..." and is alive in the early 23rd Century, though the reason for this is not explained.

Pocket Books has also announced the 2007 release of a Mirror Universe story (a sequel to "In a Mirror Darkly") to be co-written by Mike Sussman.

Trivia

• Scott Bakula (Captain Jonathan Archer), Jolene Blalock (T'Pol) and Connor Trinneer (Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker III) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
• In an early episode, a Starfleet vessel named Shenandoah is mentioned. In March 2006 Scott Bakula appeared in a Broadway musical with that name (it is a Civil War drama).
• TNG star LeVar Burton, TNG and DS9 star Michael Dorn, and Voyager stars Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan McNeill have all had a hand at directing in the series.
• The final episode of Enterprise aired in the United States on the same day as the final episode of Andromeda, another series connected to Gene Roddenberry.
• A persistent rumor states that Starfleet, as depicted in this series, had no ranks of lieutenant junior grade or lieutenant commander. Those ranks did not appear on the show, but there is no evidence they didn't exist, merely that no character happened to have them on the show. (Malcolm Reed was, at one point, intended to be a lieutenant commander, and the biographical data of Hoshi Sato - which was shown onscreen - indicates that she will retire from Starfleet with that rank.)
• "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling was used extensively in television ads by UPN to promote the show prior to its premiere in the fall of 2001.
• The prefix of the Enterprise's serial number (NX) is the same as that of Spirit of St. Louis aircraft flown by Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic ocean in 1927. It has been used in other Star Trek series and films to denote an experimental starship (for instance the USS Excelsior, with its prototype transwarp drive, had the number NX-2000 in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but NCC-2000 once the drive was removed).
• The pilot episode of Enterprise was scored over a two day period; September 10th and 11th 2001. On 9/11 the orchestra and scoring stage personnel were the only activity on the Paramount lot other than security.

See also

• List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes
• List of Star Trek: Enterprise introduction images

External links

• Star Trek: Enterprise at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek: Enterprise at IMDb
• Template:Tvtome show
• Star Trek: Enterprise at Memory Alpha
• Star Trek episode reviews by Jamahl "Jammer" Epsicokhan
• Star Trek: Enterprise at TrekCore.com

Web sites

• A Call To Save "Star Trek Enterprise" Petition
• Direct to DVD campaign
• EnterpriseProject
• Virtual Enterprise a virtual series script-based on "Star Trek Enterprise"
• Save Enterprise- Which is currently not working, and at one point recently redirected to non Star Trek website.
• TrekUnited
• Star Trek: Enterprise Petition
• Five-Minute Enterprise parody episode summaries
• Trek Today Trek-related news page
• SyFy Portal Trek-related news site
• Back in Time : Enterprise The first Star Trek Enterprise website
• Five-Minute Enterprise Satirical shortened versions of Star Trek: Enterprise