Sometimes I feel like I’m part of the minority who actually enjoyed Enterprise. Sure, there were some stinkers but the world was incredibly interesting and in Series 3 / 4 I really felt like it scratched that Trek lore itch for me.

If Enterprise was to be rebooted for a series 5, perhaps on Paramount+ or another streaming service, what would it look like? I don’t think Jolene Blalock would come back but I’m sure Scott Bakula could be convinced as well as most of the other actors.

I would really hope they keep the early 2000s aesthetic of the NX-01 and all of the retro low-tech gear, perhaps show a gradual transition into the aesthetic of Strange New Worlds. You could mix in some time shenanigans to explain why things look different than they did in TOS and make some fun callbacks, like In A Mirror Darkly.

There’s a lot of room to move before the series finale happens - or you could just retcon it and present it as a deep cover-up. So many opportunities! I want to hear this community’s opinions!

  • I loved season 3 of Enterprise, and while I didn’t think as highly of 4 as some, it was still a decent show at that point. It was a shame it was cancelled.

    I’m not sure there’s much reason to pick up where the show left off though, unless it’s for a one off limited series covering the Romulan War or something. Strange New Worlds is doing the regular Star Trek thing and doing it well, so it would need to be something that really justified returning to the setting.

    If I could wipe Enterprise from history and start over, I think I’d have liked it to lean more into the low tech stuff and make that the hook. The show very quickly seemed to drop that side of things, and even early on it mostly just replaced later Trek stuff with other stuff that did the same job. Polarised hull playing replaced shields, lasers replaced phasers etc. They even had a transporter. I’d like to see humanity taking its first steps to the stars without any of that stuff.

    • They kind of had to get up to speed quickly to even have a fighting chance against the enemy of the week. To be fair, when they went up against the Xindi it was pretty clear the NX-01 had barely any chance, it was in pieces.

      Some of the best moments of the series was when they’d rig up something out of the primitive tech they had like the grappler and figure out a way to punch way above their weight in fights. So I don’t think they fully lost the scrappy underdog status.

    • I’m not sure there’s much reason to pick up where the show left off though, unless it’s for a one off limited series covering the Romulan War or something

      Interestingly enough, they were planning long-term story arcs about the early days of the Federation and the Romulan war starting with season 5 when the show got canned. It’s a damned shame they never got to execute that plan, because the show grew its beard in season 3 and started getting really good in season 4. The show proved it’s worthiness at that point, in my opinion. That last season had some real gems, it’s actually one of my favorite seasons of Trek overall. If it hadn’t been canceled and were allowed to run its course (say, 7 seasons), I’m convinced Enterprise would be held in as high regard as TNG and DS9 today.

  • An issue with bringing back enterprise would be that it’s literally been almost 20 years since season 4 premiered. They can do a time skip that takes place later in the 22nd century and show some early federation stories. Or they could follow another ship during the Romulan war, but it would be difficult for them to just start up with season 5 and try to carry on like normal.

    I remember there was some hope that the series would come back in the age of streaming in the late 00s early 10s, but eventually the march of time makes that difficult.

    I did enjoy enterprise though. It had its faults but overall was a quality series. There’s a book series that acts as a season 5 and beyond that sort of covers the romulan war era which I thought was pretty solid when I read it in the early 10s. I believe it was The Good that Men Do, Kobayashi Maru, and then romulan war books

    • You’re right…I am thinking it would basically be a reboot. Or some kind of time shenanigans which change history. Not sure.

      I’ve been looking for the Good That Men Do for a while, no luck yet…but I hear it’s good!

  • the thing about Enterprise is even at its worst, it’s not an entirely bad show - the supporting cast is good, they are set in an interesting time period, and the premise is ostensibly interesting.

    The main problem for me is that, setting aside the fact that the main theme comes straight from the Patch Adams soundtrack, the show is straight up boring. They came so close to something really interesting with Archer being flawed because he was the first, and perhaps even not really the right guy to be captain. But then the writers had to make him a mary sue, he fails is way to success every episode, and becomes like the ship’s alcoholic dad, constantly getting into the dumbest yelling arguments with his wife first officer — who he is also canonically racist against by the way. You would think/hope they were setting him up for some growth on that, but, instead they chose to try to make a lot of the show indirectly relevant to 9/11

    By the time the show finally set the stage to become interesting the majority of its audience had already been alienated

    What Paramount ought to realize about it is that Enterprise failed because of the writers and producers and not because of the cast or setting and it should not be very difficult to do significantly better than the original

    • Well said. Archer could have been such an interesting character who grows throughout the series, and I think that was much of the original plan, but I think the writers were straight up exhausted from TNG - DS9 - VOY for like 30 years and gave up trying.

      9/11 allegory with the Xindi - I mean, it was a pretty big event and it’s only natural for America’s biggest sci fi show to try and tackle it. The Xindi arc was interesting and I think really good in some parts - but it didn’t feel like Trek to me. This wasn’t the show to try it on.

      I feel so bad for Scott Bakula. This was going to be an absolutely defining role for him but he was given nothing to work with, and was cut loose right when the interesting stuff started showing up. I really want him to get another chance to shine, with some decent writing up to the calibre of Strange New Worlds at least.

  • First season set in 2164. Episodes include depicting the events I linked. Second season in 2165, same deal, depict all these events plus whatever new stuff the writers dream up. By filling in existing canon, half the seasons stories become really easy to break, saving time and money, and people who respect canon will have nothing to complain about. Ten year time jump explains why the actors look older. The only problem is no Trip, but he can easily cameo in a dream story or an alternate timeline, heck they could even Harry Kim him back to life.

    edit: added bonus, there’s an opportunity to retcon and apologize for Code Of Honor.

  • I’d also love for it to come back but it seems a bit impossible by now haha.

    Also despite the controversy with the “holoprogram” and the unnecessary death and so on… I thought ending the show with the founding of the Federation was actually super awesome. I don’t know how they’d fold a new Enterprise season into that either but yeah.

  • I’m going to ignore trying to keep the existing Enterprise and instead go for a reboot using the same actors, as the problems with the original wasn’t the acting talent.

    There is no Temporal Cold War. Anything sneaky happening in the background is the Romulans, but this doesn’t become known until later in the show. Hell, you can keep the creepy communications with the Suliban if you want as it still allows for a Big Bad. You just don’t get any good guys helping out Archer.

    If we are going to give Archer the Pike treatment, it is going to be that Archer’s idea is that his success in life is going to be delivering the Warp 5 program, and maybe even the Warp 7 program in the future. Being Captain of the Enterprise is considered by Archer to be a way to help understand what a ship is going to need in future iterations. His rejecting of the call is going to be that Robinson is going to get the future Archer wanted, but Archer is going to have the future that humanity needs.

    Keep shows like P’Jem, as they really help show how humanity is becoming more involved in local affairs. Maybe the Enterprise accidentally ruins some small Romulan plots to destabilize the area.

    Include a show here about an earlier Vulcan intervention into a post-warp civilization that went badly, with news of the problems getting to Earth

    Make the Vulcan revolution a much longer series, including possibly including the Andorians attempting a post-revolution invasion of Vulcan space when Vulcan is weak to secure an advantage over their weakened foe. Archer can step into this as well, as there may be a second Romulus plot to try to replace the liberated government with something else that will be aligned to merge with Romulus in the future.

    Back on Earth, the coup attempt is a way to get Earth to seal itself off and focus on improving the lives of humans. Make the rebuilding of humanity uneven and a work in progress. Some of humanity may not want to spend money galavanting across the stars and instead use the resources to focus on rebuilding Earth. Have Archer see that a post-coup attempt Earth is starting to the way of the Vulcan High Command. He intervenes with the Enterprise, creating the first opportunity to lead Earth politics, even if it is just to get through a crisis.

    Have some other crises happen, eventually leading to an Earth-Romulus War, with Archer now having to be on the front lines.

    This could probably be done with the current leadership of Star Trek, given how they are writing Discovery and Strange New Worlds.