Trivia / Star Trek: Enterprise

• Ascended Fanon:
  • "Future Guy"'s name came from fans who started using it to refer to the humanoid figure. Eventually, the producers of Enterprise used it as the character's actual name in the script. He was listed on the Memory Alpha wiki as "Future Guy" for a few years, before being renamed "Humanoid Figure" in keeping with the site's in-universe tone.
  • The planned refit to the NX-01 Enterprise for the unproduced fifth season of the show was later made canon by Star Trek: Picard. A young Jean-Luc is seen playing with a model of the refit NX-01 with its added engineering hull, and later the actual NX-01 itself is seen at the Federation Fleet Museum among other legendary starships from Trek history, also sporting the refit engineering hull.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Scott Bakula revealed on William Shatner's The Captains documentary that he originally declined the role of Captain Archer, saying that he wasn't interested in being the next captain of the Enterprise. He changed his mind when his agent told him that they didn't want him to be the next captain of the Enterprise but rather first captain of the Enterprise.
• Cast the Expert: In Season 3, when Enterprise takes a lot of damage, Paramount set builders were used for the Building Is Welding scenes.
• Contest Winner Cameo:
  • Radio Celebrity Bob Rivers appears as an extra in 2 different episodes.
  • The Other Wiki also says that a radio station contest winner also appeared in one of these episodes.
  • Winners of the USS Enterprise's (the aircraft carrier) Crewman of the Year competition also appeared as extras on the show.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Jolene Blalock, a die-hard Trekkie from childhood, was the most dissatisfied — and vocal — member of the cast. Like Nimoy and Russ before her, she spent an enormous amount of time reiterating how true Vulcans are supposed to act and criticizing the scripts. She also found it a bit silly how T'Pol's hair never moves; if a single hair was out of place during a firefight, they would send her to makeup and reshoot it.
  • With "Extinction", Braga wanted to do "Threshold" over again — and do it right. That didn't work out so well. Braga called it "one of the singularly most embarrasing episodes of Star Trek I've ever been involved with" which is saying quite a lot. Even director LeVar Burton hated the episode, if Doug Mirabello (Rick Berman's assistant) is to be believed.
    "People generally knew when an episode was bad. We even had one director go to the producers and tell them he was ashamed to direct the episode where our crew turned into lizard people. The finale was one of those where you'd go down to the stage and see people shaking their heads while reading the script."
  • A lot of cast members were appalled at the series finale episode "These Are The Voyages..." which, rather than allowing Enterprise to end on its own terms, turned it into a Star Trek: The Next Generation story. By all accounts no one liked this story, not even co-writer Brannon Braga: Supposedly, Scott Bakula barked angrily at Braga over the phone when he got the script; Manny Coto was unhappy with how it completely glossed over the Earth-Romulan War with a Time Skip, and declared his own episode "Terra Prime" to be the true series finale; Connor Trineer was incredulous at dying such a lame death; Blalock stayed true to form by slamming the showrunners (again) for their meddling and called the episode "appalling"; and even Jonathan Frakes had his doubts about the whole thing. The fallout from the episode was so acrimonious that it negatively affected Braga's relationship with co-producer/writer Rick Berman, who described it as a "valentine" to Trekkies. In 2009, Berman finally made a mea culpa: admitting that, while he and Braga meant well (and Berman was reportedly stunned by the negative response), it was a bad idea in hindsight and shouldn't have been made, or at least not without significant alterations.
    Todd Douglass Jr.: I had to stop and think what Berman and Braga were thinking of when they wrote the episode, but I have a feeling it was after a late night filled with snickering and one of them saying, "The galaxy's not getting any of our bourbon".
  • The finale was far from the only thing Brannon Braga regretted about the show. For instance, he very much regretted "Acquisition," an ill-conceived Ferengi episode on a show that takes place nearly two centuries before Starfleet was even supposed to meet them. Braga also admitted that the much-reviled scene in "Shockwave, Part 2," with Hoshi losing her shirt while crawling through air ducts, was way too gratuitous.
• Creator Killer: While co-creator Brannon Braga was ultimately able to shrug off the show's failure without much trouble, long-time franchise head honcho Rick Berman wasn't so lucky. Since the series went off the air, he hasn't worked as another writer or producer on anything, with all his subsequent credits only being as a participant in various Trek-related documentaries.
• Executive Meddling:
  • Responsible for the much-loathed pop-song credits. Rick Berman is notorious for his milquetoast taste in music. This is what it was supposed to sound like. If that music sounds familiar, it should — it's "Archer's Theme," the closing credits music, originally intended for the credits sequence and written by the same person responsible for Deep Space Nine's theme. An even earlier concept resembled the other Trek series' credits even more, including the famous Opening Narration (and the show would apparently have been called Star Trek: Enterprise from the start).
  • On the commentary for "Demons", Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating have a laugh at how frequently the studio insisted on changing Scott Bakula’s hair to make him seem older or younger or roguish or straight-laced.
  • Also responsible for the Temporal Cold War arc. The original idea was to have the first season based on Earth, but the execs nixed that idea and insisted that it be similar in tone to Voyager, and have a Time Travel element to make it "more futuristic." The execs then realized the TCW was going nowhere and demanded that it be removed, which is why it was abruptly finished in "Storm Front." The failure of this arc, and the fan backlash it provoked, was a consideration in Berman's decision to limit the Xindi arc to 10 episodes interspersed with standalone stories, then prolong the Xindi storyline if it turned out to be a hit. Unfortunately, this let to a lot of half-baked scripts getting rushed out (including "Extinction", arguably ENT's worst). Like with the Kazon (VOY), the time travel mess seemed to confirm Berman's bias against long-form storytelling.
    Redditor: The very first thing I remember about that episode was thinking I was on the wrong channel when "Faith of the Heart" started playing... The next thing I remember thinking was "Temporal Cold War? Really? You don't usually put the shark in the first episode.
  • "E2" is often remembered for ripping off half a dozen episodes. What isn't too well-known is that the writer was specifically asked to make a number of edits in order to mimic previous ideas.
  • "Stigma" was part of a network-wide AIDS awareness anvil drop.
  • "Dear Doctor" was supposed to end with Archer and Phlox at odds with one another over giving a potential cure to the Valakian and Menk, with Archer wanting it and Phlox opposing it. But execs didn't want any disagreements between them, making Archer and Phlox both agree to not help, thereby likely condemning both races to extinction.
    John Billingsly: I wasn't as happy with the revisions, but it's not my show, you have to sort of adjust, even if sometimes it does seem a bit of a contradiction in terms for what your character is supposed to be about.
• Fake Nationality: Hoshi Sato is supposed to be Japanese. Actress Linda Park is Korean.
• Flip-Flop of God:
  • A macabre joy when watching ENT is catching all the little TOS references, many of which are used for black humor. In the second part of "In a Mirror, Darkly", the future biography of Hoshi Sato states that she was one of the 4,000 people murdered by Kodos in the backstory to "Conscience of a King". Mike Sussman never intended for the data to be readable on screen, and on his website he says to take that biographical information with "a grain of salt." So call off the hitmen, please!
  • Though creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga suggested early in the show's run that it took place in an alternate universe from First Contact, later episodes disregarded it and slotted straight into the TNG continuity, to the point where the Distant Finale took place on Jean-Luc Picard's Enterprise.
• Follow-Up Failure: The only Berman-produced spinoff series to be cancelled mid-run. Ironically, Enterprise is, by all indications, the only Star Trek series to take place in both the "prime" timeline — comprising the prior shows and movies — and the "Kelvin" timeline subsequently created by Star Trek (2009), with mentions of the now-Admiral Archer and a model NX-01. The third film of the "Kelvin" timeline, Star Trek Beyond, featured many references to the Enterprise-era and the technology used during the series.
• Follow the Leader:
  • It can't be a coincidence that ENT's announcement came shortly before the much-anticipated second chapter of the prequel trilogy. This would explain the Palpatine-like hologram who bosses the Suliban around. The introduction of the Xindi — people in funny make-up bickering around a table — evokes the opening of The Phantom Menace inside the Trade Federation flagship and Senate chamber, with long conversations about trade negotiations and taxation.
  • Brannon Braga is on record as being a 24 addict and wishing he could write for a series like that. He later got his wish when FOX hired him to help produce that show. The undercurrent of foreign menace in 24 is pretty similar to the Xindi/Terra Prime arcs.
  • The show's higher focus on sex appeal and more immature characters was an attempt to emulate the success of shows like Baywatch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This failed for two reasons: firstly, shows like Baywatch and Buffy appealed to a significantly different audiences than that of Star Trek. Baywatch and Buffy fans had no interest in watching the show and the established Star Trek fanbase were driven away by the cliche plots and unprofessional characters. Secondly, the sex appeal of Buffy came mostly from having attractive characters with active sex lives, and the blatant fanservice of Baywatch was made irrelevant thanks to the internet becoming widely available. This means that Enterprise's attempts at fanservice, such as the decontamination chamber scenes with characters rubbing each other down with gel, were derided as boring, desperate and not particularly titillating.
• Franchise Killer:
  • TNG lasted seven years. DS9, seven years. Voyager, seven years...Enterprise got hit by a bus and passed away in a ditch somewhere in four years.
  • The series ended an 18-year run of Star Trek series on US TV, and fandom pretty much imploded during its run due to its divisiveness. Although there was talk of yet another Star Trek series being commissioned after Enterprise's cancellation, this was soon put aside in favor of restarting the franchise anew with the 2009 film. That film and its sequel, despite further dividing the fanbase, were successful enough for Paramount and CBS to green-light a new Star Trek series, which premiered as Star Trek: Discovery in September 2017.
• Playing Against Type: It took a while for Bakula and the writers to get a handle on Archer. He started out as a happy-go-lucky, regular schmoe... Right before they blow it all up and just go full “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Sisko, Can You?” with Archer’s characterization. Which is more interesting, but also not really tailored to Bakula's strengths as a performer.
• Post-Release Retitle: The series was originally titled just Enterprise, and only officially became Star Trek: Enterprise at the start of its third season.
• Prop Recycling:
  • The Captain's chair used in the fourth season was originally used on the Enterprise-E bridge set in a Deleted Scene from Star Trek: Nemesis. The scene included Steven Culp as Picard's out-of-his-depth First Officer; he also played Major Hayes in Enterprise's third season.
  • Julia Rose, who had a recurring role as a space marine (MACO) in season four, wears a uniform previously worn by Hilary Swank in The Core. According to a September 2003 interview with Rose, the uniform still has a label with Swank's name on it.
• Real-Life Relative: Bonita Friedericy (Chuck) is married to John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox) and appeared in "Regeneration" as a scientist who is assimilated by the Borg.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The theme "Where My Heart Will Take Me" by Rod Stewart was originally from the soundtrack of Patch Adams.
• Recycled Script: Several ENT episodes are very clearly copied from episodes of prior shows. To name just a few: "Extinction" was copied from TNG's "Identity Crisis," "Doctor's Orders" from "One" over on Voyager, and "E2" from DS9's "Children of Time". According to writer Mike Sussman, the producers and Paramount knew full well that they were recycling scripts that were only a few years old, but in their view, the fact that they were doing so with a new crew in a different time period made the new episodes different enough.
  Rene Auberjonois: I was sitting with Scott Bakula at lunch about two or three days into shooting the episode. He said, "I like this script. I think this is a good one." I said, "Yeah, we did this one in season three." And he looked at me and said, "What?"
• Referenced by...: In It's Walky!, whenever the Will of God is interpreted, His sole commandment is that this show be Un-Cancelled.
  " Bring back Enterprise."
• Refitted for Sequel: The idea of Federation ships having a detachment of marines was conceived during the original series and TNG but never realized due to the Mildly Military nature of Starfleet. The MACO's introduced in season three finally utilizes the concept, with some Jurisdiction Friction between the Tactical Officer Reed and MACO commander Hayes.
• Running the Asylum: Season Four alone has more explicit references to TOS than all previous Star Trek spinoffs combined. "In a Mirror, Darkly" restaged some events from a TOS episode frame-by-frame and featured a faithful reconstruction of a Constitution-class bridge, similar to Kirk's NCC-1701. This is also a rare case of this sort of thing dramatically improving the show on all fronts, since the new staff actually, y'know, cared about making a good Star Trek show.
• Screwed by the Network: By Season 3, ratings were no longer steadily dropping, but they also hadn't rebounded either. Once ENT was renewed for a fourth season, the network opted to move the series to Friday nights, which was seen as a death sentence not just by fans, but by the production staff. It's been suggested that with UPN shifting more interest towards the female demographic, they had less interest in anything Star Trek-related (which is odd, given the female demographic is what made Star Trek a successful franchise in the first place). Combined with a lack of promotion, ratings hit their absolute lowest (with several falling below three million viewers).
• Stunt Casting: Bakula's Quantum Leap co-star Dean Stockwell in "Detained."
• Troubled Production: Rick Berman had been campaigning for a break in televised Star Trek as far back as Voyager, but Paramount was adamant on having a new series following the end of Voyager. Brannon Braga looked to get some fresh blood into the franchise by getting a new writing staff, but discovered they were not up to the task of handling an hour long television show like Star Trek. Braga was forced to rewrite almost every episode of the first two seasons, a fact he is not proud of. Being a network show meant they had a lot more studio micromanagement, and efforts to make a newer, fresh series were forced back into the same old rut. Things got a little bit better near the end of the second season when Braga was given the go-ahead to shake things up, and the third season brought in another writing staff, including Manny Coto, who became the showrunner for the fourth season.
• What Could Have Been: Like all Trek series, you can check out a dedicated WCHB page for ENT.
• Word of Gay: Reed, courtesy of Dominic Keating and to absolutely no one's surprise. The character is canonically straight, but fandom is more or less unified in believing that ENT's Armory Officer plays for the other team.
• Word of God: Word is that the events of Star Trek: First Contact did alter the timeline of Enterprise somewhat (also explaining the seemingly 'advanced' technology aboard the NX-01), though whether this actually puts it in a different timeline to the other Trek shows is still up in the air.^note Although the Borg incident in this series does explain TNG's first run-in with the Borg. Not to mention whether everyone on the staff agrees with the statement or not, which is also up in the air.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Many familiar faces from Trek, among them Brent Spiner (Data), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), and Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun) do a victory lap on Enterprise.
  • Phillips, who dressed up as a Ferengi Nagus on VOY, and Combs, who played a Ferengi debt collector on DS9, both appear in "Acquisition" as Ferengi pirates.
  • Last we saw Soval, he was teaching Kes to put out a candle with her mind.
  • The last time we met V'Las, he was staging a coup at Starfleet HQ ("Homefront", DS9). Now he's staging a coup on the Vulcan High Council. It's always something with that guy.
  • Cyia Batten, who played the first Tora Ziyal (before they decided to go older) and a race car driver in "Drive" (VOY), shakes her money-maker as an Orion slave girl ("Bound").
  • Vaughn Armstrong gives Jeffrey Combs a run for his money: He played 9 alien roles (mostly Klingons) all across TNG, DS9 VOY, and ENT. Armstrong also doubles as a Kreetassan captain in two episodes. Yep, that's him chewing out Archer in "A Night in Sickbay".
    
    His biggest role yet is that of Admiral Maxwell Forrest, the man in charge of the NX project. Nice to be free of all that latex, eh?

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