How Star Trek Enterprise Changed The Franchise For The Better

Star Trek: Enterprise has become an influential Star Trek series that now serves as the canonical springboard for all of Star Trek that follows. A prequel set in the 22nd century, Enterprise was the fifth Star Trek show and the last of the era that launched with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. While Enterprise was the only show of the TNG era to last 4 seasons and its cancelation in 2005 marked the end of Star Trek on TV for 12 years, the series has since earned new admirers in the last two decades and the Star Trek franchise has recontextualized Enterprise‘s greater importance.

One of the issues with Star Trek: Enterprise during its initial run is that it came at the tail end of TNG, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager each having epic 7-season runs. By the time Enterprise debuted in 2001, there had been over 500 hours of Star Trek on TV and 9 movies. Although Enterprise‘s 22nd-century setting was meant to give the series and characters a more contemporary feel as the pioneers of human space travel aboard the USS Enterprise NX-01, the show often felt like a watered-down retread of its more innovative predecessors. Enterprise broke the Star Trek mold in several ways that Trekkers didn’t appreciate, starting with its pop theme song “Faith of the Heart” by Russell Watson, presenting the Vulcans as obstructionists to the human race’s attempts to reach for the stars, and hyper sexualizing its characters, especially Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock). Indeed, the core trio of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula), T’Pol, and Chief Engineer Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) was an obvious retread of Star Trek: The Original Series‘ Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. McCoy (DeForrest Kelley).

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Related: Why Every Star Trek Series Ended

Star Trek: Enterprise did improve in its latter two seasons; the show embraced DS9‘s serialized storytelling with its Xindi arc in season 3, and in its final season, Enterprise began setting up pivotal events of Star Trek canon: the Romulan War and the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Perhaps not as successfully, Enterprise also created the Augment Virus that attempted to explain why the Klingons of TOS look more human than the TNG era Klingons. Enterprise also brought back Brent Spiner as Dr. Arik Soong years before Star Trek: Picard cast the actor best known as Data to play Dr. Altan Inigo Soong. However, Star Trek: Enterprise is remembered for its infamous series finale, which shifted the focus to TNG‘s Jonathan Frakes as Commander Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi. Fans (and the actors) were incensed that the Enterprise cast took a back seat in their own finale to TNG‘s guest stars — a grave conceptual misstep by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who intended to say farewell to the entire TNG era of Star Trek.

In the last 16 years, however, Star Trek: Enterprise found a new audience on home video and on streaming services so that the series is gaining a greater appreciation than it did during its lackluster airing as the flagship show of the United Paramount Network (UPN, which is now part of The CW). Just as crucial, the Star Trek films and TV series produced since Enterprise was canceled, including J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek movie trilogy and the Star Trek series on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All-Access) have recognized Enterprise‘s position as the beginning of the Star Trek canon. (With Enterprise and Star Trek: Discovery seasons 1 and 2 as prequels, Star Trek: The Original Series is now canonically the third show in the timeline despite being the series that started it all). Even the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks weaves in Enterprise jokes, like how a character was “a Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles.” Star Trek: Enterprise has now taken on vital importance and influence in the greater Star Trek universe.

Enterprise Is Canon In The Prime And Kelvin Timelines

Captain Balthazar Star Trek Beyond

Captain Archer’s NX-01 is now recognized as the first Starship Enterprise that helped pave the way for the Federation in the Prime Timeline, but it’s also inviolate history in the Kelvin timeline of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movies. The alternate reality of the Kelvin timeline was started by the destruction of the USS Kelvin by a time-traveling Romulan mining ship from the 24th century in 2233 — 80 years after the canonical events of Star Trek: Enterprise. Regardless of everything that happened and was changed after the Kelvin timeline was created, the past events of Enterprise still hold. Star Trek (2009) even has a joke where Scotty (Simon Pegg) mentions “Admiral Archer’s prized beagle,” a nod to the NX-01 Enterprise Captain’s beloved pet named Porthos.

Star Trek Beyond showed even greater reverence for Enterprise. The villainous Krall (Idris Elba) was actually a mutated human starship captain named Balthazar Edison, who used to be a M.A.C.O., one of the space marines introduced in Star Trek: Enterprise. Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and his crew also escaped the planet Altamir aboard the USS Franklin, a 22nd-century Enterprise-era NX-class starship similar to the vessel commanded by Captain Archer.

Related: Star Trek: The Mirror Universe’s History Explained

Enterprise Is Canon In Mirror Universe

Scott Bakula as Captain Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly"

The Mirror Universe was introduced in TOS and continued in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Discovery, but Enterprise season 4 delivered arguably the best Mirror Universe episodes, the two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly.” Set entirely in the alternate timeline, “In a Mirror Darkly” was also a sequel to TOS‘ “The Tholian Web” that explained how the Mirror Jonathan Archer briefly took command of the USS Defiant, which time-traveled from the 23rd century and jumped dimensions.

“In a Mirror, Darkly” canonically explains how the Terran Empire used the advanced technology of the Defiant to conquer the galaxy, and the rise of Empress Hoshi Sato (Linda Park) in Enterprise‘s Mirror Universe saga directly leads into the 23rd-century reign of Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) on Star Trek: Discovery. Enterprise’s Mirror Universe story was so popular with fans that had Star Trek: Enterprise returned for a season 5, the plan was to do more multi-part episodes set exclusively in the Mirror Universe. In recent years, Star Trek: Discovery revitalized the Mirror Universe but Disco built upon the indelible mark Enterprise made in the history of the fan-favorite alternate reality.

Enterprise’s Blue Uniforms Influenced Discovery, DS9, And Voyager

Star Trek Enterprise

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine introduced the jumpsuit-style Starfleet uniform, which was also adopted by Star Trek: Voyager. Enterprise introduced blue jumpsuits with colored trim to denote rank, but as a prequel, those uniforms are now recontextualized as the beginning of Star Trek‘s standard look. Enterprise‘s blue uniforms were adopted by Star Trek: Discovery a century later, canonizing that as the color worn by Starfleet until TOS switched to multi-colored uniforms. Enterprise‘s blue uniforms also work as the precursor to the red uniforms Starfleet would adopt in the Star Trek TOS movies in the late-23rd into the mid-24th centuries. In the 32nd century, Star Trek: Discovery finally changed to multi-colored uniforms, leaving behind the primary blue that Enterprise trailblazed.

Discovery’s Future Earth Reverted Back To The Enterprise Era

Star Trek Discovery People of Earth

Before Captain Archer helped usher in the United Federation of Planets, which he then oversaw as President, United Earth was the governing body of the Terran homeworld in the 22nd century. In Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew of the USS Discovery were shocked to learn that the Earth had broken away from the Federation and reverted back to the Enterprise-era United Earth government, with the United Earth Defense Forces replacing Starfleet. A thousand years after Archer’s historic voyage, Earth became an isolationist planet and cycled back to how it was during Star Trek: Enterprise’s time after The Burn devastated the galaxy and caused the Federation’s collapse.

Related: Star Trek: Were On Earth Before Picard’s First Contact

The Temporal Wars Are More Important Than Ever

Daniels explains Temporal Wars to Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise introduced the concept of the Temporal Cold War, which started in the 31st century and recruited Captain Archer as multiple factions, including the Federation, the Klingons, the Suliban, and the Xindi, attempted to weaponize time and alter history to their advantage. The Temporal Cold War was brushed aside during Enterprise‘s later seasons, but Star Trek: Discovery season 3 not only resurrected the concept but it also revealed that full-blown Temporal Wars were fought by the Federation. The Temporal Wars even affected the Kelvin timeline, with a time soldier named Yor not only jumped from the 24th to the 32nd century but also crossed over from the alternate Kelvin universe.

Further, the Temporal Wars caused the Guardian of Forever (Paul Guilfoyle) to leave its homeworld and hide on Dannus V near the Gamma Quadrant to avoid factions attempting to use it as a weapon. While the Temporal Wars are now a part of Star Trek: Discovery’s past as it continues its voyages in the far future, the 25th-century-set Star Trek: Picard season 2 will directly deal with time travel, which could tie into the Temporal Wars and even become a precursor to the chronal conflict. The Temporal Wars are a major Enterprise thread the greater franchise is continuing, further proving that Star Trek: Enterprise‘s influence spans over a thousand years of Star Trek.

Next: Star Trek: Every Captain Who Became An Admiral

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