Sadly, Star Trek: Enterprise came to an inglorious ending. Enterprise's executive producers, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, decided to use Enterprise's finale to say goodbye to Berman's era of Star Trek. With guest stars Jonathan Frakes as Commander Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi, Enterprise's final episode, "These Are The Voyages..." was really an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, reducing Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the cast of Star Trek: Enterprise to holograms in their own final episode.
Fans and Star Trek: Enterprise's actors loathed "These Are The Voyages..." and that ire has held for two decades. Enterprise ended in 2005 with no hopes or guarantees of more Star Trek in the future. Ultimately, Star Trek did return, but it took years. First, J.J. Abrams rebooted the Star Trek movie franchise starting in 2009. Star Trek then took 12 years to make a television comeback when Star Trek: Discovery launched in 2017. The charge that Star Trek: Enterprise "killed" Star Trek was proven to be false.
Star Trek Was On A Downward Trend Before Enterprise Was Canceled
Franchise Fatigue Hit Star Trek Hard
Star Trek: Enterprise was never as popular as Star Trek: The Next Generation was. To be fair, however, in 2002, Star Trek: The Next Generation also wasn't as popular as it was during its early 1990s heyday. Star Trek: Nemesis, the fourth Star Trek: The Next Generation movie, premiered in 2002, and it was a bomb. Nemesis remains the lowest-grossing Star Trek movie released theatrically, and it's one of the most poorly-received films in the franchise.
Star Trek: The Next Generation's movies, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager combined to oversaturate the franchise and split Star Trek's core audience. Neither DS9 nor Voyager were the ratings juggernaut TNG was, and neither series jumped to feature films. Against Rick Berman's wishes, UPN ordered a new Star Trek series to immediately replace Voyager, and Berman decided upon a prequel to freshen up Star Trek. However, Star Trek's audience didn't warm to Enterprise, and the series lost viewers despite improving in later seasons.
Star Trek: Enterprise’s Cancelation Gave Star Trek The Chance For A Rebirth
Time Away Built Up A New Desire For Star Trek
When Star Trek: Enterprise ended on UPN in 2005, most of the Star Trek faithful had already moved on. Enterprise wasn't regarded as 'real Star Trek' until the streaming era, and the advent of new Star Trek shows on Paramount+ led to a reassessment of Enterprise as new and lapsed viewers discovered Scott Bakula's prequel. Enterprise unfairly bore the shame of putting the 'final nail in Star Trek's coffin,' but this charge was never deserved or correct.
In hindsight, Star Trek did need a rest, and so did its audience. Star Trek: The Next Generation's style of Star Trek, perpetuated by Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, delivered over 500 hours of television, plus four feature films. Even for diehard Trekkers, the Star Trek universe was overly complicated, and the sheer amount of continuity was intimidating for potential new viewers, especially in the years before streaming made binge-watching episodes more convenient.
What Star Trek needed was a rebirth and a top-to-bottom overhaul that wasn't possible on television.
Star Trek never left pop culture, and the absence of new Star Trek made Trekkers' hearts grow fonder. However, in the late 2000s, the desire for new Star Trek wasn't a need to see more of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Star Trek: The Next Generation's era - at least, not yet. What Star Trek needed was a rebirth and a top-to-bottom overhaul that wasn't possible on television, even with a TV series as well-produced as Star Trek: Enterprise was.
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek Movie Reboot Changed The Franchise For Good
There's No Going Back For Star Trek
Star Trek's new beginning was only four years after Star Trek: Enterprise ended. Director J.J. Abrams infused blockbuster movie style and sensibilities into Star Trek with his feature film reboot of Star Trek: The Original Series. Star Trek (2009) gave the franchise a new energy and visual splendor that Star Trek sorely needed to dazzle audiences oild and new. Abrams also ingeniously cast Star Trek (2009). Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and the rest of Star Trek (2009)'s actors proved the iconic USS Enterprise crew could be recast, and audiences would believe it.
Star Trek (2009) was set in an alternate timeline, but it respected the past. Leonard Nimoy reprising Spock granted Star Trek (2009) legitimacy, but a pleasant surprise was J.J. Abrams' movie genuflecting toward Star Trek: Enterprise. Scotty (Simon Pegg) referencing "Admiral Archer's prized beagle" established that Star Trek: Enterprise's 22nd century was the shared past of Star Trek's Prime Timeline and Abrams' variant Kelvin Timeline. 2016's Star Trek Beyond added even more callbacks to Enterprise's 22nd century era.
Star Trek: Discovery Was A New Beginning For Star Trek TV
Star Trek Reached A New Golden Age In 2022 & 2023
In 2017, Star Trek returned to television, finally disproving the notion that Star Trek died because of Enterprise. Star Trek's return to television began with executive producer Bryan Fuller developing a new anthology Star Trek series for the CBS All Access streaming platform. When Fuller left Star Trek: Discovery, Alex Kurtzman came aboard to ultimately oversee a renaissance of Star Trek. Star Trek: Discovery had a difficult launch, but it succeeded enough to put CBS All Access, which rebranded as Paramount+, on the map.
Alex Kurtzman understood what led to the fall of Star Trek in 2005: a repetitive sameness. Instead, Kurtzman empowered new creators to develop different styles of Star Trek, from the nostalgia-fueled Star Trek: Picard, to Star Trek: Lower Decks as a half-hour comedy, to Star Trek: Prodigy vividly aimed at new young viewers and their Trekkie parents, to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds recapturing the new frontier spirit of 1960's Star Trek with a modern sensibility and a genre-bending boldness.
Star Trek on Paramount+'s zenith was 2022 and 2023, when there was a new episode of Star Trek every Thursday, with Star Trek: Picard season 3 and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 hitting new highs with audiences. Even though Paramount+ has now reduced its Star Trek content, the franchise is still healthier and holds more cause for optimism than when Star Trek: Enterprise limped to a close 20 years ago. Star Trek: Enterprise's ending enabled Star Trek to regroup and enjoy a new beginning, and Enterprise's legacy has been reinforced as a crucial aspect of Star Trek's history.
