Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise
File:Startrekenterpriselogo.jpg Star Trek: Enterprise intertitle
Created by	Rick Berman Brannon Braga
Starring	see below
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	98 (list of episodes)
Production
Running time	approx. 44 min.
Original release
Network	UPN
Release	September 26, 2001 – May 13, 2005

Star Trek: Enterprise (titled Enterprise prior to season three) is a science fiction television program set in the Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry.

The series, which follows the adventures of the pre-Federation Enterprise, premiered on September 26, 2001. Enterprise's pilot episode, "Broken Bow", takes place in 2151: 10 years before the Federation's founding, and about halfway between the 21st century events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek.

Because of low ratings, UPN cancelled Enterprise on February 2, 2005, but allowed the series to complete its fourth season; the final episode aired on May 13, 2005. After a run of four seasons and 98 episodes, it was the first Star Trek series since the original Star Trek to have been canceled by its network rather than finished by its producers.

Production

• Enterprise was the first (and so far the only) Star Trek series to be filmed and televised entirely in the 16:9 widescreen picture format and in HDTV.
• 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.
• 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. Dawson also once voiced an alien computer on Enterprise, in the episode "Dead Stop".
• 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.
• "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 - November X-Ray) was formerly used for aircraft registered in the United States as experimental. Similarly, NC (November Charlie) was the registration prefix for aircraft registered in the standard category. While the usage of NX (also NR, NL) persisted longer (notably warbirds), NC was considered redundant and gave way to just N (November). While the FAA now only issues new N registrations numbers, NC can be found on older aircraft and was the inspiration for Star Trek NCC numbers. NX has been used in other Star Trek series and films to denote an experimental starship (for instance the USS Excelsior had the number NX-2000 in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but the ship's registry was changed to NCC-2000 once the ship became fully operational).
• The pilot episode of Enterprise was scored over a two-day period: September 10 and 11, 2001. On September 11, the orchestra and scoring stage personnel were the only activity on the Paramount lot other than security.

Plot

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 because of the breaking of the Warp 5 barrier. The crew members face situations that are familiar to Star Trek fans, but they are unencumbered by the experience and rules which have built up over hundreds of years of Trek history (as established in the 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.

File:Enterprise NX-01 2001-01-300.jpg

The Enterprise NX-01, Earth's first ship capable of warp five

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 science fiction series. On the other hand, it can be argued that the same was done on TNG, with Picard, Riker, and Data.

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 sees the change of the series' name to Star Trek: Enterprise and introduces a new enemy, the Xindi, whose goal is the annihilation of the human race because of fears that someday humanity will wipe them out.

The entire third season follows one long story arc, which began 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 saw Archer grow from an angry man desperate to find and destroy the Xindi to a peacemaker finding common ground with the various races of Xindi. His intervention unites the Xindi against the real threat, an extra-dimensional race that has its own reasons for manipulating the Xindi into eradicating Earth. Humanity will lead the Federation in defeating this race's attempted invasion of the galaxy in the 26th century; erasing the human species before the Federation's founding will theoretically prevent this defeat. Fortunately, at the Battle of Procyon 5, the Enterprise leads the fight against the trans-dimensional beings in the final battle of the invasion.

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

Some of these were written or co-written by Manny Coto, a writer who joined the series in its third season. Several of Coto's scripts, such as "Similitude", were popular with fan and critics. He was subsequently 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 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 imprisoned scientist Dr. Arik Soong in a three-episode arc ("Borderland", "Cold Station 12", and "The Augments") involving genetically enhanced superhumans known as "Augments". In the end of "The Augments" Soong abandons the concept of improving mankind in favour of creating artificial intelligence: the first reference to Data. Coto has stated that his intent was to push the series toward the eventual founding of the United Federation of Planets.

Season 4 also addressed some discrepancies between the Vulcans of The Original Series (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 first appeared in TOS episode "Amok Time") and the audience sees Romulans trying to undermine the stability of the balance of power between the Andorians and Vulcans. As a result of the story-arc, Vulcans began to undergo a transformation that was presumably a turn toward the more dispassionate and honest Vulcans of previous Trek series set further in the future.

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" because most storylines begin with Enterprise being assigned a mission from Earth, rather than simply encountering the 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 included 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, titled "These Are the Voyages ...", aired May 13, 2005 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". Brent Spiner, another TNG veteran who had guest-starred earlier in the fourth season, lent his voice to the finale, and can be heard as Data speaking to Troi via the ship's communication system.

Cast

File:StarTrekEnterprise Cast.jpg

The main characters from Star Trek: Enterprise. From left: Mayweather, T'Pol, Reed, Archer, Sato, Tucker, Phlox

Enterprise is the only live-action Star Trek series that never experienced any changes to its core cast.

Actor	Character	Position
Scott Bakula	Jonathan Archer	Commanding officer
Jolene Blalock	T'Pol	First officer and science officer
Connor Trinneer	Charles "Trip" Tucker III	Chief engineer
Dominic Keating	Malcolm Reed	Armory and chief security officer
Linda Park	Hoshi Sato	Chief communications officer
Anthony Montgomery	Travis Mayweather	Helmsman
John Billingsley	Phlox	Chief medical officer

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 filmed on digital video (season 4)

• 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 song lyrics that were used (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 actual 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).

• the first contemporary Star Trek Series (developed in the last 20 years), to be cancelled due to poor ratings.

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 fans. Online petitions were signed demanding its removal from the titles. A new, more upbeat arrangement of the theme song was introduced for the third season, but this did not assuage the song's critics, and elicited criticism from some who liked the original version.

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 parts of the first and second verse are 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 (which was questioned by some for depicting only American flight and spaceflight advances - especially for 'ignoring' Sputnik and Gagarin) 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. 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.

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 premiered, UPN ran a series of promos for the show using the song "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling.

Ratings

A graph of Star Trek: Enterprise's Nielsen ratings for the series' duration

U.S. television ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN:

Season	Timeslot	Season Premiere	Season Finale	TV Season	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1st	Wednesday 8:00PM	September 26, 2001	May 22, 2002	2001-2002	#115	5.9
2nd	Wednedsay 8:00PM	September 18, 2002	May 21, 2003	2002-2003	#132	3.94
3rd	Wednesday 8:00PM	September 10, 2003	May 26, 2004	2003-2004	#178	3.3
4th	Friday 9:00PM	October 8, 2004	May 13, 2005	2004-2005	#146	2.81

The threat of cancellation

By the third season, ratings were continually declining, and the threat of cancellation loomed over 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 Trinneer, in an interview with Starlog magazine, to make the unusual 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 (traditionally, Friday nights have been considered 'Death Row' for a major TV production; since most viewers are occupied with social engagements and other non-television activities, the viewing audience isn't likely to be the one the show is intended to draw). 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 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, there were reports that William Shatner would reprise the role of James T. Kirk or perhaps an ancestor 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 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 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.

Another reason for Enterprise's poor ratings was the fact that UPN is not available in all markets, thus preventing countless Star Trek fans from watching the show during its original network broadcasts.

Cancellation and aftermath

Speculation as to the future of the series came to an end on February 2, 2005, when UPN announced the series had been cancelled and 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, and later repeated in other media, Scott Bakula stated the major reason for the show's cancellation is it no longer fit the profile or desired demographic of UPN (the network's schedule at that time primarily consisted of so-called "urban" sitcoms and reality programming). He also said 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 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, 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 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). Critics of the initiative have labeled it unrealistic, but supporters have said 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 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.

As of April 13, 2005, Paramount and UPN remain adamant 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.

On April 15, TrekUnited revealed 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 in Canada) and jointly produced by Paramount and these several unidentified production houses. On April 16, TrekUnited revealed 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 the studio had formally rejected the idea and promised refunds for those fans who had donated to the cause would be issued beginning on April 18.

The Web site IGN Filmforce, reporting on rumors 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". 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. 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 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 which had been aired elsewhere.

Syndicated rebroadcasts of the series began in North American markets on September 17, 2005. Broadcasts in high definition began on HDNet in late 2006.

NBC Universal's SciFi began showing the series on January 8, 2007, in four-episode blocks every Monday night.

DVD release

In October 2004, coinciding with the start of the show's fourth season and months before the cancellation announcement, Paramount revealed plans to release the four seasons of Enterprise to DVD in North America during 2005 . This announcement, coupled with Paramount advertising syndication sales of the series during the fall of 2005, raised concerns in fan circles that this might have been a sign the series was less likely to be renewed for a fifth 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. It had also become commonplace for current series to have past seasons released to DVD..

The first season DVD was released on May 3, 2005, ten days prior to the broadcast of the final episode. This release marked a couple of firsts for Star Trek TV series DVD releases. It was the first to include extensive deleted scenes (although footage cut from the premiere of Voyager had been included in a featurette previously), and it was the first to include an outtakes or blooper reel. The remaining seasons were released on July 26, September 27, and November 1.

Original novels and relaunch

Like the Trek series that preceded it, a series of original novels based on 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. No Enterprise-specific novels appeared at all in 2005 and the first post-cancellation novel, Rosetta by Dave Stern, did not appear until February 2006.

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.) Apparently, things weren't expected to change during the fourth season; in a May 2005 posting at the TrekBBS, Clark explained that the 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".

Now that the televised series has concluded, the writers are free to compose continuation novels without fear of being preempted or contradicted by the show (save for any restrictions put in place by the finale episode -- however, see below). 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. Clark indicated that the books will cover events in the six years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages...".

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.

This framing sequence, which has proven controversial, 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. According to Clark, again posting on the TrekBBS, dissatisfaction over the finale episode is the driving factor behind the continuation novels/relaunch including a story arc that suggests that Trip's death in the finale was not as it seemed.

The first official relaunch novel, The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin was published by Pocket Books on February 28, 2007, and gives a different perspective on the events shown in the final episode.

See also

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

External links

• Star Trek: Enterprise at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek: Enterprise at SCIFI.com
• Star Trek: Enterprise at Memory Alpha