Star Trek: 10 Things You Never Knew About Enterprise
It may not have been a success on its initial outing, but this Star Trek had a lot of intrigue.
When Enterprise, later retitled Star Trek: Enterprise, first began airing, it had the misfortune to premiere barely a week after 9/11. It was full of sunny optimism, something that Star Trek as a franchise was famous for. This couldn't have come at a worse time for the viewing public, with ratings remaining low for the first two seasons.
The show battled on, surviving a cancellation attempt thanks to an almost identical letter-writing campaign that saved the Original Series of Star Trek.
It got darker, reflecting the mood of the country, before heading into its fourth and final year. Guest stars and cool story twists couldn't save it at that stage, so it was cancelled without much of a send-off.
Still, with only four years of history to pick through, the show had one hell of a lot going on in both the planning and execution of the fifth live-action Star Trek series. There was talk of crossovers, concurrent airing, and even returning legends in its short lifespan.
It may not have been the most popular Star Trek spin-off but it definitely is one of the most interesting...
10. Dropping Star Trek From The Title Backfired
A lot of thought went into the actual rollout of Enterprise. Brannon Braga and Rick Berman were very conscious of the over-saturation that Star Trek was ironically enjoying at the beginning of the 21st Century, with Voyager coming to an end and The Next Generation movies still in production.
While there were, at one point, talks about having season one of Enterprise run concurrently with season seven of Voyager, they ultimately opted for a gap in broadcasting.
'Star Trek' was dropped from the name of the show, with the producers opting instead to go with 'Enterprise.' There were two reasons for this. First, Rick Berman explained, if there was one word that was instantly recognizable to all Star Trek fans, it was Enterprise. Second, leaving 'Star Trek' off the name of the show might encourage new fans to try the series, rather than simply relying on returning Trekkies.
The gamble didn't pay off and the numbers were mostly quite low for the first two seasons. In fact, when approaching the end of the second season, the existing fans were bracing themselves for cancellation. A letter-writing campaign saved the show, though Paramount insisted on a few changes. First, there was to be the addition of much more action, which resulted in the Xindi arc. Second, 'Star Trek' had to be inserted into the name of the show, in the hope that fans of the franchise would come back and boost the ratings.
This bought the show two more seasons.