I’m glad to see Star Trek: Enterprise getting deserved love and recognition from modern Star Trek, especially in Star Trek: Discovery season 5. When Enterprise premiered on UPN in 2001, I was an early adopter. While I agreed with the overall then-sentiment that Enterprise felt like watered down retreads of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s stories, I still enjoyed the Enterprise NX-01 crew led by Scott Bakula as Captain Jonathan Archer. Enterprise was bristling with potential and was at its best in season 4 when UPN canceled the show.
Since then, I appreciated every unexpected shoutout to Star Trek: Enterprise, like J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) referencing “Admiral Archer’s beagle”, and how the NX Class USS Franklin and Enterprise-era MACO space marines were pivotal to Star Trek Beyond. Star Trek: Lower Decks‘ name-drops like “a Kirk sundae with Trip Tucker sprinkles” and Lt. Brad Boimler’s (Jack Quaid) mini statue of Mirror Universe Archer were a delight. Star Trek: Discovery season 5 brought back the Archer Space Dock, made a Denobulan one of the all-important Progenitors scientists, and, best of all, revealed that Doctor Kovich (David Cronenberg) is really temporal Agent Daniels (Matt Winston) from Star Trek: Enterprise. It’s gratifying how Scott Bakula’s Enterprise is getting its just due.
Scott Bakula’s Enterprise Has Long Deserved Greater Recognition From Star Trek
For too long, Star Trek: Enterprise was unfairly dismissed as “the show that killed the franchise”. Yes, Enterprise was the only Rick Berman-produced Star Trek series that was canceled at season 4 instead of running 7 seasons like Star Trek: The Next Generation.Star Trek: Enterprise‘s hated series finale was also like a scarlet letter the show still bears. Enterprise had poor ratings on UPN, and a sizeable segment of Star Trek fans didn’t give the prequel a chance. However, this started to turn in the 2010s when Enterprise arrived on streaming. Viewers who binged Star Trek: Enterprise a decade or more after it ended found what I knew watching it first run: Enterprise is actually a really good show.
Recently, Scott Bakula joined his fellow luminaries of Star Trek at the 84th annual Peabody Awards. Bakula has moved on from Star Trek and continued his successful acting career, but it was meaningful to see Scott representing Enterprise with huge names from past and present Star Trek like executive producer Alex Kurtzman, Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, LeVar Burton, Doug Jones, Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, and Ethan Peck. The makers of Star Trek on Paramount+’s series recognize the important role Enterprise plays as, essentially, the beginning of Star Trek. While an Enterprise reunion of some sort doesn’t appear to be on the table, modern Star Trek is regularly finding creative ways to homage Scott Bakula’s Captain Archer and his crew, and it’s genuinely appreciated.
It’s Fitting Star Trek: Discovery Gave So Much Love To Scott Bakula’s Enterprise
Star Trek: Discovery has given Star Trek: Enterprise the most recognition, and it feels right. After all, Discovery picked up where Enterprise left off as the next Star Trek series 12 years after the NX-01 crew left the airwaves. Discovery proved that Enterprisedid not kill the Star Trek TV franchise. Rather, Discovery launched a new golden era for Star Trek, and it always contained genuflection to Enterprise – Discovery’s original blue Starfleet uniforms were an update of the blue jumpsuits Captain Archer and the NX-01 Enterprise crew wore. Further, when the USS Discovery arrived in the 32nd century, Earth had reverted to United Earth, which was the Terran homeworld’s designation before the founding of the United Federation of Planets.
The shocking bombshell that Doctor Kovich is the aged Agent Daniels essentially means a character from Star Trek: Enterprise has been part of Star Trek: Discovery since season 3. Enterprise has been fused into Star Trek: Discovery all along, and this is also brilliant as the two series bookend the thousand-year Star Trek saga from Enterprise‘s 22nd century to Discovery‘s 32nd/33rd century (and beyond). In Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy‘s future, I love that the Archer Space Dock continues to build and upgrade Starfleet’s armada so that the pioneering spirit of Captain Archer and Star Trek: Enterprise is ever-present in the far future of the final frontier.