- 28/05/2025
Star Trek's most controversial series has had it's fair share of behind-the-scenes drama.
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00:00The early 2000s saw the return of Star Trek to its original roots. We're going back before Kirk,
00:06just after First Contact, sometime kind of west of Croydon. Star Trek Enterprise is interesting
00:11for so many reasons, including what went into making it happen. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek
00:18Culture, and here are 10 amazing behind-the-scenes secrets of Star Trek Enterprise.
00:24Number 10. The reason for the title change. Enterprise received a lot of attention when
00:29the first episode, Broken Bow, aired on UPN, but the viewership slowly declined to around 2.5 million
00:35per episode. After the first couple of seasons, the writers began trying to find creative ways to
00:40save the show. One theory for the show's declining viewership was the lack of Star Trek in the title.
00:44When the series began, it was simply titled Enterprise, a first for the franchise and also
00:49a strange and risky decision. Many on the production team believed that people weren't watching because
00:54they didn't know the show was about Star Trek, though you'd think the word Enterprise would give
00:59it away. The third episode of the show's third season, Extinction, was the first to use the new
01:04title Star Trek Enterprise, and while seasons 3 and 4 were received better by fans, the name change sadly
01:11wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation. Number 9. Braga likes cheesy things. Enterprise was the
01:17first Star Trek show to have lyrics in its opening theme, unless you count Gene Roddenberry's secret lyrics
01:22for the original series theme, which he wrote in order to collect royalties from it.
01:26The Enterprise theme, Where My Heart Will Take Me, performed by Russell Watson and written
01:30by Diane Warren, has become a huge meme in the Star Trek community. A vocal segment of the
01:34fanbase, including Simon Pegg, absolutely hates it, because of how starry eyed, dramatic and
01:40soft rock it is, but isn't that what Star Trek is all about? Besides the soft rock part.
01:46Still, many others will sing along any time they hear those opening lines.
01:50It's been a long road, getting from there to here. The song is undeniably cheesy.
01:58Brandon Braga, one of the show's creators, even agreed, saying in Star Trek magazine, volume 3,
02:02issue 2, I think the song is cheesy, but I like cheesy things. We wanted a sentimental theme song,
02:08with just the right lyrics that obliquely capture the spirit of human exploration. I feel the song
02:13nails it. Braga has also explained that, after all of the orchestral themes from past Trek, he wanted to do
02:18something different for Enterprise to give the show its own identity. The montage of the history
02:23of human invention is truly inspiring, and really tells what the show is supposed to be about.
02:28Humanity's first steps into our galaxy, but the song choice is a source for endless debate.
02:33Number 8. The Push for the Temporal Cold War. The Temporal Cold War storyline
02:38from Enterprise portrayed a conflict between various factions from the future visiting the past
02:43to change history in their favour. A special features for the release of Enterprise's first
02:47season included a segment called Star Trek Time Travel, Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond, in which
02:53Brandon Braga explained that the Temporal Cold War was added because the studio wanted to make the
02:57show more futuristic, given that all of their 22nd century tech was outdated compared to all the
03:03previous Star Trek shows. While the Temporal Cold War is really compelling and beloved by many fans,
03:08the reasoning is a bit ridiculous. The whole point of making Enterprise a prequel was to tell the
03:12story of humanity's earliest treks into space. Fans loved seeing older versions of classic tech
03:18and the early interactions with the species we all know and love. By trying to make a prequel more
03:23futuristic than previous Trek shows, it was difficult for Enterprise to forge its own identity.
03:27Braga later stated in the special features that the Temporal Cold War was
03:31a nifty idea, but probably would have worked better as a separate show.
03:357. Tripp's Old Name and Conor Trenier's Close Call
03:39Interestingly, Charles Tripp Tucker III was originally named Spike while the show was in
03:45early production. His name was changed because there was already a character named Spike on
03:49Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The description for Spike in the series Bible read,
03:52Chief Engineer, Early 30s, a southerner who enjoys using his country persona to disarm people.
03:58He has an offbeat, often sarcastic sense of humour. In a special feature for the first season titled
04:03Launching Enterprise, Conor Trenier explained that he got the call from Rick Berman to inform him
04:08of the name change. He was worried that he was going to lose the role on the show because he
04:12recently took a couple of bottles of liquor home from a party on the lot. He was absolutely relieved
04:16to hear the news because he was sure he was going to be fired for ripping off some booze.
04:196. Braga Apologized For The Finale
04:22In the second season Blu-ray special feature, Star Trek Enterprise, In Conversation, The First Crew,
04:27Bran and Braga apologized to the cast of Enterprise for the last episode These Are The Voyages.
04:32Nearly everyone involved in the finale has expressed regrets about how the series ended.
04:36Conor Trenier was especially upset with his character's unceremonious death. Braga also
04:41explained that the goal with the finale was to create a love letter to all of Trek,
04:45a move that he now believes was a narcissistic move on his and Rick Berman's part. The decision to
04:50focus on William Riker watching the NX-01 crew on the holodeck merely distracted from the real stars of the
04:55show and wasted time in an already highly rushed episode. The creation of the Federation was
05:00originally planned to be a long story arc but with the coming cancellation a lot of the teamwork
05:05between the Vulcans and Dorians Tellarites and humans was skipped over, though we did get to see
05:10the beginnings of these relationships throughout the series. These Are The Voyages is definitely one of
05:14the most hated finales of any television show. Given how many members of the crew have spoken out
05:19against it, it probably would have been better for the series to end without trying to wrap everything up.
05:24At least that way their characters could have been revisited in future Trek.
05:28Number 5. Bran and Braga's favourite episode. Star Trek Enterprise In Conversation The First Crew
05:33also included a part where Bran and Braga said that his favourite episode of the whole show
05:37was Dear Doctor. The episode was about Dr. Phlox and the Enterprise crew debating whether or not they
05:42should interfere in an alien society in order to cure a deadly disease spreading through their society.
05:47Eventually this conflict led to Captain Archer considering the need for a prime directive to prevent
05:52Starfleet from interfering with pre-war cultures. Braga praised the episode for tackling an interesting
05:57and controversial challenge that only could have been dealt with on Enterprise. Linda Park then added
06:02that she appreciated episodes like Dear Doctor for creating metaphors about real world issues using
06:08sci-fi. The episode Stigma was also praised by the cast shortly after for the same reason.
06:13Sci-fi allegories for real issues have existed in Trek since the original series with episodes like Let
06:18That Be Your Last Battlefield. John Billingsley and others have said that that particular episode
06:23was a bit too on the nose with its message but other Trek including Enterprise has taken the concept
06:28of sci-fi metaphors to a whole new level. Number 4. The Borg Queen origin story. It's well known now
06:35that Enterprise was cancelled right when it was beginning to find its own identity. It's truly a shame
06:39that we never got to see what the writers had planned for season 5, especially one particular potential
06:44storyline. In a 2007 interview with Trek Movie, Judith and Garland Reece-Stevens pitched a story
06:50that would show the creation of the Borg Queen in season 5. The story would be a continuation of the
06:55episode Regeneration in which the time-travelling Borg from Star Trek First Contact were rediscovered
07:00in Earth's Arctic ice and escaped by simulating a crew of researchers. Judith and Garland planned to have
07:06Alice Krieg return to play a Starfleet medical technician who would come into contact with the Borg.
07:11Krieg previously played the Borg Queen in First Contact and the story would show
07:14how she came to become the voice of the collective. The storyline would raise so many questions and
07:18grandfather paradoxes it's hard to fathom. It's also complicated by the fact that the Borg Queen
07:23said she was a member of Species 125 in the Voyager episode Dark Frontier and humans are designated
07:29Species 5618 by the Borg. Number 3. Why the Romulans didn't attack Earth. In the second season finale,
07:36The Expanse, the Xindi attacked Earth which began a brilliant season-long story arc that profoundly
07:41related to the 9-11 terrorist attacks that happened only two years before the episode aired.
07:46Interestingly, before we knew more details about the invaders, some fans initially speculated that
07:51the Romulans were behind the attack. In issue 145 of the magazine Star Trek Communicator,
07:56Brandon Braga explained that using the Romulans as villains for a season-long story arc would have been
08:00a big mistake because they would have become old hat. This is strange to hear considering that Earth's
08:05war with the Romulans was one of the defining parts of this era of Trek history. While it would have been nice to
08:10see more of humanity's first interactions with the Romulans, the episode Minefield at least gave us
08:14a good idea of what the writers had planned for the cancelled seasons. Number 2. Did the creators
08:20not want to make Enterprise? Another idea for why the show suffered poor viewership was franchise fatigue.
08:26This is the idea that there were simply too many Star Trek properties being released at one time.
08:30Rick Berman and Brandon Braga have been criticised for their belief that Star Trek needed some time
08:34before returning to CV, but perhaps they were right. Star Trek went through a huge break from television
08:39after Enterprise until 2017 with the release of Discovery, and since then we've had 5 other new
08:44shows, many of which have been incredibly successful. Maybe it was that long break that allowed Star Trek
08:50to become highly demanded again. We're not ready yet for another decade long dark age of yearning for a
08:54new Trek show, but franchise fatigue is real, and it's important to take the franchise in multiple
08:59directions to avoid that fatigue from setting in. Modern Trek has enough variety to keep things fresh.
09:05Number 1. The NX-01 refit design. If there's one thing to learn from this list it's that missing out
09:11on Enterprise's 5th season was truly a tragedy. One huge change we would have gotten was a beautiful
09:17refit of the NX-01 Enterprise made by the brilliant fictional starship designer Doug Drexler. Drexler
09:23revealed that the design on his blog Drex Files, by simply adding another hull segment and extending the
09:27warp nacelle pylons below the saucer, Drexler was able to turn the NX-01 into a realistic template for the
09:33original series Constitution-class. You can clearly see how Starfleet engineers could evolve from the
09:38flat NX-01 to a new, bulkier design that included more space. This design would then go on to inspire
09:44the creation of Constitution-class vessels in the 23rd century. This simple change was a highlight of
09:49Star Trek Enterprise's ability to show the progression of humanity, and thanks to Star Trek Picard's second
09:55and third seasons, the inclusion of the Eagle Moss model of this ship, and including this ship at
10:02the Fleet Museum, this refit is finally canon. Thank you so much to everyone for watching along,
10:07you are awesome and you are wonderful. Thank you so much to Marcia Frye who originally wrote this
10:13article, you will catch them over on the website, make sure you check that out. You are wonderful,
10:18you are awesome, make sure that you look after yourselves until the next time I'm talking to you,
10:21make sure that you live long and prosper, you are great. Thanks.
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