The sixth television series in the Star Trek franchise, Enterprise met with a lukewarm reception when it premiered in 2001. The prequel show lasted 4 seasons and managed to tell a new story about the humanity’s race to the stars and beyond at the beginning of Earth’s warp age. Most critics and fans agree that the writing on Enterprise needed to improve, and that even the mostly excellent main cast couldn’t make bad writing good.
The series currently sits at 51% on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, with season 3 attaining the highest rating with 67%. On Metacritic, however, Enterprise enjoys slightly higher scores and better reviews. Across both sites, reviews tend to list the same issues as the writing and overused themes.
Many of the actors - from the main to the secondary cast - were the perfect choice for their roles in Star Trek: Enterprise. From TV veterans to actresses who were huge Star Trek fans to actors who had appeared on other Star Trek series, most of the casting decisions helped give Enterprise the depth it needed to keep episodes interesting, unique, and sometimes lighthearted.
However, some of the cast were not the best choice for their parts. This included some of the main actors or actresses. This list provides you with cast from all four seasons, with some actors or actresses appearing in a single episode. But there are a few choices from Enterprise that may surprise you who held main roles through the entire series.
Here’s Star Trek: 10 Casting Decisions That Hurt Enterprise (And 10 That Saved It).
Hurt: Dominic Keating - Lieutenant Reed
Dominic Keating didn’t have a lot of acting experience for screen before Enterprise. Most of his time was spent in theater with parts in The Pitchfork Disney and Amongst Barbarians. Keating has won awards for his stage work.
Perhaps that’s why he was not the best choice for the role of Lieutenant Reed. With small guest appearances in TV shows prior to Enterprise, Keating most likely needed more TV experience in order to bring the right attitude to Malcolm Reed. Or to figure out what the character needed to make it exciting. The dynamic just wasn’t there.
Saved: Brent Spiner - Doctor Arik Soong
Having Brent Spiner play Doctor Arik Soong seems like the automatic choice. A veteran Star Trek actor playing Soong helped Enterprise find some footing in the Star Trek universe, especially when it came to develop androids for the shows taking place later in setting.
Arik was the great-grandfather of Noonian Soong, who created Data.
Arik believed genetically-enhanced humans were the answer to many of humanity’s problems. At first, there almost was no Arik Soong, as the character was supposed to be a Colonel Green. But Brent Spiner wanted to be on Enterprise, so Green’s storyline was slightly modified for Spiner. He played Soong in four episodes: “Borderland”, “Cold Station 12”, “The Augments”, and “Affliction.”
Hurt: Ada Maris - Captain Hernandez
Captain Erika Hernandez became the captain of the second warp five starship for Earth, the Columbia NX-02. The character also had the distinction of having a romantic relationship with Jonathan Archer. Archer got promoted and was her direct officer, so the couple broke up.
The captain of any starship needs to be a strong person. The character Hernandez was written as a tough leader of her crew, but Maris played her with hardly any excitement at all. As a character, Hernandez was ready to take on the universe, but the actress didn’t seem confident to do that in her portrayal.
Saved: Connor Trinneer - Commander Tucker
Connor Trinneer wasn’t a science fiction fan and stated he wasn’t a fan of the franchise. There was no fanfare in auditioning for the part. He simply walked into the room and the producers “happened to like what I did.” After a few auditions, he got the part.
In 2001 and 2002, Trinneer was nominated for a Saturn award for his acting.
The actor wasn’t sure what role he was going to get; Trinneer only had seven pages to work from during the audition. He was only told the character came from the South, so Trinneer had to basically flesh out the character using his experience and imagination. Because of that, the producers felt he’d be great for the part of Commander Charles Tucker III.
Hurt: Steven Culp - Major Hayes
Major J. Hayes, played by Steven Culp, was a hardcore military role that didn’t quite fit. While Culp had plenty of TV series experience leading up to Star Trek: Enterprise, the role may have simply gotten away from him. Culp probably would have been better for a different, more political character, since that’s what he was used to playing in previous TV shows. While Culp wasn't terrible as Hayes, the actor wasn’t as strong as he could have been.
Incidentally, Culp took the role over from another Star Trek guest actor, Michael Reilly Burke. Burke had gotten a role in Desperate Housewives and filmed the pilot, but Burke was replaced with Culp when the series premiered.
Saved: Jolene Blalock - T'Pol
Every Star Trek series has its Spock or Spock-like character: an intelligent, nearly emotionless character (alien or human or android) meant to bring stability and common sense to the all-too-human captain. Enterprise had T’Pol, played by the Jolene Blalock.
T’Pol was probably one of the best characters written on the show, and casting Blalock was perfect.
She portrayed the Vulcan just as you’d expect, but added in her own little mannerisms to give her Vulcan character recognizable features. The way Blalock delivered T’Pol’s humor was nothing short of hilarious: one-liners or short phrases that could get you laughing before you knew it. Blalock probably had a better eyebrow raise than Spock himself!
Hurt: Michael Reilly Burke - Koss
Before and after Star Trek: Enterprise, Michael Reilly Burke has had very few roles that lasted more than a couple episodes. His TV and movie acting history goes back to 1993, with his longest part occurring in Lincoln Heights for three seasons.
With most of his career as single episodes, Burke may not have been the strongest actor to play a Vulcan for three episodes of Enterprise. It takes a special conviction to play any Vulcan, and Burke’s experience couldn’t provide him with the chops to pull off the role. Koss was supposed to be T’Pol’s husband, but she repeatedly postponed the wedding.
He did have minimal experience with roles in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Maybe with more Star Trek roles, Burke would have been more prepared to play Koss.
Saved: Kara Zediker - T’Pau
Guest-starring in two episodes in the fourth season, Kara Zediker was the perfect choice to play T’Pau in Enterprise. She was in the episodes “Awakening” and “Kir’Shara,” which were part of the Vulcan Reformation story arc. T’Pau appears on a computer screen in the episode “The Forge.”
T’Pau was also in The Original Series, played by Celia Lovsky, and as a hologram in Voyager, played by Betty Matsushita.
Zediker was picked to play the younger version of T’Pau. One of the reasons Zediker was chosen to play T’Pau was because the producers felt that she looked “similar to [Celia] Lovsky.” It was a good choice because when you compare the young T’Pau and the older one, Zediker did a great job mimicking the mannerisms and facial expressions of the older actor’s portrayal.
Hurt: Scott Bakula - Captain Archer
Best known for playing Dr. Sam Beckett on Quantum Leap, Scott Bakula may not have been the best choice to play Captain Jonathan Archer on Enterprise. From Quantum Leap to Enterprise, Bakula has small roles on TV and a number of parts in TV movies.
Maybe it was the lack of lead roles in shows that lasted more than a season that caused Bakula to be rusty by the time he took the Archer part. He had won acting awards for Quantum Leap, and although he was nominated for Enterprise, it didn't work for fans. Bakula needed to play the part with more wonder than he did, as humans were just starting their cosmic journey.
Saved: Vaughn Armstrong - Forrest
Forrest was the guy overseeing the NX warp project, known for his close, professional relationship with the Vulcans. The actor, Vaughn Armstrong, played many characters in Star Trek, from The Next Generation to Enterprise.
In total, Armstrong played twelve different characters across Star Trek TV series.
It was his recurring character Maxwell Forrest who gave fans the perfect character to associate the actor with. Because of the early nature of Earth’s warp technology and space experience, Forrest was a gritty, confident Vice-iral who s the loyal, backs who he believes in, and doesn’t take any guff from the Vulcans. The actor appeared in fourteen episodes, including the pilot and the popular episode “The Expanse”.