Summary

• Scott Bakula criticizes the UPN Network for launching Star Trek: Enterprise with 26 episodes a year, calling it "stupid" and exhausting for the cast.
• Bakula believes that Enterprise should not have premiered right after Star Trek: Voyager, as it didn't allow for the "smoke to settle" and the show to find its footing.
• Rick Berman fought against launching a new Star Trek show so soon after Voyager, but Paramount and UPN overruled him. Later, the episode count for Enterprise was reduced to 22 for seasons 3 and 4.

Scott Bakula is clear-eyed and specific about the mistakes the UPN Network made in launching Star Trek: Enterprise. Bakula starred as Captain Jonathan Archer in all 4 seasons of Enterprise, which was renamed Star Trek: Enterprise in season 3. Bakula shares the commonly-held view that Enterprise's writing got much stronger in seasons 3 and 4 and that the Star Trek prequel series was canceled just as its creative juices really started to flow. But Scott also knows the launch of Enterprise was problematic from the get-go, even as he proudly led the cast and crew in the show and on set.

In 2012, Scott Bakula reunited with the Star Trek: Enterprise, along with executive producer and co-creator Brannon Braga, for a session called "In Conversation: The First Crew" as part of the Star Trek: Enterprise season 2 Blu-ray special features. Bakula ionately laid out the many issues with how the UPN Network launched Enterprise in 2001, from the show's initial 26-episode count to the fact that Enterprise premiered just a few months after Star Trek: Voyager went off the air. Read Scott's quote and watch the video below:

Listen, I’m the one who fought, and you guys can all blame me, but I said [doing] 26 episodes a year is stupid… Absolutely. If you recall, we were airing shows, [two] new shows on the same night. I said, what the hell was that all about? It was like, you have too much product, you don’t have room to air it, and [the cast is] exhausted.

We should not have come on right on the heels of Voyager. That was the other thing. In a perfect world. But I know what the world was. The world was, ‘We have to launch UPN, we have to hold up UPN.’ But… in a perfect world, if we could have waited and let the smoke settle. Let you [Rick Berman and Brannon Braga] relax, rest…

Brannon Braga pointed out that Rick Berman fought against launching a new Star Trek show so soon after Voyager ended, but he was overruled by Paramount and UPN. Star Trek: Enterprise's episode count was also reduced to 22 episodes for seasons 3 and 4.

What Would Have Happened In Star Trek: Enterprise Season 5?

Enterprise season 5 would have continued season 4's stories

Star Trek: Enterprise's cast and crew knew the series was ending midway through season 4's production, but showrunner Manny Coto had plans he would have pursued if Enterprise season 5 happened. Coto took over as showrunner from Brannon Braga, and Enterprise's co-creator felt Coto's sensibilities and style were better suited to the show. Coto embraced serialization, and he let his love for Star Trek: The Original Series shine through by bringing in a younger version of T'Pau (Kara Zediker) in a Vulcan story arc as well as Enterprise's memorable "In A Mirror, Darkly" two-parter in the Mirror Universe.

Manny Coto sadly ed away from pancreatic cancer on July 9, 2023.

Had Star Trek: Enterprise returned for season 5, some of Manny Coto's plans included making Jeffrey Combs' popular Andorian, Thy'lek Shran, a main character who s Captain Archer's NX-01 crew. Coto would have further explored the Mirror Universe and Enterprise would have set up the Earth-Romulan War as well as taken greater steps toward the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) likely wouldn't have been killed off if Star Trek: Enterprise got a season 5, and Trinneer would probanly have gotten his wish to see Trip's romance with T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) brought to its conclusion.

Star Trek: Enterprise is available to stream on Paramount+.

Source: Preserve Entertainment YouTube