25 Years Later, Star Trek’s Greatest Comeback Is Scott Bakula’s Enterprise
25 years after it premiered, Star Trek: Enterprise is now respected and beloved by fans. It's the greatest comeback in Star Trek history, and a remarkable turnaround after years when Enterprise was considered the red-headed stepchild that "killed the franchise." Today, Enterprise aficionados are even rooting for Scott Bakula to return in a spinoff about President Jonathan Archer, a scenario that seemed unthinkable two decades ago.
Enterprise was the only Star Trek TV series executive produced by Rick Berman to run four seasons instead of the seven enjoyed by Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. Ratings were low on United Paramount Network (UPN) for many reasons, including the network's lower national reach and a penchant for moving Enterprise around its schedule, making it difficult for audiences to watch the show in the pre-DVR and streaming age.
Enterprise's infamous series finale, "These Are The Voyages…", was the final nail in the coffin. Presented as a tribute to Berman's Star Trek era, Enterprise's climactic episode centered on Star Trek: The Next Generation, making Enterprise's crew supporting characters in their own farewell. Even the ever-affable Scott Bakula was reportedly angered by Enterprise's finale.
However, a remarkable thing happened in the years after Enterprise warped into history: A new generation discovered Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew, while Star Trek fans who originally dismissed the NX-01 realized they were wrong.
Enterprise Was A Prequel Fans Rejected 25 Years Ago
Enterprise (without Star Trek in its title for its first two seasons) premiered just four months after Star Trek: Voyager ended its 7-year run on UPN. The first Star Trek prequel series, Enterprise was a show only UPN executives wanted. Even executive producers and series creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga felt it was too soon after Voyager for another Star Trek series.
Many of the bolder ideas Berman and Braga had in mind for Enterprise, such as setting most of the first season on Earth and making the 22nd-century galaxy incredibly dangerous for the underpowered and outgunned NX-01, were nixed by UPN. Instead, after an excellent, feature film-quality pilot episode, Enterprise settled into familiar episodic voyages with nebulous stakes. Enterprise felt like Star Trek: The Next Generation-lite, and fans noticed.
Meanwhile, by going back 200 years before Star Trek: The Next Generation, Enterprise lost many fans invested in Star Trek's 24th century saga, which had stopped cold after the box office failure of Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. Despite improving in its third and fourth seasons, Enterprise was stuck in a neutral zone where it was not 'Star Trek enough' for hardcore Trekkers, or innovative and buzz-worthy enough to pull in wider audiences.
Enterprise was the only new Star Trek on the air from 2003 to 2005, and it took the fall when Paramount ended Rick Berman's 18-year Star Trek franchise. "These Are The Voyages…" certainly didn't help, but the 'death of Star Trek' unfairly fell on Enterprise's shoulders. However, resurrection has been built into Star Trek ever since The Original Series thrived in syndication in the 1970s, and Enterprise's best days were still to come.
Enterprise Was Saved By Streaming & Is More Popular Than Ever
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager benefited from the advent of streaming, but the ability of audiences to binge an entire TV series with the click of a button was the biggest boon to Star Trek: Enterprise. When Enterprise became available on Netflix, and later Paramount+, audiences who ignored Captain Archer on UPN finally sampled Enterprise and liked what they saw.
Star Trek: Enterprise's theme song, "Where My Heart Will Take Me," sung by Russell Watson, is still controversial, but has also found more appreciative fans.
Enterprise was the first Star Trek series filmed in a high-definition widescreen format; Captain Archer's voyages were tailor-made for streaming on HDTVs and laptops. In the 2010s and 2020s, Enterprise feels both fresh and comforting, and the story of humans taking bold strides into a greater galaxy, making plenty of mistakes along the way, but learning and improving with each step, hits differently than it did during the post-9/11 turn of the century.
Star Trek's Paramount+ series, starting with Star Trek: Discovery, which originally had blue Starfleet uniforms evoking the NX-01's jumpsuits, also reflected well on Enterprise. Whether fans liked or hated executive producer Alex Kurtzman's Star Trek era, Enterprise was viewed more positively as a result. Haters decided Enterprise was better than the so-called 'NuTrek,' while shows like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds paid tribute to Captain Archer and their starship's namesake.
Enterprise is so popular today that thousands of fans filled a ballroom at Creation Entertainment's STLV: Trek to Vegas to help Scott Bakula and his fellow actors celebrate Enterprise's 25th anniversary. Cosplayers don NX-01 era uniforms, insist that Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) is still alive, and yes, even sing "Where My Heart Will Take Me" in unison during public screenings of Enterprise episodes.
Star Trek: Lower Decks pulling off the seemingly impossible feat of convincing the reticent Jolene Blalock to voice T'Pol in an episode was a cause for celebration. Meanwhile, Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating review their old Enterprise episodes on their podcast, The D-Con Chamber, while John Billingsley is feeding the unfortunate in his leadership role in the Hollywood Food Coalition. Enterprise is now everywhere you look, and fans are with them every step of the way.
Enterprise Has A Plan To Continue With Scott Bakula's Archer Spinoff
In part because Star Trek: Enterprise was cut down by UPN just when it was starting to reach its potential, and also because Paramount+'s Star Trek TV series haven't paid Enterprise more than lip service, there is a groundswell of fan interest in seeing more of Enterprise. In 2025, Enterprise writer and producer Michael Sussman shocked fans by revealing he and Scott Bakula envisioned a comeback for President Jonathan Archer.
Sussman, who mapped out Jonathan Archer's canonical post-Enterprise life, created Star Trek: United with considerable input from Bakula. Modeled after Star Wars: Andor as a prestige political thriller and family drama, Star Trek: United centers on President Archer and his adult children facing an existential threat to the nascent United Federation of Planets decades after Enterprise ended. Enterprise's cast would appear as required by Sussman's grand vision.
Star Trek: United's development was far enough along that Sussman presented it to the powers-that-be at Paramount+, who showed interest but cited conflicting Star Trek projects in the years before Skydance Media bought Paramount and then canceled every existing Star Trek series on the streamer. Paramount Skydance has yet-to-be-announced plans for Star Trek's future and reportedly wants distance from the past 60 years of canon.
Still, it's heartwarming how interest, appreciation, and genuine love and reverence for Enterprise have only grown in the 25 years since UPN launched the first Star Trek prequel series. Time travel back to 2001, and it would be mind-boggling to imagine that Star Trek fans are bigger supporters of Enterprise than ever and desperately hope for Scott Bakula to reprise Jonathan Archer.
Star Trek: Enterprise's longevity and 180-degree turnaround are proof that it pays to have faith of the heart.
Star Trek: Enterprise is streaming on Paramount+
- Release Date
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2001 – 2005-00-00
- Network
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UPN
- Showrunner
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Brannon Braga
- Directors
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David Livingston, Allan Kroeker, Michael Vejar, David Straiton, Roxann Dawson, LeVar Burton, James A. Contner, Robert Duncan McNeill, James L. Conway, James Whitmore Jr., Michael Grossman, Marvin V. Rush, Patrick R. Norris, David Barrett, Jim Charleston, Michael Dorn, Rob Hedden, Terry Windell, Winrich Kolbe, Les Landau, Manny Coto
- Writers
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Chris Black, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Judith Reeves-Stevens, David A. Goodman, Alan Brennert, André Jacquemetton, Brent V. Friedman, Fred Dekker, Ken LaZebnik, Maria Jacquemetton, James Duff, Jonathan Fernandez, Paul Brown, Stephen Beck, André Bormanis, Manny Coto, Michael Sussman, Allan Kroeker, Brannon Braga, David Wilcox, John Shiban, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Phyllis Strong, Rick Berman, Tim Finch
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Scott Bakula
Jonathan Archer
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