10 Amazing Behind The Scenes Secrets From Star Trek Enterprise

The early 2000s saw the return of Star Trek to its original roots. We're going back before Kirk

just after First Contact, sometime kind of west of Croydon. Star Trek Enterprise is interesting

for so many reasons, including what went into making it happen. I'm Sean Ferrick for Trek

Culture, and here are 10 amazing behind-the-scenes secrets of Star Trek Enterprise

Number 10. The reason for the title change. Enterprise received a lot of attention when

The first episode, Broken Bow, aired on UPN but the viewership slowly declined to around

2.5 million per episode. After the first couple of seasons the writers began trying to find creative ways to save

the show. One theory for the show's declining viewership was the lack of Star Trek in the title

When the series began it was simply titled Enterprise, a first for the franchise and also

a strange and risky decision. Many on the production team believed that people weren't watching because they didn't

know the show was about Star Trek, though you'd think the word Enterprise would give it away

The third episode of the show's third season, Extinction, was the first to use the new title

Star Trek Enterprise, and while seasons 3 and 4 were received better by fans, the name change

sadly wasn't enough to save the show from cancellation. Number 9. Braga likes cheesy

things. Enterprise was the first Star Trek show to have lyrics in its opening theme

unless you count Gene Roddenberry's secret lyrics for the original series theme, which he wrote in

in order to collect royalties from it. The Enterprise theme, Where My Heart Will Take Me

performed by Russell Watson and written by Diane Warren, has become a huge meme in the Star Trek community

A vocal segment of the fanbase, including Simon Pegg, absolutely hates it because of how starry-eyed, dramatic and soft rock it is

But isn't that what Star Trek is all about? Besides the soft rock part

Still, many others will sing along any time they hear those opening lines

It's been a long road getting from there to here the song is undeniably cheesy brannan braga one of the show's creators

even agreed saying in star trek magazine volume 3 issue 2 i think the song is cheesy but i like

cheesy things we wanted a sentimental theme song with just the right lyrics that obliquely capture

the spirit of human exploration i feel the song nails it braga has also explained that after all

of the orchestral themes from past track he wanted to do something different for enterprise to give

the show its own identity. The montage of the history of human invention is truly inspiring and really tells what the

show is supposed to be about, humanity's first steps into our galaxy, but the song

choice is a source for endless debate Number 8 The push for the temporal Cold War The Temporal Cold War storyline from Enterprise portrayed a conflict between various factions from the future visiting

the past to change history in their favour. A special feature for the release of Enterprise's

first season included a segment called Star Trek Time Travel Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond in which

Branham Braga explained that the Temporal Cold War was added because the studio wanted to make

the show more futuristic given that all of their 22nd century tech was outdated compared to all

the previous Star Trek shows. While the temporal cold war is really compelling and beloved by many

fans, the reasoning is a bit ridiculous. The whole point of making Enterprise a prequel was to tell

the story of humanity's earliest treks into space. Fans love seeing older versions of classic tech

and the early interactions with the species we all know and love. By trying to make a prequel

more futuristic than previous Trek shows, it was difficult for Enterprise to forge its own identity

Braga later stated in the special features that the Temporal Cold War was a nifty idea

but probably would have worked better as a separate show. Number 7. Trip's Old Name and Connor Trenier's Close Call

Interestingly, Charles Trip Tucker III was originally named Spike while the show was in

early production. His name was changed because there was already a character named Spike on

Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The description for Spike in the series Bible read, Chief Engineer

early 30s, a southerner who enjoys using his country persona to disarm people. He has an

offbeat, often sarcastic sense of humour. In a special feature for the first season titled

Launching Enterprise, Conor Trenier explained that he got the call from Rick Berman to inform

him of the name change. He was worried that he was going to lose the role on the show because he

recently took a couple of bottles of liquor home from a party on the lot. He was absolutely relieved

to hear the news because he was sure he was going to be fired for ripping off some booze. Number 6. Braga apologised for the finale. In the second season Blu-ray special feature

Star Trek Enterprise, In Conversation, The First Crew, Bran and Braga apologised to the cast of

Enterprise for the last episode, These Are the Voyages. Nearly everyone involved in the finale

has expressed regrets about how the series ended. Conor Trenier was especially upset with his

character's unceremonious death. Braga also explained that the goal with the finale was to

create a love letter to all of Trek, a move that he now believes was a narcissistic move on his and

Rick Berman's part. The decision to focus on William Riker watching the NX-01 crew on the

holodeck merely distracted from the real stars of the show and wasted time in an already highly

rushed episode. The creation of the Federation was originally planned to be a long story arc

but with the coming cancellation, a lot of the teamwork between the Vulcans, Andorians

Tellarites and Humans was skipped over though we did get to see the beginnings of these relationships throughout the series These Are the Voyages is definitely one of the most hated finales of any television show Given how many members of the crew have spoken out against it it probably would have

been better for the series to end without trying to wrap everything up. At least that way their

characters could have been revisited in future Trek. Number 5. Bran and Braga's favourite episode

Star Trek Enterprise, In Conversation, The First Crew, also included a part where Bran and Braga

said that his favourite episode of the whole show was Dear Doctor. The episode was about Dr

Phlox and the Enterprise crew debating whether or not they should interfere in an alien society

in order to cure a deadly disease spreading through their society. Eventually this conflict

led to Captain Archer considering the need for a prime directive to prevent Starfleet from

interfering with pre-war cultures. Braga praised the episode for tackling an interesting and

controversial challenge that only could have been dealt with on Enterprise. Linda Park then added

that she appreciated episodes like Dear Doctor for creating metaphors about real world issues

using sci-fi. The episode Stigma was also praised by the cast shortly after for the same reason

Sci-fi allegories for real issues have existed in Trek since the original series, with episodes

like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. John Billingsley and others have said that that

particular episode was a bit too on the nose with its message, but other Trek, including Enterprise

has taken the concept of sci-fi metaphors to a whole new level. Number four

The Borg Queen origin story. It's well known now that Enterprise was cancelled right when it was

beginning to find its own identity. It's truly a shame that we never got to see what the writers

had planned for season 5, especially one particular potential storyline. In a 2007 interview with Trek

Movie, Judith and Garland Rhys-Stevens pitched a story that would show the creation of the Borg

Queen in season 5. The story would be a continuation of the episode Regeneration, in which the time

traveling Borg from Star Trek First Contact were rediscovered in Earth's Arctic ice and

escaped by simulating a crew of researchers. Judith and Garland planned to have Alice Krieg

return to play a Starfleet medical technician who would come into contact with the Borg

Krieg previously played the Borg Queen in First Contact and the story would show how she came to become the voice of the collective. The storyline would raise so many questions

and grandfather paradoxes it's hard to fathom. It's also complicated by the fact that the

The Borg Queen said she was a member of Species 125 in the Voyager episode Dark Frontier

and humans are designated Species 5618 by the Borg. Number 3. Why the Romulans didn't attack Earth In the second season finale, The Expanse

the Zindi attacked Earth, which began a brilliant season-long story arc that profoundly related

to the 9 terrorist attacks that happened only two years before the episode aired Interestingly before we knew more details about the invaders some fans initially speculated that the Romulans were behind the attack In issue 145 of the magazine Star Trek

Communicator, Branham Braga explained that using the Romulans as villains for a season-long story

arc would have been a big mistake because they would have become old hat. This is strange to hear

considering that Earth's war with the Romulans was one of the defining parts of this era of Trek

history. While it would have been nice to see more of humanity's first interactions with the Romulans

The episode Minefield at least gave us a good idea of what the writers had planned for the cancelled seasons

Number 2. Did the creators not want to make Enterprise? Another idea for why the show suffered poor viewership was franchise fatigue

This is the idea that there were simply too many Star Trek properties being released at one time

Rick Berman and Brandon Braga have been criticised for their belief that Star Trek needed some time before returning to CV

but perhaps they were right. Star Trek went through a huge break from television after Enterprise until 2017 with the release of Discovery

and since then we've had five other new shows, many of which have been incredibly successful

Maybe it was that long break that allowed Star Trek to become highly demanded again

We're not ready yet for another decade-long dark age of yearning for a new Trek show

but franchise fatigue is real, and it's important to take the franchise in multiple directions to

avoid that fatigue from setting in. Modern Trek has enough variety to keep things fresh

Number 1. The NX-01 refit design. If there's one thing to learn from this list

it's that missing out on Enterprise's fifth season was truly a tragedy. One huge change we would have

gotten was a beautiful refit of the NX-01 Enterprise made by the brilliant fictional

starship designer Doug Drexler. Drexler revealed that the design on his blog Drex Files by simply

adding another hull segment and extending the warp nacelle pylons below the saucer. Drexler

was able to turn the NX-01 into a realistic template for the original series Constitution

class. You can clearly see how Starfleet Engineers could evolve from the flat NX-01 to a new bulky

design that included more space. This design would then go on to inspire the creation of

Constitution-class vessels in the 23rd century. This simple change was a highlight of Star Trek

Enterprise's ability to show the progression of humanity, and thanks to Star Trek Picard's second

and third seasons, the inclusion of the Eagle Moss model of this ship, and including this ship

at the Fleet Museum, this refit is finally canon. Thank you so much to everyone for watching along

you are awesome and you are wonderful thank you so much to Marsha Frye who originally wrote this

article you will catch them over on the website make sure you check that out you are wonderful

you are awesome make sure that you look after yourselves until the next time i'm talking to you make sure that you live long and prosper you're great thanks