Sometimes I feel like I’m part of the minority who actually enjoyed Enterprise. Sure, there were some stinkers but the world was incredibly interesting and in Series 3 / 4 I really felt like it scratched that Trek lore itch for me.
If Enterprise was to be rebooted for a series 5, perhaps on Paramount+ or another streaming service, what would it look like? I don’t think Jolene Blalock would come back but I’m sure Scott Bakula could be convinced as well as most of the other actors.
I would really hope they keep the early 2000s aesthetic of the NX-01 and all of the retro low-tech gear, perhaps show a gradual transition into the aesthetic of Strange New Worlds. You could mix in some time shenanigans to explain why things look different than they did in TOS and make some fun callbacks, like In A Mirror Darkly.
There’s a lot of room to move before the series finale happens - or you could just retcon it and present it as a deep cover-up. So many opportunities! I want to hear this community’s opinions!
I loved season 3 of Enterprise, and while I didn’t think as highly of 4 as some, it was still a decent show at that point. It was a shame it was cancelled.
I’m not sure there’s much reason to pick up where the show left off though, unless it’s for a one off limited series covering the Romulan War or something. Strange New Worlds is doing the regular Star Trek thing and doing it well, so it would need to be something that really justified returning to the setting.
If I could wipe Enterprise from history and start over, I think I’d have liked it to lean more into the low tech stuff and make that the hook. The show very quickly seemed to drop that side of things, and even early on it mostly just replaced later Trek stuff with other stuff that did the same job. Polarised hull playing replaced shields, lasers replaced phasers etc. They even had a transporter. I’d like to see humanity taking its first steps to the stars without any of that stuff.
They kind of had to get up to speed quickly to even have a fighting chance against the enemy of the week. To be fair, when they went up against the Xindi it was pretty clear the NX-01 had barely any chance, it was in pieces.
Some of the best moments of the series was when they’d rig up something out of the primitive tech they had like the grappler and figure out a way to punch way above their weight in fights. So I don’t think they fully lost the scrappy underdog status.
Interestingly enough, they were planning long-term story arcs about the early days of the Federation and the Romulan war starting with season 5 when the show got canned. It’s a damned shame they never got to execute that plan, because the show grew its beard in season 3 and started getting really good in season 4. The show proved it’s worthiness at that point, in my opinion. That last season had some real gems, it’s actually one of my favorite seasons of Trek overall. If it hadn’t been canceled and were allowed to run its course (say, 7 seasons), I’m convinced Enterprise would be held in as high regard as TNG and DS9 today.