Star Trek: Enterprise was going to be the next movie franchise
By Chad Porto
Star Trek producers really thought Star Trek: Enterprise would get the movie treatment.
Star Trek: Enterprise will forever be one of the most wondered about television series in Trek history. The show was canceled after just four seasons, despite having a seven-season order. The series started a bit rough early on, but as season two went on, it found its legs and became one of the best series in Star Trek history. They explored a lot of things that fans were excited bout. Namely, the Romulans pre-Balance of Terror, when the Federation didn’t know what they looked like.
They also were building up to the formation of the Federation as we would know it come the original series. Plus, there were even talks about bringing William Shatner back to Star Trek through the series.
There were huge plans for the series. Yet, it was canceled prematurely after season four. That wasn’t all though.
While speaking at a panel at Mission Chicago (via TrekMovie.com), two of the show’s stars, Connor Trinneer and Anthony Montgomery spoke about the luxury of knowing their show was already picked up prior to shooting the pilot, as well as revealed that Enterprise was next in line for the film franchise treatment.
"Connor Trinneer: We weren’t walking into a pilot, we were walking into a series. We had that luxury. So that was a little intimidating. We knew we were in it together. And we knew we were going to be together for well…Anthony Montgomery: It was supposed to be seven years. We signed for seven years. They told us we were doing movies, because they didn’t do movies with DS9. They didn’t do movies with Voyager. So they told me that the fans love Star Trek and you guys are going be here for at least seven years, and you’re going to be doing movies and everything. And you guys know how that all turns out."
A secret war with the Romulans would’ve been the perfect idea for the first film
Had Enterprise gotten to the big screen, playing out the Romulan story arc would’ve been incredible. Especially if they were the first ones to know what the Romulans looked like. Enterprise already established that the Federation in its early days was very secretive. Namely, how they handled and hid the knowledge of The Borg before Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-D ever discovered them.
Granted, there was a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario there, but still.
Exploring that, plus the creation and growth of the Federation would have been amazing storylines to see play out on the big screen, and while a fifth season will never happen, maybe we can still get the Enterprise film that we deserve.