John Billingsley shares why Star Trek: Enterprise won’t be back

Star Trek: Enterprise ran for four seasons on UPN, but fans wanted many more seasons.

In fact, Star Trek: Enterprise fans still advocate for the return of this series even after almost eighteen years. But, according to John Billingsley, who spoke with Trekmovie about his time on the series, fan fervor isn’t really enough to bring the show back to either television or streaming, at least not without someone to pick up the baton, so to speak.

Billingsley also pointed out several other issues that would stand in the way of the Enterprise being rebooted or revived. Connor Trinneer’s character, Trip Tucker, died in the final episode of the series so that would have to be resolved. (This was done in follow-up novels so this is actually a possibility.) But then there’s Jolene Blalock who played T’Pol. She’s retired, and Billingsley couldn’t see her coming back to television. And that leaves Scott Bakula who has another series which would make it difficult for him to film Enterprise.

"No. Not without radical—I mean, I mean, okay, first solve Trip is dead. Two, the actress who played T’Pol is not coming back to television. She has three children, she’s retired. And Scott [Bakula], I don’t see doing it. Scott’s got another show on now. So just start there. But beyond that, I think you have to have somebody who’s burning to tell the stories and that’s the [Mike] McMahans or whoever. I hear the fans are interested, but you don’t get that to happen without somebody like an Alex Kurtzman saying “I love Enterprise and I want it to continue.” And I don’t see that person emerging."

Star Trek: Enterprise needs a leader like Terry Matalas, who will advocate for the return of the series.

But even if such a leader were to emerge, Billingsley pointed out that someone would have to agree to put millions of dollars into making every episode of the series, something which he doesn’t see as likely.

"And even then you still have to find a way to pitch the product, somebody’s got to agree to put millions of dollars into making every episode of it. I just don’t think that’s likely. What you talked about earlier, about maybe enough appreciation on some people’s parts for those aspects of the show, that they’d like to bring some of the characters back the way that happened in Picard, that seems more feasible to me."

Bringing some of the characters to current Trek shows seems like the most feasible option, and Billingsley was kind enough to point out that his character, Dr. Phlox, being Denobulan, was long-lived so he would probably be one of the only ones still alive. That could put his character into future series, or, as I’ve mentioned previously, that would be an open door for him to show up on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

It definitely sounds like the odds are better of seeing one or two characters from Enterprise pop up in different Trek series than seeing a full remake of the series. The lack of Enterprise love will continue to bother those of us who are fans and thought the show deserved better, especially than the series finale, but we are thankful we can continue to rewatch this series that didn’t get the chance it deserved.