The surprising reason parts of Star Trek: Enterprise pilot had to be reshot

Star Trek: Enterprise had more than its fair share of issues while on air, but one issue happened before the series even debuted.

In the grand scheme of things, especially in the filming of a pilot for a brand-new series, one would think minor issues could be overlooked, but that depends upon who is supposed to do the overlooking. And in the case of Scott Bakula, Star Trek: Enterprise’s leading man, there was one particular problem that caused an additional five days of filming to be tacked onto the pilot. No, it wasn’t his acting style; it was his hair style.

As silly as that seems, Bakula had a set way he wanted his hair done, more of a military style, and so the hair stylists followed his lead. But that didn’t last for long as Kerry McCluggage, one of the creators of the TV network UPN (United Paramount Network), had a different style in mind for the actor.

Star Trek: Enterprise got a rocky start with a delay in the production of the pilot.

McCluggage was in New York while Enterprise was filming so he didn’t see the dailies until he returned. Series director James L. Conway in the “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams,” edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross recalled that McCluggage hated Bakula’s hair. [via /Film] And so the crew had to reshoot all of Bakula’s close-ups with the hairstyle the UPN executive wanted.

"“There’s a lot of hair issues on ‘Star Trek.’ I had to reshoot the first five days of the pilot because of Scott’s hair. When we started shooting, Kerry McCluggage — who was a good friend of Scott’s and really had a lot to do with Scott getting the show in the first place — was in New York and didn’t see dailies until he came back from New York. And he hated Scott’s hair. He wanted it one way, Scott wanted it another, and somehow the message didn’t get to us. So we had to go back and reshoot all of Scott’s close-ups for the first five days and change his hair.”"

We knew there were plenty of issues with Kate Mulgrew’s hair Star Trek: Voyager, but Bakula’s? It doesn’t seem there was much to be changed, which probably didn’t make much of a difference overall. It’s doubtful a different hairstyle would have changed the trajectory of Enterprise.