Star Trek: Enterprise hasn’t been involved in the newer Star Trek series, mainly because of the time period in which it was set.
Though there are plenty of ways to work around an earlier time period, so far, no series has chosen to tackle any of them. And characters from Star Trek: Enterprise have been largely ignored onscreen. But that could change if Mike McMahan, the creator of Star Trek: Lower Decks, has anything to say about it.
In a roundtable interview at New York Comic Con, McMahan was asked if there was one particular series he still wanted to include in Lower Decks. [via Trekmovie] And he has Enterprise in mind for season five.
"“It’s hard to get Enterprise. Because Enterprise is so proto, it’s so before TOS. It’s so tempting because it feels like TNG and that’s the world I play in and I love Enterprise. And that’s been the hardest, but I think in season 5 I figured out—if the deals work out, there is some Enterprise love in season 5. We are early enough so I could be wrong about that so tune in next year.”"
Star Trek: Enterprise characters returning in animated form would be a good first step.
It sounds like if all the contracts are signed and the characters agree to return, we’ll hear from some Enterprise characters next year. And that is a great first step.
Aaron Waltke already brought back Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker) in one of the Very Short Treks to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek: The Animated Series. Of course, those weren’t tied to canon, but we know that Trinneer is ready and willing to become Trip Tucker again. And over the years, other actors from Enterprise have expressed willingness to return so there hopefully won’t be any problem getting the deals finalized.
And this would be a great first step to bringing Enterprise back to the forefront of the franchise where it belongs. For far too long it’s been swept aside, and it’s nice to hear that McMahan is interested in showing some love to the series.