Is season three of Star Trek: Enterprise really 9/11 in space?

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Warning: This contains a brief spoiler for the series finale of Star Trek: Discovery, Life, Itself.

The end of Star Trek: Discovery gave a little throwback to Star Trek: Enterprise with Kovich revealing that he was Agent Daniels. Fans of Enterprise will remember Agent Daniels for his part in the Temporal Cold War. Lina Morgan from Bells of Souls made some excellent points as to why Discovery fans should watch Enterprise following that reveleation. It really was a neat, unexpected tie-in, and I'm on board with Morgan recommending a watch with caveats.

One interesting point of view Morgan made was that the season three of Enterprise "is basically just 9/11 in space." I've never heard it phrased that way, and there's no indication that the writers had this intention. However, Enterprise debuted on September 26, 2001, just fifteen days after 9/11. Many television shows during that time did, at some point in the future, reference the tragedy. The West Wing, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, Homeland, and even the sci-fi series, Fringe, had episodes that either directly referenced 9/11 or focused on other terrorist attacks. So it certainly wouldn't be out of the question for the Xindi storyline to have come about because of 9/11.

Season two of Enterprise concluded on May 21, 2003, and the third season focused on the aftermath of the Xindi's attack on Earth with Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew trying to track down the aliens and destroy the weapon they'd used before it could be utilized again. Adding the weapon to the season kept the series from focusing on revenge. As it turns out, though, the Xindi attacked Earth because of false information that humans would destroy their world in 400 years.

I can certainly see Morgan's point of view and why others could believe that Enterprise had created its own version of 9/11. Some would say, though, that the decision to move in this direction affected Enterprise negatively along with it debuting so soon after the horrific events of 9/11. Season three was definitely much darker than the previous two seasons and took the crew members down a more painful path. Perhaps that was a reminder that viewers just didn't want at the time or they simply preferred their television watching experience to be about entertainment and escapism not the reality of the devastating attack that took place on 9/11.

Next. If the comics can bring back Dr. Phlox 100 years later so can live-action Star Trek. If the comics can bring back Dr. Phlox 100 years later so can live-action Star Trek. dark