John Billingsley wishes Star Trek: Enterprise would have continued "making it up" as they went along

John Billingsley played one of my favorite characters on Star Trek: Enterprise for four seasons. Dr. Phlox was a Denobulan who had a penchant for one-liners and wisdom, and though the character didn't get a lot of screen time, he made the most of what he did get. Alas, though, Enterprise was abruptly cancelled even though the stories really picked up in season four when Manny Coto took over.

Before that, there were still some good stories, but there were elements that were eliminated or not even addressed that might have made a difference. Billingsley, in a conversation with Trek Today, said he thought the series should have had a sense of "making it up as we go along."

"“Wish we’d stayed with the sense of ‘making it up as we go along = terror’ for [the] first couple of seasons. [It] might not have made a difference, but I thought too many episodes were wan, [and] indistinguishable in many ways from the iterations of Trek that had come before. I would have liked more overlapping dialogue, for instance, more of a sense of cacophony, which would have echoed (literally) the kind of claustrophobic aspects of our ship and its more cramped quarters, its more ‘submarine-y’ feel. I dunno."

- John Billingsley

What the actor suggests certainly makes sense as the original Enterprise was a much smaller vessel and had the series played into those tighter confines, that could have brought out some interesting stories, even some crew disagreements, though Enterprise might have still been following Gene Roddenberry's "no crew conflicts" edict.

Though the crew was trained on the ship before they took off, there could have been more mistakes where the crew was still learning their way. And much more uncertainty when venturing into new territories. I, for one, will always remain a fan of Star Trek: Enterprise, but, like every other series, there were ways it could have been improved upon. Of course, this is a case of "what might have been." Unfortunately, Enterprise was cut short before any changes were allowed to take place that would have improved the series.