Star Trek: Enterprise's pre-Kirk era is the reason Scott Bakula accepted the role as Captain Archer

Scott Bakula was a huge fan of Star Trek: The Original Series as he revealed in an interview he had with Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating on The D-Con Chamber Podcast [via Screenrant], So when he was first asked if he wanted to be a part of Star Trek, he hesitated because he didi not want to follow Captain Kirk [William Shatner] or any of the other captains. When he was told the series was set one hundred years before Captain Kirk, he agreed to take the role.

It's not easy following in a well-regarded Star Trek actor's footsteps, and knowing that he would be captaining the starship Enterprise, which was legendary in the franchise, gave Bakula understandable doubts. In 2001, Star Trek: Voyager was finishing up its run, bringing the total Trek series in the franchise to four. Originally named Enterprise, Bakula's series was the prequel to The Original Series and now even to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It was undeniably a challenge to accept a role that would put him at the very beginning of Trek, but knowing that the series wouldn't be following the others, which would have the potential to screw up the timeline and/or break canon, was the lead-in that Bakula needed.

Though Star Trek: Enterprise only ran for four seasons before cancellation, its time on streaming channels has earned it a new audience of fans so much so that these viewers want to know when we could possibly see this crew again. That's something that all of us fans have been asking since Star Trek: Discovery debuted in 2017. Though there's no indication that any of the actors have been asked to board another ship or return in any way, thankfully, Trineer and Keating are keeping the series alive, and with it, the potential for the powers-that-be behind the franchise to realize the members of this crew need to return.