The bad idea behind the naming of Star Trek: Enterprise

Before Star Trek: Enterprise became Star Trek: Enterprise, it had been decided during the development of the series that the "Star Trek" would be dropped. For some reason, the powers-that-be, including Rick Berman, had the idea that dropping the colon would help the series be "dramatically different." According to Berman, as reported in The Fifty Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams, The Complete Uncensored and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, he thought it "might be fun" to not have a division between Star Trek and the main title.

"And I thought that if there's any one word that says Star Trek without actually saying Star Trek, it's the word "enterprise." "

- Rick Berman

But fans weren't happy that a long-standing tradition had been dropped. Combine that with the theme song, and there was even more unhappy fans. But that's not the worst part of this scenario.

When the ratings weren't as high as they hoped and were actually dropping in the second season, all of a sudden, it was time to put Star Trek in the title. Perhaps the executives were thinking people weren't watching because they didn't know it was a Trek show.

""As if anybody out there was going to say, 'Damn, I didn't know that was a Star Trek show.' So it became Star Trek: Enterprise the last two years."

- Rick Berman

The reasons behind Enterprise's failure had little to do with the series' name. I, for one, am a big fan of the series, but even I saw issues with it that had nothing to do with what it was called or the theme song. Quite frankly, I didn't think the right people were in charge of the scripts, and that was just one of the problems. There just simply weren't enough great stories, which is a shame because when Enterprise did have a great story, like Terra Prime, they really did it right.

There were plenty of other standout episodes during the series' four-season run, but obviously, it wasn't enough to satisfy the ratings. The idea, though, to attach Star Trek to the title after two seasons was a dismal failure. People weren't failing to watch because of the name; they were failing to watch because they didn't like the way the series was being written. I would have gladly watched more episodes, but there just weren't enough people who felt the same way.