Star Trek: Enterprise writer and producer Mike Sussman dropped a huge bomb, which will certainly appeal to those Trekkies who love Scott Bakula’s Captain Jonathan Archer. While appearing on the All Access Star Trek podcast, Sussman revealed that his new take on a follow-up to Enterprise would more closely congeal with the current Trek streaming universe. Thus, the powers that be at the now Paramount Skydance Corporation might be more interested in this new idea over his original pitch. Sussman said of his Star Trek: United during the sit-down (via TrekMovie.com):
“Archer would be in a place in his life where Scott kind of is right now, where Scott is a family man. He’s got four adult kids. And so, I gave Archer four adult kids, and the story is as much about them as it is about him because he lived this life of diplomacy — his family sort of grew up with this sense of service. So, he’d have these adult kids, one of whom is part of the diplomatic corps, another is in Starfleet, somebody else is in Federation Intelligence. So, his adult kids could be brought into this story in a way that felt very organic. They would be integral to the story we were telling.”
Bakula portrayed Archer for four seasons, but Enterprise is often regarded as the black sheep of the Star Trek franchise’s television shows. Although, Discovery is much more deserving of that title. While Enterprise holds a respectable 79% Popcornmeter rating (overall), formerly the Rotten Tomatoes audience score, the critics lambasted the series (56% Tomatometer rating). Should Captain Archer suit up again, though, Sussman sees his new idea as a spin-off and NOT a sequel. Sussman continued by saying in the same interview:
“It’s not just getting the whole [Enterprise] gang back together every week. Now we might see them—I would love to see everybody in in one form or another, maybe even some of them in regular roles, but this would be a different show. It would be about these younger characters who would be in their 20s or early 30s, at most. And so you have the opportunity to bring in some legacy people, but it would largely be about this new cast.”
Are you excited at the possibility of Star Trek: United joining the franchise? Say what you will about the show, Scott Bakula gave a virtuoso performance that even rivaled the Golden Globe-winning work he did on his most famous television series, Quantum Leap. Share your thoughts and comments about United on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!