Were there ideas for 'Enterprise' after season 4?

[Phoenix219]

Agreed. If it happened to be one, I would like the story to be something beyond the war itself. What I don't want is a documentary gimmick like what Alec Peters thought up with his overrated Axanar project.

The documentary gimmick was the one GOOD thing about Axanar. If Peter's had centered on that, peppered with the cool CGI and the space battles he loves so much, he could have had a very cheaply made series, that everyone would have loved, that could cover any time period, and have any actor sit down and do "documentary stuff" for, while still having the excuse to do short CGI battles or "excerpts" from things rather than having to produce an entire movie or episode. With the funding they received, they could have done a dozen documentary episodes easily. What a damn waste.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Not just ideas... plans.
Elizabeth would have lived. And Tucker and T'Pol's relationship would obviously have evolved as a result.
The Federation would have continued to take shape. This was supposed to have included adding Shran to the ship's crew.
And the conflict with the Romulans would of course have become more intense over time.

Wasn’t Trip always supposed to die in the S4 finale, even if ENT got renewed? Meaning TATV should have technically taken place in 2155 to begin with?

IIRC, when Scott Bakula was signed to ENT, he was promised his pick of a big movie role with Paramount for signing their longterm contract. Possibly a post-series ENT movie, of course, but a movie at least. So "The Romulan War" (or aftermath) could have been saved for that.

That’s quite interesting to learn. I wonder why it never came about.

As much as I love the idea of the Kziti coming back, turns out the story was just a remake of DS9's "The Abandoned". It was nearly made as a New Voyages/Phase II fan film episode.

Its a shame they wanted to do a rehash of a DS9 story. Considering the background of the Kzinti, they seem suited to be a T’Pol & Hoshi story (disdain for Vulcans, and underestimating females of other species), or a Mayweather story (past run ins with the Kzinti & their police vessels on the Horizon).

Could have even introduced the Highest of Kzin.

 

[amp]

Wasn’t Trip always supposed to die in the S4 finale, even if ENT got renewed? Meaning TATV should have technically taken place in 2155 to begin with?

I've never heard that and I'd find it quite surprising. Trip was probably Enterprise's most popular character, so I can't imagine killing him off and continuing the show. It would be like killing off Data midway through TNG's run.

ETA:
Apparently Connor Trinneer didn't know about any such plan either. In the linked article there's a quote about what he thinks the writers would have done with his character in a hypothetical season 5.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wasn’t Trip always supposed to die in the S4 finale, even if ENT got renewed? Meaning TATV should have technically taken place in 2155 to begin with?

IIRC, TATV became the finale at the last minute. It was originally just a regular episode involving a flash forward trope.

 

[Oddish]

IIRC, TATV became the finale at the last minute. It was originally just a regular episode involving a flash forward trope.

If it had served that, its nominal purpose (and without killing Trip of course), I think it would have been a well received episode. Will and Deanna's return would have been welcomed.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Wasn’t Trip always supposed to die in the S4 finale, even if ENT got renewed? Meaning TATV should have technically taken place in 2155 to begin with?

My memory of it was that this script was something just hanging around as a to-be-used-in-Season-5 concept, and Trip's "death" was not finalised. I am sure the longrange plan for the TV series finale was for an episode where Future Guy was revealed (Braga has recently since said that FG was Archer, but the strong early rumour was that it was a Romulan - and this turncoat Romulan idea did end up getting used during the series). The theatrical feature would either be the Romulan War or the immediate aftermath with formation of the UFP.

Riker-as-Chef was originally floated past William Shatner several times for an earlier cameo prior to it becoming part of the Riker story in the finale.

That’s quite interesting to learn. I wonder why it never came about.

Paramount didn't have a feature script on hand that appealed, IIRC.

Its a shame they wanted to do a rehash of a DS9 story. Considering the background of the Kzinti, they seem suited to be a T’Pol & Hoshi story (disdain for Vulcans, and underestimating females of other species), or a Mayweather story (past run ins with the Kzinti & their police vessels on the Horizon).

Early drafts do end up changing.

 

[FederationHistorian]

I've never heard that and I'd find it quite surprising. Trip was probably Enterprise's most popular character, so I can't imagine killing him off and continuing the show. It would be like killing off Data midway through TNG's run.

ETA:
Apparently Connor Trinneer didn't know about any such plan either. In the linked article there's a quote about what he thinks the writers would have done with his character in a hypothetical season 5.

IIRC, TATV became the finale at the last minute. It was originally just a regular episode involving a flash forward trope.

If it had served that, its nominal purpose (and without killing Trip of course), I think it would have been a well received episode. Will and Deanna's return would have been welcomed.

IMDB and Memory Alpha are the only sources for this now, since the original article from 2005 is no longer accessible. But it was reported that TATV was originally intended to be the S4 finale even if the show got a fifth season, and Tucker was still going to be killed off in the episode because the episode flash forwards. Trip would still be alive for the fifth season if the show. It was later acknowledged later that summer in 2005 that Tucker's death was added in at the last minute, and that they would have changed the episode if the series got renewed. https://www.trektoday.com/news/250705_01.shtml

Not sure why it was deemed necessary to show Trip’s future death if he was still going to be alive in S5. Was Future Guy supposed to get involved somehow and prevent Trip's death?

My memory of it was that this script was something just hanging around as a to-be-used-in-Season-5 concept, and Trip's "death" was not finalised. I am sure the longrange plan for the TV series finale was for an episode where Future Guy was revealed (Braga has recently since said that FG was Archer, but the strong early rumour was that it was a Romulan - and this turncoat Romulan idea did end up getting used during the series). The theatrical feature would either be the Romulan War or the immediate aftermath with formation of the UFP.

Riker-as-Chef was originally floated past William Shatner several times for an earlier cameo prior to it becoming part of the Riker story in the finale.

There was an alternative holo story that was thrown around as well:

Sussman denies rumors that the finale was actually penned a year ago, before the fourth season unfolded. "That's a rumor�I think the idea for the episode came up a year ago. The episode was not written a year ago," he says. "I was around when Brannon was writing it. The idea is something that Brannon had kicked around for some time. There had been other similar ideas pitched� I had always wanted to do a story with the holographic doctor from Voyager that would have told a story from the perspective of the future."

"My idea was pretty different from the direction they went," Sussman says. "Suffice to say, my version wouldn't have worked for a series finale at all! I wanted to find Picardo's Doctor treating an apparently crazy mental patient in a holodeck version of the NX-01. This mental patient, who'd be played by Scott [Bakula], would be convinced that he was, in fact, Jonathan Archer, and he needed the Doctor's help to get back to his own century. The story would touch on that classic theme about a doctor falling for one of his patient's delusions. For every piece of evidence "Archer" would have that he's telling the truth, you'd have a contradictory piece of evidence suggesting this guy was really just nuts. It would've been great to leave the audience wondering in the end � was that really Jonathan Archer trapped in the future, or just some crazy guy who read too many history books?"

Full article: https://www.trektoday.com/interviews/mike_sussman.shtml

Would have made for different finale for sure if they went with this! Or an interesting fifth season opener if the show got renewed.

Does it seem to take from "Far Beyond The Stars" from DS9. Or is is nothing alike?

Paramount didn't have a feature script on hand that appealed, IIRC.

I suppose that Star Trek: The Beginning script wasn't appealing enough.

Early drafts do end up changing.

That's true. But it also shows how there was creative fatigue at the time for the franchise.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's true. But it also shows how there was creative fatigue at the time for the franchise.

The episode was pitched by an outsider, Jimmy Diggs, after gaining a blessing from Larry Niven. Not sure how that rates as creative fatigue for the regular team. I am sure once the Writers' Room did their usual breakdown, it would be different enough.

 

[Phoenix219]

Man, that would have been a really great episode. It could have had *so* many nods to Quantum Leap in it as well, with the HOLOGRAPHIC doctor and Bakula stuck out of time, trying to get back........ amazing.....

 

[F. King Daniel]

That Archer/EMH story sounds excellent, I'd have loved if they did it. Or recycled the idea for Strange New Worlds, Section 31 or whatever else the current Trek overlords have planned for the 22nd or 23rd centuries. Picardo is on board for Picard season 2, after all...

 

[publiusr]

With the funding they received, they could have done a dozen documentary episodes easily. What a damn waste.

There is actually a movie in that style called Planetary Traveller..,

 

[Paul Weaver]

A time travelling Archer trapped in someone else's body with a hologram at his side?

 

[Rhodan]

That sounds like something EXTREMELY dependent on execution, but it might be at least interesting to watch Picardo interacting with Bakula.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I've never heard that Enterprise/Voyager crossover idea before! But yeah, that would've played better than Riker & Troi on a holodeck recreation of the NX's final mission, for reasons that still don't make a lick of sense. It's an intriguing idea to play on Archer being in the future via a flare up in the Temporal Cold War OR just an imposter with a historical figure fixation. You can cover all the accomplishments Archer and his crew achieved post-series, whether or not Scott is playing the real deal or not.

Make the EMH that seen in "Living Witness", and what's interesting with that is, this "impostor" is maybe in the same century Future Guy was supposedly transmitting from. So... another loose end neatly tied-up.

My own take on that would be...

Spoiler

The "impostor" is Mirror Archer, who is revealed to have been drugged and not in fact poisoned, at the end of In A Mirror, Darkly. The Empress makes Archer the first person to be executed by the Tantalus Field, which in fact deposits him into the Prime Universe future setting to be found by the EMH just before this story begins.

Once this tale is done, you have the impostor character escape, gain access to a temporal chamber of the sort the Suliban use in Season 1, with reason enough to interfere with the 22nd Century.

 

[Henoch]

I've never heard that Enterprise/Voyager crossover idea before! But yeah, that would've played better than Riker & Troi on a holodeck recreation of the NX's final mission, for reasons that still don't make a lick of sense. It's an intriguing idea to play on Archer being in the future via a flare up in the Temporal Cold War OR just an imposter with a historical figure fixation. You can cover all the accomplishments Archer and his crew achieved post-series, whether or not Scott is playing the real deal or not.

Make the EMH that seen in "Living Witness", and what's interesting with that is, this "imposter" is maybe in the same century Future Guy was supposedly transmitting from. So... another loose end neatly tied-up.

My own take on that would be...

Spoiler

The "imposter" is Mirror Archer, who is revealed to have been drugged and not in fact poisoned, at the end of In A Mirror, Darkly. The Empress makes Archer the first person to be executed by the Tantalus Field, which in fact deposits him into the Prime Universe future setting to be found by the EMH just before this story begins.

Spoiler: Spoiler Reply

In most probabilities, Tantalus Field deposited people from the mirror universe just end up floating in space to die in our universe. Rarely does one survive unless there are the rare alignments when events in both universes overlap.

 

[ChristopherPike]

It would've great to do another episode like "First Flight", but set further back during the development of warp and shown more of Henry Archer working alongside Zefram Cochrane. Perhaps explore something of Alpha Centauri or Proxima colony as the show calls it, where Cochrane moved to continue his work free from Vulcan interference.

They could tie it into the Romulan War plot of later seasons, by establishing a Vulcan conspiracy to suggest Archer's father's death was not natural. Instead maybe purposely given a disease to derail humanity's efforts.

 

[FederationHistorian]

It would've great to do another episode like "First Flight", but set further back during the development of warp and shown more of Henry Archer working alongside Zefram Cochrane. Perhaps something of Alpha Century or Proxima colony as the show calls it, where Cochrane moved to continue his work free from Vulcan interference.

They could tie it into the Romulan War plot of later seasons, by established Vulcan conspiracy to suggest Archer's father death was not natural. Instead maybe purposely given a disease to derail humanity's efforts.

A flashback episode that explained why Earth went from warp ring ships like the XCV-330 to the design of the NX-class would have been a good episode. Or even why warp ring ships came into being and deviated from the Phoenix design to begin with.

ENT was useful for flashback episodes like that. Filling in the blanks for the period between Cochrane’s warp flight and the UFP founding without having to create a new show for such information.