Hugh, while only in two episodes, was from a show that was immensely more popular than a main character from a show that was quite unpopular. The audience for PIC also had a vested interest in Hugh. Granted there was another character from another show in PIC, but she was there primarily because she was a former Borg, like Hugh. What vested interest would an audience have today for a character from the 22nd century from an unpopular show who, as far as CBS is concerned, is dead? (and this is coming from someone who thought Trip was the best character in ENT.)
And how do you judge popularity? Since despite TNG being the most popular show in the franchise, they did not want PIC to be another TNG. And those financially backing the production of PIC (i.e. Amazon) agreed with that direction.
And if popularity is determined by ratings to determine what is popular in the mainstream, then focus on the stuff that had high or decent ratings in ENT. That breaks down as:
- The feature length premiere episode “Broken Bow (12.59M)
- The majority of S1, with the exception of “Fusion”, “Rouge Planet”, “Detained”, & “Desert Crossing” (5.2M-9.1M)
- “Minefield”, ”Dead Stop”, “A Night in Sickbay” & “Marauders” being the most popular for S2 (5.2M -6.2M)
All of the above is consistent with what VOY was receiving in viewership for the entirety of its run. Except the premiere episode “Caretaker”, which got almost double the viewership compared to what ENT’s premiere got in viewership at 21.3M. And the TPTB at the time made the decision to drift away from the formula created during VOY’s run that brought consistent viewership for 8 years to chase a new formula in ENT’s third and fourth seasons to make a more popular show, which clearly failed and ended up performing worse than what they were originally doing. Since when they changed direction, the most popular episodes going forwards were S3’s “Similitude” and “Rajiin” (4.59M and 4.51M repeatedly), and those episodes dwarfed everything else in S3 and S4 in viewership, including the highest rated episodes of S4 in “Terra Prime” and TATV (3.8M). But was less in viewership than certain S1 & S2 episodes in “Rogue Planet”, “Detained”, “Desert Crossing”, “Shockwave II”, “Carbon Creek” “Singularity”, “Precious Cargo”, “The Catwalk”, “Cease Fire” & “Future Tense”, which averaged around 4.6M-4.9M.
Trip kicking the bucket was an unpopular decision, one of the many unpopular decisions made during the show's run. It was as disliked as making T’Pol suffer from mind meld AIDS, and then her addiction to trellium-D. Or how they portrayed Archer in ‘A Night In Sickbay”. Bu the unpopularity of the show in its last two years lies on the decision makers for that show and them alone. So saying Trip or any other member of the cast can’t come back because how TPTB at the time handled the final 2 years of ENT is disingenuous. At minimum, a tv movie (as indicated by “Broken Bow”), a cast member returning (i.e Seven of Nine) or a guest cameo in a movie (i.e Admiral Janeway in NEM) are all in the realm of possibility.
