Conception Prior to the end of
Star Trek: Voyager and following the end of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in June 1999, Paramount approached Rick Berman and
Brannon Braga about the production of a fifth
Star Trek series, either to overlap with the final season of
Voyager or to immediately follow. Berman had previously created
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine along with
Michael Piller,
Voyager with Piller and
Jeri Taylor, and had been wanting to work with Braga on a series concept. While the fans online were suggesting that it could either be based on
Starfleet Academy or the adventures of
Hikaru Sulu, the producers took care that no information was leaked to reveal what the concept was going to be. They later revealed that the Academy idea was never properly considered. The idea was for the series to portray the first deep space explorers in the
Star Trek universe, with Braga explaining that everything would be new to the crew and that since the setting was closer in the timeframe to the modern day, their reactions to situations would be more contemporary. The initial idea was for the first season to be almost entirely set on Earth as the
Enterprise was rushed to completion to respond to first contact with the
Klingon, and the crew being put together. This idea was rejected by the studio executives, and these story elements were instead restricted to the pilot, "Broken Bow." They sought to make
Enterprise more character-driven than the previous series in the
Star Trek franchise, and hoped that this would gain viewers who had watched
The Next Generation but had lost interest with
Deep Space Nine and
Voyager. Berman explained his vision for the series at launch, saying, "We'll be seeing humanity when they truly are going where no man has gone before. We are seeing people who don't take meeting aliens as just another part of the job. It's not routine. Nothing is routine. Also, by bringing it back 200 years from
Voyager, we're making the characters closer to the present, and by doing that they can be a little bit more accessible and a little bit more flawed and a little bit more familiar to you and me." It was initially considered whether or not to have
Enterprise overlap with the final season of
Voyager, but it was decided that there would be a gap in broadcasting between the two series, as Berman was concerned with the "oversaturation" of the franchise. But he hoped that the "dramatic change" in
Enterprise would mean that new viewers were drawn in to watch it. This title lasted until the third episode of season three, "
Extinction," when the series was renamed
Star Trek: Enterprise as demanded by Paramount Television executives in an effort to reconnect the series with the fans of the franchise.
Crew , an actress on
Star Trek: Voyager, directed ten of the 98 episodes of
Enterprise. In addition to the executive producers, a number of former
Star Trek crew members joined the new series.
Herman F. Zimmerman was recruited as Production Designer/Illustrator, having worked on Trek projects throughout
The Next Generation,
Deep Space Nine and the feature films.
Marvin V. Rush resumed his role as Director of Photography, having been involved with
Trek since the
third season of
The Next Generation. Working with him were Douglas Knapp and William Peets as Camera Operator and Chief Lighting Technician respectively. Both had previously worked on
Voyager. Another alumna from the previous series was Louise Dorton, who started in the
first season of that show as Set Designer, but joined
Enterprise as Art Director.
Andre Bormanis, a science consultant and writer on
The Next Generation,
Deep Space Nine and
Voyager, was brought on as a staff writer.
John Eaves, who worked on
Star Trek: First Contact, became Senior Illustrator for the show, and
Doug Drexler worked under him as Junior Illustrator.
Michael Westmore was once again the Head of Make-up for the series, and was joined by his daughter-in-law
Suzanne Westmore, who was previously credited on
Voyager as Suzanne Diaz. joined the writing staff during season three, and became the
showrunner during the final season. A number of directors of episodes in other
Star Trek series returned to work on
Enterprise. These included former
Star Trek alumni, such as
LeVar Burton, who played
Geordi La Forge from
The Next Generation; and
Robert Duncan McNeill, who played
Tom Paris on
Voyager.
Roxann Dawson was also announced to direct at the start of the series, having previously played
B'Elanna Torres, also on
Voyager. She went on to direct ten episodes of the series. Shiban stayed for the second season, while Black left after the third. The fourth season of
Enterprise saw a change to the crew's leadership, with Manny Coto taking over as executive producer and showrunner from Braga and Berman. He had joined the writing staff in the third season, and wrote the well-received episode "
Similitude." He was a fan of
The Original Series and sought to link
Enterprise more closely to it. He brought writers
Judith and
Garfield Reeves-Stevens onto
Enterprise, who previously wrote books on the franchise's production, and worked with
William Shatner on his
Shatnerverse series of
Star Trek novels. Braga and Berman remained on staff, with Coto describing the situation as having "three showrunners." Coto set the direction for the final season, while the other two gave notes and feedback.
Casting (left) and
Michael Fincke (right) The crew issued a casting call for the main roles in the series, and Keating and Billingsley made immediate impressions on the casting director and staff. Braga said that they knew they were right for those roles "right off the bat." He also praised the casting processes involving Trinneer, Park and Billingsley, calling the latter "perfect" in his role as Doctor Phlox. One of the reasons he agreed to join the cast of
Enterprise was that he had previously worked with
Kerry McCluggage, one of the co-founders of UPN, on
Quantum Leap. despite her agents rejecting requests for her to attend auditions early in the casting process. By the time that Blalock auditioned in the final group, the crew had seen hundreds of actresses, according to Berman. His main issue at the time was to find a "beautiful woman who can act and doesn't want to go right into feature films." However, some of the British media mistook the announcement for Bakula taking over from
Patrick Stewart. Details of the rest of the main cast were released on May 15, with the rest of the character details publicised the following day. Some recurring characters were played by actors who had previously appeared in
Star Trek productions, with
Jeffrey Combs portraying the
Andorian Shran, making his first appearance in the season one episode "
The Andorian Incident." He had previously portrayed the Vorta Weyoun as well as the Ferengi Brunt on
Deep Space Nine.
Vaughn Armstrong, who played Admiral Maxwell Forrest, had previously appeared in a number of roles in various
Trek productions since his first part as a Klingon in
The Next Generation episode "
Heart of Glory"; by the end of the
Enterprise run, he had appeared as 13 different characters in total.
Randy Oglesby,
Rick Worthy and
Scott MacDonald had also appeared in a variety of roles within the franchise before taking on the recurring parts of Xindi council members throughout season three. During season four, this idea was raised once again when Reeves-Stevens suggested that the tantalus field (previously thought to be a
raygun) seen in
The Original Series episode "
Mirror, Mirror" actually sent its victims back in time to a penal colony in the regular universe. This in turn would allow Shatner to reprise his role as the
Mirror Universe version of Captain
James T. Kirk. Shatner pitched this to Braga and Berman, but instead they pitched another idea back to the actor in which he could play the chef of the
Enterprise, who was taken to the future by Daniels and required to impersonate Kirk. After they could not settle on an idea, the Mirror Universe concept was reworked into the two-part episode "
In a Mirror, Darkly."
Sets and filming The majority of the filming took place on the
Paramount Pictures lot in Los Angeles, California. The temporary sets for the show were housed on stages 8 and 9; while the permanent sets including the
bridge,
engine room and the
arsenal were located on stage 18. The engineering set itself was built across two levels with the large warp drive taking up the majority of the space. Stages 8 and 9 had housed sets for the earlier
Star Trek series since production was started on the abandoned
Star Trek: Phase II during the late 1970s. They were subsequently used for the films
Star Trek: The Motion Picture,
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home before being used for
The Next Generation and
Voyager. Stage 18 had not been previously used for the production of any
Star Trek series or films. Midway through the third season, from "
Exile" onwards, the series started to be broadcast in
1080i high-definition television. Alongside
Jake 2.0, it was one of the first two series on UPN to be broadcast in high-definition. The show contains over 4,214 minutes of special effects, dialogue, and other scenes. Although it was broadcast in high definition at 1080i, it was not released on 1080p blu-ray until later. An example of high definition is the 2017 Blu-ray collection of the full series called
Enterprise: The Full Journey. Until the start of the fourth season, the series was shot on traditional
film stock. The first three seasons were shot on wide screen 35mm film with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it was 3-perf Super 35mm film. At the time, this was cutting-edge for a TV show, allowing the production team improved low-light performance and enabling more shooting compared to chemical films. A Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta High-Definition camera was used, and the recording technology also used Sony' CineAlta 24P, a trademarked name of that company. The fourth season has been released multiple times, and as a combined full-series set in January 2017. Other composers who worked on
Enterprise included
Paul Ballinger,
David Bell,
Jay Chattaway,
John Frizzell,
Kevin Kiner,
Mark McKenzie,
Velton Ray Bunch and
Brian Tyler.
Opening sequence and theme song The franchise was known for typically using orchestral themes, but Berman said that the theme tune would be more "contemporary" than heard in previous series and a "little hipper". The theme was revealed to be a cover of the
Rod Stewart single "
Faith of the Heart", by British
tenor Russell Watson. Stewart's song had originally appeared on the soundtrack to the 1998 film
Patch Adams. For the use in
Enterprise, it was retitled to "Where My Heart Will Take Me", but prompted a negative reaction from existing
Star Trek fans. Executive producers Braga and Berman both defended the choice, with Berman saying that the fan response was split over the song The U2 song '
Beautiful Day' had been used as a
temp track on the test reels before "Faith of the Heart" was chosen. The aim of the sequence was to follow the evolution of exploration, flight and space flight. As suggested by Eaves' poster, it included real-world vessels such as the
frigate HMS Enterprise,
hot air balloon Montgolfier,
Wright Flyer III,
Spirit of St. Louis and
Bell X-1, as well as the
Lunar Module Eagle,
Space Shuttle Enterprise,
Mars rover Sojourner and
International Space Station.
Star Trek vessels featured included two new designs by Eaves as well as the first warp vessel, the
Phoenix, and the
Enterprise (NX-01). The
Phoenix spacecraft was presented in the 1996 feature film
Star Trek: First Contact as Earth's first warp vessel, whose inaugural warp flight triggered first contact with the Vulcans. The eighty second title sequence was produced by Montgomery Co. Creative, Culver City, California. The two-part episode
In a Mirror, Darkly uses a different opening sequence than the remainder of the series, reflecting themes of war and conquest in the
Mirror Universe.
Cancellation The series was considered for cancellation at the end of the second season, with Paramount executives instead requesting a number of changes to renew it following a letter-writing campaign from fans. These included a change of name to
Star Trek: Enterprise early in the third season; and a new action-oriented plot, which resulted in the development of the Xindi story line. Dolgen was described by Bakula as being the "huge
Star Trek guy" at Paramount, and his departure was followed by several other staff members leaving. However,
Enterprise was moved to a slot on Friday evening, the same night on which
The Original Series was broadcast during its own
third season before it was cancelled. On February 3, 2005, it was announced that
Enterprise had been canceled. This news was passed to the cast and crew during the sixth day of production on "
In a Mirror, Darkly". The end of the series marked the first time in 18 years that no new
Star Trek episodes were scheduled for broadcast, and
Enterprise was the first live-action series of the franchise since
The Original Series to last fewer than seven years. Braga said at a talk to students in Los Angeles shortly after the news of the cancellation was released that "After 18 straight years on the air and 750-some episodes, the current run of
Star Trek is over. Which is a good thing. It needs a rest". Fan myth suggests that
Russell T Davies, showrunner of the then-upcoming
revived series of
Doctor Who, was in talks about producing a
crossover episode in which the
Ninth Doctor landed the
TARDIS on board the NX-01, but these plans were abandoned with the cancellation of
Enterprise. This was based on a misunderstanding of the quote: The "we" reported to have been discussing a crossover was a reference to Davies talking to the
Doctor Who production team about his desire to write a crossover, not to any discussions between the BBC and Paramount. The cancellation brought protests by fans—at
Paramount Pictures, around the world, and online. A TrekUnited.com website was set up to raise funds for a fifth season, but failed to do so and refunded the donations after the unsuccessful campaign. $32 million was raised. This resulted in a Facebook campaign to promote a fifth season. Despite the cancellation, Paramount remained optimistic. Studio head David Stapf "looked forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future." Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendrensen developed a concept for a new film taking place after
Enterprise but before the 1960s television show. Meanwhile, Paramount asked
Roberto Orci for ideas to revive the franchise, resulting in the production of a reboot film set in an alternate timeline from the 1966–2005 franchise, simply titled
Star Trek, released in May 2009 and directed by
J. J. Abrams.
Season five At the time of the cancellation, Coto had hoped for renewal and already started to make plans for the fifth season. These included the expectation that the show would begin to cover the buildup to the Romulan War, as well as continue to link to
The Original Series with references to things such as the cloud city of Stratos, as seen in "
The Cloud Minders". Another feature Coto planned was to have a "miniseries within a series", with four or five episodes devoted to following up on events from the Mirror Universe episode "In a Mirror, Darkly". The producers also intended to bring
Jeffrey Combs onto the series as a regular by placing his recurring Andorian character Shran on the bridge of the
Enterprise in an advisory capacity. At the same time
Enterprise was broadcast, writer Jimmy Diggs was pursuing the idea of a CGI animated film,
Star Trek: Lions of the Night, with Captain Hikaru Sulu leading the
Starship Enterprise and attempting to prevent a Kzinti invasion of the Federation. Coto's episode was based on a similar premise, with Diggs brought onto the
Enterprise team to work on the episode. Production had begun on the new Kzinti ships for "Kilkenny Cats", with Josh Finney commissioned. There have been numerous calls and a campaign for the series to be re-booted and a fifth season made, and some of the actors have indicated their willingness. A lot of this is based on the fact that as one of the more recent
Trek shows, the actors are all still alive and active in the industry, and that the show was never really properly finished. ==Broadcast and release==