You’ll always hear me saying that I wished STAR TREK ENTERPRISE had continued further than season 4,
honestly it’s criminal that this show was cut short just as it was getting into its stride
and really showing the potential it had to offer fans.
Sadly, with the cancellation of Enterprise,
we never got to see the future stories that the show could tell.
Well, today we’re going to explore storylines that might have occurred in a Season 5
of Star Trek Enterprise, Let’s go!
Hello everyone, my name is Captain Jack and welcome to Trek Central!
Given it’s the 20th anniversary of Star Trek Enterprise this year in 2021,
my how time flies,
it’s a great time to actually look back at the show and what it had to offer.
Season 4 saw many storylines coming together,
especially as Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise
took steps into a bigger playing field.
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Enterprise was officially canceled on the 2nd of February 2005,
with the fourth season being it’s last to ever air.
This means that the fifth season of Star Trek Enterprise was never produced.
Even so, the series writers and producers already had some plans for future seasons,
if the show had continued later that year.
Manny Coto, who had become the Showrunner of Star Trek Enterprise during Season 4,
had already started putting plans together for the future of the show,
building on what the crew of the NX-01 had already experienced.
One aspect being the Origins of the Federation, but a major one being Whispers of the Romulan War.
The Romulan War is a conflict which is alluded to in Star Trek,
but also heavily featured in the Star Trek Listverse, which is made up of many fantastic books.
We’ll actually be highlighting The Romulan War here on the channel very soon,
so keep an eye out for that one.
Essentially The Romulan War would have been a major conflict for Season Five of Enterprise,
with the Romulans being the major villains of the season all together.
While the conflict itself was never shown on screen,
we do know what would have happened thanks to the books and small references here and there.
To explore The Romulan War, we’ll draw from the Star Trek Listverse canon,
as the main line canon has limited information.
The Earth-Romulan was officially declared by Prime Minister Nathan Samuels on June 1st 2156,
though some sources disagree and state 2155.
It would see the Earth, via Starfleet, enter into conflict with The Romulan Star Empire.
Ultimately the Earth Alliance, which consisted of the United Earth,
The Confederacy of Vulcan, The Andorian Empire and the United Planets of Tellar, became victorious by 2161.
The Romulan War was costly to the United Earth and other members of the Coalition of Planets,
with the NX-05 Atlantis being destroyed in the first month.
Captain Jonathan Archer even turned to the Klingon Empire and pleaded with them to assist,
however the Kilgons refused.
Two years into the war, The Romulan Star Empire even tried attacking Earth during the Battle of Sol.
However thanks to tactics by Starfleet, the Romulan fleet was defeated and dealt a crippling blow.
The decisive battle in the Earth-Romulan War was the “Battle of Cheron”,
where both sides recognized the major victory achieved by the Earth Alliance
when they delivered a humiliating defeat of the Romulan Military.
24 Starfleet ships led by Enterprise under the command of Jonathan Archer
attacked Romulan staging grounds, taking on 81 starships.
The battle was hard, but thanks to multiple starships arriving from Vulcan, Andorian and Tellerite forces the battle was swung in the Coalition's favour.
The Romulan forces were forced to retreat back to their own territory under orders from command.
Following the Battle of Cheron, both sides were faced with staggering losses.
This led to Earth offering peace to the Romulan Star Empire.
This treaty was negotiated via subspace radio,
it’s worth noting that all communication with the Romulan Star Empire was always audio, never visual...
It would lead to the establishment of The Romulan Neutral Zone, as well as later leading to the founding of the United Federation of Planets.
We’ll be diving deeper into The Romulan War in further videos, stay tuned for that.
Another storyline that would have potentially been rounded off was the revelation of who “Future Guy” was.
This of course was the mysterious hologram “Benefactor” of the Suliban Cabal,
that would give instructions to the likes of Silik during Enterprise’s early seasons.
Rick Berman and Brannon Braga had considered making the Future Guy a Romulan.
Though later on this was changed for him to actually be Jonathan Archer, trying to influence his younger self into correcting the timeline.
Future Guy has become a fan favourite in the Star Trek Universe,
Wwith his story being continued in the books, as well as also being explored in the video game Star Trek Online.
His story is different from the books and series, but it’s still really interesting to see a conclusion.
We've actually done a dedicated video on who "Future Guy" actually is, here on the channel!. Check it out!
Remember “The Borg Episode” of Star Trek Enterprise,
that links in with the movie of Star Trek: First Contact?
Well that was actually going to be explored further. Writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens pitched a story to the producers about Alice Krige
playing a Starfleet Medical Technician,
who makes contact with the Borg in Season 2’s “Regeneration” episode.
This technician would have become the Borg Queen and likely caused chaos for the Starship Enterprise and crew.
It’s unclear how this story would have fully played out in the grand scheme of things,
as it might have affected The Borg storylines we already know.
Either way, it would have been interesting to play out.
Personally I think Enterprise handled the Borg episode really well.
Especially with the sending of the signal to the Delta Quadrant at the end of the episode.
Further linking in with the Borg’s first on-screen appearance in Star Trek: The Next Generation all those years ago.
A short story that would have been explored was the foundation for Starfleet’s first Starbase.
The origin of this story actually started with foreshadowing in the Season 4 episode “Bound”,
yes, the episode where Captain Archer and the crew meet some Orion Slave Girls,
which leads to some disastrous results.
T’Pol would see a story revolving around her father.
Writer and producer, Mike Sussman, had wanted to have T’pol meet and interact with her father.
The big twist you might be wondering, well Sussman wanted T’Pol’s father to be a Romulan Agent,
who was faking his life as a Vulcan officer.
This would lead to the suggestion that T’Pol herself was half-romulan, shedding light on her affinity for humans and experimenting with emotions.
FINALLY, we would have visited Denobula.
Doctor Phlox, a Denobulan, was an eye opening and much loved crew member for Star Trek Enterprise.
He was able to provide comic relief, but also critical analysis and plot development when needed,
a credit to John Billingsey’s acting skill.
Manny Coto had hoped that Season 4 would see the NX Enterprise visit Denobula at last.
If you watched Star Trek: The Original Series, you might remember Cloud City,
well Star Trek Enterprise was due to pre-visit this planet.
Manny Coto commented in 2004 that he wanted to do one or two episodes that would take place in the cloud city of Stratos,
which was on the planet of Ardana.
Originally the story was supposed to be in Enterprise’s fourth season, however it never got developed.
Coto would go on to clarify that due to the narrative’s length, it wasn't able to fit into the fourth season.
Likely this story would have been a two parter as well.
The goal would be to see Stratos in its earlier stages.
For those of you who want to go and view the original series episode, it is called “The Cloud Minders” and is a fantastic watch.
The Mirror Universe episodes for Star Trek Enterprise were some of the best the series had ever seen.
It was discussed that Enterprise would see a return to the Mirror Universe, to check up on how now Empress Hoshi Sato was doing in the Terran Empire.
Manny Coto had the idea of doing a sort of mini-series inside the season, exploring four or five episodes.
Now Star Trek Discovery in its first season did something very similar to that when you think back.
These ideas might have been borrowed from Enterprise.
Brannon Braga even revealed via his personal Twitter account that before Star Trek Enterprise was canceled,
there was talk about setting the entire fifth season in the mirror universe.
Personally I’m not sure about that, it might have been a bit much.
Of course, there are also many books, comics and even video-game stories that explore the adventures of Jonathan Archer
and the NX-01 Enterprise following Season 4 of the show.
If you’re in need for more Enterprise stories, and why not, then give some of these books a try.
Personally my favourite adventures are those from The Romulan War,
as well as a revisit to the auto-repair station seen in Enterprise’s second season, and how that sparked an even longer story.
It’s been a long road, but that is the end of the line for our Star Trek Enterprise adventures for today!
Be sure to let us know what you think Enterprise and her crew would have gotten up to if the show had continued.
Perhaps there is a storyline of your own you would have liked to see, let us know in the comments!
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For now, I’ve been Captain Jack, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time! Live Long and prosper my friends!