Star Trek Fan Explains The Only Way Enterprise Would Have Better

Highlights

• Star Trek: Enterprise fans propose a seven-season run with a reworked structure to improve the show’s cohesiveness and maintain its unique optimistic vibe.
• The proposed schedule includes a buffer season, a lead-up to the Romulan War, and an extended series finale, providing a smoother transition between storylines.
• Eliminating the feeling of disconnect between seasons, the proposed run would offer fans a more satisfying and cohesive viewing experience, similar to the structure of Deep Space Nine.

A Star Trek: Enterprise fan shared what they think is the only way the early 2000s show could have been improved upon.

Star Trek: Enterprise was the sixth series in the sci-fi franchise, starting in 2001, just months after the conclusion of the often underrated run of Star Trek: Voyager, and wrapping in 2005 after just four seasons. The show was unique in its premise, serving as a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series and marking the first time the franchise ventures backward from the original setting. Set in the 22nd century, Enterprise tells the tale of mankind’s first practical interstellar craft, the eponymous Enterprise, and its crew, focusing on the main characters, Captain Jonathan Archer, Commander Trip Tucker, and Sub-commander T’Pol.

While Star Trek: Enterprise had quite a few underrated episodes and interesting arcs stuffed into its four-season run, many fans of the franchise have expressed regrets at the show not running the expected seven-season format that the franchise had favored up until that point, with the desire for more seasons often accompanying an emphasis on the Romulan War being explored. However, Reddit user ltw07a has other ideas on how the series could have been better if it got a seven-season run. Taking to the r/startrek to pen a post titled “The only way Enterprise would’ve been better…”, they go on to state that while they enjoyed seasons 3 and 4, which covered the crew’s search for a Xindi superweapon and a ton of in-universe setup for Star Trek:The Original Series respectively, the show’s original optimistic vibe was lost in the shuffle to set the mood for the more serious serialized arcs in seasons 3 and 4.

ltw07a then outlines a season-by-season breakdown of their proposed addition and changes to Star Trek: Enterprise, which would see a much more fan-friendly progression of events and some much-desired additions. While the first and second seasons of the proposed rework would remain the same, the third season would postpone the Xindi arc in favor of a buffer season, allowing the series to slowly transition in tone before starting and ending the Xindi storyline in the new fourth season. The newly minted fifth season would lead to the Romulan War and the beginning of the allusions to The Original Series coming in earlier, and the sixth season would detail the bulk of the Romulan war with time-skips and emphasis on important events. Finally, the seventh season would cover the final stretch of the war and its resolution, ending with an extended season (and series) finale, allowing fans to see a much earlier iteration of Star Trek‘s iconic Federation as it comes to be.

One major thing the proposed schedule accomplishes is eliminating the disconnect between seasons, a possible explanation for why some fans don’t like Patrick Stewart’s Star Trek: Picard series. The extra season’s worth of time to shift the tone before the grim events of the Xindi arc, as well as taking up a season to set up the Romulan war and spread out the Star Trek: The Original Series bits, all serve to give the proposed seven-season run a good cohesive feeling. Some other fans on the platform pointed out similarities in structure to Deep Space Nine, which isn’t a condemnation of the structure so much as a suggestion that it would be too similar. However, the original poster quickly pointed out that doubling down on the show’s optimistic, wide-eyes early season vibe would retain its uniqueness.

Star: Trek Enterprise might not be perfect, but fans still have a lot of love for it as is, and a reworked seven-season run is just a fan dream, such as with the Star Trek: Picard Q spinoff project seemingly canceled by Paramount. While those might not be coming to audiences anytime soon, fans can still look forward to much more Star Trek content after the Paramount Plus streaming restructuring comes to the same consolidation conclusion as the other big streamers.

Star Trek: Enterprise is available for streaming on Paramount Plus.

Source: Itw07a/Reddit