While the series has its fans, it's hard not to cite 2001's Star Trek: Enterprise as a vague disappointment. Starting in 1987 and running through the 1990s, Star Trek was riding high, enjoying massive popularity from Star Trek: The Next Generation and debuting with Star Trek: Deep Nine and Star Trek: Voyager ". ” in quick succession. Several feature films were released in theaters, and merchandise sales increased significantly. It was a great, beautiful time to be a Trekkie.

Enterprise, however, debuted two weeks after 9/11and no one seemed to be in the mood. The show's creators seemed a little tired, and post-9/11 audiences weren't really in the mood for a show about exploration, diplomacy, and making peace with your enemies. The three previous Star Trek shows ran for seven seasons each. Enterprise was canceled after its fourth in 2005, officially ending its glory days.

The premise of Enterprise, to remind readers, was intriguing. Set a century before the original Star Trek, Enterprise followed the adventures of the first Starfleet ship launched from Earth. There was still no Prime Directive, nor were there shields, photon torpedoes or - most importantly - "Federation", in that they were so stripped down and unique, tried to bring back the "wild west" atmosphere that was missing from the previous few shows of " Star Trek fans will argue that it was successful.

But since the series was canceled after the fourth season, some of the more ambitious plans were never fully realized. Show co-creator and former Star Trek head honcho. Rick Berman spoke to StarTrek.com back in 2011and regrets the lost opportunities, including the inability to fulfill its single central purpose: to mirror the formation of the Federation.

Some of the world's more passionate Trekkies will be able to tell you that Enterprise takes place in the mid-2150s, and also that the United Federation of Planets was founded in 2161. The Federation was founded by a quintet of species, respectively from Earth, Proxima Centauri, Vulcan, Thelar, and Andoria. Rick Berman probably set up the Enterprise when he pretended to let the events of the series lead to the founding of the Federation.

But since the show was canceled after just four years, the Federation story couldn't be told the way Berman or his co-creator Brannon Braga wanted. There was no definite plan for a Federation story, but it was always in the back of Berman's mind. He said:

"We wanted to basically develop a show that by season seven would lead us to a logical and dramatic method of creating the Federation." , but our goal was to make it the sixth and seventh seasons."

The finale of Enterprise did dramatize small bits of the founding of the Federation, but in what many might say was an abbreviated, unsatisfying way. Instead of the crew of the USS Enterprise forming alliances and practicing diplomacy, the show decided to make the final episode of the series (called "These are the journeys...") a centuries-after-the-fact holographic recreation witnessed by Star Trek: The Next Generation's William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Troi (Marina Sirtis).

Unfortunately, the show tanked in the ratings before any such groundwork could be laid. Yes, there were scenes of Federation treaty signings, but seeing the Enterprise characters as mere holograms didn't have the same impact.

The cancellation of the Enterprise came as something of a surprise to Berman, Braga and Cotto. They were still writing Enterprise in a mostly episodic structure (considered old-fashioned as of 2005), and weren't looking ahead to future seasons yet. So when it was revealed that the fourth season would be the last, they had to work quickly to write a satisfying finale. When asked what the show's fifth season might contain, Berman was at a loss. He said:

"We had no idea." We didn't get that far. We had probably shot six or seven episodes earlier at the time we were cancelled, and we hadn't really decided what the season four episode was going to be. or maybe it wasn't, but we didn't make that decision before we knew the plug was being pulled."

The Enterprise struggled a lot with the structure. In the early 2000s, many high-profile shows were moving away from the syndication-friendly episodic model and toward a binge-friendly serialization model. Many shows told stories that took entire seasons to complete, while others continued with single story arcs that spanned many years. Star Trek previously thrived on the episodic model, and it's only just beginning to expand into serialization with Deep Space Nine. Enterprise turned to a longer series narrative with its third season, and then had several mini-arcs (of three or four episodes each) in its fourth season. The show had to evolve as it went along.

This, unfortunately, may be what drove viewers away. It was not ambitious enough for a serial model, and it had already worn out its episodic one. Four years, it seems, was all the Enterprise was destined to have.