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Star Trek Enterprise




  Show Name Star Trek: Enterprise
  Caption ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' intertitle
  Format Science Fiction
  Picture Format 1080p ( HDTV (Production))</br> 720p ( HDTV (First run broadcast))
  Runtime approx 44 min
  Creator Rick Berman <br> Brannon Braga
  Starring ''see ''
  Country United States
  Language English
  Network UPN
  First Aired September 26 , 2001
  Last Aired May 13 , 2005
  Num Episodes 98
  List Episodes List of Star Trek: Enterprise episodes
  Preceded By ''''
  Website http://wwwstartrekcom/startrek/view/series/ENT/indexhtml
  Imdb Id 0244365
  Tv Com Id 2498


''Star Trek: Enterprise'' (titled '''''Enterprise''''' prior to season three) is a Science Fiction Television Program set in the Star Trek universe which was created by Gene Roddenberry .

The series, which follows the adventures of the pre-''.

Low ratings prompted UPN to cancel ''Enterprise'' on February 2 , 2005 , but the network allowed the series to complete its fourth season; the final episode aired on May 13 , 2005 . After a run of four seasons and 98 episodes, it was the first Star Trek series since the original ''Star Trek'' to have been cancelled by its network rather than finished by its producers.


PRODUCTION



PLOT

For plots of specific episodes, see



Seasons 1 and 2


The first two seasons of ''Enterprise'' depict the exploration of space by a crew who are able to go farther and faster than any humans had previously gone because of the breaking of the Warp 5 barrier. The crew members face situations that are familiar to ''Star Trek'' fans, but they are unencumbered by the experience and rules which have built up over hundreds of years of Trek history (as established in the other '' Star Trek '' series). ''Enterprise'' takes pains to show the origins of some concepts which have become taken for granted in ''Star Trek'' Canon , such as Reed's development of Force Field s and Archer's questions about cultural interference which would eventually be answered by the Prime Directive .

The Vulcan s are often close by to offer help when needed, but believe that humans are not yet a mature enough species to begin exploring the galaxy and initiating First Contact with other alien races. This generates some conflict as, in several early episodes, Archer complains bitterly about the Vulcans looking over his shoulder all the time.

A recurring theme throughout the first three seasons is the " Temporal Cold War ", in which a mysterious entity from the future uses technology to help a species known as the Suliban manipulate the timeline and change past events. Sometimes providing bad information to the crew of ''Enterprise'' and sometimes saving the ship from destruction, the entity's true motives are unknown. A (mostly) human from Earth's future, Agent Daniels , visits Captain Archer occasionally to assist him in fighting the Suliban and undoing damage to the timeline.

The creators of the series also made the decision to focus increasingly on the three core characters of the series – Archer , Tucker , and T'Pol – in lieu of further developing the supporting characters ( Sato , Mayweather , Reed , and Phlox ).
This format, based upon the similar "triumvirate" format used for the ''Original Series'' (which primarily focused on the trio of '', and other recent science fiction series.

The fact that Earth is not yet the significant interstellar presence it would later become is underscored in the first two seasons with a Running Joke : whenever an ''Enterprise'' crewmember says he or she is from Earth, the alien's response is invariably, "Earth? Never heard of it."


Season 3

Low ratings encouraged the series' producers to seek a new direction. The third season sees the change of the series' name to ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' and introduces a new enemy, the Xindi , whose goal is the annihilation of the human race because of fears that someday humanity will wipe them out.

The entire third season follows one long Story Arc , which began in the second season finale " The Expanse " in which a mysterious probe deploys a weapon which cuts a wide, deep trench from central Florida to Venezuela , killing seven million people. ''Enterprise'' is refitted as a warship with the addition of MACO s, seen as the precursor to the heavily armed Starfleet security personnel in other '' Star Trek '' series, and travels through the Delphic Expanse to find the Xindi homeworld and prevent another attack against Earth.

The third season saw Archer grow from an angry man desperate to find and destroy the Xindi to a peacemaker finding common ground with the various races of Xindi (the race behind the probe attack). His intervention unites the Xindi against the real threat, an extra-dimensional race that has its own reasons for manipulating the Xindi into eradicating Earth. Humanity will lead the Federation in defeating this race's attempted invasion of the galaxy in the 26th century; erasing the human species before the Federation's founding will theoretically prevent this defeat. Fortunately, at the Battle of Procyon 5, the Enterprise J leads the fight against the trans-dimensional beings in the final battle of the invasion.

Subplots featured during the third season included the establishment of a romantic relationship between T'Pol and Trip, the consequences of T'Pol becoming addicted to a drug-like substance, Archer's wrestling with the ambiguous morality of his actions, and Reed's simmering conflict with the head of the MACOs who he sees as a threat to his authority.

The third season, especially later episodes, was received more favorably by critics.
The episodes " Similitude ", " Twilight " and " Proving Ground " were popular, as was the arc-within-an-arc formed by the last seven episodes of the third season.

Some of these were written or co-written by Manny Coto , a writer who joined the series in its third season. Several of Coto's scripts, such as "Similitude", were popular with fan and critics. He was subsequently promoted to executive producer and Show Runner for season 4.

The Xindi story arc carried over into the fourth season, being related peripherally to the two-part season premiere, "Storm Front" (being a detour as ''Enterprise'' returned to Earth), and "Home" serving as a coda to the arc, showing the ''Enterprise'' crew returning to Earth and dealing with the after-effects of their year-long mission as well as continued aftershocks of the original Xindi attack.


Season 4

Season 4 produced a mixture of two- and three-episode arcs, along with a few standalone episodes. After closing out the '') as the imprisoned scientist Dr. Arik Soong (an ancestor of Data's creator) in a three-episode arc (" Borderland ", " Cold Station 12 ", and " The Augments ") involving genetically enhanced superhumans known as " Augments ", including references to Khan Noonien Singh from the original series episode " Space Seed ". In the end of "The Augments" Soong abandons the concept of improving mankind in favour of creating artificial intelligence: the first reference to Data.

Season 4 also addressed some discrepancies between the Vulcans of ''The Original Series (TOS)'' and those depicted in ''Star Trek: Enterprise''. The "Vulcan Civil War" arc (" The Forge ", " Awakening ", and " Kir'Shara ") was hailed as among the most interesting and intricately woven plotlines of the series. In it, the characters meet T'Pau (a character who first appeared in ''TOS'' episode " Amok Time ") and the audience sees Romulan s trying to undermine the stability of the balance of power between the Andorian s and Vulcans. As a result of the story-arc, Vulcans began to undergo a transformation that was presumably a turn toward the more dispassionate and honest Vulcans of previous ''Trek'' series set further in the future. Notably, the arc resolved statements made earlier that not all Vulcans could mind-meld by revealing this belief to be a deception on the part of Vulcan political factions, along with a similar deception that a meld-related disease contracted by T'Pol in the first season was incurable; as the season progressed, T'Pol began doing mind melds of her own and also established a mental link with Trip as the two continued the relationship that started in the third season.

The exploration element of the first two seasons (and previous Trek series) was downplayed in the fourth season, which was informally referred to as the "Solar System Arc" because most storylines begin with ''Enterprise'' being assigned a mission from Earth, rather than simply encountering the adventure through exploration. While many die-hard Trekkie s welcomed the show's focus on introducing concepts from other Trek series, some critics bemoaned the decision to more or less abandon the "exploring strange ''new'' worlds" concept of the early seasons.

The series cancellation was announced prior to the writing of the final episode of the fourth season, which allowed the writing team to craft a Series Finale . The episodes before this included a two-parter detailing how Klingon s become more human-looking during the period of TOS (as well as showing Section 31 ) and a two-parter taking place in the Mirror Universe and featuring a starship from the TOS era. This was followed by a final arc addressing prejudice and terrorism within Earth's solar system, ending with a move towards the eventual founding of the United Federation of Planets.

The final episode of ''Enterprise'', titled ", another ''TNG'' veteran who had guest-starred earlier in the fourth season, lent his voice to the finale, and can be heard as Data speaking to Troi via the ship's communication system. The episode ends with a depiction of the commencement of the United Federation of Planets.


CAST

''Enterprise'' is the only live-action Star Trek series that never experienced any changes to its core cast.


CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER STAR TREK INCARNATIONS


Characters and races

The only main characters from another Trek production seen in ''Enterprise'' were Zefram Cochrane in the series premier, and Deanna Troi and William Riker in "These Are the Voyages..." Because the series was set in time before any of the other Trek productions, characters in those productions weren't generally able to be written into the series.


Actor crossovers

No Enterprise lead cast members starred in any other Trek production. However, several actors from other Trek production have starred in Enterprise, these include:

  • Brent Spiner (Data from The Next Generation) appeared as recurring character Arik Soong, Noonien Soong's ancestor; Spiner also provided the voice of Commander Data from ''TNG'' in the finale episode.

  • Rene Auberjonois (Odo from Deep Space Nine) appeared in "Oasis" as Kantare engineer Ezral.

  • Ethan Phillips (Neelix from Voyager) appeared in "Acquisition" as Ferengi pirate Ulis.

  • Casey Biggs (Damar from Deep Space Nine) appeared in "Damage" as an unnamed Illyrian Captain.

  • Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun & Brunt from Deep Space Nine) appeared as a Ferengi in the episode "Acquisition", and also recurring character Andorian Commander Shran.

  • Roxann Dawson (Lt. B’Elanna Torres from Voyager) lent her voice in the episode "Dead Stop", an episode which she also directed.

  • As noted above, Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes reprised their ''TNG'' characters of Deanna Troi and William Riker, respectively, in the series finale.

  • Clint Howard (brother of actor/director Ron Howard)appeared in "Acquisition" as Ferengi pirate Muk as well as in the TOS episode "The Corbomite Maneuver" (1966)as Balok.

  • Furthermore, Robert Duncan McNeill, Roxann Dawson (Paris & Torres of Voyager), and LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge from TNG) have also directed episodes of ''Star Trek: Enterprise''.



MILESTONES

''Enterprise'' marked several milestones in ''Star Trek'' television production:
  • the first ''Star Trek series'' to be produced in Widescreen

  • the first ''Star Trek'' series to be broadcast in HDTV , beginning on 10/15/2003, midway into the 3rd season. Enterprise Gets the HDTV Treatment ''StarTrek.com''

  • the first ''Star Trek'' series to be filmed on Digital Video (season 4) http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/6165.html ''Startrek.com''

  • the first ''Star Trek'' series since '''' to debut at the start of a TV season rather than at mid-season.

  • the first ''Star Trek'' series to have a theme song with song lyrics that were used (the originally had lyrics, but they were never used).

  • the first ''Star Trek'' series to feature Podcast commentary.

  • the first science fiction television or movie production to use actual video footage taken on another planet (the ''Sojourner'' rover approaching the Yogi Rock , taken by the Mars Pathfinder lander and used in the opening credits).

  • the first contemporary ''Star Trek'' Series (developed in the last 20 years), to be cancelled because of poor ratings.



THEME SONG

The series' theme song, a pop song written by Diane Warren and sung by Russell Watson , was a marked contrast to the sweeping instrumental themes used in all other Star Trek series.
It was also the first such theme not to have been composed specially for Star Trek, having previously appeared (performed by Rod Stewart ) in the film '' Patch Adams '' (1998).

Like other aspects of the series, the theme song polarized fans. Online petitions were signed demanding its removal from the titles.1 A new, more upbeat arrangement of the theme song was introduced for the third season, but this did not assuage the song's critics, and elicited criticism from some who liked the original version.2

The song was known by several titles but most commonly "Faith of the Heart" (the title from '' Patch Adams '').
However, the official soundtrack CD for ''Enterprise'', as well as all releases of the song by Watson, give it the new title of "Where My Heart Will Take Me."
Only parts of the first and second verse are heard in the opening credits; a longer recording by Watson exists and was released on the soundtrack CD.

Throughout the show's run, there was extensive Internet speculation as to whether the theme song and opening credits (which was questioned by some for depicting only American flight and spaceflight advances - especially for 'ignoring' Sputnik and Gagarin 3) would be changed.4
This speculation was fueled in October 2004 when the official website startrek.com posted an opening credits sequence in which Scott Bakula recites a modified version of the famous "Space, the final frontier..." speech (with the phrase " Where No Human Has Gone Before " in place of "where no man" or "where no one"), accompanied by "Archer's Theme", the instrumental used as the closing credits music for the series.
Around this same time an alternate version of the opening credits using music from '''' and carrying a "Paramount Television Operations" notation, made the rounds on File Sharing networks; this too was never adopted and there are doubts that this version was a genuine Paramount creation.

The two-part episode " In A Mirror, Darkly ", which takes place within the Mirror Universe , featured a unique opening credits sequence and music intended to capitalize on the alternate universe setting.

Four different end credits versions were created during the show's run, although these were not seen in the original UPN broadcasts. The premiere episode, "Broken Bow" ended with an instrumental version of "Where My Heart Will Take Me" heard on this occasion only. Beginning with the second episode, "Fight or Flight", and continuing for the rest of the show's run, an instrumental piece entitled "Archer's Theme" was heard. The arrangement of "Archer's Theme" as heard in "Fight or Flight" differed from that used in the rest of the series. The two-parter, "In a Mirror, Darkly", reprised that episode's unique opening credits music. The syndicated release of "Broken Bow" replaces the instrumental "Where My Heart Will Take Me" with the standard "Archer's Theme" version.

On August 2 , 2005 , a recording of "Where My Heart Will Take Me" was played for the crew of the Space Shuttle '' Discovery '' as their morning wake-up call during the "Return to Flight" mission STS-114 . The song was chosen as a special dedication from Deputy Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale .5 The song was played again two years later on August 9, 2007 as the morning wake-up call of the first day of the STS-118 mission. The song was dedicated to astronaut Rick Mastracchio .

In a less well-known role, a slightly edited version of the theme was also sung as the "Athlete's Theme" live by Russell Watson at the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games , in Manchester , UK .

Before the series premiered, UPN ran a series of promos for the show using the song "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling .


U.S. TELEVISION RATINGS

for the series' duration]]
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' on UPN:


CANCELLATION



By the third season, ratings were continually declining, and the threat of cancellation loomed over Enterprise.
(See for the Nielsen Ratings .)
This, along with the poor box office performance in 2002 of '''', cast an uncertain light upon the future of the Star Trek franchise in general.
Many placed blame on the production staff and/or the overall concept of the series. Others blamed its parent network UPN for not promoting the series and allowing major affiliates to preempt it on many occasions for local sports coverage: fans frequently pointed out that after its pilot episode, commercials for "Enterprise" did not appear on other television channels at all. Another major factor was that UPN's target audience and programming had changed drastically. Star Trek was no longer complementary or even compatible with the direction of the network.

Many fans also reported that they chose to watch UPN's weekend rebroadcasts of the series, which were not counted in the ratings. This led actor Connor Trinneer, in an interview with ''Starlog'' magazine, to make the unusual request that fans ''not'' watch the weekend replay. Another factor cited for the show/franchise's decline was the fact that, as of 2005, there had been continuous Star Trek production for nearly 18 years, and executive producer Rick Berman in part blamed "franchise fatigue" for the show's poor reception.

In response to reports that the series was headed for cancellation at the end of its third season, several fan campaigns to save the show were launched: most notably those of " Save Enterprise ". Several full page advertisements appeared in the '' Hollywood Reporter '' to encourage the network to renew the show. The ads were funded by donations from fans and excess funds were donated to charity in the names of several cast members.

On '' to a Friday Night Time Slot for its third season prior to its ultimate cancellation.

Paramount Network Television president Garry Hart was quoted in an August 2004 '' New York Times '' article that Paramount and UPN stood by the series and hoped to see it continue for several more seasons. Only days later, however, Hart resigned his position and this, combined with the departure or reassignment of other Star Trek supporters within Paramount and UPN during 2004, placed the future of the series in doubt.

A new co-executive producer, Manny Coto , was brought in for the fourth season.
Coto decided to retain the "arc" concept of season 3, but reduce it from one arc for the entire season to several "mini-arcs" of two or three episodes, with a few standalones. In order to attract more viewers, particularly ''Star Trek fans'' who had not found ''Enterprise'' or the previous ''Star Trek: Voyager'' to their liking, the producers brought in '', to appear in three episodes of the fourth season. In addition, the producers attempted to attract viewers by terminating an unpopular story arc (the Temporal Cold War ) and scheduling numerous episodes that served as prequels to storylines from the Original Series and TNG.

Beginning in the summer of 2004, and continuing throughout the fourth season, there were reports that William Shatner would reprise the role of James T. Kirk or perhaps an ancestor in the series,10 however an agreement could not be reached.11

The fourth season got off to a slow start in the ratings on October 8 , 2004 due to the Friday time-slot, preemptions by local sports in some markets, and by coverage of a presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry in others. The ratings also continued to be affected by the "rerun effect" when first-run episodes were rebroadcast over the weekend by UPN affiliates in time slots not registered by Nielsen. ''Enterprise'' fans continued to indicate they chose to watch the weekend showing rather than the Friday broadcast, or chose to "time-shift" the program using their VCR or TiVo equipment. In October 2004, it was announced that ''Enterprise'' was the 25th most popular Season Pass on the TiVo television recording system in the United States. http://web.archive.org/web/20041101030509/http://www.tivo.com/5.3.top100.asp ''Archive.org''

In December 2004, it was reported that ''Enterprise'' was the top-rated dramatic program on UPN, although by January 2005 it had fallen behind the law drama '' Kevin Hill '', but it remained ahead of the critically acclaimed mystery series '' Veronica Mars ''. (In May 2005, UPN cancelled ''Kevin Hill'' but renewed the low-rated ''Veronica Mars'' on the basis it better fit the network's newly desired female demographic.)

The Internet gave rise to near-continuous rumors and speculation regarding the show's future from the earliest days of the series, and this reached a fever pitch as the fourth season began and Nielsen Ratings for the show, although an improvement for the Friday night timeslot, still dropped in comparison to the previous season.

Another reason for Enterprise's poor ratings was the fact that UPN is not available in all markets, thus preventing countless ''Star Trek'' fans from watching the show during its original network broadcasts.

Speculation as to the future of the series came to an end on , 2005 .

In the days immediately following the cancellation announcement, the ''Star Trek'' fan community remained divided between those who were upset by the news and by those who welcomed it. Some fans, posting to online newsgroups and bulletin boards, blamed Berman and Braga for the cancellation, while others blamed network head Les Moonves , who was identified in the media as the individual who made the decision to cancel the show.

During an online chat at startrek.com on of UPN (the network's schedule at that time primarily consisted of so-called "urban" Sitcoms and reality programming). He also said major changes to the management of both Paramount and UPN during 2003-2004 resulted in past supporters of Star Trek departing the organization (most notably the aforementioned Garry Hart). Bakula said the series was to have been cancelled at the end of the 2003-2004 season, but support from Hart and others earned the show one final year.

On '', paid for by fan donations, exhorting the American Sci Fi Channel to pick up the show. The ad received wide press coverage from, among other outlets, the Associated Press , BBC and CNN . Later that month, a group of fans held a rally in front of the Paramount Studios facility in Hollywood .

Around this time, several fan groups including Save Enterprise joined forces to create, TrekUnited.com and announced a drive to raise money via fan donations to finance a further season of ''Enterprise''. On March 1 , Trek United and Save Enterprise announced http://www.saveenterprise.com/3m_contribution.htm ''Saveenterprise.com'' that three anonymous individuals connected with the fledgling commercial spaceflight industry had pledged $3 million to the cause, although millions of dollars more will be needed in order for this effort to be successful (approximately $30 million US is the goal of the campaign, based upon estimates of the cost for a full season cited by John Billingsley and others http://www.trekunited.com/faq.php?lang=en ''Trekunited.com'').
Critics of the initiative have labeled it unrealistic, but supporters have said it is a symbolic gesture.

Another fan based effort spearheaded by Washington, D.C. lobbyist, Dan Jensen, sought members of the United States Congress to sign a letter supporting the values and legacy of the series which was to be sent to Paramount in late March. On March 1, Jensen and supporters of this effort announced that Florida Republican Mark Foley had become the first Congressman to agree to sign the letter.

Production of the fourth season concluded on March 8 , 2005 , and by the end of the month, Startrek.com was reporting the ''Enterprise'' sets had been taken down, marking the first time that Stage 9 at Paramount Studios has been without ''Star Trek'' sets since the late 1970s. The website did not indicate whether the sets have been preserved in storage or if they have been destroyed. http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/9513.html ''Startrek.com''

As of April 13 , 2005 , Paramount and UPN remained adamant that the cancellation of the series was final and that the studio was not interested in continuing the current incarnation of Star Trek and Startrek.com revealed that studio officials had actually denied TrekUnited's fund-raising efforts as early as mid-March. TrekUnited officials, however, still claimed to be in talks with Paramount over the future of the series. http://www.trektoday.com/news/120405_02.shtml ''Trektoday.com''

On , TrekUnited revealed it was Canadian producer Al Vinci who had been negotiating with Paramount Network Television President David Stapf on a co-production with established Canadian motion picture and television producers, backed by US$18 million from private investors. Then Trek United announced the studio had formally rejected the idea and promised refunds for those fans who had donated to the cause would be issued beginning on April 18 . http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/604/604625p1.html ''Filmforce.ign.com''

The Web site IGN Filmforce, reporting on rumors Paramount had actually decided to cancel ''Enterprise'' after its fourth season as early as midway through the second year, quoted an unidentified "executive involved with ''Enterprise''" as saying this scenario was "very likely". http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/604/604625p1.html ''Filmforce.ign.com'' Soon after, Scott Bakula, in an interview with Sci Fi Wire, reiterated his belief that management changeovers at Paramount in 2003-2004 left ''Enterprise'' and the Star Trek franchise without strong support, adding that as recently as 2004 now-departed management at the studio had expressed interest in developing a feature film based upon ''Enterprise''. http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire2005/index.php?category=0&id=30849 ''Scifi.com'' This was later denied by Berman.

The local sports preemptions that had plagued ''Enterprise'' through most of its run continued unabated in a number of major markets as its final episodes were broadcast in the rest of the country, including the Boston and New York City UPN affiliates. The Orlando affiliate chose to broadcast professional basketball games in lieu of the series. Similarly, Boston's WSBK-TV , for example, moved the series to Saturday night beginning in April in order to accommodate local baseball coverage, although it did air the finale on May 13 due to the fact the Boston Red Sox game scheduled for that night did not begin until later in the evening. Several affiliates reportedly preempted the finale for local programming.

In May 2005, UPN announced that, starting in the fall, '' WWE SmackDown! '', its longtime Professional Wrestling series, would move into the same Friday night timeslot vacated by ''Enterprise'', a move coinciding with reports that UPN does not plan to renew its contract with WWE in 2006, bringing to a close another TV franchise. (However, in January 2006, it was announced UPN would merge with The WB to form a new network, CW , and ''SmackDown!'' was announced as one of series scheduled for the network's inaugural 2006-2007 season.)

UPN continued to air reruns of ''Enterprise'' for only a month after the series finale, with the last network-broadcast episode, "In a Mirror, Darkly Part II", airing on June 11 , 2005 -- this despite initial announcements that reruns would continue throughout the summer. With disruptions from local sports programming, many areas never had the opportunity to see all the episodes which had been aired elsewhere.

Syndicated rebroadcasts of the series began in North American markets on in late 2006.

NBC Universal 's SciFi began showing the series on January 8 , 2007 , http://www.scifi.com/enterprise/ ''Scifi.com'' in four-episode blocks every Monday night.


DVD RELEASES

In October 2004, coinciding with the start of the show's fourth season and months before the cancellation announcement, Paramount revealed plans to release the four seasons of ''Enterprise'' to DVD in North America during 2005 . This announcement, coupled with Paramount advertising syndication sales of the series during the fall of 2005, raised concerns in fan circles that this might have been a sign the series was less likely to be renewed for a fifth season. It has yet to be revealed whether these two developments had any bearing on the decision to cancel the program since '''', and ''Voyager'' all saw episodes released to Home Video during their runs, long before those series ended. It had also become commonplace for current series to have past seasons released to DVD.

The first season DVD was released on May 3 , 2005 , ten days prior to the broadcast of the final episode. This release marked a couple of firsts for ''Star Trek'' TV series DVD releases. It was the first to include extensive deleted scenes (although footage cut from the premiere of ''Voyager'' had been included in a featurette previously), and it was the first to include an outtakes or Blooper reel. The remaining seasons were released on July 26 , September 27 , and November 1 .


ORIGINAL NOVELS AND RELAUNCH


Like the Trek series that preceded it, a series of original novels based on ''Enterprise'' was launched by Pocket Books soon after the program debuted. During the run of the series, however, only five books were published (not counting episode novelizations) —a low number compared to the other series. No ''Enterprise''-specific novels appeared at all in 2005 and the first post-cancellation novel, ''Rosetta'' by Dave Stern , did not appear until February 2006.

As explained by Pocket Books editor Margaret Clark , it was decided to scale back the number of books published not due to low sales or lack of interest in the prequel series, but due to the fact that the televised series often conflicted with planned literary plotlines, or beat the book series to the punch entirely. For example, the novel ''Surak's Soul'' by J.M. Dillard , includes as a major plot point- the aftermath of T'Pol killing a person during a mission. Before the novel was published, however, the TV series aired "The Seventh," an episode with a similar core plot point, which forced last-minute revisions to Dillard's book. Later, the novel ''Daedalus'' by Dave Stern, which included flashbacks to the early days of the NX program, also needed to be revised to avoid conflicting with the already-broadcast episode " First Flight " which also featured a look at the early days of the NX program. (The title ''Daedalus'' was later used for an unrelated fourth season episode of the series.) Apparently, things weren't expected to change during the fourth season; in a May 2005 posting at the TrekBBS , Clark explained that the lack of ''Enterprise'' novels was intended to avoid any further potential storytelling "land mines" since "Season Four kept doing stuff we wanted/planned to do". http://www.trektoday.com/news/180505_01.shtml ''Trektoday.com''

Now that the televised series has concluded, the writers are free to compose continuation novels without fear of being preempted or contradicted by the show (save for any restrictions put in place by the finale episode -- however, see below). In May 2005, Clark announced plans for a new series of ''Enterprise'' novels that will constitute a "relaunch" similar to that of the literary continuation of ''''. Clark indicated that the books will cover events in the six years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages...". http://www.trektoday.com/news/180505_01.shtml ''Trektoday.com''

An original novel, ''Last Full Measure'', was released in April 2006. It takes place during the third season Xindi Arc and therefore isn't considered part of the relaunch (''Rosetta'' takes place during the fourth season and likewise is not considered a relaunch volume, either). However, ''Last Full Measure'' does contain a "framing sequence" that serves as a preview for the Relaunch.

This framing sequence, which has proven controversial, suggests Trip Tucker did not die in the events of "These Are the Voyages..." and is alive in the early 23rd century, though the reason for this is not explained. According to Clark, again posting on the TrekBBS, dissatisfaction over the finale episode is the driving factor behind the continuation novels/relaunch including a story arc that suggests that Trip's death in the finale was not as it seemed.

The first official relaunch novel, ''The Good That Men Do'' by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin was published by Pocket Books on February 28 , 2007 , and gives a different perspective on the events shown in the final episode.


SEE ALSO





REFERENCES



EXTERNAL LINKS