Scott Bakula’s Anger And the Controversial Star Trek: Enterprise Finale: 4 Key Insights

Scott Bakula’s anger about Star Trek: Enterprise‘s series finale was one of the topics discussed by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga on The D-Con Chamber podcast. Star Trek: Enterprise ended on May 13, 2005, with “These Are The Voyages…”, perhaps the most controversial and disliked Star Trek finale.

Star Trek: Enterprise‘s series finale centered on Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Riker consulted holodeck recreations of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his NX-01 Enterprise crew to help him make a big decision.

Fans (and Star Trek: Enterprise‘s actors) reacted badly to Rick Berman and Brannon Braga’s intentions for Enterprise’s ending, which also closed the book on 18 years of Star Trek television produced by Rick Berman, with Braga joining for 15 of those years.

After Star Trek: Enterprise ended, there were 12 years of no new Star Trek episodes produced on television. The long drought finally ended when Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017, which brought Star Trek into the streaming era and launched a renaissance on Paramount+.

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga joined The D-Con Chamber, hosted by Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating, to discuss their classic episode, “Shuttlepod One,” as well as Enterprise in general.

Berman and Braga have remarked upon Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale before, including on Keating and Trinneer’s previous podcast, The Shuttlepod Show, but The D-Con Chamber was the first time Enterprise‘s co-creators talked about “These Are The Voyages…” together with Keating and Trinneer on camera.

You can watch The D-Con Chamber episode below. Here are four major revelations from Rick Berman and Brannon Braga looking back at Star Trek: Enterprise‘s series finale.

Enterprise’s Finale Was Intended As A Love Letter To The Star Trek Franchise

Brannon Braga reiterated that he and Rick Berman had the best of intentions for Enterprise‘s finale, and that “These Are The Voyages…” was meant to be a “love letter” to the Star Trek franchise.

Rick Berman joined Star Trek: The Next Generation when Gene Roddenberry created it in 1987, and Berman assumed the stewardship of Star Trek in 1991 after Roddenberry’s death.

Brannon Braga joined Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1990, and worked on Star Trek: Voyager as an executive producer and showrunner before co-creating Enterprise with Berman.

Berman and Braga were cognizant of the fact that Enterprise ending also meant the end of the Star Trek franchise they’d worked on for nearly two decades. Right or wrong, they chose to make Enterprise‘s finale a finale to their era of Star Trek as well.

Star Trek: Enterprise‘s executive producers are also well aware over the last 20 years that Enterprise‘s fans regard the finale as a disappointing ending to Enterprise as a series, but they did what they thought would best celebrate the whole of Star Trek with the lone hour of TV they had.

Why Enterprise’s Finale Was Really A Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode

Star Trek: Enterprise‘s original 7-year plan was to conclude with the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Enterprise had barely scratched the surface of that macro story when the show was canceled in season 4 after 98 episodes. As Rick Berman explains:

“We can’t get ourselves from the 97th episode to the 98th episode [and tell the founding of the Federation] story-wise. There was no way we could do it. So the idea of doing a flashback from the future, looking back with the help of a holodeck, to see… what the culmination was with Jonathan Archer and the United Federation of Planets… And there was no way of doing that other than seeing it through as a flashback…”

Braga and Berman further explained that Enterprise’s finale holodeck flashback structure let audiences see “the impact” Captain Archer’s crew had on the future in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and bringing in Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes as Troi and Riker was “a convenience.”

Braga feels “These Are The Voyages…” was “a valentine” to the Star Trek franchise, and he still stands by their “cool” concept that Enterprise‘s finale was actually an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation looking back at Enterprise on the USS Enterprise-D’s holodeck.

Of course, that concept has always been the beef fans had with “These Are The Voyages…”, which they feel was disrespectful to Star Trek: Enterprise itself.

However, Dominic Keating also praises the scenes he and Enterprise’s cast shot with Jonathan Frakes posing as the NX-01’s mysterious Chef in the galley were “some of the funnest days we ever had” and that Frakes “was such a fun guy to work with.”

Killing Trip Tucker Was Star Trek: Enterprise Finale’s “Real Problem”

Looking back, Brannon Braga feels that Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale does have one glaring problem: killing off Commander Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer). Trip makes a heroic sacrifice to save his friend, Captain Archer, from marauders, because Archer is crucial to the Federation.

While Braga still struggles with the decision to kill Trip, pondering, “Why did we do it?”, Connor Trinneer has a very different perspective on the death of his popular Star Trek: Enterprise Chief Engineer.

Trinneer is “very satisfied” that Trip died because, as an actor, he got to play Tucker’s entire arc to its finish, and he enjoys that “You don’t have to wonder about” Trip because fans saw “the totality” of his story. Connor says fans are always surprised when they hear his feelings about Trip’s death.

Brannon Braga confirms that Trip’s death was to give “emotional impact” to Enterprise’s finale flashbacks, which he and Berman felt “needed some power, emotional potency.” Braga also admits he can see why fans were upset that Trip died, since he was such a beloved character.

Scott Bakula Was Angry About Star Trek: Enterprise’s Finale

Scott Bakula was angry about Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale, but Dominic Keating says he didn’t know how Bakula felt about “These Are The Voyages…” until Enterprise‘s cast gathered for a 10-year reunion as part of Star Trek: Enterprise‘s season 1 Blu-ray special features.

However, Braga admitted that he knew that Bakula “wasn’t happy with us,” although Brannon also says that he’d “never seen Scott angry.” Braga believes that Bakula was “feeling protective” about his cast and crew regarding how Enterprise‘s finale treated them.

Dominic Keating points out that because Captain Archer and the NX-01 crew are holograms, there are moments when Riker and Troi “stops and starts” Archer “like a puppet” that comes off as disrespectful, considering they are guest stars on Scott Bakula’s show.

However, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga reiterate that their intentions were never to be “dismissive” or “disrespectful” of Scott Bakula or Enterprise.

20 years later, the fact that fans and Star Trek: Enterprise‘s cast and executive producers are still discussing and debating “These Are The Voyages…” speaks to its unique impact as a Star Trek finale, for better or worse.

Release Date

2005 – 2005-00-00

Showrunner

Brannon Braga

Directors

Brannon Braga