Enterprise Ending Better Than Hated Finale

An alternate idea for Star Trek: Enterprise‘s ending would have been better received than the hated series finale, “These Are The Voyages…” Star Trek: Enterprise ended its 4-season run on United Paramount Network (UPN) with a series ender that is still looked down upon by Star Trek fans over 20 years later.

Written by executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, Star Trek: Enterprise‘s ending was criticized for focusing on Star Trek: The Next Generation guest stars Commander Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) instead of Enterprise‘s main characters.

“These Are The Voyages…” took place during the Star Trek: The Next Generation season 7 episode, “The Pegasus,” with holograms of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his NX-01 appearing instead of the actual characters. Fans revolted at the result, and even Star Trek: Enterprise’s actors were reportedly unhappy with how they were treated in their series finale.

Alternate Star Trek: Enterprise Ending Idea Explained

Star Trek: Enterprise writer-producer Michael Sussman was a guest on The Trek Files with Larry Nemecek and revealed that he came up with an alternate ending for Captain Archer that, in hindsight, would have been a more crowd-pleasing ending for Enterprise‘s main hero and Star Trek‘s fans.

Michael Sussman discussed how he was asked to write a biographical file about Captain Archer’s career after commanding the NX-01 Enterprise, which ended up becoming canon because it appeared on-screen in Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Mirror Universe two-parter, “In a Mirror, Darkly.” Sussman explains:

I knew that we were building these sets for The Original Series bridge [for the Mirror Universe two-parter]. And I was kicking around some various time travel-y, wrap ‘em up series finale ideas. And one of them would have put a very old Archer on the bridge of the 1701 [USS Enterprise] at its launch… You would have seen this moment.

Now, it didn’t involve Archer passing into the great beyond, but I was thinking… We knew the date [and] the year. It was 2245. So, how old would Archer be in that year? Would that be plausible? I think he’s still younger than McCoy was in “Encounter at Farpoint” by just a couple of years. So I thought, well, alright, [humans living past 100 years old] is sort of established in [Star Trek’s] universe.

I don’t have a lot of recall about what the rest of that half-formed idea was. It wasn’t an actual pitch that I took to Rick and Brannon and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do this for a series finale?’ But that was a notion I was kicking around… Archer just wanted to see the launch of that ship, and he was just hanging [on] as best he could until that happened. It seemed like a very sweet idea…

At the time “In a Mirror Darkly” was being filmed, Star Trek: Enterprise‘s cast and crew had already learned that UPN had canceled the show. Michael Sussman was inspired by the USS Defiant bridge set built for the Mirror Universe episodes that was identical to the bridge of Captain James T. Kirk’s (William Shatner) Starship Enterprise.

In Michael Sussman’s imagined scenario, President Jonathan Archer (born in 2112) would have been 133 years old when the Constitution Class USS Enterprise NCC-1701 launched in 2245 under Captain Robert April (Adrian Holmes). Enterprise NCC-1701 was built in the San Francisco Fleet Yards, and Sussman felt Archer would have wanted to live to see the new starship take flight.

The elderly first Captain of the Enterprise standing on the bridge of the next version of his starship that would become legendary would, indeed, have been an uplifting sight for Star Trek fans. However, as Michael Sussman said, he didn’t present his “notion” to Star Trek: Enterprise‘s executive producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who developed “These Are The Voyages…” as the show’s finale.

Unfortunately, Star Trek fans didn’t respond to or embrace “These Are The Voyages…” the way Enterprise‘s executive producers hoped. Meanwhile, the way Enterprise‘s finale was conceived and played out, Michael Sussman’s idea of the old President Archer on the bridge of the NCC-1701 USS Enterprise wouldn’t have fit, although it would have been a far more satisfying final note for Archer.

Why Star Trek: Enterprise Ended With TNG’s Riker & Troi Instead

Rick Berman and Brannon Braga explained in an interview on The D-Con Chamber, hosted by Star Trek: Enterprise’s Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, that they had no intention of disrespecting Enterprise‘s actors or the fans when they produced “These Are The Voyages…”

Aware that the end of Star Trek: Enterprise would also mean that no more Star Trek television would be produced (a drought that lasted 12 years until Star Trek: Discovery premiered in 2017), the executive producers’ intention was to pay homage to the 18 years of Star Trek overseen by Rick Berman.

Because Star Trek: Enterprise was a prequel set in the 22nd century, it felt far removed from both Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation’s eras. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga felt that by bringing in Commander Riker and Counselor Troi to look back at Captain Archer and his crew, it would contextualize Enterprise‘s importance to Star Trek canon.

Unfortunately, Star Trek fans didn’t respond to or embrace “These Are The Voyages…” the way Rick Berman and Brannon Braga hoped. Meanwhile, the way Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale was conceived and played out, Michael Sussman’s vision of the old President Archer on the bridge of the NCC-1701 USS Enterprise wouldn’t have fit.

Instead, Star Trek: Enterprise‘s finale concluded with the three versions of the Starship Enterprise, the USS Enterprise-D, NCC-1701 USS Enterprise, and the NX-01 Enterprise with Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Captain Kirk, and Captain Archer taking turns voicing sections of Star Trek‘s “Space, the final frontier…” mission statement.

Enterprise Accidentally Planted The Seed For Scott Bakula’s Proposed Star Trek Comeback

In a happy accident, Michael Sussman writing a biographical file about Jonathan Archer’s post-Captain of the Enterprise career in Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Mirror Universe two-parter not only became canon, but it also became the basis for Scott Bakula’s potential Star Trek comeback.

In August 2025, Mike Sussman revealed that he and Scott Bakula conceived a new series called Star Trek: United about President Jonathan Archer. A political thriller and family drama based upon the biographical details that Sussman conceived two decades ago, Star Trek: United would be about President Archer and his adult children trying to save the United Federation of Planets.

Star Trek: United has been enthusiastically received by fans who are thrilled at the idea of Scott Bakula returning to play Jonathan Archer in a new Star Trek series. Sussman and Bakula originally pitched Star Trek: United to an interested Paramount+ a few years ago, but their initial idea, which was set on Earth, conflicted with Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which was in development.

Today, Star Trek: United, which received more world-building by Michael Sussman, has found increasing support and momentum as a new TV series that the Star Trek fandom wants to see greenlit by the powers-that-be at Paramount Skydance. However, Star Trek: United remains a fanciful idea that could happen but is not an actual show in development.

Still, if Star Trek: United does happen, and the possibility of bringing back other Star Trek: Enterprise‘s characters could also be on the table, then Michael Sussman could potentially find a way to end Scott Bakula’s comeback series with the sight of old President Archer on the bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 after all.

Release Date

2001 – 2005-00-00

Network

UPN

Showrunner

Brannon Braga

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  Scott Bakula

  Jonathan Archer

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