Star Trek: Enterprise is, even almost two decades after its conclusion, one of the more controversial shows in the massive sci-fi franchise. Much of that is due to its series finale, “These Are The Voyages,” which felt more like a love letter to The Next Generation than Enterprise itself. I still find the finale somewhat polarizing but, after hearing series star John Billingsley describe how he and the cast were feelings around the time the show ended, I can understand the controversial final episode more.
John Billingsley was gracious enough to talk to CinemaBlend ahead of Trek Talks 3, a charity event being held this month in support of the Hollywood Food Coalition. While talking about the event’s impact in the past and what’s to come this year, we talked about Enterprise and its widely discussed finale. I’d previously spoken to Billingsley about whether or not the series would ever get the proper ending. This time around, when discussing the finale again, the actor revealed why the series focused on the totality of Star Trek‘s run rather than his own series specifically:
I mean, it was weird when we wrapped that final episode. It was poignant for us as a cast, but we’d only been on the show for four years. The crew had been there since the first days of Next Gen. That crew had transitioned into Deep Space into Voyager and then into our show. So, for many of those folks, it was the end of seventeen to eighteen years of their lives, watching their kids grow up, marriages, divorces, deaths. It felt like the end of an era as much as anything because that group of people broke up. And if you’re in the business, so much of what, you know, makes it feel familial is when you were hanging with the same crowd for an extended period of time. That was where I think it really, for a lot of folks who were associated with legacy Trek, that’s where I think it really felt like, you know, the ax cut.
It’s easy to say in hindsight that there were always future plans for the franchise consisting of the current upcoming Star Trek projects. However, that was harder to see at the time. Given that, and the fact that there was so much carry-over in the crew, I can see how the decision was made to proceed with the episode in the manner in which it played out. As John Billingsley said, the Enterprise cast were the newbies compared to the veterans in the crew, so the choice was made to prioritize the history of the shows rather than focusing on the latest group of characters.
Series co-creator Brannon Braga, in recent years, admitted that he regrets Star Trek: Enterprise‘s ending and as a result, not it as the one time he could recall lead series star Scott Bakula being mean to him. The finale has arguably aged more poorly with time, as the franchise continues to flourish and spawn new content that’s available for those with a Paramount+ subscription. John Billingsley also had a great observation about the pushback against Enterprise years ago as well as the reality of that situation as it stands today:
What makes me laugh is that the people, I think, turned on Enterprise a little bit because there was a certain amount of Star Trek fatigue. You know, now we see that Star Trek, if you have enough, variety of vision within the world, can support five shows at the same time.
Star Trek will say goodbye to Discovery after five seasons in 2024, but there’s still a lot to look forward to. Strange New Worlds Season 3 is currently in the works, and a Section 31 movie starring Michelle Yeoh is being produced as well. That, in addition to new seasons of Lower Decks and the upcoming Starfleet Academy series, show that the future is bright for this IP, years after seeming grim when Enterprise ended.
There’s no better way to see the strength of Star Trek than by viewing the lineup for Trek Talks 3, which is loaded with actors and creatives who are willing to help out a great cause. Some of the panels include actor Tim Russ discussing Star Trek: Voyager‘s Tuvix, while another event features a conversation about Picard Season 3, for example.
I’m curious as to what fresh reveals will come out in regard to past shows and expect fans to be left with fresh perspectives on topics that have long talked about. I know that I’ll definitely look at the Enterprise finale in a different light after this new information, though I’m not sure if it’ll give me a greater appreciation for the series capper. I do hope, however, that now that Trek is back on track, we’ll one day get the proper send-off for the show that we were robbed of way back when.
Tune into Trek Talks 3 on Saturday, January 13th. Also, continue to watch the Star Trek shows over on Paramount+, and hop over to Netflix to watch Prodigy. Those who have the time should definitely do that before this weekend’s event. if only to have some context behind some of the interesting stories that may result from the cast and crew members’ participation.