Star Trek’s upcoming prequel origin movie can finally deliver the original premise intended for Star Trek: Enterprise. Director Toby Haynes is mounting a new, untitled Star Trek origin feature film from a script by Seth Grahame-Smith. Paramount Pictures’ new Star Trek movie, which is starting production in fall 2024 for a possible 2025 or 2026 theatrical release, is reportedly set largely on Earth and focuses on humanity’s early contact with aliens and the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
The exact placement of Toby Haynes’ Star Trek prequel movie within the Star Trek timeline is unclear, but if it deals with the founding of the Federation, then the prequel would likely be canonically set after Star Trek: Enterprise. Captain Jonathan Archer’s (Scott Bakula) pioneering voyages of the NX-01 Enterprise ran for four seasons before Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled by UPN in 2025. One of the issues audiences had with Enterprise during its network run was that it was a formulaic Star Trek show that didn’t fully explore the true dangers of its prequel trappings. However, Enterprise was originally intended to be a very different kind of Star Trek series, and Star Trek’s upcoming origin prequel could realize Enterprise’s early promise.
Star Trek’s Origin Prequel Movie Can Fulfill Enterprise’s Original Concept
Star Trek’s origin movie can make space travel scary
Star Trek’s Untitled Origin movie is meant as a jumping-on point for general audiences, and as a prequel, Starfleet wouldn’t be as technologically advanced or experienced with myriad aliens as it will be in later Star Trek. Toby Haynes’ Star Trek prequel largely being set on Earth actually harkens back to the original Star Trek: Enterprise premise executive producers and co-creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted. As Braga explained on Star Trek: Enterprise season 1’s Blu-ray bonus features:
The show originally… was supposed to be set on Earth. The show Rick and I pitched to the studio was a show set on Earth. The Klingons attacked Earth. Same things, general things, happened, but it was all about the building of the first starship and… the Vulcan thing was all there… It was about getting the crew together. It was about Archer putting a crew together to be the first people who went out. It was either the end of the season or somewhere midseason the ship was going to be launched. So it was a much more mud on the boots, gritty show set on Earth for the first large part of the season. So launching the ship was going to be a much bigger deal.
Further, Brannon Braga felt that after spending some time in space and getting in over their heads against aliens like the Klingons, the NX-01 Enterprise would limp back to Earth battle-damaged and barely functional, to hammer home just how dangerous exploring the galaxy really is. Enterprise’s original concept seems akin to what Toby Haynes has planned for his Star Trek prequel movie. The Star Trek origin’s crew and starship would likely also encounter enemies that Starfleet of this early era is not prepared for, and it would make for a much grittier kind of Star Trek movie than audiences have previously seen. Further, it’s likely to expect issues of xenophobia surrounding humanity’s dealings with Vulcans and other aliens.
Star Trek Movies Have Recycled Old Concepts Before
J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek rehashed an old Starfleet Academy idea
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Toby Haynes’ Untitled Star Trek Origin movie could recycle the original concept of Star Trek: Enterprise since Star Trek movies have used old ideas before. J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) not only rebooted Star Trek: The Original Series with a new and younger cast led by Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock, but it also finally realized the discarded idea for the film that eventually became Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Originally, Star Trek VI was going to be a reboot movie titled Star Trek: The Academy Years.
After director William Shatner’s Star Trek V: The Final Frontier became a critical and box office misfire, producer Harve Bennett came up with a plan to salvage the Star Trek movie franchise. Recognizing Star Trek: The Original Series’ cast was both aging and getting more expensive, Bennett wanted to reboot the Star Trek movies, casting new and younger actors as the classic USS Enterprise crew and showing how they all met as Starfleet Academy cadets. Although Paramount opted for one last hurrah with the original cast in Star Trek VI, director J.J. Abrams updated Harve Bennett’s reboot and Starfleet Academy ideas almost 20 years later in Star Trek (2009). It’s possible Toby Haynes’ Star Trek prequel could do the same with Star Trek: Enterprise’s original concept.
Would Star Trek: Enterprise Have Been Better With Its Original Concept?
Enterprise season 4 showed what the series could have been from the start
A million-dollar question audiences will never know the answer to is whether Star Trek: Enterprise would have been a better and more successful show if Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were allowed to execute their initial vision. Braga and Berman were very much aware that Star Trek was headed toward franchise fatigue after hundreds of episodes of Star Trek in the mold of Star Trek: The Next Generation since 1987. For 2001’s Enterprise, Berman and Braga hatched a bold plan that would take time for the prequel to introduce all of the familiar Star Trek trappings, while amping up the danger of what it means for early Starfleet to explore the final frontier.
Star Trek: Enterprise season 4, especially, felt like the show Enterprise wanted to be all along.
Star Trek: Enterprise, as aired, touched upon some of what Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted for the series, like how the NX-01 Enterprise used grapplers because it lacked tractor beam technology. Ultimately, however, Enterprise followed their time-tested Star Trek formula by network decree, and ended up feeling too safe and comfortable. To Star Trek:
Enterprise’s credit, seasons 3 and 4 introduced the Xindi arc that serialized the show as Captain Archer and the Enterprise sought revenge for a devastating alien attack on Earth. Star Trek: Enterprise season 4, especially, felt like the show Enterprise wanted to be all along.
Star Trek fans may be wary about Toby Haynes’ Star Trek prequel movie and whether it will tamper with established canon. There are also understandable concerns about introducing a new crew and starship instead of bringing back the Starship Enterprise and familiar faces audiences want to see again. But what little is known so far about Star Trek’s Untitled Origin movie does sound eerily similar to what was once intended for Star Trek: Enterprise, and if Toby Haynes’ prequel does recycle any of it for the big screen, it could redeem what Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted for Star Trek: Enterprise but were denied 25 years earlier.