Over its four season run, Star Trek: Enterprise endured a great deal of controversy and was sometimes regarded as a weak link in the Star Trek franchise. Time has revealed its qualities, and Trekkies retain a strong affection for it. But the fact Enterprise ended after only four seasons -- instead of seven like the previous three Star Trek series -- remains a mark against it in certain parts of the fanbase, resulting in questions as to why it ended.

The truth is multiple factors contributed to the series’ early departure, including a change of management at Paramount and a perceived oversaturation of the franchise. It had a detrimental effect on the end of the series, which didn’t help its reputation. But the confluence of reasons for Enterprise's cancellation had little to do with the show itself.

How Star Trek: Enterprise Ended

Enterprise ended on a bad note. The infamous series finale “These Are The Voyages...” time jumps three years forward from the previous episode -- a necessity in order to align with the previously established date for the founding of the Federation -- jarring audiences and leaving the story very detached. An arbitrary death for fan-favorite Trip Tucker didn't help matters, but perhaps the biggest misstep entailed framing the entire affair as a holodeck program being run by Will Riker during the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 7, Episode 12, "The Pegasus." Jonathan Frakes originally shot that episode over a decade before "These Are The Voyages..." leaving him far too old for the character as presented.

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Enterprise's collective exhaustion reflected a more breathless fourth season in general. For instance, the Xindi were being groomed as major villains in Season 3 but failed to catch fire and barely made a ripple in Season 4. Instead, Enterprise went to shorter arcs that tied the series more closely to the remainder of Star Trek, including a stint in the Mirror Universe and an encounter with Noonian Soong. They worked, but they also felt crowded together as the kinds of stories that needed 2 to 3 seasons to breathe. The finale's rushed storyline and awkward attempts to fit a fictional timeline into the hard limits of reality, all reflected badly on a show that deserved a better ending.

Why Star Trek: Enterprise Was Canceled

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Enterprise faced challenges from the beginning simply because it did something different with Star Trek by depicting a more compromised galaxy before the Federation was founded. That necessitated changes to the formula, including the infamous theme song, which had a negative impact on ratings. Had ratings been stronger, the show might have been better protected. But big moves behind the scenes at Paramount -- and at UPN, the network running Enterprise at the time -- caused significant problems.

It started when CBS President Mel Katzman resigned in May 2004 (during Enterprise’s third season) over differences with CBS’s parent company, Viacom. That resulted in a wave of resignations throughout the summer of 2004, including several executives key to Star Trek. Enterprise was renewed for a fourth season but placed in a Friday-night time slot: an infamous dead zone that killed Star Trek: The Original Series after only three seasons. Without more defenders in the boardroom, the show was in trouble.

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In an interview with Syfy, producer Rick Berman cites another cause of the show’s end as franchise fatigue. Enterprise came at the tail end of four rolling Star Trek shows, often with two series running at the same time. The Star Trek: The Next Generation movie franchise had crashed and burned with 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis, which was met with poor reviews and disappointing box office returns.

With the deck stacked so badly against it, Enterprise had little choice but to end after Season 4. Star Trek remained largely on hiatus after that until the Kelvinverse reboot in 2009. Unfortunately, fans and creators alike felt the show had just hit its stride, and a promised Season 5 contained a number of exciting notions that were never realized. Though Enterprise's reputation has improved over time (including active references in both the Kelvinverse and Star Trek: Lower Decks) its current status is a silver lining in the wake of a cancellation that might have been beyond its ability to prevent.

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