Enterprise’ Archer Spinoff Would’ve Been About

Over the summer season, we discovered a bit of about how Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Captain Archer himself, Scott Bakula, had labored along with producer Michael Sussman on a pitch for a brand new Trek spinoff set after the occasions of the present referred to as Star Trek: United. And now, due to Sussman, we’ve a bit of little bit of a greater concept of what the collection would possibly’ve entailed… and in the future nonetheless might.

Chatting with TrekMovie‘s All Entry Star Trek podcast not too long ago, Sussman revealed extra particulars concerning the proposed setup for United, which might’ve constructed upon Enterprise‘s temporary revelation within the season 4 Mirror Universe two-parter “In a Mirror, Darkly” that in the future Captain Archer was destined to change into one of many first presidents of the nascent United Federation of Planets. The collection, which Sussman had beforehand described as being tonally akin to the Star Wars political thriller rigidity of Andor, had been pitched to Paramount with Bakula’s involvement, solely to be turned down as a consequence of a broader cutback in streaming funding forward of the corporate’s recent sale to Skydance, in addition to perceived familiarities to the upcoming Starfleet Academy present, which can even be primarily set on Earth.

Based on Sussman, United would’ve balanced Archer’s political duties navigating the early years of the Federation’s existence with exploration of his household life. “Archer could be in a spot in his life the place Scott [Bakula] sort of is true now, the place Scott is a household man. He’s bought 4 grownup youngsters,” Sussman defined. “And so I gave Archer 4 grownup youngsters, and the story is as a lot about them as it’s about him, as a result of he [Archer] lived this lifetime of diplomacy … his household kind of grew up with this sense of service. So he’d have these grownup youngsters, one in every of whom is a part of the diplomatic corps, one other is in Starfleet, any individual else is in Federation Intelligence. So his grownup youngsters may very well be introduced into this story in a approach that felt very natural… They might be integral to the story we have been telling.”

Though the need would’ve been to incorporate acquainted faces from Enterprise in significant methods, Sussman famous that United would’ve targeted on Archer and a youthful solid of latest characters, quite than selecting up with different Enterprise characters. However one factor the writer-producer did need to decide up on was a plotline that Enterprise would’ve constructed on itself if it had not come to an finish after 4 seasons: the outbreak of the Federation’s battle with the Romulans, a major, largely nonetheless unseen piece of Star Trek backstory that performs into one in every of the most iconic authentic collection episodes of all time, “Steadiness of Terror.”

The aftermath of the Romulan Warfare, which results in nobody from the Federation really seeing a Romulan till the occasions of “Steadiness,” and exploring how that might finally be the case, would’ve been a key component of United. “One thing that has change into clear to me from suggestions since we first began speaking about [United] is followers saying they by no means bought to see the Romulan Warfare,” Sussman defined. “We have been ready for it, and also you guys simply sort of ignored it [in the Enterprise series finale]. And I share their frustration. So I might need to present [some of] that, and a specific pivotal second that’s not simply pure fan service…”

“…It nearly looks as if the Federation, or the folks of Earth in addition to the Romulans, don’t need the Vulcans to know who they’re,” Sussman continued. “And why would that be? I believe that’s a really intriguing query.”

Sadly, we could by no means know, provided that Paramount already turned down United as soon as after early talks. However now that Paramount is owned by Skydance and has a supposed renewed concentrate on streaming—and, past Starfleet Academy and a pair extra seasons of Unusual New Worlds, Star Trek‘s personal streaming TV future is up within the air—Sussman nonetheless has a glimmer of hope that United might doubtlessly see the sunshine of day.

“It’s encouraging, as a fan of the franchise, that they appear to be saying ‘We need to do extra Star Trek streaming, we need to do extra motion pictures,’” Sussman concluded. “I don’t know what their plans are, but when their plans contain increasing the footprint of Star Trek on streaming, then maybe one thing like this may very well be part of it. I imply, for me, crazier issues have occurred.”

And crazier issues have occurred for Star Trek itself on this streaming renaissance, too. What’s one other acquainted face’s return at this level?

Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and the whole lot you could learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.