History WhatCouldHaveBeen / StarTrekEnterprise

* Very early on, the idea being toyed with was to finally explain the "ring ship" from the wall frescos in ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture" (the USS ''Enterprise'' XCV-330). As this was the early 2000's and "looking cool" was of primary concern, the awkward-looking ship design was tossed in favor of something more sleek and sexy, which ironically brought complaints for looking ''too'' modern, as well as wedging in a ship that had never previously existed. The XCV-330 did make further "appearances"; twice in a painting and once as a model on a desk.

** Mike Sussman pitched another ending for ''Enterprise'', which would have featured Creator/LeonardNimoy returning as Spock. It was have started with Spock in the 24th Century giving advice to a young Human/Vulcan officer in Starfleet, telling a story about how in the beginning of the 23rd Century, he received counsel on his life and career from T'Pol, who is a legend by the 24th Century. The story would have featured the entire NX-01 crew returning in age makeup, involving them stealing the NX-01 ''Enterprise'' to go on one last mission. Why this idea wasn't considered is baffling, as no doubt this would have been seen as a far more proper "passing the torch" and finale than Berman and Braga's attempt to make the finale a TNG episode (Berman and Braga were likely against anyone else doing the finale), and Mike Sussman is still frustrated his idea was not picked up.

* More would have been revealed about T'Pol's father, specifically that he was a Romulan sleeper agent, leading up to the reveal that T'Pol was half-Romulan, explaining her inherent difficulties with emotion and affinity with humans.

** Mike Sussman pitched another ending for ''Enterprise'', which would have featured Creator/LeonardNimoy returning as Spock. It was have started with Spock in the 24th Century giving advice to a young Human/Vulcan officer in Starfleet, telling a story about how in the beginning of the 23rd Century, he received counsel on his life and career from T'Pol, who is a legend by the 24th Century. The story would have featured the entire NX-01 crew returning in age makeup, involving them stealing the NX-01 ''Enterprise'' to go on one last mission. No doubt this would have been seen as a far more proper "passing the torch" and finale than Berman and Braga's attempt to make the finale a TNG episode, and Mike Sussman is still frustrated his idea was not picked up.

* Several reappearances of characters or species from the original series would have included the character [[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E19RequiemForMethuselah}} Flint]], the cloud city of [[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E21TheCloudMinders}} Stratos]], and the [[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E3TheChangeling}} Tan Ru]] probe.
* An episode involving a strange force compelling Phlox to create "Frankenstein monsters" was in the works.

* There would have been more stories set entirely in the Mirror Universe, following up on "In a Mirror, Darkly." They would have consisted of several standalone episodes interspersed throughout the season. (An idea to set the entire fifth season in the Mirror Universe was rejected.) These episodes would have revealed that Mirror Archer was still alive.

* More would have been revealed about T'Pol's father, specifically that he was a Romulan sleeper agent, leading up to the reveal that T'Pol was half-Romulan, explaining her inherent difficulties with emotion.

* An episode essentially nullifying the unpopular ending of "These Are the Voyages" and reviving [[spoiler:Trip]] in some way. (A book that was written, albeit without any guidance from the writers of the series, basically said that the death and its inclusion in the Holodeck program was part of a cover-up to hide the true purposes of a mission.)

* Manny Coto conceived of a {{story arc}} involving a Martian independence movement that would have threatened to crash comets into Earth with the use of a Verteron array unless allowed to secede in a sort of "Cuban Missile Crisis" scenario, with the NX-01 having to mediate. The story never materialized, but some of its concepts ended up appearing in "Demons" and "Terra Prime."

* The Klingons were originally considered as the villains for Season 3, but were quickly rejected for, again, not being an "original" idea. Mike Sussman then tried to get the Romulans to be the main villains, but this was immediately rejected for the same reasons, hence the Xindi were created to fill the role.

* The network wanted to kill Archer off at the end of "Zero Hour," which would have been...interesting. Executives even considered a younger, "sexier" captain to take his place. Manny Coto has admitted that he was tempted.
* Rick Berman originally wanted the entire fourth season to be one arc centered on the "Storm Front" plot, which was thankfully shot down.
* Originally, Arik Soong (Creator/BrentSpiner) was going to be Colonel Phillip Green, the mad eugenicist from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain}} The Savage Curtain]]" (TOS). This explains why Archer and co. have to [[ConsultingAConvictedKiller bust him out of prison]]. As the script developed, the writer decided that Green was just too evil, he couldn't be redeemed; so the character was retooled into an ancestor of Data's. Mike Sussman and the Stevens family, known for writing ''Star Trek'' novels, wrote another script, also featuring Green and involving Earth's first starbase and the Reed family, but it was quickly rejected by Braga for being "too dark."

* The NX-01 would have been refitted with a secondary hull underneath the warp nacelles, ceramic plating, and a deflector dish, making it look very much like the prototype for what would become the ''Constitution'' class in TOS. The new design appeared in the 2011 "Ships of the Line" calendar. Doug Drexler claims the staff was not totally sold on this idea, however.

* An episode featuring Starfleet's first contact with the Trill was pitched, where the NX-01 crew would not understand and actually be horrified by the discovery of the Trill, and would have believed they were essentially real-life versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was nixed for continuity reasons, showing that continuity can be a block to good story pitches.

* The original concept for Enterprise as conceived by Rick Berman and Creator/BrannonBraga was to have the first season take place on Earth while the NX-01 Enterprise was being constructed, centered around a plot and setting inspired by the film ''Film/TheRightStuff'', and only actually launching ''Enterprise'' in the season finale (which would make the title ''Enterprise'' a bit of a pun, in fact). The season would have established and fleshed out the main characters as well as demonstrate how difficult the project was for the newly United Earth and recently commissioned Starfleet, all the while having the characters have to bypass controversy and fear over the mission being flared up by a rapidly xenophobic faction on Earth who wanted to stop the mission (an aspect which was revived for the final season in "Terra Prime"). The executives at UPN would have nothing to do with this, as it was too much of a departure from the typical Trek formula, and the last time a ''Trek'' series deviated from the norm (''Deep Space Nine'') it performed weakly in comparison to the other series. Hence why the first two seasons are very similar to what had already been seen and done on TNG and VOY. The second season episode "First Flight" is a capsule of this rejected idea.

** Mike Sussman pitched another ending for Enterprise, which would have featured Creator/LeonardNimoy returning as Spock. It was have started with Spock in the 24th Century giving advice to a young Human/Vulcan officer in Starfleet, telling a story about how in the beginning of the 23rd Century, he received consul on his life and career from T'Pol, who is a legend by the 24th Century. The story would have featured the entire NX-01 crew returning in aged makeup, involving them stealing the NX-01 Enterprise to go on one last mission. No doubt this would have been seen as a far more proper "passing the torch" and finale than Berman and Braga's attempt to make the finale a TNG episode, and Mike Sussman is still frustrated his idea was not picked up.

* Plans were in the works for a Borg Queen origin story, explaining that she was a Starfleet technician assimilated by leftover Borg from "Regeneration".

* Creator/AliceKrige would have returned as the Borg Queen and her backstory would have been explored: she was to have been a Starfleet medical officer assimilated by a Borg drone.

* An episode featuring Starfleet's first contact with the Trill was pitched, where the NX-01 crew would not understand and actually be horrified by the discovery of the Trill, and would have believed they were essentially real-life versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was nixed for continuity reasons, showing that continuity can be a block to good storytelling.

* An episode called "The Treatment" that would have guest-starred the incredibly-long-lived ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' character Guinan (Creator/WhoopiGoldberg), an appearance by Spock's grandfather, Skon, and the lyrics (yes, there are lyrics) of the original TOS theme song being sung out loud by a Capellan (Creator/ChaseMasterson).
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjTN6apWiXk#t=41s Here's Tenacious D singing said Roddenberry lyrics live in concert.]]

** An episode featuring Starfleet's first contact with the Trill was pitched, where the NX-01 crew would not understand and actually be horrified by the discovery of the Trill, and would have believed they were essentially real-life versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was nixed for continuity reasons, showing that continuity can be a block to good storytelling.

* Another aspect axed by executives was the NX-01 mission being portrayed as incredibly dangerous and risky, with crew members getting killed off regularly, and the trauma of this making the characters wonder if it's all worth it. The show was originally to feature a far more dangerous mission, where not only hostile aliens but spatial anomalies and unexplained phenomenon prove deadly for Earth's first deep-space mission. Executives nixed this idea, and as such the first two seasons are some of the safest in ''Star Trek'' (even Star Trek.com criticized this by pointing out the NX-01 mission seems considerably less dangerous than the ''Enterprise''-D mission 200 years later. When the official website of the franchise criticizes the show, you know there's a problem). This probably explains why, when allowed to shake things up, ''Enterprise'' gets a massive beating in Season 3, with several crewmembers dying.

** According to documents posted by [=TrekDocs=] on Twitter, Archer's backstory would have had the character spending a year on Vulcan as a young man, meeting T'Pol beforehand (with a sexual relationship strongly implied), learning about mind melds (which would have been common Vulcan practice right from the get-go) and feeling a close connection to Vulcan culture. Of course the series upon release did the exact opposite, with Archer being a barely constrained racist toward Vulcans, with pretty much every human sharing this same view until the last season.

* An episode titled "Kilkenny Cats," featuring the ''Star Trek'' version of the Cat-like race of the same name that is seen in Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'', was in the works. The episode was intended as a {{prequel}} to the [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries TAS]] episode "The Slaver Weapon". It was the product of Jimmy Diggs, an intern on TNG and later freelance writer on [=DS9=] and ''Voyager'', who had tried to pitch a Kzinti episode for TNG in 1994, and then later on [=DS9=] and VOY. He was so adamant in his pitches that Brannon Braga referred to the Kzinti as "Jimmy Diggs crazy cats". No one else involved in the franchise at the time were interested in their return, so he later wrote a script for a proposed CGI film starring Captain Sulu of the ''Enterprise''-B fighting an invasion of the Federation by the Kzinti, titled "The Lions Of The Night". It too never got off the ground; however, he finally got his luck when ''Enterprise'' got new management in its final season, with Manny Coto expressing interest in the return of the Kzinti. Working with Neal and Jana Hallford, he wrote a new story about the NX-01 bringing a Kzinti child on the ship. Designs for a 22nd-century Kzinti spacecraft were made, and models of re-designs of the Kzinti were made as well. There's every indication this episode would have been made if not for ''Enterprise'''s cancellation. Indeed, Diggs was so confident after meeting with Coto that he believed at least three Kzinti episodes would be made, and that they would become major villains in the fifth season.

* An episode essentially nullifying the unpopular ending of "These Are the Voyages" and reviving [[spoiler: Trip]] in some way. (A book that was written, albeit without any guidance from the writers of the series, basically said that the death and its inclusion in the Holodeck program was part of a cover-up to hide the true purposes of a mission.)

* An episode called "The Treatment" that would have guest-starred the incredibly-long-lived ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' character Guinan (Creator/WhoopiGoldberg), an appearance by Spock's grandfather, Skon, and the lyrics (yes, there are lyrics) of the original TOS theme song being sung out loud by a Capellan (Chase Masterson).

* "In a Mirror, Darkly" Parts I and II arose from plans for an episode to feature Creator/WilliamShatner guest-starring as Evil Kirk, last seen in "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS2E4MirrorMirror}} Mirror, Mirror]]," who was trapped in the past after it was revealed the Tantalus field actually transported people to another dimension and time. Another idea, originating from Rick Berman, was for Shatner to appear as the chef of the NX-01 who becomes involved in a {{time travel}} plot involving Temporal Agent Daniels. Shatner was interested, but negotiations fell through and the idea never materialized.

* There would have been more stories set entirely in the Mirror Universe, following up on "In a Mirror, Darkly." They would have consisted of several standalone episodes interspersed throughout the season, after an idea to set the entire fifth season in the Mirror Universe was rejected.

* Andre Bormanis' original pitch for the character Phlox (strangled in the crib by Berman and Braga) was that Phlox turns out to have not been a doctor but a [[HalfTruth veterinarian]] on Denobula, and was [[BackAlleyDoctor expressly forbidden]] from operating on humanoid life-forms.

* The Suliban, a not-so-subtle reference to the Taliban and terrorism in general, have a complicated history. According to internal documents, the Suliban were conceived as early as the 6th season of ''Voyager'' (''Enterprise'' was originally to air alongside Voyager), and were slated to originally appear in VOY, complete with a backstory which explicitly explained why they never appeared in any other ''Trek'' series despite being slated as major villains; the explanation involved being assimilated by the Borg in the 23rd Century, and a few being rescued via time travel. Braga and others wanted the Klingons to be the main villains in the early concept pitch, however neither that nor the Suliban foreshadowing in ''Voyager'' happened, and as such the Suliban appear out of nowhere in the franchise with no explanation as to why they're in ENT, until just being dumped for good with no explanation by the last season. A confusing chapter in the history of this franchise, which didn't endear itself to fans.

* "These Are the Voyages...": Mike Sussman had originally pitched an idea which was a take-off of "Shadows and Symbols" ([=DS9=]) and "Pathfinder" (VOY). It opens with Creator/RobertPicardo's EMH treating a patient inside a holographic re-creation of the NX-01. The patient, also played by Creator/ScottBakula, is totally convinced that he is , in fact, ''the'' Jonathan Archer, and he needed the Doctor's help [[NapoleonDelusion to get back to his own century]]. So the finale was originally going to be a glorified ''Voyager'' episode as opposed to a glorified [=TNG=] one. Sussman even admitted it wouldn't have worked as a finale, and it would have given ''Enterprise'' a sort of GainaxEnding. It would likely have received even worse reception than what we eventually got.

* "These Are the Voyages...": Mike Sussman had originally pitched an idea which was a take-off of "Shadows and Symbols" ([=DS9=]) and "Pathfinder" (VOY). It opens with Robert Picardo's EMH treating a patient inside a holographic re-creation of the NX-01. The patient, also played by Scott Bakula, is totally convinced that he is , in fact, ''the'' Jonathan Archer, and he needed the Doctor's help [[NapoleonDelusion to get back to his own century]]. So the finale was originally going to be a glorified ''Voyager'' episode as opposed to a glorified [=TNG=] one. Sussman even admitted it wouldn't have worked as a finale, and it would have given ''Enterprise'' a sort of GainaxEnding. It would likely have received even worse reception than what we eventually got.
** Mike Sussman pitched another ending for Enterprise, which would have featured Leonard Nimoy returning as Spock. It was have started with Spock in the 24th Century giving advice to a young Human/Vulcan officer in Starfleet, telling a story about how in the beginning of the 23rd Century, he received consul on his life and career from T'Pol, who is a legend by the 24th Century. The story would have featured the entire NX-01 crew returning in aged makeup, involving them stealing the NX-01 Enterprise to go on one last mission. No doubt this would have been seen as a far more proper "passing the torch" and finale than Berman and Braga's attempt to make the finale a TNG episode, and Mike Sussman is still frustrated his idea was not picked up.

* Another aspect axed by executives was the NX-01 mission being portrayed as incredibly dangerous and risky, with crew members getting killed off regularly, and the trauma of this making the characters wonder if it's all worth it. The show was originally to feature a far more dangerous mission, where not only hostile aliens but spatial anomalies and unexplained phenomenon prove deadly for Earth's first deep-space mission. Executives nixed this idea, and as such the first two seasons are some of the safest in ''Star Trek'' (even StarTrek.com criticized this by pointing out the NX-01 mission seems considerably less dangerous than the ''Enterprise''-D mission 200 years later. When the official website of the franchise criticizes the show, you know there's a problem). This probably explains why, when allowed to shake things up, ''Enterprise'' gets a massive beating in Season 3, with several crewmembers dying.

* Jeri Ryan expressed interest in appearing as an ancestor of Seven of Nine, but for unknown reasons, nothing came of it.

* There exists an interview with Creator/ScottBakula conducted in the run-up to the release of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' in which he says, with utmost confidence, that the next ''Star Trek'' movie would be about him and his crew. Come 2008 (later delayed to 2009, but close enough), after what would have been the customary seven years, we did indeed get [[Film/StarTrek a new film]]...about [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Captain Kirk]]. Presumably, if either ''Nemesis'' or ''Enterprise'' (most likely both) hadn't bombed, we would have seen Captain Archer on the big screen instead.

* "Future Guy," who disappeared after Season 2, was to be revealed as a future Archer involved in a plot to correct the "timeline"...or something, at least according to Braga. Others claim he was planned to be a Romulan agent.

* Writer David A. Goodman pitched the idea of a human spy being planted on Vulcan in the early days after First Contact, to see if the Vulcans were actually hostile invaders, but it never got off the ground. Years later, he'd feature a story similar to this in the reference book he wrote,'xStar Trek: Federation The First 150 Years''.

* Writer David A. Goodman pitched the idea of a human spy being planted on Vulcan in the early days after First Contact, to see if the Vulcans were actually hostile invaders, but it never got off the ground. Years later, he'd feature a story similar to this in the reference book he wrote "Star Trek: Federation The First 150 Years".

* David A. Goodman pitched an episode about a human spy planted on Vulcan shortly after First Contact to see if the Vulcans were actually alien invaders. While it was never made, this story was included in the reference book ''The Federation: First 150 Years'' that he wrote.

* Rick Berman and Brannon Braga wanted to allow ''Franchise/StarTrek'' to rest from what they felt was "franchise fatigue." However, Creator/{{UPN}} wanted them to make a new series quickly enough to air alongside ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s last season. Berman and Braga agreed to make the series, but only if it aired after ''Voyager'' ended. One wonders what would have happened if UPN got its wish (or if Berman and Braga had gotten theirs).
* The original concept for Enterprise as conceived by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga was to have the first season take place on Earth while the NX-01 Enterprise was being constructed, centered around a plot and setting inspired by the film ''Film/TheRightStuff'', and only actually launching ''Enterprise'' in the season finale (which would make the title ''Enterprise'' a bit of a pun, in fact). The season would have established and fleshed out the main characters as well as demonstrate how difficult the project was for the newly United Earth and recently commissioned Starfleet, all the while having the characters have to bypass controversy and fear over the mission being flared up by a rapidly xenophobic faction on Earth who wanted to stop the mission (an aspect which was revived for the final season in "Terra Prime"). The executives at UPN would have nothing to do with this, as it was too much of a departure from the typical Trek formula, and the last time a ''Trek'' series deviated from the norm (''Deep Space Nine'') it performed weakly in comparison to the other series. Hence why the first two seasons are very similar to what had already been seen and done on TNG and VOY. The second season episode "First Flight" is a capsule of this rejected idea.

* An episode called "The Treatment" that would have guest-starred the incredibly-long-lived ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' character Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), an appearance by Spock's grandfather, Skon, and the lyrics (yes, there are lyrics) of the original TOS theme song being sung out loud by a Capellan (Chase Masterson).

* An episode titled "Kilkenny Cats," featuring the ''Star Trek'' version of the Cat-like race of the same name that is seen in Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'', was in the works. The episode as intended as a {{prequel}} to the [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries TAS]] episode "The Slaver Weapon". It was the product of Jimmy Diggs, an intern on TNG and later freelance writer on [=DS9=] and ''Voyager'', who had tried to pitch a Kzinti episode for TNG in 1994, and then later on [=DS9=] and VOY. He was so adamant in his pitches that Brannon Braga referred to the Kzinti as "Jimmy Diggs crazy cats". No one else involved in the franchise at the time were interested in their return, so he later wrote a script for a proposed CGI film starring Captain Sulu of the ''Enterprise''-B fighting an invasion of the Federation by the Kzinti, titled "The Lions Of The Night". It too never got off the ground; however, he finally got his luck when ''Enterprise'' got new management in its final season, with Manny Coto expressing interest in the return of the Kzinti. Working with Neal and Jana Hallford, he wrote a new story about the NX-01 bringing a Kzinti child on the ship. Designs for a 22nd-century Kzinti spacecraft were made, and models of re-designs of the Kzinti were made as well. There's every indication this episode would have been made if not for ''Enterprise'''s cancellation. Indeed, Diggs was so confident after meeting with Coto that he believed at least three Kzinti episodes would be made, and that they would become major villains in the fifth season.

** An episode called "The Treatment" that would have guest-starred the incredibly-long-lived ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]]'' character Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), an appearance by Spock's grandfather, Skon, and the lyrics (yes, there are lyrics) of the original TOS theme song being sung out loud by a Capellan (Chase Masterson).