ChaosTrek: Star Trek Enterprise Season 5 Was Reportedly Building Toward the Romulan War Before Cancellation Killed It

Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled at the worst possible time. Not because the show had run out of ideas, not because the story was finished, and not because Enterprise had failed to prove it could work. It was cancelled right when it finally figured out what it was supposed to be.

Enterprise Was Cancelled Just as Season 4 Finally Connected It to the Wider Star Trek Universe

Season 4 had begun connecting Enterprise to the larger Trek universe in ways fans wanted from the beginning. We were seeing the foundations of the Federation. The Vulcans finally started looking and resembling the Vulcans we know, and we even got the origins of the smooth headed Klingons. There were the beginnings of Section 31 and even the seeds of the mirror universe we would eventually see in the original series.

The show had finally stopped feeling like it was wandering around searching for an identity, and that is exactly when it got cancelled. What makes it worse is that the plans for season 5 were not small. This was not going to be another season of Archer finding a random planet, getting captured, and spending forty minutes trying to escape.

Season 5 Was Reportedly Building Toward the Earth Romulan War

The biggest planned change for season 5 was the buildup to the Earth Romulan War, the war Enterprise should have been building toward from the beginning. We know from established Trek history that this conflict takes place before the creation of the United Federation of Planets, with Earth and Romulus fighting a brutal war without the two sides ever seeing each other face to face. That conflict eventually helps bring Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, and Tellar together, which is the birth of the Star Trek universe we know, and Archer should have been standing in the middle of it.

Season 4 had already laid the groundwork, with the Romulans manipulating the Vulcans and attempting to destabilize the region and turn the founding worlds against one another. Archer was slowly becoming more than a captain of one ship, becoming the man capable of uniting species that had spent generations hating each other. Season 5 was not necessarily going to jump immediately into full scale war, but the Romulans were expected to become the major enemy hanging over the entire season, bringing espionage, political manipulation, sabotage, and attacks where the crew might not even know who was responsible.

Enterprise was at its best when Archer was forced to make decisions without a Federation rule book in front of him, with no prime directive and no Starfleet protocol covering every situation. He was helping write those rules while trying not to get Earth destroyed. It was raw. Put that version of Archer against the Romulans and that could have given Scott Bakula the best material he ever received on the show.

Shran Could Have Joined the Enterprise Crew as an Advisor

Archer would not have been dealing with the Romulans alone. Jeffrey Combs, already one of the best parts of the entire series through his role as Shran, could have become part of the answer. Every time Shran appeared the episode immediately became more interesting, and while he and Archer did not completely trust each other and constantly irritated one another, there was a genuine respect underneath that neither man particularly enjoyed admitting.

The plan was reportedly to place Shran aboard the Enterprise in an advisory position and possibly make Jeffrey Combs a series regular. Picture that dynamic added every week, Shran questioning Archer's decisions, T'Pol trying to keep them both under control, and Trip enjoying the chaos from the engine room. He could have become Enterprise's version of Worf, a proud warrior caught between loyalty to his people and loyalty to the crew standing beside him.

An Andorian officer on the bridge during the buildup to the Romulan War would not have just been fan service, it would have represented the alliance Enterprise had been trying to build. The Federation would not simply appear because Archer gives a speech, we would watch former enemies learn to work together aboard the same ship. Shran joining the crew also might have fixed one of Enterprise's biggest problems, since by season 4 Archer, Trip, and T'Pol carried most of the meaningful stories while Reed occasionally got something substantial and Mayweather and Hoshi spent far too much time disappearing into the background.

The NX-01 May Have Gotten the Long Discussed Refit

The version of the Enterprise Shran joined would have looked different too. One of the most popular designs associated with the cancelled fifth season is the NX-01 refit, which added a secondary hull beneath the saucer and moved the ship closer to the classic configuration recognizable from Kirk's Enterprise. There is a difference between an idea associated with a show's continuation and a completed television model guaranteed to appear in a premiere, but aesthetically it made sense.

The original NX-01 looks like the missing link between modern spacecraft and the starships that would come later, and the refitted version would have completed that evolution, showing how Starfleet eventually reaches the Constitution class. A major refit would have visually told the audience Enterprise had entered a new era, no longer the same experimental ship that left Earth unprepared in the first season. It had survived the Expanse, fought the Xindi, and helped prevent wars between some of the quadrant's most powerful civilizations, so it earned its upgrade.

A Mirror Universe Miniseries Was Reportedly Planned Across Four or Five Episodes

The ship would need that upgrade because the producers were also planning to bring back the mirror universe. In a Mirror Darkly remains one of the most memorable stories in the entire series, changing the channel to show evil versions of these characters living their own lives, with even the opening credits replaced. For season 5, Manny Coto discussed creating what he called a "miniseries within the series," four or five episodes spread across the season that would continue the mirror universe story.

That is described as an insane idea, but one that could have worked, with Mirror Hoshi seizing control of the Terran Empire using the USS Defiant from the future, Archer dead, and the balance of power completely destroyed.

Season 5 Was Also Eyeing Classic Trek Callbacks Including Stratos and the Kzinti

Season 5 was also expected to reach deeper into classic Trek history. There were plans for an episode involving the construction of one of Starfleet's earliest star bases. The floating city of Stratos from the original series episode "The Cloud Minders" was considered for a two part story. There was also the Kzinti, the aggressive cat like species from the animated series, with some idea in development to do something with that species.

A Pitched Story Would Have Turned a Starfleet Medical Technician Into the Borg Queen

There was another proposed story that would have connected Enterprise directly to the Borg Queen. The concept involved Alice Krige playing a Starfleet medical technician who encountered the surviving Borg connected to season 2's episode "Regeneration" and ultimately becoming the Borg Queen. That was only a pitch, not a completed episode ready to enter production.

I am torn on this one. On one hand, watching someone slowly lose their humanity and become assimilated into the central consciousness of the Borg would have been compelling. On the other hand, some would say mysteries make a villain more powerful and that we do not have to know everything about the Borg Queen's origins. Either way, it would have been wild to see play out.

Would you want a Paramount continuation to pick up directly from season 4 and finally show us the Romulan War, or would you rather it jump forward in time?