Why Did Star Trek: Enterprise Fail?

Star Trek is a television phenomenon that promises to boldly go where no one has gone before. Ever since its creation, Star Trek has been the definition of science fiction. Star Trek gave us warp drive and the transporter and encouraged our top scientific minds to pursue their theory. Each television franchise had a unique feel, and each one (excluding the original series) did well enough to run for seven seasons. But when we look at the five television franchises, one of them stands out like a sore thumb. It's the last show to grace our small screens: Enterprise. This Trek franchise ran for only four seasons before being cancelled, leaving an unresolved plot element. It is perhaps the most unsuccessful and controversial franchise in the history of Trek. Why did Enterprise fail? I intend to answer this question in this article.

First, let's consider the official source. Rick Berman has been a prominent name in Star Trek ever since the 80's. He worked with Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek's creator) to create Star Trek: the Next Generation. He would go on to give us Deep Space Nine, Voyager, several of the movies, and even Enterprise. When asked about Enterprise's declining ratings, Rick Berman stated that he believed the entire Trek line was suffering from "franchise fatigue." Basically, we've seen so much of Trek that it's lost its originality.

Consider this. Enterprise debuted in the wake of the closings of both Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Both of these were very successful and acclaimed franchises. We had little time to sit back and actually grasp the conclusions of these shows, when Paramount gave us another ship, another crew, and another timeline. Too many irons in the fire.