Scott Bakula’s Star Trek: United

More fascinating details have emerged about Star Trek: United, Scott Bakula’s potential comeback series after Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled 20 years ago. Star Trek: United is the brainchild of Star Trek: Enterprise writer/producer Mike Sussman, who hatched the idea with Bakula.

In early August, TrekMovie broke the story that Mike Sussman and Scott Bakula were plotting Star Trek: United at STLV: Trek to Vegas. The concept of Star Trek: United, a post-Enterprise series about Federation President Jonathan Archer, caught fire with Star Trek fans, who have yearned for both Scott Bakula’s return and some sort of follow-up to Star Trek: Enterprise.

Two decades after it ended, Star Trek: Enterprise has gained a greater appreciation thanks to streaming. Enterprise has also been homaged in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Jolene Blalock made a surprise return in Star Trek: Lower Decks to voice an alternate reality T’Pol.

However, Scott Bakula has not reprised Captain Jonathan Archer, who has since been canonically acknowledged as a Starfleet Admiral and the first President of the United Federation of Planets after Star Trek: Enterprise ended.

Appearing on TrekMovie’s All Access Star Trek podcast, Mike Sussman revealed details about his plans and intentions for Star Trek: United, which he and Scott Bakula began discussing around the time Star Trek: Picard premiered on Paramount+. Here are the 7 biggest takeaways about Star Trek: United.

Scott Bakula’s Star Trek United Would Not Be An Enterprise Sequel

Mike Sussman stressed to TrekMovie that he regards Star Trek: United as “a spinoff” rather than a sequel to Star Trek: Enterprise. Although Sussman hopes to have some Enterprise cast members appearing on the show, Star Trek: United would not get the crew back together on the bridge of the NX-01.

Stressing that Star Trek: United would be a very different show than Enterprise, Sussman explained that his Scott Bakula-led spinoff would be “about these younger characters who would be in their 20s or early 30s, at most.”

Star Trek: United would take advantage of the opportunity to bring in Star Trek: Enterprise legacy characters, some possibly even recurring, but the focus would squarely be on President Jonathan Archer and the new cast.

Star Trek United Would Be About President Archer & Family

Mike Sussman likens Star Trek: United to The West Wing and Star Wars: Andor, a show about President Archer and Federation politics rather than starship exploration and adventures. Another significant departure from the typical Star Trek formula is that Archer would be a family man, just like Scott Bakula.

Mike Sussman explained his vision for President Archer and his children:

I gave Archer four adult kids, and the story is as much about them as it is about him. Because [Archer] lived this life of diplomacy… his family sort of grew up with this sense of service. So he’d have these adult kids, one of whom is part of the diplomatic corps, another is in Starfleet, somebody else is in Federation Intelligence.

Captains of the Enterprise in Star Trek rarely have families. Captain Archer didn’t have a lasting romance in Star Trek: Enterprise, and it was believed Archer set the mold of the lonely male starship Captain. Star Trek: United would, thankfully, upend that and create a compelling family drama about Archer and his brood.

Star Trek United Would Depict The Romulan War Enterprise Wasn’t Able To Show

Had Star Trek: Enterprise continued into season 5 and beyond, the prequel series would have depicted the Romulan War, the pivotal conflict between the Romulan Star Empire and United Earth that led to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

Star Trek: Enterprise‘s series finale, “These Are The Voyages…” time-jumped past the Romulan War to show Captain Archer at the ceremony that gave birth to the Federation. Mike Sussman is aware that fans have felt “robbed” that they never got to see the Romulan War depicted on Enterprise. Sussman plans a solution in Star Trek: United:

I’d want to open this show by showing a scene that we never got from an Enterprise season 7. It would be during the height of the Romulan War… So I would want to show [some of] that, and a particular pivotal moment that’s not just pure fan service. The scene would actually introduce a very important character for the show moving forward.”

Mike Sussman also has an idea in mind that would explain why no one knew what a Romulan looked like before Star Trek: The Original Series’ “Balance of Terror.” “It almost seems like the Federation, or the people of Earth as well as the Romulans, don’t want the Vulcans to know who they are. And why would that be? I think that’s a very intriguing question,” Sussman teased.

Star Trek: United could deal with “certain people in the government or the spy agencies [who] have their strong suspicions” about the secret that Ronulans are offshoots of the Vulcans, Sussman elaborated.

However, Mike didn’t indicate whether he would delve into a plan for Star Trek: Enterprise season 5 that would reveal T’Pol’s father is Romulan, making her a half-Vulcan and half-Romulan.

Star Trek United Would Bring Back Jeffrey Combs’ Shran

Jeffrey Combs’ Andorian anti-hero, Commander Shran, is one particular character Mike Sussman would “love” to include in Star Trek: United. However, Sussman is wary of bringing in a popular legacy Enterprise character like Shran without a specific purpose that would make the Andorian integral to the show:

Had Star Trek: Enterprise season 5 happened, Jeffrey Combs would have become a series regular, with Shran officially joining Captain Archer’s NX-01 crew. Star Trek: United would likely reveal whether that happened and is canon if Mike Sussman’s spinoff comes to fruition.

Todd Stashwick’s Romulan Spy Would Make A Star Trek United Comeback

Mike Sussman created Talok, played by Todd Stashwick, in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4. Talok was a Romulan secret agent disguised as a Vulcan whose mission was to enable the Romulan Star Empire take control of the Vulcan High Command. Sussman says he would love to bring Talok back in Star Trek: United:

“I would want to see where he is now and what he is up to. I am sure it is no good, because I think he’s still undercover [as a Vulcan], causing trouble.”

Of course, Todd Stashwick rose to even greater Star Trek fame by playing the irascible Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard season 3. Stashwick also hopes to reprise Shaw as an Emergency Engineering Hologram if Picard season 3’s proposed spinoff, Star Trek: Legacy, happens.

While noting how busy Todd Stashwick is, including a role in Marvel Studios’ Vision Quest as Paladin, Mike Sussman worked with Todd on 12 Monkeys, and his fingers are crossed that the very in-demand Stashwick would be able to fit reprising Talok into his schedule if Star Trek: United were to happen.

Star Trek United Would Not Be A Flagship Star Trek Show

Mike Sussman and Scott Bakula both feel that, if Star Trek: United were to happen, it would not be a “flagship show” for Star Trek on Paramount+. Likening it to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sussman feels United would work if “you already have a Next Gen or a Strange New Worlds airing concurrently, with a starship already out there.”

Star Trek: United would be a grounded and complex political series and family drama that Mike Sussman hopes to set on the planet Babel, first introduced in Star Trek: The Original Series.

Star Trek: United would not aim to be a Star Trek show for all audiences, but it could carve its own unique corner of the Star Trek universe and take the franchise into directions it hasn’t gone before.

Scott Bakula’s Star Trek United Is Only An Idea Right Now

Image by Simone Ashmoore

To be clear, Star Trek: United is “not a real television show” and is currently just “a delightful little fantasy,” as Mike Sussman stressed to TrekMovie. Both Sussman and Scott Bakula know Star Trek: United is a long shot, yet when they presented the idea to Alex Kurtzman and Secret Hideout years ago, there was genuine interest.

Star Trek: United does have a couple of advantages in its favor: a groundswell of support from Star Trek fans since news broke of Mike Sussman’s idea for a Scott Bakula Star Trek comeback show, and a new regime at Paramount Skydance that plans to make new Star Trek streaming TV shows and theatrical movies “a priority.”

It’s unclear if Mike Sussman and Scott Bakula have formally pitched Star Trek: United to Paramount Skydance’s decision-makers, but the executives would surely be open to hearing their ideas, at least. As Sussman summed up, “I don’t know what their plans are, but if their plans involve expanding the footprint of Star Trek on streaming, then perhaps something like this could be a part of it.”

Star Trek fans’ esteem of Scott Bakula and their desire to see President Jonathan Archer at this new phase of his life, taking place in a relatively unexplored period of history years after Star Trek: Enterprise, makes Star Trek: United an idea worth considering by Paramount+.

Release Date

2005 – 2005-00-00

Showrunner

Brannon Braga

Directors

Brannon Braga