Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: United

Star Trek: Enterprise Producer Discusses Archer Spinoff "United" Pitch

Enterprise writer/producer Michael Sussman discusses his Star Trek: United pitch, which sees the return of Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer.

There's a lot of uncertainty concerning the future of the Star Trek franchise with the new Paramount-Skydance merger in place, with only one active live-action series with Strange New Worlds over halfway over with two more seasons, another underway with Starfleet Academy, and the animated Star Trek: Scouts. This is dramatically different considering the launch of Paramount+ in 2019, where you had the live-action Discovery and Picard, and animated Lower Decks and Prodigy. There have been series pitches from creatives like Picard showrunner Terry Matalas with Legacy, SNW showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alono Myers for Year One, and Enterprise writer/producer Michael Sussman with United, none any closer to developing. Sussman spoke to TrekMovie.com to shed more light on Star Trek: United, which expands Scott Bakula's Jonathan Archer following the events of the UPN series, similar to the way Picard expanded Patrick Stewart's title role outside of The Next Generation, and what we could possibly see if it becomes a reality.

Star Trek: Enterprise Writer/Producer on Possible Archer Stories

As far as where United will begin, Sussman says the timeline with Archer will be reflected more parallel to Bakula's life in his 70s, "Archer would be in a place in his life where Scott kind of is right now, where Scott is a family man. He's got four adult kids. And so I gave Archer four adult kids, and the story is as much about them as it is about him. Because he [Archer] lived this life of diplomacy … his family sort of grew up with this sense of service," he said. "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. So his adult kids could be brought into this story in a way that felt very organic… They would be integral to the story we were telling."

Similar to Picard, United would emphasize the title character and younger cast rather than rely on nostalgia of the Enterprise cast, "It's not just getting the whole [Enterprise] gang back together every week. Now we might see them—I would love to see everybody in one form or another, maybe even some of them in regular roles, but this would be a different show… It would be about these younger characters who would be in their 20s or early 30s, at most. And so you have the opportunity to bring in some legacy people, but it would largely be about this new cast."

United would also expand on Enterprise stories that were never explored, as UPN cancelled the series after four seasons in 2005, "…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. Something that has become clear to me from feedback since we first started talking about this, is fans saying they never got to see the Romulan War. We were waiting for it, and you guys just kind of skipped over it [in the Enterprise series finale]. And I share their frustration. 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." For more on how Sussman expands on Romulan lore and how it may tie to The Original Series, you can check out the entire interview.

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