John Billingsley cites “understandable fatigue” for weak Star Trek: Enterprise ratings

John Billingsley as Doctor Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise

Star Trek: Enterprise cast members Dominic Keating, John Billingsley and Connor Trinneer came together for last week’s GalaxyCon virtual panel. TrekMovie reported on the event in which the actors reflected on the challenges faced by the series’ writers, with John Billingsley speculating why those issues may have contributed to the cancellation of the series after just four seasons.

With Star Trek: The Next Generation hitting television screens in 1987, there was a constant flow of new Star Trek episodes throughout the 1990s, with Deep Space Nine and Voyager airing simultaneously for five of those years. In Billingsley’s opinion, the burden of consistently writing content took its toll on the Enterprise writing staff. “We came on after so many years of Star Trek [...] I think by the time we aired there was fatigue, understandable fatigue,” Billingsley said in the panel, suggesting the franchise might have benefited from a year off the air. “I always felt badly for [co-creators/executive producers] Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] that they weren’t given that time.”

The actor referred to the episode “Strange New World” from season one of Enterprise, specifically. According to Billingsley, a transporter malfunction was originally written to have a rather gruesome result, but he claims Paramount and UPN toned down the drama in order to avoid taking risks with the series. “I think there was a little bit more work needed on what the tonal balance was,” he said. He pointed out that there was a tension between the darkness of the uncertainty of being the first exploring starship, and the “optimistic spirit” of what Star Trek was expected to be. “It is a hard tone to strike for what they were trying to do,” he said.

Whether the network was apprehensive toward serious drama or not, Enterprise is a beloved series by many Star Trek fans, and will likely continue to be. Catch up all of Star Trek: Enterprise, available to stream now on CBS All Access.