Star Trek: The Epic Crossover That Could Have Been

Star Trek: Enterprise could have hosted an epic crossover with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine if the Scott Bakula-led prequel had lasted 7 seasons. Enterprise was canceled by United Paramount Network (UPN) after 4 seasons, in an era where the expectations set by Star Trek: The Next Generation were to run for seven seasons.

To celebrate Star Trek‘s 30th anniversary in 1996, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5, episode 6, “Trials and Tribble-ations” inserted Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and his crew into Star Trek: The Original Series season 2’s classic “The Trouble With Tribbles.” Sisko even met Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), who never knew that Benjamin saved his life from an exploding Tribble.

At Trek Talks 5, which raised over $86,000 to benefit the Hollywood Food Coalition, Star Trek: Enterprise producers and writers Brannon Braga, Andre Bormanis, Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Michael Sussman, and Phyllis Strong joined a panel moderated by Diana Keng. Garfield Reeves-Stevens revealed his and Judith’s pitch for season 7 that would have crossed Enterprise over with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:

Garfield Reeves-Stevens: “We had a story we never pitched, but we thought of. And now we see it’s quite a common thing, several people have mentioned it online. But we thought for season 7, an ideal episode would be to have one last battle of the Temporal War. And it involves the Enterprise crew going back to the K-7 space station while Kirk’s crew is there and Sisko’s crew is there.

Watch the entire 9-hour Trek Talks 5 fundraiser marathon below:

Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens’ audacious pitch would have sent Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and the NX-01’s crew a hundred years into the future at the same time Captain Sisko’s DS9 personnel time-traveled from the 24th century, this time to stop a plot that ties into Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Temporal Cold War.

Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer Brannon Braga said that the Temporal Cold War “was definitely something that [Enterprise showrunner] Manny [Coto] and I talked about continuing, and picking it up again in season 5.” The complex Temporal Cold War was dropped before Enterprise revealed the identity of “Future Guy,” who Braga indicated would have been Jonathan Archer himself.

The prospect of Captain Archer’s Enterprise crew, Captain Sisko’s DS9 crew, and Captain Kirk’s Original Series crew all aboard Space Station K-7 is mind-boggling and feels like a genuine loss for fans. Presumably, to preserve Star Trek‘s timeline, Archer and his people would have to go undetected by Sisko and Kirk’s crews. But a meeting of the Captains feels like an opportunity Enterprise would have seized somehow.

Star Trek: Enterprise season 7 would have ended in 2008, had it happened, so Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens pitch, if approved, would have aired sometime in late 2007 to spring 2008. Star Trek fans can now only imagine what could have been an instant classic where Space Station K-7 would have been riddled with Tribbles and Starfleet time travelers.