Enterprise Sets New Course
Scifi.com — Rick Berman, executive producer of UPN’s Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming second-season finale will send the show off in a “startling” new direction.
“What we’ve decided to take on here in our third season, which is more than hinted on in this final episode, is that for the first time a Star Trek television series is taking on a specific mission other than just exploring space. And because this mission is preceded by a very heinous act of destruction on Earth, the series is going to be far more action-packed.”
The finale, “The Expanse,” which was written by Berman and Brannon Braga, begins with a terrible attack on the Earth that leads to the Enterprise’s being recalled home.
Berman admits to seeing parallels in the episode with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But he added that they weren’t apparent when he and Braga began to work on the story.
“We were literally way into the scripting stages before we started to see the parallel,” Berman said. “I think one of the things that motivated us is in analyzing the 10 existing Star Trek movies, we were looking for something that would help torque up our series and add a little dimension to get a little added excitement towards the end of the season. We did a little analysis of our own, and we saw that two of the most popular movies … were Star Trek IV [The Voyage Home], which was the one about whales, and Star Trek VIII, which was First Contact. These were both films that had to do with the future of Earth being at stake. And we decided that that would be a great place to start. … It wasn’t literally for a long time that we suddenly realized [the parallel]. But the idea of aliens coming to destroy Earth has been around a lot longer than 9/11.”
Berman said that “The Expanse” will set in motion a series of events that will play out in an arc next season, involving the Enterprise’s journey into a dangerous Bermuda-Triangle-type area of space to search for those responsible for the attack.
“The Expanse” airs at 8 p.m. ET/PT May 21.
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