John Billingsley, who performed Physician Phlox — the most effective “Star Trek” characters — spoke with TrekMovie.com final month about his experiences appearing on “Enterprise,” why it struggled, and the way the present holds up at the moment. Billingsley revealed the “edict” that he and his forged mates weren’t allowed to direct. He attributes this to a risk-averse angle at UPN, the house community of “Enterprise.”

“I do not suppose that was a mirrored image on our explicit forged. I simply suppose by the point our present was on UPN, a dying community, the rankings had been in the bathroom. The phrase from on excessive was, ‘You do not have the latitude that we would have given you again after we felt the franchise was actually wholesome.’ So to a sure extent — and I do not need this to sound snotty, as a result of [‘Enterprise’ creators] Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] had been nothing however gracious to me — however I did not ever get the impression that it was like, ‘Swing the door open and are available on in, let’s hear [your pitches].'”

Certainly, UPN can be shuttered in September 2006, somewhat over a 12 months after “Enterprise” wrapped its four-season run. Billingsley is not the primary to voice this frustration — Scott Bakula, who performed Captain Jonathan Archer, additionally felt the present was hampered by being at a dying community. Following its cancellation in 2005, “Star Trek” went off TV for 12 years, till the launch of “Discovery” in 2017.