Star Trek Captain Originally Didn’t Care About Joining The Franchise
Star Trek is the kind of franchise that usually makes its lead actors into household names…just ask William Shatner and Patrick Stewart, both of whom rocketed to worldwide fame after exploring “strange new worlds” on television. However, for one of this franchise’s many spinoffs, the lead actor was already a household name, and he was very hesitant to become the captain of the Enterprise. We’re talking about Scott Bakula, of course, the Quantum Leap star who recently admitted that he “never had that dream” about being on Star Trek and only agreed to do Enterprise because it was set “a hundred years before Kirk.”
Quantum Leap
Long before Scott Bakula became a Star Trek actor, he became famous due to the 1989 sci-fi series Quantum Leap. While also a sci-fi series, that show was more down-to-earth, with a premise in which Bakula’s character is a person who time travels backward into other people’s bodies and tries to make the past better in his ongoing quest to eventually “leap” home.
The series was immensely popular, earning six Primetime Emmys and eventually spawning a reboot.
Following Shatner
That early sci-fi success may help explain why Scott Bakula was less than keen about becoming a Star Trek actor. As he explained on the D-Con Chamber podcast (hosted by his former Enterprise colleagues Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer), he was actually a big fan of the franchise already and he had a very fannish fear.
Specifically, he worried about having to follow previous captains like Shatner’s Kirk (who admittedly left some very tall boots to fill).
Comforted because It Was A Prequel
Interestingly, though, what reassured Scott Bakula about this new Star Trek series is the same thing that worried many other people. When it was announced that Enterprise would be a prequel, some fans were annoyed on principle that a franchise that had always been about looking forward was now instead looking back.
Others were annoyed because they felt that prequel storytelling had already ruined Star Wars and they didn’t want it to similarly ruin Star Trek.
Where No Kirk Had Gone Before
However, when Scott Bakula was first offered the chance to act on a Star Trek show, he simply said “umm…” and audibly paused on the phone call before he heard their very next words: that the show would be set a century before the time of Captain Kirk.
This meant that while the show itself was going to be the latest Star Trek series, it would be set before anyone else in the franchise had seen onscreen had ever explored strange new worlds. That reassured Bakula, effectively giving him the chance to go where no Star Trek captain had gone before.
Enterprise Didn’t Travel Far Enough
Sadly, Scott Bakula’s time on Star Trek: Enterprise was cut short, with the series getting canceled after only four seasons (a Paramount decision made more painful by the fact that season 4 was the show’s strongest season).
That cancellation didn’t really slow Bakula down, as he went on to be the lead star in the shows Men of a Certain Age and the very popular NCIS: New Orleans. However, with Paramount working on yet another Star Trek origin film, we can’t help but wonder if we’ll see Bakula’s original captain suiting up for adventure one last time.
