Star Trek: Enterprise is the fifth live-action TV series set in the Star Trek universe. Created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, and based upon Gene Roddenberry's classic 1966 Star Trek (and its subsequent spin-offs), Enterprise was a "prequel", set a century before the time of Kirk and Spock. The series followed the voyages of the first starship Enterprise and mankind's first steps into the "final frontier". Initially titled without the Star Trek prefix, Enterprise ran an abbreviated four seasons, debuting in 2001 on the United Paramount Network and eventually falling victim to cancellation in 2005.
Enterprise was set in the 22nd century, at a time before the Federation and while United Earth was just becoming a player in interstellar politics.
Like its predecessor, Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise aired on UPN, rather than in first-run syndication like TNG or DS9. Initially, the ratings for Enterprise were as strong as those for Voyager, but the new series steadily lost viewers, and was finally canceled after its fourth season.
Numerous factors contributed to the demise of Enterprise. Due to its setting, the show was perhaps doomed from the start to step on the toes of previous canon and fanon, provoking the ire of the core Star Trek fan base. Enterprise may also have taken a ratings hit because viewers that used then-new Digital Video Recorders were not yet included in official counts.
Enterprise accomplished a number of technical firsts for the Star Trek series, including the first episode aired in high-definition, "Exile", and the first episode produced entirely with digital video equipment, "Storm Front".
