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The series "Enterprise" takes place a century before the events of TOS.

Are the things that happened in Enterprise considered canon or would they be a spin-off series of sorts? The specific events I'm speaking of are the temporal cold war, and the storyline of the Xindi wanting to destroy Humanity on behalf of the Sphere Builders.

Is anything that happened during Enterprise considered part of the Star Trek canon or have the creators of Star Trek chosen to pretend it never happened?

Praxis
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Him_Jalpert
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    In general, Star Trek canon is divided not by series, but by medium - Live-TV and Movie events are canon to each other (Including J.J. Abrams', because of the "alternate timeline" cop-out), while books are in their own canon, and video games likewise fall into their own canon. – Zibbobz Dec 11 '14 at 15:52
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    I am confused by your terminology: Aren't spin-off series one of the most straightforward ways to express that two series happen in the same canon/universe? – O. R. Mapper Dec 11 '14 at 16:06
  • @O.R.Mapper Yes, I should have clarified in my comment. When I say they 'fall into their own canon', what I meant (and should have said) was that they follow from the TV/Movie canon, but the former is not bound to the latter (TV and Movie canon are not bound to Game or Book canon). – Zibbobz Dec 11 '14 at 16:12
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    No because Enterprise never happened. It was revealed it was a Holodeck game in the final episode. Like in Dallas when JR wakes up in the shower and the previous year of the show was all a dream. – Gaius Dec 12 '14 at 12:25
  • I mean, "temporal cold war"? That's obviously complete fantasy even within the ST universe. – Gaius Dec 12 '14 at 12:26
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    @Gaius That was a recording of only those events, not the entire series. – Izkata Dec 13 '14 at 02:07
  • Suliban didn't have connection with Sphere Builders. – user931 Dec 19 '14 at 20:17
  • @Sachin did they not? I thought the point of them building their super weapons was because they were told by the sphere builders that in the future The Federation destroys the Suliban. They just may not have known they were actually destroying the Federation to suit the needs of the sphere builders. – Him_Jalpert Dec 19 '14 at 20:27
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    They were Xindi, not Suliban. – user931 Dec 19 '14 at 20:42
  • Oooooh, lol I had them mixed up. – Him_Jalpert Dec 19 '14 at 22:31
  • @Izkata and they must have happened in order to be recorded – OrangeDog May 04 '23 at 11:38

6 Answers6

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There's no particular reason to believe Enterprise is non-canon. It was created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, who were at one time showrunners of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager.

In-universe, we can connect Enterprise to almost every other definitely-canon Star Trek property:

  • TOS: The fourth-season Enterprise two-parter "In a Mirror, Darkly" is a sequel story to the TOS season 3 episode "The Tholian Web", and a prequel to the season 2 episode "Mirror, Mirror".

  • TNG: In the Enterprise series finale, "These are the Voyages...", Commander Riker is interacting with a holodeck recreation of the Enterprise crew in order to help him sort out an internal conflict, part of the seventh season TNG episode "The Pegasus".

  • DS9: Aside from the fact that being connected to TNG automatically connected Enterprise to DS9, the Enterprise episode "Acquisition" introduces us to the Ferengi well before their official first contact in TNG. In the episode, a Ferengi named Krem is educating Captain Archer on the Rules of Acquisition:

    Krem: Never allow family to stand in the way of profit.

    Archer: Another of your rules?

    Krem: Number six.

    Enterprise Season 1 Episode 19 "Acquisition"

    Meanwhile, in "The Nagus", Quark quotes the Sixth Rule of Acquisition as:

    Quark: Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity.

    Deep Space Nine Season 1 Episode 11 "The Nagus"

  • First Contact In addition to James Cromwell reprising his role as Zefram Cochrane (in a cameo), and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it glimpse of the Phoenix (see the Into Darkness entry, below), the events of First Contact are referenced by Captain Archer, remembering a speech made by a very drunk Cochrane:

    Archer: When I was a kid, I read everything I could about him. It took me a while, but I finally found it in the database. He was giving a commencement address at Princeton when he started to talk about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated by a group of humans who were also from the future.

    Star Trek Enterprise Season 2 Episode 23: "Regeneration"

  • Star Trek (2009): When Spock and Kirk first encounter Scotty on Delta Vega, Scotty tells us how he came to be stuck with his less-than-enviable assignment:

    Scotty: Had a little debate with my instructor on relativistic physics and how it pertains to subspace travel. He seemed to think the range of transporting something like a...like a grapefruit was limited to about a hundred miles. I told him that I could not only beam a grapefruit from one planet to the adjacent planet in the same system - which is easy, by the way - I could do it with a lifeform. So, I tested it out on Admiral Archer's prized beagle.

    Star Trek (2009)

    Emphasis mine. As discussed in another question1, this is Admiral Sam Beckett Jonathan Archer, and Porthos from Enterprise

  • Star Trek: Into Darkness: Admiral Robocop Marcus has a bunch of model air and space vehicles, from the Wright Flyer all the way to his own USS Vengeance:

    Admiral Robocop's Desk

    I took this screenshot myself, so apologies for the blurriness.

    On the far right is clearly the Phoenix, Zefram Cochrane's warp-capable missle, from the movie First Contact and the Enterprise title sequence. It's hard to make out, but I believe the middle one is the NX-Alpha, the Warp-2 prototype that appears in the Enterprise episode "First Flight" (Season 2, Episode 24). The one on the far left is clearly the NX-01 herself.

    QMx, the company that made the models, confirms my suspicions on their website. They have a gallery of the 14 miniatures they made for the movie, one of which is the NX-01. Although it looks slightly different from the show (the two-tone hull plating, for instance) it's unquestionably the same design.

    Here's a thumb of the NX-Alpha model:

    NX-Alpha Model

    And a high-res of the NX-01 model:

    NX-01 Model

  • Star Trek Beyond: Captain Balthazar Edison is described as having been a MACO before the Federation was founded (and the MACOs disbanded). He later reveals that he fought in the Xindi campaign:

    Edison: I fought for Humanity! Lost millions to the Xindi and Romulan wars.

    Star Trek Beyond (2016)

    Both the MACOs and the Xindi campaign were fixtures of Enterprise's third season.

  • Discovery: Among a handful of background references, several mid-season episodes of Discovery make a plot point of the USS Defiant's presence in the Mirror Universe, something that was initially established during the Enterprise two-parter "In a Mirror, Darkly."

    As well, in her speech to the Discovery's crew at the end of "The War Without, The War Within", Admiral Cornwall references Archer's visit to Qo'noS from the Enterprise series premiere.

Although the show wasn't as broadly well-received by Trek fans as some of the others, as far as I know no significant portions of the fanbase have rejected it, and it's never been officially rejected by Paramount, as TAS once was2. In fact, the NX-01 Enterprise is listed on the database at StarTrek.com, as close to an official canon repository as I can find.

The only reason I can think of to exclude Enterprise from canon is if you're only considering things made with Gene Rodenberry's direct involvement. If that's you, then disregard the above.

1 Disclaimer: I have the top-voted, accepted answer on this question

2 Although this decision has since been reversed. TAS episodes are listed in the same database on StarTrek.com

Jason Baker
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    "In a Mirror, Darkly" is sequel to "The Tholian Web", prequel(ish) to "Mirror, Mirror" – Izkata Dec 11 '14 at 17:02
  • @Izkata Thanks for the catch – Jason Baker Dec 11 '14 at 17:04
  • I never connected Scotty's story with Archer from Enterprise. That's hilarious and sad. I liked that dog. – Logarr Dec 12 '14 at 00:38
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    @Logarr If it makes you feel better, it's virtually impossible that the beagle in question was Porthos; beagles only live 12-15 years now, and Federation medicine will only do so much for him. He didn't even survive to the hypothetical future where Archer and T'Pol are "50 First Date"-ing – Jason Baker Dec 12 '14 at 02:14
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    Well, Porthos could have sired g-g-g-g-grand-puppies. Or Archer could have just acquired another beagle. – miltonaut Dec 12 '14 at 09:53
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    Admiral Robocop shoots people in the head for violating the Prime Directive. "Thank you for your cooperation. live long and prosper." – Monty129 Dec 18 '14 at 23:05
  • I directly linked the clean screen captures, but someone might want to upload to imgur for preservation. – ThePopMachine Dec 19 '14 at 16:21
  • Thanks for the fine answer. Especially appreciated by this Enterprise fan. – Organic Marble Jan 09 '15 at 00:32
  • The whole Xindi/temporal cold war arc seemed like a major disconnect from previously established canon. In some ways, some of the tie-in stories seemed to be trying too hard to connect up with previous canon. In the process, they seemed to introduce inconsistencies. The Ferengi for one... how could Archer's Enterprise have that encounter and by TNG, Ferengi remain only the subject of Federation rumor? The whole alternate universe (ISS)/Tholian story... also too forced to fit. – Anthony X Jan 11 '15 at 22:24
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    @AnthonyX The Ferengi in Enterprise were never named, so no one knew who they were. Likewise come TNG, they had rumours, but I don't think they knew what Ferengi looked like. Afterwards a connection might have been made offscreen, but at that point it wouldn't have been important. – Izkata Jan 11 '15 at 22:42
  • The current season of Discovery recently had Starfleet unveil the Archer Spacedock, with the musical cue from Enterprise playing. This is clearly a reference to Captain Archer in canon. – samuei Jan 31 '22 at 14:45
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AFAIK all of the television shows are the primary canon, (maybe not the cartoon). This was not a spin off series; it was the next official Star Trek series after Voyager.

FuzzyBoots
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Himarm
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  • The Kzinti - therefore the Niven-connected cartoons - were going to appear in series 5 or 6 we are told. So the cartoons can probably taken as canon also. MAYBE even some aspects of Known Space, which is a particularly jarring thought! –  Dec 12 '14 at 22:47
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If "canonical" means TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager, and all of the films up to and including Nemesis (but not necessarily J.J. Abrams' attempt at "Star Trek"), then the answer is Yes, Enterprise is canon.

The proof that the television series Enterprise is tethered to, and intended to be part of, the same continuity as the shows and films above is the final episode of Enterprise, titled "These Are the Voyages". In that episode, it is revealed that the events of Enterprise are historical events known to the characters of TNG. Specifically, Riker uses events that occurred on Captain Jonathan Archer's Enterprise as a guide as to how to proceed in a difficult decision related to the TNG episode "The Pegasus".

Praxis
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-1

I believe Enterprise to be canon, I believe everything is or should be canon. As far as I can tell, very little contradicts severely. Anyway, I think that most, not all, of the nx-01's missions/adventures were classified or not known in-universe. That said, I wish we saw Q. Anything is possible. Even though they tried to connect Enterprise with the rest, and there was time travel, we never saw the future we know. Except Riker.

Jerome
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    Hi, welcome to SF&F! While you are not alone in believing the series is canon, the question asks if there is evidence from the creators that they consider the series (especially the elements which are new) to be canon. – DavidW Oct 18 '19 at 15:02
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I've finally got around to watching and finishing the series and whilst most of it can suggest it's Canon there are inconsistencies which would force it to be Canon in a multiverse approach, the biggest one being the actor that is head of teraprime is the same actor that is in the Star Trek film from 2009.

I already consider this film to be part of a multiverse as it has different actors playing all the major names (for obvious reasons) and unless starfleet forgive him for treason I doubt he would have gotten the promotion to where he was in the film from 2009)

HOWEVER the series would have to be in ANOTHER branch of multiverse to the 2009 film because of the actor reprising two different roles AND due to Scotty in the 2009 film mentioning Admiral Archer and what happen to his dog when he tried to send him long distance using the transporter, throw into the mix that is well stated Chris Pike is the first ever official captain of Enterprise from when the comics/series started and you start to get the idea of where things line up in the multiverse with some series and films overlaping as the timelines cross paths.

Robert p
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The answer is "sorta"...

Before the start of Enterprise Temporal Forces are known to be interfering changing the timeline in various ways such as the Xindi War so that the events of many episodes play out Similar but not completely canon with the rest of the universe until after season 3's (i think) reset of the timeline which erased all or a significant amount of the changes from the history and returns the Enterprise crew with their non-canon memories to the canon timeline...

So canonically the Xindi War did not happen to the universe, but did happen to the Crew which does affect the overall future actions past that point... which are all supposedly canon meaning that the events that were changed were always meant to be changed and changed back or something like that.

That's if you are asking if the events are "canon" within the universe. If you mean, is the show canon with regards to how it is to be regarded as having happened or not in general the IP's canon, then yes. It is definitely canon.

Durakken
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