How ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ Could Have Revived William Shatner’s Captain Kirk (And Made Fans’ Dreams Come True)
This may come as a shock to Trekkies, but it seemed that Star Trek: Enterprise wanted to bring the legendary William Shatner on board in an interesting way.
Many fans enjoyed how Star Trek: Enterprise offered a unique approach to the Star Trek franchise by giving us a glimpse of the events that shaped the 22nd century. This was also before the formation of the Federation. Though as we know, the show’s bold exploration of the early days of space exploration was met with mixed reviews. Even though the fourth season was regarded as the strongest, fans were left wondering what could have been in a potential fifth season.
One major missed opportunity involved the possible return of William Shatner as Captain Kirk — though not in the way many would expect.
Wait, Kirk in Star Trek: Enterprise?
According to the book The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek, which serves as a companion to the documentary series of the same name, the show’s season 4 showrunner, Manny Coto, had ambitious plans. He wanted to bring back Shatner’s iconic character, but not as the heroic Captain Kirk from the original series. Instead, Shatner would have portrayed a version of Kirk from the Mirror Universe — a darker, more authoritarian counterpart to the Kirk fans knew.
For those unfamiliar with the Mirror Universe, it was introduced in the classic Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror”. This alternate timeline was explored in later series like Deep Space Nine. But the break between the two universes wasn’t explained in the episode “A Mirror Darkly” in Star Trek: Enterprise, which saw Dr. Zefram Cochrane instead of Captain Kirk exchanging greetings with the arriving Vulcans, shooting the leader with a shotgun and his party ransacking their ship; which in turn allowed humanity’s rapid advance into the cosmos.
With that happening, you find that instead of a benevolent Federation, there is the Terran Empire. It is a brutal regime where humans subjugated other alien species; the complete opposite of how we see the Federation operate in the show. In this setting, the rules of promotion were Darwinian — only the strong survive – often by betraying or murdering their superiors.
How Would Kirk be Brought Back?
Coto’s idea, however, went even further. In his vision, the Mirror Universe version of Kirk, referred to as “Tiberius,” would have been transported to a pocket universe after an encounter with the villainous Spock, who had used a mysterious weapon called the “Tantalus Field.” Instead of vaporizing its targets, the Tantalus Field would transport them to this pocket universe. Over time, Kirk, or “Tiberius,” would have established dominance among the other prisoners, forming a new society.
Coto explained, “The idea was what if Archer and the Enterprise stumbled into this pocket universe, and evil Tiberius Kirk was now an older man, but still formidable, and wanted to take control of the Enterprise and escape.”
This concept would have created a gripping episode where Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew face off against a time-displaced, dangerous Kirk intent on seizing control of the ship.
Why Didn’t This Happen?
Unfortunately, this idea never came to fruition. The reason why is all too familiar to fans of the entertainment industry: money. Coto claimed that the episode was scrapped because Paramount wasn’t willing to pay Shatner’s fee. He added that the studio had already written the show off as dead and wasn’t interested in investing more, even if it meant a boost in ratings.
Star Trek: Enterprise did feature a Mirror Universe storyline in its fourth season with “In a Mirror, Darkly,” and it became one of the show’s most popular episodes. The episode explored the fate of the USS Defiant, a ship that vanished in the original series episode “The Tholian Web,” and revealed its discovery in the 22nd-century Mirror Universe.
As for William Shatner, now 93 years old, he’s expressed openness to reprising the role of Captain Kirk – under the right conditions of course. Whether or not fans will ever see him don the Starfleet uniform again remains a mystery, but one thing is certain: Enterprise fans will always wonder what might have been.
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