Star Trek: Enterprise, the latest series based upon the universe created by Gene Roddenberry, debuted in September 2001. Even before the series aired, however, fans ranging from casual viewers to purists began criticizing the show for allegedly violating well-established continuity with previous Star Trek series. As a prequel to what had come before, particularly the sacrosanct Star Trek: The Original Series, Enterprise has come under more intense scrutiny by fans than any science fiction television series in history.

Many of the points of contention have been divisive among Star Trek fans, with often emotional debates and arguments being reported. While some contend that the series cannot reconcile with earlier shows, others respond that most if not all alleged continuity violations can be explained. Also, Enterprise has, more than any Trek series before it, illustrated the schism which has developed between canon -- which, in the case of Star Trek, refers to anything shown on screen (with the exception of Star Trek: The Animated Series) -- and fanon, which has been developed by thousands of Trek fans over the last 40 years through fan fiction, licensed novels, reference works, and general assumption. This clash has led to some fans refusing to accept Enterprise as canon, although it is undeniably so according to Paramount Pictures, owners of the Star Trek franchise.

It should be pointed out that inconsistencies such as these are not exclusive to Enterprise, as they are present in all five of the live-action Star Trek series. However, this has not prevented the series from becoming a magnet for criticism in this area. This is in part due to the quantum growth in the Internet and Internet-based fan discussion boards in the period between the debut of the previous Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager in 1995, and the arrival of Enterprise in 2001. This has created many more outlets for supporters and detractors of Enterprise and Star Trek in general to voice their support or dissent.

The following is a list of apparent continuity problems encountered on Enterprise, whose episode titles are followed by "(ENT)". Titles of episodes of the other series referenced are followed by "(TOS)", "(TNG)", "(DS9)", and "(VOY)" to denote the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, respectively. Many fans are not satisfied with the supposed explanations of these problems, and feel that Enterprise breaks the spirit of Star Trek by undermining its origins, though supporters dispute this viewpoint, replying that Enterprise is no better, no worse, in matters of continuity than previous Trek series and countering that some fans are treating Star Trek as a religion rather than as entertainment.

Enterprise NX-01

First ship to bear the name?

• Issue: The episodes “Remember Me” (TNG) and “Trials and Tribble-ations” (DS9) both established that Kirk’s Enterprise was the first such starship of that name, and without qualifier (in other words, it was not stated that it was the first “Federation” starship or first "Starfleet" vessel of that name). The basic premise of “Star Trek: Enterprise” indicates otherwise.
• Reply: The general response to this by Enterprise writers is that the NX-01 was the first Earth Starfleet starship of the name, not the first Federation ship (indicating that it may be destroyed or decommissioned before the founding of the Federation).
• Rebuttal:However, that argument runs into the problem that in TNG, the Enterprise-D's ready room shows a progression of famous ships to bear the name "Enterprise", including the pre-Federation CVN-65 of the United States Navy followed immediately by Kirk's original NCC-1701. Considering the importance placed on NX-01's mission in Earth's survival, it is hard to see how the NX-01 was not included, suggesting that continuity has been violated in some way.
• Reply: On the other hand, Picard's ready room didn't include an illustration of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, either. Nor did his ready room include an illustration of the ringed ship (apparently another Enterprise) seen in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and discussed below.
• Comment: The real world has, in some respects, already provided its own complication to this argument, with the announcement by Richard Branson in 2004 that the first vessel in his proposed commercial spaceflight endeavor, Virgin Galactic, is to be called V.S.S. Enterprise, a vessel, for obvious reasons, that has never been mentioned in any Trek series.

Ship design

• Issue: The design of the Enterprise is alleged to violate continuity in a number of ways, some of which relate to fanon rather than canon interpretations of the history of Starfleet. In Star Trek: The Motion Picture the NCC-1701's recreation room features illustrations of past Enterprise vessels including an obscure image of a space ship that predates the NCC-1701 but is clearly not the NX-01. "All these ships were named Enterprise," says Willard Decker in describing the illustrations.
• Reply: Decker's line has been interpreted to mean various things, from indicating that all past Enterprises were shown or that the images are only of a selection of vessels. The illustration of the pre-NCC-1701 spaceship shown in the recreation room was later seen in the Enterprise episode "First Flight" and again in "Home" suggesting that it predated the NX-01.
• Issue: The design of the NX-01 is similar to that of a starship seen briefly during a battle sequence in Star Trek: First Contact which has been dubbed the Akira class in fanon though it is never identified on screen. The similarities between the two designs have led some critics to dub the NX-01 the "Akiraprise".
• Reply: This is not necessarily a continuity violation; some have argued that the design for the Akira-class was inspired by the design of the NX class.
• Issue: On the side of the NX-01's nacelles are glowing blue strips similar in design to 24th century ships. Many Star Trek fans were bothered by this.

Technology

Cloaking

• Issue: In the episode “Unexpected” (ENT), the crew encountered a ship with cloaking technology, even though in “Balance of Terror” (TOS), cloaking technology was new, and Spock even said that invisibility was only theoretically possible. '
• Reply: It has been noted that Spock and Kirk also reacted with surprise to the presence of a cloaked ship later in the series ("The Enterprise Incident") - indicating a continuity break within TOS - while others have suggested that "Balance of Terror" refers to some form of "new" cloaking technology. The fourth season episode "Babel One" established that Romulans have camouflage technology which could be used to render a vessel invisible - but not necessarily in the same way as a cloak. It could also be argued that 'cloaking technology' can simply mean the ability to disapear from the current sensor technology. Meaning that the cloaking capabilities were known in TOS but was completely outdated and could easily be detected by Starfleet sensors of that time, thus explaining the surprise of the crew in face of a new 'improved' cloaking technology with the ability to overide the sensors of the original (TOS) Enterprise.
• Rebuttal: It is obvious that the shock expressed in "The Enterprise Incident" is due to Kirk and his crew seeing three Klingon ships with cloaking technology. 'Why do the Klingons have cloaking technology? And why are they in Romulan space?' There is no continuity break within TOS dealing with this issue. The whole plot of that episode ("The Enterprise Incident") was about Kirk and Spock being on a secret mission from Starfleet to steal a cloaking device they knew the Romulans had.

Intraship beaming

• Issue: Intraship beaming was said to be extremely hazardous in “Day of the Dove” (TOS), but Captain Archer does so in “Chosen Realm” (ENT), without any mention of difficulty or danger.
• Reply: The response to this is that the crew of the NX-01 had likely not yet discovered the danger. Perhaps a future incident yet to be chronicled will make intraship beaming inadvisable. Changes in transporter technology in the century after Enterprise (increased power?) might also make intraship beaming dangerous. It can also be speculated that there might also have been a improvement in the hull material that, altough more resistant to damage, causes problems with beaming when having to pass through that matter twice in the same operation.

Phase pistols

• Issue: The episode “A Matter of Time” (TNG) established that there were no phasers in the 22nd century, yet Captain Archer’s crew has “phase pistols”, which certainly sound like a 22nd century version of phasers. In addition, Captain Pike used lasers in the very first original series pilot, “The Cage” (TOS), suggesting that the subsequent switch to phasers in the first regular episode of that series indicated that they were new in the 23rd Century.
• Reply: Phase pistols have never been referred to as phasers and most likely are different weapons.

Subspace radio

• Issue: “A Piece of the Action” (TOS) made it clear that subspace radio had not been invented until after 2168, but “Silent Enemy” (ENT) shows Archer’s crew deploying and beginning to use subspace radio relays, even though that episode is set in 2151.
• Reply: The Original Series is not entirely consistent on the date when subspace radio was in use. In "Balance of Terror," Spock makes it clear that Earth and the Romulans negotiated a peace treaty via subspace radio, well before the 2168 mission of the USS Horizon. It's also possible that the NX-01 is making use of an early form of subspace which will later be superceded by a more advanced form (i.e. one that does not require the use of buoys) by 2168. Perhaps it will be someday revealed that the Horizon referenced in "A Piece of the Action" is actually the "generational"-style ship featured on Enterprise rather than a Starfleet ship.

Romulan vessels

• Issue: "Babel One" features a Romulan vessel capable of warp 5, yet aren't Romulans supposed to lack warp capability at this point in time?
• Reply: It is technically fanon that Romulans didn't have warp capability at the time of the Earth-Romulan War. All that is known in canon is that, for some reason, the Romulan vessel encountered in the TOS episode "Balance of Terror" was only using impulse engines. Given the realities of space travel, it would take years for Romulans to leave their home solar system, let alone manage an empire, if they did not have warp engines. Alternately, the vessel seen in "Babel One" and "United" is clearly identified as a prototype, one that most likely was abandoned.

Vulcans

Eating habits

• Issue: The first episode of Enterprise, "Broken Bow", establishes that Vulcans do not eat food with their hands, as T'Pol demonstrates by eating a breadstick with knife and fork. However, an episode in a later season shows her eating popcorn by hand. Actress Jolene Blalock has gone on record as objecting to such inconsistencies.
• Reply: The notion that Vulcans never eat with their hands may be more of a preference than an absolute rule. Some fans suggest the series is simply establishing that T'Pol is adapting to being around humans, while most of her "inconsistencies" in the third season can be explained by her actions as revealed in the episode "Damage". In addition, the episode "Shadows of P'Jem" has Archer ordering T'Pol to eat with her hands (rather than starving during a period of captivity), suggesting that T'Pol may have decided this form of eating was more efficient. A third speculation, suggested by the sight of Vulcan Mestral eating a pretzel with his hands in "Carbon Creek", is that T'Pol was simply lying (or exaggerating) when she made the earlier statement.

Melding

• Issue: Many viewers felt the assertion in “Stigma” (ENT) that there was a strong stigma in Vulcan society attached to the mind meld was at odds with premises regarding the mind meld established in the movies “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, and “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”, and the episode “Gambit, Part II” (TNG).
• Reply: An examination of those sources reveal no such "premises" - once again, this is an example of ENT contradicting fanon, not canon. The episode "Kir'Shara" subsequently brought melding in line with what little canon exists regarding it, and the following episode "Daedalus" revealed that, in only a week's time, the stigma surrounding melding had evaporated on Vulcan, effectively resolving any remaining canonical issues surrounding it, save for the indication that some Vulcans can't meld - although there are rumors (as of January 2005) that the series may address this discrepency, too, before the fourth season ends.

Pon farr

• Issue: Numerous members of Archer’s crew, including Archer himself, Commander Trip Tucker, Lieutenant Reed, and Dr. Phlox, have had numerous conversations in which they learned of the Vulcan mating cycle pon farr in episodes including “Fusion” (ENT), “Fallen Hero” (ENT), “Two Days and Two Nights” (ENT), and “Bounty” (ENT), yet fans alleged that no one, including Dr. McCoy, had any knowledge of it in “Amok Time” (TOS).
• Reply: This is another example of fanon violation as TOS established a human character (Dr. M'Benga) who joins the NCC-1701 crew later in the series as a doctor who studied on Vulcan. It is inconceivable that a medical doctor trained on Vulcan would not be aware of pon farr. In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, McCoy claims to be unfamiliar with Klingon anatomy despite numerous previous encounters with the race (and opportunities to study them) indicating that he does not have a complete knowledge of alien physiology and therefore might well not have been aware of pon farr. Also, the fourth season of Enterprise is establishing changes in Vulcan culture occurring in the mid-22nd Century, suggesting that by the time of TOS a century later Vulcans might not be as open to discussing topics such as pon farr with off-worlders.

T'Pau

• Issue: Among the more minor points of contention is the fact that Vulcan elder T'Pau in the ENT episodes "Awakening" and "Kir'Shara" speaks with a faint accent rather than the strong accent used by the same character, now elderly, in the TOS episode "Amok Time".
• Reply: There are many real-world examples of individuals adopting or strengthening accents as they grow older. Alternately, the change in accent could be the result of universal translator technology.
• Rebuttal: The notion that the disparity might be caused by two different actresses playing the part is rejected by some fans.
• Reply: Similar disparity has been displayed in the franchise previously with the casting of two extremely different actors as Zefram Cochrane in TOS and Star Trek: First Contact, and the change in both appearance and characterization of Lt. Saavik between Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, again caused by a change of actor.

Trip and T'Pol

• Issue: The relationship between Trip and T'Pol (which, in an alternate timeline, produced a half-human/half-Vulcan offspring) contradicts the fact that Sarek and Amanda Grayson were the first human-Vulcan couple.
• Reply: Nowhere in the canon has it ever been suggested that Sarek and Amanda were the first mixed-race couple of this sort. It is somewhat suggested that Spock might be the first successful offspring of such a union, however Lorien, the son of Trip and T'Pol, existed only in an alternate timeline, so unless they have a child in the "real world" at a later time, this is not a continuity violation. Similarly, as of midway through the fourth season, Trip and T'Pol marry only in the alternate timeline of the episode "E2" and may never do so in the regular timeline. It is rumored that an episode near the end of the fourth season may address (or complicate) this matter further.

First contacts

Borg

• Issue: Prior to “Regeneration” (ENT), one could be content to speculate that reports of the Borg by the El Aurians rescued in “Star Trek: Generations” were filed away someplace, since they did not have visual records, proof, or possibly even detailed explanations of the people who they fled from. But in “Regeneration”, there is an abundance of photographs of Borg drones, which Commander Data should’ve produced when the Enterprise-D crew “first” encountered the Borg in “Q Who” (TNG). Moreover, Dr. Phlox’s discovery in “Regeneration” (ENT) that omicron particles are harmful to the Borg nanoprobes was never mentioned in any of the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or “Star Trek: Voyager” episodes featuring the Borg.
• Reply: Many fans have speculated that the establishment of Section 31 in DS9 makes it very possible that discoveries regarding the Borg were classified and not made available to the crew of the NCC-1701-D. An episode of Voyager ("Raven") established that at least some in the Federation were aware of the Borg years prior to "Q Who". Since "Regeneration", fanon has begun to circulate suggesting that the early discovery of the Borg was covered up by what would later come to be known as Section 31.
• Rebuttal: It should be pointed out that the entire purpose of Section 31 is to preserve the Federation at all costs, raising the question of why they would even consider withholding information about such an obvious and potent threat.
• Reply: Julian Bashir (in DS9) openly questioned Section 31's motives, and there is plenty of on-screen evidence to suggest that Section 31's aim is ambiguous at best. (As of January 2005 it is rumored that one of the remaining fourth season episodes may focus on the creation of Section 31, which may or may not shed more light on this subject.)
• Further reply: As Archer and his crew never learned the identity of the Borg, Data would have little reason to immediately suspect that the Borg were the same cybernetic creatures encountered by Archer two centuries earlier, thousands of light-years away. Moreover, the Borg encountered by the Enterprise-D in "Q, Who?" look somewhat different from the Borg encountered by Archer (this was due to more advanced makeup and prosthetic designs in "Regeneration"; but nevertheless, the Borg do appear quite different). "Regeneration" also reminds the audience that there are other cybernetic species in the known galaxy; Phlox mentions the Binars, which were introduced in season one of ST:TNG. It seems very likely that after Picard's "first" encounter with the Borg, someone at Starfleet examined the data in their archives and concluded that the Borg did in fact visit Earth centuries earlier.
• Borg Nanoprobe reply: As for the inconsistency of the Borg nanoprobes, it may be worth noting that there was never a single reference to Borg nanotechnology in any episode of ST:TNG. This element of Borg technology was retroactively "invented" in the feature film Star Trek: First Contact and later explored in detail in many episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. Moreover, Phlox's "cure" of the assimilation process contradicts nothing seen in ST:TNG or other episodes. In "The Best of Both Worlds," Doctor Crusher reverses Captain Picard's assimilation without much difficulty, leading some to speculate that she used techniques pioneered by Doctor Phlox.

Ferengi

• Issue: Archer’s encounter with four Ferengi in “Acquisition” (ENT), directly contradicts “The Last Outpost” (TNG), which made it clear that Picard’s encounter with them in that latter episode was the Federation’s first.
• Reply: DS9 and TNG clearly established that humans knew of the Ferengi before the events of "The Last Outpost." (According to The Art of Star Trek, the Ferengi were originally intended to be to TNG as Klingons were to TOS, resulting in a build-up of rumor and speculation about the race prior to their first appearance.) Although criticized by some, the official canon line is that the crew of the NX-01 never discovered - nor bothered to discover - the identity of their hijackers. Sloppy exploration protocol on the part of the NX-01 crew, perhaps - and the episode "Shockwave" has Archer being reprimanded for similar errors if not this specific one - but not necessarily a violation of continuity.

Klingons

• Issue: Some claim that the First Contact with the Klingons depicted in the pilot episode of the series, “Broken Bow” (ENT), contradicts what was established in by Captain Picard in the episode “First Contact” (TNG) and by Doctor “Bones” McCoy in “Day of the Dove” (TOS). Picard said that the encounter led to decades of war, and Dr. McCoy said that they were only blood enemies for 50 years at the time of “Day of the Dove” (well over a hundred years after “Broken Bow”).
• Reply: Neither episode established exactly when First Contact occurred; "Day of the Dove" simply indicates that the Federation and the Klingons had been blood enemies for 50 years at the time of the episode, and the ramifications of the "Broken Bow" incident are still being played out in ENT.
• Issue: The appearance of "modern-style" Klingons in the first two seasons of Enterprise has been criticized as violating continuity as the Klingons seen in TOS are more human-like in appearance.
• Reply: An episode of Enterprise scheduled to air in 2005, entitled, "Affliction" is expected to address this issue and explain why the Klingons temporarily changed their appearance.
• Reply 2: Since the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, production executives from Gene Roddenberry on down have sworn that the TMP Klingons (with forehead ridges) are representative of the way they had always intended to portray Klingons.
• Issue: Even given the explanation offered in "Affliction", that doesn't explain why Kahless, founder of the Klingon Empire who lived centuries before the events of the episode, appears human-like in the TOS episode "The Savage Curtain"
• Reply: The Kahless seen in the TOS episode is not the real Kahless, and may have been created based upon an image of the man in the mind of Kirk. TNG established that Kahless was a "modern style" Klingon, despite his appearance in "Savage Curtain."

Non-corporeals

• Issue: Archer’s crew encounters non-corporeal, energy-based lifeforms in “The Crossing” (ENT), even though Spock spoke of non-corporeal life as merely a possibility in “Wolf in the Fold” (TOS).
• Reply: T'Pol continued to express the notion that time travel is an impossibility despite experiencing it numerous times; there is therefore precedent for Vulcans to deny facts already in evidence.
• Issue: The appearance of two Organians aboard the NX-01 in the episode "Observer Effect" violates the first contact seen in the TOS episode "Errand of Mercy".
• Reply: In "Observer Effect", the Organians only reveal themselves to two individuals (Phlox and Archer) and erase the memory of having met them, each time.

Tribbles

• Issue: “The Breach” (ENT) indicated that Denobulans, who, along with humans and Vulcans, are part of the Medical Exchange program, are familiar with Tribbles, even though Dr. McCoy was not familiar with them in “The Trouble with Tribbles” (TOS).
• Reply: Then again, as mentioned above, he wasn't that familiar with Vulcan or Klingon physiology either. Plus, Tribbles are seen to be little more than vermin and food for Phlox's menagerie; since McCoy himself once stated "I'm a doctor, not a veterinarian" his expertise simply might not have stretched to tribbles. A non-canon speculation is that sometime between "The Breach" and "Trouble with Tribbles" tribbles nearly became extinct and so might have fallen off Starfleet Medical's radar a century later. At no point does "Trouble with Tribbles" indicate a true "first contact" with the species, especially since a human, Cyrano Jones, is already well familiar with them.

Vulcans

• Issue: The term “First Contact” seemed to refer to the first formal encounter between two alien people, which is supported by the fact that humans’ first contact with aliens is considered to be the open, formal one in Star Trek: First Contact with the Vulcans, and not the numerous mostly unknown or clandestine pre-2063 visitations by aliens to Earth established in “Time’s Arrow part I” (TNG);and Death Wish” (VOY), etc. But “Carbon Creek” (ENT), which depicted Vulcans visiting Earth in 1957, attempted to refer to this clandestine visitation as “First Contact,” although only in a joking context on the part of T'Pol.
• Reply:It is never implied that any serious attempt to declare First Contact was made. As stated, T'Pol's statement is clearly intended to be a joke on her part, and her colleagues aboard Enterprise don't believe her although the episode establishes that the 1957 visit really did occur. T'Pol is incorrect in any event, though she could not be aware of the presence of Mr. Spock on Earth in the 1930s (TOS: "City on the Edge of Forever"), or for that matter the first contact between Ferengi and humans in 1947 (DS9: "Little Green Men").

Miscellaneous

• Issue: No episode of TOS, TNG, DS9, or Voyager makes reference to Xindi, Suliban, or any of the other races the NX-01 encounters that were created for Enterprise.
• Reply: Many races encountered in TOS are never referred to in later Trek series or films either, particularly the Organians who should have been involved in any Klingon-related hostilities. In "Broken Bow", T'Pol makes the simplistic statement, "Space is very big," and there is plenty of room for races encountered by the NX-01 yet never encountered on-screen in any later series. In addition, TNG and DS9 frequently featured Federation members never seen in TOS; there are hundreds of races in the UFP and only a fraction have ever been shown.

Misc.

Colonies

• Issue:“Terra Nova” (ENT) alleged that the Terra Nova colony was Earth’s first outside its solar system, even though “Metamorphosis” (TOS) established that Zefram Cochrane moved to the Alpha Centauri colony not long after 2119.
• Reply: It was never stated in "Terra Nova" that this colony was the FIRST outside the solar system, only that Terra Nova followed the establishment of colonies on the Moon (New Berlin) and Mars (Utopia Planitia). The episode "Twilight" established the existence of Earth colonies on Alpha Centauri and Vega.

Female captains

• Issue: Enterprise challenged an interpretation of Trek canon with the episode "Home" in which it is revealed that a woman has been assigned to command the second Warp 5 starship, the Columbia. The TOS episode "Turnabout Intruder" included one of the most debated lines of dialogue in Trek history when Janice Lester says to Kirk "Your world of starship captains doesn't include women." The absence of any female commanders in TOS - the first female captain from that era to be seen on screen did not appear until Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - led some to interpret the line as meaning that only men were allowed to be captains. Roddenberry himself confessed that the "Turnabout Intruder" discussion was an example of chauvanism.
• Reply: The producers of Enterprise chose to follow an alternate interpretation of the line, which is seen by some to mean that starship captains are not allowed to get emotionally involved with anyone - in essence "marrying their ships" which is an ongoing theme throughout Star Trek. There is no other reference in the Trek canon to suggest that at any point in Starfleet history women were not allowed to be starship captains. It is felt by many fans that, even if the decision to introduce a female captain violates continuity (based on the more common interpretation of Janice Lester's comment), it is a violation of which Gene Roddenberry would have approved, owing to his admitted embarassment regarding the earlier episode.
• Fact: Captain Pike's first officer was a woman. When he was kidnapped, she was in charge of the Enterprise.

Mirror Universe

• Issue, the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror" is supposed to chronicle Starfleet's first encounter with the Mirror Universe, but an upcoming fourth season story arc on Enterprise features the Mirror Universe.
• Reply. Most details of the two-part episode in question "In a Mirror, Darkly" have (as of the end of January 2005) yet to be revealed, however early reports are that the storyline takes place entirely in the Mirror Universe, meaning the NX-01 crew of the "real" universe are not exposed.