Star Trek: United hasn’t been given the go-ahead from Paramount yet, but Trek writer Mike Sussman continues to tease out more details from the proposed series, which would continue the story of Scott Bakula‘s Jonathan Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise. It would also focus on Archer’s children. Thanks to Sussman’s recent appearance on the Sci-Finatics podcast, we now know that one of those children would have another parent who was an important, but obscure, Star Trek character.
According to Sussman, Archer would have four grown children on the series, which would chronicle his time as the President of the United Federation of Planets. One would be with Federation intelligence, one would serve in Starfleet, and another would be a diplomat. And one would have taken their mother’s last name — Hernandez. Sussman confirms that means that the child’s mother was Erika Hernandez, a recurring character on Enterprise‘s fourth season — its last, before it was cancelled in 2005. Bakula and Sussman came up with the idea for United in the wake of Star Trek: Picard; the series has been pitched to Paramount, but is strictly conceptual at the moment. However, Paramount’s new regime does intend to prioritize the Star Trek franchise in the future, so it’s not impossible that United could make its way to Paramount+ in the future.
Who Is Erika Hernandez in ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’?
The NX-01 Enterprise was Starfleet’s first Warp 5-capable ship; the second was the NX-02 Columbia, which was captained by Erika Hernandez. Hernandez, who was played by Mayans MC and The Garcias‘ Ada Maris, appeared in three episodes of Enterprise‘s fourth and final season. Before they were given their command positions, Archer and Hernandez were romantically involved, but broke it off as they were both “married to Starfleet.” However, they briefly rekindled their affair after Archer returned to Earth from a challenging mission in the distant Delphic Expanse, only for her to poach the Enterprise‘s chief engineer, Trip Tucker (Connor Trinneer) for the Columbia. Tucker later returned to serve aboard the Enterprise after upgrading Columbia‘s engines. Hernandez’ existence disrupted a long-standing fan theory that women were not allowed to be starship captains until the Star Trek: The Next Generation era; this was implied, but never outright stated, in the much-derided Original Series episode “Turnabout Intruder.”
Star Trek: Enterprise was a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series, taking place in the 22nd century. It centered around the launch of Starfleet’s first deep-space mission, as Jonathan Archer and his crew dealt with strange new worlds, hostile new aliens, and political interference from humanity’s Vulcan allies.
Star Trek: Enterprise is now streaming on Paramount+. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Release Date
2005 – 2004
Showrunner
Brannon Braga
Directors
Brannon Braga
Writers
Brannon Braga
