An unused idea for Enterprise Almost Featured A Weekly Musical Act
Star Trek: Enterprise's Spock & T'Pol Team-Up Idea Explained
In a memo dated August 20, 2004, Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer and writer Mike Sussman sent a memo to showrunner Manny Coto detailing his idea for Spock to appear and team up with T'Pol. Inspired by the Young Indiana Jones episode guest starring Harrison Ford as Indy where he told a story that flashed back to a youthful adventure, Sussman's idea was for Leonard Nimoy to appear in bookends as Ambassador Spock, who would then tell of a heretofore unknown mission where he met T'Pol in the early 23rd century. Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) and his crew, all much older now, would also have ed in as a final mission of the NX-01 Enterprise.
The Star Trek: Enterprise Spock and T'Pol crossover never moved past the memo, likely for numerous logistical reasons. Sussman's idea would have entailed securing Leonard Nimoy's participation, as well as aging up Enterprise's cast, including T'Pol, who would be in her early-to-mid 100s in the 23rd century. There are also issues with the timeline and canon to be solved. Considering Spock was born in 2230, it's unclear when he could meet T'Pol and if he's already part of Starfleet or the crew of the Starship Enterprise, which he ed in 2254. However, the idea is undeniably intriguing, and a Vulcan team-up could still happen differently if Jolene Blalock appears as T'Pol in Strange New Worlds.
Enterprise Could Have Had A Young Spock Before Zachary Quinto & Ethan Peck
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Sussman's idea to team up Spock and T'Pol is that it would have meant Star Trek: Enterprise casting a young version of Spock about a half-decade before J.J. Abrams did it in Star Trek 2009. Before Abrams' reboot proved that new actors playing younger versions of Star Trek: The Original Series' icons could work, the idea that others besides the original actors could portray Captain James T. Kirk and Spock was considered blasphemous by longtime Trekkers. Whoever Enterprise cast as Young Spock would certainly have been under a microscope and compared not just to T'Pol but to Nimoy's Spock appearing in the same episode.
Still, it's fun to speculate about how Star Trek: Enterprise could have beaten both Zachary Quinto's Spock and Ethan Peck's Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to the punch. Indeed, Enterprise's young Spock would have been the very same Vulcan Peck now portrays to great acclaim since he's the younger version of Nimoy's Spock. It's impossible to know if Leonard Nimoy reprising Spock as well as a younger Spock teaming up with T'Pol would have prevented Enterprise from being canceled at the end of season 4, but Spock (and Nimoy) appearing in the prequel would certainly have been an event that would have enticed lapsed Star Trek fans to tune into Star Trek: Enterprise.