“We Hate The Enterprise Theme Song”: Star Trek’s Dr. Phlox Actor Recalls Fan Protests

Star Trek: Enterprise‘s John Billingsley recalls his shock at fans protesting the show’s controversial theme song. Billingsley played Dr. Phlox, the NX-01 Enterprise’s Denobulan Chief Medical Officer in all four seasons of Star Trek: Enterprise. The prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series launched with high hopes in the fall of 2001, but Enterprise wasn’t received as well as prior series. Enterprise lasted only 4 low-rated seasons before it was canceled by the UPN Network.

In an upcoming exclusive interview with Screen Rant to promote his new sci-fi movie The Shift, John Billingsley recalled a moment in 2001 just after 9/11 when he realized fans had already turned on Star Trek: Enterprise, focusing their ire on “Where My Heart Will Take Me” by Russell Watson, Enterprise‘s widely disliked theme song. Read Billingsley’s quote below:

There were people picketing at the Paramount lot a couple of weeks after 9/11. And I drove up thinking, ‘Oh, dear, what does Paramount have to do with 9/11?’ What was going on? And it turned out they were picking it about the theme song. ‘We hate the Enterprise theme song! We hate the Enterprise theme song’… One, it made me really appreciate how passionate fans can be. And two, I thought, ‘Oh, there are things about this show that are not well received.’ And still to this day, people are most likely to say they hated the theme song and they hate of the finale. I like the theme song. I’m with them on the finale.

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Star Trek: Enterprise Cast & Character Guide

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Why Star Trek Fans Hate Enterprise’s Theme Song & Finale

Enterprise has gained a new appreciation despite the theme song and series ending.

Almost 20 years after Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled, fans still voice their disapproval over the show’s two most controversial aspects: the theme song and Enterprise‘s series finale, “These Are The Voyages…” Enterprise‘s theme, “Where My Heart Will Take Me,” is a rework of Diane Warren’s song, “Faith of the Heart,” from the film Patch Adams. Using a pop song for Enterprise‘s theme was intended to break from Star Trek‘s tradition of using an orchestral theme, and it was meant to give Enterprise a contemporary feel. “Where My Heart Will Take Me” does have fans like John Billingsley and Star Trek producer Rick Berman, but the vast majority of fans never warmed up to the song.

Enterprise‘s series finale is perhaps even more widely disliked than the show’s theme song. Intended to be capstone to Rick Berman’s era of Star Trek, “These Are The Voyages…” drastically misfired by turning Enterprise‘s cast into holograms and making guest star Jonathan Frakes’ Commander Will Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation the finale’s main character. Killing off Connor Trinneer’s popular Commander Trip Tucker only rubbed salt in the wound. In the last few years, streaming has been good to Star Trek: Enterprise and a new, more appreciative audience has found and enjoyed the prequel, but Enterprise‘s theme song and finale remain sources of controversy.

Star Trek: Enterprise is available to stream on Paramount+.