Movies - TV
Star Trek: Enterprise Was Under An 'Edict': Cast Members Can't Direct
BY DEVIN MEENAN
"Star Trek" ensembles often wind up serving double duty as the series' pool for episode directors. Despite the commonality of actors directing episodes from "Voyager" to "The Next Generation," the prequel series "Star Trek: Enterprise" reversed course and explicitly barred its main cast from directing any episodes.
John Billingsley, who played Doctor Phlox on "Enterprise," revealed that he and his cast mates weren’t allowed to direct and attributed the edict to a risk-averse attitude at UPN, the home network of "Enterprise." He stated, "The word from on high was, 'You don't have the latitude that we might have given you back when we felt the franchise was really healthy.'"
The network's risk-averse attitude harmed the quality of "Enterprise," as it took until Season 3 before the show was allowed to experiment instead of retelling the same-old "Star Trek" concepts. The "no actors directing" mandate isn’t what caused the premature demise of "Enterprise," but it's symptomatic of a playing-it-safe approach that hindered the show.