Enterprise has appeared in several non-canon novels, which describe both its actions in the Romulan War and the vessel's final fate as a museum ship in orbit of Pluto.

However, UPN wanted a more typical ship-based Star Trek series and so the ship was presented as almost finished in the pilot episode, "Broken Bow".

More rocketship than starship, Enterprise is lean and masculine - yet its deflector dish and twin warp nacelles suggest the shape of Starfleet vessels to come.

Drexler thought that this was because Rick Berman wasn't fond of bright colors, and so Star Trek: Enterprise was filmed in greys and dark blues.

[24] The process of Drexler getting his designs approved by the producers was later described as "a long hard battle" by production illustrator and creator of Enterprise-E, John Eaves.

[18] The exterior of the ship made its debut in a centerfold spread in the July 14, 2001 edition of TV Guide using the approved model.

[28] This refit design of the NX-class made its television debut in the background of Star Trek: Picard's third season as a decommissioned ship docked at the Starfleet Museum.

The interior of the vessel was designed by Zimmerman, who visited United States Navy fast-attack submarines such as the USS Houston[30] for inspiration.

Inspiration was taken from United States Navy ships and the Space Shuttle, such as the inclusion of operations manuals on some of the stations such as communications.

[34] Zimmerman and his team took feedback from the directors of previous Star Trek series to make the new space easier to film.

Whereas in other series there have been purpose-built sets for briefing rooms, following the feedback this area was built into the bridge itself as the directors had stated that it proved difficult to make several people sitting around a table seem interesting.

The episode showed the maiden voyage of Enterprise, with the crew of 84[37][38] returning a Klingon named Klang (Tom Lister, Jr.) to his homeworld, Qo'noS.

[40][41] The ship was launched three weeks ahead of schedule on April 16, 2151,[40] and several of its weapon systems were not yet online but it was equipped with polarized hull plating as a defensive measure.

[40][42][43] The exploration mission was temporarily cancelled in the final episode of the first season, "Shockwave", following the destruction of a colony after a shuttlepod from Enterprise ignited the atmosphere.

[47] Following the failure of a plasma injector in the warp drive, the ship had to make a detour to the Kreetassan homeworld in "A Night in Sickbay".

The ship and crew were given a new mission, to go into the Delphic Expanse and track down the Xindi to prevent the use of a greater weapon that would destroy Earth.

During this time, Enterprise was repeatedly damaged by the spatial anomalies in the area, which appear to be caused by several alien-built moon-sized spheres.

[57] While Captain Archer leads a boarding party onto the weapon in the final episode of third season, "Zero Hour", Enterprise is commanded by T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) who directs it to a nearby sphere and Commander Tucker modifies the ship's deflector dish to use it as a weapon to destroy the sphere.

[58] Upon arrival, the crew find that the events of the Temporal Cold War have overtaken them and the vessel is sent back in time to an alternative 20th century where Nazi Germany has successfully invaded the United States.

After the crew defeat the alien Vosk (Jack Gwaltney) and recover Captain Archer, the ship is returned to its correct time by Temporal Agent Daniels (Matt Winston) in "Storm Front".

[63][64] While carrying a Tellarite Ambassador to a conference on Babel One, the ship is diverted due to attacks on several nearby vessels.

Following the Romulan war, Enterprise is diverted en route to Earth where is it due to be present for the signing of the Federation charter.

[72] The non-canon Shatnerverse novel Captain's Glory states that following its decommissioning, Enterprise was placed into the orbit of Pluto as a museum piece.

[74][75][76] Enterprise was seen as a model in a collection depicting the history of flight in Fleet Admiral Alexander Marcus' (Peter Weller) office in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013).

When questioned about this, Geoffrey Mandel stated in an interview, "Having been around then, I also know that Doug Drexler and John Eaves did EXACTLY what the producers asked them to: Rick and Braga had very strong opinions, and knew exactly what they wanted.

"[79] Johnson added that although it contained technology that wasn't as advanced as that seen in the earlier Star Trek series set in the 24th century, it "still maintains a techno-savvy, post-1960s 'Trek' flair.

[1] In his review of "Broken Bow" for The Washington Post, David Segal described Enterprise's speed of warp 4 as slower than a Hyundai.

[80] In 2018, Io9/Gizmodo ranked the NX-01 fictional spacecraft design shown in this episode, as the 7th best version of starship Enterprise of the Star Trek franchise.