Star Trek: What Happened To Dr. Phlox After Enterprise?

To a sizable chunk of the Trek fandom, "Star Trek: Enterprise" is inarguably one of the weak points in the franchise's canon. But one of the bright spots on this series is the NX-01's spicy polyamorous Denobulan doctor Phlox, short for Phloxx-tunnai-oortann (played by John Billingsley). Connected to Enterprise as part of a medical exchange program, Phlox brings an intellectual curiosity and a certain degree of experience with interspecies interactions that prove invaluable to Earth's early interstellar travels. And that's to say nothing of his winning smile, general enthusiasm for life, or the fact that Phlox has the best collection of pets in the entire "Star Trek" universe.

After Enterprise was decommissioned in 2161 coinciding with the United Federation of Planets formation in the wake of Trip Tucker's shocking death, Phlox continues working with Starfleet for at least another century. His legacy and lasting influence resonates throughout Starfleet through at least the 24th century as his writings and experiences influence future generations of spacefaring medical professionals. By the end of their careers, Drs. Leonard McCoy, Christine Chapel, Katherine Pulaski, Beverly Crusher, and Julian Bashir would all owe a debt of gratitude to the friendly Denobulan.

After the end of "Enterprise," Phlox's story continues in the Enterprise novels and other "Star Trek" franchise media. The Pocket Books novel series "Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation" chronicles the Federation's early days including the NX-01 crew's experiences during this period. The first novel in the series, "A Choice of Futures," follows Phlox as he serves on the USS Endeavour under T'Pol's command along with his former crewmates Hoshi Sato and Elizabeth Cutler. While serving aboard the Endeavour, Phlox sees his daughter wed to an Antaran and gets involved in a couple of high-profile death investigations — one with the Klingon chancellor and another involving Phlox's prodigal son, Mettus ("Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Empires"). After Mettus' Antaranist bigotry lands him in prison, Phlox visits him and the two eventually reconcile.

As depicted in the "Star Trek" comic "Flesh and Stone," Phlox eventually takes up a job teaching at Starfleet Academy where he teaches during the 2250s before leaving his post in the 2260s to travel. Phlox's travels then have him working on the Epsilon Zeta VII outpost, where he assists Dr. McCoy with a 2269 medical crisis while serving as colony physician. Together, they thwart a plot involving a deadly virus from an expansionist Tholian splinter group.

Although little is known about Phlox's life after his time on the colony, he would be memorialized as one of Starfleet's most impactful medical professionals. By the 2240s, there's a medical honor with his name on it, as mentioned in the "Star Trek" comic "Year Four, Issue 1" wherein Dr. Othello Beck is awarded the Phlox Prize for Medicine in 2241. During the late 2370s, Dr. Katherine Pulaski serves at a medical research facility known as the Phlox Institute, as mentioned in both the "Next Generation" novel "A Time for War, A Time for Peace" and the "Star Trek: Corps of Engineers' eBook "Progress."

And it's not just Phlox's name that lives on — many noteworthy Starfleet officers turn to his life's work while seeking guidance during their careers. In 2291, former "Original Series" nurse-turned-doctor Christine Chapel relies on Phlox's writings to find answers for dealing with a notorious Klingon terrorist ("Star Trek: Excelsior: Forged in Fire"). In 2375, Drs. Beverly Crusher and Julian Bashir use Phlox's experiences to help cure a genetically targeted virus on Deep Space 9 in the short story "Mirror Eyes." Just a few years later, Admiral McCoy would draw on his experiences with Phlox on Epsilon Zeta to help with another medical crisis ("Flesh and Stone").