Season 5 and beyond ideas, what would you have done?

There's a book out there about Star Trek Phase II, fantastically well-researched by the Reeves-Stevenses. Two versions of "The God Thing" script and story synopsis for 13 episodes that were lined up to follow it.

Enterprise Season 5 probably wasn't anywhere near that well developed or far along, but there were clearly things Manny Coto, Mike Sussman and everyone on the writing staff wanted to get into, even given just one more year to wrap everything up. Some great ideas we can all imagine building upon how solid Season 4 was too. Nobody could have predicated such an unprecidented burst of creativity towards the end, when they had nothing to lose.

 

What could've been that potential "In a Mirror, Darkly" sequel features in a book called Star Trek: Mirror Universe - Glass Empires.

"Age of the Empress" written by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore, based on Mike Sussman's story.

The main highlights were seeing a MU version of Shran, Major Reed having survived the explosion (there's some dialogue isn't there, from Phlox about a betting pool over whether he would expire or not), potential conflict with the Romulan impending there too and at the end...

Spoiler: about the cliffhanger

Archer is revealed to be still alive, suspended in a tank by Phlox in sickbay.

 

There are several books on the "Lost" episodes of Phase II. To me though, the stories weren't as compelling as what ENterprise season 5 would have offered us.

 

I didn't care much about the whole Mirror Universe malarkey in season 4, so if they had planned to drag on with that all through season 5, I wouldn't have liked that a lot.

The thought of Shran on the Enterprise is just brilliant. I think he's the best non-big-three character in all of Star Trek. Although I would've preferred that he'd join Starfleet as the second alien after T'Pol instead of being an adviser.

After all the contrived dragged out Trip/T'Pol angst of S4, it would've been interesting to see whether TPTB finally would have the cojones to write a real romance instead of this highschool will-they-wont-they, we got to see in season 4.

 

I'd have Reed die saving Sharan's life. Then Sharan would take his place out of a sense of duty.

 

Or kill off Montgomery and have him at the helm.

 

The helmsman has been an ensign/junior Lt job in all Star Trek series'. I don't think Shran would go from commanding star ships to helmsman on a human ship. In most of my longer stories, he takes command of NX-03 or NX-04 after a period of getting used to how things are done in Starfleet.

 

If Shran joined the Enterprise crew as an consultant I would have created a position for him similar to that of Worf's on Deep Space Nine as Strategic Operations Officer (or whatever it was). Or perhaps like T'Pol's original liaison type role. I think Shran would have wanted to be as hands on as possible.

I'm also fond of the idea that was suggested regarding the origin of the Borg Queen and Alice Kringe playing a Starfleet science or medical tech or whatever it was.

 

Sounds like GREAT IDEA TO ME......

 

Romulan War

 

^ These are ideas aside from the Romulan War which the OP clarified. The Romulan War is an obvious suggestion.

 

If I could write a Season 5 ENT episode, the episode BEFORE the season finale would be about the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise discovering a holoprogram of Vertiform City, where they met Data, Troi, Worf, and Riker. It, obviously, would be based on TNG's 7x23 "Emergence" episode. And I think I would call it "Where No One Has Gone Before".

Just like what they did with "These Are the Voyages"...

 

Wow...that is a beautiful refit, would loved to have seen it on screen! Makes a perfect forerunner to the Constitution class.

 

It's Doug Drexler's concept for how the NX-01 would be refit. I liked it but it polarises opinion. Much like Enterprise itself.

 

Really? I gotta say of the season 5 ideas I read about, this is the one I like the least. It sounds a little too "Earth-centric" to have some human become the Borg Queen when the Borg are supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy at this point.

Other other ideas they were considering:

-On the idea of Shran becoming a crew member, I can't imagine anyone not liking that. It would be extremely exciting to see Jeffrey Combs' name added to the opening credits.

(Still, you'd have to feel a bit for Anthony Montgomery and Linda Park, having ANOTHER actor coming in to upstage them.)

-I liked the idea of going to Stratos.

-I also liked the proposed idea of bringing back Flint, presumably under another alias. Perhaps they could've cast Tim Daly to assume his late father's role.

-Since I grew up never seeing the animated series and assuming it wasn't canon, I tend to be rather indifferent to the idea of introducing elements from it, like the Kzinti. I'm not necessarily opposed. I could just take it or leave it.

-It's hard to know what to do with the idea of the first starbase, since presumably there'd be more to it that just that.

-Doing more mirror universe episodes sound okay (more Defiant, hopefully, and maybe a mirror Shran), but I really think DS9 went to that well a few too many times. In fact it was because of that, I was initially dubious when I heard Enterprise would be doing it, though I later reconsidered, of course. Still, as fun as it seems to be for the actors and writers, I think there's a risk of having too much.

Things I would've liked to see:

-Introducing more aliens either from TOS or species we know to be future Fed members i.e. Betazoids, Trill (early Dax host?), Deltans, Efrosians, Grazerites, etc.

-I thought they should bring back the character of Admiral Valdore, if for no other reason than to let improve his standing somehow. (It's hard to believe this guy would get a ship named after him, given the way the trilogy played out).

-I'd love to see if they could find a way to show a Talosian (the ORIGINAL "alien of the week"), albeit without the regulars seeing them of course. Since the Romulans were kidnapping telepathic aliens to control ships, it could work. It'd be neat if they had a woman play the character but be dubbed by a man, just like in "The Cage".

-More Tholians, maybe?

-What about one of the black/white aliens from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"? (Not necessarily the two individuals from that episode).

-It would be interesting to visit the planet from "A Private Little War" and see a Mugato. Then again, furry creatures are supposedly a pain in the a$$ to render in CG (i.e. why the sehlat in "The Forge" was barely glimpsed), but maybe the planet's fanon name of Neural could finally make it into canon.

 

A non-white or female admiral at Starfleet would have been nice.

 

The first Daedalus class ships coming into service. Or already mentioned as being in service long before the NX. Just never seen until the right story came along, since they were maybe just used to run between Earth colonies... protecting ECS running to and from Proxima, Vega, among others. Not as deep space, as Enterprise and Columbia had been charting.

The design worked backwards from the clean model in Sisko's office, with a more industrial less porcelain look. Segmented raised hull plating and a darker hue like the NX ships have. Blue exposed warp coils visable along the side of the nacelles.

 

I would certainly hope for more TOS/TNG/DSN prequels. However, by season 4's end we already had a wealth of questions to answer and plotlines to explore. For example:

1. What happens to the Suliban? Could we have explored them finding a new homeworld, or would they have been attacked by the Klingons or Romulans?

2. In "The Breach", Phlox admits that his son has less civilized ideas about the neighboring species, the Antarans. Perhaps the first time we actually see Denobula Triaxa is when Enterprise is called there because Phlox's son has become part of a terrorist group that has attacked the Antarans and is threatening to break out into war?

3. Whatever happened to the Xindi? Did we send a diplomatic envoy into the former Delphic Expanse to make post-conflict contact? It would have been nice to have see Enterprise, Columbia, or both make the trip.

4. Tobin Dax would have been alive during this time period. It was never stated when we had first contact with Trill. Colm Meaney could have even guest starred as he played host to Tobin's memories in "Facets".

5. I believe the Native American tribes left Earth (eventually founding the colony on Dorvan V) around this time. Why? Could alien influences, the Xindi attack or the coming ROmulan War have been the impetus for their departure from Earth?

6. And of course the continuation of the Trip/T'Pol relationship. It was finally getting good in "Demon"/"Terra Prime" which I consider the ACTUAL series finale of the series.

Just what I'd have liked to see.

 

I agree - Curzon Dax would be great. And Skon of Vulcan - Sarek is born in 2165 so add in Skon's wife T'Rama (I think that that is her name). How about the building of the first star base, more on the Tellarite culture (and of course the Andorian and Vulcan cultures)? And what about the humans on North Star? It would have been interesting to see what happened here. Or going back to the alien repait station seen in "Dead Stop" (I believe that there was a dead Cardassian in the alien station's computer interface). Or back to the planet that the Romulans had mined. And I agree - move Trip and T'Pol to a more mature, stable relationship. The angst was killing me / got abit much ... and I loved the match / story line! And more development to the Romulan war. I wished that they had closed the loop on "Future Guy" (I too read that he was supposed to be Romulan), and told us what happened to the Suliban. (Silik was a great character). And more Shran. And it would have been fantastic to have Shatner appear! I like the idea of him as the chef - it could have been hilarious.

 

Admiral Nichelle?