Re-boot ENTERPRISE?

[ChristopherPike]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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A reboot with reoccurring characters in any capacity isn't a reboot, it's more like a relaunch you are talking about, or a retooling. Besides which if you are talking about wanting to reboot "Enterprise" then you might as well talk about rebooting the entire franchise for television since ENT is prequel. I personally don't think it would be an interesting show, as others have stated the show had it's time and it is unfortunate it was cancelled just when Manny Cotto was trying to "Fix" things but it is time to move onto other attempts.

Probably half reboot, half retool and some reimagine then. Because it extends a little further back, than just picking up where things left off, with a fresh turnover in cast members.

Take the Temporal Cold War out and all of a sudden, you've got:
No more genetically enhanced Suliban with cloaking technology
Starfleet still using torpedos that look like missles and EM-33 blaster guns
an unproven transporter (show it go badly wrong and it stays that way)
an NX-01 that took a little bit longer to start its voyage and maybe undergoing significant alterations inside and out

You can have a different reason at the beginning, than returning a Klingon home. You can have different faces aboard her, although admittedly probably still Archer (being instrumental to founding the Federation in some multiverse way). Others possibly encountered along the way living surprisingly altered lives.

In fact, you've restored everything before all the Studio/Network/Corporation meddling. A Star Trek that really is different to getting headlong into planet of the week, alien of the week style storytelling by the third or fourth episode. They have to build up to that. You've got a slower Earth or perhaps Solar System bound first season, where the crew go through "Right Stuff"/"First Flight" character introductions, while the ship takes a little bit longer in the testing stage. Training missions at Mars, Jupiter Station or Titan. Then when they get out there in deep space, you bring on inter-species antagonism with Vulcans/Andorians. Romulans hiding in shadows, manipulating circumstances to weaken any potential alliance they see as a threat to their Empire. Keep on rebuilding it from there, with a mix of new and old faces - so it's still Star Trek: Enterprise but feels fresher and reinvigorated.

The previous version of the show still working into a bigger picture, with this a "What if they had turned left" scenario and you can still mix some of that established history back in - piece by piece. Without any time-travel or interference from the future, having got us to that point.

My trouble is, I really don't think there is a more interesting premise in the whole of Star Trek, that what Enterprise was supposed to have been about all along. How did we get from there (First Contact) to here (the Original Series)? For all the ideas being floated about for the 25th Century - they're basically still trying to take out the frills, bring down the Federation, have allies go back to their former ways and even make the humans less evolved - only a prequel should be able to do that by virtue of its setting. It about us decades from now instead of countless centuries. While leaving the utopia Roddenberry wanted the far future to be, untouchable for the time being.

So yeah, even for a committed ENT fan like me, I think they just bite the bullet and remake this show. Enterprise in the Abramsverse. Have them do as good a job with ENT as they seem to have done, keeping TOS fans sweet. Going back to a point before everything began, keeping some pieces in place, losing others and going forward again from there. Or even doing it the way it should've turned out in the Prime universe. Or just don't be hidebound by either timeline.

[Saul]

Of all things Trek i'd like to see this rebooted as I didn't feel they got it right the first time round. I felt it's just a rehash of the previous series from TNG onwards, filming style, music, design. I would hope for a radical reboot, meaning going back to a time when Star Trek wasn't Star Trek but was more of a bunch of crews going around in highly primative space ships, no phasers, no torps, no view screens, no transporter, translators etc. A real vision of pre TOS days, a still very flawed group of explorers born out of WWIII.

[The Badger]

^I agree with pretty much all of that, except possibly the 'no torpedoes' idea (self guiding rockets with explosive warheads are pretty low tech compared to warp drive etc.) and 'no viewscreens'. Hanging a wide screen TV on the front bulkhead should be easy enough to do.

I'd also suggest no aliens in the regular crew. This is humanities first major attempt at deep space exploration, so let's show humans.

[ChristopherPike]

Going by the last movie, a viewscreen is seen to be quite literally a window, with a heads-up display on the inside - capable of video conferencing, rear-view and magnification these days.

Apply some of that backwards, among other design tweeks to the NX-01 perhaps.

[Dukhat]

JiNX-01 wrote:

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But those in charge, led by Berman, wasted that opportunity, just like those in charge, led by Berman, wasted the opportunity with ENT until seasons 3 and 4 and of course, as we all know, it was too little, too late.

While I agree that VOY and ENT were wasted opportunities, I'd like to point out that Rick Berman never "led" the people in charge. The people in charge (i.e. UPN) led him. There were countless things Berman et. al would have done differently with ENT, but TPTB at UPN wanted things done their way. And since UPN were Berman's bosses, he really had no other choice but to comply with them.

Don't blame Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, "franchise fatigue," or any other thing for the quality of ENT and the downfall of televised Trek. Blame UPN.

[Temis the Vorta]

Rebooting ENT sounds like an excellent idea. Do the Birth of the Federation idea they should have the first time around. No stupid time war.

I wouldn't bother bringing back any of the characters or other story elements (especially not the asinine depiction of the Vulcans). All you really need is a starship named "Enterprise" and a mission that makes more sense than aimless space tourism. What they were doing certainly doesn't qualify as "exploration." More like pissing off the natives and making enemies for Earth.

How about sending a starship with a competent, savvy captain on a mission explicitly to make allies for Earth, both for defense (Earth lives in a dangerous neighborhood) and for commerce (there was more capitalism in the 23rd than the 24th C, so it stands to reason that capitalism is still pretty strong in the 22nd). That way, there's a strong motive for the mission - with something to lose - even in the absence of the Federation as the organizing principle.

The one element from ENT that I would also bring over is the Boomers. I like the idea of humans who have left Earth on their own to set up colonies, and who think of themselves as gritty, savvy folks that know a lot more about space than the cowardly little mice who are still clinging to their home planet. The Boomers could have a fascinating culture in contrast to prim Starfleet, and could be both a help and a source of interesting conflict.

I have no idea why CBS would be interested in doing any of this, but it's still fun to speculate.

Jeff O'Connor wrote:

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I'd contest this but I'm most certainly not in my right mind. Damn.

Same here.

Romulans are like the first race in Star Trek outside of the Vulcans we saw and they still haven't moved on from Mark Lenard's unnamed Commander. In some respects, they went backward from that and simply became faux-Vulcans, without their impassive putdowns and superiority complex. There are few breakout examples of Romulans... possibly Jarok the greatest among them and Tomalak close behind. With Vreenak elevated to some mystical Chuck Norris status, we know so little about him.

If the recognition of Star Trek over other franchises is "the one with the guys with pointy ears", that makes Romulans as valuable as the Vulcans, if a way can be found to make them a lot more distinquishable.

Yep. The Romulans are still cyphers, still in need of definition, but that just means they have excellent potential. Develop them the way DS9 developed the Cardassians (I don't mean Rommies = Cardies, but that that amount of intelligent effort should be put into their development).

Saul wrote:

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Of all things Trek i'd like to see this rebooted as I didn't feel they got it right the first time round. I felt it's just a rehash of the previous series from TNG onwards, filming style, music, design. I would hope for a radical reboot, meaning going back to a time when Star Trek wasn't Star Trek but was more of a bunch of crews going around in highly primative space ships, no phasers, no torps, no view screens, no transporter, translators etc. A real vision of pre TOS days, a still very flawed group of explorers born out of WWIII.

Absolutely! The 22nd C should feel as different from the 23rd as the 23rd feels from the 24th. Just extrapolate the differences backwards. Compared with the 24th, the 23rd is more capitalistic, less "evolved" and prim, more Wild Westy and more dangerous. The 22nd C is even moreso on all counts.

[Admiral_Young]

The problem with the Temporal Cold War is that it seemed like it was being made up as it went along and that there was no real execution of a plan being done. I always blame this on the fact that Paramount "rushed" out "Enterprise" in the first place because they wanted a series out after "Voyager" so badly. If they had allowed Berman and Braga time to actually plot and flesh out some of their ideas then I think we would have had a tremendously better show. I had a thread on here a long time ago that postulated this theory, what if "Enterprise" had come out a year after "Voyager" or something like that. The Cold War like so much else of the series needed direction and proper execution and that simply wasn't there. I mean we never got to see the identity of Future Guy!!! I don't think that was meant to be the intention either.

[Skywalker]

The Temporal Cold War was being made up as it went along because it was something that UPN forced on B&B. B&B wanted to make ENT a straight-up prequel, but UPN made them add in a time travel aspect in case the prequel idea bombed.

Berman & Braga get blamed for so much crap that they had nothing to do with. They actually had a lot of good ideas, such as setting part of the first season before Enterprise's launch, with Archer putting his crew together, etc. They also wanted to take a year or two off after VOY to refine their concept and get the details worked out, but UPN wanted a new Trek series immediately, so they had to rush everything.

[Admiral_Young]

Indeed. My point really was that UPN and Paramount should have allowed them the time to plot their story so that the execution could be there. I understand that another part of the reason it was rushed was because of Scott Bakula whom IIRC was near signing a deal with NBC to do a Quantum Leap mini-series or series of mini-series that would have locked him up and he was Paramounts ONLY choice for the role of Archer. I remember because I first started lurking about here reading these stories on Trek Today lol.

[Skywalker]

I didn't know that about Bakula. As much as I like him, I don't think he was so essential that ENT couldn't have been successful without him. Personally, I think ENT should have had a Latino captain.

[Admiral_Young]

I don't think he was essential to the series but at the time Paramount probably saw him as a way to help sell their series to the fans and generate excitement (which it did). Due to his ties with sci-fi through "Quantum Leap". He had to choose between a return to the franchise that made him a star in the first, or to join a monster franchise that would elevate his stardom even further and probably get him even more gigs (which I think it ultimately did). It was just an interesting process at the time.

[DarKush]

Skywalker wrote:

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I didn't know that about Bakula. As much as I like him, I don't think he was so essential that ENT couldn't have been successful without him. Personally, I think ENT should have had a Latino captain.

I thought ENT should've had a Latino captain as well.

[ChristopherPike]

Awww. I really like Scott Bakula and can't see anybody else headlining ENT.

Can't we compromise and go for a Latino first officer?

I forget which episode, but Archer is told some news and goes...

"Duvall got his own ship? Thank God, we're light years away!"

Not sure we ever saw that character.

[gastrof]

I just saw this-

http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainmen...HwcTVdL95HmNLO

Should we be frightened?

One of the comments from; http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainmen...HwcTVdL95HmNLO

Mark Andrew Stamper wrote:

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Was totally with this except for the "much younger cast" part. I want grown ups, not people pretending to be grown ups.

That really says it all doesn't it?