Braga: "Archer was supposed to be Future Guy"

[bullethead]

You know, I could buy Braga planning Archer to be Future Guy pre-Manny Coto and then switching to the Romulan identity thing to be more consistent with S4/the proposed S5. The big problem with the TCW was that it was forced into the show to give it an even more futuristic element than DS9/VOY while maintaining the ____ of the week story structure, so it never really had any direction and Braga probably threw up his hands and said "Whatever, Archer's Future Guy"; with S4/S5 being "Birth of the Federation," it gave Future Guy some plot context to feed into and Braga could've thought things over and said "You know, if Future Guy was Romulan, this could all make sense."

[sonak]

bullethead wrote:

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You know, I could buy Braga planning Archer to be Future Guy pre-Manny Coto and then switching to the Romulan identity thing to be more consistent with S4/the proposed S5. The big problem with the TCW was that it was forced into the show to give it an even more futuristic element than DS9/VOY while maintaining the ____ of the week story structure, so it never really had any direction and Braga probably threw up his hands and said "Whatever, Archer's Future Guy"; with S4/S5 being "Birth of the Federation," it gave Future Guy some plot context to feed into and Braga could've thought things over and said "You know, if Future Guy was Romulan, this could all make sense."

according to various sources, initially it was not planned who FG was supposed to be, and then later, it was suggested it might be a Romulan. There was never any point where it was going to be Archer. I think it's pretty clear that Braga is pulling this out of his butt years later to get attention and enjoying a laugh about the debate it'll cause.

[T'Girl]

bullethead wrote:

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The big problem with the TCW was that it was forced into the show to give it an even more futuristic element than DS9/VOY while maintaining the ____ of the week story structure, so it never really had any direction ...

The only way I could ever imagine the TCW being a problem for the product staff, is if it were force upon them at the last minute. If it was a precondition from CBS right from the start, then it seem to me it should have been more mapped out and planned.

... with S4/S5 being "Birth of the Federation,"

If that really was the plan (I thought it was going to be the Romulan War), then it is a good thing there never was a season five. What could be more boring than the "Birth of the Federation?" The whole interstellar coalitionist thing in season four was bad enough.

[Dukhat]

xortex wrote:

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This is hideously clever and the type of thing Ron Moore would think of also though as we know neither had the metaphysical depth to develop it right.

Seriously, what the hell is your beef with Ron Moore? He has absolutely nothing to do with this topic, but you bring him up out of nowhere just to bash him for no reason whatsoever.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Braga was there and in charge; none of us were either of those. Why would I argue with what he claims he intended?

[Ulva]

King Daniel wrote:

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Go home Brannon Braga, you're drunk.

You're so on the money.

[sonak]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

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Braga was there and in charge; none of us were either of those. Why would I argue with what he claims he intended?

because people don't always tell the truth?

[Saul]

Well he had said it wasn't decided and it probably was a Romulan. Perhaps he was saving the Archer idea for a comic.

[intrinsical]

It seems Brannon Braga has been saying quite a lot of stuff lately. I just saw a recent youtube video where he said the original idea for Enterprise was a multi-season long story-arc with season 1 primarily be an Earth-bound series. It starts almost identically as we've seen in Broken Bow, but most of the season 1 was going to be about the rush to get the NX-01 built in order to handle Suliban threat and season 1 was going to end with the launching of Enterprise. Apparently, TPTB insisted on using the old TOS/TNG/VOY episodic "starship encounters alien of the week" formula so Braga was forced to launch the Enterprise in Broken Bow.

[Skywalker]

intrinsical wrote:

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It seems Brannon Braga has been saying quite a lot of stuff lately. I just saw a recent youtube video where he said the original idea for Enterprise was a multi-season long story-arc with season 1 primarily be an Earth-bound series. It starts almost identically as we've seen in Broken Bow, but most of the season 1 was going to be about the rush to get the NX-01 built in order to handle Suliban threat and season 1 was going to end with the launching of Enterprise. Apparently, TPTB insisted on using the old TOS/TNG/VOY episodic "starship encounters alien of the week" formula so Braga was forced to launch the Enterprise in Broken Bow.

That sounds mostly in line with what Braga has said over the years. The original idea for Season One (or at least part of it) was to have it set primarily on Earth, with Archer putting his crew together while the NX-01 is under construction.

[teacake]

Skywalker wrote:

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That sounds mostly in line with what Braga has said over the years. The original idea for Season One (or at least part of it) was to have it set primarily on Earth, with Archer putting his crew together while the NX-01 is under construction.

* YAWN *

[Guy Gardener]

Imagine there's a (regular) cold war going on as Romulans keep trying to Blow up Enterprise and blame it on the Vulcans because no one knows that Vulcans and Romulans are identical.

Political squabbles between Earth and the Lunal, Martian and Jupitarian Colonies, and just because they haven't left earth, that still doesn't disqualify the introduction of the temporal cold war and the Suliban come to Earth... And just because Enterprise is half constructed, you don't think anything called "Starfleet" only had one ship and before 2151 had no ships? Sure they needed warp 5 to explore the "sector" but as long as the bad guys kept coming to them, they had plenty of firepower enough to keep their flag planted.

Thought...

When mirror Archer got hold of the Defiant, short on a change of clothes, his crew began looting the ship for fresh underwear and other accoutrements, so maybe Future Archer looks like he's dressed as a Romulan, because he's driving a stolen Romulan Warbird and he's dressed as a Romulan?

In the Napoleonic war pulp novels "Sharpe", Richard Sharpe used to get into a lot of trouble with the proper officers because half his kit was French. So what if the French were all evil and inbred, they really knew how to stitch up a pair of jodhpurs.

I imagine Starfleet briefs are cotton, and Romulans wear silk boxers.

Not much of a choice really.

Klingons obviously have as yet not invented underwear by the 22nd century.

[teacake]

Cold war and politics and terrorism should be a very interesting show but I'm taking the lackluster pedestrian quality of seasons one and two and applying it to the idea that season one was meant to be on earth. Without surprising things coming at them out of space I think it would be very dull if you had the same writers etc..

[Guy Gardener]

I would have had Reed hook up with Archer's mum if they were going to stay on Earth.

(Seriouslly! Why did Picard run from Lwaxana? In the 80s she was still hot, and to a 60 year old man like Picard she would have been and should have been a stone cold fox.)

The season 1 authors were shite, but could the season 4 authors have tackled a series of Earth centric stories?

Actually, season four running between Earth, Romulus, K'noS, Vulcan and Andor... it was nothing but about keeping the home fires burning.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

sonak wrote:

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because people don't always tell the truth?

Wow. I did not know that.

And it doesn't begin to answer my question.

People who live on third-hand information sometimes seem so desperate to have all the pieces fit together in a way that makes sense to them - or, even more unrealistically, in a way that makes satisfying sense to them.

That doesn't mean anything.

Again, he knows what he's talking about, from memory and experience, and no one here does. All you have is "I heard something else once that contradicts this" - perhaps from Braga himself in a different situation - or "that doesn't make sense with what I get out of watching the show."

And again, that doesn't mean anything. They might have intended many things different than what was produced. But sure, if it doesn't sound right to you just assume that the person who knows is a liar.

BTW, the "spend a season building the Enterprise" is not a new piece of information; either Braga or Berman has spoken of that more than once.