Re-doing Enterprise

[Dukhat]

snip

You make some excellent points. On these notes, one other thing that always bothered me about ENT was the Prime Directive. I always got the impression that the Federation created it because somebody fucked up big time during the pre-Federation days by interfering in an alien culture and causing it to destroy itself. That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them. They should have been portrayed as the novices constantly making mistakes and hopefully learning from them. I mean, that was the whole point of having a Vulcan observer as part of the crew! That would have justified the Vulcans' skepticism and overall negative attitude towards humans. Instead, the Vulcans are made to look like the assholes, the humans are made to look like the innocent victims of the Vulcans' taunts, and the Vulcan observer was too busy trying to look hot in a catsuit to actually observe anything.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

snip

You make some excellent points. On these notes, one other thing that always bothered me about ENT was the Prime Directive. I always got the impression that the Federation created it because somebody fucked up big time during the pre-Federation days by interfering in an alien culture and causing it to destroy itself. That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them. They should have been portrayed as the novices constantly making mistakes and hopefully learning from them. I mean, that was the whole point of having a Vulcan observer as part of the crew! That would have justified the Vulcans' skepticism and overall negative attitude towards humans. Instead, the Vulcans are made to look like the assholes, the humans are made to look like the innocent victims of the Vulcans' taunts, and the Vulcan observer was too busy trying to look hot in a catsuit to actually observe anything.

The mission was almost scrapped after one year, remember? Archer even gave his famous gazelle speech.

 

[galleywest]

Ages ago I posted on this board that I the catsuit thing in ST as a whole really bothered me--I mean, is that what you think of women in uniform, Star Trek writers?--and was told in no uncertain terms that I was being ridiculous. It is therefore extremely gratifying to see other people making this point. It's not just me! So change #1 for me: regular uniform for T'Pol. Something more consistent with the Vulcan attire we'd seen previously for the first two seasons, Starfleet uniform for the last 2.

I don't mind the Trip/T'Pol romance, but the neuropressure subplot was ridiculous. Their relationship could have easily been built gradually over the first and second seasons. Then, with the Xindi attack in S3, it could have been an exploration of cross-cultural relationships at a time when Earth was pushed toward xenophobia and Vulcan refrained from assisting Starfleet. That would have been a natural tension-builder and a heck of a lot more interesting than inexplicably motivated candlelit nookie-massages. So that's change #2.

The theme song. I can't say I really care that much one way or another, but the themes song is always always always on these lists. I've never heard anyone say they'd want to change the theme music from any of the other series, so ENT is the standout here. You have one job, theme music, and it's to prepare the viewer for awesome sci-fi space travel adventure. ENT's theme music is not doing its job. Change #3.

Change #4: here's a biggie. Archer needed a more consistent character. He was so all-over the map that it made it hard for me to decide just what the direction of the ship and the show as a whole was supposed to be. He came off as tactless and unlikable far too often. Considering the amount of attention the storlylines lavished on him, you would think we would have seen some growth in the man. I never felt like his leadership was anything extraordinary. I hate to say this because I do actually like the guy as an actor, but Scott Bakula just could not carry the show. He did not have the presence that your Kirks or your Picards or even your Janeways had.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is poor ol' Travis. The real problem here is that we were misled by his status as "series regular." Change #5: either give him something to do or demote him to "recurring character." Can you think of any series regular on any show ever that has/had less to do that Travis?

Change #6: as others have noted, a more coherent direction for the show. I always get the feeling that Berman/Braga thought that the idea was so good that the show would practically write itself. Well, it didn't. Is Enterprise a diplomatic vessel? Is it military/tactical? Is it a science vessel? Is it's primary goal exploration? Let's just throw down some parameters, m'kay?

Change #7: Better dialogue. Enterprise had some majorly clunky dialogue between its half-hearted attempts at humor and its Treknobabble. Going along with this, although I liked the direction of S4, having less convoluted plotlines and fewer two and three part episodes would have gone a long way for me. Also, pre-emptively fire whoever wrote the gazelle speech.

Change #8: make it a show about the Enterprise crew, not Archer and some people who happen to also sometimes be on the bridge. Okay, maybe that's harsh. But I'd've liked to see more Hoshi, Travis, Reed, and even Phlox. Heck, even a Soval or Admiral Forrest-centric episode would have been refreshing!

 

[Orphalesion]

That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them.

Erm...from my point of view incompetence and irresponsibility was all we saw of Archer and his crew, to the point that it seemed that "stupidity and tactlessness" was now the standard characterization for Trek humans.

What was really missing was that they never seemed to learn from it.

 

[Dukhat]

That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them.

Erm...from my point of view incompetence and irresponsibility was all we saw of Archer and his crew, to the point that it seemed that "stupidity and tactlessness" was now the standard characterization for Trek humans.

What was really missing was that they never seemed to learn from it.

Bu that was my point. We never once saw Archer or the rest of the crew saying "man, we really fucked up. The Vulcans are right, we really shouldn't even be out here." Their attitude was more like "those jerks are holding us back; we know what we're doing, and we'll prove to those self-righteous buttheads that we belong out here." This was mainly because they were never really put into a situation where they fucked up anything.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them.

Erm...from my point of view incompetence and irresponsibility was all we saw of Archer and his crew, to the point that it seemed that "stupidity and tactlessness" was now the standard characterization for Trek humans.

What was really missing was that they never seemed to learn from it.

Bu that was my point. We never once saw Archer or the rest of the crew saying "man, we really fucked up. The Vulcans are right, we really shouldn't even be out here." Their attitude was more like "those jerks are holding us back; we know what we're doing, and we'll prove to those self-righteous buttheads that we belong out here." This was mainly because they were never really put into a situation where they fucked up anything.

Is that really something that was needed on the show. I am not sure of that.

 

[eyeresist]

Is that really something that was needed on the show. I am not sure of that.

Agreed. The Vulcans, in the process of mentoring Earth into space, gave them a number of useful tips including the PD. The Earthlings kinda played around the edge of the idea, because they figured Vulcan rules didn't apply to them, but they basically recognised it was a good idea. Ultimately it's a choice between gunboat diplomacy and the Prime Directive, and being Trek they had to choose the more progressive option.

 

[voxstella]

I always got the impression that the Federation created it because somebody fucked up big time during the pre-Federation days by interfering in an alien culture and causing it to destroy itself.

I wished they had done that either at Dear Doctor or Shockwave. The crew couldn't help but save every underdog in the galaxy. Sooner or later, their good intentions should have toppled a local government or two. I think having the crew screw up would have lead to some soul searching from the senior officers because they certainly needed to grow organically.

That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them.

Sure, the crew got into awkward situations, but nothing truly bad happened to them until the Xindi attacked Earth. The blasted colony doesn't count thanks to the miracle that is time travel. I would have to say the crew came off irresponsibly and slightly incompetent. E.g. poisonous pollen planet of doom.

That would have justified the Vulcans' skepticism and overall negative attitude towards humans.

I think Jonathan Archer as captain is enough justification for the Vulcans.

Instead, the Vulcans are made to look like the assholes, the humans are made to look like the innocent victims of the Vulcans' taunts, and the Vulcan observer was too busy trying to look hot in a catsuit to actually observe anything.

The humans came off extraordinary lucky during season 1. Not once did they face a 3-dimensional non-time travel enemy. The Vulcans came off as bitchy over-bearing parents. I thought the Vulcans would have came off more sympathetic had they not been so focused on emotionality, as a concept. Because that point over-shadowed their legitimate concerns regarding the humans contaminating other cultures and causing an inter-galatical incident.

In fairness, I think the Vulcan observer gave up on actually offering constructive advice once she figured out her captain is as stubborn as a mule. Also, that catsuit was god ugly in season 1.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I don't understand why the Vulcans stood by and did nothing while the Earth was in danger of being annihilated by the xindi. Archer was right; it is outrageous that they got more help from the Andorians than from the Vulcans.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Very little about this series makes sense. Why are the humans so woefully ill prepared when dealing w/ species the Vulcans are familiar with? Why weren't the humans willing to/able to take advantage of the wealth of knowledge Vulcans and other aliens with extensive experience throughout the galaxy must have had available about what to expect in outer space? Again and again, the humans are caught w their pants down and forced to turn to T'Pol at the last minute for helpful tips. Exploring the galaxy is more than just being able to handle a warp core.

 

[JeffinOakland]

That, along with an overall sense of incompetence and irresponsibility, should have been what we saw with this crew, since this was supposed to be all new to them.

Erm...from my point of view incompetence and irresponsibility was all we saw of Archer and his crew, to the point that it seemed that "stupidity and tactlessness" was now the standard characterization for Trek humans.

What was really missing was that they never seemed to learn from it.

Bu that was my point. We never once saw Archer or the rest of the crew saying "man, we really fucked up. The Vulcans are right, we really shouldn't even be out here." Their attitude was more like "those jerks are holding us back; we know what we're doing, and we'll prove to those self-righteous buttheads that we belong out here." This was mainly because they were never really put into a situation where they fucked up anything.

I see in my head one of those internet memes w Archer's picture. Above his head, it reads "Constantly whines about Vulcan interference" and at the bottom, it reads "Spends 4 years proving Vulcans absolutely right."

 

[voxstella]

I don't understand why the Vulcans stood by and did nothing while the Earth was in danger of being annihilated by the xindi. Archer was right; it is outrageous that they got more help from the Andorians than from the Vulcans.

1) Corrupt High Command that has conditioned its citizens to adhere towards a rigid ideology. I'm sure there were dissidents who wanted to support Earth--I mean V'Lar and Soval were pro-human Vulcan alliance. It's just those voices couldn't overcome the High Command's indoctrination, which permeated the rest of Vulcan society.

2) Romulans.

 

[eyeresist]

Also, it's a show called Enterprise. Was season 3 supposed to be Archer & Co hanging round waiting for the Vulcans to rescue them? Like all the other Trek shows (except DS9), it's about this ship, with this crew, saving the galaxy.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

So change #1 for me: regular uniform for T'Pol. Something more consistent with the Vulcan attire we'd seen previously for the first two seasons, Starfleet uniform for the last 2.

Totally agree. Female officers should be in proper uniform, it makes them smart, professional, whilst still being attractive--Troi, Seven and T'Pol all had episodes when they were in standard uniform and they all looked far better than any of the horrendous outfits they'd been in previously.

That would have been a natural tension-builder and a heck of a lot more interesting than inexplicably motivated candlelit nookie-massages. So that's change #2.

A bit more subtly would've worked rather well here, build up the romantic/sexual tension over several seasons before finally getting them together--with all the fallout that would cause.

Change #4: here's a biggie. Archer needed a more consistent character. He was so all-over the map that it made it hard for me to decide just what the direction of the ship and the show as a whole was supposed to be. He came off as tactless and unlikable far too often. Considering the amount of attention the storlylines lavished on him, you would think we would have seen some growth in the man. I never felt like his leadership was anything extraordinary.

Yup. He comes across as a bumbling buffoon (and that's putting it nicely) about 97.5% of the time, with moments when he actually seems 'captainy' being few and far between. Also, leave the dog behind--Janeway managed it.

I hate to say this because I do actually like the guy as an actor, but Scott Bakula just could not carry the show. He did not have the presence that your Kirks or your Picards or even your Janeways had.

Very bad casting. The PTB pinned a lot of hopes of attracting viewers by having a relatively well-known actor at the helm of the show, unfortunately he just never fit the role.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is poor ol' Travis. The real problem here is that we were misled by his status as "series regular." Change #5: either give him something to do or demote him to "recurring character." Can you think of any series regular on any show ever that has/had less to do that Travis?

Travis reeked of "token black character", without any real thought about what he'd actual end up doing (or not doing as the case might be). They never did anything with his "boomer" status, often coming across as quite inexperienced.

Also, pre-emptively fire whoever wrote the gazelle speech.

Have they not already been hunted down and punished for that awful awful piece of writing?

Change #8: make it a show about the Enterprise crew, not Archer and some people who happen to also sometimes be on the bridge. Okay, maybe that's harsh. But I'd've liked to see more Hoshi, Travis, Reed, and even Phlox. Heck, even a Soval or Admiral Forrest-centric episode would have been refreshing!

I get what they were trying to do, hark back to TOS with the triumvirate, but it was at the detriment to the other characters (such as happened post-S4 on VOY). Also, a little more attention on the crew in general would've been nice--they are supposed to be the best Earth Starfleet had to offer, but other than Cutler, none of them received much in the way of screen time or even names--like VOY this was supposed to be a crew out on their own, so I'd have expected to get to know some of the crew a little better.

 

[eyeresist]

While T'Pol is undeniably curvy, I don't have a problem with her costume conceptually. It ties in with the old sci-fi idea of "in the future we'll all wear silver unitards" (also suggested by previous post-TOS series uniforms, except those were mostly black). Simple and functional, and a lot more practical than those heavy ceremonial robes the diplomats wear.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

There are a few things that don't make much sense, like the Terra Nova episode. Why did they need to wait for a warp five ship to check on them. They've had slower ships for decades.

 

[eyeresist]

Warp speed doesn't increase incrementally but exponentially. Older Earth ships do about warp 2 (the ship in Fortunate Son is warp 1.8 max.) The Enterprise is about 15x faster. A warp 2 Earth-Alpha Centauri trip takes 197.69 days, while a warp 5 trip takes 12.65. I can't find any info on how far Terra Nova is from Earth, but if we say Enterprise reached it after a 3 month straight-line journey, a warp 2 ship would take almost 4 years.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Warp_factor

BTW, Braga said Terra Nova was his least favourite episode, using words like "boring", "terrible" and "mediocre".

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_(episode)

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Warp speed doesn't increase incrementally but exponentially. Older Earth ships do about warp 2 (the ship in Fortunate Son is warp 1.8 max.) The Enterprise is about 15x faster. A warp 2 Earth-Alpha Centauri trip takes 197.69 days, while a warp 5 trip takes 12.65. I can't find any info on how far Terra Nova is from Earth, but if we say Enterprise reached it after a 3 month straight-line journey, a warp 2 ship would take almost 4 years.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Warp_factor

BTW, Braga said Terra Nova was his least favourite episode, using words like "boring", "terrible" and "mediocre".

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Terra_Nova_(episode)

Something must be very wrong in your maths. If it takes enterprise 12 days to go to Alpha Centaury (our closest star) then how do you explain that it takes only three days to go to the Klingon homeworld from here? That's one quarter of the distance to the CLOSEST star!!! Maybe it's time for you to admit that either you made an enormous mistake or the show did.

 

[uniderth]

My changes in no particular order:


Theme song. I liked the titles history of exploration theme but I didn't like the song. I would try experimenting with something a bit more multicultural with a bit of “futuristic” beepy boopy-ness.


The ship would be the ringship Enterprise UEV-47 later to be changed to the XCV-330 after begin given to the newly founded Federation.


The uniforms would be inspired by Tom Cruise's outfit in oblivion. Something to give a really futuristic appearance. Humans would be depicted in the “clean sci-fi” look. This would be contrasted by the gritty frontier nature of the series.



The crew would be split between the civilian scientists and the military personnel. The tensions resolved through this would ultimately determine the nature of the future Starfleet.

UESPA. There would be no “Earth Starfleet.” Earth's space organization would be the United Earth Space Probe Agency. There would be a Martian government somewhat competing against Earth. There would also be the Solar Fleet. The Solar Fleet would be sort of like UN of the Solar system. It has played important roles but lacks any teeth.


Communications. All communication is radio. This means that it would be faster to record a message and have it sent on a ship to the destination. 22nd century pony express. This would give a much more frontier feel as you can't just call home and ask for help.


Alien governments. The major players the would be encountered would be the Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Alpha Centaurians(a former earth colony), the greys, and the pliedians.


The Characters. Johnathan Stiles is the Captain of the Enterprise. I'm thinking of a sort of Captain Bridger model, in that he would completely resent the military yet he is forced to serve in the role of Captain. He would be in his late thirties. He would be married with children.


I would keep Trip as the Engineer. I liked his character.


I'm not sure about all the other characters but I would fill them out with people from different and often competing backgrounds. For example a civilian scientist that is an anarcho-capitalist, and another crew member who is extremely pro-government. I would throw in some religious backgrounds but they would be tweaked from what exists today. Maybe Crislam or some earth-alien hybrid religion.


I would like to have a human enhanced with technology. This was inspired after watching Elysium where they can download information into their brain.


There would be a part-time Vulcan observer however this would be a male named Solkar.


Technology. There would not be any transporters. There would however be a dream device which enables instant lucid dreaming during sleep; possibly even shared dreaming. Though this might not be featured much in order to avoid the problems with “holodeck episodes.”


Weapons. Human hand weapons would be projectile weapons. Although ships would have laser canons(Star Trek laser not real world laser). Perhaps in later seasons there would be a form of laser rifle with a belt mounted power pack. Aliens such as Vulcans and Andorians etc would have beam weapons.


Human Story Arc. The primary story arc of the series would be about humanities evolution. Overcoming our differences and working together in an advanced way. We would see the evolution of humanity into the advanced form that later series bandy about. We would also see the advancement into the moneyless economy of earth. This evolution would be sampled in the diverse crew. But also references and depictions of changes on earth.


Romulan War Arc. The second arc would be the Earth-Romulan War. This would culminate about three fifths of the way through the show. After the end of a season the series would move the big screen where the Romulan Wars would be depicted in three films. Following this the series would continue with the aftermath of the war and the creation of the United Federation of Planets.


Human Origins Arc. The third most important arc would be a continuation from the discoveries made in the Valiant series. We would see the crew help solve the mystery of the origins of humanity, our ties to the Pliedians, and even older, more ancient and advanced species. This would tie into the Human Story Arc as there would be discoveries made on earth that would effect the political and economic situation there and throughout the region.


There would be many other story arcs and character evolutions. One that I've given a bit more thought to so far would be the Captain Stiles Polygamy Arc.

Spacefaring. Humans have been out in space for a while. nearer to earth it would be a lot more busy. Additionally we need to consider the length of time other species have been in space and things will be busy in their areas as well.

Warpspeeds wouldn't be measured using later scales. We would have Space Warp speeds of factor 20 and 30. Although by the time of the founding of the federation a form of standardized space warp speed chart would be created.

 

[eyeresist]

Something must be very wrong in your maths. If it takes enterprise 12 days to go to Alpha Centaury (our closest star) then how do you explain that it takes only three days to go to the Klingon homeworld from here? That's one quarter of the distance to the CLOSEST star!!! Maybe it's time for you to admit that either you made an enormous mistake or the show did.

No mistake - read the page I linked to. These aren't set rules, just figures worked out by people writing guides based on the shows and what Roddenberry said. Times and distances in the actual TV show have always depended on dramatic requirements, not math formula. (Most outrageous example of this was in STID, when the journey from Kronos back to Earth took a couple of minutes.)