Branna Braga's VERY candid interviews on the Blu-ray sets

[Christopher]

At least a show based on the space boomers would give more information about starfleet colonies and what they look like. They'd have to run freight here and there, so we'd get to explore more profoundly the inner workings of the Federation before the Prime Directive was instituted.

You mean Earth colonies, not Starfleet. The Boomers were civilians, registered with the Earth Cargo Services and unaffiliated with Starfleet. They saw Starfleet as a rival organization, as an embodiment of state power extending into what had previously been a largely unregulated environment. And presumably the settlers on colony worlds would be civilians as well, though they may have had Starfleet help in founding their colonies.

And of course the Federation didn't exist yet during ENT.

 

[Autistoid]

I dunno if that'd be such a good idea. Constantly running into Earth ships would kind of undercut the premise that the NX-01 was Earth's first deep space ship, largely on its own out there.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



No seriously this was the dumbest part of enterprise.

It pretty much made the federation non existant.

I get alot of flack for favoring new trek ideas that are reboots, however a utopian federation is at the core of star trek.

I honestly think this was the biggest flaw with Enterprise, with a total lack of some equivalent of the federation, it really removed alot of the optimism in the series.

 

[Long Syntax]

I dunno if that'd be such a good idea. Constantly running into Earth ships would kind of undercut the premise that the NX-01 was Earth's first deep space ship, largely on its own out there.

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



No seriously this was the dumbest part of enterprise.

It pretty much made the federation non existant.

I get alot of flack for favoring new trek ideas that are reboots, however a utopian federation is at the core of star trek.

I honestly think this was the biggest flaw with Enterprise, with a total lack of some equivalent of the federation, it really removed alot of the optimism in the series.

But the reality is that the federation didn't exist. As you roll back the timeline there is a point at which explorers hadn't ventured out very far and the advances in spaceflight would just be allowing the first explorers to have those first encounters. I believe that's what the series was trying to depict - although I at least respect your criticism.

I however liked the show, at least partly because it showed life before the federation.

 

[Ryan8bit]

No, because the premise was that NX-01, with its faster drive, was going beyond where even the Boomers had reached before. Although that's another concept that was inconsistently handled as the series went on.

I think the huge propulsion breakthrough seemed like a good way to set them up as being isolated, but with the numbers of ships they had for almost a hundred years, you'd think they might have made some exploration ground, even if it was slow. It's odd that they had to wait until the Enterprise to investigate something so close as Terra Nova.

And aside from cargo ships, surely there must have been other ships on long-term deep space missions? Maybe not 90 light-years out, unless they were unmanned probes.

Boomers would have had access to only the planets that are at tops ten light years away from earth.

There really aren't that many star systems in that radius. Plus, they mention Vega Colony. It's uncertain if that's actually at the star Vega, but if so that's 25 light-years away. Then again, the name could be something like Rigel, which has nothing to do with the real Rigel. Or something like Delta Vega, which we all know is problematic.

To answer the OP question, I don't think it's unusual for creative people to be critical of their previous works. It would be more strange if he praised everything. It does make me curious to hear the commentary, but I'm not eager to upgrade to Blu Ray.

 

[Shark]

I too am curious to see the interview(s).

The number of ships Starfleet operated was never made clear within the series, we see four Starfleet ships together at any given time. Perhaps five. We know about how long it took to build the NX-01 and how long it took to build and launch the NX-02; it seems almost implausible that Starfleet could wage an interstellar war with what they had. Of course war build-up being what it is, I guess it's possible that they could've begun building ships faster than that of the first couple of NX classes. Possibly filling out their fleet with simpler ships that were easier to build. The Romulans would have to have had roughly the same force for it to be plausible for Starfleet to have won the war though, I think.

It's a bitch the show was canceled right before the beginning of the war. It's one of two things we know happened in that era. I was kind of waiting for them to begin that.

 

[Christopher]

We know about how long it took to build the NX-01 and how long it took to build and launch the NX-02; it seems almost implausible that Starfleet could wage an interstellar war with what they had. Of course war build-up being what it is, I guess it's possible that they could've begun building ships faster than that of the first couple of NX classes. Possibly filling out their fleet with simpler ships that were easier to build.

The novels established (for reasons I'm still unclear on) that the Daedalus-class starships had existed before the NX-class as low-warp vessels, and that they were simple enough in construction to be churned out in large numbers (with upgraded engines) during the war.

 

[Shark]

We know about how long it took to build the NX-01 and how long it took to build and launch the NX-02; it seems almost implausible that Starfleet could wage an interstellar war with what they had. Of course war build-up being what it is, I guess it's possible that they could've begun building ships faster than that of the first couple of NX classes. Possibly filling out their fleet with simpler ships that were easier to build.

The novels established (for reasons I'm still unclear on) that the Daedalus-class starships had existed before the NX-class as low-warp vessels, and that they were simple enough in construction to be churned out in large numbers (with upgraded engines) during the war.

Which makes a degree of sense. (Not necessarily the Daedalus name-dropping, but everything else.)

 

[eyeresist]

it seems almost implausible that Starfleet could wage an interstellar war with what they had. Of course war build-up being what it is, I guess it's possible that they could've begun building ships faster than that of the first couple of NX classes. Possibly filling out their fleet with simpler ships that were easier to build. The Romulans would have to have had roughly the same force for it to be plausible for Starfleet to have won the war

But it wasn't just Earth against the Romulans, was it?

No seriously this was the dumbest part of enterprise.

It pretty much made the federation non existant.

I get alot of flack for favoring new trek ideas that are reboots, however a utopian federation is at the core of star trek.

I honestly think this was the biggest flaw with Enterprise, with a total lack of some equivalent of the federation, it really removed alot of the optimism in the series.

I think optimism was at the basis of ENT, though of course it was tempered in later episodes when the shiz began to hit the fan. I think ENT is an essential part of the story of how the Federation began.

It's odd that they had to wait until the Enterprise to investigate something so close as Terra Nova.

Terra Nova is just a crummy episode which is not part of my head-canon.

 

[Christopher]

But it wasn't just Earth against the Romulans, was it?

It was canonically called the Earth-Romulan War, because the Federation hadn't been conceived yet when "Balance of Terror" was written. The novels justified that by coming up with an excuse for having Earth's allies sit out most of the war.

I think optimism was at the basis of ENT, though of course it was tempered in later episodes when the shiz began to hit the fan. I think ENT is an essential part of the story of how the Federation began.

Exactly. It wasn't a show "without" the Federation, because it was about how the foundations for the Federation were laid.

 

[Willow]

I think optimism was at the basis of ENT, though of course it was tempered in later episodes when the shiz began to hit the fan. I think ENT is an essential part of the story of how the Federation began.

I agree. One of the reasons ENT is my favorite series now is because it is like a transition from , say, the 20th/21st century into what the Federation develops into by later centuries. It's fun for me to watch all the optimism (and even arrogance) of the crew as they begin their journey - and then get kicked in the teeth a few times. By season 3 , they are humbled quite a bit. (The shiz REALLY hit then!) And the crew is far from perfect - they make a lot of mistakes along the way.

I actually found the version of the Federation's beginnings as shown in ENT to be realistic to me. I used to love TNG (and I still enjoy it) but some of the episodes and visions of the future were just a little TOO rosy.

 

[Ryan8bit]

Terra Nova is just a crummy episode which is not part of my head-canon.

I suppose it's not too far off from an "And the Children Shall Lead" type of scenario, which isn't really a good idea. But there is lots of story potential with an early Earth colony that they lost contact with.

Realistically, the first missions of Enterprise should have been to supply Earth colonies before heading out to new frontiers.

 

[Long Syntax]

Realistically, the first missions of Enterprise should have been to supply Earth colonies before heading out to new frontiers.

In spirit I agree that would probably be the first course of order, but it would most likely make for lousy TV. In addition, Terra Nova probably wouldn't be on that list to re-supply as they thought it perished.

 

[Christopher]

I didn't think "Terra Nova" was that bad, but it was very problematical that the nearest Earth colony was 20 light-years away. What about Alpha Centauri? The first-season writers did not have a good sense of local astronomy, and it created some continuity issues that I've had to do my best to rationalize in my post-series novels.

 

[Shark]

it seems almost implausible that Starfleet could wage an interstellar war with what they had. Of course war build-up being what it is, I guess it's possible that they could've begun building ships faster than that of the first couple of NX classes. Possibly filling out their fleet with simpler ships that were easier to build. The Romulans would have to have had roughly the same force for it to be plausible for Starfleet to have won the war

But it wasn't just Earth against the Romulans, was it?

Yes as Christopher correctly stated it was always Earth against the Romulans.

 

[katie_9918]

I heard Braga wound up apologizing to the cast for "These Are The Voyages" in one of the Blu-Ray extras. Any truth to that?

 

[Willow]

I didn't think "Terra Nova" was that bad, but it was very problematical that the nearest Earth colony was 20 light-years away. What about Alpha Centauri? The first-season writers did not have a good sense of local astronomy, and it created some continuity issues that I've had to do my best to rationalize in my post-series novels.

Well, thank you, Christopher! You've done a fine job, because, seriously YOUR novels are part of MY canon!

PS..can't WAIT for your next installment! (if you are ever allowed to let us know an estimated release date, please let us know!)

 

[eyeresist]

Willow, check out the blog in Christopher's sig. All the info appears there.

 

[Willow]

Willow, check out the blog in Christopher's sig. All the info appears there.

Awesome! Thanks, eyeresist!
I'm looking forward to Spring!

 

[Tarek71]

Spock mentioned "or ally" in the TOS episode. That indicates that there were others involved in the conflict with Romulus. The UN started out as the name for the Alliance against the Axis. I would have had the Federation founded in a similar way. Spock mentions "allies" and that makes sense.

As for where colonies should be, it somewhat depends on emerging science. Extrasolar Planet finding capability has developed since Trek came out. Hard to integrate it just yet, as many, many local extrasolar planets have yet to be found, especially the ones of greatest interest to Sci fi, which is rocky planets in the habitable zone.

If it turns out that the Alpha/Proxima system has no small rocky planets in a habitable zone, than it won't matter how close it is. There just wouldn't be a candidate planet suitable for colonization.

We have seen how observation of the star Altair has so far revealed no planets. Later searches, with improved equipment and techniques may yet find some. But if the later research fails to find any, than an amendment would be needed to the story about a trip to its 4th planet in "Forbidden Planet". Seeing as how there may not be one.

This is a new and emerging factor in science fiction.

 

[t_smitts]

This threads gotten rather far off track, but I'll just mentioned that I took out the season four Blu-ray from the library again, because I didn't have enough time to check out all the special features.

It's clear that, for all the cast and crew, the writing was on the wall for the fourth season, despite Enterprise being UPN's highest rated show. The that that it was banished to Friday nights for its final season and cancelled just before a new standard of ratings would be introduced seems like a strange case of history repeating itself.

Apparently there were two signs the show was on borrowed time. The funny one is when they took away the $25 a day bowl of fruit in the writers' room. The not-so-funny one is that with the recent loss of the space shuttle Columbia and the show about the depict the launch of a new ship named Columbia, some of the NASA astronauts wanted to shoot a 30-second video basically saying "Godspeed, Columbia" to air before an episode, and the studio couldn't even be bothered to get the clearance to put it on.

We also get an interesting 90 minute reunion discussion with Braga and several of the writing staff: André Bormanis, Mike Sussman, Phyllis Strong, David Goodman, Chris Black, and JGRS (sorry, no Manny Coto, though he did do some interviews for the disc).

They don't really get too much into specific episodes (apart from a bit of Goodman freely bashing the magnum opus of his that is "Precious Cargo" ). It's more about their own personal experiences. Braga notes that he didn't really work with the Reeves-Stevens, because he'd pretty much turned the reigns over to Coto by season 4. None of the writers were really prevue to the struggles that Berman and Braga had with the network.

They mention that people are coming to appreciate the show a bit more, now that we've been without any Star Trek on TV for a decade or so, which makes sense.
It's worth checking out if you can buy, rent, or borrow the Blu-ray, I think.