Temporal Cold War?

[BarryWaddle]

If Enterprise had gone 7 seasons, how long do you all think the Temporal Cold War would've been in the storyline?

If I'd been writing it, the arc would've wrapped mid-season 7, in the same way it actually did finish- Archer and crew going back to WWII to fix the timeline.

What else do you think would've been done to develop the TCW arc in the meantime?

 

[JiNX-01]

If Enterprise had gone 7 seasons, how long do you all think the Temporal Cold War would've been in the storyline?

If I'd been writing it, the arc would've wrapped mid-season 7, in the same way it actually did finish- Archer and crew going back to WWII to fix the timeline.

What else do you think would've been done to develop the TCW arc in the meantime?

Well, I think they didn't know for certain that they were being canceled when they did the Trek Nazi episode, so I guess it was going to stop there no matter what. God, I hope that was their plan.

 

[zenophite]

It was a silly idea from some silly people who had a few well received time travel episodes and tried to capture lightning in a bottle by giving us a show with a big time travel McGuffin

 

[Admiral_Young]

I would have revealed that the "Future Guy" was actually a Romulan Admiral working in secret to plot the destruction of the Federation and instigating the Earth-Romulan War and arming the Romulans with weapons they did not have in the normal timeline. I haven't really thought it out but that's the jist of it.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I'd have gone one step further and had an episode entirely from Future Guy's perspective. So basically, you get the massive cliffhanger reveal and the following week, it's his story from beginning to end. Along the way, you restage scenes from across various seasons with the reasoning behind what he was trying to do. So all the pieces fall in to place.

Of course, if he was indeed a Future Romulan altering the balance of power in the 22nd Century... chances are you can bookend "Broken Bow" by having him in the finale too.

There seem to be 3 different agendas going on with the TCW: FG's meddling with the Kabal fraction of the Suliban, The Sphere Builders attempt make our part of the Galaxy one big expanse and Vosk's race who accidentally got trapped on Earth during WW2. Only 2 of which were properly resolved.

 

[sidious618]

I've always loved the idea of the Temporal Cold War, it was just terribly executed. They didn't have to have everything lined up but they needed to know some things and it's obvious they had no clue.

That said, I enjoyed "Storm Front" and thought Many Coto did a good job of wrapping it all up. I'd have liked to have seen FG but what can you do?

 

[zenophite]

in my production of enterprise i would have revealed future guy to be none other than James T Kirk

 

[steveman]

It's been said that B&B did, indeed, have a handful of ideas as to who (or what) FG was. It'd be nice to know what kinds of ideas they were kicking around.

 

[zenophite]

It's been said that B&B did, indeed, have a handful of ideas as to who (or what) FG was. It'd be nice to know what kinds of ideas they were kicking around.

Well if it was B&B then it'd probably have been a member of the TNG crew and all of "Enterprise" would have been a holodeck program.

 

[startrekwatcher]

It was a silly idea from some silly people who had a few well received time travel episodes and tried to capture lightning in a bottle by giving us a show with a big time travel McGuffin

It really wasn't a bad idea and as Brannon pointed out years ago it really would be better served as its own series or mini-series. Afterall, to do justice to it you have to take the time to introduce all the players and agendas and to do that it would basically start displacing ENT as a prequel as you dedicate all the energy into setting it up and advancing it. And as we saw many times the TCW agents like Daniels should really be the protagonists. But if that is the case Archer et al become peripheral and so B&B on a few occasions had to stretch the plausibility of temporal agents like Daniels sending inexperienced time travelers like Archer or T'Pol back in time to save the day("Carpenter Street").

Plus when you are doing a prequel, the audience wants to see how history unfolded on its own and not see an altered past heavily influenced by future forces mucking about.

A TCW is an ambitious and epic idea that it needs to be its own series like Lost where you can take the time to build up the mystery. Limiting it to one or two episodes won't do it justice. It is the kind of premise that needed Daniels and the time agents to be the stars. We could have visited different centuries, unknown events, familiar events depicted in other Trek series that were in jeopardy by undercover agents etc.

IThere seem to be 3 different agendas going on with the TCW: FG's meddling with the Kabal fraction of the Suliban, The Sphere Builders attempt make our part of the Galaxy one big expanse and Vosk's race who accidentally got trapped on Earth during WW2. Only 2 of which were properly resolved.

Well I think there was far more than three factions at work. There was the Tholians and possibly the Tandarans. And the Sphere Builders weren't a part of the TCW. They were just third parties who happen to possess time travel abilities.

 

[zenophite]

^Yes, I concede that...it's not so much the idea itself but the execution. I think ideally I'd like to have seen it develop slowly even almost subliminally at first and then gradually expose the storyline.

 

[Pensive]

the TCW element is one of the reasons I argue that ENT is not a true "prequel" since we are seeing future elements interfering with history... it just happens to be told from the 2150's point of view and not the Daniels/FG/etc point of view.

 

[pookha]

I would have revealed that the "Future Guy" was actually a Romulan Admiral working in secret to plot the destruction of the Federation and instigating the Earth-Romulan War and arming the Romulans with weapons they did not have in the normal timeline. I haven't really thought it out but that's the jist of it.

yeah that would have been the saving grace of it.
really never do it but if they must have it should have been introuduced far later in the series .

really to me one of the most interesting stories would have been these..
what happened to the suliban archer helped to escape.
and what happened to the suliban after they lost contact with future guy.

 

[DanCPA]

I am happy with the conclusion of the Temporal Cold War. Archer's part was concluded, and they wouldn't eventually tell him who/what had happened. Archer knew too much already, and were he not such a pivotal part of Federation history, I'm sure he would be sipping some booze in the 29th century with Daniels and never allowed to return to his time.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I thought that the concept of a Temporal Cold War was interesting if done right but it soon became painfully clear that they were making things up from day one and had no idea where to take the arc. One could argue that the TCW could be used as a means to explain the entire series...that everything after ENT is an alternate timeline caused by the interference by all the agents involved in the TCW. The moment it was revealed we were fighting in this thing an alterate reality was created, seperate but disguinished from "our" timeline where Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets were formed under different circumstances and none of the events that happened in ENT occurred in our timeline.

In my mind the Temporal Cold War was never concluded since there were plot strands left unanswered such as the idenity of Future Guy. We never got to see any of the "enemy" factions of the TCW...just Daniels and "Future Guy" then the Suliban and the Xindi (remember who were introduced as having obtained advanced future technology from the Suliban, etc). I think that I would have taken it to at least season five or six where it would be revealed that "Future Guy" was actually Professor Rasmussen who escaped from his cell in the 24th century and was able to find his timeship and travel into the future into the 31st Century and start the Temopral Cold War with a rouge group of Romulans in a bid for revenge against what happened to him in "A Matter of Time".

 

[Pensive]

. One could argue that the TCW could be used as a means to explain the entire series...that everything after ENT is an alternate timeline caused by the interference by all the agents involved in the TCW. The moment it was revealed we were fighting in this thing an alterate reality was created, seperate but disguinished from "our" timeline where Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets were formed under different circumstances and none of the events that happened in ENT occurred in our timeline.

I wouldn't say none of the events occurred in our timeline, just not all of them occurred or did occur, but differently. Remember in "Cold Front" where Silik stopped the antimatter cascade? Trip tells Archer the ship would have essentially gone up like the 4th of July. It's possible that if that didn't happen in what people consider the normal Trek timeline, that NX-01 was the Challenger accident of Starfleet history...maybe the whole crew died, maybe a few survived somehow? I don't know. Possibilities are endless.

I really love the series but I don't consider ENT a true prequel because we are seeing folk from the future muck around with history.

 

[Spanky]

Really didn't enjoy the TCW. Felt like the writers were just going along with whatever popped into their heads. I enjoyed the Suliban though, and thought they could provide an interesting enemy without all this Temporal Cold War and Time Agents. Maybe if it was just future guy as a Romulan, dictating the Suliban to weaken/destroy that sector for an impending invasion which would lead to the soon-to-be war. But it's over and done with now.

 

[Guy Gardener]

. One could argue that the TCW could be used as a means to explain the entire series...that everything after ENT is an alternate timeline caused by the interference by all the agents involved in the TCW. The moment it was revealed we were fighting in this thing an alterate reality was created, seperate but disguinished from "our" timeline where Starfleet and the United Federation of Planets were formed under different circumstances and none of the events that happened in ENT occurred in our timeline.

I wouldn't say none of the events occurred in our timeline, just not all of them occurred or did occur, but differently. Remember in "Cold Front" where Silik stopped the antimatter cascade? Trip tells Archer the ship would have essentially gone up like the 4th of July. It's possible that if that didn't happen in what people consider the normal Trek timeline, that NX-01 was the Challenger accident of Starfleet history...maybe the whole crew died, maybe a few survived somehow? I don't know. Possibilities are endless.

I really love the series but I don't consider ENT a true prequel because we are seeing folk from the future muck around with history.

According to Daniel's, Enterprise was supposed to be lost with all hands in the 10(11th?)th episode of season one. of course every Daniels after that was probably from a different timeline which wasn't divergent from Enterprises destruction during the dawn of the first season.

There were what 5 stories about the TWC? That's a totally piss poor.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That's another thing...he would prove otherwise during the wrap up episode but how was Archer supposed to trust Daniels?

 

[SFRabid]

I'm surprised they never included Barkley from TNG in some way.