Enterprise... suffered from tied hands?

[c0rnedfr0g]

Sometimes i think the writers tied their own hands by choosing this early time period. It seemed to me like they wanted a 24th Century playground in the 22nd Century (borg, ferengi, force fields, holograms, etc).

or was it just the fans that wanted all that?

 

[Captain X]

Nope, it was the studio thinking out of its ass that if they could somehow find the magic formula that made TNG so popular instead of changing with the times, the franchise would somehow magically recover on its own. The Temporal Cold War? Yeah, the studio made them do that. Phasers, transporters, and basically every other story device from the other shows? Well, I don;t know for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if the studio wanted them to do that, too.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Yep. I read somewhere that Rick & Brannon planned to set much of Season 1 on Earth, as the ship was built and the crew selected. The title sequence would've kind of made more sense that way, all about the build-up to exploration and the history behind it, standing on the shoulders of giants and so forth.

What we got was a lop-sided compromise between what they wanted to do (ubiquitous spacesuits, docking between orbiting facilities & other starships) and what the studio thought Star Trek couldn't do without from the word go (phasers, transporters, Klingons).

 

[JiNX-01]

First of all, I agree the suits should have stayed out of it.

As for me, I would have liked to see the show set 20 or so years after Cochrane's first flight. And yes, the Vulcans can be trying to persuade humanity to slow down. We're barely out of our last global war, Earth is a wreck, people are still paranoid... in fact, let's have good old Terra Prime get started up after first contact because they believe the Vulcans are engaged in a quiet takeover of Earth.

And I like the idea of the early episodes (maybe not the whole season) geared toward completing construction of the first Enterprise and assembling the crew. And no transporters, they use laser weapons and nukes, and no alien Super!Doctor! who can fix any injury, cure any disease.

I would have liked to see a smaller ship and a smaller crew; and the ship returns to Earth at regular intervals to file reports, resupply and replace lost or incapacitated crew members.

And in the early seasons, they're sticking a lot closer to home. By the end of season one they were 100 L-Y from Earth, which I think was a bit much.

And finally, communicating with Earth should not even be possible, much less instantaneous (even in the era the series was set in, they're supposed to be using radio (ref. Balance of Terror).

 

[RandyS]

Yep. I read somewhere that Rick & Brannon planned to set much of Season 1 on Earth, as the ship was built and the crew selected.

You know, I never heard that. But yeah, it sounds like a good idea. Maybe it's something the good folks over at Pocket Books should look into.

Or, failing that, somebody should write it as an original idea. Huh, maybe I will.

 

[E-Blonde]

Yep. I read somewhere that Rick & Brannon planned to set much of Season 1 on Earth, as the ship was built and the crew selected.

You know, I never heard that. But yeah, it sounds like a good idea. Maybe it's something the good folks over at Pocket Books should look into.

Or, failing that, somebody should write it as an original idea. Huh, maybe I will.

Its kinda ironic that the team building aspect of that season 1 was dismissed, but here we are eagerly awaiting JJ's team building movie. I hope somebody learned something from that.

 

[ChristopherPike]

I think the original plan for ENT came up during a Q&A session over Trekmovie.com. Brannon himself took part, maybe he initiated the whole thing. Either way, I do respect him deeply for doing that. His writing (notably during Voyager) wasn't always to my taste, but I was facinated to hear the writers' side of the story.

http://trekmovie.com/2007/08/19/brannon-braga-chats-with-the-trekmoviecom-community/

Yes, there were limitations — or opinions would be a better word — placed on us during the show’s development. But that’s part of the process. Paramount was understandably worried about protecting their huge franchise. You know, Rick’s initial idea was to play the first season on Earth as they were building the very first warp ship. But that was way too off-concept, I think, for the studio. Maybe they were right, who knows. Remember that the previous Trek shows were very successful for the most part. It’s a balancing act when you try to “reinvent”. So we ended up with Enterprise, an excellent TV show, if you ask me, but also with its share of compromises and problems. And yes, writing was a large part of it. I think we did some superb work, but there were times that we did things that felt too familiar. Sometimes without realizing it. Quite a strange situation, working on the fifth incarnation of a series. Quite a challenge, as you can imagine.

 

[My2tailwaggers]

During the Las Vegas convention this year, it seems that each Enterprise actor was asked about their feelings of the cancellation while onstage. Or maybe they just brought it up.. dont remember. What I do remember is each one of them had the same answer... that Enterprise was cancelled due to disagreements between the writers and the suits at the studio. I enjoyed the series because it was Star Trek. I thought the actors did a great job.. and that it was cut way too soon.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Yep. I read somewhere that Rick & Brannon planned to set much of Season 1 on Earth, as the ship was built and the crew selected. The title sequence would've kind of made more sense that way, all about the build-up to exploration and the history behind it, standing on the shoulders of giants and so forth.

I think that would've been a stellar, pun intended, first season and would break a lot of Trek conventions like being set completely on a starship, space station or alien world.

 

[joncreed]

The studio wanted to play it safe and thought re-hashing all the 24th Century plotlines would work in Enterprise; didn't realize times changed and viewers wanted something different, gritty and realistic- something like Ron Moore's Galactica re-boot.

I thought the series should've been set approximately 20 to 50 years after Cochrane's flight and the technology more "realistic" like bulky particle beam rifles and nuclear missles. The main plotline should've been earth encountering more hostile aliens like the Orions and realizing the civilian controlled United Earth Space Probe Agency is not up to the task- so they force a merger between UESPA and the Earth Defense Forces or whatever the military is called and formed a new entity called STARFLEET. The series should've been more like the novel "Star Trek Year One," with tension between the scientific and military wings of Starfleet; in fact it would've made more sense to name the series "Starfleet."

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

The main plotline should've been earth encountering more hostile aliens like the Orions and realizing the civilian controlled United Earth Space Probe Agency is not up to the task- so they force a merger between UESPA and the Earth Defense Forces or whatever the military is called and formed a new entity called STARFLEET.

ohhhhhhhhh, i see, and i like!

 

[joncreed]

The main plotline should've been earth encountering more hostile aliens like the Orions and realizing the civilian controlled United Earth Space Probe Agency is not up to the task- so they force a merger between UESPA and the Earth Defense Forces or whatever the military is called and formed a new entity called STARFLEET.

ohhhhhhhhh, i see, and i like!

Cool, thanks!

Since we're speculating for fun, I also would've altered the characters a bit. First, I agree no Denobulan superdoctor- John Billingsley as regular human physician Dr. Joe Phlox or whatever. Captain Archer would actually be an astrophysicist and Phd. Lt. Commander Malcolm Reed would be the arrogant British chief engineer warp specialist and Lt. Hoshi Sato, an assistant professor of Alien Linguistics given a commission- they would be the scientist/exploration wing. Military wing would be Lt. Colonel Charles "Trip" Tucker of Starfleet Marine Corp is head of security and Lt. Junior Grade Travis Mayweather is a pilot/helmsman from the recently absorbed Earth Defense Force Navy. Commander T'Pol of Vulcan is the exchange liason officer from the Vulcan High Command- she is given Starfleet rank and is Executive Officer of Enterprise which irritates Lt. Colonel Tucker. The Enterprise itself is slightly larger with 200 crewmembers -the UESPA slightly outnumbering the Military- the UESPA resent the military since they actually built the ship for exploration and now its modified for military missions as well. The Military side have little respect for UESPA and call them "Naive Dreamers." UESPA naturally look to Archer and the Military look to Colonel Tucker; Archer hates Tucker's aggressive attitude and xenophobia while Tucker can't stand Archer's "peacenik" outlook on space.

 

[Good Will Riker]

Enterprise was cancelled to make room for J.J. Abrams's Star Trek.

End of UPN.

The beginning of a new feature film series.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Enterprise was cancelled to make room for J.J. Abrams's Star Trek.

Frankly, I wish they'd just spent the money on 2 or 3 more seasons of ENT. Plenty of spare change left over from the $100 Million budget to buy out David Staph and Leslie Moonves...

 

[Penguin]

Was Enterprise hands tied? Yes.

It was confined to one Super Hero to the almost complete exclusion of the other characters. With the exception of the T-Pol character and she didn't fit into what the writers showed her as in the Series.

Trip had occasional episodes where the character got screen time but whatever the character did he never got any credit or glory for. Archer always ended up with both at the end of the episode.

T-Pol for the most part dogged Archers heels and hero worshiped him.

Trip would constantly say that he wasn't good at HIstory, Math, whatever and Archer would be an expert at any of them. Archer could get the Shit kicked out of him for 15 minutes and in five minutes be ready for round two. Trip would get tapped and would be down for the count the rest of the episode.

Archer was at least 46 or 47 at the start of the series and I believe Trip was supposed to be 32 or 33. Looking at both of them with their shirt off Trip looked in better shape than Archer. Archer's muscles were flat. He may have still had strength but his legs would be gone and his stamina diminshed. Yet it was Archer who was always stronger than trip had more stanima etc. It was Archer who dragged Trip across the Desert.

Too damned much Super Archer tied the hands of Enterprise.

Poor HOshi, Reed and Travis could have been cardboard cutouts for all that they contributed to the Enterprise.

IN the whole series there was never the feeling that it was the whole ship of crew that made things possible especially Archers heroics. Archer never said "We" he always said "I" have to save or stop whatever.

Most successful TV series these days are Ensemble series with a central character but an Ensemble of other important chracters in the series. There are some lone Hero series such as 24 but Ensemble series eems to be the more succesful.

Enterprise should have been an Ensemble series and it's hands were tied by the one super Hero concept.

 

[c0rnedfr0g]

^^ Voyager did that as well towards the end when it became the "Janeway/Seven of Nine" show -- somewhat ironic since Mulgrew had been threatening to leave midway through the series. TNG and early VOY had great ensembles where character focus was spread more evenly

 

[ialfan]

Enterprise was cancelled to make room for J.J. Abrams's Star Trek.

Frankly, I wish they'd just spent the money on 2 or 3 more seasons of ENT. Plenty of spare change left over from the $100 Million budget to buy out David Staph and Leslie Moonves...

Agreed, I would have rather had a season five of Enterprise than this new movie -- even a 13 episode season five.

 

[Marcia12]

The studio wanted to play it safe and thought re-hashing all the 24th Century plotlines would work in Enterprise; didn't realize times changed and viewers wanted something different, gritty and realistic- something like Ron Moore's Galactica re-boot.

I thought the series should've been set approximately 20 to 50 years after Cochrane's flight and the technology more "realistic" like bulky particle beam rifles and nuclear missles. The main plotline should've been earth encountering more hostile aliens like the Orions and realizing the civilian controlled United Earth Space Probe Agency is not up to the task- so they force a merger between UESPA and the Earth Defense Forces or whatever the military is called and formed a new entity called STARFLEET. The series should've been more like the novel "Star Trek Year One," with tension between the scientific and military wings of Starfleet; in fact it would've made more sense to name the series "Starfleet."

Forget NUBSG. Ent would have been great if it was like Bones or NCIS. It doesn't have to be gritty and gorry to be good.

 

[commodore64]

I think the Star Trek method was flawed. What was it? Writers wrote in a vacuum without input from the actors or directors. Actors acted with only input from directors. Directors directed without input from anyone other than possibly Braga (with directors that continuously revolved in and out). Designers only had the head designer. Etc.

In other words: the creative process was broken. Roddenberry didn't produce TOS this way, and I think for good reason.

Also, they went straight from DS9 to VOY to ENT without a break. I think in order to really get TOS, they needed to rethink and do some retooling.

Penguin, I think it sounds like you wanted a new show: TRIP (and some stuff about a ship he's on). I personally would've found that incredibly dull. What made Trip work for me is that he got to be the comedy. He needed a straight man and I think Archer and T'Pol played a good foil for him. In other words, he's not main character material to me.

Also, Archer I believe was 42; the actor was a bit older and I think looked older than 42 ... but I believe had a nice physique. I preferred his naked torso to anyone else's on the show. Oh, that might be another thing that hurt the series, using skin to win viewers so often rather than just good story lines.

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

The studio wanted to play it safe and thought re-hashing all the 24th Century plotlines would work in Enterprise; didn't realize times changed and viewers wanted something different, gritty and realistic- something like Ron Moore's Galactica re-boot.

Just because something is successful on a basic cable network doesn't mean it's what all viewers, or even a significant number of viewers "want". I'm pretty sure that Enterprise, even on its worst day, had ratings that BSG would kill for. And look at NBC's attempt to make Bionic Woman "gritty and realistic" like BSG, and how that all went down in flames. I agree that Enterprise shouldn't have been about rehashing plots from the previous shows, but that doesn't mean it should have been anything like BSG.