If you were creating a TOS Prequel, how would you do it?

[Satyrquaze]

I'd probably focus on the Romulan War, drawing heavily on that backstory as told by Spock and Styles in "Balance of Terror".

Then I'd move onto the Battle of Cheron and the aftermath with the formation of the Federation.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Frankly I think other than Spock that is the most interesting XO I've seen bibled yet.
Do you have anymore information on him?

I believe that's Admiral Nogura (referred to but never seen onscreen in TMP); he's also featured in the "Star Trek: Vanguard" series of novels (after this character roster was written).

Am I correct in assuming that Maggie Garcia is "Number One" from "The Cage"? Interesting background; many fans make the assumption that she's Christine Chapel's sister, so making her both Hispanic and descended from one of Khan's supermen are an original choice. Are there enough "augment" descendants around over 150 years after the Eugenics Wars for "mainstreaming" them to be a problem?

ghoyle is right on both accounts. Sorry, Saquist thats about all I had on Nogura. I figure there would be some conflict between April and Nogura, with Nogura being right on occasion and winning some begrudging respect from April. The "political family" angle would also figure in storylines where UFP politics come into play. Nogura is also a key member of the ships first contact team because he does have a flair for diplomacy.

You are correct about there not being too many "augments' around. Anyone known to have an augment background is pretty much kept under lock and key by the Government of Earth. (The UFP turns a blind eye to this "internal matter") Part of the reason for this is the augment process causes various mental problems ( paranoia, megalomania, sociopathic tendancies). Garcia is on an experimental drug regimen to keep this under control. Which probably contributes to her shyness and quite demeanor. All the above would be plot points for various episodes and arcs.

 

[ColeMercury]

Everything below is said with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight regarding what worked in "Enterprise" and what didn't. I'm sure that if I hadn't seen "Enterprise", my prequel would be completely different.

Thing is, I don't think "Enterprise" was so bad in basic concept. Setting the first season in 2151 was a good decision because you don't want the Earth-Romulan War to completely overwhelm the series, but you still want to include it in the later seasons. I don't mind at all that we've never seen a Denobulan before -- we never see a 24th-century Andorian or Tellarite either. The ship design doesn't bother me either -- so it looks like the Akira-class, so what? How long was the Akira-class actually on screen, about twelve seconds?

The problem with Enterprise was the execution. Season 4 goes a long way to rectify the problems, but it's obvious that they were simply fixing the mistakes. The growing alliances between the future founding members of the Federation, the reformation of Vulcan society, the growing Earth fleet of Warp 5 ships, the growing Romulan threat -- that's all stuff that should've been building up from day one. Then the Romulan War begins at the end of the fifth season.

(Now, you may be thinking "But if the show lasts seven seasons, then it'll be due to finish right in the middle of the war! There'll still be two or three years left over!" But I have a solution: in the series finale, the ship gets destroyed in battle. Then the crew all get reassigned to different ships, and a follow-up movie/duology/trilogy/television-miniseries follows all those ships for the rest of the war rather than just one ship at a time.)

The approach "Enterprise" took to the technology and look of the show was the right one: it was much more sensible to project 150 years in the future rather than 100 years back from Kirk. The only changes I'd make there would be changing "phase pistols" and "phase cannons" to "lasers", and "photonic torpedoes" to just "torpedoes".

Regarding the Daedalus-class ships: technically, that ball-and-three-cylinders design was never actually identified as the Daedalus-class on screen, so I'll say that was an older class of ship and make the Daedalus-class a more advanced-looking design with a saucer section rather than a sphere.

Oh, and one more thing: I wouldn't call it the Enterprise. You know what's a good name? The Hyperion. Not only does it fit mythologically speaking, but it also sounds space-y. I think it's the Y and the fact it ends with "-ION".

 

[JiNX-01]

Also, I'd have the Romulans already be known to the major Galactic Players (The Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, etc). They wouldn't be the "Out-of-nowhere" enemy that fanon made them out to be.

Um, this is not fanon. In "Balance of Terror," Spock seems genuinely surprised to see his father's doppelganger on a Romulan ship. And when he was recounting the Romulan War, he made it clear that the adversaries never had face-to-face contact.

 

[ghoyle1]

Also, I'd have the Romulans already be known to the major Galactic Players (The Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, etc). They wouldn't be the "Out-of-nowhere" enemy that fanon made them out to be.

Um, this is not fanon. In "Balance of Terror," Spock seems genuinely surprised to see his father's doppelganger on a Romulan ship. And when he was recounting the Romulan War, he made it clear that the adversaries never had face-to-face contact.

Agreed. However, I can't help wonder whether he was surprised more because the Romulan was clearly related to Vulcans, or because he looked like his dad ;-)

 

[Spirit]

Voyage of the final NX starship with throwbacks to Enterprise and a prelude of more things to come.

Simple idea but with plenty of room for growth.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

All I'd have changed about Enterprise was the tone and style (those little things). If the show had been a little wittier and more fun, more contemporary, it would have done better.

 

[star]

Also, I'd have the Romulans already be known to the major Galactic Players (The Vulcans, Andorians, Orions, etc). They wouldn't be the "Out-of-nowhere" enemy that fanon made them out to be.

Um, this is not fanon. In "Balance of Terror," Spock seems genuinely surprised to see his father's doppelganger on a Romulan ship. And when he was recounting the Romulan War, he made it clear that the adversaries never had face-to-face contact.

Agreed. However, I can't help wonder whether he was surprised more because the Romulan was clearly related to Vulcans, or because he looked like his dad ;-)

Quite possibly.

But to reiterate what JiNX said, from "Balance of Terror" --

Spock: Referring to the map on your screens, you will note beyond the moving position of our vessel, a line of Earth outpost stations. Constructed on asteroids, they monitor the Neutral Zone established by treaty after the Earth-Romulan conflict a century ago. As you may recall from your histories, this conflict was fought, by our standards today, with primitive atomic weapons and in primitive space vessels Which allowed no quarter, no captives. Nor was there even ship-to-ship visual communication. Therefore, no human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other. Earth believes the Romulans to be warlike, cruel, treacherous, and only the Romulans know what they think of Earth. The treaty, set by sub-space radio, established this Neutral Zone, entry into which by either side, would constitute an act of war. The treaty has been unbroken since that time, Captain.

Canon = What was seen onscreen in any Star Trek episode or film.

Fanon = What fans think happened.

The no-visual thing is canon.

Granted, TOS was made in the 60's, and I'll bet that Gene & Co. couldn't predict that 40 years later someone would have to deal with TOS canon.

 

[ghoyle1]

Agreed, that was what is in the history books. And there's absolutely no onscreen evidence that Spock's briefing is not 100% accurate. But "canon" should not be a straightjacket; it's there to serve the story, not restrict the storyteller. There are lots of things that "appeared onscreen" somewhere or somewhen that I wouldn't hesitate to disregard because it would be so trivial to have inserted some other bit of dialog in place of that one. "Yeah, those Romulans were sure primitive back then; they didn't have phase guns or photonic torpedoes, or even Warp 5 drives. And they were so xenophobic that they didn't even try to communicate with us visually." That's just explication to set up the current situation. Everybody pretty much agrees that they had to have SOME kind of FTL drive to conduct an interstellar war, right? So the line about "simple impulse drive" has to be handwaved somehow. It would be more reasonable to fix that by ignoring the use of "impulse" there, than by concocting some technobabble about how "impulse power" can somehow be used to travel between solar systems in a matter of days or weeks instead of years or decades.

"Therefore, no human, Romulan, or ally has ever seen the other." That may be what the history books say; that may be what Spock believes; that may be the actual situation. But is it something that the modern audience would believe? I certainly find it hard to believe that T'Pau didn't know the truth, and maybe Sarek as well. I was half-kidding about Spock thinking that the Romulan commander looked like his dad. Canon would say that the two had an amazing resemblance; it would be illogical for Spock not to wonder if his dad had somehow gone over to the Romulans. (Joke!) (Well, maybe...)

Guy

 

[star]

Oh I completely agree with you. To me it just doesn't seem plausible. But when "Balance of Terror" was written, I'm sure the producers were thinking "Huh, a hundred before the series starts, I wonder what technology would be like then..." and based their predictions on what the technology and weaponry of the 1960's was looking like and how it might develop in the future, as well as comparing to the tech and weapons of the 1860's. That's always the tough part about sci-fi... trying to predict how and when certain technology would develop.

So to us, living in the 21st century (40+ years later), the idea that we would have an interstellar war without FTL drive and never, ever, ever seeing our advesary (and not just us -- the Vulcans and other allies as well)... That's just weird.

And yet, we're stuck with it because it's "canon." (Though I agree that there comes a point when "canon" is just silly... but some fans are quite vigilent.)

And if I were Spock, I'd totally do the "wait, what??" thing at seeing the Romulan commander.

 

[Harvey]

All I'd have changed about Enterprise was the tone and style (those little things). If the show had been a little wittier and more fun, more contemporary, it would have done better.

This is on the right track. But, honestly, I wouldn't make a prequel to the original Star Trek at all. Even the new movie, which I am rather fond of, is probably too faithful to the series. If the franchise really wanted to be relevant again, it would stop reflecting the late 1960s and start reflecting 2011.