If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done differently?

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

First of all it would not be a prequel show. Instead, It would pick up where DS9 and Voyager left off with a character or two from several series and some original ones picked to round out the cast. Perhaps: Nog, B'lanna, O'brien, and Worf . . .

What's that? It has to be a prequel series. Following George Lucus is a dumb idea but, okay.

Enterprise would have the Mirror darkly theme music.
It would be about the build up to and complettion of the Romulan War with the Federation forming near the end of the series. (no temporal Cold War, No Xindi!)
Keep the cast.
T'Pol would be a full-blooded Romulan, undercover agent. Suble clues would be left from the begining of the series. The audiece would find out in the season finale of season 3. The crew would find out in the season finale of season 6.
Phlox would not be in the cast. Instead, there would be a stand alone episode about first contact with Denobula.

No appearences by Borg or ferengi or Kingons. (but there would be rumors about the klingons in the later seasons)

Humans have only made 'official' contact with Vulcans.
1st contact with the Andorians and Orions in season one. Orions would be the villains in the early seasons before the romulan war starts.
1st contact with the Telerites and Tholians in Season two.

occational Guest actors from past series playing completely different characters.

Transporters would only show up in one episode that takes place in the lab.

Phase pistols would not have a 'stun' setting.

No shields or polarised plating.

The ship would be armed with Nuclear torpedoes. No Phase cannon.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

If you are going to have a temporal Cold War the point is that changes in the past can affect the future - so if going have this plot devise you actually have to make it that something does happen or is damaged in the future time-line because frankly no-one bought that there was ever any threat to that ever happening [sic] [in this series anyway not certain movies as yet to be released ]


Therefore if not going to throw it all up in the air and risk then no point having the Temporal Cold War plot!

So emphasis of an enemy should have been Romulan behind the scenes sabotaging Earth's attempt at space travel.

Build up to the Romulan War should have been overriding arc whether got to it or not another matter but why not akin to DS9 Dominion War build up and later season more dominated by actual war stories.

Have no problems with the Suliban or Xindi races but perhaps they could have featured as part of Orion syndicate underclass subjugated peoples. Or at least explain along the line how/why they no longer so prominent in future.

Orions pushed up a bit as a threat especially as experimental technology that rather than just being supposedly inferior less advanced might just break down in the middle of space like a car engine conking out.

Klingons probably shouldn't have appeared in the first episode and probably not for first season imagine audience appetite whetted upon hearing Klingons to be seen in season 2 built up to.

If so fantastically put together then it shouldn't be a solely Earth/human built project but as others have suggested design input from other aliens. Other aliens might have made part of the crew make up then to help with the technology. So Andorians etc and then this helps to foster idea of co-operation and some kind of federation ... mmm

Some characters should be more rough edged not having been polished by Academy training afterall. Obviously said characters fleshed out and not so amiable and happy go lucky probably real pressures and stress as first human exploratory vessel and so far from home.


Ship less advanced and others have mentioned about initial idea was to show project being built which would have been good. Might not have sustained audience interest but if part of first twoparter premiere or as a series of flashbacks over course first half season one which might then include Romulan sabotage attempts [hidden bomb or crew member revealed as a Rommie agent but not T'Pol as might suspect her as Vulcan to be part Rommie].

transporters used in a later season no where in season one.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I've had similar ideas to what a lot of others have previously described, so I'll just go with another.

I would name it Star Trek: Enterprise from jump. And if it had to be a prequel, I would base it on Robert T. April, finally making him canon. Might also include George S. Kirk, Sr., Number One (Give her a name), and Pike too.

Most of the ENT storylines could be adapted to fit under April's time period.

Other changes:

-Make the Orion Syndicate, Tholians, Nausicaans, and Terra Prime central bad guys of the series.

-The Romulans would be behind the scenes plotting against the Feds, perhaps using the Orions and Nausicaans as proxies.

-Even though I liked the two-parter that explained the Klingon foreheads, I would have the Klingons be the smooth paned ones from TOS.

-Probably include a Deltan and Andorian as part of the senior crew to explore different Trek aliens. Might also have a Tellarite doctor.

Okay,

Can't help myself from remaking ENT as it was:

-Rename it Star Trek: Phoenix

-Phoenix is a Warp Three vessel.

-T'Pol would begin as an observer, but T'Pol be switched to communications officer later in show. The rest of the crew would be human. Human doctor would probably be married to a Vulcan or another alien though, and he and T'Pol become associates of a sort.

-Reed would be a MACO. He's tied to Terra Prime or S31.

-Travis would be more world weary, perhaps older.

-Hoshi would be the Science Officer. She's an Augment.

-Archer's backstory would become Trip's.

-Trip would have to struggle with his biases.

-I would probably play Archer as more of a tougher military man, who is having a hard time adjusting to the merging of the science and military wings (similar to MJF's Starfleet: Year One) book. I would probably also change the character of Archer to a Latino character to continue breaking ground in Trek. Probably just rename him Erik Hernandez.

-Broken Bow would be the first Human-Andorian contact. Andorians would become the main adversaries for the first couple of seasons. Orions would replace the Suliban, and be working to destabilize the Alpha Quadrant on behalf of the Romulans. Nausicaan pirates would also be a serious threat.

-Earth wouldn't be a paradise. I would disregard what Riker said in FC as being historically inaccurate. There's still a lot of turmoil, strife, and humanity reaches toward perfection.

-Mars and Alpha Centauri would be two rebellious sectors. Actions Hernandez took at AC or Mars still haunt him.

No TWC, but I would probably keep the Xindi, but rework them a bit.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

^ Interesting changes! I think many of the ones you noted would be an improvement. Not sure about having the doctor be married to a Vulcan though. I think this series should've shown -- better -- how Vulcans and humans begin to create an association deeper than any other species, but still with problems. After all, Kirk seemed like the only one who liked Spock right off the bat. McCoy, Stiles, etc. all had problems with Spock.

On the augment change for Hoshi, I really wish they would've done that. She was a very bland character. Through the series, it would've been interesting to show a "special power" of each of the characters. (I use special power also as a special skill. For example, it'd be interesting if they made Trip more of the scientist -- a guy who not only solved the intermix ratio issue for the engine, but "wrote the book on engineering bring for the warp vessels" kind of guy.) For example, I thought the Klingon two-parter was silly, but really enjoyed Reed's backstory with Section 31. I wish that came earlier on in the series. Or Archer's addition of Surak's katra. I think that would be a handy skill for later use, and help bring the humans and Vulcans closer together.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I probably would have just scaled everything back myself, placed the series much earlier in time--around 2104--and concentrated the series around the Earth colonies in Sector 001 with occasional guest-appearances by the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites.

The ship would still have been called the Enterprise and still would have had a saucer section, but the rest of the ship would have been more like the ringship glimpsed briefly in TMP. No phase cannons, no photonic torpedoes, and definitely no transporters. I would have kept the polarized hull plating system and the grappling hook, however.

I would have had T'Pol as the only non-Human member on the ship, but she would be there merely as a civilian representative of the Vulcan government. Mayweather would have been an older character and the ship's grumpy first officer, Phlox would have been Human, but the rest of the characters would have remained the same.

Basically it would be set in a timeframe only a half-century since the end of World War III, Earthfleet Command operates under the authority of the United Earth Space Probe Agency, and Humans are just now starting to make a name for themselves in the larger galactic community. The biggest threat to Earth (aside from an anti-United Earth faction by the few remaining World War III holdouts) are Orion pirate ships that have been periodically raiding Earth ships, outposts, and colonies in Sector 001. The Andorians do not recognize the United Earth as a sovereign nation yet, and Vulcan and Tellar are edging closer and closer to war over colonization rights to the Coridan System--a war that may force Earth to choose a side...

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Started the Earth-Romulan War by the end of Season Four...then push for a renewal for a fifth and final year to flash-forward to show parts of the conflict and its consequences.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Thanks Commodore64,

About the doctor-Vulcan wife thing. I just wanted to have a human character that was more demonstrably open to the Vulcans, a person that might serve as a kind of interpreter-not a good word, but I'm at a loss right now, for the humans and the Vulcan on board.

I really liked your idea about Surak's katra. I think ENT dropped the ball on that one. I wish they had shown more how Archer's experience holding Surak's katra had really changed him, and at least it would've been a nice arc for him.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Considering Archer didn't remember reading a biography the size of a phone book on Surak back in season one's 2 nights and 2 days, why should he recall a jot about the bugger subleasing an unsued area of Archers soul for a vacation shanty?

MUCH more should have been made of it.

I loved it when they referred to Picard as the arbitor of succession in subsequent episodes, and The Sisko despite being a very modest religious icon was seen to use the role when necessary.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Thank you for that laugh out loud, Guy. Almost sprayed Mountain Dew from my nose.

And yeah, yet another drop-the-ball. This could have been *the* thing that created the curiously close human/Vulcan relationship had it been developed properly. Obviously they tried to use it to 180 the 'Vulcans as dicks' thing but they should have gone the full distance.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

An ingrown dick going the full distance sounds like exploratory autosodomy.

I thought it became telling a little later on when his DNA was spliced with those Klingons. truely a bridge between the lot of them. He should have kept those damn ridges. besides for all the deification of Surak, one must recall that he was raised and did live the first half of his life, or even his first life as a Romulan just like Jesus Christ was a Jew, if we recall how bigoted people used to be so candid about the subject.

So really Archer was housing the katra of a mostly Romulan and not a Vulcan by modern standards.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Right, so a link and a few words = a link and a huge post that took me quite a while to write up just for this thread. Thanks, I'll store that nugget away for future reference.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I was explaining what I did differently in the context of the thread since there was a lack of response to my initial link. I assumed this was because people didn't want to follow a link they didn't know anything about just to see wha tI was talking about. I was also kind of pointing out that while it's all fine and good to talk about what you would do, had you been in charge, that it would be even better to point out when you've actually started writing something. I thought that might interest some people seeing as that's what this topic is about - what you as the creator of the show would have done differently. Well, I, as the creator of the show would have done what I'm doing now with Foundations, hense why I'm discussing it here, hoping for a few comments as to the ideas I presented.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Comments on my ideas =/ comments on my fic.

I haven't released any press releases for my series in this thread, I've given information about it as per the topic of this thread.

I don't seem to remember that being a requirement of the topic, nor has everyone else done that either. The topic is "If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different", and that is the question I answered - where's the problem? I already did a fairly long write-up, are you saying I should have done a longer one? I would have liked to, but as I mentioned in my post, I'm a little pressed for time of late. If you just have to make an issue of this though, I'd be more than happy to take this up in PM and maybe even get a second opinion on the matter if necessary. I will tell you right off the bat though that I don't appreciate getting singled out and patronized for participating in this topic.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

OK, let's get back on topic please.

Comments like this Captain X

are not appropriate in the forum and should be taken to PM. That's the last word on the matter in here.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

i've not read everyone's responses, but here's my ENT.

NO TCW.

Made Hoshi and Travis more interesting.

No dog.

Had the Xindi arc only last half of S3.

Brought in the Tellarites earlier.

Used some other TOS-era races like Deltans, Rigelians, Arkenites, Saurians etc.

Still used Klingons, but more sparingly and had the 'disaster' first contact.

Brought in an NX-02 in S3. Brought in an NX-03 and -04 in early S4. Once the first pathfinder's proven to work, they should've started punching them out much quicker from several facilities above Earth and Luna.

Set up the Romulan War more.

Not had Archer be quite such a dick around Vulcans.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Yeah, that bugged me. Once the NX-01 had been completed, it shouldn't have taken nearly so long to get NX-02 together. All the hard work had already been done in designing Enterprise and making sure it worked. Really, Columbia should have been under construction before Enterprise had even left spacedock.

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

So, anyone have any thoughts on the ideas I presented?

 

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

You know, this bugged me. I call this: lack of continuity.

I agree. I think the captain should be "larger than life," which is why I always thought the Super!Archer criticism around here was silly. Captains are super. They perform tasks that are godlike ... especially Sisko who became rather like a god in the end.