Alternative ENTERPRISE Series Concepts

[publiusr]

I can see that

 

[Tim Walker]

A definite yes to the Orions. They're the remnants of a vast ancient empire and could be utilized in multiple ways. The Kzinti could showcase contemporary makeup and CG techs. Maybe this is the series to blow up the Tholians too. The Malurians were used interestingly in ENT, and they could be troublesome baddies in this century before Nomad blows up their homeworld in TOS. The Tarellians from TNG were still around at this point and could also be updated and reworked as baddies. The old Romulan saying about "never turning your back on a Breen" makes me wonder if they aren't ancient adversaries not too far apart...maybe it's because they turned their back on the opportunistic Breen that they lost the Earth war to the upstart humans.


Also, there's a lot of other yeses to see and update and expand upon:

Andorians, Tellarites, Ithenites, Coridians, (also from TOS's "Journey to Babel": those tall guys, the purple women, the silver-haired people), Tiburonians, Argelians, Medusans, Ardanans, Rigelians (including the giant ones from TOS's "The Cage," and the Vulcanoid and Chelon variety. I'm so-so on the ENT ones as they weren't visually interesting enough to warrant their further complicating addition), Antarans, Saurians, Caitians, Aurellians, Nasat, Edosians, Deltans, Aaamazzarites, Arcturians, Megarites, Rhaandarites, Arkenites, Arcadians, Bzzt Khat, Xellatians, Pandrilites, Ariolos, Monchezkins, Roylans, Denobulans, Sulibans, Nausicaans, Alpha Centaurians (retro little green men with antennae? "Grey" aliens like from X-Files/Babylon 5? Preserver-planted ancient Greeks as in Worlds of the Federation? A non-humanoid fifth founding-world of the Federation, to be more realistic and showcase special effects tech?), among others...

It occurred to me that humans might ally with one of these other species before forming a coalition with the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites. So there might be five different founding members, rather than four. How might that influence the character of the federation?

 

[Oddish]

If I remember right, the initial coalition (formed in 2155) did feature a few more species. I couldn't identify them all, but I definitely saw a Denobulan delegate there. I think that the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites provided the strongest fleets, while Earth was chosen as the central world because of its location and because the other three species (who had had conflicts with each other) had positive relations with humans. That's why they were considered the primary founders of what would become the Federation, but presumably not the only ones.

 

[FederationHistorian]

The coalition in 2155 comprised of:

Humans (which represented Earth and all human colonies, until Alpha Centauri went independent before the Federation Charter signing)

Vulcans

Andorians

Tellarites

Rigellians

Coridanites (who have been trading partners with the Orions for centuries, btw)

Ktarians

Plus six unknown species as delegate representatives

Plus, humans are supposed to be familiar with Ithenites during this time, as Daniels mentioned that they served on Enterprise-J and Archer did not ask who they were

 

[Oddish]

I know I saw a Denobulan at the table.

 

[FederationHistorian]

You're completely correct about that.

 

[WarpTenLizard]

One if my favorite topics. I was 13 when "Enterprise" aired, and most of what I'm about to say were my main complaints back then, too.

1.) Don't go backwards on the diversity just because it's a prequel. It's history of the future, but it's still the future. Not to mention that this crew is supposed to represent Earth, not Broken Corn, Oklahoma.

Following DS9 and "Voyager," this would've been the time to have a protagonist that was both female and not white. And for God's sake, don't make her another Anerican! Actually, I'd be fine with a straight white dude if he was just Canadian, or from the Lunar colony, or something.

And for the rest of the crew, good grief, and least try something other than the most obvious Nickelodeon diversity cliches. (Token Black guy, token Asian chick, and for our foreign white guy, eh let's just slap a snooty British accent on him.) How about a Swede, or a Croatian? A Mongolian? A Kurd? A Native American from a tribe that exists? A Romani?

Or (gasp!) a Muslim, or a gay person? 2001 would've been the time. In the 1960s, "Star Trek" supported the Civil Rights movement by putting Uhura and Sulu on the bridge, and responded to the Cold War with a positive Russian character onboard. 2001 would've thus been the time to have a gay crewmembers and an Arab Muslim.

In any case, at least make this cast actually seem like people chosen from around the globe for this historic mission, and not the guest list of Hank Hill's barbecue.

2.) Make the cast relevant to the period.
Okay, it's pre-Kirk, so obviously an all or mostly human crew. But they could still try to make these people feel like they're part of a space story, instead of just feeling like a bunch if randos plopped onto a starship.

Ironically, Travis Mayflower or whatever his name was, was the one character that did feel relevant to the period, as an early-era space-boomer. So naturally the show made him Harry Kim II; gotta focus on all those important pregnany cowboys, literal buttheads, and sacred-tree-watering beagle dads.

Some ideas for a better cast:

• A space boomer, raised in zero-grav
• Someone from the Mars or Lunar colony
• An oldster who rembers the Eugenics Wars/WWIII (if the timing isn't "right," again, this is the future. Maybe he or she is the first human to clock 200.)
• A "primitive" cyborg, whose modifications would be less advanced than Geirdie's visor, and brand new tech for their time
• A primitive AI, like a non-solid hologram, or just a face on a screen (a la "Red Dwarf")
• T'Pau, as planned, and/or someone else crucial to Trek Lore, like a very young Christopher Pike or Robert April.
• Instead of another rubber forehead alien, make Phlox a human that's either mutated from Humanity's not-yet-perfected space-colonizing; or very weirdly genetically engineered, before this was outlawed. And leave his buttox inside his pants, not on his face.

3.) Dump the TNG/VOY formula!
Enough humanoids-of-the-week! Make the bulk of their discoveries be things that would seem basic to Kirk's crew, but brand new to the first ship out exploring. There are plenty of ways to work these things into stories.

"The rocks on this planet explode! And this colony of humans wants the exploding rocks all removed, but they're crucial for that planet's ecosystem!"

"This human trader and Andorian engineer have a radical idea to build an inter-spevies space port! But someone against the peace is trying to sabatoge it with murder and bombs and stuff that'll make for a decent episode!"

"This human colony went missing years ago, and we're gonna do a story with that concept that isn't stupid."

Etc.

4.) Don't call it the Enterprise
Kirk's was the first Enterprise. Call this ship something else. "Discovery" frankly would've been perfect.

5.) Life aboard Earth's first exploring ship
Give the crew some bonding game, like the TNG Poker games. Have a chef character. This ship more than any should have a counselor.

Maybe also have a zero-gravity section of the ship, for whatever reason. (Regular practice for all the situations where they'd be in zero-G, or because some part of the ship can't work with gravity, or because they don't have enough energy to give gravity to the whole ship.)

KEEP:

• The Andorian stuff
• The Aenar
• The Klingon crashing in the cornfield, but put that cornfield in Mexico or Australia or something
• The beagle.
• All of the classic, hilariously stupid stiff from "A Night in Sickbay," but using a lower-ranking character for whom this stupid behavior would be more believable and forgiving than the captain.