Alternative ENTERPRISE Series Concepts

[Arpy]

I was thinking maybe get rid of the Vulcans. They disappear after first contact and maybe part of the series is figuring out why.

Space is vast and most empty. Even if the Vulcans are older race, maybe even with vast territory (for the period), it might take a while to find them or anyone who knows them. Or anyone at all. Especially in our uninteresting frontier edge of known space.

 

[Imaus]

This thread got me thinking; and this is how I would at least map out the region. Nothing too far flung; everything still close to home, but there are still problems.

Earth ships have fired on Andorian ones before, wars with the Kzinti over the rich Beta Hydri system has gone on for over seventy years, the Orions are obsentially a huge cooperative of miners and industry yet ply in illicits, the Vegan Tyranny (name might have to change for the show, maybe just the 'Tyranny' or somesuch are the declining major power in the region, having kept the local buble as a sort of 'reserve' but have fallen into civil war, and the Romulan and Klingons, next in line, are rushing in to expand their empires: the Klingons for resource rich systems, the Romulans, to reunite with Vulcan. The Andorians and Vulcans are in a simmering cold war, and the Paramount Republic of Visuna might launch their own crusade. It's a tying time for the United Nations of Earth (or United Earth, again show name) who have seemingly reached a barrier everywhere they look.

The UNSS (or UES) Enterprise, second of its name and class, is launched as a new warp-5 capable cruiser, a result of Earth's numerous trials before with the Orions and Kzinti and the loom of the Tyranny; but soon finds itself engaging in as many scientific and diplomatic missions as military and scouting ones, if not more so. Gathering together peoples from the local bubble, the seeds of the Federation are formed as the region unites against undue aggression and despotism.

 

[MAGolding]

Wha tis wrong with the name "Vegan Tyranny"?

Vega
1
[ vee-guh, vey- ]

noun
Astronomy. a star of the first magnitude in the constellation Lyra.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/vega

vega(
beh
-
gah
)
FEMININE NOUN
1. (area of flat land)
a. meadow
No hay nada mejor que una vega herbosa para acostarse.There's nothing better than a grassy meadow to lie down on.
b. valley
La vega de Granada es muy rica en árboles frutales.The Granada valley is very rich in fruit-bearing trees.
c. fertile plain
Las vegas en el norte de la India son entre las más extensas del mundo.The fertile plains in the north of India are among the largest in the world.
2. (tobacco fields)
(Caribbean)

https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/vega

So the name Vega for the star Alpha Lyrae and the Spanish world vega and surname Vega have two different
pronunciations.

vegan
noun
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veg·an | \ ˈvē-gən also ˈvā- also ˈve-jən or -ˌjan \
Definition of vegan


: a strict vegetarian who consumes no food (such as meat, eggs, or dairy products) that comes from animalsalso : one who abstains from using animal products (such as leather)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vegan

So we may hope that Vegan relating to the star and vegan relating to diet can be prounounced differently. And possibly some character in an episode could make a joke about the similarity between Vegan and vegan, thus explaining it to the audience.

 

[fireproof78]

So we may hope that Vegan relating to the star and vegan relating to diet can be prounounced differently. And possibly some character in an episode could make a joke about the similarity between Vegan and vegan, thus explaining it to the audience.

Pronounced differently? Of course. I live in a state where even the state name is pronounced differently depending on regional accent differences. But, the similarity, especially in text, invites a lot more hassle than it is worth from a production standpoint. Starting off with the appearance of maligning a group does not make for a good time.

 

[Arpy]

Pronounced differently? Of course. I live in a state where even the state name is pronounced differently depending on regional accent differences. But, the similarity, especially in text, invites a lot more hassle than it is worth from a production standpoint. Starting off with the appearance of maligning a group does not make for a good time.

I dunno, I kind of agree with you, especially as we can choose any baddies we want in this case, but we shouldn’t be too afraid to call a thing what it is. I mean, Uranus is my favorite planet and the jokes about the name are so tedious. Being a Greek-American, I mostly think of the god of the sky that it’s named after — Ouranos — and like it for its beautiful greenish coloring. I have never myself thought of anuses when saying the name. I mean, do Brits feel the need to rename Essex or Sussex for being too close to sex? Do we rename the Cardassians because they’re too close to Kardashians?

VAY-gen Tyranny sounds fine to me. The name in print can be stylized as well. If they work as baddies on the show, it changes the public’s perception of the word. The tail does not wag the dog.

 

[fireproof78]

I dunno, I kind of agree with you, especially as we can choose any baddies we want in this case, but we shouldn’t be too afraid to call a thing what it is. I mean, Uranus is my favorite planet and the jokes about the name are so tedious. Being a Greek-American, I mostly think of the god of the sky that it’s named after — Ouranos — and like it for its beautiful greenish coloring. I have never myself thought of anuses when saying the name. I mean, do Brits feel the need to rename Essex or Sussex for being too close to sex? Do we rename the Cardassians because they’re too close to Kardashians?

VAY-gen Tyranny sounds fine to me. The name in print can be stylized as well. If they work as baddies on the show, it changes the public’s perception of the word. The tail does not wag the dog.

It's a delicate balance to strike and not one that I have any confidence in a modern showrunner to handle.

ETA: But, I could be wrong. Apparently James Blish had a similarly sounding organization in a novel. So, what do I know?

 

[MAGolding]

It's a delicate balance to strike and not one that I have any confidence in a modern showrunner to handle.

ETA: But, I could be wrong. Apparently James Blish had a similarly sounding organization in a novel. So, what do I know?

Blish mentioned the Vegans in Earthman, Come Home (1955), part of Cities in Flight. The Vegan Tyranny or Confederation was defeated by Earth before the time of the stories. There is a statement that only 11 non human intelligent p civilizaitons had every been discovered, unless you counted the Vegans. Humans didn't consider the Vegans to be human, but the non humans did. IN another scene a human is asked if he is actually a Vegan. This implies that Vegans looked a lot like humans or possibly were as human s natives of Eminar VIII, for example.

Blish mentioned the Vegan Tyranny in his adpatation of "Tomorrow is Yesterday". So some early Star Trek fans assumed the Vegans were canon in Star Trek as a whole and not merely in Blish's adapations of episodes, and included them in various reference books.

In one scene in Earthman, Come Home (1955) Blish mentioned that one reason teh Vegans were defeated by Earthmen was they used computers for their strtegy and human minds can always outthink computers (a dubious assumption). Because of that, some fans have assumed that the Vegans were a machine ciivlization.

To avoid confusion with human vegans, possibly characters can talk about Vay-gans from tthe star Vee-ga instead of Vee-gans from Vee-ga..

 

[Arpy]

I thought the star was VAY-ga. Probably because that’s how Jodie Foster pronounced it in Contact. (Fantastic movie)

 

[Saul]

I think the premise was a good idea but the execution wasn't.

I like the idea of a prequel show that would lead to the founding of the Federation and also setting it around the same time as the Earth - Romulan War was smart money. If people got tired of the peaceful exploration thing they could add more drama and action with the War storyline and make it visually interesting since they are fighting an enemy that they can't see and don't know what they look like. Hints of Space Above and Beyond, nBSG. I thought a prequel show can be a fresh new take on the world of Star Trek. Submarine type ships, brick size communicators, lasers, no Klingons, no viewscreens.
Basically, do a prequel and not a prequel that looked and felt like a 24th century show.

 

[Phoenix219]

Hell, I say go ALL IN with the time travel. Maybe one of Jonathan Archer's descendants is a time traveler from the 29th century (who also happens to LOOK like Jonathan Archer, since all descendants obviously look like their ancestors ). He's sent back to prevent a Suliban from sabotaging Captain Archer's maiden voyage of Enterprise. Something happens, Archer's descendant fails miserably, and Captain Archer dies. So, unable to return to the future because it doesn't exist, Archer's descendant has to take Captain Archer's place and try to recreate Jonathan Archer's voyage. From memory. Without blowing his cover and fighting off temporal agents from the future (don't ask me how there are still temporal agents if the future doesn't exist, something about hating temporal mechanics, or whatnot )

I really like this idea, although it may be the Quantum Leap connection to the plot, haha.

Really, though, I've always, in my personal headcanon, since ENT takes place after First Contact, had the idea that the entire series and the Temporal Cold War has something to do with maintaining a changed timeline after FC screwed up the original TOS timeline, and making sure the Federation is still formed in a similar way. After all, the Enterprise was supposed to be destroyed during Season 1, and by saving it, they were re-purposing it with the mission of maintaining the timeline, since the proper path was already changed too much after FC-caused butterflies.

 

[JR TREK]

I agree with the idea of following up on First Contact. I generally like Enterprise, especially after Manny Coto came in, but the show was plagued with continuity and lore issues, and generally a reason for it to exist as a prequel.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think the Borg episode should have been the first episode. The only downside I can think of is that Voyager had gone heavy on the Borg and then killed them off, and a lot of fans may have been done with the Borg. I'm in the "Voyager ruined the Borg" camp though and I would like to have seen them made dangerous again. Also, lose the Borg Queen and get them back to being a faceless, soulless enemy.

 

[Phoenix219]

I agree, the Borg episode would have been a great place to start, thus *highlighting* changes instead of breaking canon. This path could have included changing the name of the original ship (Valiant, or Discovery, or Columbia, or whatever) to Enterprise because of the events of First Contact; The Borg drone's existance activating Section 31 earlier/more openly; the advancement of technology at a different pace due to the Borg encounter, etc - basically, to me, FC leads directly to the events of ENT, and explains the changes in Discovery, and thus the Temporal Cold War must be related. Saving a doomed ship that, in TOS, didn't even make the history books, in order to ensure the creation of the Federation, while giving an in-universe reason for changing aesthetics and canon, would have been a beautiful thing, IMO.

Hindsight being 20/20, of course.

 

[fireproof78]

Meh, there was no need to include the Borg. Highlighting differences, i.e. Cochrane's appearance, changing the ship's name, and possible design based upon Cochrane's design would fit just fine.

In my opinion, Enterprise would do well to have started smaller and grown up in to its shoes. Going from "test flight" to Vulcan and then resulting in the Vulcan's providing more opportunities for growth would be a nice framing device of the Vulcans trying to parent the younger species. However, humans keep stepping further out and discovering more, including more hostile forces, such as the one's listed in the maps above. I would have used the Orions, the Kzin, as well as possibly the Andorians. I would not have Enterprise always right.

 

[Phoenix219]

I would be okay with all of that - its easier to try to frame these re-imaginings with things the show actually did, so the Borg Drone episode is the lynchpin to most of my "rewrite" thoughts, but everything you said would have been absolutely acceptable. I like the idea of the test flight to Vulcan, with the Vulcan's giving them the star-maps or some tech upgrades after they arrive.

(Honestly, I am an ENT fan, and I really did enjoy the first two seasons, but it almost seemed like a TOS reboot, exploring the frontier, in the Enterprise, with a genderbent Spock and Trip as the McCoy stand in, for their big three. In a different world, I could have seen ENT as a retooling reboot, like nuBSG.)

 

[Arpy]

I think what annoyed me about the Temporal Cold War is that it suggests that this series can’t stand on its own. What happens in this time period by itself isn’t interesting enough to warrant watching. You need to hang the entire future in the balance. Yeah, okay...and WWII included secret multi-dimensional Sliders because the history isn’t interesting enough to retell as is. It was on them to make the period interesting on its own, and some of the creativity in this thread alone shows it was possible.

 

[fireproof78]

Yes, but would it be entertaining?

 

[Arpy]

Yes, but would it be entertaining?

? Yes. Is a historical movie not entertaining? It’s about how well it’s done, not whether the entire human race survives the conclusion.

 

[fireproof78]

? Yes. Is a historical movie not entertaining? It’s about how well it’s done, not whether the entire human race survives the conclusion.

Yes, it is how well it is done.

 

[JR TREK]

Meh, there was no need to include the Borg. Highlighting differences, i.e. Cochrane's appearance, changing the ship's name, and possible design based upon Cochrane's design would fit just fine.

In my opinion, Enterprise would do well to have started smaller and grown up in to its shoes. Going from "test flight" to Vulcan and then resulting in the Vulcan's providing more opportunities for growth would be a nice framing device of the Vulcans trying to parent the younger species. However, humans keep stepping further out and discovering more, including more hostile forces, such as the one's listed in the maps above. I would have used the Orions, the Kzin, as well as possibly the Andorians. I would not have Enterprise always right.

It's a lot easier to justify the existence of Enterprise as a follow up to the most successful of the Next Gen movies, featuring the most popular TNG villain. I don't know if it could even be called a "prequel" at that point, it would be more like a sequel to TNG taking place in an alternate past. I think that's a much easier sell than "how the Federation came to be," when we largely already know how it came to be.

Aside from the Borg themselves, they would have bought a ton of value as a vehicle for cameos from high value TNG characters such as Picard, Janeway, and Seven of Nine; which Trek threw in the trash while they were still highly popular. Instead of the mystery man manipulating the Suluban, we could have had Picard, Janeway, and Seven teaming up to fix the mess First Contact made of the timeline. I liked Daniels, but having Seven appear instead would have been a huge boost to the show.

We might have even gotten some more screen time for the Sovereign class. Seven could have overseen refitting the Enterprise-E with Borg time travel technology, in which case the E could be seen as a prototype vessel eventually leading to the Wells class time ships. Fans would have eaten that up with a spoon.

 

[Arpy]

It's a lot easier to justify the existence of Enterprise as a follow up to the most successful of the Next Gen movies, featuring the most popular TNG villain. I don't know if it could even be called a "prequel" at that point, it would be more like a sequel to TNG taking place in an alternate past. I think that's a much easier sell than "how the Federation came to be," when we largely already know how it came to be.

Aside from the Borg themselves, they would have bought a ton of value as a vehicle for cameos from high value TNG characters such as Picard, Janeway, and Seven of Nine; which Trek threw in the trash while they were still highly popular. Instead of the mystery man manipulating the Suluban, we could have had Picard, Janeway, and Seven teaming up to fix the mess First Contact made of the timeline. I liked Daniels, but having Seven appear instead would have been a huge boost to the show.

We might have even gotten some more screen time for the Sovereign class. Seven could have overseen refitting the Enterprise-E with Borg time travel technology, in which case the E could be seen as a prototype vessel eventually leading to the Wells class time ships. Fans would have eaten that up with a spoon.

I’m wondering if Picard could be the Time Guy somehow altering the past. We find out later that it’s part of a larger plan to rectify that universe’s history when he finds out from his own that things went badly there. He could do it largely as a disembodied voice, leading up to a once a season/series guest appearance.

Maybe if the scripts were strong enough they could have gotten Stewart to do it. In our own alternate universe.

So this 22nd century could have been very different from the Prime’s and it wouldn’t matter. It wouldn’t even have to ultimately result in a Prime-like future as long as it was a better one than the catastrophic one he knew would otherwise become.