My question will always be "Why?" and "How does this impact the characters?" If there is a compelling reason to take these characters to these planets and what will we learn about them?
Well, I’ll try and expand on some of my list, to show how revisiting some of these premises might affect the NX-01 crew.
- Vissians & Cogenitors
Maybe a second encounter with the Vissians alleviates Trip’s guilt and Archer’s failure if its revealed that Charles actually did not end her life and was instead either killed by the Vissian engineer and his wife, or another member of the Vissian crew. Which then opens up a number of possibilities as to how Starfleet develops their relations with the Vissians going forwards, once they learn how Vissian actually treat Cogenitors on their homeworld and why they are treated the way they are. There’s also a Mayweather story here if the ECS Horizon, ECS Fortunate, or another cargo ship runs into problems with the Vissians in an attempt to open trade routes to Vissia.
- Suliban-Tandaran relations
If the Tandarans were willing to send an agent to inquire as to what Archer knew about the Suliban, what if they sent more agents, this time for Hoshi, Trip, & Reed? Since those three were also on Risa with Archer (Mayweather returned to the ship after suffering an injury), and its reasonable to consider that the Tandarans would want to learn more about what they know about the Suliban. if they are fearful of genetic engineering in general after the Augments crisis and the attempt to make Klingon Augments, then they have reason to go after Phlox too or cause a disturbance on Denobula, who are comfortable with genetic engineering. Considering Reed’s past with Section 31 in particular, which wasn’t known prior to S4, how does he deal with rival Tandaran spies that are pursuing him and his friends?
- The Xindi
Did the Reptilians rejoin the Xindi Council? Or was there another upheaval on the Xindi Council and the new leaders targeted Earth colonies on their own accord this time i.e. occupation of Alpha Centauri and Vega colony and the new Deneva colony. I’d also imagine that Archer would at least try to get the Xindi onboard to help him with the Romulans at the time war breaks out between Earth and Romulus. He’s supposed to be a peacemaker and alliance builder. Doesn’t this matter?
- penal colony Canamar & corruption plagued planet Agaron as mentioned in "The Seventh"
Maybe there is a connection between the existence of Enolian penal colony Canamar, their habits of engaging in false arrests (as faced by Archer & Trip) and the historical corruption on Agaron. Agaron is also one of those planets that had relations with Vulcan along with Coridan, Earth & Qonos. Maybe relations between the two governments changed again after the Vulcan reformation due to the new Vulcan government not being happy with the level of corruption on Agaron compared with the previous Vulcan leadership under V’Las.
- Automated repair station from "Dead Stop"
This repair seems like it plays a role in the origin story of the Borg, and we aren’t going to ask what happened to it, considering that Archer actually ran into some Borg?
- The Malurians prior to being wiped out by Nomad in TOS
What are the Malurians doing during this time period? What were they like, beyond secretly living among prewarp civilizations and running secret mining operations? Was that just their general M.O. at the time? .Or were there a few good Malurians genuinely concerned about their planet i.e. climate change, for example
- Valakians and the Menk
This admittedly might be better suited for SNW or a series set between TOS & TNG, or even after VOY/LD/PIC, since the Valakians are supposed to extinct by this point. But is still worth asking about, due to the ethical implications made by Archer & Phlox in the absence of a Prime Directive.
- Kreetassans and the symbiotic lifeform seen in "Vox Sola"
How did the Kreetassans come into contact with this lifeform? Do they bring them onboard by accident or did they take a number of symbiotic lifeforms off the planet against their will?
- cultural expansion of the Orions and Tholians
Was it just policy for Starfleet to send crews comprised mostly of females to deal with Orions after the events in “Bound”? Or were mostly male crews (like Archer’s) still allowed to explore Orion space and homeworld, but just were restricted with limited contact with Orion slave girls from that point forwards?
The Tholians had an interest in the TCW and actually fought the Suliban over a ship from the future. With the TCW over, did the Tholian Assembly have anymore encounters with the Suliban Cabal? The Suliban seemed to have a lot of enemies (Tandarans, Tholians, Klingons). Wonder what happened to them?
Even between the Denobulans and Antarans, how successful were efforts to normalize relations? Or was there pushback/resistance by hardliners on both sides? Since Phlox initiated the change, did he or any member of his extended family get caught up in this?
