Enterprise refit end of season 2
- Thread starter Infern0
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Rick Berman on technology in Enterprise:
Source: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/356.html
In the same appearance, Berman also says they are trying to make Enterprise "dramatically different" from the previous Treks.
Here's what I hypothesize might have been said behind the scenes:
"We'll change 'phaser' to 'phase' and 'photon' to 'photonic!' That's dramatically different! It will be so much fun for the fans to see the dramatic differences of identically functioning technology! They will love observing the development of the technology from infant stages to maturity—represented purely by the addition or subtraction of one or two letters! I AM A WRITER OF SCIENCE FICTION!"
Source: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/ENT/news/article/356.html
In the same appearance, Berman also says they are trying to make Enterprise "dramatically different" from the previous Treks.
Here's what I hypothesize might have been said behind the scenes:
"We'll change 'phaser' to 'phase' and 'photon' to 'photonic!' That's dramatically different! It will be so much fun for the fans to see the dramatic differences of identically functioning technology! They will love observing the development of the technology from infant stages to maturity—represented purely by the addition or subtraction of one or two letters! I AM A WRITER OF SCIENCE FICTION!"
Then again, it does make complete sense that our heroes would be ex-heroes if their ship didn't get equipped with cutting-edge technologies. Warp five engines? Phah. The real reason this was Earth's first successful deep space exploration mission was the introduction of respectable armament, firepower of galactic standard.
And it makes sense that such armament wouldn't be developed in baby steps. After all, everybody else in the galaxy already had phasers. Earth's best course of action, then, would be to duplicate what everybody else had, resulting in a sudden leap and then a subsequent centuries-long plateau.
The choice of terminology may not be to everybody's tastes, but it does make more sense for our heroes to get TOS hardware right away than to be handed some sort of intermediate stuff. And if this hardware were originally dubbed "nadion streams" or "death rays", one would wonder how the terminology later mutated to "phaser". The mutation from "phase gun" to "phaser" is a more logical one.
Timo Saloniemi
And it makes sense that such armament wouldn't be developed in baby steps. After all, everybody else in the galaxy already had phasers. Earth's best course of action, then, would be to duplicate what everybody else had, resulting in a sudden leap and then a subsequent centuries-long plateau.
The choice of terminology may not be to everybody's tastes, but it does make more sense for our heroes to get TOS hardware right away than to be handed some sort of intermediate stuff. And if this hardware were originally dubbed "nadion streams" or "death rays", one would wonder how the terminology later mutated to "phaser". The mutation from "phase gun" to "phaser" is a more logical one.
Timo Saloniemi
I agree that as Enterprise encounted more (and sometimes technologically superior) species, Starfleet would be able to make a couple of leaps and bounds, but I've got to admit I was a little disappointed at how quickly they gained TOS-style technology.
The plasma cannons and EM-33 used in Broken Bow never appeared again. Definitely not superior weapons, but you instantly got that retro feel the series was trying to get. The same with the spatial torpedoes.
It was good to see Enterprise get a bit more fierce with The Expanse, but they made a seemingly radical leap from physical warheads to variable yield energy torpedoes way too quickly, and it felt like a bit of a cop-out to me.
It was the same kind of unexpected leap they made in season 4, where we were led to believe that humans were by and large confined to Earth, at most the Solar System, except for cargo ships and the odd colony here and there.
Early on in season 4, we learn that they've got well established stations and colonies here and there, Cold Station 12, the Augment's colony planet, even Daedalus mentions that humans had been out pretty far to conduct transporter tests. Curiously we never encountered other Starfleet ships outside of Earth's immediate vicinity, which is something I would've liked to see - a kind of short range Starfleet, and more on the Earth Cargo vessels that took years to reach various destinations.
All in all, I felt a bit let down that we never really saw a logical progression but unexpected spurts of Enterprise fast approaching the TOS/TNG universe.
The plasma cannons and EM-33 used in Broken Bow never appeared again. Definitely not superior weapons, but you instantly got that retro feel the series was trying to get. The same with the spatial torpedoes.
It was good to see Enterprise get a bit more fierce with The Expanse, but they made a seemingly radical leap from physical warheads to variable yield energy torpedoes way too quickly, and it felt like a bit of a cop-out to me.
It was the same kind of unexpected leap they made in season 4, where we were led to believe that humans were by and large confined to Earth, at most the Solar System, except for cargo ships and the odd colony here and there.
Early on in season 4, we learn that they've got well established stations and colonies here and there, Cold Station 12, the Augment's colony planet, even Daedalus mentions that humans had been out pretty far to conduct transporter tests. Curiously we never encountered other Starfleet ships outside of Earth's immediate vicinity, which is something I would've liked to see - a kind of short range Starfleet, and more on the Earth Cargo vessels that took years to reach various destinations.
All in all, I felt a bit let down that we never really saw a logical progression but unexpected spurts of Enterprise fast approaching the TOS/TNG universe.
In terms of the deliberate and repeatedly referenced choice to set the series in an entirely different era to get away from much of what is familiar, such a decision makes very little sense to me. It rapidly does away with many writing possibilities by fitting some of the sci-fi aspects into a relatively tight schema—tight enough that it supposedly mandated the prequel approach in the first place. I wouldn't have minded seeing different technology ideas for Our Heroes allow, say, a space battle to be staged in new and different ways, instead of the overall feeling of familiarity that comes from red beams, exploding consoles and the same old lines about shield percentages with "hull plating" subbed in.
I would also have very much preferred a show that used plasma cannon, plasma pistols and rifles, hull armor, mechanical grapplers and shuttlecraft, and did not feature transporters, shields or beam weapons that can both stun and kill. And I'd have appreciated if the show was not based on starship Enterprise. Starship Intrepid would have done nicely. Or space cruiser Enterprise. Or even space cruiser Intrepid. Too much TOS is too much TOS.
However, such a ship and crew couldn't logically have gone toe-to-toe with Klingons and the like, unless those species were "dumbed down" in equal measure. And that just doesn't make sense: the galaxy wasn't any nicer a place in the 2150s than it was in the 2260s, there would be no shortage of advanced foes at any time in galactic history, and indeed IMHO the attempt of breaking out of a primitive single-system or handful-of-systems dominion into a truly interstellar entity would require TOS technology rather than early ENT stuff.
Fully agreed that the writing in any case sucked, in terms of not being able to create an indentity for ENT that would stand apart from VOY or TNG.
I'd have had no problem with a wide-flung mankind, provided the various parts weren't in easy and immediate contact with each other unless Earth's first warp five starship served as a courier. But the existence of Cold Station 12 might go against that, since the people there didn't seem to have dedicated their entire lives to staying on the station. And "Daedalus" might be explained away in various ways, but admittedly it is another sore spot, while the Augment colony really isn't, not IMHO at least.
I think we did get at least a good appetizer of those: the ships that defended Earth and whupped Klingon ass in "The Expanse", and the brief visit to "Horizon". More might have been better, had there been worthwhile stories to tell.
Timo Saloniemi
However, such a ship and crew couldn't logically have gone toe-to-toe with Klingons and the like, unless those species were "dumbed down" in equal measure. And that just doesn't make sense: the galaxy wasn't any nicer a place in the 2150s than it was in the 2260s, there would be no shortage of advanced foes at any time in galactic history, and indeed IMHO the attempt of breaking out of a primitive single-system or handful-of-systems dominion into a truly interstellar entity would require TOS technology rather than early ENT stuff.
Fully agreed that the writing in any case sucked, in terms of not being able to create an indentity for ENT that would stand apart from VOY or TNG.
I'd have had no problem with a wide-flung mankind, provided the various parts weren't in easy and immediate contact with each other unless Earth's first warp five starship served as a courier. But the existence of Cold Station 12 might go against that, since the people there didn't seem to have dedicated their entire lives to staying on the station. And "Daedalus" might be explained away in various ways, but admittedly it is another sore spot, while the Augment colony really isn't, not IMHO at least.
I think we did get at least a good appetizer of those: the ships that defended Earth and whupped Klingon ass in "The Expanse", and the brief visit to "Horizon". More might have been better, had there been worthwhile stories to tell.
Timo Saloniemi
