ENT fans, I thought this thread was going well... is there any more ideas to share about future ENT episodes or stories?
I think the Denobulans have a past and have something to share in expanding the Star Trek Universe. It doesn't have to be blood shed or a war but a secret or a spread of philosophies which altered new civilizations we haven't discovered or created within the Denobulan circle.
Within the timeframe of the original show, I did have an idea of there being a Denobulan decathlon, where one of the stages involves them having to circumnavigate the global by swimming. That is as much competition as it is a rite of passage. And that there is a conservationist subspecies that lives underwater the Denobulans do not talk about and there is a conflict of sorts that flares up when the Denobulans begin to expand both underwater and above water cities due to overpopulation.
There was another idea that involves the crew being asked to retrieve a series of Rosetta Stones that have been raided from the museums of Coalition of Planet members, with one of those Rosetta Stones being revealed to show a link between the Vulcan, Romulan and Rigelian languages. Meaning they share more than physiology.
Another could be based on a small mining consortium that, based upon urban legend in the former Delphic Expanse, genuinely believes that Archerite exists.
But trying to tell stories in the original context the show was set in is kind of limiting, since after “Terra Prime” its just build to Romulan War, then the war, then the founding of the Federation. At best, we just have Shran possibly replacing T’Pol at her former post. Sure, there is the benefit of the writers having to focus on Hoshi to make her a strong female character from that point forwards. But would the writers be okay turning the triumvirate of Archer-Trip-T’Pol to Archer-Trip-Hoshi? Or Archer-Shran-Hoshi?
I would not mind if the producers used CGI to de-age the ENT cast for flashback scenes for away missions or shore leave, since the original sets have been destroyed. But I would like to go in a new direction with the ENT crew if we see them onscreen again. At least setting new adventures 20 years later allows for exploration and greater creativity in a time period that just does not get explored or mentioned much in the series. And can remove the timidity of the original run in the process.
Archer jumping from Andorian ambassador, to Federation Councilman to Federation President to a return to being an Admiral in Starfleet each season, basically as a 22nd century blend of the legend of Theodore Roosevelt, the war hero status of an Eisenhower or Grant & the inspiration of JFK is intriguing. Especially on how it influences his personal relationships with Shran, Talla, T’Pau and Soval, as well as his former crew. Maybe chef continues to works for Archer. Maybe Archer grows to dislike his various diplomatic and political jobs the more he is stuck in an office on Earth and preferring the wild west Starfleet life.
Trip being alive and leading a quiet life out of the way of everything Starfleet, working random odd jobs.
T’Pol being half-Romulan results in her heading into Romulan space on her own to look for her father, and members of Starfleet learn of this excursion and consider her a defector.
Seeing the middle deck crew (Reed, Sato, Mayweather, Phlox) progress in their careers and play a role in (re)building Starfleet & making first contact with known Trek species like the Saurians. Similar TOS fanservice like in S4, but with reimagined S5 episodes being used as well (since its 20 years later, after all), and them leading instead of following.
The refit NX class could be its own ship class, one which has managed to reach Warp 6 using Henry Archer’s engine, but is clearly seeing more radiation leaks and random core breaches since it wasn't designed for that and Warp 7 engine can't be retrofitted for this particular class. Combined with more radical transporter malfunctions (think body parts appearing where they shouldn't or cargo inexplicably disassembled). which forces both the chief engineer and the transport chief to be positioned on the bridge, since those areas are seal off to everyone but authorised personnel. Which forces the armoury officer to do his/her work in the armory. And the ship class needs to be decommissioned and mothballed altogether, and Starfleet is reacting rather slow about it.
Seeing Daniels return one last time, and acknowledging that the warp scale changed between Archer’s time and Picard’s time (warp 7 meaning something different to both eras), and that the warp speeds under Archer are considered sublight speeds in the future. And he brings is up because they are brought to the future to deal with something involving the Ent-B or Ent-C.
Even looking at the early days of the Federation-Romulan Cold War would be more interesting than another war series. Was there an opportunity to normalize relations between the Federation and the Romulans and it all fell apart? Did the same happen with the Klingons and contribute to the beginning of the Federation-Klingon Cold War?
I could go on forever, I suppose.
