How could they have improved Yesterday's Enterprise?

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

I was just watching part of Yesterday's Enterprise this afternoon and I got to thinking about how they could have improved the (already wonderful) episode. Here are a couple of my ideas:

First, I'd have made it a two parter. There was plenty of meat there for two hours.

Next, I'd have added more backstory with the Federation-Klingon war. Perhaps start off the alternate universe with an epic battle, possibly the "pasting the Federation gave them on Archer 4".

Also, I'd have put Worf in a leading role as one of the enemy commanders. I'd have loved it if he was the one saying, "Federation ship Enterprise: surrender and prepare to be boarded."

Let's see some Klingon plotting. Let's see a grim assessment from the Federation brass on the chances of success. I'd also have liked the Klingons to have known what was going on and be desperate to stop the Enterprise-C because they know it would mean their 'destruction' if it returns.

The final battle would have been a lot more dynamic. I'd have thrown in a couple extra Klingon ships. The Enterprise would have gotten a lot more shots off. More explosions, more dead friends.

I'd leave Picard's final moments the same, though. That was one of his finest moments.

 

[Wingsley]

For me, the question in my kind was "Where were the Organians?" Organia preempted the TOS-era conflict between the Klingons and the Federation. Why didn't they do it here? There needed to be some clever mention of them. "Yesterday's Enterprise should've been either a three-part story or a mini-series.

And they needed to do something better than have Yar say "I'm supposed to be dead." That was pretty contrived. I'm half-surprised that one hasn't been the object of parody.

The other thing I would've done is make the K'Vort-class battlecruiser out of something other than a re-sized Bird of Prey. I would've used the same shape and wing layout, but the pods on the wingtips would've been Klingon warp nacelles and the surface detailing would've been different.

And I would've changed the Enterprise-D more, to set it off from the "real" D.

Oh, and one more thing: I would've given Yar different hair and Riker back without a beard.

 

[Anwar]

I would've made Worf the Klingon Commander, and made the three Klingon ships into Vorcha Cruisers.

 

[sbk1234]

Given belts and turtlenecks to the crew of the Enterprise-C.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Given belts and turtlenecks to the crew of the Enterprise-C.

This, the revamped costumes looked awful

 

[Wingsley]

^ AGREED!

The E-C crew's costumes looked silly.

 

[Finn]

No. No Worf. Actually more of the main cast should have disappeared.

 

[Unicron]

I'd agree it would have been nice to have a little more historical background on the course of the war, although I don't think the ep needed to be a two-parter. There were plans to show Data and Wesley being killed off (electrocution and decapitation respectively) during the climactic battle, but they didn't have enough money to do the SFX.

I'm kind of mixed on the Organians, as their intervention seemed in no small part due to the fact that Organia was in the war zone and was considered strategic. While I know it's not canon, FJ's transcript of the peace treaty suggested that both parties could have bases and such in the Klingon Neutral Zone, but couldn't actively attack each there without the Organians preventing it.

 

[Anwar]

Also, if the Organians were still enforcing the Treaty then TUC loses a lot of its' drama since there was never a threat for them to go to war in the first place!

 

[JarodRussell]

Worf NOT appearing was a good move. See the Small Universe Syndrome thread in the literature section.


I cringe at every Stargate episode where they are in a different reality or timeline, and every time they meet bad Teal'c and talk him into rejoining the team. Silly. Every time.

 

[Ryann866]

It should have been the first TNG movie instead of Generations.

Kirk and the Enterprise A come forward in time and meet Picard and crew.

That should have been the movie.

 

[Anwar]

Berman said that if they had known they would be making TNG movies, they'd have saved YE for the first one.

 

[CoveTom]

I think if they had attempted to make "Yesterday's Enterprise" into a feature film using the Enterprise-A, they would have suffered the same problems that Moore & Braga ran into when trying to devise a story for Generations that featured both Enterprises: namely, it's difficult in such a scenario to make both crews look like the best of the best and come out the heroes.

Now, in the YE scenario, it's easier than if the two Enterprises are in conflict with one another, as Moore and Braga had originally suggested for Generations. But it's still a challenge. In YE, we are willing to accept the Enterprise-C's situation. It comes across as an heroic sacrifice.

But if it were the Enterprise-A, would we be as happy to see the ship beaten up, losing a battle and headed for certain death? Would it come across as heroic and noble, or would we just be mad that Kirk and company weren't kicking the Romulans' butts. After all, that wouldn't be the first time Kirk's Enterprise had gone nose to nose with a multitude of Romulan warships and come out the victor.

Would we be willing to see Picard and his crew being the ones with all the answers, rescuing Kirk's ship, patching it back together, and convincing Kirk of what he needed to do?

And would we be willing to accept the deaths of not one, but all, of the major characters from TOS in one fell swoop? Deaths that occur off-screen no less.

No, I think there would be alot of problems with putting the Enterprise-A in that scenario. Even if Yesterday's Enterprise had been a feature film, I think it best to leave it with an Enterprise that we haven't known previously playing the time travel role.

 

[eepruls]

I think if they had attempted to make "Yesterday's Enterprise" into a feature film using the Enterprise-A, they would have suffered the same problems that Moore & Braga ran into when trying to devise a story for Generations that featured both Enterprises: namely, it's difficult in such a scenario to make both crews look like the best of the best and come out the heroes.

Now, in the YE scenario, it's easier than if the two Enterprises are in conflict with one another, as Moore and Braga had originally suggested for Generations. But it's still a challenge. In YE, we are willing to accept the Enterprise-C's situation. It comes across as an heroic sacrifice.

But if it were the Enterprise-A, would we be as happy to see the ship beaten up, losing a battle and headed for certain death? Would it come across as heroic and noble, or would we just be mad that Kirk and company weren't kicking the Romulans' butts. After all, that wouldn't be the first time Kirk's Enterprise had gone nose to nose with a multitude of Romulan warships and come out the victor.

Would we be willing to see Picard and his crew being the ones with all the answers, rescuing Kirk's ship, patching it back together, and convincing Kirk of what he needed to do?

And would we be willing to accept the deaths of not one, but all, of the major characters from TOS in one fell swoop? Deaths that occur off-screen no less.

No, I think there would be alot of problems with putting the Enterprise-A in that scenario. Even if Yesterday's Enterprise had been a feature film, I think it best to leave it with an Enterprise that we haven't known previously playing the time travel role.

Clearly they would have retooled the script. The film might have used the general idea of a ship coming back in time, but it would have been changed so that the things you mention didn't happen. I agree that if you just took the Ent-A and swapped it with the Ent-C, it would not work whatsoever. But the general idea that the Ent-A came through a rift and the timeline was altered in a negative way because they left their time is a good way to get the two crews together.

I think that Ent-A would have to go back through the rift, not to all die, but because their ship was the only one that could stop the enemy they were fighting (or hell, because their ship had the whales on board!). Maybe they suffer heavy casualties but the main crew live. Kirk must then decide if he should take his crew back when he knows most of his crew will not survive yet history shows that he will. All I'm saying is that with a room full of writers, I'm sure the script could be tweaked so that both crews come out as heroes.

 

[gastrof]

Enterprise-A never carried any whales. That was the "borrowed" Klingon ship that was used for that mission.

There were also no other crew members. Not even Saavik was aboard. Just the mains, so any casualties would have been a disaster for future films.

Personally, I've always wished it HAD been the Enterprise-A, and have wondered if, despite claims to the contrary, that was the original idea but it got changed BECAUSE they feared wrecking the movie series.

 

[Jbarney]

It would be tough to improve the episode. Perhaps better explaining Guinan's perception that goes beyond standard time....?

 

[eepruls]

Enterprise-A never carried any whales. That was the "borrowed" Klingon ship that was used for that mission.

There were also no other crew members. Not even Saavik was aboard. Just the mains, so any casualties would have been a disaster for future films.

Personally, I've always wished it HAD been the Enterprise-A, and have wondered if, despite claims to the contrary, that was the original idea but it got changed BECAUSE they feared wrecking the movie series.

Dude, I was joking about the whales. I wasn't speaking canonically. It was just 'some reason why they had to go back' and whales was the first thing I thought of! LOL. I know that STIV used the Klingon ship with no other crew members. I would want the Ent-A to come through with a full crew compliment at some point that we didn't see on film.

 

[CoveTom]

Personally, I've always wished it HAD been the Enterprise-A, and have wondered if, despite claims to the contrary, that was the original idea but it got changed BECAUSE they feared wrecking the movie series.

I have no inside information, but doubt that the Enterprise-A was the original plan for two reasons:

* First, it would have been extremely cost prohibitive to hire the entire cast of TOS for a single episode, or even just a portion of the TOS cast. Shatner and Nimoy alone would have probably made it budgetarily impossible. (They were finally able to work out an appearance with Nimoy at a low rate as a promotional tie-in with TUC, which he co-wrote and was executive producing, but admitted that they couldn't have worked it out otherwise.)

* Second, the basis for "Yesterday's Enterprise" was a spec script sent in by an amateur writer. That writer is on record as saying that his original concept for the script was written in such a way as to feature a guest role that he, himself could play. He was trying to write himself into the episode. That being true, I doubt his script featured six or seven other major guest starring roles.

It would be tough to improve the episode. Perhaps better explaining Guinan's perception that goes beyond standard time....?

Possibly, but a lack of explanation was sort of a hallmark of the Guinan character. We don't understand her. If they had written Data or LaForge as discovering that the timeline had been altered, it would have necessitated a long, Treknobabble explanation. Perhaps the ability to sidestep all of that was why they chose Guinan in the first place.

 

[nx1701g]

Worf NOT appearing was a good move. See the Small Universe Syndrome thread in the literature section.

Agreed. I remember reading - I believe it was in the Behind the Scenes book Captain's Logs - that Worf was considered but they decided against it for that very reason.

 

[CoveTom]

^ It would have been an interesting, and rather daring, though probably ultimately financially prohibitive, if they had replaced all of the main crewmembers with people we had never seen before, as though the Enterprise-D had an entirely different command crew in the alternate timeline.