If Enterprise went seven seasons should there have been time skips?

[mattman8907]

If Enterprise went the full Seven seasons Should there have been time gaps during each season?
(I.E. Seasons 5 Episodes 1-13 would be 2155 14-26 (or however many episodes they would've done) would've covered 2156; time jump; Season 6 1-13 would be 2157 and 14-26 (or ????) would be 2158 and Season 7 would cover 2159-2160. That way you get all four years of the Romulan War covered.

 

[Dukhat]

I don't think UPN or the writers would have cared all that much about aligning the show with those dates. They were very much just making things up as they went along. For all we know they could have made the Romulan War just one year, or just did what they did with TATV and make the last episode a time jump to 2161.

 

[Michael]

Who’s to say for certain what they would have done, but I think time jumps of a year or more in a TV show are super weird, so I would have preferred they didn't do stuff like that had the show continued. And I think @Dukhat is right, they probably wouldn't have cared about hitting any pre-established or conjectured dates.

The reimagined Battlestar Galactica did a time jump like that back then, which I think worked out alright. But this also let me think of the show For All Mankind which I'm watching right now, where they’re making massive time jumps of several years from season to season and it’s really jarring, with some actors aged not very convincingly.

 

[Shat Happens]

In the late 90s to early 00s, the Dominion war in DS9 and the Xindi war in Enterprise were successful experiments with whole season arcs, but I don't think Star Trek is best serialized.

So, I would not care about the stardates. I am just happy they didn't get to do the ridiculous refit design proposal proposed by Drexler. I love the Enterprise as it is.

 

[somebuddyX]

If Enterprise had done the the Romulan War I think at most it should have been one season and one year. There's nothing that says the war went for four years. I think that started in the Chronology. In "The Beginning" the war lasted like a month or something. I think Season 5 should have been more setup, Season 6 the war, Season 7 post-war stuff. I really started to get bored with the Dominion War into Season 7 and I would have hated a repeat of that. Maybe if Enterprise hadn't already done the Xindi storyline as a serialised war story.
If there was a modern Romulan War animated series I might think differently, but in that case I would imagine stories set on multiple ships in the same time period, so maybe a year would be fine there too.

 

[FederationHistorian]

If Enterprise went the full Seven seasons Should there have been time gaps during each season?
(I.E. Seasons 5 Episodes 1-13 would be 2155 14-26 (or however many episodes they would've done) would've covered 2156; time jump; Season 6 1-13 would be 2157 and 14-26 (or ????) would be 2158 and Season 7 would cover 2159-2160. That way you get all four years of the Romulan War covered.

They wouldn’t need to do like that. The miniarc format from S4 meant they could have focused on one major battle for a year and its effects.

S5 would cover 2155 – 2156. The entire build up to the war. Plus, some mirror universe episodes.

Then S6 could be like this…

2156 – Battle of Vega
2157 – (Second) Battle of Altair VI
2158 – Battle of Alpha Centauri
2159 – let’s say this is the Battle of Sol, as the Star Trek: The Beginning script planned. Could also be a (Third) Battle of Deneva happening concurrently
2160 - would clearly be the Battle of Cheron and the negotiations of the Cheron Accords

Three episodes each is fifteen episodes total. That leaves at least seven episodes to be standalones that can develop the crew in between the battles. Or simply explore and make discoveries (ex. Algeron, Galorndon Core), or make first contacts. Or discover ancient artifacts from extinct species. Or search for a lost Coalition of Planet starship. Or be on missions of mercy. They could even have an arc that’s a throwback to the original concept of Voyager and they are struggling to survive (not the piracy stuff from S3, but something different and more desperate that would lead to mutiny). And at least a couple of those episodes could/would deal with the signing of the Federation Charter for the S6 finale.

Then S7 would deal with the early years of the Federation, right up to the first graduating class of Starfleet Academy, the creation of General Order One, and Admiral Archer becoming Ambassador to Andoria. That would be 2-3 episodes per year, from 2161 through 2169.

 

[Oddish]

It would have been better than jumping ahead six years and having everyone look the same way, hold the same rank, do the same job, serve on the same ship, and act in the same manner.

 

[SCE2Aux]

I think time skips could've been interesting, but perhaps in the context of a tv movie like B5, Farscape or SG-1 did.
Maybe a couple of TV movies at the end of the show after it got cancelled: One to do the Romulan War, and one more to do the founding of the Federation.

 

[FederationHistorian]

It would have been better than jumping ahead six years and having everyone look the same way, hold the same rank, do the same job, serve on the same ship, and act in the same manner.

ENT did alright with its other time skip episode, "Twilight", where they jump ahead by six months, three years and twelve years. No reason to think ENT could not do a great job like that again.

 

[DarKush]

I would've been fine with time skips. I'm thinking something like say the fourth or fifth season leads into the Romulan War. They do a television movie or miniseries about the war, and then the next full season takes place after the war. That way you don't have to spend as much time on a war as DS9, and it also allows them to do a soft reboot-if necessary-for the last few seasons.

 

[Takeru]

There isn't any canonical information when the war took place and how long it was, The 2156-60 dates come from an on screen graphic if I remember correctly and those don't count. There would have been no need to do timeskips, just limit the war to 1 year at most and have Enterprise not participate in most battles so that episodes could be about something else.

 

[FederationHistorian]

There isn't any canonical information when the war took place and how long it was, The 2156-60 dates come from an on screen graphic if I remember correctly and those don't count.

If its onscreen, its canon.

And for the writers to not follow it would be breaking continuity, which ENT had done more than enough by that point.

There would have been no need to do timeskips, just limit the war to 1 year at most and have Enterprise not participate in most battles so that episodes could be about something else.

Instead of focusing on action (i.e. the space battles), they could have made it psychological thing. And build off of the crew’s experience from the Xindi arc. I’d imagine that a lot of them would be suffering from PTSD from a long while from that conflict. Mix it with first contacts or second contacts, or some other personal issue they are facing, and it could have led to some interesting episodes.

 

[Takeru]

If its onscreen, its canon.

If it was never supposed to be seen it's a nice anecdote but ultimately irreleveant. The Enterprise D had a giant hamster in a wheel in the engineering section going by the MSD, I don't see anyone claiming that this is canon.

Instead of focusing on action (i.e. the space battles), they could have made it psychological thing. And build off of the crew’s experience from the Xindi arc. I’d imagine that a lot of them would be suffering from PTSD from a long while from that conflict. Mix it with first contacts or second contacts, or some other personal issue they are facing, and it could have led to some interesting episodes.

I agree it could have led to a few interesting episodes but that's not enough for a 3 season arc.

On Babylon 5 the shadow war started for real in the second half of season 3 and only lasted for 14 episodes and that was a good choice because there are only so many war stories you can do before you start repeating yourself. On DS9 the Dominion war started in the season 5 finale and by season 7 sucked a lot of energy out of the show, it went on way too long. There's no way I could see Enterprise doing the romulan war for seasons 5-7 without it getting really boring.

 

[FederationHistorian]

There's no way I could see Enterprise doing the romulan war for seasons 5-7 without it getting really boring.

There are loads – I mean loads – of ideas for everyone. That would make for decent arcs for the final three seasons. As its not just the war that matters, but what they do during their downtime during the war too.

Archer

• deals with the behind the scenes politics of United Earth and Starfleet arc while they try to grow the fleet
• ruminates over how political his job has because instead of being about exploration to a Vulcan therapist
• being elbowed by various factions among Earth forces (i.e. MACOs, Stellar Navy, etc.) and anti-war protesters & politicians; whose ideas run up against Archer’s real world experience
• try to figure out whatever happen to is college roommate Berlinghoff Rassmussen and enlisting a mutual ex-girlfriend to find him
• supports Dani Erickson in a legal drama after the transporter’s been banned due to several malfunctions that has led to deformities and deaths
• meets a water polo superstar, who turns out to not the idol Archer thinks he is
• at the court martial of Captain Hernandez, after she tortured an Orion pirate to death in the Delphic Expanse, using the same technique (oxygen deprivation in the airlock ) Archer did years earlier – even though half of the Columbia crew are not on her side

Trip

• living day to day Romulan life as an undercover Section 31 agent and witnesses as it slowly turns into a dystopic police state
• checking in the shipyards of Coridan and Utopia Planitia, after he came up with a brand new warp design that will become a part of the Constitution class
• keeping an eye on his nephew who’s fighting in the war
• locate and take apart long lost ships (Conestoga-types, XCV-330 types); solving mysteries
• observes Romulan paranoia over Redjac, after murders on Alpha Eridani II
• observes Romulan first contact protocols (ex. Xindi-Avians, the Arcturians)
• observes the Romulans cure the Valakians without any concerns over a Prime Directive
• observes as they help Zobral overthrow his enemies, like he wanted Archer to do
  
• gets a do over with first contact wit the Vissians, while disguised as a Romulan; it still goes badly but for different reasons
• visits the automated station from “Dead Stop” again (was a plot point in an ENT novel, actually)

T’pol

• self-discovery on Vulcan post-Kir’shara arc
• reckoning with Ministry of Security past, dealing with the consequences of another mission years later
• deals with the reckoning of a century of Vulcan High Command foreign policy, with both foes and allies alike
• maintaining a long-distance relationship with Trip while he’s in Romulan space
• tries to start a jazz career; headlines at various blues & jazz festival across several star systems
• butts heads philosophically with T’Pau
• forms a friendship with Spock’s grandfather, Skon
• meets her father, half-siblings, and nieces/nephews on Romulus/Romii
• has a confrontation with her mind-meld rapist, Tolaris
• joins a group that tries to find the mythical dragons of Bengaria VII

Mayweather

• rallies other space boomers, when they do not feel Starfleet backs them up; works with Captain Keane of the ECS Fortunate
  
• undercover work against various crime syndicates arc (not necessarily Orions here)
• Gannett Brooks arc
• participates in a prison heist from Canamar
• either joins or is the founder of Red Squad
• teaches a wing of fighter pilots that will fly a a new craft modeled after the NX-Alpha
• reconnect with his one time girlfriend from Teneebia
• Travis being a diplomat on behalf of United Earth to keep the Draylaxians in the Coalion of Planets
• Joins the Denevan Maquis/Vegan Maquis when the Romulans conquer those planets

Sato

• UESPA arc; befriends an ancestor of Picard
• codebreaker arc; ends up dealing with firewals and computer security in the 22nd century
• archeology arc (take your pick – Arretans, T’kon, Debrune, Iconian, Kurlan, even the D’Arsay)
• confides to her siblings – one who’s a famous J-pop or K-pop singer while the other is a lucha libre star or a golf sensation - about being famous like them due to her work on Enterprise, and not following in the footsteps of their parents like their parents wanted
• deals with a sentient, but non-hostile, A.I. while updating the universal translator; forms a relationship with it and treats it like a counselor of sorts
• reconnects with her one night stand from Risa, Ravis, again and has an affair with him for the duration of the war; the relationship unlocks hidden esper powers in Sato
• tries to bring Tarquin onside during the war; find that Tarquin has a new companion - that she does realize is Romulan in disguise - who is fine staying for life
• forms a lifelong friendship with Phlox’s wife Feezal

Reed

• joins the Imperial Guard after invitation from Talas
• collaborating with intelligence agencies from other Coalition of Planet members; leads to a creation of a suicide squad to rescue Trip
• engages in spy games with Tandarans, the Suliban Cabal, and the newly ridgeless Klingons
• investigates why there is a surge of phase pistol/rifle/cannon malfunctions
• recover Earth’s nukes from an undisclosed location as part of a Section 31 mission
• partaking in a chess tournament on K'taria in another Section 31 mission, despite not like chess like Mayweather or Archer
• being the best man at Chef’s wedding
• dealing with the in-laws after his sister gets marries
• finally confronting his parents over their opposition to him joining Starfleet
• meets with the Vissian Veylo again, and her child, which she had with Reed and without a cogenitor

Phlox

• a Doctor Without Borders arc, visiting a number of affect war torn colonies on the edge of Coalition of Planets space
• complex Denobulan family dynamics; gets more complicated when one of them wants to marry an Antaran
• briefly takes over Cold Station 12 while Dr. Lucas is on assignment/vacation
• Phlox shares Trip’s interest in Frankenstein and it takes Denobula by storm
• K'tarians try to set up game studios; which clashes with Denobulan culture, which does not consume any media
• The Eska (from "Rogue Planet") hunt a critically endangered creature on Denobula

Shran

• adapting to humans customs and authority structures; some he like, while others he objects to
• has his own encounters with Daniels and partake in several missions, both in the past and in the future (TOS era/Lost Era/post-NEM/Ent-J/USS Relativity era)

Porthos

• finds Archer when he goes missing
• when Archer and Porthos first met
• time travels and rescues a younger Archer (this was the basis of a story once), or even a young Henry Archer

Admiral Forrest

• how he entered Starfleet, and how he was promoted from Commodore to Admiral
• how and why he came up with the design for the NX class, instead of a Warp Delta or a ship similar to the XCV-300

All that was missing was an imagination, and a desire to build on what came before. As well as a massive budget.

 

[PoorSailorsAirline]

There are loads – I mean loads – of ideas for everyone. That would make for decent arcs for the final three seasons. As its not just the war that matters, but what they do during their downtime during the war too.

Archer

• deals with the behind the scenes politics of United Earth and Starfleet arc while they try to grow the fleet
• ruminates over how political his job has because instead of being about exploration to a Vulcan therapist
• being elbowed by various factions among Earth forces (i.e. MACOs, Stellar Navy, etc.) and anti-war protesters & politicians; whose ideas run up against Archer’s real world experience
• try to figure out whatever happen to is college roommate Berlinghoff Rassmussen and enlisting a mutual ex-girlfriend to find him
• supports Dani Erickson in a legal drama after the transporter’s been banned due to several malfunctions that has led to deformities and deaths
• meets a water polo superstar, who turns out to not the idol Archer thinks he is
• at the court martial of Captain Hernandez, after she tortured an Orion pirate to death in the Delphic Expanse, using the same technique (oxygen deprivation in the airlock ) Archer did years earlier – even though half of the Columbia crew are not on her side

Trip

• living day to day Romulan life as an undercover Section 31 agent and witnesses as it slowly turns into a dystopic police state
• checking in the shipyards of Coridan and Utopia Planitia, after he came up with a brand new warp design that will become a part of the Constitution class
• keeping an eye on his nephew who’s fighting in the war
• locate and take apart long lost ships (Conestoga-types, XCV-330 types); solving mysteries
• observes Romulan paranoia over Redjac, after murders on Alpha Eridani II
• observes Romulan first contact protocols (ex. Xindi-Avians, the Arcturians)
• observes the Romulans cure the Valakians without any concerns over a Prime Directive
• observes as they help Zobral overthrow his enemies, like he wanted Archer to do
  
• gets a do over with first contact wit the Vissians, while disguised as a Romulan; it still goes badly but for different reasons
• visits the automated station from “Dead Stop” again (was a plot point in an ENT novel, actually)

T’pol

• self-discovery on Vulcan post-Kir’shara arc
• reckoning with Ministry of Security past, dealing with the consequences of another mission years later
• deals with the reckoning of a century of Vulcan High Command foreign policy, with both foes and allies alike
• maintaining a long-distance relationship with Trip while he’s in Romulan space
• tries to start a jazz career; headlines at various blues & jazz festival across several star systems
• butts heads philosophically with T’Pau
• forms a friendship with Spock’s grandfather, Skon
• meets her father, half-siblings, and nieces/nephews on Romulus/Romii
• has a confrontation with her mind-meld rapist, Tolaris
• joins a group that tries to find the mythical dragons of Bengaria VII

Mayweather

• rallies other space boomers, when they do not feel Starfleet backs them up; works with Captain Keane of the ECS Fortunate
  
• undercover work against various crime syndicates arc (not necessarily Orions here)
• Gannett Brooks arc
• participates in a prison heist from Canamar
• either joins or is the founder of Red Squad
• teaches a wing of fighter pilots that will fly a a new craft modeled after the NX-Alpha
• reconnect with his one time girlfriend from Teneebia
• Travis being a diplomat on behalf of United Earth to keep the Draylaxians in the Coalion of Planets
• Joins the Denevan Maquis/Vegan Maquis when the Romulans conquer those planets

Sato

• UESPA arc; befriends an ancestor of Picard
• codebreaker arc; ends up dealing with firewals and computer security in the 22nd century
• archeology arc (take your pick – Arretans, T’kon, Debrune, Iconian, Kurlan, even the D’Arsay)
• confides to her siblings – one who’s a famous J-pop or K-pop singer while the other is a lucha libre star or a golf sensation - about being famous like them due to her work on Enterprise, and not following in the footsteps of their parents like their parents wanted
• deals with a sentient, but non-hostile, A.I. while updating the universal translator; forms a relationship with it and treats it like a counselor of sorts
• reconnects with her one night stand from Risa, Ravis, again and has an affair with him for the duration of the war; the relationship unlocks hidden esper powers in Sato
• tries to bring Tarquin onside during the war; find that Tarquin has a new companion - that she does realize is Romulan in disguise - who is fine staying for life
• forms a lifelong friendship with Phlox’s wife Feezal

Reed

• joins the Imperial Guard after invitation from Talas
• collaborating with intelligence agencies from other Coalition of Planet members; leads to a creation of a suicide squad to rescue Trip
• engages in spy games with Tandarans, the Suliban Cabal, and the newly ridgeless Klingons
• investigates why there is a surge of phase pistol/rifle/cannon malfunctions
• recover Earth’s nukes from an undisclosed location as part of a Section 31 mission
• partaking in a chess tournament on K'taria in another Section 31 mission, despite not like chess like Mayweather or Archer
• being the best man at Chef’s wedding
• dealing with the in-laws after his sister gets marries
• finally confronting his parents over their opposition to him joining Starfleet
• meets with the Vissian Veylo again, and her child, which she had with Reed and without a cogenitor

Phlox

• a Doctor Without Borders arc, visiting a number of affect war torn colonies on the edge of Coalition of Planets space
• complex Denobulan family dynamics; gets more complicated when one of them wants to marry an Antaran
• briefly takes over Cold Station 12 while Dr. Lucas is on assignment/vacation
• Phlox shares Trip’s interest in Frankenstein and it takes Denobula by storm
• K'tarians try to set up game studios; which clashes with Denobulan culture, which does not consume any media
• The Eska (from "Rogue Planet") hunt a critically endangered creature on Denobula

Shran

• adapting to humans customs and authority structures; some he like, while others he objects to
• has his own encounters with Daniels and partake in several missions, both in the past and in the future (TOS era/Lost Era/post-NEM/Ent-J/USS Relativity era)

Porthos

• finds Archer when he goes missing
• when Archer and Porthos first met
• time travels and rescues a younger Archer (this was the basis of a story once), or even a young Henry Archer

Admiral Forrest

• how he entered Starfleet, and how he was promoted from Commodore to Admiral
• how and why he came up with the design for the NX class, instead of a Warp Delta or a ship similar to the XCV-300

All that was missing was an imagination, and a desire to build on what came before. As well as a massive budget.

To think I was going to point out all the ways the Dominion war kept me engaged; partly because the writers had an arc to write within, but a lot of flexibility within that frame. After all, unlike Entertprise, they weren't bound by settled history so the Dominion and the sideshows had a lot of latitude to be creative and take some unexpected twists.

I loved Enterprise, though would have reluctantly admitted that they might be running out of road in terms of what they can get away with in-universe. Seeing as the Romulan War is somewhat settled history, writers can still give us a lot of character development, but, I really didn't know what would have kept the franchise going through a multi-season war arc. For lots of reasons, I'd have probably said ENT was rightly put to bed before the Romulans got (even more directly) involved in a war plot line.

Then I saw this incredibly thoughtful list! Thanks, FederationHistorian, these are all great ideas. Now I want a reboot of ENT to wrap up those pitches, since I'm realizing ENT was ended too soon! Mayweather's boomer past? Shran's evolution from xenophobic Andorian soldier to UFP nation builder? Most importantly, the Porthos gotcha story?! This list is a gold mine.

Oh, what could have been!!

 

[Dukhat]

The problem is that CBS has no interest in reviving ENT to tell any of those stories.

 

[FederationHistorian]

The problem is that CBS has no interest in reviving ENT to tell any of those stories.

The seems to be a quiet renaissance of Enterprise going on. Not just with the name drops on the tv shows, but within the gaming realm as well. Compared with their sole appearance in the Legacy game of 2006, they have since appeared in the following games within the last couple of years:

- Timelines
- Fleet Command (as of a few weeks ago, though I haven’t seen any ads for it…yet).
- Star Trek Fluxx card game has an Archer expansion pack and a Porthos expansion pack, after there were originally no plans for any more expansion packs.

Even the Lower Decks mobile game seems to have a level episode based on “Carpenter Street” called Chestnut Street, and seems to have their ideas for an animated Archer and T’Pol down pat. Meaning there is a chance we might see them in a future episode of Lower Decks.

Enterprise seems like its coming back in some capacity. Stop fighting it.

 

[HotRod]

- Timelines
- Fleet Command (as of a few weeks ago, though I haven’t seen any ads for it…yet).
- Star Trek Fluxx card game has an Archer expansion pack and a Porthos expansion pack, after there were originally no plans for any more expansion packs.

None of those games mean a lick to the general public.

I love Enterprise. It ain't coming back.

 

[Dukhat]

The seems to be a quiet renaissance of Enterprise going on. Not just with the name drops on the tv shows, but within the gaming realm as well. Compared with their sole appearance in the Legacy game of 2006, they have since appeared in the following games within the last couple of years:

- Timelines
- Fleet Command (as of a few weeks ago, though I haven’t seen any ads for it…yet).
- Star Trek Fluxx card game has an Archer expansion pack and a Porthos expansion pack, after there were originally no plans for any more expansion packs.

Even the Lower Decks mobile game seems to have a level episode based on “Carpenter Street” called Chestnut Street, and seems to have their ideas for an animated Archer and T’Pol down pat. Meaning there is a chance we might see them in a future episode of Lower Decks.

Enterprise seems like it’s coming back in some capacity. Stop fighting it.

‘Stop fighting it?’ Really? I could equally tell you to stop being so delusional. Video games and hypothetical LDS cameos are not signs of ENT ‘coming back.’

 

[fireproof78]

The problem is that CBS has no interest in reviving ENT to tell any of those stories.

Yup. Useful for cameos and callbacks.

Not telling larger stories.