If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done differently?

[cybersoldier]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Would have kept season 1 the same

The Xindi would have attacked earth but being used by Romulans from the future.

Minorly changed the exterior of Enterprise.

Would had mini-arc from season 2 on, perhap a crossover with one of the future enterprise ala Yesterday's Enterprise perhaps with the Enterprise-J

showed more TOS aliens,

No TNG alien, maybe do the Borg episode Regeneration

Would have made the temporal cold war arc tighter if I was going to use it ala Battlestar Galatica season 4 no fat just the arc episodes have it last 1-2 seasons max.

The Romulan war with weeks,months or years passing with in the season it occurring

 

[Lashmore]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Well I looked through about 4 pages, its too long to read everyones ideas on a quick glance so I'll just state my ideas...and if I repeat any, well, shoot me. Thankfully cyber bullets are useless to my real lifeness.

- A ten or 20 minute beginning of the pilot which covers the past 170 years of earth and surrounding space based on canon trek storyline, ignoring Voyagers timetravel to earth episodes. What I mean is, the 1990's eugenics wars with the final battle in Sydney, Australia as written. The economic downfalls afterwards and Colonel Green of america beginning WW3 with an unprovoked nuclear strike. Show earth struggle after WW3, etc etc then do flashes from first contact including the fligth of the pheonix and vulcan first contact etc etc then move onto how earth regrouped.

Now soem of gene roddenberry's own writings had Eugenics take over australia by force, and australia also was the last coutnry to join whatever the united earth government was called, finally joining in 2150. So I think, sicne australia was innocent victims of eugenics, yet butchered by two wars I think Australia would have had legit moral reasons on beign the last to join the united earth gov, so probably there was soemthing not so shiney in united earth that needed addressing before australia would shake hands.

Then lead onto the warp projects, space exploration, failed and succeeded colonization attempts.

And there you go, the first 20 minutes setting the scene leading up to NX-01 with no temporal cold war, suliban or 9/11 slap to the face Xindii arc.

And the captain should be maybe....asian/indian instead of the typical american or typical "white person" its supposed to be united earth afterall.

If it has to be white, well, don't make it american, had enough there. Australian, british, german (would be a good choice) or Irish for example.

Have the crew be more culturally diverse and not americanised versions of their culture. (Hoshi may have looked asian...but she was another american who just looked different throughout enterprise)

I could go on and on, but I think thats enough for now mixed with everyone elses jabberings.

 

[JiNX-01]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

This will be fun.
1.I would have made the reason why Archer hated the Vulcans so much would not be JUST that they slowed earth's progress in warp development and thus preventing his father henry Archer from seeing his w.5 engine come to life,but his father had died in a warp field collapse accident trying to break the warp 2 barrier(as seen in First Flight)And John beliveing that if the Vulcans had just not interfeard with earth's warp progress his father would still be alive.

Well, that would certainly have made his issues more credible than the explanation we got.

2.I would have t'pol be half Romulan,but it wouldent be revealed till late in season 2.

Problem with this one: In TOS "Balance of Terror," the humans don't know what Romulans look like until Spock hacks into their bridge -- and he looked pretty surprised too. So how would you handle the revelation that Vulcans and Romulans were hooking up and producing kids a century earlier and Spock had no idea?

... and I would have had the Romulans SOMEHOW involved with the xinde.

That could have worked.

3.I would try to explain section 31's relation to the Klingon's.my guess is that since section 31 is starfleets (unofficial)C.I.A.they my have conections with other shadow organazations amoung the other races..maybe even the tal'shear(I hope I spelled that right)PLUS section 31 would have two advanced(for there time)starships.Cloak & Dagger to keep an eye on distant planet's and if necessary Enterprise.Also S-31 would be able to do all this because they have ancient alien tech that has been collected from area 51.

Wish Malcolm's relationship with S31 had been introduced a lot earlier in the series. I always thought it would have been interesting if he had been an assassin who accidentally kills an innocent and quits. His father, a retired admiral from the British navy is pals with Adm. Forrest and gets Malcolm into Star Fleet. But just as you never leave the Mafia, Malcolm can't really leave S31. They have him working for them, collecting intel without Archer's knowledge. Then in "Affliction/Divergence" Archer learns the truth about his tactical officer/security chief.

4 If NX stands for Prototype class I would have introduced the TX Class(Test Type)the ship would come near the end of season 4 and look alot like the Deadalus,and be capeable of warp SIX! and since the ship would be half the size of the NX Class these ships would be mass produced.

No opinion on this one. I tend to ignore technical stuff and what the classes of ships are.

5.I would have had by late season 5, 4 more NX Class ships out in the field,NX-03 CHALLENGER,NX-04 BABEL,NX-05 AKIRA,(to help explain the physical similarity to the latter named AKIRA Class. I figured the ship would be destroyed in a heroic Alamo type battle thus latter S.F.Engineers would be found of the design and think it appropriate for a gunship)NX-06 ENDEVOR.

Good idea to have them get busy expanding the fleet.

6.During the first and most of the second season the crew would be nervous useing Phase pistols due to over-heating and explodeing on them so they would be useing either those Pulse pistols they we're useing in Broken Bow or Guns!

I like the idea of the weapons being more primitive.

7.I would make space more alien and dangerous maybe kill off a couple of red strips. Overall I would preety much keep things as they where except maybe HIRE SOME COMPETENT WRITEERS!!!! FOR THE FIRST TWO VERY BORING YEARS!!!I have more ideas,but this will be it for now.

Yeah, I agree that it was ridiculous that nobody dies on the show in the first two seasons. Considering the number of astronauts we have lost already -- and we haven't even gotten past the moon -- you'd think ENT would have had at least some fatalities.

As for the writing, I agree some episodes were pretty lame... but there are a lot of good stories and even the bad episodes had gems buried inside, whether it's a scene, a line or cool effects, I don't believe any episode was a total waste of time (and yes, that includes These Ain't the Voyages!)

 

[Shatmandu]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Rule #1: Phaser gunfights kept down to every third episode, rather than every goddamned episode.

Rule #2: No dog.

Rule #3: Give the black guy something to do.

Joe, ruler

 

[Praetor]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Well I looked through about 4 pages, its too long to read everyones ideas on a quick glance so I'll just state my ideas...and if I repeat any, well, shoot me. Thankfully cyber bullets are useless to my real lifeness.

- A ten or 20 minute beginning of the pilot which covers the past 170 years of earth and surrounding space based on canon trek storyline, ignoring Voyagers timetravel to earth episodes. What I mean is, the 1990's eugenics wars with the final battle in Sydney, Australia as written. The economic downfalls afterwards and Colonel Green of america beginning WW3 with an unprovoked nuclear strike. Show earth struggle after WW3, etc etc then do flashes from first contact including the fligth of the pheonix and vulcan first contact etc etc then move onto how earth regrouped.

Now soem of gene roddenberry's own writings had Eugenics take over australia by force, and australia also was the last coutnry to join whatever the united earth government was called, finally joining in 2150. So I think, sicne australia was innocent victims of eugenics, yet butchered by two wars I think Australia would have had legit moral reasons on beign the last to join the united earth gov, so probably there was soemthing not so shiney in united earth that needed addressing before australia would shake hands.

Clever idea. I'm okay with ignoring what happened with Voyager's time travel incident. You could argue that was Starling's doing anyway and was 'fixed' in the Trekverse by the 29th century timecops. I'm curious, where did Roddenberry write about the Eugenics Wars? That sounds like a good read.

Then lead onto the warp projects, space exploration, failed and succeeded colonization attempts.

And there you go, the first 20 minutes setting the scene leading up to NX-01 with no temporal cold war, suliban or 9/11 slap to the face Xindii arc.

And the captain should be maybe....asian/indian instead of the typical american or typical "white person" its supposed to be united earth afterall.

If it has to be white, well, don't make it american, had enough there. Australian, british, german (would be a good choice) or Irish for example.

Have the crew be more culturally diverse and not americanised versions of their culture. (Hoshi may have looked asian...but she was another american who just looked different throughout enterprise)

I could go on and on, but I think thats enough for now mixed with everyone elses jabberings.

I agree that the diversity wasn't really pushed. And also and Asian/Indian/Hispanic lead would have been very appropriate. I'm sure the producers chose to keep the cast as American as possible so they could be related to by the primary American audience, but by this time when we have fans watching all over the world, that feels like a cop out. They really all did feel American, except Reed who was an American stereotype of the British.

 

[miraclefan]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Rule #3: Give the black guy something to do.

Joe, ruler

THAT'S SO TRUE.

 

[miraclefan]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I would have also shown why it is that Archer and the NX-01 wer'e never mentiond before. Here's a hint. It has to do with the fact that Starfleet HATE'S to admit they we're forced to use certon tactics in order to win the Earth Romulan war, and it involves the NX-01 & Archer.

 

[Praetor]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

That's a very good idea, methinks.

 

[miraclefan]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

That's a very good idea, methinks.

Thank you But you haven't read the BEST stuff yet. I just need to look for my ENTERPRISE notes.

 

[jealousblues]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

1)tried to incorporate more aliens we dont get to see in later times/earlier shows.

more species closer to home.

2) more andorians (I just like them)

3) Id have made more episodes like the first ones, where they are just exploring and dont really know what they are doing yet.

 

[Bluejay]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

some bits ..

* Have a few deaths on ENT occuring somewhere in the middle of S1 ; cause can be aliens, technological / human errors, whatever. (Quit fooling around you guys, it can get real dangerous out there.) No shenanigans like the ep Fight or Flight.

* switch the focus to the rest of the crewmen for an ep. What do they think of their mission, the time they had spent in space, their crew mates, gossips, grips, pancakes, whatever. Could link the actions of a few affecting something important.

 

[JiNX-01]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

some bits ..

* switch the focus to the rest of the crewmen for an ep. What do they think of their mission, the time they had spent in space, their crew mates, gossips, grips, pancakes, whatever. Could link the actions of a few affecting something important.

That is an absolutely awesome idea!

 

[starburst]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I agree that the diversity wasn't really pushed. And also and Asian/Indian/Hispanic lead would have been very appropriate. I'm sure the producers chose to keep the cast as American as possible so they could be related to by the primary American audience, but by this time when we have fans watching all over the world, that feels like a cop out. They really all did feel American, except Reed who was an American stereotype of the British.

I agree with this especially with Reed, always puzzels me when American shows always depict characters with that over the top private school accent, mayb it fits Reeds character more as it sounded like he was from a long line of Naval Officers and most likely attended private school (even so most Officers in the British forces do not sound like that).

I would have liked to have seen a more diverse crew also even if it were only with background characters, its certainly worked for Atlantis (Zelenka for example)

Thoughts on the Enterprise and Earth Tech

• Kept the ship more primative, they did this well on some occassions and not on others, things like the pulse weapons from Broken Bow and left the Phase Cannons untill say season 2. This could be done by going back to Earth to install improvements which the boffins have come up with derived from their many finds which were transmitted back home (this is also how they could start developing tech such as Photon(ic) Torpedoes and Shields).
• I would have used one of the earlier designs, specifically based of the 'Warp Delta' (Iceland/Neptune/whatever name you reference it by), the little ship had a lot of potential and wish they had used it as a ship of the week incl even more rudimentary set design mayb something similar to a flashback episode of an earlier assignment of Archer and Trips on a ship such as this (Archer as helmsman and Trip as a junior engineer mayb)
• Phase Pistols out, keep the EM-33's...same deal as the cannons but mayb first only get Phase Rifles...you could give the EM weapon some sort of stun setting, hurts but only enough power to take you down not kill.

General stuff for the overall storyline of the show

• No time war, instead the Suliban & Xindi would be pawns of the Romulans who were trying to first weaken the Klingon Empire through war and later take out Earth as they are a potential ally of the Vulcans who have proven to be a threat to their plans for reunification (conquest).
• I would leave Porthos out, it doesnt seem fair to have an animal such as a dog on a starship back in that time.
• No Ferengi or Borg, if your going to reuse a 24th Century alien Id go for something a little more subtle

Vulcans and Earth

• Play on the mistrust of Vulcans and create more tension between the human crew and T'Pol, this could either be due to a secret movement in the high up in the Vulcan High Command who are more war like, secretly aligned with or have been replaced by Romulans, this could push Earth towards the Andorians for a time and displace T'Pol as her loyalties are to Enterprise and Starfleet
• While we are on T'Pol Id loose the bowlcut and give her something better than the catsuit, they could have come up with something fitted but practical.

This leads to Starfleet uniforms

• add cargo pockets to the jumpsuit legs (especially hand for engineers)
• Starfleet logo and a name plaque to the other arm (I know these two were done in the finale)
• When it comes to away team equipment I liked how they stashed communicators and scanners in their pockets but they should have done something better than the "holsters magically attach to your trouser leg" but at least unlike TOS they had holsters, mayb a belt like the MACOs and ST2009 where they can have other bits of field kit.

All of this could lead up to the Romulan war and bring in elements such as the MACOs and Augments etc.

 

[JiNX-01]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Concerning Reed's character: I don't know that he was intended to be a stereotypical "British" character. I know a couple of people from England and they are nothing like the early Reed.

Reed comes from a family that isn't emotionally close. His father is rigid and controlling, his mother seemed to me to be a doormat. That kind of home life exists everywhere on Earth and it was no surprise to me after "Silent Enemy" that Reed was the way he was, at least initially.

His friendship with Trip after "Shuttlepod One" helps him loosen up considerably (e.g.: in "Dead Stop" Trip talks him into exploring the repair station and in "Harbinger" he teases Trip about the neuropressure sessions with Cole and T'Pol).

 

[starburst]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Thats kinda the point, its a stereotype which doesnt hold true for pretty much anyone who didnt go to a private boarding school.

Its like sterotyping American accents to make everyone from the States sound the same.

 

[QuasarVM]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

I would have had more Sheliak and Husnock!

 

[Broccoli]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

All of these ideas sound interesting (even if some boarder on fan-wank), however it doesn't negate the fact that much of what B&B wanted to do with the series that became ENT that would have been interesting, new, and unique was nixed by the powers over TPTB.

 

[Praetor]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

All of these ideas sound interesting (even if some boarder on fan-wank), however it doesn't negate the fact that much of what B&B wanted to do with the series that became ENT that would have been interesting, new, and unique was nixed by the powers over TPTB.

Oh, agreed entirely. I think with hands tied as they were with Voyager and Enterprise, these threads end up more or less being a wish-list until one of the Beebs writes us a nice tell-all.

I agree that the diversity wasn't really pushed. And also and Asian/Indian/Hispanic lead would have been very appropriate. I'm sure the producers chose to keep the cast as American as possible so they could be related to by the primary American audience, but by this time when we have fans watching all over the world, that feels like a cop out. They really all did feel American, except Reed who was an American stereotype of the British.

I agree with this especially with Reed, always puzzels me when American shows always depict characters with that over the top private school accent, mayb it fits Reeds character more as it sounded like he was from a long line of Naval Officers and most likely attended private school (even so most Officers in the British forces do not sound like that).

I would have liked to have seen a more diverse crew also even if it were only with background characters, its certainly worked for Atlantis (Zelenka for example)

Agreed entirely. It could be retconned into Reed's character that he sounds so formal. I'm an American and I haven't known very many Brits or Europeans in general, but the two Brits I did meet were nothing like Reed. As an extension of what I mean, I'm from North Carolina and believe it or not don't actually sound like I just fell off a turnip truck (although I am a little twangier than some.) There are other natives who do sound like that here, and there are natives who just don't. The people who do are the stereotype, but the point is, all of us don't.

Thoughts on the Enterprise and Earth Tech

• Kept the ship more primative, they did this well on some occassions and not on others, things like the pulse weapons from Broken Bow and left the Phase Cannons untill say season 2. This could be done by going back to Earth to install improvements which the boffins have come up with derived from their many finds which were transmitted back home (this is also how they could start developing tech such as Photon(ic) Torpedoes and Shields).

Agreed on the primitive. Personally, I'd have rather seen no mention of the words 'phase' or 'photon' anywhere though.

• I would have used one of the earlier designs, specifically based of the 'Warp Delta' (Iceland/Neptune/whatever name you reference it by), the little ship had a lot of potential and wish they had used it as a ship of the week incl even more rudimentary set design maybe something similar to a flashback episode of an earlier assignment of Archer and Trips on a ship such as this (Archer as helmsman and Trip as a junior engineer mayb)

That was a IMHO superior design. Ever seen these orthos of it? Until I had, I didn't realize just how well thought out a little design it is.

Even the 'Intrepid' type was better, in that it didn't seem so glaringly retromod, even though it was an NX kitbash. The saucer always just felt wrong to me.

I wouldn't have minded using the 'Conestoga' either with its obvious rocket-type boosters.

• Phase Pistols out, keep the EM-33's...same deal as the cannons but mayb first only get Phase Rifles...you could give the EM weapon some sort of stun setting, hurts but only enough power to take you down not kill.

I would have liked the EM weapons to have initially had NO stun setting, and the problem with this leading to the actual development of an improvised stun setting.

General stuff for the overall storyline of the show

• No time war, instead the Suliban & Xindi would be pawns of the Romulans who were trying to first weaken the Klingon Empire through war and later take out Earth as they are a potential ally of the Vulcans who have proven to be a threat to their plans for reunification (conquest).
• I would leave Porthos out, it doesnt seem fair to have an animal such as a dog on a starship back in that time.
• No Ferengi or Borg, if your going to reuse a 24th Century alien Id go for something a little more subtle

Agreed on all points. I would avoid using Klingons too much, and keep the Romulans in the background as much as possible. And Porthos never made sense to me.

Vulcans and Earth

• Play on the mistrust of Vulcans and create more tension between the human crew and T'Pol, this could either be due to a secret movement in the high up in the Vulcan High Command who are more war like, secretly aligned with or have been replaced by Romulans, this could push Earth towards the Andorians for a time and displace T'Pol as her loyalties are to Enterprise and Starfleet
• While we are on T'Pol Id loose the bowlcut and give her something better than the catsuit, they could have come up with something fitted but practical.

Agreed there too.

This leads to Starfleet uniforms

• add cargo pockets to the jumpsuit legs (especially hand for engineers)
• Starfleet logo and a name plaque to the other arm (I know these two were done in the finale)
• When it comes to away team equipment I liked how they stashed communicators and scanners in their pockets but they should have done something better than the "holsters magically attach to your trouser leg" but at least unlike TOS they had holsters, mayb a belt like the MACOs and ST2009 where they can have other bits of field kit.

All of this could lead up to the Romulan war and bring in elements such as the MACOs and Augments etc.

Agreed there too. I would also add a 'Class A' uniform that is more inline between our current militaries and the future Starfleet designs, particularly those of TOS - maybe something similar to the wraparound away jacket from 'The Cage.' And magically attaching holsters were pretty ridiculous.

 

[starburst]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

Agreed on the primitive. Personally, I'd have rather seen no mention of the words 'phase' or 'photon' anywhere though.

Exactly, the plasma weapons glimpsed in the pilot were far more interesting as were the spatial torpedoes which even when replaced with photonic ones still remained but were never used. The fact races such as the Klingons had them didnt bother me too much as would represent how they would eventually have created them.

That was a IMHO superior design. Ever seen these orthos of it? Until I had, I didn't realize just how well thought out a little design it is.

Pic of Delta

Even the 'Intrepid' type was better, in that it didn't seem so glaringly retromod, even though it was an NX kitbash. The saucer always just felt wrong to me.

Pic of Intrepid

Yeh I had seen those, love both the Delta and the Intrepid and its a shame they didnt appear later with more details (such as more visible weapon ports and launch bays), similar style to Enterprise but I think even nice.r

The saucer on the Intrepid does bother me, but I dont know if its for the same reason it bothers me, the placement of the impulse engines is right where the docking ports are and I doubt there would be room for both!

I would have liked the EM weapons to have initially had NO stun setting, and the problem with this leading to the actual development of an improvised stun setting.

That would have been even better, it could have been done similar to Stargate where they found Zats, they could have engineered a stun setting into weapons from alien weaponry at some point down the line

Agreed on all points. I would avoid using Klingons too much, and keep the Romulans in the background as much as possible. And Porthos never made sense to me.

That was exactly what I was going for, the Romulans could have been the secretive big bad guy all the way through and unknown to both the audience and the characters and could have slowly become more apparent as time went along running up to the Romulan War

Agreed there too. I would also add a 'Class A' uniform that is more inline between our current militaries and the future Starfleet designs, particularly those of TOS - maybe something similar to the wraparound away jacket from 'The Cage.' And magically attaching holsters were pretty ridiculous.

Exactly, the costume design did have something going for it though such as pockets and away team gear including cold weather jackets, desert and arctic kit and even caps and bags...all things which you didnt often see.

 

[uniderth]

Re: If you were the creator of ENT, what would you have done different

1. Used the design seen in TMP for the ship design.
2. Named the ship: S.S. Enterprise UEV-47
3. Completely new crew with Captain Johnathan Stiles.
4. No such thing as the "Warp 5 complex"
5. Re-made the warp chart so that warps speeds like warp 22 could be used.
6. No phase pistols. Laser pistols instead.
7. Maybe no transporters or only transporters for cargo.
8. No Klingons. They didn't have first contact until much later.
9. No Romulans until the Earth-Romulan war. Even then you would never see them.
10. No Romulan cloaking devices.
11. No Ferengi
12. No Xindi and Suliban
13. No moving Andorian antenna
15. Included those little gold people from Journey to Babel as part of the founding Federation races.
16. Completely different uniforms
17. Tech would have look a bit more bulky. But not a big deal since TOS uses duotronics not electronics. And duotronics at the time of TOS were fairly bulky.
18. No Shuttlepods
19. Completely different theme song. "No singing!"
20. NO STARFLEET. UESPA only! Starfleet is a Federation organization NOT Earth!
21. No aliens on the crew until later in the series.
22. Wouldn't be afraid to kill off main characters at anytime during the series, without warning.
23. Different series name but would contain Star Trek in the title.

That's all I can think of for now. But I'm sure there's more.