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

[Anwar]

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

1) Have it set earlier in the timeline, like the 2120s or 2130s.

2) Explain to the writing staff that when they TOS writing staff said that the weapons back then were "atomic" it didn't just refer to missiles and that lasers can be atomic powered as well.

3) Have the Romulans exist as a power in the galactic scale of things and not just as mysterious bad guys who came out of nowhere for a war. Just have them always use Remans as their emissaries (or other slave races they have). Hint that relations are degenerating and that war might occur sometime down the line.

4) Keep guys like the Xindi and the Suliban, but have the Romulans be the ones manipulating them.

5) Don't use the Kzinti, they just don't fit in with what we've seen. It doesn't make sense that the Andorians or Vulcans didn't deal with them centuries ago.

6) Have the Vulcans and Andorians actually be at war when the series happens, thus giving the Vulcans an actual reason for why they wanted Earth to stay sheltered from the greater scheme of things for a while longer. They can't afford to protect the humans while fighting their archenemies at the same time.

7) Keep the cast as is, I liked Bakula.

8) Get Blalock out of the wig, out of the catsuit and have her be maybe the assistant to an older Vulcan officer who is the Vulcan liason on the ship.

9) Name the ship something else, but have it be a name we've seen before in the later series. That way we can reason that the later ship was named after THIS one.

10) The weaponry would be magnetically propelled railguns, nuclear torpedoes and nuclear powered laser cannons. For the humans.

I'll try to think up more later.

 

[Praetor]

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

1) Have it set earlier in the timeline, like the 2120s or 2130s.

I'm not opposed, I'm just wondering why? To avoid getting into the Romulan War/Federation founding stuff?

2) Explain to the writing staff that when they TOS writing staff said that the weapons back then were "atomic" it didn't just refer to missiles and that lasers can be atomic powered as well.

Indeed so.

3) Have the Romulans exist as a power in the galactic scale of things and not just as mysterious bad guys who came out of nowhere for a war. Just have them always use Remans as their emissaries (or other slave races they have). Hint that relations are degenerating and that war might occur sometime down the line.

4) Keep guys like the Xindi and the Suliban, but have the Romulans be the ones manipulating them.

Concensus! It would be interesting if people thought for a while that the Remans were the Romulans, until finding out otherwise.

5) Don't use the Kzinti, they just don't fit in with what we've seen. It doesn't make sense that the Andorians or Vulcans didn't deal with them centuries ago.

Yeah, as much as I like them, they really don't fit and it would have seemed like a had they actually appeared in season five. If nothing else, use the Tzenkethi as replacements, as once intended.

6) Have the Vulcans and Andorians actually be at war when the series happens, thus giving the Vulcans an actual reason for why they wanted Earth to stay sheltered from the greater scheme of things for a while longer. They can't afford to protect the humans while fighting their archenemies at the same time.

Was it you that originally came up with this idea? I've always liked it.

7) Keep the cast as is, I liked Bakula.

Really? I knew someone had to.

8) Get Blalock out of the wig, out of the catsuit and have her be maybe the assistant to an older Vulcan officer who is the Vulcan liason on the ship.

Agreed on the wig and catsuit... but why not just make her the liaison?

9) Name the ship something else, but have it be a name we've seen before in the later series. That way we can reason that the later ship was named after THIS one.

An excellent, excellent, excellent (did I mention excellent?) notion. I kinda like 'Endeavour.' Really, any of the first twelve Constitutions' names would be good candidates.

10) The weaponry would be magnetically propelled railguns, nuclear torpedoes and nuclear powered laser cannons. For the humans.

That sounds pretty good, especially the railguns as an alternate to torpedoes or missiles.

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!

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.

We reach. Yay, brother.

 

[JJohnson]

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

T'Pol would be (unwillingly) assigned as an observer, which would tick off the otherwise all-human crew who don't want Vulcans evaluating them. She would never be science officer, first officer...

I'm curious...what would she do, if she were only an observer? If she had no duties or responsibilities as a crewmember, and she was there exactly for the reason Archer suspected--to report back to the VHC--where's the drama?

Sorry. I should have been clearer. She'd be assigned as an observer for a single mission in the pilot, but the Vulcans would conclude that her experience could mitigate the recklessness of Archer and crew and so they prevail on SF to permit her remain on board in a limited capacity as an adviser. She'd attempt to educate Archer -- sometimes he'd listen, sometimes not so much. Sometimes things would work out anyway, and sometimes not so much.

My main point is that my Archer isn't going to invite a member of a species he despises to join his crew as science officer, much less first officer.

It makes more sense to me to have them forced to work together. Conflict would be a natural outcome of the officers' and crew's resentment of being told they're not ready to go it alone. And this way, when the VHC recommends at the end of their first year in space that the NX-01 should be recalled, T'Pol sticks up for them, stating that the humans experiences and first contacts have not gone any worse than those of the Vulcans in the early years of their own explorations; that they have demonstrated their capacity to learn from their mistakes; and have earned the right to continue their work.

Her support helps to transform her relationship with her fellow shipmates.

That would've been a good ending 2-parter - "Will the Enterprise go back out into space? Will humanity stop at the solar system's edge?" T'Pol, who was unwelcome in the first place, is the one who actually sticks up for the humans, whom she has actually begun to respect.

My 2 cents:
-T'Pol does not wear Starfleet pips; she has an equivalent Vulcan rank, and no catsuit; she has longer hair, as Vulcans do not all have the same hairstyle.
-no drug addiction for her
-more Orion Syndicate action, perhaps even the Syndicate dealing with Romulans.
-no Trip/T'Pol action. That annoyed me, and especially their 'baby.'
-Archer doesn't pace the bridge 'reciting lines' and then nodding and smiling at each crewman for some stupid reason.
-we see more than just Enterprise - Earth had slower ships and other ship classes
-we see the USS Daedelus
-Earth/Romulan war beginnings should start at some point.
-lower the Temporal Cold War and solve it after the first or second season.
-Trip and Hoshi get more to do, and actually get promotions
-no Ferengi, no Borg.
-an Orion woman petitions to join Starfleet - I don't think I've ever seen it before, so it'd be interesting.

 

[CDR6]

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

I'd change only a few simple things;

1. Paint the ship's interiors in the same manner as the TOS Enterprise. But keep actual set designs/details for texture.

2. Light "up" the sets a bit to brighten the inside comparments and halls.

3. Use similar camera angles on the exterior for establishing shots...as a tie in to TOS.

4. Avoid having anyone catptured and escaping for a while... Every time I turn the show on. They are trying to escape from... (name your own predicment).

Other than that, let er rip!

-Chuck

 

[Admiral_Young]

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

A few things, enjoying this thread and the Voyager thread, there are some really great ideas. Okay here we go.

- I would use the Daedalus class starship' s shown in the original series only there would be only two or three at this point and none of the them would be called Enterprise, thus the series would not be called Enterprise. I like Challenger, Apollo, or Endeavor as names for the series ship.

-Vulcans would act like Vulcans but like someone said in a previous post there would be an actual reason for holding the humans back. Since first contact occurred with Cochrane there has been a gradual development of diplomatic relations between the United Earth and Vulcan. While they're not so bastard like as they were in Enterprise they do have a parental stance on the humans. This frustrates us but we respect them.

-Starfleet is in it's infancy and absorbing elements of the former United Earth Space Probe Agency which still exists but on a purely consultancy basis (which is why Kirk mentions it during early TOS episodes).

-This takes place ten years exactly prior to the foundation of the United Federation of Planets. As has been suggested, the Romulans are a major political power and of much interest to the humans but the Vulcans do not recommend contact with them as they're purely isolationist species and would not appreciate the contact. Indeed this is a storyline that works its way through the entire series as the audience learns that the Romulan Star Empire is secretly working on engineering a war against Earth and manipulating events for the humans to trigger it so they can respond openly. I even have this idea that "Future Guy" is from the future and trying to work with the present day Romulans to start this war. I know this has been suggested by fans trying to consolidate the Temporal Cold War.

-No Temporal Cold War, an interesting idea that the writers just completely screwed up because they made it up without really thinking it out IMO.

-T'Pol is part of a new Vulcan/Earth officer exchange program in order to further diplomatic relations with Earth and encourage the new Starfleet. She wears a Vulcan Science Academy uniform as she teaches several courses there...Jolene would play her without the wig which always annoyed me.

-Transporters would be in their infancy and like I think one poster stated would only be used for beaming up cargo and equipment. I also like the idea of their being constant malfunctions because of the complexity of the new technology. No phasers, or anything resembling original series technology. They would use logical evolutionary equivalents to our technology, this being a hundred years from now or so.

-Porthos is fine, he can stay but we don't see him around that much.

-Archer is still the Captain and played by Scott Bakula, the cast is the same. While the focus is on the trinity of Archer, Trip, and T'Pol there is also a stronger focus with the rest of the cast, much like the original series attempted to do and TNG. There is a feeling out period among the new crew but then they start bonding with each other as they have experience after experience.

 

[Bluejay]

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

I'm wondering how much time was taken to plan out a blueprint of Enterpirse. It seemed as though they just came out up the idea and just plunged in with half baked ideas. Also curious to know how ham strung are the writers by TPTB. How much control do they have?

 

[Anwar]

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

Berman wanted to wait a while and to hire a new bunch of writers who hadn't been on Trek before because he thought they needed new blood and that it wouldn't do well if the new Trek came out so soon after Voyager. UPN said no, and rushed them into it about a year later.

 

[Praetor]

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

And, according to Doug Drexler, they were mandated to use the shape of the Akira, although I don't know how high up that order came from.

 

[Skywalker]

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

And apparently Berman (and/or Braga?) wanted to set at least most of the first season on Earth, revolving around Archer setting up his crew and such while the Enterprise was being constructed. Which could have been really cool.

 

[Anwar]

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

In response to Praetor: 1) I don't think it's believable that the Humans were able to form the Federation out of races that had been adversaries for centuries in only 10 or so years. Having the series set further in the past than the 2150s would allow for them to still be adversaries without the "but they should be buddies this close to the Federation" fridge logic. Plus you can set up the Federation framework more subtly knowing it'll get stronger in the next 30 years.

Also, just to appease the TOS-only nuts who say the Uniforms should've been more like TOS, have them use sleeve stripes AND collar pips.

Earth would still have some uninhabited radioactive zones, and explain the reason that United Earth is in control of the planet is because most of the more antagonistic governments were utterly annihilated by WWIII, leaving the more cooperative types alive to patch things up. Most space pirates or terrorist groups encountered would actually turn out to be Humans against the United Earth concept, more than aliens.

Heck, maybe they could have it be more human-focused for the first season with them going to human colony worlds to check up on them (FTL communications not existing yet) and dealing with breakaway colonies as well. Have T'Pol not become a regular until S2.

 

[Praetor]

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

In response to Praetor: 1) I don't think it's believable that the Humans were able to form the Federation out of races that had been adversaries for centuries in only 10 or so years. Having the series set further in the past than the 2150s would allow for them to still be adversaries without the "but they should be buddies this close to the Federation" fridge logic. Plus you can set up the Federation framework more subtly knowing it'll get stronger in the next 30 years.

Ah, understood and agreed.

Also, just to appease the TOS-only nuts who say the Uniforms should've been more like TOS, have them use sleeve stripes AND collar pips.

Earth would still have some uninhabited radioactive zones, and explain the reason that United Earth is in control of the planet is because most of the more antagonistic governments were utterly annihilated by WWIII, leaving the more cooperative types alive to patch things up. Most space pirates or terrorist groups encountered would actually turn out to be Humans against the United Earth concept, more than aliens.

Heck, maybe they could have it be more human-focused for the first season with them going to human colony worlds to check up on them (FTL communications not existing yet) and dealing with breakaway colonies as well. Have T'Pol not become a regular until S2.

Brilliant.

 

[bluedana]

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

With pure 20/20 hindsight, I'd take a page from Battlestar Galactica and use the internet. Have webisodes to provide backstory on the minor characters (Hoshi, Mayweather, and maybe a couple more like Cutler or Hayes and the MACOs) and to fill in some of the gaps about the development of the Warp 5 program. The once-a-week format makes the "creating a new universe" aspect of sci-fi very difficult to maintain, especially if you're on a sucky network like UPN that keeps changing your timeslot and spacing new episodes weeks apart. Webisode could have had a below-decks kind of feel, and, as "bottle" episodes with non-major cast members, wouldn't have been too expensive to make.

 

[Admiral_Young]

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

I've always had the thought that Berman and Braga rushed Enterprise out too soon after fans were still dealing with the fallout of Voyager all of a sudden we were presented with a new series three or four months after dealing with the end of the previous one...which ended very controversially. I would have waited a year before introducing a new series...take my time with casting and coming up with a decent plot instead of coming up with stuff on the fly like they seemed to have done. I never knew about the first season being on Earth, that would have been interesting to see.

 

[Praetor]

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

Not to sound like an apologist, but they were probably pushed by the network to hurry out a new show so fast too.

 

[JiNX-01]

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

Not to sound like an apologist, but they were probably pushed by the network to hurry out a new show so fast too.

I've read that that was exactly Paramount demanded. They had a "network" to justify.

 

[Captain X]

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

Yeah, that's one thing among others that they were made to do that they hadn't originally planned.

 

[PurpleBuddha]

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

Everything.

 

[Skywalker]

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

Everything.

How about some specifics?

 

[SupAJ1M]

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

lol

 

[Jeyl]

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

Since I loath Enterprise I might as well put my very first post here.

1. Change the name of the ship. I could just leave this at "It wasn't on the Wall in ST:TMP", but there's more to it. To me, naming the ship "Enterprise" was nothing more than an attempt for Berman and crew to mold Star Trek into what they thought 'their' idea of Star Trek was. Granted, there have been some great stories thanks to our man Rick, but the Star Trek universe shouldn't revolve around the name "Enterprise" like this series does. The scope of names should be bigger than that.

2. Sorry if you find this silly, but I would like to have a female majority for once. Ya, it's a long shot. Sue me.

3. No phase pistols. I don't really know what a good substitute for this would be, but for being 100 years before Kirk, it's just too soon to have hand held phasers like weapons.

4. No view screen. This is a little detail I thought was interesting from "Balance of Terror" where during the Earth/Romulan war there was no ship-to-ship visual communication where no vessel could see each other. Since the view screen is such a pinnacle aspect to the story telling of some series, I thought having no view screen at all would present some interesting ideas. I think the new Battlestar Galactica did a good job with this, so it's not impossible.

5. Phaser use being VERY limited. I'm not against phasers, but I like the earlier posts involving atomic phasers and how primitive that would sound and look on a Star Trek ship. I would have the ship's phasers take up so much power that half the ship's systems would have to be taken off line, including propulsion. And they can only fire it two to three times or else risk a power core burnout. Just something to that effect.

6. If anyone is going to be captured, they're gone for at least half a season. No exceptions. I do not accept a quick 'one episode" resolve no matter how convenient the writers may write them.

7. No reset switch. If you're going to write an episode, it must matter in the long run. Sure that sounds hard, but it's easy to skip a lot of episodes from previous shows and not miss anything relevant. If you're going to kill the captain, the captain remains dead. Actor contracts be danged.

8. If we haven't made contact with a species post this era, we're not going to see the species. No Borg and no Ferengi.

9. When you're serving on board a ship and manning a post, you wear a freaking uniform. No skin tight suits. If your qualified to work a ship, you're going to be represented as such.

10. And I cannot stress this enough. We ARE going to have an appropriate opening intro to the show, dangit! Some handsome guy singing about faith is a Star Trek mood killer!