Missed Opportunities in Enterprise

[F. King Daniel]

Reading about the planned season 5 episodes (Guinan, Kzinti, Borg Queen origin, Spock’s granddaddy etc.) and the cancelled ST: The Beginning film (Kirk’s granddad fights the Romulan War all by himself) has gotten my brain ticking.
These are the episodes that I think would/could have been cool:

The ‘real’ Kobayashi Maru – the premise would have made such a cool episode (if done right). The writers would have had loads of leeway – the test in STII (and STXI, supposedly) would need only have been loosely based on the situation. As long as their ‘impossible’ situation isn’t solved by Voyager-esque technobabble.
(I've just started reading the novel, btw)

A transporter ‘scramble case’ a la The Final Reflection novel. It was meant to be the first transporter, after all. But we got a guy with leaves in his face, and a ghost instead…

A non American joins the crew. Wasn’t/isn’t the whole point of Trek cultural diversity and *different* people getting along?

The Romulan war. I mean – that had to happen, didn’t it? And then it didn’t.

Finding out who Future Guy (no relation to Family Guy) was (this would prolly have been a disappointment). My guess was that he was Romulan – he did give the Suliban cloaking devices, right?

An episode where the crew did something so horrible (but for the right reasons) that they never get a single mention in the next 200 years ;-)

Anything to undo that pile of shite that was the last (worst) episode (ever).

Shame they can’t / won’t ‘do a Stargate’ and churn out a DVD movie or two to finish things off nicely (hint, hint Mr. CBS/Paramount).

Any other episodes/events they ‘should have done’?

 

[jgdst]

Reading about the planned season 5 episodes (Guinan, Kzinti, Borg Queen origin, Spock’s granddaddy etc.) and the cancelled ST: The Beginning film (Kirk’s granddad fights the Romulan War all by himself) has gotten my brain ticking.

I wasn't overly sure of their plan to be honest, it seemed a bit too forced to marry it up to TOS. The Borg Queen origin might have been good if handled properly - I actually enjoyed Regeneration and how they fed it back into Trek continuity... I'm in a minority there though.

The idea of doing the Cloud City... that was going to be interesting, I'm not entirely convinced, but I think Manny Coto would've come up with something special to make it believable.

The one biggest thing I regret about the cancellation is the addition of Shran to the main cast. That would've been brilliant.

Hopefully Mayweather would've got a line or two too - I consider myself an ambassador for his cause, and that's why Horizon and Fortunate Son, while not the best episodes, are among my favourite episodes, and Montgomery was sold extremely short on the series.

These are the episodes that I think would/could have been cool:

The ‘real’ Kobayashi Maru – the premise would have made such a cool episode (if done right). The writers would have had loads of leeway – the test in STII (and STXI, supposedly) would need only have been loosely based on the situation. As long as their ‘impossible’ situation isn’t solved by Voyager-esque technobabble.
(I've just started reading the novel, btw)

Agreed, that would've been a good one. And could have been used a s catalyst into what sparks the Romulan War (see below for how I think that would play out).

A non American joins the crew. Wasn’t/isn’t the whole point of Trek cultural diversity and *different* people getting along?

Malcolm Reed

The Romulan war. I mean – that had to happen, didn’t it? And then it didn’t.

I think if they had ventured into that minefield of canon, then it probably would've played out as more of a Cold War than a fullscale battle... I just realised they already did a Cold War and the bitter taste that left *shudder*

Finding out who Future Guy (no relation to Family Guy) was (this would prolly have been a disappointment). My guess was that he was Romulan – he did give the Suliban cloaking devices, right?

It's unlikely we'd ever find that out, as Storm Front was designed to completely kill off the TCW once and for all. Future Guy was in fact Peter Griffin.

An episode where the crew did something so horrible (but for the right reasons) that they never get a single mention in the next 200 years ;-)

I like the irony all throught the series that Archer is THE man that will set the entirety of history into motion, and ends up being ultimately ignored. Doesn't T'pol make a comment at some point to the effect of "the future will be grateful for your contributions"? Sometime during the third or fourth season, I can't remember it offhand...

Anything to undo that pile of shite that was the last (worst) episode (ever).

AAAAA-MEN!

Shame they can’t / won’t ‘do a Stargate’ and churn out a DVD movie or two to finish things off nicely (hint, hint Mr. CBS/Paramount).

Agree with that too.

I'm can't think of any specific stories I would like to have seen, but definitely more of Earth politics á la Terra Prime/Demons/Home, more of the overview of Starfleet - we only had glimpses of Intrepid and Columbia. It never rang quite true that Enterprise was out there all on its own for two years, spent a year in the Expanse, and when they came back, there's humans living everywhere - Cold Station 12 out in the middle of nowehere, Soong living on a colony with his superchildren, Emory Erickson's transporter tests happening so far out in space...

Also carrying on with the coming together of the four big players in the Federation, exploring Andorian and Tellarite cultures, and the "Vulcanising" of Vulcan after the Kir'Shara trilogy. I think I would've liked a bit more Section 31 too, provided it was handled correctly. Maybe even an eipsode done from the MACOs perspective, á la Good Shepherd or Lower Decks... So much potential

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Maybe even an eipsode done from the MACOs perspective, á la Good Shepherd or Lower Decks...

Thankfully the show got canned before that happened.

Hey, here's some losers we'll never see again.

 

[jgdst]

Maybe even an eipsode done from the MACOs perspective, á la Good Shepherd or Lower Decks...

Thankfully the show got canned before that happened.

Hey, here's some losers we'll never see again.

lol, very true I think I only suggested it cos I had Trip/T'Pol fatigue. I just wanted to see some of the cannon fodder go apeshit for once I would've hoped they'd learn something from DS9 and make use of a group of supporting characters...

 

[Nebusj]

The idea of doing the Cloud City... that was going to be interesting, I'm not entirely convinced, but I think Manny Coto would've come up with something special to make it believable.

This would be a really tricky one to do: they'd have to come up with some problem for which the cloud city was the logical solution, and where we could believe in the Enterprise crew not noticing, or forgiving, the segregation.

If they could do it, that'd be great, and I would agree that the cloud city stuff is cool in a classic Flash Gordon-y way. That sort of thing is usually fun since, well, floating cities are usually fun to think about.

 

[JiNX-01]

The idea of doing the Cloud City... that was going to be interesting, I'm not entirely convinced, but I think Manny Coto would've come up with something special to make it believable.

This would be a really tricky one to do: they'd have to come up with some problem for which the cloud city was the logical solution, and where we could believe in the Enterprise crew not noticing, or forgiving, the segregation.

If they could do it, that'd be great, and I would agree that the cloud city stuff is cool in a classic Flash Gordon-y way. That sort of thing is usually fun since, well, floating cities are usually fun to think about.

Well, as I understood it, Manny was planning a Cloud City episode that would show the beginning of the split that would lead to the two castes...

I would like to have seen an episode laying the groundwork in the second or third season of the emerging Terra Prime.

 

[Trekwatcher]

Guinan and the borg queen I could have passed on. ENT and TNG never meshed well when they tried it, and I would not have wanted to see it again. The Kzinti idea was the best of the lot.

 

[Ethros]

I would have loved to see an episode featuring the Trills.
For continuity porn have Lela Dax as one of the Trills they meet, then have her seriously injured and see her transferred to Tobin Dax. Now obviously Archer & co shouldn't know about the symbionts, but maybe have a character say Trip or Hoshi befriend Lela, and they alone are somehow witness to the transferral, meet Tobin, but promise to keep it all a secret.
Also they could have a throwaway line explaining why the Trills in "TNG: The Host" look different to all the others we ever see. Just something like having a few background extras with the ridges and Trip says "why do some of your people look different to others" and the answer is something like "they're from the lesser inhabited southern contintent". Or something. You know what I mean.


And while you're at it link into the reference from "DS9: Destiny" that Tobin met Iloja of Prim, a Cardassian poet in exile on Vulcan in the 22nd century.
Maybe show him in a following episode

 

[Skywalker]

The whole damn show was a missed opportunity.

 

[Penguin]

Jonredic, how can you have Trip/T-Pol fatigue when it was rarely touched upon.

I rather liked that couple.

But then I am a bit beyond the shootemup phase.

Now if they found a way of promoting Travis and Hoshi after all of those years as an Esign. That would be interesting

 

[Pariah Carey]

Jonredic, how can you have Trip/T-Pol fatigue when it was rarely touched upon. I rather liked that couple.

I myself liked it too, but the angst that Coto and co. forced on us became kinda tiresome after nearly two seasons. By the end of season four I wished that it had been resolved already, so the show itself could move on (preferably toward the Romulan war or whatever they had in mind).

Now if they found a way of promoting Travis and Hoshi after all of those years as an Ensign. That would be interesting

Promoting Hoshi, throwing mister "can't-shut-my-mouth" out of the airlock for talking to much, and replacing him with some random female hotness... That would be the way to go

 

[Good Will Riker]

Finding out who Future Guy (no relation to Family Guy) was (this would prolly have been a disappointment). My guess was that he was Romulan – he did give the Suliban cloaking devices, right?

Who knows...

Spoiler: a certain movie

It may as well be Nero (Eric Bana) from Star Trek XI (2009).

 

[RandyS]

The whole damn show was a missed opportunity.

Damn. Beat me to it.

Still, they did have a few good episodes.

 

[Finngle Bells]

Finding out who Future Guy (no relation to Family Guy) was (this would prolly have been a disappointment). My guess was that he was Romulan – he did give the Suliban cloaking devices, right?

Who knows...

Spoiler: a certain movie

It may as well be Nero (Eric Bana) from Star Trek XI (2009).

Nah. Daniels stated that the people helping the Sulibans in the 22nd Century were from 300 years before Daniels' time

Spoiler: more about a certain movie

which would be about 300-400 years after Nero's time which we would have to assume is very late in the 24th Century or early in the 25th Century.

I only remember that because I just saw Shockwave II the other day.

 

[Quagmire58]

The ‘real’ Kobayashi Maru – the premise would have made such a cool episode (if done right). The writers would have had loads of leeway – the test in STII (and STXI, supposedly) would need only have been loosely based on the situation. As long as their ‘impossible’ situation isn’t solved by Voyager-esque technobabble.

That could have been my favorite episode, had they ever made it. Something that became part of the Captain's Test, historically was obviously very important to Starfleet.

 

[Pariah Carey]

The ‘real’ Kobayashi Maru – the premise would have made such a cool episode (if done right). The writers would have had loads of leeway – the test in STII (and STXI, supposedly) would need only have been loosely based on the situation. As long as their ‘impossible’ situation isn’t solved by Voyager-esque technobabble.

That could have been my favorite episode, had they ever made it. Something that became part of the Captain's Test, historically was obviously very important to Starfleet.

The sorta did that in the last book... I take it you either didn't read it, or you didn't like it. I thought the Kobayashi Maru situation was handled quite well there.

 

[pookha]

malcolm wasnt american and neither was hoshi or travis for that matter.

as for cloud city i would have liked it to be mostly a section 31 story with enterprise just sorta in the back ground some place. possibly enterprise would be helping a planet with a crisis similar to the one that is in the background of cloud minders and section learns of the split and for what they see as the greater good go along with a cover up.

 

[F. King Daniel]

About the Cloud City prequel idea: I would have liked to see the city actually launch from the ground, like in James Blish’s ‘Cities in Flight’ books (rather than making it a Stargate Atlantis rip-off). By the end of the episode, you’d start to see the clouds forming around it.
Someone probably has copyright on the word ‘Spindizzy’, though :-(
Unfortunately the episode would have to have a flat Mission Failed ending, to set up the TOS episode, unless the writers were *really* creative

[The Kzinti would have been brilliant. As long as they’re the Niven originals and not the watered-down cartoon versions. I would have loved to see a Man-Kzin War (or four ;-). They could have borrowed stuff from the Known Space books, and Ringworld, like the invasion of Alpha Centauri.
Elvis Cawley’s version just won’t be the same (if it ever happens).

The petition for a Kirk v Kzin Star Trek XII starts now! Complete with Lord of the Rings-scale armies of Kzinti marching into bloody war…

I know some are very anti-Borg in Ent, but the Queen Origin really would explain why she’s so obsessed with assimilating Earth (I just caught a repeat of Dark Frontier). A great finale would be a Vader-style surgery sequence after her body gets blown up.

Shran would have made a great replacement for the Second Most Boring Character Ever (after Chakotey), Mr Reed.

T’Pol’s daddy being a Romulan could’ve been great, too (as long as it didn’t result in ‘the whole cast know about the Romulans but promise to keep it secret’ like the recent novels).

Hoshi and Travis may not have been born in America, but they acted like Americans. It would have been nice to show a future where people can live in different ways and still live and work together peacefully.

 

[Nebusj]

About the Cloud City prequel idea: I would have liked to see the city actually launch from the ground, like in James Blish’s ‘Cities in Flight’ books (rather than making it a Stargate Atlantis rip-off). By the end of the episode, you’d start to see the clouds forming around it.
Someone probably has copyright on the word ‘Spindizzy’, though :-(

Ah, but Blish made the spindizzies into the warp fields anyway. Look at the warp bubble thing used to push Deep Space Nine around and compare it to the great Astounding cover of New York City in space ...

Not that a reference or two to the collapse of the Vegan Tyranny would have been out of place.

 

[kissthestar]

Finding out who Future Guy (no relation to Family Guy) was (this would prolly have been a disappointment). My guess was that he was Romulan – he did give the Suliban cloaking devices, right?QUOTED




Future guy was Ed Funt.