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MY Enterprise

^ Some interesting suggestions JiNX-01. The xenophobia angle is especially interesting. Obviously it shouldn't be over done (apart from anything else the crew of Earth's first deep space missions should be evaluated for any psychological hang-ups before setting off), but the occasional bad reaction from a crew member would be both realistic and dramatic.

I also agree with the idea that things can go wrong, injuring or even killing crew men. One of the reasons I suggested having several recurring characters is that one, or more, can be killed off (on my version of ENT, whilst we do have Red Shirts, we make the audience like them first!). Maybe some one is killed by a malfunction on board the ship, life support failing in one area, or something like that. It would help bring home the idea that all this is new, untested, dangerous.
And unlike other Trek's, and most SF in general, the dead stay dead. That is to say, the doctor may resuscitate the critically injured, even if they are flat lining, but once they are gone, they are not coming back.
 
Thanks. When I heard that the new Trek was going to be a prequel, my expectation was a "Right Stuff" kind of series. ("First Flight" was the only episode that reflects what I was expecting).

Astronauts heading into space in a much cruder ship, where not everybody gets along with everybody else, some PG-13 evidence of sexual promiscuity among the crew (maybe some crew members are even married). Injuries that truly demonstrate how dangerous it is out there and when stuff goes wrong, people lose body parts or end up dead, because there isn't a fantastic, super-advanced medical bay with Super!Alien!Doctor! on board (not that I don't like the NX-01 and Dr. Phlox, I do very much; I'm just talking about my expectations).

Agreed. That's what I expected too. Real danger, and real differences in the capabilities of the vessel. I don't so much mind the concept of the design of the ship - in fact, I've grown from an initial reaction of :wtf: to actually like it, and based on what Doug Drexler has said we're very lucky it wasn't a literal copy of the Akira design. Poor Mr. Drexler is a talented man who was much maligned by many posters on this forum who did not recognize the incredible constraints he was under when he designed that ship, myself included.

What annoyed me was that the ship basically seemed able to do most of the things that her later counterparts could. Sure, there weren't tractor beams and we instead had that nifty grappler, we had the theoretically different 'phase cannons' rather than 'phasers' and the actually interesting 'spatial torpedoes' which gave way to the moronic 'photonic torpedoes.' 'Hull plating' decreased in percentages the same way energy shields did. The ship was supposedly slower, yet didn't really seem to have a problem going to some of the same places the TNG ship in particular did. They had a transporter which was said to be 'dangerous' yet worked all but, what, one? of the times they need it to. It was like they didn't know how to break away from the TNG-onward style of storytelling.

One of the things I've always liked so much about TOS was that their actualcapabilities, compared to the other series, didn't seemed to be tied to much to the abilities of the ship, as to the abilities of the crew - their ingenuity, their bravery, and their dedication. I'm not saying the other series didn't have this, but I feel like the technology became something of a crutch for storytelling as the franchise progressed. That was something I was frankly hoping the prequel series would step back on.

I also think the crew should have had a touch of revulsion or xenophobia on occasion when meeting some of the more alien aliens. I remember in "Arena" (TOS), Uhura recoils at the sight of the Gorn, and she was an experienced space farer. I would have expected even more of that from the new kids on the block (considering in "Broken Bow" we only see Vulcans, a Denobulan and Klingon -- all humanoid species -- suppose they were the only types of aliens humans had seen up to the point of launch setting up expectations that are entirely wrong so we see crew having "holy :censored:" reactions during first contacts.
Agreed, and it's one reason that I think the crew should have perhaps been all human. (I actually think the one exception might have been a revised version of T'Pol as a Vulcan doctor with an exchange program - with a passionate, human first officer as a variation on the TOS lead tryptich. Not a 'Super!Doc!' mind you. Just a Vulcan one. I'll post more on my thoughts later.)

This is another thing that I was hoping the prequel show would not pull the punch on - finally they had the chance to get away from 'perfect' humans of the 24th century and get closer to 'real' characterization more akin to people of today. While one might argue that the ENT crew made plenty of mistakes, despite distancing themselves from the 'perfect' stigma, the writers seemed unable to make most of the crew much less than cardboard cutouts. This might be a reflection overall of the exhaustion of the franchise than anything else.

I've posted many times about how I enjoyed 'Voyager' even though it felt like a terrible waste of potential. 'Enterprise' felt like such a bad waste of potential that I was often unable to connect with the characters and therefore did not enjoy it as much.
 
I've had some thoughts about the ship itself. Although we shouldn't be too attached to canon, neither should we ignore it unnecessarily. As such I'd like the Declaration class vessel to be based on the ring ship design seen in TMP. Not a slavish copy, but keeping the same general form. It should have perhaps two more fins connecting the central structure to the rings, and a pair of nacelles, though I'm not quite sure where they'd best be placed.

Inside, the ship is cramped. Apart from one or two fairly wide central passageways, most corridors are so narrow you go down them single file and have to turn sideways to let someone pass you. All whilst stepping over and ducking under bits of pipe and other equipment. Likewise most deck access is by ladders, although there are stairwells in the more important areas.

Doors are opened by hand. For critical areas like the bridge and engineering you have the navy style extra heavy doors where you need to spin a wheel to unlock them.

No transporter. There are four small shuttlepods, with two spare in storage. Given that the ship was originally designed for military service it also carries two larger landing craft (think Aliens).

No shields. The ship is heavily armoured, BSG style, and this armour can be damaged in combat. As the Enterprise returns to Earth regularly, it can be repaired then (no magic reset button). In addition it carries counter measures. When deployed these send a cloud of tiny reflective objects, magnetically bound together, between the ship and incoming weapons. The reflectivity and magnetic field is intended to confuse enemy targeting scanners. A missile or torpedo impacting the cloud may be damaged or prematurely detonate, whilst energy weapons could be at least partially dissipated. (Yes, I did nick this from B5's Legend of the Rangers. It was the best thing in it, IMHO).
 
I've had some thoughts about the ship itself. Although we shouldn't be too attached to canon, neither should we ignore it unnecessarily. As such I'd like the Declaration class vessel to be based on the ring ship design seen in TMP. Not a slavish copy, but keeping the same general form. It should have perhaps two more fins connecting the central structure to the rings, and a pair of nacelles, though I'm not quite sure where they'd best be placed.

Not a bad approach at all. :)

I might suggest the nacelles be slightly above - if you have a dorsal fin and then two other fins at 60 degrees down from either side, like a Mercedes logo. Upward nacelles would also resonated visually with the 1701. Would your rings be a part of the warp drive?

Ignoring what the outside is to look like for a moment, though, the part below I think is remarkably inspired and appropriate for the ENT era for ANY exterior design:

Inside, the ship is cramped. Apart from one or two fairly wide central passageways, most corridors are so narrow you go down them single file and have to turn sideways to let someone pass you. All whilst stepping over and ducking under bits of pipe and other equipment. Likewise most deck access is by ladders, although there are stairwells in the more important areas.

Doors are opened by hand. For critical areas like the bridge and engineering you have the navy style extra heavy doors where you need to spin a wheel to unlock them.

No transporter. There are four small shuttlepods, with two spare in storage. Given that the ship was originally designed for military service it also carries two larger landing craft (think Aliens).

No shields. The ship is heavily armoured, BSG style, and this armour can be damaged in combat. As the Enterprise returns to Earth regularly, it can be repaired then (no magic reset button). In addition it carries counter measures. When deployed these send a cloud of tiny reflective objects, magnetically bound together, between the ship and incoming weapons. The reflectivity and magnetic field is intended to confuse enemy targeting scanners. A missile or torpedo impacting the cloud may be damaged or prematurely detonate, whilst energy weapons could be at least partially dissipated. (Yes, I did nick this from B5's Legend of the Rangers. It was the best thing in it, IMHO).
 
Not a bad approach at all. :)

I might suggest the nacelles be slightly above - if you have a dorsal fin and then two other fins at 60 degrees down from either side, like a Mercedes logo. Upward nacelles would also resonated visually with the 1701. Would your rings be a part of the warp drive?
First, thanks for your kind words! A bit of support for ones pet ideas is always appreciated.
Secondly, the Mercedes logo is perfect, exactly the shape I was thinking of. I'm not sure of what would be the best position for the nacelles. Perhaps some of our more artistically inclined colleagues could put forth their own speculations. Although, given the experimental nature of the ship these may be in an odd position. Perhaps even within the ring itself.
Believe it or not, I actually saw the ring sections as being the ship's living space! As I imagined it, the initial design was finalised before humanity acquired artificial gravity. The living areas, buried within the rings, would be spun. Centrifugal force would thus approximate 1G, for the comfort and health of the crew. Other areas, such as engineering and the bridge, would have been in zero G.
When Earth got artificial gravity (possibly as part of a trade agreement with another race) the design was adapted as best as possible, but it was too late for any major changes. This leads to some oddities, areas where up and down are fairly interchangeable (e.g. Travis' 'sweet spot', although the chief engineer in this version is actually smart enough to know about them), but it does ensure that the critical areas now have gravity.
 
Not a bad approach at all. :)

I might suggest the nacelles be slightly above - if you have a dorsal fin and then two other fins at 60 degrees down from either side, like a Mercedes logo. Upward nacelles would also resonated visually with the 1701. Would your rings be a part of the warp drive?
First, thanks for your kind words! A bit of support for ones pet ideas is always appreciated.

Hey, you're welcome. It's why I'm here. ;)

Secondly, the Mercedes logo is perfect, exactly the shape I was thinking of. I'm not sure of what would be the best position for the nacelles. Perhaps some of our more artistically inclined colleagues could put forth their own speculations. Although, given the experimental nature of the ship these may be in an odd position. Perhaps even within the ring itself.

Believe it or not, I actually saw the ring sections as being the ship's living space! As I imagined it, the initial design was finalised before humanity acquired artificial gravity. The living areas, buried within the rings, would be spun. Centrifugal force would thus approximate 1G, for the comfort and health of the crew. Other areas, such as engineering and the bridge, would have been in zero G.

When Earth got artificial gravity (possibly as part of a trade agreement with another race) the design was adapted as best as possible, but it was too late for any major changes. This leads to some oddities, areas where up and down are fairly interchangeable (e.g. Travis' 'sweet spot', although the chief engineer in this version is actually smart enough to know about them), but it does ensure that the critical areas now have gravity.

Interesting... I think it could work, but a lot of it would depend on how big you imagine the ship to be. It might have to be quite big indeed for the ring to have any large amount of habitable space. That, combined with the fact that the 'ringship' was designed by Jefferies to use the ring as some kind of 'dynametric' drive (before 'warp' was invented) is why a lot of people use it as a component of the warp drive. But if you're okay with a big ship, it might work well.
 
I think a lot of the ideas introduced are good ones. In addition:

* The main intent behind the show should've been to show the beginning of the Federation.
* There should be no romance between characters.
* T'Pol shouldn't have been so emotional.
* T'Pol should've continued to be the ambassador of Vulcan, though siding more with the humans or become a Starfleet officer and wear the uniform. If they kept T'Pol an ambassador, they could've made her T'Pau.
* Soval should've been a Romulan spy and Future Guy.
* The Temporal Cold War should've been the Romulans attempting to interfere with history. And in a time paradox should've been the reason the Federation should've gone to war with them in the first place.
* Hoshi should've been a cool, kick-butt woman.
* Travis, as the boomer, shouldn't have been so innocent and should've made suggestions that helped the crew on a semi-regular basis.
* Archer's name should've been Robert April and it would've been interesting if it had been fast-forwarded to that timeline.
* They should've showed Sarek as a young man/boy and Skon, his father.
* They should've introduced Shran as Shras (Journey to Babel).
* The characters should've gone to Vulcan in season 1.
* The characters should've gone to Andoria in season 2.
* The characters should've gone to Telar in season 3.
* If season 4 was the last season, the characters should've welcomed the aliens to Earth.
*
 
I think a lot of the ideas introduced are good ones. In addition:

* The main intent behind the show should've been to show the beginning of the Federation.
* There should be no romance between characters.
* T'Pol shouldn't have been so emotional.
* T'Pol should've continued to be the ambassador of Vulcan, though siding more with the humans or become a Starfleet officer and wear the uniform. If they kept T'Pol an ambassador, they could've made her T'Pau.
* Soval should've been a Romulan spy and Future Guy.
* The Temporal Cold War should've been the Romulans attempting to interfere with history. And in a time paradox should've been the reason the Federation should've gone to war with them in the first place.
* Hoshi should've been a cool, kick-butt woman.
* Travis, as the boomer, shouldn't have been so innocent and should've made suggestions that helped the crew on a semi-regular basis.
* Archer's name should've been Robert April and it would've been interesting if it had been fast-forwarded to that timeline.
* They should've showed Sarek as a young man/boy and Skon, his father.
* They should've introduced Shran as Shras (Journey to Babel).
* The characters should've gone to Vulcan in season 1.
* The characters should've gone to Andoria in season 2.
* The characters should've gone to Telar in season 3.
* If season 4 was the last season, the characters should've welcomed the aliens to Earth.
*

I give you an A++. Great list..

In fact this entire class deserves an A++. Time for us to go on a FIELD TRIP and visit Braga/Berman and ask them...dudes..WTF!!??

Rob
 
I wouldn't have changed a lot, since I liked the show and thought it was great as it was.
I would have done less of the exploring in the first two seasons and started right off the bat with the founding of the federation and to be begin with the Humans, Andorians and Vulcans.
I would have shown more earth stories, showing how Starfleet was developed, the early years of the NX01 (like First Flight) and even some stories based around offworld bases like the moon, survival training on titan etc. Maybe even show a slow build up to Terra Prime and the resentment against aliens, fear from humans towards Starfleet going out into space and interacting.
Maybe even a few stories about how earth feels about Starfleets interaction and whether they think they are doing a good job or just getting in to trouble. i.e. Trips remark to Phlox in Stormfront 1 when Enterprise was recalled.
Show Vulcan earlier and also show more in the beginning of how the vulcans interfed in the starfleet and slowed down the space program. (eg. more on how the resentment developed in Archer towards them. This might have made his beef seem more believable to me and the audience)
More character development.
Instead of playing with pairing T'Pol off with each character like they did in Season 1 & 2, i.e. Trip, Archer, Reed, Phlox, go with one and develop it.
Introduce the Romulans earlier and build up the tension.
 
When Earth got artificial gravity (possibly as part of a trade agreement with another race) the design was adapted as best as possible, but it was too late for any major changes. This leads to some oddities, areas where up and down are fairly interchangeable (e.g. Travis' 'sweet spot', although the chief engineer in this version is actually smart enough to know about them), but it does ensure that the critical areas now have gravity.
Interesting... I think it could work, but a lot of it would depend on how big you imagine the ship to be. It might have to be quite big indeed for the ring to have any large amount of habitable space. That, combined with the fact that the 'ringship' was designed by Jefferies to use the ring as some kind of 'dynametric' drive (before 'warp' was invented) is why a lot of people use it as a component of the warp drive. But if you're okay with a big ship, it might work well.


Well as I say I would like the Declaration class to be based on the ring ship design, but not a slavish copy. I have no problems with the rings being thickened enough to give sufficient living space to the crew.

I've also been thinking about Earth set stories. Elsewhere on this board we've considered the possibility of an entire season set on Earth. Whilst that might be very interesting, I don't think it would really grab the casual viewer. For a series about 'boldly going', you don't want to stand still for too long. Instead, Enterprise should return to Earth regularly to resupply and tell the authorities what's out there (no sub space communications, after all). This gives us an opportunity to tell Earth stories.
There should also be a flashback episode (maybe a two parter) like Firefly's 'Out Of Gas', explaining how the crew got together. But that should be a few episodes down the line, giving the audience time to know the crew.
 
I'll just go ahead and repost what I did before:

Star Trek: Foundations

This is how I have done ENT differently (or rather the bits of information that have been revealed so far).

Andorians: These are the most technologically advanced of all the species in the region. They have strong energy-based weaponry, the ability to project energy shielding around their ships, and very reliable tractor beams. They also are known to possess transporter technology (and are the only ones known to possess that technology). They have a caste-based communist system of government, and are currently embroiled in a state of civil war. They are very distrustful of outsiders, thanks largely in part to the fact the first aliens they encountered were Tellarites, who have become their bitter enemies.

Vulcans: They are Earth's most powerful allies, though there has been tension in the last half-century. They tend to look down on emotional species, which includes humans. At one point they openly helped Earth develop its warp technology, but the new government under PM T'Pau reversed that decision and even went as far as deleting information from UE computers. Relations have been somewhat frosty ever since, which isn't helped by their more recent declaration they would no longer come to Earth's aid during a time of war as they did during the Kzinti War. Naturally it didn't go over well when Vulcan acted as a mediator in the recent Alpha Centauri conflict. They are nearly as advanced as the Andorians, though their shielding and weapons are not as strong or as advanced.

Denobulans: The Denobulans are the most friendly ally Earth has, and there is currently a scientific exchange program between Denobula and United Earth's Science Institute. However, while they have been forced to fight their own conflicts in the past, they are not a belligerent people, and their current military strength reflects that, which is to say it is very small and tends to be more militia-based. They are also known to have long life spans and to marry in large polygamous groups, and only have to sleep for a small portion of the year in a type of hibernation, rather than sleeping every night.

Kzinti: A felinoid and aggressive species, they captured a UESPA crew and forced them to reveal the location of Earth, then made war on Earth in the hopes of expanding their empire. After a decade-long war, they were driven back into their own space, and agreed to an armistice which is now enforced by the Vulcan Alliance. They only have a slight edge on technology over Earth.

Nasicaans: A humanoid species which possesses no form of government, at least not any more, but thanks to the powerful weaponry their ships are usually equipped with, they can make a very big nuisance of themselves, especially when they work in groups. the last major conflict Earth had was with them thanks to attacks on Earth's outlying colonies and trade routes.

Orions: Green and mean, not much is known about them, other than that they are generally misogynistic and view all other species as being no better than livestock, and treat them as such, either as slave labor or as food. They seem to make their ships by cobbling together what they can from ships they have stolen.

Tellarites: The Boomers have known about them for a while and even traded with them, but Earth never really knew about them until Alpha Centauri hired a strong Tellarite military force to help them in their cause of independence. They are generally unpleasant, like to argue, but will react very violently to any personal insult. Their ships do have some substantial energy-based weaponry, not much less powerful than what the Vulcans have, but they cannot project energy shields around their ships and must rely on heavy armor to protect them. Their culture is very strongly capitalistic, and their military is more than willing to act as guns for hire. However, they often tend to drive a very hard bargain.

Alpha Centauri: Listed separately because of their recent break from Earth. Originally an agricultural colony founded by private interest, the AC system as grown quite large and has a substantial industrial capacity. When UE's government federalized all Earth colonies, AC resisted, and Earth reacted by essentially turning AC into a subject state, similar to the relationship Britain had with the American colonies. At the beginning of the series the troublesome colony again rebelled and declared its independence from Earth. While the Tellarite plan backed by the colony's governor failed, the Vulcan mediation pushed for by Titus Cheet succeeded and AC is currently independent of Earth, though Earth really isn't happy about that.

United Earth:
Under the last couple of administrations, UE has become a much stronger federal government, and while there aren't many problems on Earth, there tends to be some friction between UE's government and the colonial government. There is no Starfleet. UESPA is a small organization that started out as more of a mix of NASA and NOAA Corps, but has more recently taken on some Coast Guard characteristics out of need. There has also been more joint work going on with the United Earth Military, which is charged with the defense of Earth, and has a massive space navy to carry out that defense. There tends to be a lot of friction between the UEM because the UEM would like to make sure nothing like the incident that touched off the Kzinti War happens again, and UESPA would like them to sod off. Earth's ships are limited in speed, use plasma weapons, laser cannons, missiles with different payload options, and the UEM warships also have railguns. They cannot project shields or tractor beams, though they can use the structural integrity field they have developed to harden hull armor and make their electromagnetic grapples very strong.

UES Enterprise, EX-01:
Represents the pinnacle of Earth's technology thanks to her warp 5 engine. She is also the most heavily armed UESPA ship in existence, thanks to the joint cooperation with the UEM that also has a compliment of 40 UEM Security Forces soldiers on board to act as security for the ship and to operate the ship's weaponry. Thanks to politics, she has also become the first example of the Earth/Vulcan officer exchange program that has worked the other way around.


Characters

Captain Jonathan Archer: Commanding officer of Enterprise and son of famous warp development engineer Dr. Henry Archer. While technically qualified to command the ship, he lacks command experience on a starship, and many object to his being placed in command of Earth's newest and most technologically advanced starship. There have been charges of favoritism on the part of Admiral Forrest, who is the highest ranking officer in UESPA, but Forrest refuses to budge and fully supports Archer as captain of Enterprise.

Sub-Commander T'Pol:
Recently reactivated Vulcan science officer who now serves as Enterprise's first officer and science officer, thanks to some hardball politics by Ambassador Soval. She once served as Soval's aid, but was reactivated by him to serve in her current position. Not much is known about her past, other than that she previously served with the Vulcan fleet as a science officer, seems to have a somewhat close relationship with both Ambassador's Soval and Skon, and seems to have lost someone important to her as well as having a bad relationship with her mother, and also having lost her father. She tends to be aloof and has a strained relationship with the rest of Enterprise's crew, especially with Captain Archer, though recently she has developed a kind of friendship with Commander Tucker.

Commander Charles Tucker III:
Chief engineer of Enterprise and a major contributer to the warp 5 project. he's very friendly though he tends to be very private about anything doing with himself. He has revealed that he has a strained relationship with his family, with the exception of his younger sister Elizabeth. Initially he was angry to have been bumped from his position as first officer, but more recently he has formed a kind of friendship with T'Pol, as well as having befriended Major Reed.

Major Malcolm Reed: Commandant of the UEM Security Forces on board Enterprise. he tends to be aloof himself, and generally doesn't like the majority of the UESPA personnel, though more recently he's befriended Commander Tucker. he's a very by-the-book military man, and resents Captain Archer's repeated demands that he and his people maintain a "low profile".

Dr. Phlox: A Denobulan, he has proven very valuable as chief medical officer for his medical knowledge of other species, despite his unconventional methods. He is very friendly, if somewhat eccentric.

Dr. Jeremy Lucas:
An experienced doctor in his own right, he participated in the Earth/Denobulan medical exchange and was actually a pen pal with Dr. Phlox while they were each on the other's home planet. However, his friendship with Dr. Phlox ended because of the resentment he has for being passed over as CMO of Enterprise, instead being relegated to being Dr. Phlox's assistant.

Ensign Hoshi Sato:
She's a skilled linguist and very intelligent - "gifted" is the term they would use. She is currently serving as Enterprise's communications officer. Shy and somewhat meek outside of her area, she is a space greenhorn, and is both fascinated and afraid of being where she is. More recently she has begun to tutor Ensign Mayweather in his distance degree program so he can qualify officially as an officer.

Ensign Travis Mayweather:
A Boomer, he was born in space and has lived most of his life there too, though leaving the life for Starfleet has made him an outcast among his people, and even from his own family. He actually enlisted because he didn't have a 4-year college degree as required by UESPA, he ended up becoming an ensign and Enterprise's helmsman thanks to Captain Archer's influence, who witnessed some very impressive flying by him during an emergency in Earth orbit. He remains an officer under the promise that he complete a distance degree program, but he also remains only an ensign until he can do that. Not really an academic, he is thankful for the help Hoshi has been giving him with his school work. He and Archer get along perfectly, and like Archer he really doesn't care for Major Reed or the other SFs.

There are plenty of other characters I'd love to go into, but it's getting late and I'm out of time. I hope some of you check out my series though if you're interested in seeing what I've done. :)
 
Well, I've never liked prequels of any kind so I'd have to say that I just wouldn't have made an ENT type series.

Also, they told us too much about the past in other Trek shows to the point that if a prequel was made there'd be no real drama since we'd already know how it would end and nothing bad would happen ultimately. Which is another hit against making a prequel.

But if I HAD to make one:

1) Keep B&B as the Execs, but hire a new writing staff and give them about 1-2 years to think some stuff up as a series bible. Don't put it out right after VOY, allow things to simmer down before airing the show. A lot of our problems with ENT came from UPN rushing everything.

2) No Kzinti, they just don't work with how Niven's Kzinti are and the Trek Universe. There's no reason they would have gone after the Andorians and Vulcans centuries before and gotten their butts kicked.

3) The Vulcans and Andorians are actually at war when the series airs, thus explaining the more tenser relations with the Vulcans. They can't afford to defend humanity while battling their archenemies at the same time and are pushed as it is to help us the way they have.

4) Earth ships would look like more advanced versions of the Phoenix for the smaller ones while the bigger ones look like more advanced versions of the SS Valiant.

I'll add more later, I'm kind of tired now.
 
Orions: Green and mean, not much is known about them, other than that they are generally misogynistic and view all other species as being no better than livestock, and treat them as such, either as slave labor or as food. They seem to make their ships by cobbling together what they can from ships they have stolen.

I'd be interested to read how closely your version of the Orions compares to the 'real' ENT portrayal.

For what it's worth, the Orion pirates would be the most significant threat in my ENT, in the beginning at least. Romulans would start to show up as the series progresses, and Klingons wouldn't appear at all. There would be arcs involving anti alien terrorists back on Earth, and possibly a storyline featuring Augments.
More often than not, however, it's the Orions that are trouble makers.

There have been several references to, and I quote, "Orion animal women". That got me thinking. If all Orion women were like the slave girls shown on Trek, why not just say 'Orion women'? Why add the qualifier 'animal'? To me, that suggests that the ones we have seen may be different to the average Orion woman. Furthermore, whilst she's clearly a complete nutcase, Marta in 'Whom Gods Destroy' could quote Shakespeare and Houseman, which doesn't quite fit in with the description of them being 'like animals'.
I would suggest then that there are two sorts of Orions. One with the intellect and capabilities to run a 'business' empire. Marta was one of these. Physically and mentally they are roughly comparable to humans.
The second group is characterized as Animals, and are used as slaves by the more capable Orions. Intellectually they seem lacking, though whether this is innate, due to lack of education, or the result of poor attention span is unclear.
Orion Animal Men are much larger than average for their species. Physical strength and endurance are astonishingly high. As such they are used as slave labour for mining, agriculture and so on. They make for efficient, tireless workers, although they need supervision for all but the simplest of jobs. They are also employed as disposable shock troops. In situations where 'rush the enemy and kill everything in sight' is an effective tactic, they are ideal (though you need to give them simple weapons that don't need adjusting or reloading, and are sturdy enough to use as a club).
Orion Animal Women are pretty much as portrayed in TOS, 'vicious, seductive'. They don't release pheromones, but are simply very attractive. In 'The Cage' there's a reference to how they 'actually like being taken advantage of'. Now this does come from an illusory character, but Pike doesn't call him out on it. As an explanation for that remark, Orion Animal Women have limited empathic abilities. Anything that makes you happy, makes them happy as well. And they know what will make you happy.
Yes, I know that the above is wandering close to wish fulfilment fantasies here, but the character concepts were pretty blatantly sexist anyway.

As to where the Animal People come from, I think we should be deliberately vague. The Enterprise crew would have to speculate on their origins. Are they a separate species, related to but distinct from the more intelligent types? Were they genetically engineered as slave labour? Could it be that amongst the Orion genome there is an abnormality that leads to normal couples having children with Animal characteristics?
Answering these questions won't be easy, but as Earth's sphere of influence grows ever wider, and contact with the Orions more commonplace, answers are needed.
 
I'd be interested to read how closely your version of the Orions compares to the 'real' ENT portrayal.
Well, they look about the same, but that's it. ;) I never went for the "twist" ENT assigned to them.

For what it's worth, the Orion pirates would be the most significant threat in my ENT, in the beginning at least. Romulans would start to show up as the series progresses, and Klingons wouldn't appear at all. There would be arcs involving anti alien terrorists back on Earth, and possibly a storyline featuring Augments.
More often than not, however, it's the Orions that are trouble makers.
Pretty much the same on my show. :)

As to the "animal woman" reference, I haven't really made up my mind on anything, but it could just be a derogatory term.
 
I like this a lot:

I would suggest then that there are two sorts of Orions. One with the intellect and capabilities to run a 'business' empire. Marta was one of these. Physically and mentally they are roughly comparable to humans.
The second group is characterized as Animals, and are used as slaves by the more capable Orions. Intellectually they seem lacking, though whether this is innate, due to lack of education, or the result of poor attention span is unclear.

Orion Animal Men are much larger than average for their species. Physical strength and endurance are astonishingly high. As such they are used as slave labour for mining, agriculture and so on. They make for efficient, tireless workers, although they need supervision for all but the simplest of jobs. They are also employed as disposable shock troops. In situations where 'rush the enemy and kill everything in sight' is an effective tactic, they are ideal (though you need to give them simple weapons that don't need adjusting or reloading, and are sturdy enough to use as a club).

Orion Animal Women are pretty much as portrayed in TOS, 'vicious, seductive'. They don't release pheromones, but are simply very attractive. In 'The Cage' there's a reference to how they 'actually like being taken advantage of'. Now this does come from an illusory character, but Pike doesn't call him out on it. As an explanation for that remark, Orion Animal Women have limited empathic abilities. Anything that makes you happy, makes them happy as well. And they know what will make you happy.
Yes, I know that the above is wandering close to wish fulfilment fantasies here, but the character concepts were pretty blatantly sexist anyway.

As to where the Animal People come from, I think we should be deliberately vague. The Enterprise crew would have to speculate on their origins. Are they a separate species, related to but distinct from the more intelligent types? Were they genetically engineered as slave labour? Could it be that amongst the Orion genome there is an abnormality that leads to normal couples having children with Animal characteristics?

Answering these questions won't be easy, but as Earth's sphere of influence grows ever wider, and contact with the Orions more commonplace, answers are needed.

If you take TAS into account, at least some Orions (pronounced here as Orr-EEE-ons) are at least as intelligent as humans and even shrewd and sneaky, while prone to self-destruct in defeat yet not really willing to follow through.

I was thinking that it would be interesting if the Orions initially acted as proxies for the Romulans, until eventually betraying them to Earth as the puppet-masters behind their various attacks, and therefore going towards explaining why the Orions would be a theoretically neutral but looked-down-upon party by the time of TOS/TAS.

The Orion Syndicate of TNG-era could either be the official name for their government, or a term akin to the Italian Mafia or the Russian Mob.
 
If you take TAS into account, at least some Orions (pronounced here as Orr-EEE-ons) are at least as intelligent as humans and even shrewd and sneaky, while prone to self-destruct in defeat yet not really willing to follow through.

Journey To Babel shows something similar.

I was thinking that it would be interesting if the Orions initially acted as proxies for the Romulans, until eventually betraying them to Earth as the puppet-masters behind their various attacks, and therefore going towards explaining why the Orions would be a theoretically neutral but looked-down-upon party by the time of TOS/TAS.

Hmm, the Orions acting as mercenaries, but willing to compromise their masters to suit their own purposes, even if it hurts their long term prospects. That seems to fit what little we do know about them.

The Orion Syndicate of TNG-era could either be the official name for their government, or a term akin to the Italian Mafia or the Russian Mob.

I'd see the Orion government as being apparently above board, perhaps even democratically elected. Behind the scenes though it's just a puppet for the 'special interest groups' that really run things.
 
Does the Orion Syndicate even have to be comprised entirely of one race? Maybe it can be a space mafia of several races that just happen to call themselves the Orion Syndicate because the organization originated there.

I think it would be a nice touch to have the protagonist races all dealing with the Syndicate separately instead of working together. A sort of flip from what Trek usually is (the group that's several races being the protagonist against singular race organization antagonists).
 
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