I dunno. I'm not entirely convinced that the Illyrians from ENT...
... have similar-enough cranial ridges to the Illyrian kid seen in the Starfleet database image in SNW...
... to assume that they must be the same species.
They
could be the same species. I think that's a valid interpretation. But I think the evidence is inconclusive and it's just as legitimate to interpret them as separate species with similar names.
Personally, I think the ENT Illyrians are a separate species with a similar name, and that the SNW Illyrians are a nation of Human Augments who emigrated from Earth some time between First Contact and the launch of the NX-01.
I speculate this for a couple of reasons:
1) It makes it easier to believe that Una could pass a genetic scan as Human if Illyrians are just modified Humans.
2) It's more interesting to me if Illyrians are Humans with a profoundly different culture than Humans in the UFP/U.E.
3) La'an calls Una an "Augment," which doesn't make any sense outside of the context of Human history with genetic engineering.
4) There is a potential inconsistency if the SNW Illyrians are aliens. We know from ENT S4 that Denobulans routinely use genetic engineering, yet there is no indication whatsoever that Earthers, Vulcans, Andorians, or Tellarites have any prejudices against Denobulans for that. So why would those same cultures have such a profound prejudice against Illyrians but not Denobulans? It makes more sense that there would be a sense of anger and betrayal and resentment if the Illyrians were Humans who rejected Earth's anti-genetic engineering values.
Edited to add: Admittedly the weakness in my interpretation that they're separate species is the presence of what looks like fictitious alien script on the okudagram, but I weigh the reasons I listed higher than that.
End edit.
I mean, if SNW is using the
Doctor Who-style season structure, what will probably happen is that semi-serialized recurring background elements/B-plots will come together and comprise the A-plot of the season finale. So for instance,
Doctor Who season 2 had a bunch of episodic, standalone stories where a mysterious organization called "Torchwood" operated in the background until suddenly we saw Torchwood driving the A-plot of the last two episodes of the season. Whedon and co. used a similar structure on
Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- for example, the Mayor is a recurring B-plot antagonist in a bunch of episodic stories at the start of S3, but he gradually takes over and then becomes the A-plot antagonist by the last two episodes of the season.
If SNW follows that pattern, then its episodes will stay episodic, but a recurring background element will take over in 1x09/1x10.
