There were some obvious writing flaws with Enterprise, having noted that I think people under-fault the casting decisions that were made. I'm not directly faulting the actors some of them have really good traits, but I think too many are square pegs in round hole. I was initially really excited by an actor of Scott Bakula's caliber taking the Captain's chair. I loved him in Quantum Leap it was one of my favorite shows growing up but in all his acting he's kind of a "happy wanderer". Sort of like Gulliver in his travels where he chances on adventure and solves it by accident. He didn't bring the gravity to really be a Starfleet Captain, not the same force of personality like Picard, Kirk, Sisko, or Janeway. Archer's best scenes are when he's on his own away from a crew; he doesn't "command well" as an actor and seem overpowered by T'pol and Tripp. That said there were also some episodes in season 1 really well written that are underacted and could have fueled better ratings. "The Andorian Incident" and "Shadows of P'Jem" are well written but improperly set up because the series doesn't show the pre-cursor to the inciting incident. They allude to it but don't portray. It got caught up in the temporal cold war instead of setting up the backstage story for the early days. It would be like over-editing the Godfather; the shooting of Vito Corleone is the inciting incident and makes Michael's change from above board patriot Soldier to stern mob boss believable. But what happens if they skip the meeting where Vito tells the Turk he's not interested in the narcotics world? The inciting incident is nearly without purpose then. From that point it's bad writing setup. Still a more forceful acting job of Archer makes these more impactful episodes instead the Enterprise crew "stumbles" into the right answer. Besdies Archer you've got Mayweather portrayal and bad guest acting; Fortunate Son is a well done stand alone episode featuring Nosicans but the acting on the supply ship Fortunate is so two-dimensional it ends up looking cheesy. Civilization is laso a good concept ...poorly executed because they don't get to the gravity of learning, its perfectly poised for unintentional effects on alien cultures. From that point its bad acting.
Archer being revealed as Future Guy, as per Brannon Braga's infamous tweet. The mental and temporal gymnastics required to make that work would have been glorious.
There is a fun Fanfiction story where Future guy is Trip, his future self goes back in time and tells him to 1. Fight for T'Pol in Home 2. Instructs the Suliban from season 1 3. Gives Phlox the cure for baby Elizabeth (all done with Daniels help, since Elizabeth's death is a temporal mistake. She is the future doctor who helps Spock to be born).
I would like to have seen how the newly altered Klingons were integrated into the rest of the empire. Were they treated as second class citizens? How would members of the great houses deal with infected members? Is there a reason why the Klingons we see in TOS were all of the infected variety? Was there major conflict? A smallish civil war? p.s. There are a lot of great ideas in this thread. Damn shame we didn't get a season 5.
Hmmm, maybe have them on board right from the start? This would give us more time with them, more time to develop them and get to know some of them as individuals. Still have the objections from Archer, and the power play between Reed and Hayes.
I liked how the MACOs were added as a response to the Xindi attack, but I would have liked to have seen more stories involving them as well. "Harbinger" was a pretty good episode, for example. Trip alive, baby Elizabeth alive. I solve the former by just ignoring "TATV."
Malcolm and Hayes' story should have ended very differently, IYKWIM. Even 2003 was late for Trek board that bus, however.
I'll say there was some repressed sexual tension between those two, kinda like earlier Archer and T'Pol.
What I wanted to see near the end of the show was one simple scene: Trip & T'Pol cuddling with each other on a peaceful blessed Sunday morning. I that too much to ask? Would've been simple enough to realize. And... yet another vote for E2 the mini series. Lorian and Karen are such interesting characters, especially since David Andrews did a fantastic job and even looked a bit like Trip's son. Goosebumps...
If we're going to put Archer and Shran together ... T'Pol is moved to science officer only, thereby opening the position of first officer to Shran. This make more sense (to me) than going from Captain to the leader of a Maco squad. Then ... Years later when Shran gets command of his own starship again, Archer fulfills a promise and steps down from whatever rank and position he holds, and becomes the first officer of Shran's new ship.
This x 1000000. I also loved "E2" and David Andrews' Lorian. It would have been awesome if that ship had made its way back home in S5 and become part of the storyline. And I would have much preferred watching Trip and T'Pol hammer out a lasting relationship, instead of seeing it derailed because of the Contrived Plot Device known as Koss. (And don't even get me started on their stupid contrived OOC WTF breakup in TATV.) T/T echoed the growing alliance between Earth and Vulcan and could have paved the way for unions like Sarek and Amanda. Ah, what might have been.
Thank you! Personally, I hated the outcome of "Home" when it aired the first time around, probably like everybody else. And mind you, this is just my opinion, but the writers missed many golden opportunities throughout all seasons when it comes to the TnT 'ship. Most notably Mike Sussman. I almost hate him for what he did (repeatedly) to Trip & T'Pol and it literally took me years to figure a way to tie up a few of his loose ends... But in hindsight I have come to appreciate the early events on Vulcan. ("The Forge" should/could have happened 2-3 years later, but that's another story.) First off, both Joanna Cassidy (T'Les) and Michael Reilly Burke (Koss) did a very good job with the few lines they were given, absolutely convincing. Secondly, if you let the two love birds develop their relationship undisturbed, it won't make for a compelling story to remember. Sad but true. It is precisely because of the many difficulties they had to overcome, which made TnT such a remarkable 'ship, one of my all time favorites. I didn't care much about the contrived solution to resolve the "Koss" problem, although it made kind of sense. And I certainly didn't like what came after "Affliction". Trip on 'Columbia' for hardly a week or two, then hanging around on 'Enterprise' for no good reason at all and in "Bound", (if I remember correctly) 'Columbia' is nowhere to be seen, but Trip AND Kelby are both assigned to engineering. WTF? Now we have three Commanders on 'Enterprise'. And no experienced personnel on 'Columbia'. That's great writing is that. No, the "bond thing" has to be more subtle and at the same time more riveting. It's a major life changer after all. The poor baby Elizabeth story was unnecessary. Just think about it for a minute, what these two had to go through in but one season (less than one year IRL) - it boggles my mind. One alternative ending would be that Trip stays aboard 'Columbia' for an entire year. [poor baby Elizabeth doesn't happen] During this time they reluctantly meet up every night in T'Pols "white space" but Trip is still frustrated and trying to avoid her, even in their dreams. Now, the interesting part is the initial situation: - the events on Vulcan (non- Civil War) didn't happen (yet) and T'Les is still alive and relatively well off, T'Pol does her best to ignore her husband and to focus on the bond forming between her and Trip ('Columbia') OR - Kir'Shara has been found and T'Les is dead, sadly. This makes for a relatively quick solution when the year is over.
Lorien showing up in Discovery or the Kelvin universe movies, even as a background character, would be awesome. Presumably it wouldn't be the same Lorien, but one that Trip and T'pol conceived because NOT. DEAD.