Terra Prime

[Jax]

I loved this idea from Coto and his writers and thought it represented a more realistic human reaction to alien contact but my question is...

Do you think TERRA PRIME or a group like then should of been added in earlier even possible in the pilot as a recurring and deadly threat, quite possibly the main enemy of the show. I always wanted to see more of humans reaction back on Earth to us meeting other races and setting up an alliance.

 

[Frodo Lives]

Perhaps, but there were a lot of missed opportunities in the first two seasons, and I'd have much rather they made good use of other story-lines than the Terra Prime plot, which seemed to pop up in just the right place I thought.

Although a little more foreshadowing would have been pretty cool, maybe someone on the NX-01 gossiping about Terra Prime graffiti appearing across the planet or calls from a prominent Earth politician to get rid of alien influence appearing in a news-feed one of the characters was watching/reading.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

Earlier, yes.

Main enemy. No. The 2-parter was hokey enough. Speciest bad rich guy (who's a bit of hypocrite) threatening Earth with super weapon! (And he makes a hybird Vulcan-human baby for no good reason) Reduced human xenophobia to simplistic right and wrong terms. It's Trek in heavy handed mode. Obviously, the series is gonna be open-minded and anti-xenophibic, it is Star Trek, but we know from the series get go there were tensions over Vulcan "interference" in human affairs. That's largely glossed over...why? Because Archer is now cool with Vulcans and Trip got it on with T'Pol. Therefore other humans expressing anti-alien sentiment is now EVIL IN ITS PUREST FORM. CONFESS AND REPENT NOW!

Archer: "I admit Ambassador Soval, there were times I felt like hurling an asteroid at Starfleet headquarters just to kill you. I was wrong."

Tucker: "Heck, Captain, one time I thought about rigging T'Pol's EVA suit to malfunction during a mission."

Reed: "I bribed Chef to poison Dr. Phlox's breakfast...uh...I meant I thought about it."

 

[Kegek]

They would have been useful as a minor season one enemy, a bit like their B5 equivalent, the Home Guard.

 

[JiNX-01]

The time to introduce Terra Prime would have been during "The Expanse." IIRC, there was a passing comment about xenophobia in that episode, but to mention the ascent of a fringe group would have been so much more realistic.

Archer might even have dismissed it at the time as unlikely to last long so when he returns from the Xindi mission and discovers how much of a following the group has gained...

I also always thought it would have been interesting if Trip's brother had become a member, putting some onus on Trip in the eyes of Star Fleet and creating a conflict with a member of his own family -- particularly in light of his friendships with T'Pol and Phlox.

An earlier introduction of TP could have been fodder for some good stories long before the attempt to run the aliens out of town.

 

[Sci]

It might have been more interesting for Terra Prime to be a major political party in the United Earth government instead of a terrorist organization. Someone within Earth's government to constantly cause problems for the NX-01 crew instead of just the Vulcans...

 

[Captain X]

I think it might have made things more interesting too if it had turned out that Archer had been a member when he was younger.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Archer was a complete member.

 

[commodore64]

Terra Prime was a good idea, but the group proved kitten-like rather than a real enemy and Peter Weller, a sci-fi phenom, wasn't given a good enough script where he could really shine. So, what you get was this organization that seemed rather weak with the guy at the top who was rather un-scary. Really defanged the organization.

Terra Prime the episode? Boy, let's see - two members of Starfleet who can't remember they already had a baby (in E2) under similar circumstances, don't go undercover to get their binary clone back and then get caught by a not so scary leader while an incredibly dull plot about Travis unfolds. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The best part of the episode was Archer's speech and the moment of Vulcan warmth displayed by T'Pol. That's it. That's about five minutes. Five minutes doth not a good episode make.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Vulcan warmth be darned. It was the Kretessian warmth which REALLY mattered.

That speach wouldn't have rallied a squad of momma's boys huddled around a risk board.

Paxton on the other hand had some brilliant EVIL Rhetoric, but his entire plan was built on a house of cards, and trying to take the moral highground while taking alien gene therapy was just like sticking an off toggle between his eyes. They knew the show was cancelled. Paxotn could have killed Hoshi or ripped one of Tuckers arms off or destroyed Enterprise. They could have made him a worth while villain if he'd just done something! I mean at the 11th hour needing to kidnap and coerce yur mortal enemy to make their cannon work properly. They spent a year making that baby, but left the this and that to the verteron cannon to the last second with no forward planning?

Seriously, was Enterprise a comedy?

 

[gblews]

MeanJoePhaser said:
Reduced human xenophobia to simplistic right and wrong terms. It's Trek in heavy handed mode. Obviously, the series is gonna be open-minded and anti-xenophibic, it is Star Trek, but we know from the series get go there were tensions over Vulcan "interference" in human affairs. That's largely glossed over...why? Because Archer is now cool with Vulcans and Trip got it on with T'Pol. Therefore other humans expressing anti-alien sentiment is now EVIL IN ITS PUREST FORM. CONFESS AND REPENT NOW!

Uh, yeah, thats kind of the way it works with us homo sapiens and prejudice. We hate, fear, and detest, those who are different until getting to know one or two on a personal basis. Thats when we find out that underneath it all, we're really not that different. Nothing could have been more natural than for both Trip and Cap'n to gradually come to a change of heart about Vulcans after working so closely with people like T'Pol, Soval, T'Les, and V'Lar.

I thought Terra Prime should have appeared earlier as a fringe group of wackos (which they were, not the main villains), but that would have meant Manny running the show earlier, and what are you gonna to do?

As it turned out, I thought TP was one of the few Trek (not just Enterprise) episodes that I not only consider excellent, but important.

 

[Hoshi's sis]

gblews said:

MeanJoePhaser said:
Reduced human xenophobia to simplistic right and wrong terms. It's Trek in heavy handed mode. Obviously, the series is gonna be open-minded and anti-xenophibic, it is Star Trek, but we know from the series get go there were tensions over Vulcan "interference" in human affairs. That's largely glossed over...why? Because Archer is now cool with Vulcans and Trip got it on with T'Pol. Therefore other humans expressing anti-alien sentiment is now EVIL IN ITS PUREST FORM. CONFESS AND REPENT NOW!

Uh, yeah, thats kind of the way it works with us homo sapiens and prejudice. We hate, fear, and detest, those who are different until getting to know one or two on a personal basis. Thats when we find out that underneath it all, we're really not that different. Nothing could have been more natural than for both Trip and Cap'n to gradually come to a change of heart about Vulcans after working so closely with people like T'Pol, Soval, T'Les, and V'Lar.

I thought Terra Prime should have appeared earlier as a fringe group of wackos (which they were, not the main villains), but that would have meant Manny running the show earlier, and what are you gonna to do?

As it turned out, I thought TP was one of the few Trek (not just Enterprise) episodes that I not only consider excellent, but important.

I agree, although Terra Prime was IMO one of the best episodes of Season 4, it would have been nice if we could have seen reference to it before. Maybe early on in Season 3 while Enterprise was out in the Expanse, Archer and Co get a news update from Forresst about anti alien sentiment appearing on Earth. Maybe expand on this at the end of S3/early S4 when Enterprise has got back home. I know they touched upon this in Home but I think a bit more emphasis on the anti alien feeling would have been a good tie in.

 

[Jack Bauer]

If we had seen it earlier we may have gotten a more powerful and dangerous enemy rather than the prety wimpy, boring and lame plotters we got. I still don't get the whole Vulcan/human baby. It was supposed to be so shocking and was to upset umanity but it sure didn't see, like it did. If they had laid the groundwork for the group more they may have been more menacing.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I still find it insane that 90 years after meeting alien life that man hadn't shagged one.

 

[gblews]

Guy Gardener said:
I still find it insane that 90 years after meeting alien life that man hadn't shagged one.

Oh but man had...man had!

 

[Skywalker]

"We have failed to uphold Brannigan's Law. However, I did make it with a hot alien babe. And in the end, is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars?"

 

[Nebusj]

Guy Gardener said:
I still find it insane that 90 years after meeting alien life that man hadn't shagged one.

It's a hotly contested medical debate, but there have been suggestions in recent and very controversial papers hinting at the possibility of there being -- if not today, then sometime in the future -- some way to have sex without resulting in pregnancy.

 

[Skywalker]

Yeah, I just find it hard to believe that no man had gone there before the 2150s. I'm sure there were plenty of people in the ECS who'd had extraterrestrial relations.

 

[Odon]

You're forgetting that there's a difference between what people do and what they admit to doing. I'm sure there was a lot of covert sex going on, but because it was with aliens their biology wasn't compatible enough to create babies.

P.S. They should have done what the DVD commentary suggested and have the vetreon beam kill the last humpback whales on Earth.

 

[Green Shirt]

Guy Gardener said:
Archer was a complete member.