So here is a copy of a post I made an Reddit. I'm making a copy of it here to raise discussion about what parts of ENT worked, which failed and in the hopes that people in the ENT community have had same ideas in the past but thought out more thoroughly.
Hi.
I recently went on a re-watch of the Enterprise. The show is one of the best mixes in the Universe. It has so many good ideas going on it (Shran, Soval, Xindi) and yet so many things that were simply god awful (S4E2 "Oops, just forget about that whole time travel thing", S1E9 "The Episode Written By William Shatner", S3E2 "We have internal sensors, but no alarm when five aliens transport to the ship" kinda BAD writing, and "I saw a gazelle giving birth" super weird flex that Archer gave to the Vulcans).
In the part of the galaxy where I come from, I have reputation for being a bit of a smart ass. So I gave some thought to how using some of the given pieces to create a better overall show. I don’t want to write this out in order to bang on about show that's almost 20 years old, but to open a discussion on what parts were interesting about Enterprise. Also, I'm not at all convinced that the ideas I'm presenting are original (tends to happen after 20 years). It would be interesting to hear if anyone has taken these sort of ideas further.
So, Enterprise as a show would start as we have seen on TV. The difference would begin with the introduction of our time travel agent, Daniels. When he introduces himself to Archer, he would throw the whole Star Trek fandom under the bus by proclaiming that he is a United Earth time agent from the 31st century. He describes a utopian world, where races like Humans, Andorians and Bajorans have joined in a peaceful alliance. However, there is still the threat of a “Temporal Cold War”. Factions that include the Romulan Star Empire, the Kzinti Empire and the Tholians would use time travel for their own ends. During the show-run, Daniels would make off-hand remarks how Klingons, Vulcans and Cardassians just didn’t make it, once again throwing the Star Trek fandom with a “wtf”.
The second change would occur in the season 1 finale “Shockwave, Part 1”, when the Kzinti Empire fire the “opening salvo”. They use the Suliban race (future Kzinti slave race) and perform the plot of the episode. The Enterprise would solve the dilemma like in the original, but Daniels would not transport Archer in to the future. Instead, Daniels would arrive with a team of time agents. They would attempt to free Archer from the Suliban space station. This, in turn, invites the Kzinti (from a future point when they had perfected transporting things through time) to send their own agents. A fight ensues, during which Daniels uses Earth and Suliban/Kzinti time technology to escape with Archer.
Arriving in to the future, Daniels and Archer are confused. They arrive at Earth, but it has been destroyed. They investigate a nearby library and Daniels comes to a hypothesis. Taking Archer from his time had caused an alternative future, where humanity was wiped a long time before the 31st century. “See those books? In my time, everything was digital”. They proceed with the rest of the episode and return back to the 22nd century. However, Daniels lied. In the chaos of the bloody battle involving future technology, the jury rigged time machine had broken one of the holiest Temporal Accords and send them to Daniel’s future. The graveyard Earth was from the 32nd century. Daniels gathers that the conflict had turned hot in the 31st century as well. The story about the library was a lie. Earth libraries had reverted back to paper books when time travel allowed an excess supply of original classics.
Returning to the 22nd century, Archer continues to Season 2 in the knowledge that there are temporal agents trying to screw with his time. Daniels is left in a pickle. He knows that the conflict is to arrive to the 22nd century, time agents send from a future already destroyed before they arrive. As the only remaining Earth time agent, it is his destiny to maintain the Temporal Accords. He begins to construct the appropriate time tools, a project that will take years to complete with 22nd century technology.
The Enterprise continues its adventures, facing time agents that attempt to destabilize the 22nd century. They foil the Tholian agent, who informed the Sphere Builders of the role of humanity has in defeating them in the 26th century. Insert 3rd season plot here. There is another season long arch about the Romulan time agent raising the Vulcan and Andorian war hawks to power, setting a stage for a full-blown conflict between the races. After a full-scale war is prevented, the agent attempts to prop-up the Romulan probe problem seen also in Season 4.
Finally, Daniels completes a timeline scanner. His fears are realized, the timeline is skewed beyond believe. The 26th century Sphere Builder invasion will not happen and the Vulcan-Andorian Cold War ended prematurely. The likelihood of a timeline where the “Alliance” does not exist is becoming likelier by the day. He is failing in preserving the timeline!
The final challenge is Vosk himself. An almost mythical figure for time travelers. A genius radical thinker from the 29th century, he believes time travel to be unalienable right for improvement. The improvements of quality of live for all sentience in all of space IN ALL OF TIME cannot be denied simply because organizations like the “Alliance” deem it too dangerous. He is willing to sacrifice anyone or anything to make it happen, for whomever controls time travel is in a position to re-write any wrong. In time, it will not matter. Dead-set on his ideology, he has a plan to destroy the Temporal Accords of his future. Using his brilliant mind, he hides himself from the temporal agents by removing his race from history. There is even reason to believe that he ensured the escalation of the Temporal Cold War. Scouting out the conflict, he concludes that his greatest chance is to steal the time machine Daniels is constructing in the 22nd century. He has been behind the scenes all along, watching for the ripe opportunity. The Enterprise fights Vosk and his “Free-Time” radicals and manages to defeat Vosk before he steals the near-complete time machine. In his dying breath, Vosk brings the greatest challenge for Archer.
For you see, Daniels is wrong.
Vosk did not start as a radical maniac. When he began exploring the science of time, he discovered the future time conflict. He spent centuries trying to avert the conflict, while maintaining the temporal powers in their place in time. However, Vosk eventually realized that preventing the conflict was futile. It was an eventuality. Preventing it would be as unnatural as preventing the fall of the Iconian civilization some 200 000 years prior. If the conflict is part of the “natural order of things” then so are the changes caused by the time agents send during it. The conflict has set the seeds for something greater. The Sphere Builders are gone, there is no Delphic expanse to engulf this region of space. No evacuation of Vulcan, their species will endure. The Humans, Andorians, Tellarites and Vulcans are on the verge of forming a new alliance, a new future. A timeline where a “United Federation of Planets” will bring peace several hundred years before the formation of the “Alliance”. That’s when Vosk tells Archer the truth, that Daniels is trying to set the timeline back on track where humanity and other Temporal Powers will go extinct at the 31st century. Daniels, realizing that Archer might prevent him restoring the timeline (and any hope for a timeline where his precious United Earth will exist in the 31st century), tries to overpower Archer, but is killed.
