Too much time travel?

[Neutral Zone]

The past days been down with a hest infection so passed the time with watching Enterprise.

A great series and the concept of early space travel, first space explorer being the Enterprise, pre-Kirk and introducing the first holosuites etc. As I say great!

But I noticed that there was a lot of time travel episodes, maybe too many, they certainly got stuck in a rut. Could this have led to the demise ofthe series?

 

[JiNX-01]

Time travel was indeed a big issue for some fans.

That is, those of us who had seen TOS and knew that the crew of the NCC-1701 were taken by surprise the first time they traveled back in time.

And yet, for the crew of the NX-01 -- 22nd century -- it happens so often they seem to take it for granted.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Agreed, time travel had no place in a prequel series.

TPTB decided that the series HAD to have it since they thought time travel was essential to Trek. Granted, the concept can lead to some interesting stories when done well, but it certainly isn't essential.

 

[Aquarius]

I think the time travel was an issue, sure.

But there were other aspects I felt were manhandled, for a prequel. For example, in TOS, transporters seemed barely safe/fit for human travel (look at all the accidents they had!), yet they insisted on introducing them in ENT, a hundred years earlier when things are supposed to be harder and take longer to do. I just expected things in general to be rougher around the edges.

Also, I felt the introduction of the Borg to that time frame was pushing it. I mean, I suppose it's canonically valid considering the First Contact movie, but this isn't the only instance of a race that I feel was met "too early," given what was implied by other series. The Ferengi are another example--in their first appearance on TNG, it was only "rumored" what they were like; if Archer was already encountering them, then by Picard's time one would think they'd be no big deal by then.

Basically I wish they'd kept more of a "frontier" flavor to it, spending more time on their developing relationships with the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, etc....and hostile encounters with Klingons and Romulans and Orions. Time travel, used sparingly, could've worked, but since whatever happened during such incidents would be classified by Starfleet, I don't agree that there's an incongruity with Kirk and crew not being taken by surprise the first time they were thrown back in time.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Basically I wish they'd kept more of a "frontier" flavor to it, spending more time on their developing relationships with the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, etc....and hostile encounters with Klingons and Romulans and Orions.

While I love Enterprise, that is my number one major compliant about the series. It should have spent MUCH more time on universe-building aspects (like relations with Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites and the lead-up to the Earth-Romulan War). Hell, Tellarites were used so little, they're almost not even there.

Star Trek, IMO, has always been at its best when dealing with universe-building, not when "boldly going where no one has gone before." However, I think that TPTB decided that "boldly going" is what Trek absolutely had to be about, so Enterprise had that concept shoved down its throat.

As far as I'm concerned, the entire idea of a prequel series demanded constant universe-building. I didn't want to see more TNG, I wanted to see how things came to be in TOS, TNG, and DS9.

 

[JarodRussell]

The time travel plot was annyoing because it was never ever solved.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I didn't mind time travel. I actually thought it was an ambitious idea to base an entire arc around it. In the past it had simply been a one off or two off story element.

What I didn't particularly like about it was how little the TCW was addressed in the first few seasons however when it became the driving force for the Xindi attack I became much more involved. In fact, you can clearly see how time travel and future knowledge/visions driving entire seasons of tv shows sorta began on ENT as we saw LOST, Heroes, T: SCC, The 4400 use it to that degree as well.

 

[Neutral Zone]

I agree it should have stayed with frontier building, getting to know others and maybe trying to make a distant link with species that Kirk and Picard would eventually meet themselves because on occasion they would go to established earth colonies.

With the amount of time travel done in Enterprise they should have tripped so many paradox's that the whole universe should have disappeared.

 

[darkshadow0001]

Basically I wish they'd kept more of a "frontier" flavor to it, spending more time on their developing relationships with the Vulcans, Tellarites, Andorians, etc....and hostile encounters with Klingons and Romulans and Orions.

While I love Enterprise, that is my number one major compliant about the series. It should have spent MUCH more time on universe-building aspects (like relations with Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites and the lead-up to the Earth-Romulan War). Hell, Tellarites were used so little, they're almost not even there.

Star Trek, IMO, has always been at its best when dealing with universe-building, not when "boldly going where no one has gone before." However, I think that TPTB decided that "boldly going" is what Trek absolutely had to be about, so Enterprise had that concept shoved down its throat.

As far as I'm concerned, the entire idea of a prequel series demanded constant universe-building. I didn't want to see more TNG, I wanted to see how things came to be in TOS, TNG, and DS9.

I agree. That is what I originally thought Enterprise was going to be about... but this didn't really occur until season 4. There were some aspects of your reasoning though in earlier seasons, like the "Reed Alert". Now how ironic could it be that they named the Red Alert after a guy with the last name "Reed" ?

 

[JarodRussell]

There were some aspects of your reasoning though in earlier seasons, like the "Reed Alert".

Oh gawd, not the Reed Alert.
And only after tactical officer Yellou to came up with the Yellou Alert, Starfleet ships finally had a proper defense system.

 

[maneth]

I must admit I didn't like the TCW much...

 

[timelord1010]

The thing that gets me is that in TOS Kirk and the Enterprise 1701 got to the point where they could time travel at will (Assignment Earth) then in First Contact Picard and Company modify the deflector to copy the Borg time travel corridor and finally on Voyager the Federation has time ships hoping around in time. With all of this going on just with Starfleet why didn't we see Federation Timeships involved in the Temporal Cold War? It would have been nice to see Braxton or another time traveler from another Trek series.

 

[commodore64]

You know, I think we'll never know. We saw some time travel, but most of the major time travel really never got resolved.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Time Travel is one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy elements.

ENT and VOY had so many great Time Travel eps.. I loved them! I even liked the TCW never being resolved to our eyes because it avoided the neat tie up. The TCW resolved or shifted in some way until it no longer involved Archer's crew, quite believable really. Why would anyone go back to Archer and let him know how it turned out if they no longer needed him? They wouldn't, they would leave him in the dark.

 

[Aquarius]

The episode that bugged me the most was "Carpenter Street." Their "Detroit" was nothing like the real thing. For one thing the hookers were too clean, good-looking, and had all their teeth. Real hookers you see around here are what you call the "crack ho."

For another, everything was too clean, and there weren't any drug dealers or homeless hanging out everywhere.

This is not to say every part of Detroit lives up to its horrible stereotype...but between the Xindi keeping their operation on the down-low and the nature of what Blood Bank Guy was doing, you'd think things would be MUCH seedier than what they were. You need the areas with the abandoned factories and burned-out crack houses.

 

[Saul]

I think Time Travel was done as a lazy way of getting out of things instead of intelligent thought out plots with proper conclusions. Time travel can be done well if there is some consideration put into it that makes it uniquly a time travel plot story.