Was "Enterprise" Federation Revisionist History?

[Navarro]

Star Trek: Enterprise presented a variety of examples of behavior which is questionable at best. Perhaps the finest example of this is when Archer and Phlox conspired against a species suffering from a genetic disease, dooming them to extinction. It wasn't because the species was "bad" or "threatening" in some way. In fact, the species was nothing but amicable, living in harmony with a second, less advanced species. Humanity had long ago killed off its Neanderthal brethren on Earth, but this species chose to coexist peacefully with it's less developed neighbor. That was apparently unacceptable to Star Fleet's best. Instead of providing the suffering and dying species with the cure they so desperately needed, Archer and Phlox chose to withhold it. They chose to allow that species to die so that the other species might someday rise up and take their place. Might.

In the Enterprise season finale, it was revealed that the episode, and perhaps entire season itself, had only been a recreation of events. Riker had been watching a hologram all along. History has a tendency to be interpreted in a variety of ways. One historian's hero is another's villain. Someone once said, "history is written by the victors." While Archer and Phlox appeared to commit genocide, supported by very dubious reasons, Riker's hologram calls into question whether or not that event actually took place in the way shown to us. If Enterprise was a revisionist interpretation of history, it may be that what took place that day was actually much more sinister, or much less.

Perhaps Phlox never actually found a cure, and the paranoid historical records left by the extinct species had blamed the Federation, claiming Archer and Phlox secretly did have the ability to save them. Perhaps 24th century conspiracy theorists believe the Enterprise did provide them a "cure," but that cure proved to be deadly, and the incident was subsequently covered-up by Star Fleet. Perhaps that cure was very intentionally deadly - the 22nd Century version of smallpox infected blankets. After all, whose to say Archer's USS Enterprise wasn't actually more like Forrest's ISS Enterprise?

Did it all really happen as we were shown, or does the Riker hologram twist put everything into question? Perhaps more interestingly: could Riker have been a crazy conspiracy theorist?

He was once institutionalized in an insane asylum, wasn't he?

 

[Dukhat]

Official, canon answer: ENT happened exactly the way you saw it on the screen, including TATV, which, while only a holodeck recreation of events, was still considered "the way it actually happened in real life."

Personal canon answer: Both TATV and perhaps the entire series itself could possibly have been just a figment of Riker's imagination, like that little kid at the end of St. Elsewhere with the snow globe, if you know what I'm talking about. YMMV.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Enterprise was Riker's holodeck game, and Next Gen was one of Benny Russel's stories.

Oh and everything after 1994 is Picard's Nexus fantasy. What you didn't think he REALLY got out, did you?

 

[Tenacity]

Humanity had long ago killed off its Neanderthal brethren on Earth

A questionable theory, more likely Humanity was simply more successful at survival and our psychology tended towards forming large communities, while the Neanderthals didn't. Humanity didn't purposely killed off the Neanderthal.

Personally, I'm one of the fans that hold that Enterprise is a alternate universe create by the events of the movie First Contact, and has major differences from the history of the prime universe seen in the four previous series.

Could Riker's holodeck program be merely a interactive historical story? I have no problem with this idea.

Archer and the crew of the NX-01 are fictionalize characters in a holodeck program, either entirely made up, or possibly they are composites of multiple actual people.

In the case of Dear Doctor, that could have been school lesson on different ethics, cultures and making important decisions. School children on various worlds would watch the holo-story, and then the teacher would guide the children in a discussion

 

[Tuskin38]

and has major differences from the history of the prime universe seen in the four previous series.

Not really.

The only real continuity error is the ferengi episode. But the Ferengi have been inconstant since DS9.

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/enterprise_continuity.htm

 

[Tenacity]

Not really.

The only real continuity error is the ferengi episode. But the Ferengi have been inconstant since DS9.

The big thing for me in terms of continuity are things like in the first four series (and TAS too) during the first century of warp flight Humanity was going freaking everywhere, many instances of exploration and colonization ships, one of which from the 2060's reached the galactic barrier.

Star Trek Enterprise on the other hand is set in universe where comparatively little happen in the first century of warp flight, Human ships remained slow, and the Vulcans prevented Humanity from venturing outward. In the 2150's Humans have only just constructed our first real exploration starship.

***

In Up the Long Ladder, a Human DY-500 colony ship left Earth in the 2120's and reached the "Ficus Sector." The 24th century Enterprise is dispatch from Starbase 73 to travel to the established colony. Unless the Enterprise was near Earth, the 2120's colony wasn't established near Earth.

In ST Enterprise, in the 2120's Human ships travel at less than warp 2, and the farthest Earth colony is 20 light years from Earth.

***

In the year 2146, the starship Urusei Yatsura left Earth to survey a nebula. In real life the closest nebula to Earth (SH 2-216) is about 400 light years away.

In ST Enterprise, Humanity achieve warp 2 in 2143, warp 3 in 2145, and warp 4 around 2150.

 

[Voth commando1]

The big thing for me in terms of continuity are things like in the first four series (and TAS too) during the first century of warp flight Humanity was going freaking everywhere, many instances of exploration and colonization ships, one of which from the 2060's reached the galactic barrier.

Star Trek Enterprise on the other hand is set in universe where comparatively little happen in the first century of warp flight, Human ships remained slow, and the Vulcans prevented Humanity from venturing outward. In the 2150's Humans have only just constructed our first real exploration starship.

***

In Up the Long Ladder, a Human DY-500 colony ship left Earth in the 2120's and reached the "Ficus Sector." The 24th century Enterprise is dispatch from Starbase 73 to travel to the established colony. Unless the Enterprise was near Earth, the 2120's colony wasn't established near Earth.

In ST Enterprise, in the 2120's Human ships travel at less than warp 2, and the farthest Earth colony is 20 light years from Earth.

***

In the year 2146, the starship Urusei Yatsura left Earth to survey a nebula. In real life the closest nebula to Earth (SH 2-216) is about 400 light years away.

In ST Enterprise, Humanity achieve warp 2 in 2143, warp 3 in 2145, and warp 4 around 2150.

That's precisely why the Vulcans were so intent on holding them down, they were progressing at a technical level way to quickly.

 

[Tenacity]

In the prime universe the Vulcans were politely thanked for their advice to slow down, and then Humanity went ahead and gushed out into the galaxy

 

[Dukhat]

...one of which from the 2060's reached the galactic barrier.

And yet this was completely ignored in all subsequent Trek, which established that even in the 24th century, much less the 21st, it took decades even at high warp to reach the galactic distances that the Valiant supposedly did on its own. Plus, when "Where No Man Has Gone Before" was filmed, no one knew when TOS took place. All it said was that the Valiant disappeared 200 years before the episode. If they had decided that TOS took place in the 29th century, then the Valiant would have gone missing in the 27th.

In Up the Long Ladder, a Human DY-500 colony ship left Earth in the 2120's and reached the "Ficus Sector." The 24th century Enterprise is dispatch from Starbase 73 to travel to the established colony. Unless the Enterprise was near Earth, the 2120's colony wasn't established near Earth.

Being hamstrung by information in one completely forgettable TNG episode from 1989 is not the way to run a show.

In the year 2146, the starship Urusei Yatsura left Earth to survey a nebula. In real life the closest nebula to Earth (SH 2-216) is about 400 light years away.

This is from some Okudagram that no one could even see. See above.

 

[Mudd]

No.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Star Trek: Enterprise presented a variety of examples of behavior which is questionable at best. Perhaps the finest example of this is when Archer and Phlox conspired against a species suffering from a genetic disease, dooming them to extinction. It wasn't because the species was "bad" or "threatening" in some way.

All Treks do this. From Kirk's constant interference with other cultures to Picard's stubborn refusal to do the same.

In the Enterprise season finale, it was revealed that the episode, and perhaps entire season itself, had only been a recreation of events.

No, it wasn't.

 

[Tenacity]

This is from some Okudagram that no one could even see.

We're not talking about some readout twenty feet away in the back of the bridge, nor one of Data's fast changing displays. The image on Picard's screen was shown in close up for several seconds and it was quite clear and easily read.

Being hamstrung by information in one completely forgettable TNG episode from 1989 is not the way to run a show.

I disagree, I personally might not like Masks, but I don't discount the events shown are a part of Trek. And who exactly is being hamstrung?

which established that even in the 24th century, much less the 21st, it took decades even at high warp to reach the galactic distances that the Valiant supposedly did on its own.

The galactic disk where Earth is is approximately a thousand light years thick, so the distance to the upper (or lower) edge would be some 500 ly. While it would have taken Voyager just six months to traverse that, it likely would have have taken the Valiant multiple years to travel the distance.

And yet this was completely ignored in all subsequent Trek

During Voyager, they found the probe Friendship One on the other side of the galaxy, it would have been launch about the same time as the Valiant, So warp engines from the late 2060's could do about 230 times the speed of light, and the upper edge of the galaxy is 500 ly's away.

In the late 2060's of the Trek Prime universe they probably could have traveled to Alpha Centauri in a week.

In the ST Enterprise universe on the other hand, more like a few years.

All it said was that the Valiant disappeared 200 years before the episode.

Yes, and then you plug that piece of information into the later established fact that the second pilot (WNMHGB) was in the mid 2260's.

If they had decided that TOS took place in the 29th century ...

Which they didn't, ultimately they decided on the 23th century.

 

[Tuskin38]

During Voyager, they found the probe Friendship One on the other side of the galaxy, it would have been launch about the same time as the Valiant, So warp engines from the late 2060's could do about 230 times the speed of light, and the upper edge of the galaxy is 500 ly's away.

we've seen through out various movies/episodes that there are anomalies that can transport ships thousands of light years from their origin point.

That is more then likely what happened to Friendship One. According to Memory-Alpha, they lost contact with the probe in 2248

Maybe it fell through the same anomaly that affected V'Ger in TMP.

 

[Ithekro]

Or our understanding of what humans managed to do in the early days of warp flight is inaccurate. It is entirely possible that some early warp drives were faster than the later era drives, but completely unsafe. Most of the random lost colonies Picard was finding were just that, lost. The ships left Earth and no one heard from them again until a random starship found them a century or three later. In places potentially beyond where Starfleet usually explores.

For all we know the warp tech we see on USS Kelvin was more similar to the drives use by these older colony ships rather than the drives used on the NX-01 and TOS era Enterprise. A recreation that sort of worked, but required a huge ship to function so Starfleet abandoned it for the slower but more effective drives used by the later Constitution-class all the way to the Galaxy-class and beyond. While in the alternate timeline, the change was enough to encourage Starfleet to go big and keep the potentially faster warp drives, perfecting them by the time of Pike/Kirk 2258 USS Enterprise is commissioned.

 

[Nerys Myk]

we've seen through out various movies/episodes that there are anomalies that can transport ships thousands of light years from their origin point.

That is more then likely what happened to Friendship One. According to Memory-Alpha, they lost contact with the probe in 2248

Maybe it fell through the same anomaly that affected V'Ger in TMP.

Yep. All the ships they find way out there are usually connected those pesky anomalies. Our heroes are usually surprised to find them out there. So they probably weren't designed to travel out that far. Hell, the Valiant only had impulse engines!

SPOCK: Decoding memory banks. I'll try to interpolate. The Valiant had encountered a magnetic space storm and was being swept in this direction.
KIRK: The old impulse engines weren't strong enough.

 

[Dukhat]

We're not talking about some readout twenty feet away in the back of the bridge, nor one of Data's fast changing displays. The image on Picard's screen was shown in close up for several seconds and it was quite clear and easily read.

It doesn't matter if the display had large neon arrows pointing to it and blinking rapidly to get our attention. The writers and producers of ENT weren't going to let some info on an Okudagram shown for three seconds in TNG stop them from the story they wanted to tell, nor should they have done.

And who exactly is being hamstrung?

The writers of ENT, who didn't feel the need to be beholden to a few TNG episodes and some displays seen for seconds on screen.

In the late 2060's of the Trek Prime universe they probably could have traveled to Alpha Centauri in a week. In the ST Enterprise universe on the other hand, more like a few years.

And yet in the first episode of ENT it took them only a few weeks to get to the Klingon homeworld and back to Earth.

Yes, and then you plug that piece of information into the later established fact that the second pilot (WNMHGB) was in the mid 2260's.Which they didn't, ultimately they decided on the 23rd century.

And then we saw Star Trek: First Contact, which showed that in only two years humanity went from post-apocalyptic to building a warp-capable ship that somehow reached the edge of the galaxy. So ENT isn't to blame for not being beholden to previous Trek canon.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Oh and everything after 1994 is Picard's Nexus fantasy. What you didn't think he REALLY got out, did you?

This is my new favorite Star Trek theory. In fact, it could easily be the most satisfying thing I've ever read on this board! And it fits too, since none of the other Enterprise crew-members ever show up in later productions except for Worf and Barclay. One could easily make the case that they were the only two of a few dozen survivors, somehow managing to ride out the shockwave in shuttlecraft and hold on long enough for rescue ships to arrive.

I'm also inclined to treat "These are the Voyages" as... well, the meaningless abomination that it is and consider ENT to be a hard reboot of the entire universe.

 

[Tracy Trek]

And it fits too, since none of the other Enterprise crew-members ever show up in later productions except for Worf and Barclay.

The other crew showed up in the other movies. Unless you just mean the other series.

 

[Ithekro]

Troi also shows up in Voyager with Barclay.

 

[Dukhat]

Daniel said everything after 1994.