What was Enterprise's "mission"

[Gotham Central]

During the first 2 seasons of Enterprise, Archer was constantly talking about their "mission." What exactly were they sent out there to do? I cannot believe that Starfleet sent its fastest and most powerful ship out there to simply wander around aimlessly (and make enemies at virtually every stop). What exactly was Enterprise supposed to be doing out there? I recall that when they encountered their first M class planet, Archer didn't even want to take any serious scientific readings.

A mission implies a specific goal with a definate end. For instance, the space shuttle is not launched to simply float around the planet for awhile, there are things that it does and then it comes home. A mission to Mars would have a specifc goal, and then the astronauts would come home. Enterprise just seemed to lack focus (hell most of their scientific data could have been accquired directly from the Vulcans). Its hard to imagine that Starfleet and the UESPA didn't give them more concrete orders...like, establish trade routes or negotiate trade agreements, how about defending and policing Earth's far flung colonies (even JTK had this as part of his mission).

 

[JiNX-01]

Seriously, the mission was actually to make first contact (and preferably) bring back the phone numbers of new friends. Unfortunately it rarely worked out that well.

 

[SFRabid]

Yep, explore and make contact with new species. Until then other species were visiting earth. It was time to join the game. They did end up making positive contact with quite a few races which results in the early formation of the Federation.

As for the space shuttle, it is frequently sent up to fly around and take "readings" which is something the Enterprise did a lot of.

 

[Piper]

Its main mission was to avoid cancellation.

 

[John Picard]

Its main mission was to avoid cancellation.

*groan*

 

[Kemaiku]

Well off the top of my head I can think of several things it might be: * Expand Starfleet influence. Basically explore and take Humanity out into the galaxy. * Update current Earth mapping, extend all known charts, rely more on Earth made charts and lessen reliance on Vulcan mapping. * Locate and secure any and all materials to aid Earth development. * Establish diplomatic relations with neighbouring systems, secure allies, begin trade negotiations for needed materials. * Test all Starfleet technology to further Warp drive and Impulse efficiency and allow successive improvements/designs to be made. * Investigate possibly threats to Earth and Earth based shipping lanes in local space. * Establish Starfleet's Subspace communications network. Edit: Fuck it, I keep editing it back into a list but the post always ends up bunched up anyway so I'm leaving it.

 

[Captain MAJ]

To quote a great man: "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

That about sums it up.

 

[Praetor]

How could we know, it wasn't stated in the opening?

I imagine it was closest in 'spirit' to the mission of the TOS Enterprise.

For those interested, I quote from 'The Making of Star Trek' page 203:

Assigned to operate in a far-off sector of the galaxy, the ship's duties include:

• scientific investigation and reconaissance of previously unexplored worlds
• providing aid and supplies for Earth colonies
• diplomatic courtesy calls on alien planets
• the enforcement of laws regulating commerce between Federation members

Obviously, the last one wouldn't apply to 'Enterprise' but the first three seem to nicely.

 

[pookha]

exploration and star charting.
really often the two missions of the tos enterprise.

while the tos enterprise had other missions (some times ferrying around medicine ect)
a lot of her adventures started off when she was just going around star charting.

 

[Timo]

I'd say "raising hell".

The main thing the ship was built to do was free Earth from the real and imagined restrictions imposed by the Vulcan presence. Starfleet first and foremost wanted a ship that could go where no Vulcan had gone before, so that it could do things humans wanted to be done, not just things Vulcans approved of.

Jonathan Archer would then have been the ideal choice for skipper: adversarial to Vulcans, not too cautious, always interested in furthering the human agenda rather than just having a look at how aliens did things.

Things like exploration or law enforcement would have been secondary. The important thing for this first mission would be to make the names "Earth" and "human" known everywhere in the neighborhood. There'd be no such thing as bad publicity - everything Archer did with the ship to increase Earth's recognizability would count in Earth's favor.

In that sense, the mission probably was a resounding success...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nerys Myk]

Luring aliens into a false sense of security so we can trick them into entering a human dominated federation.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Seriously, the mission was actually to make first contact (and preferably) bring back the phone numbers of new friends. Unfortunately it rarely worked out that well.

Starfleet should've just created a Facebook account then.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Seriously, the mission was actually to make first contact (and preferably) bring back the phone numbers of new friends. Unfortunately it rarely worked out that well.

Starfleet should've just created a Facebook account then.

Jon Archer is getting his ass kicked.

 

[Mossura]

Luring aliens into a false sense of security so we can trick them into entering a human dominated federation.

Or killing them them by the millions.

 

[Middleman]

Luring aliens into a false sense of security so we can trick them into entering a human dominated federation.

Or killing them them by the millions.

Is it just me or is there a pattern of Enterprise bashing in your postings?

 

[Gary7]

This was to be the first voyage before NCC-1701... setting out to do the same thing, explore strange new worlds and seek out new species, then head on back home. On a much smaller scale. The Federation was super small back then. The only alien species serving along with them were the Vulcans.

Anyway, that was the intent but the writers went off the deep end and after exposing them to the Andorians, Klingons, and Romulans, they went to uncover species we never saw on TOS or TNG. But then were so bold as to bring in... the Borg. Ahem. (holding back rant).

 

[Nerys Myk]

This was to be the first voyage before NCC-1701... setting out to do the same thing, explore strange new worlds and seek out new species, then head on back home. On a much smaller scale. The Federation was super small back then. The only alien species serving along with them were the Vulcans.

Anyway, that was the intent but the writers went off the deep end and after exposing them to the Andorians, Klingons, and Romulans, they went to uncover species we never saw on TOS or TNG. But then were so bold as to bring in... the Borg. Ahem. (holding back rant).

The Federation was so small it didn't even exist.

As for meeting the Andorians, Klingons and Romulans. If not then, when? Especially the Romulans. Earth did fight a war with them in that time period as established in TOS. Why in the world should Enterprise limit its stories to aliens seen in TOS and TNG?

The Borg, while not something I would have done, was handled well.

 

[Jbarney]

During the first 2 seasons of Enterprise, Archer was constantly talking about their "mission." What exactly were they sent out there to do? I cannot believe that Starfleet sent its fastest and most powerful ship out there to simply wander around aimlessly (and make enemies at virtually every stop). What exactly was Enterprise supposed to be doing out there? I recall that when they encountered their first M class planet, Archer didn't even want to take any serious scientific readings.

A mission implies a specific goal with a definate end. For instance, the space shuttle is not launched to simply float around the planet for awhile, there are things that it does and then it comes home. A mission to Mars would have a specifc goal, and then the astronauts would come home. Enterprise just seemed to lack focus (hell most of their scientific data could have been accquired directly from the Vulcans). Its hard to imagine that Starfleet and the UESPA didn't give them more concrete orders...like, establish trade routes or negotiate trade agreements, how about defending and policing Earth's far flung colonies (even JTK had this as part of his mission).

I would make a bit of an anology before I went on to answering the broader question here.

I would consider the situation Earth was in while it was stepping out into the stars before looking at what we first saw of Enterprise's missions. Earth was about a hundred years removed from the affects of the 3rd World War....and was grappling with the reality that humanity is only a grain of sand on a beach full of alien life forms. That must have been very unsettling for many of the people in the military and the leaders of Earth. Also while those first missions are under way (Pre-Enterprise) humanity is dealing with a Vulcan race that comes across as too protective and its encountering aliens with different technology, abilities, and social develpment all at the same time. Not to mention time travel?

The first explorers from Earth must have felt very much like they were carrying a hundred pound wieght, in the dark, across an ice covered body of water....knowing some of the ice is cracked and ready to give out at any moment.

So what was Enterprise's mission? To carefully explore the regions surrounding Sol, to try and build relationships with those aliens even willing to talk, to seek out other races willing to exist peacefully, to map and chart local space....

 

[miraclefan]

So what was Enterprise's mission? To carefully explore the regions surrounding Sol, to try and build relationships with those aliens even willing to talk, to seek out other races willing to exist peacefully, to map and chart local space....

And for TRIP to ''spread'' his seed!

 

[pookha]

Luring aliens into a false sense of security so we can trick them into entering a human dominated federation.

Or killing them them by the millions.

do you have any way to back up this.
i mean any paticular episode.??

considering they helped to destroy the sphere network they rather helped to save billions.

This was to be the first voyage before NCC-1701... setting out to do the same thing, explore strange new worlds and seek out new species, then head on back home. On a much smaller scale. The Federation was super small back then. The only alien species serving along with them were the Vulcans.

Anyway, that was the intent but the writers went off the deep end and after exposing them to the Andorians, Klingons, and Romulans, they went to uncover species we never saw on TOS or TNG. But then were so bold as to bring in... the Borg. Ahem. (holding back rant).

The Federation was so small it didn't even exist.

As for meeting the Andorians, Klingons and Romulans. If not then, when? Especially the Romulans. Earth did fight a war with them in that time period as established in TOS. Why in the world should Enterprise limit its stories to aliens seen in TOS and TNG?

The Borg, while not something I would have done, was handled well.

i would have liked to have seen the klingons delayed.
yeah the romulans make sense and i loved what they did with the andorians.

how well the borg episode was done makes up for being there/.
really it bought back a lot of the feel of dark mysterious menance we havent seen since the early tng episodes.

the only real horrible one was the ferengi episode.
even though there is a lot of contradictory stuff about just what was known about them when the few comedic moments just dont make up for the trouble of bringing back a species a lot of people were tired of.