Timo said:
"...I'm not sure I would have enjoyed "The Treatment" (?) much. Guinan has some dark mission where she influences Earth's history? In "Time's Arrow", she was essentially on an interrail trip to a backwater planet, enjoying time away from his father, which was a much more interesting concept!
And what would have been different about Ardana in the 2150s? The insufferable High Advisor Plasus always speaks of his "ancestors" as the builders of Stratos, suggesting a timespan of more than just a single century. Were these "ancestors" just two-three generations removed, and did they start building a floating city right after emerging from the dumbing-down caves? I'd suspect a slower progress. (But perhaps it happened the other way around - perhaps everybody was smart to begin with, and the Troglytes just fell victim to the poison gas all of a sudden somehow.)
Unlike "The Treatment", I'd have enjoyed seeing Stratos just to find out how the writers would wriggle themselves out of the contradictions. ...."
Timo Saloniemi
WELL..... I know the Guinan/Hoshi story in great detail (--I wrote it--), and I can tell you it isn't any such story where she "...has some dark mission to influence Earth's past." Honest. In fact, she has her own "Prime Directive" of a sort, only hinted at in the story. This time around, she's the assistant to the leader of the United Earth Space Probe Agency, and along with that woman, and Skon, provides the catalyst for trying to help solve a shocking delimma in which Hoshi has the pivotal role in the story. What kind of story is it, exactly? I'm not saying. (Sorry, NO SPOILERS here!) But I WILL say this much: it's written with Gene Roddenberry's spirit of future OPTIMISTIC vision in mind, in that he often aluded to contemporary moral issues of our own time, set in a science fiction genre---to allow an issue to be turned on its ear, and to see another potential side of any such issue, perhaps in some way no one has thought of before. (Yeah, I refer to TOS in that.)
Not many shows besides Star Trek tell a tale of woe in a way that can turn out good, depending on how those in the story react to what is happening around them.
The NX-01, in this story, is docked at an alien space station (--sorry, NOT on Vulcan--), where spooky things are happening: spooky to the crew's mostly Earth-mindset -- except T'Pol and Phlox, who do NOT side with Archer's decision regarding how to solve the crisis this time around (!), and what is really going on is what 'The Treatment' is all about.....
The NX-01, in this story actually entitled "The Treatment," is undergoing a major computer refit with new technology upgrades. The leader of the UESPA is a former student of Henry Archer, and Skon is her Vulcan [business partner], a brilliant Vulcan scientist/mathematician. Guinan is this lady's personal assistant (using an assumed name, "Claranna" -- yes, there is a GOOD reason for it), and a friend of Skon.
Now, about that issue about Vulcan delaying their help with Earth's warp program...? There's a completely logical reason (pun not intended), however there is a twist to it that will raise your eyebrows -- and Skon is the one who reveals that revelation to Archer, in a scene just before the shocking climax.
Plenty of TOS and TNG references sprinkled throughout (but are NOT too intrusive), and there are some light moments as well. Guinan's back-story is fleshed out a lot more, and TRAVIS has an ADDITIONAL job to just being navigator...!
Finally, what happens to Hoshi in this story is a serious thrust toward why she eventually creates the [Linguistic Translation Matrix] referred to in the mirror-universe episode dialogue (where TMU Archer was telling TMU Hoshi about her counterpart's history from the library computer aboard the USS Defiant).
Section 31 makes a brief apperance as well (much to Reed's dismay), and it forebodes something in the background of the series [which we believe would likely have come to dramatic light in, perhaps, a cliff-hanger story at the end of Season Five: the Romulan attack that sets off their war against Earth and the Coalition of Planets].
This is a TWO-HOUR drama, setting the stage for a LOT more material later in the ENTERPRISE series (sort of like the undercurrents of what made TNG episode "Yesterday's Enterprise" so profound, and so popular).
(Guess what? At least one other writer had ANOTHER Guinan story in the works---and it referred directly to an episode of TNG, which would have been a GOOD one, too! That other ENT Guinan story might have been a good choice for a Season-6 episode, or perhaps Season-7.)
OH, ALL RIGHT. I'll provide a major spoiler. Here's a proposed movie poster slogan for this story:
"To seek out the nature of existence first requires the choice to live."
Another spoiler? Sure. Here's a suggested TV Guide "Log Line" for "The Treatment" Guinan story:
Guinan [Whoopi Goldberg], and Skon (grandfather of Spock), visit Capt. Archer's starship Enterprise, and try to help avert a 22nd Century moral issue disaster, when a dangerous, unborn fetus --
still in its mother's womb -- MAKES ITS OWN CHOICE if it will live or be aborted."
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