What would you change in Star Trek: Enterprise to make it better?

[BohandiAnsoid]

I think Enterprise had a few good concepts and a lot of potential, but is plagued with terrible execution and a lot of this potential gets wasted. I would like to ask you here, what would you change? How would you write it?


I actually like how the Vulcans are portrayed here. I never thought they were actually all that good. But maybe I would make them more subtle about it. And decrease their influence over Earth as the series progresses, from the beginning.


And either remove the temporal stuff or plan it out better. And maybe use an established species for it, as the main enemy. Like Tholians, for example. And maybe tie it into this time policing thing Voyager established.


I think I would keep the crew as it is.


As for Trip/T’Pol… situation, I would either make them have an actual relationship, which would allow to actually explore a functional human/Vulcan relationship and how it can work despite the Vulcan not being so emotional, probably with them marrying at some point, or cut off the romantic element entirely. It’s all this romantic angst and half-measures that annoy me. And it really doesn’t show T’Pol in a good light.


Also, I would keep a closer look at the continuity. Make sure to remember what happened, what the ship has at its disposal.


But that’s my ideas. I am looking forward to seeing yours

 

[lkmi]

As for Trip/T’Pol… situation, I would either make them have an actual relationship, which would allow to actually explore a functional human/Vulcan relationship and how it can work despite the Vulcan not being so emotional, probably with them marrying at some point, or cut off the romantic element entirely. It’s all this romantic angst and half-measures that annoy me. And it really doesn’t show T’Pol in a good light.

So many series have made this error. They try to stretch things out - and stretch it too far.

With Trip/T'Pol, it was good to see the progress - how they learned about each other, how they found a friendship.
Things should have become more definitive by the end of season 3. And season 4 could've let us watch them make a serious go of it.

I think, though, that got stuck with all the outside things that plagued "Enterprise." It wasn't plot and character and storylines. It was network conflicts and behind-the-camera issues.

A strong cast did their best. I would've liked to see what else they could've become.

 

[Riley]

Here's a quick list:

- The ship is not called Enterprise. I'd likely go with "Endeavour" or "Challenger."

- There is NO time travel at all in the series. None. Zero. It's not even considered a possibility at this stage in human development.

- No Suliban.

- NO KLINGONS.

- United Earth Space Probe Agency (UESPA) replaces Starfleet.

- The first hour of the pilot focuses on Archer and his crew prepping for launch, which also includes a mission briefing with UESPA Command and visits by the press. The first hour ends with the ship leaving dock to much fanfare, including several UESPA and Vulcan starships signaling tribute with their running lights before the ship jumps to warp.

- The mission: visit the Vulcan monastery, P'Jem, where a Vulcan delegation will welcome the crew before the ship heads for deep space. Of course, the Andorians crash the party.

- Neither the crew nor the ship has energy weapons. Sidearms fire EM rounds and the ship fires the same along with nuclear missiles.

- ZERO reference to a transporter outside of a Vulcan perhaps sharing with Trip that they're working on such technology. Trip would be highly doubtful the required energy and computer memory could ever be developed for such a device.

- Speaking of the Vulcans, they're Vulcans but they aren't the jerks we saw in Enterprise. They simply don't want to interfere too much in human development.

- Tellarites are introduced in season one and NO species from TNG era shows are ever seen. Not. One. Meanwhile, species from TOS (other than Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellaries) may appear or be referenced if doing so fits with TOS continuity.

- Finally, the starship does not look like a repurposed Akira. Earth ships don't use saucers, though some vessels do have spherical hulls. The hero ship would likely be the Conegstoga with a few adjustments, though not many.

 

[Finngle Bells]

They were precisely the jerks they should have been. They were kinda jerks in TOS.

Anyway, I would have them use some kind of large cockpit with the use of ladders rather than turbolifts....

 

[Turtletrekker]

They were precisely the jerks they should have been. They were kinda jerks in TOS.

Sarek - jerk. T'Pring - jerk. Stonn - jerk. T'Pau - jerk. The little Vulcan kids who teased Spock as a child - jerks.

Were there any other Vulcans in the original series?

 

[Dukhat]

I would never have used the formation of the Federation as the premise for a new Trek show, especially a show whose production values came straight from a show taking place 200 years from that point. If anything, I would have set the show after the Romulan war and after the Federation formed, and just show the early days of this new fledgling entity.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Anyway, I would have leaned more into the prequel aspect of it earlier on, the Federation and the Romulans of it all, instead of largely waiting until the 4th season to really get that ball rolling. I would eliminate the Temporal Cold War storyline. Pointless nonsense. I would have done more semi serialization early on, rather than just doing the same kind formulaic planet of the week stories that TNG and Voyager had been doing for the last 14 years. No gazelles.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

Give it more seasons.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Start with season 3.

Also, give Archer a little bit of backstory, he's the sodding main character. He's from New York, he was a test pilot, he likes water polo, he's a nepo baby whose dad built the engine. That is literally IT.

 

[Detached Nacelle]

I would not have made the choice to do a upbeat remix of the main theme for a season about war, genocide and the deterioration of crew and ship.

 

[knightgrace]

I'll go, a slightly different direction...

In 2130, to the surprise of all, the humans start taking the lead, into an alliance that is totally surprising in nature... no one saw it coming - especially the Vulcans. The 'Primary' Earth starship is the Durance class Cargo-Tug. There are many more than the original number built.

Class One Starships are quite rare indeed, and therefore not too available.

Over any real distance, Subspace radio is effectively Morris code only. This is why having a good hand is important. However long range systems use burst transmissions, meaning that burst transmission is required. Most communication personnel know the hands of other communication personnel, very well indeed.

Earth, under the mistaken influence of certain individuals has abandoned the Phaser as too deadly over too long a range, hence the 23 cm laser cannon, range is 25,000 kilometers, and able to penetrate one meter thick Boron Steal. The frequency is infrared.

Deflector screens exist, and the Durance can take a pounding. But Deflector Shields don't exist as of yet.

The Captain is experienced, with at least five years of actual command in a smaller, more limited ship. The Durance is quite able to undertake exploration trips out of the local area, but usually doesn't...to busy supporting Colonies, either of humans or Vulcans...

The warp nacelles of the class 1 Starships are fifty percent longer than the Durance's.

Dilithium isn't used, because it isn't known about.

The computer systems are very pre-Duotronic, and frequently run into processing problems due to time constraints. Yes, they are capable of Independent Logic, but people have learned not trust it too far.

Meanwhile out in the Colonies a plague is beginning...if you survive you are most likely going to sterilized. Meaning no children.

It takes ten years, because of travel time across known space to realize the extent of problem. This leads to a fall back position...which is still apparent in TOS. Women shouldn't be risked - too many were lost. Far more men, however were lost, but this is never mentioned. Due to plan B(Interstellar).

 

[Dukhat]

Start with season 3.

Also, give Archer a little bit of backstory, he's the sodding main character. He's from New York, he was a test pilot, he likes water polo, he's a nepo baby whose dad built the engine. That is literally IT.

He also has a dog. And I didn’t even know he was from New York or liked water polo.

But you’re correct; all of these people needed their characters fleshed out far more than they did. But UPN was more interested in showing the crew in their underwear getting massages than actually focusing on them as people.

 

[fireproof78]

Start with season 3.

Also, give Archer a little bit of backstory, he's the sodding main character. He's from New York, he was a test pilot, he likes water polo, he's a nepo baby whose dad built the engine. That is literally IT.

Archer is the biggest reason I don't like ENTERPRISE.

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

Older tech.
- No transporters.
- No photon torpedoes.
- Armor instead of polarized hull plating.
- Plasma cannons and spatial torpedoes.

No temporal cold war. Just a story of humanity's first steps into the stars.

T'Pol wears the same robelike garments other Vulcans wear. When she joins Starfleet, she wears the blue coveralls.

Half-pip ranks exist, and people get promoted.

Get a 5th season, with Shran in the main cast.

Travis has more space experience than the rest of the crew put together. Use it.

Don't have humans manage to destroy an "expanse" thousands of light years in diameter by themselves. That's just a little OP.

 

[Ragitsu]

Would this show have been better if Merriweather/Mayweather/M'weather had been given a more active/forward role?

 

[Crazy 4 Xmas Lights]

Would this show have been better if Merriweather/Mayweather/M'weather had been given a more active/forward role?

He was a space boomer, meaning he knew more about space travel than anyone else on the ship.

 

[FelizNavidad_Qapla]

Don’t call the ship Enterprise if its set a hundred years before TOS. Call it the Dauntless or the Yorktown. Or transition from one hero starship to another over the series. If the show’s supposed to be about the first Enterprise, then it should have been about the adventures of Robert April. Since Archer does look like he could pass as TAS-era April, and Trip & T’Pol do look like they could pass as TOS-era Christopher Pike and Number One to begin with.

If TPTB want phasers and transporters and Klingons every other episode, do an April show. If they want to showcase the origins of the Federation, then do that with the caveat that a lot of the tech viewers are familiar with either aren’t in existence yet, or do not work as smoothly or flawlessly as in the other shows. And that even if the crew is a crack team and the best of the best, relationships should be more conflictual between them than would normally be seen.

Indeed, drama should come from character interactions, like in ER. And like ER, cast changes are frequent as characters move on to new assignments, take personal breaks, get captured/abducted, get arrested and court-martialed, quit/get fired, or die. ENT would have the highest turnover rate of any Star Trek show ever.

Get rid of the Temporal Cold War. If special guest appearances from characters and starships from TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY cannot be guaranteed, don’t bother with it.

Starfleet should be instead the United Earth Space Service, and Starfleet Command should be instead United Earth Space Command; Starfleet is formed around the time of the founding of the Federation and Starfleet Academy. The United Earth military is called the Earth Alliance (formed out of the Earth-Kzin Wars) and reliant on various primitive sublight starship designs for defense that top out at Warp 1, that are only armed with laser cannons, spatial torpedos, and a single plasma cannon. And the MACOs are a subdivision of the Earth Alliance, having long relied on Conestoga-type ships to transport them through deep space, who warp drive has been scaled up over the years from Warp 2 to Warp 4.

Any tension between humans and Vulcans has its origins in the Valiant mission going awry; originally assisting with the Valiant mission by providing technology, believing a successful mission would assist in the revival of the United Earth movement and therefore Earth’s recovery, this caused the Vulcans to be more cautious going forwards. Which humans perceive as being held back. Vulcans have tried to make amends by hammering out the Treaty of Sirius on their behalf to protect them from the Kzinti, fending off various pirates, loaning out their freighter depots and sharing freighter lanes, and incorporating them into the Interspecies Medical Exchange. Nonetheless, humans remain suspicious that their warp program has been actively sabotaged by the Vulcans for decades, and are not as blatant in their accusations.

The external ship design evolves over the course of the show. The interior remains largely the same throughout the show. Get rid of the individual quarters for everyone but Archer and Phlox at the start of the show; as the ship design changes and gets bigger, individual quarters become more common, and comes with its own drama and consequences.

S1 &2 – Phoenix/Conestoga-type hybrid with a XCV-330-style cockpit and deflector dish, and antennae on the gold bussards. The ship is called the Dauntless, and its primary mission is experimentation, followed by exploration; and that’s why the captain’s command experience is limited to being a test pilot, as this is just another test. From the warp engine to sidearms to technology like the transporter.

S3,4 &5 – Warp Delta, with the bridge module added later on and replacing the cockpit. Known as the Yorktown, the intended flagship of the United Earth Space Service. Biofilters are installed for the first time.

S6 &7 – Intrepid type. Also called the Yorktown. With the Daedalus class being the flagship class of the Federation.

It’s also acknowledged that Earth has still been launching DY-class cryoships as recently as 5 years prior to launch for specialized deep space missions. And its also considered a big deal that it’s the first ship without a fully military crew or with military supervision. Other starships are still commanded by those with ranks of colonel or major. T’Pol is the Vulcan advisor assigned to the NX-01 and implied to be related to Vulcan royalty, so Archer cannot afford to mistreat her despite personal misgivings.

Give first season of ENT 16 episodes like VOY; first eight occur between Earth, drydock, Mars, Jupiter Station, Vulcan, Rigel X, and Coridan, with Archer being promoted to captain at the end of the pilot. The second half of the season is the journey to QonoS; Archer also saves the Klingon from “Sleeping Dogs” and intends to return her to QonoS as well. Risa is replaced with Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet and Trillius Prime, as the Vulcans keep Risa a secret.

Second season is a year long exploration on a planned route. A lot of middling episodes from the first and second are fused together to make better ones (ex. “The Crossing” and “Oasis” become one episode; “Dawn”, “Canamar” & “Precious Cargo” become one episode). While “Cogenitor” becomes a two-parter, where Mayweather and Sato share their respective viewpoints, and Vissian culture is explored in detail prior to the tragic ending.

Make the Denobulans be Bolians instead to begin with, if the poly marriages are so critical. Then the Bolians can be fleshed out more as a species and no one is left wondering what happened to them in the other series.

Lieutenant Kelby is instead Lieutenant Stiles and acknowledged to have family both in the freighter service and the MACOs. It would help to bridge ENT and TOS.

There's lots more ideas, but these would be the main ones for me.

 

[Imaus]

Oh I've longed mused on this.

First, of course - No 'Akiraprise'. My dream design is something like the fan Icarus class, because it looks beefy enough and can develop into the Daedalus class. The name of the ship should also not be Enterprise: the only Enterprise before the 1701 is the XCV. The ship can still be the first Warp Five ship, but there's definitely Warp Four ones, Warp Three ones before it. Though I also really like the Aachen.

Bouncing off of the XCV - Humanity in Enterprise as we got it feels so limited. Barely any real colonies and influence beyond Sol, beyond Earth, other than Terra Nova and the Y-J class freighters. What? How could Enterprise stumble this so hard? There should be a sphere of human space that is well developed.

Reintroduce the Kzin Wars (imagine telling Durga, yes, we had a interstellar war, we beat them, and we spared them, we won't do it to you, that would help a lot with the Xindi if the Man/Earth-Kzin Wars were properly in the 2090s-2130s range). Alpha Centauri, Wolf 359, Sol is actually sort of alone along a sort of ridge that heads spinward (towards Romulan Space) which is why Andoria and Vulcan (Procyon and Eridani) didn't colonize it, letting Humanity do it, but most stars under humanity are poor red ones beyond the Centauri system, but the Centauri system is THREE systems in one, so build those up.

Actually show United Earth and UESPA/Starfleet as fully fleshed out organizations with reach, history, and impact, they're just outclassed. Humanity may be able to grab Tau Ceti and UV Ceti, though I'm leaning to not, let something else be there to flesh out the show. In the Solar System, show Mars, the Moon, a few asteroid colonies, that stuff. No Vulcan yoke over humanity: Humanity is too far away for them, but they're fast friends due to Vulcan help in the Post-Atomic Horror.

With this built up human space, we can then destroy these colonies and put some weight to conflict there because they're built up.

No Klingons. That's something beyond Andoria, towards the rim, (by my reckoning), Klingons are a 23rd century problem. I don't dislike the Xindi as designs (especially the insectoids and reptillians allowing for stock 'evil' races). Orions, Tellarites, Andorians, Vulcans, Kzin are around and should be seen more, and not always friendly, especially Andorians and Tellarites. Nausicans showing up in the show was a surprise, don't know about them coming around.

Orions are by Van Manaan's star, Tellarites by Sigma Draconis, Kzin at Epsilon Indi. Beta Hydri could be the home to the Xindi analogue, coming up from under sol by Gliese 440 and hitting the Wolf 359 arm. Could be something at Groombridge (Coridian, no, that's 28 ly away, maybe something else - Risa? Why is Risa at Epsilon Cetyi at 79 ly away, anyway?), use real local bubble astronomy to flesh out the bubble and determine routes and potential events.

No Temporal Cold War, Time Travel, no Phase Cannons, no Phasers, Spatial Torpedos, 'Photonic' Torpedoes. Lasers, LASERS, Mass Drivers, Nuclear Missiles, Anti-Ship missiles, anti-missile missiles. Ablative armor was okay, but make it feel more weighty - damage taking more time to fix. Marines/MACO are fine especially as the ship will be running around putting out brush fires.

For the first season, instead of running to the Klingons, the hero ship goes around rebuffing, say, unknown attacks on trading routes and colonies by a new alien pirate power, thinking it's Orion or Kzin, could be the Xindi analogue here or the Romulan analog. I don't really trust a show to be able to show a interstellar conflict off well so I still don't know if I'd want a Romulan War on screen or not - maybe showing the first few battles at the end of the series, maybe, and not with a drone ship but more how Masao did it.

If the show has to show the war, then it should focus on it from the getgo, start at 2155, the ship is the first antimatter ship in the fleet (beyond the prototypes) and its increase in speed, travel time, and power will spearhead the development that'll give humanity the edge over the Fusion-Impulse Romulans. Cut out a lot of fat and needless rubber head aliens we saw in Enterprise until later on when Humanity goes back on the offensive and may need to woo some species, but the core of it should be around the Tellarities, Coridians, Andorians, Vulcans, getting their aid. (Orion sides with/uses the war to prey on humanity more? Kzin-Romulan collaboration/uprising? That galactic south species being a pain, they can hit Alpha Centauri hard - think of them like the Breen in story role. This can allow for combat species and still hide romualn idenity, even if say, there's a Romulan spy posing as a Vulcan, humanity would not find out that they're Romulan, just a 'agent'. I know some novels show the Remans used as slave cannon fodder for the war, but I don't like their design and relately late appearance in the series myself. To keep up the Romulan 'secret', they just let Remans loose? Humanity never confuses them for Romulans, how?)

Just hire Masao honestly. Alarming news come from the spinward way, ships and surveyors disappearing that way, little attacks, then boom, Battle of Hells Gate at the end of S1, early defeats, Romulan fleets that had slow cruised from their space by Xi Bootis are hitting the arm and everywhere, trying to get back to Vulcan - and Sol is in the direct way. Humanity still mostly has Fusion-Impulse ships of its own and at first it's a slug match, colonies burnt, desperation. More BSG in tone at times. That would be different to Voyager for the time but I bet a lot of people may complain it's trying to do DS9 again with a big war. If so, maybe move it back to s2 and have s1 floating around local space, dealing with local powers and colonies and politics to even it out.

Warp is slow between deep space, but maybe warp between systems is faster, the long mused 'warp highways', but still not very fast, this may give a sort of wild west wagon train feel as the hero ship has to go through or at least skim past systems it had gone by previously or find another route.

Show ending with the rise of the Federation after the Romulan war isn't bad. Show off Daedalus coming more into the fleet (but don't automatically mothball the Icarus classes, relegate them to frigate/secondary roles).

Stuff like that.

 

[Sim]

I was kind of beaten to it, but ... start the series with season 4. And then have more seasons in that style: Longer arcs, more focus on the prequel aspect of the show.

 

[tomalak301]

I know Braga has said that he would have finally put Enterprise into space at the end of the season, but I would prefer somewhere in the middle of the season. I would like to see more of that conflict between Archer and the Vulcans and that bridging the gap between First Contact and what was Broken Bow.

I also would have kept the Suliban but make them non-time travel oriented. You still want to genetically enhance them? Fine. Then you can still do the Augment storylin in Season 4, but the time travel stuff was not great. That being said, I would have kept the Xindi arc, though maybe it could be built around something that wasn't time travel too.

The Vulcan trilogy from Season 4 should have been a Season 2 story, mainly because I'm saying we take half of season 1 and building up that conflect, and you can still include the Andorians and Shran in the back half of season 1.