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

Early warp drive 2018, not good for much, except short range interplanetary travel(DY-300). Ten years later the DY-400 comes, good enough to get out to Pluto in four years. DY-500 ~2045 one month out to Pluto. First real warp drive better than ten times more affective, actual warp factor two attainable. Travel long enough, and 320c will occur, with warp two capacity reducing the radical 320 down just over a couple of light-years. The 320c limitation holds for nearly two centuries.
 
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.
Yes. Functionally, the Akira-prise, which should have been quite primitive, was roughly equivalent in tech to Kirk's Enterprise.
 
We did at least get to see a Constitution-class take on a Mirror Universe NX-class in battle. A ship more dangerous than the Prime Universe vessel as it was built for war, utilising technology taken from the conquered Vulcans. The Constitution-class wiped the floor with it.
 
Laser weapons-a mature technology be Archer's time?

Online have come across mention of programs to develop laser weapons. Hard to find details for the Israeli "Iron Beam" defense laser; have seen little detail described for the lasers of the UK, Ukraine, or any other countries.

Except....

However, we can now see details regarding the lasers deployed on U.S. Navy ships.
 
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I actually quite like Enterprise for what it is, but there's definitely problems and lost opportunities with the series. One such missed opportunity that always bugged me was a backstory for the Prime Directive. I guess technically "Dear Doctor" was a sorta explanation but that episode is terrible and so is it's explanation. The show should have had the nx01 crew meddling in other societies with good intentions with bad results following, hence why the prime directive was formed to begin with.

There was a Trill story pitched for season 4 where the nx01 crew would try to "save" the trill by separating them from the symbiotes because they thought it was a body snatcher scenario due to misunderstanding and maybe that could have made a good prime directive explanation. Or maybe VOYs Friendship One should have been an ENT episode. Anyway, you get the idea :p
 
Recast about half the characters. Bakula, Blalock, Montgomery, and possibly Park all need to go. The writing doesn't do them any favors, but the performances (particularly in Bakula and Blalock's cases) are terrible.

Figure out who Archer is and actually do something with it. Is he a tough-as-nails-but-inexpereinced captain? Is he a whiny, idiot nepobaby?* Is he a level-headed pragmatist who knows he's in over his head but does a decent job anyway? Pick an angle, do it intentionally, and stick with it.

Give the Enterprise crew an actual mission and goals beyond wandering around at random waving "hi" to aliens. Season 3 improved this with the Xindi arc, so they need something like that from the jump.

Get the crew out from under the thumb of known space and known species ASAP. Again, S3 did a lot to fix this but it's brutal spending two seasons watching them boldly go where everyone else (and all the Vulcan databases) have gone before. I'm not sure a war arc would be good from the start, but the idea of a region of space so dangerous that only humans are brave (or foolish) enough to explore it is appealing and would square the circle of space being new and exciting with established Trek lore that has dozens of species zipping around already.

*Every time he came across like that I'm sure was accidental, but it could be the most interesting option if it was done on purpose, created plausible problems, and the other characters reacted believably.
 
Question: just how long could the NX-01 stay out, because at warp factor five, they would most likely still be in space known to Vulcans, and Andoriams...

We don't know the original mission profile was.

Up until Gepard, I hadn't questioned my presumption of a three year mission, one year out to the current most interesting object, then another year to the next most interesting object.

Then a one year return.

In other words a very limited set of objectives.

Why? Because it is a prototype.
 
Question: just how long could the NX-01 stay out, because at warp factor five, they would most likely still be in space known to Vulcans, and Andoriams...
As long as the shows lasts. Distance and warp factors move at the need of plot.
 
Question: just how long could the NX-01 stay out, because at warp factor five, they would most likely still be in space known to Vulcans, and Andoriams...

We don't know the original mission profile was.

Up until Gepard, I hadn't questioned my presumption of a three year mission, one year out to the current most interesting object, then another year to the next most interesting object.

Then a one year return.

In other words a very limited set of objectives.

Why? Because it is a prototype.
The NX-01's mission profile was to go out and explore. Sure they won't go 1,000 light years and they would encounter aliens known to Vulcans and Andorians.

But they won't be known to humans. Even the Andorians weren't known to humans until "THE ANDORIAN INCIDENT", and they're a neighboring system.

The whole point of Archer's mission was to expand humanity's knowledge and see what's out there, not simply trust the Vulcan database and never bother to see with their own eyes.
 
Thinking further on this, the real question is just how long we're the J-class, and Y-class expected to be out there?

At warp factor 1.5, years to at least a decade. At warp 1.8...about the same.

That's with a crew initially in the low twenties.

With a crew of 83, this tells us a great deal about the level of automation. It couldn't handle an exploration mission.

Thanks to the thread 'How big was the Enterprise '.

Clarification: J-class and Y-class ships are intended primarily for freight. Very little in the way of in-depth analysis. Even assuming that most of the crew of a freighter is there for analysis. Not running the freighter.

To do proper analysis correctly took a NX-01 type.
 
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I touched on this with my response a while back, but how many of believe that what we saw in Enterprise was the result of Picard and crew's actions in FC? I don't think the ship would have been named Enterprise or even had a saucer if not for their interference. Riker and hungover Troi should have been court-martialed upon return to the 24th century for showing Cochrane the Enterprise alone.
 
I touched on this with my response a while back, but how many of believe that what we saw in Enterprise was the result of Picard and crew's actions in FC? I don't think the ship would have been named Enterprise or even had a saucer if not for their interference. Riker and hungover Troi should have been court-martialed upon return to the 24th century for showing Cochrane the Enterprise alone.

Yes, there has been a prevailing fan theory that the timeline changed when the Borg and the Enterprise-E went back in time, and that from 2063 onwards is the new timeline where ENT exists when it didn’t exist before (and that VOY and DS9 episodes post-FC adhere to the new timeline as well.) This theory came about because ENT was a retcon/after-the-fact prequel which used more elements from the Berman-era shows than TOS.

In the original timeline (which includes TOS, the TOS films, TNG, half of DS9, Generations and half of VOY), Cochrane made his warp flight alone without the TNG crew’s help or Borg interference.

This theory could also potentially be applied to the Discoverse, where ENT exists and now the timeline was altered to produce DSC, SNW, PIC, LDS, PRO and SFA.
 
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assumes cochrane ever told anyone. or made his own designs incorporating it. we don't see any other ships with a saucer in the Enterprise era that aren't derivative of the NX. got the deltas, which kind of make sense as lifting bodies for things you maybe intend to land. boxy freighters, that colony ship that is a series of flattened cylinders. archer's father's prototype ships don't really resemble the final. saucer is a nice round strong shape, easy to subdivide...

ships with the name "Enterprise" have a history in at least two major navies, and probably did right up til the Big One. and probably during recovery ad unification too (does United Earth have a surface navy? probably). principle designers being from at least one of the countries, well..
plus the name is fitting for what the NX-01 and it's mission is - "a project or undertaking that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky"
 
  • Make Archer a veteran Starfleet captain who been out patrolling Earth's colonial possessions. He's been back on Earth for two years training on the NX-01. His father Henry was the inventor of the Warp 5 engine. Jon Archer took the assignment to honor his father. An explore at heart he's eager to get out of the confines of the United Earth Colonies.
  • Likewise Trip has shipboard experience as well. He's been instrumental in developing the Warp 5 engine. He was especially close to Henry Archer and was at his side when he died, Jon Archer was on patrol and couldn't get back in time. This makes Jon's relationship with Trip awkward. Part rival, part little brother.
  • Reed is a MACO who's spent time in the Colonies fighting raiders and pirates that have targeted Earth's holdings and shipping. He's a bit distrustful of aliens.
  • Mayweather. He was born in space on a ECS Boomer ship. He young but also the most experienced in deep space. He knows or knows of countless species having encountered them as a trader. His family "connections" often given him an in. He's the opposite of Reed when it comes to aliens.
  • T'Pol.Vulcan Science officer and secretly a Terraphile. She's in Starfleet (and wears the uniform) A bit aloof, but also a keen observer. Others are a bit suspicious of to why a Vulcan would join Earth's Starfleet. Reed's theory is she's undercover for the Vulcan High Command.
  • Hoshi. No notes
  • Phlox. No notes.
 
I touched on this with my response a while back, but how many of believe that what we saw in Enterprise was the result of Picard and crew's actions in FC? I don't think the ship would have been named Enterprise or even had a saucer if not for their interference. Riker and hungover Troi should have been court-martialed upon return to the 24th century for showing Cochrane the Enterprise alone.
It could be a case of a bootstrap paradox, but you had the likes of Sarin (female Suliban from Broken Bow) and Daniels saying the timeline was being interfered with from the future, and things weren't supposed to happen this way. Because of that, I think its fair to lean towards some alterations taking place.

For fun, I recently suggested that the Enterprise we were supposed to get was the early version largely set on Earth. The NX-01 being under construction for the entirety of the first season. However, due to the TCW, the construction of the ship was accelerated much like the Suliban's evolution. In my mind, the NX-01 would've looked a little different, had it not been for the War.

And in regards to Riker and Troi, I like to think Dulmer and Lucsley gave them a stern telling off but also thanked them for saving the Earth.
 
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