Here’s an antagonist I would have liked to see in later Enterprise: If I recall correctly, Australia was the last nation to formally join United Earth, and I think hadn’t yet at the time of ENT. So let’s have a fiercely nationalist “Australian Independence!” terrorist (hunted and abhorred by the actual Australian government) with a ship of his own, striking at Earth Starfleet installations in an attempt to weaken the whole “United Earth” project and (in his view) save Australia from external control. Maybe played by Kiefer Sutherland, getting to be the villain this time.
Although she uses Australia as a hypothetical in that example, the more concrete part of her statement is interesting too. Crusher sets the date of 2150 for when United Earth had total claim to representing the entire planet. That's only one year prior to the launch of the NX-01. Also, Q's court of post-atomic horrors is supposed to be in the 2070s. So even a decade after first contact with the Vulcans there were areas of Earth that were abhorrent wastelands and the implication is that it took generations after becoming warp-capable for Earth to become a united entity. It's always made me wonder whether there's a version of Trek's history of the late 21st/early 22nd century that's similar to
The Expanse as far as the politics?
I have always wondered whether the early version of Starfleet was formed to fight against separatist factions and the time between the 2060s and 2150s involved United Earth having to fight conflicts for control of the solar system from both business and political interests that had no desire in seeing a world government.
It would put an entirely different spin on Archer's resentment towards the Vulcans for not sharing technology and information with humanity, if humanity was still fighting amongst itself for control of Earth and the solar system during a good portion of those years.
If I could tweak
Enterprise, throw out the Temporal Cold War stuff and position the overarching storyline of the series being how controversial Starfleet's existence and mission was initially. Basically, expand out the story of "Demons" and "Terra Prime" to be a background antagonist throughout everything else which occurs.
Here in the present-day, there's a portion of the population that gets upset that NASA receives 0.3% of the US federal budget. There are conservatives who see scientific research as a waste of tax money, especially NASA's climate science that conflicts with their ideology, and there are liberals who think every satellite and rocket is taking healthcare and food away from starving children. I have to believe there would be a significant part of the human population, post-World War III, that would oppose using resources on Starfleet. They would argue that labor and time should be spent rebuilding and investing in Earth rather than building starships and meddling in the affairs of alien powers.
And that sentiment would only get worse and worse after the Xindi attack, encounters with the Klingons and Romulans, and the more and more threats Starfleet ran into out in deep space. You could make the show a conflict of ideas, where the desire to turn inward is contrasted against Trek's argument that discovery and exploration gives humanity a common destiny and purpose, and there's strength in building communities rather than isolation.
