These are all spectacular ideas. This is exactly what the show should have been. I think the Conestoga design would be perfect, as it's similar to a secondary hull with nacelles. In my head canon, the saucer section was something that originated either with another UFP founding species or through collaboration. The same goes for transporters and phasers.
Yes, I agree. TOS and TNG did not imply that early Earth ships used saucers. Those are associated with the proper Starfleet.
This is out of nowhere, but I don't think that the opening sequence would use "Faith of the Heart" [although there have been some good remixes]. It would be more sober, and would refer to some of the pre-warp catastrophe era. Then First Contact and all that. The camera would pan slowly over Archer's UESPA badge while opening credits roll, multiple cuts.
Archer has been given UESPA authority, and even a kind of official charter of authority. So he can extend UESPA to the frontier. But it would really only be taken seriously by official UESPA missions out there, which have been in communication with Earth. Otherwise, the independent missions ignore his "authority," are protective of their operations, and are really only interested in what "Enterprise" can do for them.
This series would be a good opportunity to detach the captain from the away missions. There could be an official exploration team, as well as other teams on board. And Archer's job is to manage these teams, and keep them from interfering with each other. There could be questions of authority between Archer, the UESPA colonial attache, and the Vulcans of course would try to pull rank.
The whole issue of the Vulcans might be approached differently than it was. In Enterprise, they're said to be holding humans back. Being paternalistic. That's kind of simplistic. It's more likely that Vulcan is trying to nurture humanity a certain way. Although there are skeptics, Vulcan high council wants to build up humanity as the main body of a future alliance. These people have a
long view, and we might see that illustrated. Cynics might say Vulcans want a buffer zone between them and hostile powers.
The most cynical Vulcans might desire Earth as a buffer even against certain Federation founding members. So there would have to be push-back, learning on the job, where the Vulcans on the ship start to clash with their own silent directives. There would have to be self-reflection.
So a mission like this challenges everyone's attachment to their home authority.
(Only some Vulcans are racist and paternalistic. Although Vulcans maintain a sense of superiority for a long time, they are largely pragmatic, and see the benefit of developing a path for humans.)
With regard to landers, I agree completely. One of the things that impressed me about Alien was how hazardous the journey was already assumed to be. Minus aliens, there is a whole language of safety aboard the ship. Decompression, radiation, collision, and all sorts of other possibilities are evident.
Landing on LV-426 was very refreshing, because this is what most planets would be like - completely inhospitable. And there are going to be more shots of the Enterprise crew suiting up and exploring Bonstellian planets. Pre-federation, habitable planets are even fewer than they were in TOS.
Although "Enterprise" / Intrepid would not look like the Nostromo, it would have a Semiotic Standard:
The Semiotic Standard, created on April 16, 2078, was a standardized set of universal, informational, and color-coded symbols, sometimes backlit and accompanied by an audible tone, for all commercial trans-stellar utility lifter and heavy element transport spacecraft that helped crew members and...
avp.fandom.com
This shows a systematic approach towards safety, no doubt based on painful lessons from the past. We already know that going to warp is fraught with challenges.
So, yeah, going planetside would be more of a vertical landing 'big deal.' I guess there'd have to be landers built right into the hull [if it's a streamlined warp delta] On a Conestoga, there could be modules attached to the ship where landers are stored.
[I've heard the rumours about the Contestoga, too. Certainly, it's the most realized non-Enterprise ship.]
These ideas in the thread about the warp deltas being a lander are very interesting. Could happen later on. Capable ships in their own right, they could avoid the "we can't be in two places at once" problem. Prefigures saucer separation.
The way I'd plot out the show is by looking at key things that happen, or have to happen by TOS. On a timeline. We already have a backstory that overshadows the main story. How do we get from post-apocalypse to Federation?
ST:E purported to do this, but it was very broad strokes, and not granular enough. Too much reliant on military alliances. We know the Romulan War cemented the Federation. But otherwise, why did these homeworlds deal with each other? What kind of organic relations, if any, did they already have with Earth? What did they want, and what mutual interests did they have besides 'trade' and 'defense?'
The Vulcans and other stakeholders in the show are no doubt addressing these questions in their own way. Archer is going to have to hold ready-room meetings with representatives of these groups, not to mention the meetings that are going on without the captain.
I'd be exploring these organic relations between the Federation's founding homeworlds, at the same time as investigating why TOS technology and regulations are the way they are. With fewer terraformed planets, the founding homeworlds would be comparatively important, much more wondrous than they were portrayed. Humans visiting Andor or Tellar should be like Cortez's men gazing upon Tenochtitlan for the first time. Take more time on them, to explore differing perspectives and interests.
Because "Enterprise" isn't zipping to a new world every week. In fact, going by pre-Federation depictions in TOS / TNG, I wouldn't be surprised if most crew are in stasis between stars. Something that can be abandoned as the ship improves.
