Enterprise - 04/22/05 [Spoiler Talk]

[mojo1701]

There are a lot of loose ends in the plot: Future Guy, the Trip/T'pol issue, the thread of xenophobia seen on earth, the official Prime Directive Is Now The Law episode (it's had an episode, but not the actual creation of the directive itself for Starfleet), the formation of the Federation, the Romulon war, the creation of shields instead of just hull plating for Enterprise, the transformation of the Maykos into just security for Starfleet, etc...

Future Guy WAS wrapped up: the entire TCW ceased to exist due to the events of :Storm Front";
Trip/T'Pol issue might reach a resolution in the Finale;
the Xenophobia Issue will be brought up again (and resolved, I think) in the penultimate two-parter "Demons" and "Terra Prime";
the official Prime Directive will probably be a thing brought up by the Vulcans, as it was mentioned by T'Pol in an episode;
Romulan War will be overlooked, due to cancllation;
creation and formation of the Federation (heh) will be covered in the finale "These Are The Voyages...";
The MACOs are a tough one, I mean, the idea of Starfleet Marines has been hinted at, especially in Star Trek VI (think of Col. West and Operation Retrieve);
and I suspect that shields, and other things will be part of the Federation, since they will all be allies, and will share technology, or if they don't have it already, develop it together.

*heavy breath in*

 

[Mistwell]

Future Guy WAS wrapped up: the entire TCW ceased to exist due to the events of :Storm Front";
Trip/T'Pol issue might reach a resolution in the Finale;
the Xenophobia Issue will be brought up again (and resolved, I think) in the penultimate two-parter "Demons" and "Terra Prime";
the official Prime Directive will probably be a thing brought up by the Vulcans, as it was mentioned by T'Pol in an episode;
Romulan War will be overlooked, due to cancllation;
creation and formation of the Federation (heh) will be covered in the finale "These Are The Voyages...";
The MACOs are a tough one, I mean, the idea of Starfleet Marines has been hinted at, especially in Star Trek VI (think of Col. West and Operation Retrieve);
and I suspect that shields, and other things will be part of the Federation, since they will all be allies, and will share technology, or if they don't have it already, develop it together.

*heavy breath in*

Glad to know some of those will be wrapped up in the final 2 episodes. And yet, wouldn't some of these other loose ends be more appropriate for the final episodes than these one-off episodes? Or woudln't the one-off episode slots have been better used to more fully develop some of the plot threads they will apparently try to do in one or two episodes? I just think there is a much better use for this time than episodes that have nothing at all to do with the actual story threads they have been developing for four full seasons.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

The MACOs are a tough one, I mean, the idea of Starfleet Marines has been hinted at, especially in Star Trek VI (think of Col. West and Operation Retrieve);

Starfleet Marines existed in DS9, such as the mention on the Defiant having to escort a ship of marines through the badlands in one of the final episodes, to an episode where there were marines wearing all black uniforms on at planet where Starfleet and the Klingons were engaged in a 'brush-fire' war against each other.

 

[mojo1701]

Listening to the commentary for this episode, one of the inspirations for this episode was the production being inspired by some "fanfilms they saw," which I'm assuming is mostly "New Voyages," because that they recreated the Constitution-class, so they said, "Hey, why can't we do this?"

 

[Arnwyn]

There are a lot of loose ends in the plot: Future Guy, the Trip/T'pol issue, the thread of xenophobia seen on earth, the official Prime Directive Is Now The Law episode (it's had an episode, but not the actual creation of the directive itself for Starfleet), the formation of the Federation, the Romulon war, the creation of shields instead of just hull plating for Enterprise, the transformation of the Maykos into just security for Starfleet, etc...

Most of these (IMO, non-existent) "loose ends" you speak of seem to be vastly overstated. Creation of shields? Transformation of the MACOs? Romulan war? The Federation? You seem to not realize how many seasons of Enterprise remain. One or two episodes ain't gonna do it...

It would have been better to honor those dedicated fans with tying up loose plot threads rather than catering to people who long ago gave up on the show.

That episode was honoring this particular 'dedicated fan', as well as rewarding me for suffering (hyperbole, of course) through 3 seasons of TCW and Xindi crap.

 

[wingsandsword]

That episode was honoring this particular 'dedicated fan', as well as rewarding me for suffering (hyperbole, of course) through 3 seasons of TCW and Xindi crap.

I'll agree with that. I think some reasons A Mirror, Darkly was so well recieved by fans was that in many ways it was what people were looking for all along from Enterprise. The Tholians were there, and while being faithful to the Original Series they also took advantage of better technology to depict them with. There were tie-ins to the Original Series, (and frankly the TOS Defiant slipping into the Mirror Universe was one I hadn't thought of, but was a nice idea). In some ways, it had a tone reminiscent of the Original Series. The Mirror Universe episodes have always been popular with fans because, in moderation they show characters we know in situations we know we'd never see otherwise, and a fun little "what if" of the entire setting.

In the fourth season we have no stupid Suliban/TCW or Xindi; the threats and antagonists were races and threats that we knew and expected to encounter in that time, Romulans, Tholians, Klingons, Orions, and the tensions of integrating what would be the founding worlds of the Federation together. The races that kept recurring were ones we were expecting to see, like Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. The plot moved in a direction where you could begin to see how the Federation would be founded, and the huge Romulan Wars which every fan knew lurked a few years on the horizon were beginning to be stirring. I think with a better time slot and promotion, the 4th season of Enterprise could have been the season to turn it all around, and I think given the test of time it will be well remembered.

 

[devilish]

I'll agree with that. I think some reasons A Mirror, Darkly was so well recieved by fans was that in many ways it was what people were looking for all along from Enterprise. The Tholians were there, and while being faithful to the Original Series they also took advantage of better technology to depict them with. There were tie-ins to the Original Series, (and frankly the TOS Defiant slipping into the Mirror Universe was one I hadn't thought of, but was a nice idea). In some ways, it had a tone reminiscent of the Original Series. The Mirror Universe episodes have always been popular with fans because, in moderation they show characters we know in situations we know we'd never see otherwise, and a fun little "what if" of the entire setting.

In the fourth season we have no stupid Suliban/TCW or Xindi; the threats and antagonists were races and threats that we knew and expected to encounter in that time, Romulans, Tholians, Klingons, Orions, and the tensions of integrating what would be the founding worlds of the Federation together. The races that kept recurring were ones we were expecting to see, like Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. The plot moved in a direction where you could begin to see how the Federation would be founded, and the huge Romulan Wars which every fan knew lurked a few years on the horizon were beginning to be stirring. I think with a better time slot and promotion, the 4th season of Enterprise could have been the season to turn it all around, and I think given the test of time it will be well remembered.

I can't agree more -- in fact I came back looking for this thread after thinking about
it today.

Every Trek show had it's theme and I always thought Enterprise was going to
be "How do we connect the Past (today's world + nuclear war + Cochrane) to the
first Future (TOS)."

Temporal cold war? What the heck is that for (except maybe to explain why
almost every Trek series had time travel like it was going out of style.)
Insectoid enemies?

I really got attached to the 4th season b/c it had the Orion/Tellarite strife/treaty, the
Romulans and how this would lead to war, and the whole Eugenics war. Even though
Soong's grandfather was a stretch to bring Spiner back, it gave some context
to a) Eugenics and b) the passion/madness of the Soong line.

While Mirror Darkly is out of context, it represents that original theme that I
thought Enterprise was supposed to have.