More info on ENTERPRISE's new direction... (!!spoiler-thingies!!)

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, Russell's voice is a dead ringer for Rod.

 

[William Ronald]

I agree that Enterprise needs a new direction, however wiping out entire countries because someone receives a message from the future has a few problems.

First, did not Chakotay's ancestors originate in Central America. I seem to recall that they did, thus creating a problem in continuity if there is no one left alive from Venezuela to Florida.

Two, I think the Federation would have developed into something a lot more militant if this incident had occurred. Prime Directive, bah! Enlightened self interest with a lot of fire power to back it up.

Third, time travel was thought only to be theoretical in TOS. (The episode where Spock mixed anti-matter "raw" lead to the Enterprise travelling back in time three days. Spock seemed amazed at the possibilities.)

A better approach would be to have an attack on one of Earth's extra-solar colonies that might lead into the Romulan Wars.

Mind you, I think it is good that Braga and Berman are stealing from Babylon 5. I honestly think that Babylon's 5 view of the future - with humanity still struggling with itself - is a bit more realistic than some of the latter Star Trek shows. (Where it seems any possibility of human evil has been eliminated. As long as human beings have free will, some people will chose badly.)

So, I will give the new direction a chance, although I am skeptical of it. After Voyager ended, I thought it would be perhaps best to let the franchise rest for a while.

 

[Mark]

Third, time travel was thought only to be theoretical in TOS.

Nope. It was not only introduced in TOS but the ramifications were also mentioned. Time travel is not only part of canon it is the one thing that destroys any arguement that falls back on canon. People like to claim that anything that upsets what they have come to expect going against canon but the actuality is that canon dictates that they cannot expect anything.

Whatever is thrown at us, is how it is, despite protestations to the contrary. Each and every time travel episode, right back to TOS, has laid the groundwork for anything we have seen not being actual. It isn't the Temporal "Cold" War that matters...it is Joan Collins and Kirk kicking ass on a 20th century military base that blows anything anyone says about how things should be out of the water.

Hard concept for most people to accept (judging by most posters on this board and worse so ST boards) but it is the plain and simple truth no matter what people say or try to ignore...

(good morning, everyone.. )

 

[Viking Bastard]

Time travel itself was not theoretical is TOS but the how of it.

The Fed technology to timetravel was first introduced by Spock.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Third, time travel was thought only to be theoretical in TOS. (The episode where Spock mixed anti-matter "raw" lead to the Enterprise travelling back in time three days. Spock seemed amazed at the possibilities.)

Well, time travelers from the future have already rendered this a moot point on Enterprise. As we've seen on many episodes of the various Trek series, time travel can cause a lot of changes in the time line.

 

[Umbran]

First, did not Chakotay's ancestors originate in Central America. I seem to recall that they did, thus creating a problem in continuity if there is no one left alive from Venezuela to Florida.

There's no continuity problem here, for two reasons:
1)To say, "My ancestors came from there" does not say that every ancestor up until your birth was there. My ancestors came from Europe. But, if in 1960 Europe got blasted off the map, I could still be here, as my parents were not in Europe in 1960.

2)This destruction comes from a space probe, probably in orbit. For that, then the phrase "from Venezuela to Florida" probably means in a straight line - Venezuela, Cuba and some Carribbean Islands, and Florida - leaving Central America untouched.

Two, I think the Federation would have developed into something a lot more militant if this incident had occurred.

Well, shouldn't we see how the story develops before we decide what's plausible and what isn't?

Third, time travel was thought only to be theoretical in TOS.

So? How is this a problem? Being an officer on a Federation starship does not automatically unlock all clasified data. If the nascent Federation chose to keep this "temporal cold war" a secret, then Spock wouldn't know about it, and timie travel would seem only theoretical to him.

A better approach would be to have an attack on one of Earth's extra-solar colonies that might lead into the Romulan Wars.

With all the canon-mongers out there, the Romulan War would prove to be a bit of a difficulty. You see, the canon and apocrypha about the Romulans pose a problem - apparently, the Romulans don't get warp drive until after their first encounter with Kirk. The ship Kirk first encounters lacks warp drive, and the stories written about the war have the Romulans lacking warp drive. They eventually trade with the Klingons - cloaking tech for warp tech.

Now, back when that was written, it seemed cool. But today, anyone wiht any science knowledge will tell you that a war between a warp-capable culture and a non-warp culture would simply be ludicrous. That sticks the show in an awkward position - do they break canon, and make it a reasonable conflict, or do they keep the canon, but have it be implausible? Or, do they simply not touch it? So far, they seem to have chosen the latter, probably not unwise.

Plus, how do we know that the "temporal cold war" is not an attempt to work out the Romulan War? If the Future folks involved are Romulan, and the Xindi are merely Romulan tools, then we're all set, aren't we?

 

[Hand of Evil]

Well here is a tidbit from the side lines.

UPN's Enterprise saw its ratings down in the first week of May sweeps by a big 39 percent in the 18-49 demographic, compared with its opening-week May performance of a year earlier, Variety reported.

I think if they don't get their act together the show is dead.

 

[Staffan]

Time travel itself was not theoretical is TOS but the how of it.

The Fed technology to timetravel was first introduced by Spock.

Wasn't there a TOS episode where they just decided to take a trip to the past to check out what Earth looked like in the 50s or something like that, and ended up beaming a pilot into the Enterprise and then having to go destroy some records or something? It's been a looong while since I saw that, but my memory tells me that the timetravel didn't seem a big deal in that episode.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Tomorrow is Yesterday

When the U.S.S. Enterprise is thrown into a time warp by a black star, it ends up orbiting Earth in the 20th century. Omaha Air Base detects a peculiar UFO and sends a fighter plane, manned by Captain John Christopher, to investigate.

The starship accidentally destroys the plane, caught in their tractor beam, so the pilot is beamed aboard. The problem now, of course, is to prevent Captain Christopher from returning to tell others on Earth. In order not to change history, in which Christopher's son will prove important, Kirk must return the captain to Earth without knowledge of the ship.

This is the first case of them using the sling shot theory which was
of course reused in The Voyage Home. They used it though to
get back home to the 23rd century, not to travel back in time, that
was an accident.

 

[Umbran]

I think if they don't get their act together the show is dead.

Getting their act together may be either insufficient, or unnecessary. One can create a really wonderful show, and have it die in the ratings. One can create a load of drek, and have it do wonderfully.

There is, quite simply, no accounting for taste.