Elements of Season 3 unresolved

[Dave]

Rick Berman said "Let's just say, certain elements of the [3rd Season] story are going to be unresolved" setting up a "mini-arc" for the beginning of season four.

Obviously, Spoilers for 'Zero Hour' will follow in this discussion.

This thread also contains serious Season 4 spoilers -- Be warned!

So, what do we have:

1/ Archer is in a Nazi hospital with an unknown, never before seen alien in a Nazi uniform examining him. If he dies the UFP will never be founded.

2/ Enterprise is in Earth orbit, but there are no orbital platforms and no radio on normal channels. It gets attacked by USAF fixed wing propeller driven aircraft which Ray Gower says are Mustangs.

3/ The Illyrians -- founding members of the UFP -- have been attacked by Archer and left stranded in the Expanse after stealing their Warp coil.

4/ The Xindii Council has been split, the other 4 species joining with Archer against the Reptiles.

5/ The trans-dimensional Sphere-building aliens have been returned to their own dimension, but for how long?

6/ Archer now owes Shran a favour.

7/ Archer still has a Klingon Bounty on his head.

Anything else? Any speculative ideas?

 

[Nick 0208 Ldn]

Originally posted by Dave
Rick Berman said "Let's just say, certain elements of the [3rd Season] story are going to be unresolved" setting up a "mini-arc" for the beginning of season four.

Obviously, Spoilers for 'Zero Hour' will follow in this discussion.

So, what do we have:

1/ Archer is in a Nazi hospital with an unknown, never before seen alien in a Nazi uniform examining him. If he dies the UFP will never be founded.

2/ Enterprise is in Earth orbit, but there are no orbital platforms and no radio on normal channels. It gets attacked by USAF fixed wing propeller driven aircraft which Ray Gower says are Mustangs.

3/ The Illyrians -- founding members of the UFP -- have been attacked by Archer and left stranded in the Expanse after stealing their Warp coil.

4/ The Xindii Council has been split, the other 4 species joining with Archer against the Reptiles.

5/ The trans-dimensional Sphere-building aliens have been returned to their own dimension, but for how long?

6/ Archer now owes Shran a favour.

7/ Archer still has a Klingon Bounty on his head.

Anything else? Any speculative ideas?

I can see 6 and 7 becoming intertwined at some point with one alteration however, Archer is going to help Shran out to even things up and then either through Shran feeling he owes Archer something again or an underlying friendship or a means to an end will help him out with the Klingons.

I have another one though..

8/ T'Pol in early season 4 will once again meet with her previous Vulcan superiors who discover her new slightly emotionsl side and forcefully return her to Vulcan for what they call, "treatment". Enterprise take action to prevent this and if necessary take T'Pol from their grasp creating some incident.

What do you think?

Have a bit more to say but i've gotta go for now.

Nick,

 

[Dave]

Re: Re: Elements of Season 3 unresolved

Originally posted by Nick 0208 Ldn
8/ T'Pol in early season 4 will once again meet with her previous Vulcan superiors who discover her new slightly emotionsl side and forcefully return her to Vulcan for what they call, "treatment". Enterprise take action to prevent this and if necessary take T'Pol from their grasp creating some incident.

I'm not too keen on the emotional Vulcan plot, but you are right that it will be developed further. If they do anything like you say, that will be a huge sea-change for Star Fleet who seem to only ever kowtow to the Vulcans.

 

[Dave]

more spoilers from Berman

According to Hailing Frequencies #256 (about.com) Rick Berman has given some spoilers for next season on ENT, to 'The Great Link' website, where we hear:

"future storylines will centre on the alien Nazis, the alliances that lead to the founding of the Federation and the further development of the T'Pol-Trip relationship : "That's all stuff that we're in the process of discussing now."

So....how long will the Alien Nazis be around for? "Tune in [laughs], Tune in and find out. I'm not telling."

 

[Nick 0208 Ldn]

Re: more spoilers from Berman

Originally posted by Dave
According to Hailing Frequencies #256 (about.com) Rick Berman has given some spoilers for next season on ENT, to 'The Great Link' website, where we hear:

"future storylines will centre on the alien Nazis, the alliances that lead to the founding of the Federation and the further development of the T'Pol-Trip relationship : "That's all stuff that we're in the process of discussing now."

So....how long will the Alien Nazis be around for? "Tune in [laughs], Tune in and find out. I'm not telling."

Am i the only one who finds that a little....well disappointing, the alliances that lead to the founding of the federation bit sounds promising and i suppose the Trip - T'Pol thing can be tolerated, but it sounds like tha whole alien Nazi plot is going to be far more than just a flash in the pan doesn't it? Well it does to me and i'm not too keen on that i can tell ya.

Nick,

 

[Dave]

You're certainly not the only one to despair Nick. I've been critical of things before based purely on spoilers, only to find that the finished product wasn't really that bad, but in this case, the having the whole 'Nazi' idea at all seems half-baked to me. As I said the 'Zero Hour' episode thread, the appearance of the 'Nazis' is usually when a show 'jumps the shark' and I really fear that 'Enterprise' may have just done that for me.

 

[Dave]

Nazis and Aliens

I don't know if you frequent other Star Trek boards, but the Trek Web BBS has a thread on this subject that is quite funny and shows that we are not alone in our despair.

They say that there is one man who can be brought back to defeat the Nazis and the Aliens -- Indiana Jones.

And they add one woman too -- Wonder Woman.

And plots for an Indiana Jones/Star Trek crossover story. Archer is told by Daniels to deliver an artifact to 20th Century Earth -- the Ark of the Covenant.

But that is the B-story. The A-story is still focussed of T'Pol's drug addiction and her ass. :rolly2:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Other boards and bloggs are discussing the alien. Some think it is a Reman (might fit with the Romulan-UFP formation story and we really don't need any more new aliens in Enterprise!)

Other's say it is like a 'Buffy' Demon. I can see why people say that. The Makeup Artist, Michael G. Westmore said that until the Remans, he didn't do the strong green and yellow make-up colours for aliens that you would more typically see on 'Buffy'. He stuck to more natural colours found in animals and blues. It could be an Orion Slave Girl though!

 

[Dave]

Spoiler about guest actor in 3 later episodes

According to 'Ain't it Cool'

Spoiler

Brent Spiner will likely play Dr. Noonien Soong’s grandpa for three episodes of 'Enterprise' this season. '

Trek Today' says that Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) broke this news to fans at the 'Dallas Sci-Fi Expo' on July 10th.

Spoiler

I know that we had several androids appear in TOS, but Starfleet didn't have androids, these were either unexplained or else the product of a mad scientist. Richard Daystrom perfected the M-5 computer using a breakthrough in Multitronics over Duotronics. Data's Positronic brain was a long way off.

I can see another continuity alert on the horizon!

 

[Dave]

And another continuity alert follows:

from SciFi Wire

Coto Goes Back To Trek Roots

Manny Coto, co-executive producer of UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise, told SCI FI Wire that as one of the show's new head writers, he wants the show to link up more with the original Star Trek series and its subsequent series. "I'm a fan of the ... original [Star] Trek," Coto said in an interview at UPN's fall press tour in Los Angeles. "And season four for me is going to be everything I, as an old Star Trek fan, would want to see on Enterprise, Which is basically a lot of touchstones connecting Enterprise with the old series and with the Next Generation series."

For Coto, that in part means incorporating more of the original series' aliens, such as the green-skinned Orions from "Shadowplay," as well as the more familiar Andorians and Vulcans. "A lot of people have noticed that the Vulcans on Enterprise don't behave like the Vulcans from the Kirk era and/or the Next Generation era," Coto said. "The Vulcans on Enterprise are more impulsive. They actually are somewhat more emotional. They lie. They don't have the same kind of values that the Vulcans that we know of."

Spoiler

To bridge the gap, Coto envisions a story arc in which a revolutionary Vulcan—Coto calls him a "Lawrence of Arabia" of Vulcan—proclaims that Vulcans have strayed from the teachings of Surak, the legendary Vulcan who ushered in the Time of Awakening and founded the movement based on logic and peace. "And this character will lead a revolution on Vulcan, which will bring Vulcan and Vulcan ideals to where we know them in the later series," Coto said. "And Enterprise will get involved in this." As a result of this resurgence, the political situation with the Andorians changes, and mysterious dissidents on the planet Vulcan attempt to stir up a civil war (and will later be revealed to have been Romulans in disguise), he added.

"That's an example of the kinds of stories that we're going to tell this season," Coto said.

And that shows how little he remembers from the stories of the Kirk era. Romulans had never been seen by Humans until 'Balance of Terror'. The Earth-Romulan War was conducted without viewscreens. Humans of the Kirk era were unaware that Romulans and Vulcans were related.

 

[ray gower]

Always thought the Vulcans were behaving rather like adults with unruly kids. Let's face it kids can try the patience of saints.

But if it means the end of the time-hopping, I, for one, will be somewhat happier!

 

[Dave]

To tell the truth we haven't seen that many full Vulcans before Enterprise, and the ones that we did were atypical, I would have thought -- Sarek married a Human (which must have been a little odd, although he considered it entirely logical) -- Tuvok had some undisclosed bond with Janeway -- T'Pau was some kind of Royalty (and we know how batty Royalty can be.)

Scott Bakula has spoken about Season 4:

from SciFi Wire

Archer's Reckoning On Enterprise

Scott Bakula, who returns for a fourth season as Star Trek: Enterprise's Capt. Jonathan Archer, told SCI FI Wire that the new year will see his character dealing with the fallout of some of his morally questionable actions during last season's Xindi war arc. "Well, I think there's definitely going to be a day of reckoning," Bakula said in an interview at UPN's fall press tour in Los Angeles. "There's going to be some repercussions. [He's a] man who's faced with having to make some tough choices and now being out of that situation. How does he really feel about that? How has it changed him? I think there's definitely a sense of a war veteran, in essence, who comes back to civilization, so to speak, and then says, 'Wow, what have I done?'"

Overall, Bakula added, Enterprise will look backward and forward more to the original Star Trek series. "Yeah, there's going to be some fun stuff with that," he said. "Some species we're going to bump into and some things like that that'll kind of bring it back full circle for the fans from the beginning. It should be fun."

Bakula said that he's pleased that Enterprise got picked up, after a year of lackluster ratings, and is also happy about the show's new 8 p.m. ET/PT Friday timeslot. "We get to go again," he said. "They're trying a lot of new things. ... Opening up a new night for UPN could be a great thing for us. ... I think back to when Miami Vice came on on a Friday night, and ... nobody wanted to be on Friday nights. But all of a sudden Miami Vice came, and it was kind of a hit, and people started making a point to get home to watch [it]. ... And I don't want to be a hopelessly optimistic guy, but, you know, we're going to make great shows again this season."

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

My comments on Archer's Reckoning On Enterprise . .

". . fallout of some of his morally questionable actions . ."

Uhm . . maybe Archer did some stuff, but I can't think of anything
that really stands out. Anyone have some thoughts about that?

I mean when he interrogated one of those aliens he was mean, but
he rained in his anger and no death happened.

Friday night may not be a strong point for UPN, but it is for
Sci-fi Channel. They show new episodes of Stargate SG-1 and
Atlantis Friday. USA shows new Episodes of Monk on Friday.

Say when Enterprise was on Wednesday nights wasn't it on when
Smallville was on?

 

[ray gower]

There is the small matter of a warp core- You would have thought somebody would put a padlock on something that easy to steal!

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by McHorde-Trooper
Uhm . . maybe Archer did some stuff, but I can't think of anything that really stands out. Anyone have some thoughts about that?

There is the stealing the Warp Core which Ray has mentioned. He left those aliens two years journey from home!

There is also the Trip's clone business. He told it that it should make itself available as a spare parts locker otherwise he was going to execute it anyway!

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

Those are two good ones.
I'm still trying to remember which episode the warp core one was.
Was it early on soon after Enterprise entered the expanse?

 

[Dave]

It was called 'Damage' and came late-on after they got attacked in 'Azati Prime'.

 

[Dave]

After the first three part story arc beginning with the episode 'Borderland' with the genetic supermen, ancestor of Dr Noonian Soong and the Klingons, later in the season there will be a second three part story arc featuring a Vulcan civil war.

Manny Coto: "If you've watched Enterprise and you watched the old series and Next Gen, you know that there's a difference between the Vulcans of our era and the Vulcans of later eras. Our Vulcans lie, our Vulcans are monolithic, our Vulcans are not pacifistic. What we've done is develop an idea: What if an individual appears on Vulcan who is saying to the populace that we have strayed from the teachings of Surak? This individual is like a Martin Luther. And he spawns a Vulcan civil war."

He nicknamed it "Vulcan of Arabia" because it's an epic story taking place almost entirely on the hot, desert planet. "It involves a Vulcan Reformation," he continued. "I'm equating the Vulcan High Command with the Catholic Church, which in medieval times strayed from the teachings of Christianity; similarly, the Vulcan High Command has strayed from the teachings of Surak. This individual wants to bring us back to those teachings, but it causes instability on Vulcan because he's preaching pacifism, he's preaching pure logic, he's preaching a return to the old ways. But, he not only believes in the teachings of Surak, he believes he is Surak. He claims that he possesses Surak's katra. Is that true or isn't it? We'll find out. But what happens is, with the instability on Vulcan, you have the Andorians trying to take advantage, and it threatens to destabilize the entire region. And of course, Enterprise will be stuck in the midst of this turmoil, and by the end of this three-episode arc, we will begin to see Vulcans approaching what they were in the later eras. We'll see the beginnings of a new Vulcan."

"It's gonna be a blast. I'm picturing the scene where two Vulcan armies are poised on the desert — what's gonna happen, will they or will they not fight?"

In this epic story arc, he also promised a subplot which will unravel into a very intriguing plot twist.

 

[ray gower]

Originally posted by Dave
Manny Coto: "If you've watched Enterprise and you watched the old series and Next Gen, you know that there's a difference between the Vulcans of our era and the Vulcans of later eras. Our Vulcans lie, our Vulcans are monolithic, our Vulcans are not pacifistic.

Actually, I can't say I have noticed a great deal of difference.
Vulcans in all Treks have been quite capable of falsifying the truth. Nor does it seem the Ent lot are particularly war-like, just an overdose of superiority which is eroded over time.

Still it leaves the Nazi's alone, even in name only

 

[McHorde-Trooper]

I haven't noticed much of a difference either ray gower.

With the exception of the mind meld thing. In one episode
the give the impression that the mind meld is an unacceptable
practice to the High Command and the bulk of Vulcan society.

- - -
I'm not really sure Vulcan culture and society has really been
fleshed out in any Trek show. Certain looks into Vulcan
culture has been made, but never a day-in-the-life-of view. Vulcan history is pretty vague too.

 

[Dave]

We've really only seen planet Vulcan in the original series episode 'Amok Time' and in the films I,III & IV.

Even those were inconsistent in their portrayal of Vulcan and Vulcans. (In 'The Man Trap' Spock says Vulcan has no Moon, but in 'The Motion Picture' there is a Moon, or maybe even two! And if I was picky the colour of the sky seems to change from red to orange to yellow between films, but I guess that's possible.)

But I do also think that the Vulcans were seen to be more mystical, and driven more by mysticism as well as by pure Logic. I'm thinking not only of mind-melds, but also of Kolinahr, and that whole Koon-ut-kal-if-fee 'marriage of challenge' ceremony. Enterprise Vulcans just seem too staid and boring in comparison.