4 ms·

They missed such an opportunity with that show. The first Enterprise should have been even more “early” with artificial gravity that didn’t work well and conse

by api 5y ago

They missed such an opportunity with that show. The first Enterprise should have been even more “early” with artificial gravity that didn’t work well and consequentially Velcro everywhere like in the ISS. It might have looked a bit like a bigger ISS. When power came on the bridge display would show a GRUB boot loader and Linux kernel boot output. Their experiences should have been total immersion in the frontier. Long range subspace had not yet been mastered, so they are cut off after going much beyond our solar system… or maybe they can by stopping and boosting power achieve like 300 baud text links under proper conditions. No transporters. EVAs and shuttles only. When they wanted to look at something in space it would be like the space walk scene from 2010 (the underrated 2001 sequel). … and no weapons worth crap against anyone advanced. Maybe a railgun and a primitive phaser. Weak shields. This is way before the federation so dark forest and Wild West vibes.

ben_w 5y ago
I forget where I heard this suggestion (Ex Astris Scientia, perhaps?), but I like the idea that the NX-01 should have been the first time humans made an antimatter powered warp drive, and everything before that was fusion powered warp drive. The possibility of main power being something other than antimatter also gives a reason why the TOS Romulan warbird was powered by “simple impulse” (which elsewhere seems to be fusion), and how on Earth Lily Sloane and Zefram Cochrane were able to power the Phoenix given the post-WW3 apocalypse and “six months to scrounge up enough titanium just to build a four-meter cockpit”. I think your worldbuilding would suit something earlier than Enterprise, but Enterprise was just before the foundation of the Federation, so I think they needed roughly the level of imbalance in the show — that said, one of my pet peeves is the way differences in skill/biology/technology/industrial output get squashed in narratives; the usual example I give is that Hawkeye and Thor shouldn’t be in the same battlespace in the same way that an olympic archer and a main battle tank shouldn’t be, but a developmentally realistic depiction of space battle with Vulcans and NX-01 (given time since becoming interstellar) ought to be similar to putting King Polydorus and his army in a fight with the entirety of all branches of the USA armed forces.
- slightwinder 5y ago
  > I think your worldbuilding would suit something earlier than Enterprise, but Enterprise was just before the foundation of the Federation, so I think they needed roughly the level of imbalance in the show They could have gone the long road and let the series play over the course of multiple decades. Showing longterm development, skip some years every episode and display how people, relationships and technology evolve over time. Could even started with a freshmen boarding the NX-01 and ending it with him becoming captain, Admiral and finally dying after an fullfilled live at the dawn of the new federation. With the long live of the vulcans, time-dillitation and the occasional timetravel they would have even enough tools to hold some characters fresh enough for the whole series.
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    > Showing longterm development They moved in this direction a bit, particularly in S4, which was ultimately my favorite and makes me wish the show continued on. In particular, the evolution of Earth-Vulcan relationship was some deep worldbuilding.
    - chess_buster 5y ago
      A friend of mine really loved the S4 and says the show runner (or writer?) has been a big TOS fan and that's contributing to it, I guess.
robotmay 5y ago
I think I could have forgiven Enterprise most things, but not the intro music. It still winds me up even today because it aged so badly compared to the orchestral arrangements of the 90s shows. I do agree though - it could have been a very interesting show if they went earlier. There have been a number of anime in particular (such as Planetes) that capture that near-future space exploration vibe really well, and it could work well in the Star Trek universe.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  I've since turned around on the intro and consider it to be the best one. Perhaps that's because I didn't know the song before, so it didn't have any prior associations for me. But still: the song alone doesn't work, but with the visuals, IMO it captures the spirit of Star Trek perfectly. The insatiable curiosity, the continuous efforts of hopeful individuals, the progress of science and technology, the dream to explore the Earth and then the Universe. But it, like the show itself, only works in context of prior Star Treks. If this was the first show I've ever seen, I'd have balked at the intro and would probably be disappointed by the series.

by api 5y ago

ben_w 5y ago

I forget where I heard this suggestion (Ex Astris Scientia, perhaps?), but I like the idea that the NX-01 should have been the first time humans made an antimatter powered warp drive, and everything before that was fusion powered warp drive. The possibility of main power being something other than antimatter also gives a reason why the TOS Romulan warbird was powered by “simple impulse” (which elsewhere seems to be fusion), and how on Earth Lily Sloane and Zefram Cochrane were able to power the Phoenix given the post-WW3 apocalypse and “six months to scrounge up enough titanium just to build a four-meter cockpit”. I think your worldbuilding would suit something earlier than Enterprise, but Enterprise was just before the foundation of the Federation, so I think they needed roughly the level of imbalance in the show — that said, one of my pet peeves is the way differences in skill/biology/technology/industrial output get squashed in narratives; the usual example I give is that Hawkeye and Thor shouldn’t be in the same battlespace in the same way that an olympic archer and a main battle tank shouldn’t be, but a developmentally realistic depiction of space battle with Vulcans and NX-01 (given time since becoming interstellar) ought to be similar to putting King Polydorus and his army in a fight with the entirety of all branches of the USA armed forces.

slightwinder 5y ago
> I think your worldbuilding would suit something earlier than Enterprise, but Enterprise was just before the foundation of the Federation, so I think they needed roughly the level of imbalance in the show They could have gone the long road and let the series play over the course of multiple decades. Showing longterm development, skip some years every episode and display how people, relationships and technology evolve over time. Could even started with a freshmen boarding the NX-01 and ending it with him becoming captain, Admiral and finally dying after an fullfilled live at the dawn of the new federation. With the long live of the vulcans, time-dillitation and the occasional timetravel they would have even enough tools to hold some characters fresh enough for the whole series.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  > Showing longterm development They moved in this direction a bit, particularly in S4, which was ultimately my favorite and makes me wish the show continued on. In particular, the evolution of Earth-Vulcan relationship was some deep worldbuilding.
  - chess_buster 5y ago
    A friend of mine really loved the S4 and says the show runner (or writer?) has been a big TOS fan and that's contributing to it, I guess.

robotmay 5y ago

I think I could have forgiven Enterprise most things, but not the intro music. It still winds me up even today because it aged so badly compared to the orchestral arrangements of the 90s shows. I do agree though - it could have been a very interesting show if they went earlier. There have been a number of anime in particular (such as Planetes) that capture that near-future space exploration vibe really well, and it could work well in the Star Trek universe.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
I've since turned around on the intro and consider it to be the best one. Perhaps that's because I didn't know the song before, so it didn't have any prior associations for me. But still: the song alone doesn't work, but with the visuals, IMO it captures the spirit of Star Trek perfectly. The insatiable curiosity, the continuous efforts of hopeful individuals, the progress of science and technology, the dream to explore the Earth and then the Universe. But it, like the show itself, only works in context of prior Star Treks. If this was the first show I've ever seen, I'd have balked at the intro and would probably be disappointed by the series.