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Nice what ifs :D
smokebailey
Member Posts: 4,668 Arc User
in Ten Forward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcchKtd3IW4 <
I'd dig this.
Anyone else got some nice 'what ifs' they like?
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An interesting point about that ship is that the saucer is actually the secondary hull, with a detachable/recoverable and planetary landing/takeoff capable science module perched on the nose of the warp delta style main ship. There were hints in the script that the main bridge was probably in the base of the neck (my guess would be the front bottom edge but it is not clear where exactly).
The science module bridge was probably in the customary center-top position on the saucer, though the illustration of it landed suggests another location for it (or it may be on the top of the cylinder that moves down to form that landing foot and those dishes and whatnot could extend out on top of it from the sides of the shaft or something).
Another good one that could be put in (hopefully as a variant, not as the only one) that is also without IP rights issues is the one from the pre-production teaser for DSC. While not as good looking as the original McQuarrie version it has at least a few features close to TOS aesthetics (like the way the saucer rim is angled), unlike the later ones which went with a much more generic style.
And that solid-saucer class that the Crossfield class is probably a limited-production variant of could be considered canon too, since a lot of the engineering displays in the first season showed its silhouette instead of the Crossfield one (in-universe, they were probably standard consoles from that parent class and Starfleet engineering did not deem it worth changing the graphics for since they got the idea across, or whatever, though the realworld reason was undoubtedly cost cutting by avoiding remaking the graphics after they switched to the fidget-spinner rings).
I also would like to see more Phase 2 stuff come into things.
A Model
I don't know why, but I kinda like it.
BTW... 1080s? lol
Doug Drexler had the story of that executive folly and the effort to convince them to allow modifications to create the NX up on his blog website, though I think it is only accessible via the Wayback Machine nowadays.
Berman also talked about it in interviews, along with a number of other things he was not happy with the network execs meddling with in ENT (like their insistence on phasers and photon torpedoes despite them not having been invented yet according to Star Trek lore up until then, and the silly naming tricks they had to use ("phase cannons", "photonic torpedoes" etc.) to maintain even a thin veneer of continuity with previous Trek series.
The one thing that interested me a bit was the fact that the impulse engines were blue instead of red like in later eras.
Did you ever notice that hull plating was talked about in percents of damage in the same way shields were in every previous series.
Yea, however considering the way Hull Polarization worked it was basically very primitive shields since it was basically energizing the hull in a way to try and protect against incoming attacks. And just like shields that protective element would weaken with damage. However unlike shields there was quite a bit of bleedthrough since it was literally just energized hull plating rather than an energy shield.
The whole show had a lot of potential which they basically just threw away with making it as TNG as possible from the very beginning. Nothing in ENT really is specific to the ENT era, instead we have TNG Klingons, Ferengi, Borg and even recognizable tech from the very beginning. Missed opportunities left and right.
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The original idea was to go with plasma bolt pistols and cannons, and atomic missiles for the entire series and mention a few "wild" theories that eventually become phasers and photon torpedoes in the time between ENT and TOS, but the execs saw the pilot episode and went ape about them not having the familiar Trek gear, so they had to change it and introduce the phase pistols within an episode or two of the pilot and the phase cannons and photons not long after that.
Honestly it didn't bother me that much since a tech existing doesn't mean it's common place and IIRC Spock's wording in "Balance of Terror" included the word "mostly" so it doesn't outright prevent prototype phasers and photon torps from existing, just that they weren't common place during the Earth-Romulan War
And yea, the Photonic Torpedoes were season 3. It is possible that the spacial torpedoes Enterprise had been using were nuclear, but they never did identify the type of warhead. They were just SLOW AS HELL. The only time we see Enterprise firing plasma cannons was in the pilot, after that it was almost exclusively spacial torpedoes until they installed the Phase Cannons, of which I think Reed said they only had 3 mounts for. 2 forward, ventral mounts, and one rear mount.
Also I wouldn't be surprised if Starfleet reverse engineered Photons from all the scan data they've been collecting from more advanced races like the Klingons.
They did keep the Grappler though instead of making a tractor beam, and did showcase its limitations several times.
IMO what seems to be a problem at times with Enterprise and TOS is how apocrypha information of the time period tends to bleed over as "canon" despite no evidence seen on screen. What is seen on screen is absolute hard canon. Unless otherwise stated by the Powers That Be, you can't argue that. But we do have books and other resources that cover events from outside the shows, one of which stated that Earth ships in the Earth/Romulan War looked like cylinders, and everyone had nuclear weapons. While this is an old source, we still have to remember that it is not on screen canon, yet some people hold it up as such, when in all honesty its their own headcanon. Which is fine, but trying to push it as Word of God Canon is a problem.
Personally I have no problem with the Phase Cannons and Photonic Torpedoes. And I personally like how Star Trek Legacy addressed the use of Nuclear Weapons when Starfleet and the Romulans were packing more advanced tech than that. A mission in the Enterprise era sees Archer and his task force having to try and deal with a Romulan fleet intent on invading Sol System. Starfleet Command sends Archer to one particular system they have to pass through, that just happens to have old Vulcan Mining Stations with Fusion Reactors. Thanks to Intel, Starfleet knows Romulan ships are not EM shielded, and devises a plan to rig the Mining Stations to blow. Its not the actual blast, but the resulting EMP that Starfleet banks on to disable as many Romulan ships as possible. While it is not direct use of tactical nuclear weapons, it does, in my opinion, fill the checkbox of Nuclear Warfare during the Earth-Romulan War that also showcases one element of humanity that Star Trek promotes a lot. Human Inginuity.
But again this is not hard canon, and I'm not going to say this is difinitively what happened during the Earth-Romulan War. But it is a nice take on the events based on what little we actually know of that war.
So many reasons why making prequels is bad.
It is also true that their use in the war does not mean that they could not have had a few prototype phase and antimatter weapons (actually, photon warheads would logically be available before M-aM reactors, just like atomic bombs came before working power reactors) mounted on a few prototype ships as well.
ENT was somewhat controversial, but overall it was a good series and the way the temporal cold war was handled effectively bridged much of the continuity gap between TOS historical references and some of the later shows/movies that showed a different history.
As for good what-ifs, one that I find fascinating would be to follow the hints in early TOS that Starfleet was less homogeneous than it was later on and produce some TOS era ships that take their design cues from the ships the various member states had in ENT but taking some standardization of systems into account.
So far most TOS era ships have been direct kitbashes of TOS Enterprise parts, and even DSC Fed ships all use design language that ENT established to be of distinct Earth origin instead of reflecting a mix of aesthetics from all over the Federation (or at the very least the founders and possibly other major states within it).
Well... considering the ONLY Federation ship from TOS we saw was the Constitution Class...
https://amazon.com/Star-Trek-Spaceflight-Chronology-Goldstein/dp/0671790897
publish back in 1979 had lots of fun, non-canon history between it's pages, yet many ST novels that followed took ideas from it liberally and next gen writers built on some of the building blocks ( Mars colonies, for examples ).
Lots of non-canon things slip quietly into canon all of the time.
Most of the time its little things though. Nods to books, but not direct references like the books themselves in their entirety are canon, such as the idea behind what ships during the Earth-Romulan War looked like. Hell... back then it was still UESPA and not United Earth Starfleet.
When it come to books and TV, it tends to be that TV could make passing references to something from a book, but never really outright draw from them unless authorized by the Powers That Be. Books, on the other hand, can pull from the shows directly.
The biggest references to books in TV that I can think of off the top of my head right now are in Star Wars, as Disney is starting to cherry pick elements from the old EU novels for inclusion into canon, such as fan favorite Admiral Thrawn, and what may very well be a visual reference to the planet Wayland at the end of Bad Batch. They also had an appearance of the TIE Defender as well in Rebels.
Solid grey matter, Jon
Also mentioned on the Star Trek Voyager: Friendship One episode.