Coto Speaks! (Spoilers Abound!)

[Hugh Casey]

Manny Coto, new showrunner for Enterprise, gave an interview about the new season here:

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/vie...icle/6193.html

Some Highlights:

- 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 may later be revealed to have been Romulans in disguise)

- One of the first arcs after the two-part premiere will revolve around an ancestor of Dr. Noonien Soong, played by Brent Spiner (Data). But fans shouldn't expect the new character, Arik Soong, to be anything like his Next Generation counterpart. "This character is more of a Dr. Frankenstein," Coto told StarTrek.com at UPN's fall preview party during the Television Critics Association press tour. "He is not a benign individual. He has brought to life 20 embryos from the Eugenics era. So you have Soong who's leading a band of Khan Noonien Singhs, so to speak. He believes that genetic engineering was on the right track!" When these 20 genetically-engineered relics from the Eugenics era threaten to incite war with the Klingon Empire, Enterprise recruits Arik Soong to help Starfleet track down the renegades. Their pursuit leads them all the way to a never-before-seen part of space called the Borderland between the Klingon Empire and the Orion Syndicate.

Damn... I might actually start having to LIKE this show... Vulcans, Romulans, Klingons, and Green Skinned Orion Slave Chicks! Woo-hoo!

[Liquidator Queeg]

Seems like good news. I may just have to start watching again next season. One thing I definitely want to see is more Andorians. And Orions. Gimme more blue and green skins!

LQ

[RaconteurX]

Sounds promising. Enterprise really needs to return to Star Trek's roots if it is going to survive another season.

[Space_Cadet]

Coto is da man

[strict31]

Wow...That stuff all sounds really good. From the very first sentence, I was like, "coolness..."

Hell, if it turns out well, they may get another season out of it...

Well, hopefully. I like being optimistic for a change instead of saying, "That sounds dumb..."



Strictly Speaking

[Balok]

All good stuff from my perspective. We'll see, of course, whether he can pull it off and whether he can sustain the kind of ratings that will bring the show back for a fifth season (right now, I'm fairly sure the plan is to make the show one more year, to get the count up for syndication, then cease -- high ratings might change that).

[strict31]

Originally posted by Fesarius
All good stuff from my perspective. We'll see, of course, whether he can pull it off and whether he can sustain the kind of ratings that will bring the show back for a fifth season (right now, I'm fairly sure the plan is to make the show one more year, to get the count up for syndication, then cease -- high ratings might change that).

I agree. But like I said, making an optimistic non-jaded post is new for me, and it feels good....


Strictly Speaking

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Originally posted by Space_Cadet
Coto is da man

Gotta go with that. His description of his Vulcan plans was way-cool.

[Tobian]

I have to say I also like the sound of the plot of this one too! It's the first one which begins to put everything back on the right track. They more or less completelly ditched the Vulcans as a concept for the beginning of the show, so it's good to see them put them back on track again. Seeing the Orions should prove interesting, and it will be cool to see what direction they take with them. There's so much material about them and.. it's all contradictory ! ... and mostly contradictory. So if nothing else it'll give us something to pin down! (even if we don't like it ) and we of course should see a... new look for them !

While not implicitly dealing with the 'birth of the federation' the general direction is allot more consistent with it. With the resurgence of 'good vulcans' and the ugly face of Orions and Klingons it's a good key into a common defence pact between Vulcans Humans and Andorians... all we have left is the Tellarites (and maybe the Centaurans?!) and we have one recipie for the Federation !

[Erik Filean]

Well...I need to see what happens to Coto's ideas in execution, but these do sound like much more deserving storylines to me than the season 3 arc. I thought I might be done with Enterprise for good after a few episodes of the Xindi business, but this may warrant one more look.

[Sho-sa Kurita]

Certainly, execution rather than intentions is the key. But then I enjoyed the Xindi arc. It wasn't perfect, but overall it was cool with it.

[Phantom]

I like Coto's work (particularly Odessey 5) this looks very promising indeed. Look's like I might have to start saying good things about Ent once again. As long as B&B keep their uneducated noses out his business.

[Publius]

Many good signs in the article.

"What I really wanted to do this season is make the episodes that I as a Star Trek fan would have to see. You know, as a fan of the original series, if I heard that they were doing the Orion slavers and the Eugenics Wars, I would have to be in front of that TV."

Yeah baby!

But we had to ask about the place of the Eugenics Wars in the Trek universe. In "Space Seed" it was clearly established that the Khan-led conflict occurred in the 1990s. However, in "Hatchery," Archer mentions that his great-grandfather fought in the Eugenics Wars (which would probably put them in the mid-21st century). How is Coto dealing with the chronology issue?

"I'm not dealing with it. There's no point. They were in the 1990s because the old series ran in 1966 and that was the future then. Clearly, we're in 2004, and there haven't been any Eugenics Wars that I know about! So, simply, the Eugenics Wars 'happened' — they happened in the past [relative to the current show]. I don't know how else to do it."

While technically avoidance, this to me seems a straightforward approach to the continuity issue. One that will not get people upset but at the same time will not further muck-up the existing continuity. In a way, this is how the other series have all dealt with the continuity issues as well at one time or another.

I am looking forward to seeing what will happen here.

[Phantom]

I don't really see a problem. First, Khan was only one of many Supermen who lead forces in the Eugenics Wars, he wasn't the over all leader. Second, just because Khan fled in 1996 doesn't mean that others did as well, the conflict could easily have over flowed into the 21stC...We're talking only 4 years here. There were probably residual conflicts going on for years.

[Sea Tyger]

Originally posted by Phantom
I don't really see a problem. First, Khan was only one of many Supermen who lead forces in the Eugenics Wars, he wasn't the over all leader. Second, just because Khan fled in 1996 doesn't mean that others did as well, the conflict could easily have over flowed into the 21stC...We're talking only 4 years here. There were probably residual conflicts going on for years.

It's also quite possible that 22nd Century historians have a different view of what constituted the "Eugenics Wars" than the 23rd Century and later historians.