Enterprise story session!

[erhershman]

Okay, on these boards I've seen alot of Enterprise bashers moaning that "the writing on the show is terrible" and that "I could do better if I was producer." Okay... so now's everyone's chance to prove it!
Post a maximum of FIVE story ideas, in two paragraphs or less each. that you would do if you were a staff writer on Enterprise. Please reserve this for ENT-only stories- no ideas for the other shows.

Have fun, and no ENT-bashing please! This is for a creative forum of storytelling! Feel free to expand on others' ideas and offer suggestions from improvements of their storylines!

MY IDEAS:

1. T'Pol takes command while Archer is away touring an alien starbase. The crew is, needless to say, a little ticked off by her style of command... especially when the alien starbase falls out of orbit towards the planet and T'Pol opts to destroy it, even with the captain aboard it.

2. Archer and crew travel forward to the 23rd century and have to stop a Suliban from infiltrating a Contitution-class vessel to alter history by killing their captain, who will be a famous war hero (and no it is NOT Kirk)

[NobAkimoto]

As long as it has no planets in it and doesn't involve some sort of technology that wasn't in TOS, but abdundant in TNG and later, it'd be fine in my book.

More stories focusing on the fact that space is BIG and UNEXPLORED in this era.

Maybe more merchant/pirate/unexpected encounter type stories...

[Lancer]

What's this about space being not vast enough in Enterprise and too many planets? There have been a lot of episodes that revolve around ENT encountering some other spaceship without anyone setting foot on a planet:

• Fight or flight
• Unexpected
• Breaking the Ice
• Fortunate Son
• Cold Front
• Silent Enemy
• Sleeping Dogs
• Shuttlepod One
• Fusion
• Aquisition

About the only ways I see to show how vast and empty space is would be to either have some character-driven episodes without encountering any planets, aliens or whatever or mentioning significant flight times between and the crew complaining about their boredom.
The later could significantly throw the established ratio of 1 season = 1 year on-screen-time off track and is therefore unlikely to be employed by the series writers.

As for some episode outlines:
[list=1][*]Enterprise encounters a derelict Vulcan vessel and something bad happens to T'Pol. The only clues to save her are on the Vulcan ship and the crew must try to delve into Vulcan culture without any assistance from T'Pol, thereby deepening their understand of the science officer (and showing us some Vulcan technology and explaining a little bit more about the differences between ENT and TOS/TNG Vulcans).[*]The time-honored "Catastrophe on board" plot. Having Malcolm and Phlox stuck in a lift together could be interesting and I would include Cutler and Novakovic (?) from 'Strange New World' in this ep. as well. What exactly causes this incident isn't very important IMO, as long as it is a technical problem of Enterprise and not some alien influence or stellar anomaly.[/list=1]

[NobAkimoto]

For "planets" I was also counting stellar phenomenae which aren't all that common in this nick of the woods.

At the very least Sleeping Dogs actually featured a planetary system. Fusion involves a large nebula, Shuttlepod One involves an asteroid field, and thus presumeably some sort of star system, Breaking the Ice involves a comet(which you wouldn't find just floating in the middle of no where.)

Although judging from the "Year = Season" format, one planet every 2 episodes or so is probably right(since it's 2 weeks per ep, cruising speed of 91ly/year would mean 1.7 or so ly per week, and with the supposed average distance between star systems about 5-6 ly, then 4 weeks per discovery isn't that off.)

Anyway, the concept is as long as they stay the hell away from alien conspiracies or super phenomenae of the week for malfunctions, some sort of just on-ship storytelling would work fine.

The writers seem a tad too comfortable with what they've established, which I guess makes for good entertainment, but they should take a step further and try for great entertainment.

Only problem is, a lot of ground has been covered already, so I guess they need to find original ways of retreading old ground.

M*A*S*H ran for 11 seasons because they reinvented their own storytelling 3 or more times per season...

As for the "too many planets" thing, it might be interesting to have a arc set within a single(or two) planetary system. Since they are apparently going with more arc driven plots with the Temporal Cold War, I don't see why they should limit themselves to a strictly episodic storytelling format.

[AdmGonzalez]

I, for one, have really liked the shows so far. It's been the best first seaon of any of the Star Trek shows so far. I can't for it to really start to pick up steam next year. I remember I didn't watch the first two years of ST:TNG because it was so bad and cliched.

For my episodes I'd write:

1. A day on board the ship told through the eyes of Ens. Mayweather in a letter to his parents. He's the one who's been in space the longest so the show wouldn't be about the "Gee whiz" aspects of space exploration. It would be about how profound and serious the crew is taking their mission. The galaxy is a dangerous place and the best way to survive will be for planets to unite to improve their chances. All the races in space are too concerned to the needs of their own planet to see they have similar problems and needs. Mayweather, who was born in space isn't emcumbered by that Earth-first pride. The big conflict will be when he has to explain to Capt. Archer and especially Cmdr. Tripp that they, in wanting to meet every new race, are being just as closed-minded to the safety of all space-faring races as the Vulcans are to protecting themselves by refusing to the share technology.

The B-story would involve another failed first-contact which could have been avoided if the humans listened to the Vulcans. In the end Archer and T'Pol work together to keep from contaminating a planet with technology but establishing a better relationship between Earth and this planet than Vulcan did with Earth.

2. An episode that establishes that the ship has ended its shakedown and is ready to be a regular part of starfleet. That will be evident as admirals finally get a grudging nod of approval from Vulcans when the announcement of more Enterprise-class ships will be rolling off the assembly lines. Engineers will be coming aboard to study the way the ship has handled deep space for a year and adding new technologies, sub-space communications, plasma torpedos, experimental deflector screens, etc... Tripp doesn't like the NX-01 being treated like used car when everyone shows up to kick the tires. Its a moment that is both poignant and bittersweet as the crew realizes they are heroes back home but also that they will no longer be unique. Now they'll be just another ship in the fleet. They'll have work to maintain the title of flagship from now on.

The B-story will be Archer dealing with orders to send some of his crew to new ships. Starfleet rightly believes having some of those crewmembers on other ships will benefit everyone. Of course the main crew will stick around, but Archer has to explain why he wants to keep Tripp, Hoshi, Travis and Malcolm. Which leads to a touching moment when they finally learn what the Captain thinks of each of them.


3. The fallout from Broken Bow. The events of the first episode lead to an all-out war among the factions of Klingon High Council. The winning side despises Earth for the part it played in bringing to light its conspiracy. Starfleet vessels and private merchant ships are attacked on sight and the Enterprise must join the feeble defense of shipping lanes. The Vulcans of course shake a finger and say "I told you so" to Archer even as they refuse to help protect ships. After a humiliating apology — in which Archer admits Starfleet should have listened to the Vulcans all along, including about the Warp 5 project — is rebuffed, Earth and Vulcan ties are strained to the breaking point.

Archer in desperation turns to the Andorians who want to help, mostly to spite the Vulcans, but they don't have much of a fleet. Things are going badly as ships are being lost. Starfleet is about to decide pull back from that part of space despite T'Pol’s warning such action will only lead to further attacks and possibly invasion by the Klingons. When a Vulcan exploration vessel returning from deep space is attacked, the Enterprise and several Starfleet ships, including the newly commissioned USS Intrepid, race to their defense despite the futility of facing off against the implaccable Klingons. With the meager help of the Andorians, and the sacrifice of the Intrepid, the Enterprise is able to hold off the Klingons and get the Vulcans to safety. The three groups still don't like each other but agree that, like it or not, with Klingons out to get all three of them, a mutal defense pact is the most logical solution.

4. Because it is so much a part of Star Trek lore, the crew encounters a vast, glowing field of energy floating in space. After analyzing it they discover themselves transported to a fantastic landscape where the laws of gravity, physics and common sense seem to change from moment to moment. The crew begins exploring their surroundings, some by walking up the walls, looking for whoever placed them there. Increasingly it seems they are mice trapped in some giant maze. The crew are tested on each of their strenghts and weaknesses. T’Pol must find a way a logical way to cross one barrier before being overtaken by a reality warping effect which will rip her mind apart. Tripp has to find a way out of a pit using only the rocks and trees around him or be stranded alone. Hoshi, who has been trying to communicate with whoever is behind all this, finds that she cannot make herself understood to the rest of the team, in any language. Malcolm, under attack by what look like anti-bodies, finds that everytime he makes an aggressive move he feels pain. Archer watching everything from above sees his crew in a twisted version of an ant farm. He can help only one person at a time and has to choose which friend to sacrifice and which to save. All the while he is interacting with a being who tries to counter every one of his moves. In the end the crew finds a way to solve their problems and Archer discovers that the being sees all corporal lifeforms as creatures to be disected and analyzed. He has to literally hit it across the "head" with a proverbial 2X4 to get it to see him as a living being.

The B-story would involve Mayweather trying to keep the ship and the crew intact under the inadvertent attack by the being who is studying the bridge crew. It seems Travis has to force everyone to obey his orders. Mayweather and Phlox even get into a wrestling match over a hypospray. In the end, Mayweather’s efforts save the ship and he earns the crew’s respect.

5. A light-hearted tale in which the ship picks up a sub-space message from a new race. The Shak are looking for Klingons to discuss a the exchange of a Starfleet ship captured recently. Archer and Reed decide to pose as Klingons and meet the Shak on a neutral world to barter for the ship and survivors. Meanwhile the Klingons arrive looking for the Shak and Tripp convices T'Pol to act as a member of the Shak to keep the Klingons from interfering with the capatain's plan.

Things get out of hand when the Shak arrive to find T'Pol Tripp and Phlox and think they are the Klingons. They take the trio back to the Starfleet ship. The Klingons meanwhile discover Archer and Reed posing as Klingons. Because Phlox couldn't create crainial ridges the Starfleet officers act like Klingons but don't look like them. The Klingons assume they are the Shak representatives and demand the Starfleet ship. Archer decides to take the Klingons back to the Enterprise to turn the tables on them there. The plan almost works except the Klingons discover the ruse. Archer and Reed are beamed back to Enterprise but the Klingons are about to call on their cloaked ship to destroy Enterprise when the Shak, hoping to get in good with their new Klingon allies blast the shuttle destroying the Klingons. The Klingon ship, seeing two Starfleet vessels and an attack Shak warship, think they've been ambushed and blow themselves up.

[erhershman]

Bumpety bump bump bump!

We could use some ideas people!

[erhershman]

Bump... again.

[ds9guy]

A few ideas, very rough in form.

1. a warp-drive themed episode which delves into the snags of the early warp drives. I'm not sure narratively if it works better to have it happen to Enterprise directly or have them encounter another ship in distress. My initial thought was gleamed from the Robotech cartoon. The first time they used their space-fold system, part of the drive section went but not the whole ship!

2. an episode which really delves into the andorian culture and history. Its a shame that despite the fact that enterprise has used them twice they really weren't much more than glorfied alien of the week material. For instance, what is at the root of the Andorian and Vulcan problems? What is the Andorian government like? what is their homeworld like? I mean come on, the Starfleet battles people made more of this up then Enterprise has shown us.

3. Tellarite first contact. The old Spaceflight Chronology had a hilarious idea where a small tellarite ship pulls up to the Earth ship, many times its size and weapon capability and orders it to surrender. I always loved that scene

One thing that bothers me about enterprise is that they don't seem to want to bother to come up with original material, despite the fact that its not that hard to do. If I rehashed plots as badly and presented them as blandly as the enterprise writing staff my gaming group would sure as heck demand better. why do these writers and producers , professionals, churn out sub par stuff? The only answer I can come up with it that either they don't care or that they see no need to do any better. either way leads down the road that Voyager took...

The first solution is easy and it doesn't cost any money. Get a library card and start reading some sci-fi. Cross over in adventure, military and thriller authors for ideas too. New ideas germinate when material is coming in and sparking new stuff. at least thats the way I think about it.

A second solution, a new creative staff, probably won't happen but I do have some hope that new blood like the X-files writer will spark some creativity.

Anyway, hope that made some sense

Monty