Enterprise Getting New Aliens, Hairdos, Weapons

Steve Krutzler writes "The news about Enterprise's radical "new direction" for its third season is going mainstream on May 10th in TV Guide. Rick Berman reveals that the season finale will bring about major changes in the struggling Star Trek series for next year including new aliens, new weapons, new hairdos and a mission he calls a Star Trek "first."" I've felt like the show has been slipping all season, so here's hoping.

I hope they don't use Borgs!

[antdude]

Next week's episode (5/7/2003) will be a Borg episode [startrek.com].

Synopsis:
An arctic research team on Earth discovers debris from an alien vessel, nearly a century old, buried in a glacier along with the bodies of two cybernetically enhanced humanoids. Once those beings are thawed for investigation, they come to life and abduct the scientists and their transport vessel. Enterprise is called to intercept, but Captain Archer and his crew find these cyborgs to be an intractable, insidious enemy.

Re:Haha

[anotherone]

Reminds me of something I saw on Invader Zim once...

In case the original article is slashdotted...

[extrarice]

Change Unchained: New Aliens, New Weapons, New Hairdos, New Mission a TREK "First" Berman Tells TVG

Posted: 12:45:27 on May 01 2003
By: Steve Krutzler
Dept: Enterprise | stenterprise.com
The news about ENTERPRISE's radical new direction for season three is going mainstream in the May 10th issue of TV Guide, according to a press release from the magazine. Executive producer Rick Berman will reveal all new details about the prequel series' finale "The Expanse" and what it means for the third season of the struggling UPN show that TV Guide recently lambasted for lack of imagination (story).

In the season finale, "a mysterious probe from space will blast a swath of destruction across North and Central America, causing epic explosions and annihilating everything between Florida and Venezuela," according to the article. "As viewers will learn, this is a preemptive strike by an alien race known as the Xindi (that's Zin-dee), who have obtained knowledge that Earth will destroy their home world 400 years in the future. The hour ends on a chilling threat of more devastation to come, but this is no mere summer cliff-hanger. In fact, it marks a whole new direction for the series."

Rick Berman says the new direction will be a first for the STAR TREK franchise.

"What we are about to do is a first for STAR TREK," Berman tells TVG. "In the past, our captains have had the general mission to explore outer space and, in the case of Voyager, a mission to find a way back home. But there has never been a Trek series built around a specific mission and specific stakes-in this case, the very future of mankind."

He goes on to say that the new Xindi threat will be the greatest that Captain Archer's Earth will yet have faced.

"We find out that the Xindi space probe was merely a test and that they are creating an even more powerful weapon," Berman says. "It's up to Captain Archer to go there and stop them from destroying us altogether."

TV Guide also reveals new details about the repercussions of the finale for next season, writing that the Enterprise NX-01 will be "retrofitted for war" and that we'll get our first glimpse at the use of photon torpedos in Starfleet's history. Furthermore, the dangerous Delphic Expanse, likened to the Bermuda Triangle, causes those who enter to "become anatomically inverted (skin on the inside, organs on the outside)." Furthermore, even Jolene Blalock's 'T'Pol', as a result of resigning from the Vulcan High Command, "will sport a new cat suit and hairdo next season."

All the grisly details will be on newsstands May 10th.

Re:Borg

[hpa]

What this episode proves (assuming a rumor I read is true...) is that Enterprise takes place after the Enterprise-E visited Earth in First Contact.

Given the fact that First Contact introduced the first Earth warp ship, bar none, wouldn't you say that's pretty well established already?

Re:A Star Trek "First"?

[AmateurCoder]

I didn't see the trailer either but after you mentioned it I checked out the summary of the next episode at upn.com/shows/enterprise . Here it is:

"Regeneration"

An excavation team on Earth makes an astounding discovery when they uncover a pair of never-seen-before cybernetic aliens (Borg drones) buried in the Arctic Circle. When these aliens mysteriously revive themselves and take off into space in one of the Earth ships, Enterprise is called upon to investigate and stop them. Meanwhile, as Archer and the crew close in on the fleeing aliens, the drones send a signal back to The Collective meaning regardless of what happens in this fight, humans and the Borg are destined to meet again.

I totally agree with you that including the borg into the preqel series would ruin it.

Re:Slipping all season?

[pantropik]

First Officer? What did T'Pol have to do with it?

Tripp is Chief Engineer. That's why T'Pol always gets left in command when Archer is off flying through stars and stuff (and then usually placed in a situation where it would be "logical" but not very nice to betray Archer "for his own good".)

Re:Borg

[Restil]

Actually, Picard's encounter with the Ferrengi was THAT CREW's first encounter with them. The ferrengi were even mentioned in the farpoint episode, and Riker acknowledged that he both knew about them and had enough information to offer a retort to the comment made about them.

However, if the Ferrengi didn't get too involved in the early years, they would have been mostly ignored for a couple centuries. The Federation had bigger fish to fry back in Kirk's day. The Ferrengi probably never established themselves as a significant race until the TNG timeline.

-Restil

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

"I understand what you're saying... you mean that from the point of view of Archer and crew, the past has not yet been sullied by the intrustion of the Borg and Picard"

No, I'm saying that the timeline that Archer exists in, Picard and the Borg *have* changed the time line. The big startling clue here is that the NX-01 was named Enterprise, yet the NX-01 was never mentioned in any of the other series. This wouldn't be a big deal except the ready room on the Enterprise-D depicts all of the ships named Enterprise starting with the aircraft carrier in service today.

" I'm not really sure what difference that makes though, since it's been established that Picard and co "fixed" the past so that it was close enough to what had originally occured that there were no significant differences."

Not really. We're missing a key bit of information here: Did the Enterprise-E return to the timeline it originally came from, or did it show up in the post-FC timeline? That isn't clear, and the method of travel used makes the answer to that question a bit fuzzy. We (the audience) don't know for sure what happened right after that.

"That being the case, then why does it matter if Archer is in the same timeline or not? It's a given that the future can be changed... we've seen that again and again. So anything that happens to Archer has ramifications for all subsequent events. But if Berman was so bold as to say that events had become so messed up that all of the things in previous shows didn't happen, wouldn't we then have to form a mob and KILL him?"

The point I was making is that STTNG, TOS, DS9, even VOY took place happened before the time-line was polluted. Archer exists in the polluted time-line. That means that no matter what happens in Enterprise, the original series would be completely in tact. Confusing? Watch Back to the Future 2. That movie explains what I'm talking about better than I can here on Slashdot. There'd be no reason to get mad at Berman over it, they found a unique way to tell a new story. It'd be boring if we saw a documentary of passing references over 24 seasons of Star Trek.

Re:Borg

[NanoGator]

" Ahem - the big, startling clue here is that the Enterprise never met these MARKETING people before. I betcha there was a round-table on this ("But 'nX' sounds so much more cool than just 'n', and we want that demographic") "

I know you're trying to be funny. (And it is funny to the uninitiated.) But I might as well show off my Trek knowledge that's kept me GF-less until about a year ago. The 'x' stands for eXperimental. The NX-01 is the first warp five ship bla bla bla. Remember the Excelsior from Trek 3? That had an NX registry also because it had the first 'trans-warp' drive. Then, when the Defiant came along in DS9, it also had an NX registry because it was an experimental war ship.

Okay, I'm sorry I sucked the fun out of your joke there, but I hang out on a 3D forum that likes Trek a lot. They have those discussions all the time and I participate in the debates once in a while. Heheh :)

Re:Pussifying the Borg

[The Night Watchman]

Worst. Screwing up of a cool bad guy. EVER.

While I definitely have to agree with you on that, I have to add that the Klingons are a very close second in this regard. Remember in ST3, featuring Klingon Commander Jim Ignatowski? He kicked ass!! If I may cite the following examples of his badass-itude.

1) Blowing up his girlfriend's ship because she happened to see the Genesis information
2) Wrestling with and killing that giant worm-constrictor thing that was wrapping itself around his neck, and then throwing its carcass aside as though that happened to him all the time
3) "Kill one of them... I don't care which."

They were portrayed as a society that believed in honor and courage, and in the movies you *believed* that. They could be taken seriously. TNG turned the Klingons into a caricature of themselves. I just couldn't accept them, it was like they were playing pretend or something. All they did was talk the talk, strut around and occasionally fight each other, but nothing truly bastardly; nothing in the spirit of the movies.

Now ST6... General Chang with a thick metal eyepatch bolted to his skull. THAT was badass.

---

Creation of the Borg

[CleverNickName]

I do think the Borg have been done to death. They were at their best in Next Generation, and I still give props to whoever thought them up in the first place. Definitely one of the most original sci-fi enemies ever.


It was Michael Piller who created the Borg, and it was he who made them the terrifying badasses that they were in Best of Both Worlds I&II.

On the DVD for Season 3 or 4, Michael says that he was planning to leave TNG after he wrote Best of Both Worlds Part I, so he went ahead and made them so bad ass, and so undefeatable, because "someone else would have to figure out what to do with them."

Then Gene convinced him to stick around another year, so he ended up being "someone else!"

I think this is awesome, and it's a good lesson for writers: get your characters into trouble. Put them in a place where REAL death is certain, and then let them figure out how to get out of it. Michael wrote those stories without any hesitation or fear, and that's why they are two of the best TNG episodes ever.

For the record: In my opinion, Michael Piller is responsible for some of the best stories -- well, some of the best everything -- on The Next Generation.