How would you save Star Trek?

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-07-31 11:12pm

Okay, picture this. The dream has come true. B&B have been shown the door (by which I mean they were tossed out headfirst) by TPTB at Paramount who are sick of one of their flagship franchises drawing test pattern ratings. YOU'VE been hired as the new executive producer, with a promise that the network won't interfere with you. If you succede, you take all the credit. If you fail, it's back to producing tampon commercials.

Now, Paramount does give you some restrictions to start:

1. Enterprise stays on the air. You don't get to scrub it and start from scratch. For better or worse, that's the flagship of the franchise.

2. The first two seasons of ENT are canon. Archer can't wake up for the first episode of season three, say, "Wow, what a crazy dream!" and catch a shuttle to the brand new NX-01. You can play fast and loose with continunity and ignore egregiously stupid mistakes, but you can't, say, pretend the Borg episode never happened. That means you're stuck with the Xindi story arc, and the Temporal Cold War.

3. You're stuck with the cast you have. You can fire anybody you wish in the crew, the writing staff, or any of the producers, but the seven existing cast members HAVE to stay around for at least all of season three. You CAN, however, add additional regular and recurring cast members. However, you must keep in mind rules 5, 6, and 10.

4. You can't move the show away from UPN. This is a blessing and a curse. You'll be stuck with UPN's miniscule audience base, but because you have a smaller audience, the pressure is off to produce "ER" type numbers. Also, because you're not in the ratings rat race that is the Big Three, you can risk deviating from proven formulas and experiment a little. For the time being, TPTB would be thrilled with Voyager-type ratings.

5. Don't bother asking for more money.

6. Don't bother asking for more money.

7. While you can feel free to experiment and introduce new concepts to the series, you're still producing Star Trek. Certain things are expected. For example, you could not turn ENT into a situation comedy, or a legal drama. It's primarily an adventure series set in space, and must remain an adventure series set in space.

8. Though ratings are important, a bigger concern for Paramount is regenerating interest in the Star Trek franchise. Somebody upstairs finally realized that the reason Nemesis bombed, the reason toy sales and convention attendence are falling off, and the reason companies like Activision are bailing on what was once a guaranteed cash cow, is because outside a core of diehard fans, the general public is just losing interest in Trek. It's vitally important that fresh blood is drawn into the fanbase. Keep this in mind at all times, because that's how your success is going to be measured.

9. To that end, you've also been given control of Trek's marketing apparatus. Toys, the Experience out in Vegas, the DVD sales, advertising the series, etc. are all under your control. The only thing you can't do is greenlight a movie. If you succede in breathing new life into the franchise, Paramount might reward you with that, but not right after they took an eight digit bath on Nemesis.

10. Don't bother asking for more money.

That's it. Go to it.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-07-31 11:24pm

1. T'pol leaves.
2. Archer and the crew are badly mismatched against the Xindi and co., and come back with their tails between their legs. On the contrary, the special-forces group does well (albeit some are lost in combat). Upon arrival at Earth, Archer realizes what he should have already: if the Enterprise is going to be called on to take part in military-style actions, it must be run along more military lines.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-07-31 11:27pm

Howedar wrote:1. T'pol leaves.

Do you mean at the end of the season? Otherwise, see rule three.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-07-31 11:47pm

1) Declare that Enterprise no longer fits in with the general Trek canon. This allows me to deal with the Xindi arc anyway that I like and not risk alienating the core fanbase.

2) Get in touch with the fans. Allow criticism on my messageboard(Braga, I'm looking at you, you stupid, vapid sack of shit). Go to other messageboards, JMS-style.

3) Clean house on the writing staff. Anyone who doesn't completely suck can submit a test script to see if they'll get their job back. Possibly hire a few people from SD.net.

4) Keep a real engineer/physicist on retainer so we don't end up doing utterly vapid and stupid technoblabble stories. Any writer submitting a technoblabble story will be fired.

5) Ask for ten times more money than I need.

6) Ditch the catsuit and the crappy T'pol haircut.

7) See number 5. Beg, kick, and scream.

Make the spec ops guys real military; not this GROPOS/Siege of AR-397503485 shit.

9) Militarize the Enterprise and Earth

10) Up the threat level by ditching a major character at the end of season three

11) See number 7. Fortell the doom of Trek if I don't get the money.

12) Kick the marketing division in the ass and go full-bore with the war stuff. At least one FPS, plus a line of Spec Ops action figures,

13) Screw a general war-story. Instead, the story should be about the crew of the Enterprise embarking solo on a dangerous mission to defeat the Xindi and save Earth. It'll be set against a backdrop of war, and occasionally the Enterprise will be rerouted to aid in the war effort, but mostly it will be about the crew, and about them being the last hope for Earth.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-07-31 11:59pm

RedImperator wrote:
Howedar wrote:1. T'pol leaves.
Do you mean at the end of the season? Otherwise, see rule three.

Missed it. In that case, she gets a serious makeover visually.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-08-01 01:33am

I would immediantely add a crazy italian guy dressed like an admiral talking to a rubiks cube yelling "GUSHY!!"

Posbi · Post by **Posbi** » 2003-08-01 07:09am

I'd have the ship attacked and boarded the very first episode of season 3. The Enterprise and their MACO (

) fight hard and repell the attackers only to be killed by nerve gas being pumped into the ship. End of Enterprise, take another ship (Daedalus) and make a series about the creation of the Federation, with series insight in the major member races (Vulcans, Andorians), political intrigue (hell, that worked in DS9 and B5, it really can't be that hard to do it in Enterprise, err, Daedalus) and slowly build up the Earth-Romulan war arc - fought by ships armed with HE-lasers and nuclear missiles!

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-08-01 08:24am

Posbi wrote:I'd have the ship attacked and boarded the very first episode of season 3. The Enterprise and their MACO ( ) fight hard and repell the attackers only to be killed by nerve gas being pumped into the ship. End of Enterprise, take another ship (Daedalus) and make a series about the creation of the Federation, with series insight in the major member races (Vulcans, Andorians), political intrigue (hell, that worked in DS9 and B5, it really can't be that hard to do it in Enterprise, err, Daedalus) and slowly build up the Earth-Romulan war arc - fought by ships armed with HE-lasers and nuclear missiles!

A Paamount executive politely but firmly explains to you, again, that you're stuck with the cast of Enterprise, and, ergo, the series. The idea is to turn Enterprise into a good series--its no challenge to say, I'd cancel it (or come up with an admittedly clever way of killing it without canceling it), then create a whole new series.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-08-01 08:45am

1)fire the writing staff. and replace it with veteran TOS and DS9 veterans.

2)force them to actually develop a story arc, not a backdrop but an actual JMS type muti season story.

3)Militarize Earth. have the Enterprise deemed to biased toward exploration and refit it as a warship. Show some other actual Earth warships.

4)Bring back some badass Andorians. The one episode they were in, they came across as fightin' space assholes. develop that.

5)When people get shot at, make some of them actually get hit and die. no more of this A-Team 'shoot 'em up till they all throw down their guns' shit. thats unrealistic and tiresome.

6) Do what made TOS so good. Parallel life. now i don't mean more of B&B's touchy-feely socialist shit. We are in a world today filled with violence and war and terrorism. Do you mean to tell me that terrorism doen't happen in the 22nd century? How about a little non-hippie preachy social commentary!?

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-08-01 09:13am

My own ideas:

1. Sack the writing staff and anybody B&B brought on board more important than boom operator or best boy.

2. Scrap all the shitty rules the network, B&B, or Roddenberry saddled Trek with. Goodbye "no conflict rule". Ditto "keep the music and visuals subdued".

3. Develop a real story arc, like the Colonel said. Work all this Xindi nonsense into the coming Romulan War. Start tying the Temporal Cold War into oddities from other series--wasn't it just SO convenient that a temporal rift sucked the Enterprise-C 20 years into the future right before the Klingons could see her fighting to save Narendra III, or the Guardian of Forever was pointed at 1930s Chicago when McCoy went delusional and ran through?

4. Plan to destroy the Enterprise. Make that the incident that starts the Romulan War. THe survival of the entire "seven main guys" is in no way assured (this would mean that, at the earliest, this would happen at the end of season three, more likely season four). There'd be a new ship--maybe a Daedalus?--at the beginning of the following season, and new crewmembers.

5. Expand the cast. The Seven Main Guys are not the only ones on the entire ship qualified for away missions, or around which you can construct a story. You might see entire episodes where Archer and T'Pol--GASP!--are safe on the bridge while a pair of recurring-character lieutentants conduct a dangerous away mission.

6. Plan for a movie, even though I've been explicitly told not to. Unlike other Trek movies, though, this one will be about the series on the air at the time. It will be like the X-Files movie was, as much a part of the series as any episode. If I absolutely, positively can't get a theatrical release, it will be a three-part episode or a TV movie, but I'm aiming for a theatrical release.

7. Get T'Pol out of that damn catsuit and into a real uniform. And get her a haircut that doesn't suck. Believe it or not, but she can be sexy without dressing like a cheap whore. And forget about female pon farr. In fact, pon farr, in accordance with Trek continunity, will never be mentioned again. T'Pol will be the cold, inaccessable beauty, not an alley cat in heat.

8. Develop a relationship between Archer and Hoshi. The elements are there, and it's a hell of a lot more believeable than Archer/T'Pol. Hmm, Hoshi's tragic death at the hands of the treacherous Romulans who destroyed Enterprise wouldn't provide character motivation for Archer in the later seasons, would it?

9. Aggressively market ENT. Advertise on other Viacom properties. If the product is in place and the marketing is competent, viewers will come back. Remember, I don't need ER numbers. Babylon 5 never pulled huge ratings either, but it had a fan base that remains dedicated and probably will remain dedicated for twenty years. Trek already has those fans, but their numbers are shrinking. That needs to be reversed, right now. Get DS9 a deal similar to the ones TOS and TNG have--regular airings at prime-time hours, to keep DS9 fans in the Trek fold and whet their appetite for another series with a dedicated storyline.

10. Actually listen to the fans. Most of the time, I might not like their ideas, but if everybody who doesn't have to spit my cock out to speak says something is wrong, it's probably wrong.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-08-01 09:26am

RedImperator wrote:Sack the writing staff and anybody B&B brought on board more important than boom operator or best boy.

oh that best boy sure can operate my boom! such a fine grip!

Posbi · Post by **Posbi** » 2003-08-01 10:54am

RedImperator wrote:
Posbi wrote:I'd have the ship attacked and boarded the very first episode of season 3. The Enterprise and their MACO ( ) fight hard and repell the attackers only to be killed by nerve gas being pumped into the ship. End of Enterprise, take another ship (Daedalus) and make a series about the creation of the Federation, with series insight in the major member races (Vulcans, Andorians), political intrigue (hell, that worked in DS9 and B5, it really can't be that hard to do it in Enterprise, err, Daedalus) and slowly build up the Earth-Romulan war arc - fought by ships armed with HE-lasers and nuclear missiles!
A Paamount executive politely but firmly explains to you, again, that you're stuck with the cast of Enterprise, and, ergo, the series. The idea is to turn Enterprise into a good series--its no challenge to say, I'd cancel it (or come up with an admittedly clever way of killing it without canceling it), then create a whole new series.

I know that. I just don't see any means to turn the tide into a really succesful direction at this point anymore.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-08-01 11:05am

Posbi wrote:I know that. I just don't see any means to turn the tide into a really succesful direction at this point anymore.

TNG, frankly, blew for the first season and wasn't all that great in the second. There's nothing to stop ENT from getting turned around--it's not like the basic concept for the show itself is flawed, and even this goodfy temporal cold war story arc could be made to work. ENT--and for that matter, Voyager, late-season TNG, and the last two movies--have been saddled with bad writing, some bad casting choices, and bad decision making upstairs, but they can be made to work, provided you don't take the "Huxley's monkeys" approach to writing scripts.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2003-08-01 12:33pm

I like your ideas RedImperator

I'd actually be tempted to do much the same, but I'd have the entire Xindi arc hit with a 'temporal inversion' field to elminate it. Either that, or someone from the 29th century (or whenever) uses some funky planetary shield etc to prevent it from happening, just to get NX-01 in the right direction for something historically important. (i.e First contact with Rigel)
Then I'd have the same 29th century people announce they've ended the Temporal Cold War so NX-01 doesn't have to worry about it anymore.

Then, on with the start of the Romulan War and founding of the Federation.

I'd also force B&B to guest star as people that get horribly butchered by Klingons or something

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-01 12:49pm

Having not watched the abortion known as Enterprise since the begining of the second season, I am not familure with any plot that developed over the last year. However, my suggestions would be;

Develope a general story arc that encompases at least a season if not the entire run of the show. TNG was at its best when it had an overall situation developing in the quadrant ie Cardassian, Borg, and the such. And B5 was brillient with its epic story.

Move the plot towards the Earth Romulan war and especialy work towards the uniting of local systems against the Romulans to eventually form the Federation. Not necessarily 'happy happy joy joy' relationships, hell even violent relationships that could be shelved to defeat the evil Romulans would be interesting.

Show or mention in dialoge, the expansion of Earth and Star Fleet through colonies and other starships. Show older slower SF ships and have Enterprise respond to attacks, pirate raids, and emergencies on colonies (new and old) and cargo ships. This would show a shift of policy in that Earth ships and colonies do not have to fight their own battles but could expect help from a new powerful goverment able to defend their interests.

This expansion could be the trigger that explodes into the Earth Romulan war. Down play the Klingons, let that stay in TOS and the Federations relationships with them. Keep the focus on the Romulans and known species that turn into the Federation.

Have Earth go through a build up in Military with various new vessels and a ground force that is shown in various episodes though not on a personal basis. Once in a while a unit of the ground force could interact with Enterprise's crew, but not like a reacuring charater.

Have the morals of the Federation as we know them come about by trying to balence fighting a war and not becoming blood thirsty in defeating the Romulans. The high morals of the Feds come about by war weary victors after the battles by commanders who did not want to fight yet had little choice.

Quite the cheesy sex ploys for gods sake. Put Vulcan girl in a fucking uniform or at least in vulcan robes. Quite rubbing slime on each other, aim for a bigger audience than 13 year old boys.

Stop having extremely complicated resolutions to every problem. Sometimes it would be ok if the solution to a problem was...."Fire the phased cannons. Give them what to with the torpedos." Instead of..."Modulate the ion indicator by creating a quantum loop with the power transfer generator."

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-01 01:17pm

Failing any of that, wrap up Enterprise in that season and wait a year or so and put a new series on the air. Such as a early 24th century series with an Excelcior ship or if all else fails, go to the 2380's with Riker on a ship picking up the pieces after the Dominion war. There are still some good stories to tell in that time line.

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2003-08-01 01:29pm

how about making a series based on the adventures of the Enterprise-C or the Enterprise-B. If they were going to do a Enterprise show before Kirk perhaps they could have reshot(with the Same script) the original pilot episode of TOS and then explored the mission of the Enterprise under Captian Pike. Of course this would require staying inside the established timeline. There are so many options and Aliens available that the resorting of using the Borg was totally unnessisary! Ti was simply a example of B & B pushing their favorite bad guy.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-08-01 04:01pm

There seem to be some pretty good ideas floating aroud here. I'll add a couple of cents worth.

1) First contact between the Humans and Klingons was supposed to be disastrous. It's high-time that disaster occurred. Something needs to go dreadfully awry to the point that the Klingons become openly hostile toward Earth, and only the intervention of the Vulcans can keep them at bay.

2) Determine that the Xindi conflict is tied to the Temporal Cold War. Merge the two problems and SETTLE THEM so we can move toward a Romulan-oriented storyline; use the temporal conflict angle as a giant reset button if necessary, but get it over with quickly.

3) The seven-year story arc (or, rather, the remaining five-year arc) of Enterprise becomes the story of the Federation's founding. Enterprise becomes virtually an ambassadorial ship, visiting neighbors, occasionally helping with their problems, and generally encouraging them to join an interstellar government. Increasing Romulan aggression could easily become the catalyst that pulls the Andorians and other races into the Federation, so major conflict isn't out of the question.

4) Kill any romance notions writers may have regarding Archer and T'Pol. First season had some interest developing between her and Trip; send the writers back down that route.

5) Promote Travis to Lieutenant give him some speaking parts.

6) Plan for at least two major characters to die before the series ends, and not both in the same year. Bring in some recurring, sympathetic characters who can also be sacrificed to bring real drama to the show.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-08-01 04:31pm

Alright...

Season 3 will heavily involve military action against the Xindi, with the marine force actually acting like good soldiers. Fight through a few areas of heavy resistance, try and recruit help from the Vulcan's and local races. End with a showdown over the Xindi homeworld between a fleet raised by the Enterprise's negotiations.

The big shocker of the end of the 3rd Season will be the destruction of the NX-01 and Captain Archer. The Xindi will basically trash the fleet with some help from very sleek, futuristic looking craft. The named characters evacuate to the Suliban Cell Ship and other small craft, while Archer holds the line to the last with the Enterprise. End the episode with the tiny Akiraprise trying to shield a crippled Vulcan ship with it's own hull...

Season four will start with the real Temporal War; Finding out who bamboozled the Xindi, who sent those ships, and trying to avenge Archer. A Daedalus is the new ship, and her nukes will do the talking. Mix in action and mystery as they try to uncover whose pulling the strings.

The big surprise at end of Season 4 will be that Future Guy was behind it all.

For actual individual episodes, I'll turn to the SDnet writers, who I know won't mind not getting any more than the current ENT writers.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-08-01 05:02pm

Plot twist: Daniels is the one who gave the Xindi false info about their homeworld being destroyed, in order to repair time line damage caused by the TCW and Archer. DUN DUN DUN!

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-08-01 05:04pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:Plot twist: Daniels is the one who gave the Xindi false info about their homeworld being destroyed, in order to repair time line damage caused by the TCW and Archer. DUN DUN DUN!

I got a better one.

He's trying to destroy the Federation. He's the one behind the Temporal Cold War, he's the one who did all the damage. He has correctly surmised that while the TimeCop(tm) Federation can withstand small changes, if he can completely shift the timeline he can destroy the Federation.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-08-01 05:13pm

SirNitram wrote:
Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:Plot twist: Daniels is the one who gave the Xindi false info about their homeworld being destroyed, in order to repair time line damage caused by the TCW and Archer. DUN DUN DUN!
I got a better one.

He's trying to destroy the Federation. He's the one behind the Temporal Cold War, he's the one who did all the damage. He has correctly surmised that while the TimeCop(tm) Federation can withstand small changes, if he can completely shift the timeline he can destroy the Federation.

Why'd he save the Federation in Shockwave Pt. II with Archer?

My twist is this:
In the original timeline, Archer never meets the Romulans. The Humans and them meet years later (disasterously) and a massive armament program on both sides leads to the Romulan war, and the Federation But because of the whole Shockwave incidents, the NX-01's flight path changes, and it meets the Romulans. While the Humans write them off as another alien species, the Romulans instantly see the Humans as a threat, believing the NX-01 is the first step in a Human/Vulcan alliance to dominate space, and the minefield was them testing their anti-cloak technology in preparation for an invasion. Romulans re-arm, and conquer Earth and Vulcan without much resistance.

In order to prevent this, Daniels tells the Xinidi Earth destroys their homeworld and gives them evidence. Xindi attack Earth. While the NX-01 is sent away, a massive armament program is started to protect Earth against all Alien threats. The Xindi are defeated by Archer (in my third/fourth season) but by the time the Enterprise gets home, the program is too far ahead to stop. The Romulans attack the now armed Earth, and the timeline is preserved. Mostly.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2003-08-01 05:15pm

Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:
SirNitram wrote:
Grand Admiral Thrawn wrote:Plot twist: Daniels is the one who gave the Xindi false info about their homeworld being destroyed, in order to repair time line damage caused by the TCW and Archer. DUN DUN DUN!
I got a better one.

He's trying to destroy the Federation. He's the one behind the Temporal Cold War, he's the one who did all the damage. He has correctly surmised that while the TimeCop(tm) Federation can withstand small changes, if he can completely shift the timeline he can destroy the Federation.
Why'd he save the Federation in Shockwave Pt. II with Archer?

The Federation he saved certainly isn't the one we know. He may not be trying to outright destroy it, perhaps remake it?

My twist is this:
In the original timeline, Archer never meets the Romulans. The Humans and them meet years later (disasterously) and a massive armament program on both sides leads to the Romulan war, and the Federation But because of the whole Shockwave incidents, the NX-01's flight path changes, and it meets the Romulans. While the Humans write them off as another alien species, the Romulans instantly see the Humans as a threat, believing the NX-01 is the first step in a Human/Vulcan alliance to dominate space, and the minefield was them testing their anti-cloak technology in preparation for an invasion. Romulans re-arm, and conquer Earth and Vulcan without much resistance.

So far so good.

In order to prevent this, Daniels tells the Xinidi Earth destroys their homeworld and gives them evidence. Xindi attack Earth. While the NX-01 is sent away, a massive armament program is started to protect Earth against all Alien threats. The Xindi are defeated by Archer (in my third/fourth season) but by the time the Enterprise gets home, the program is too far ahead to stop. The Romulans attack the now armed Earth, and the timeline is preserved. Mostly.

I still think Daniels would be best used to play both sides for fools to either flatten the Federation or twist it in his own benefit.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-08-01 05:35pm

SirNitram wrote:
I still think Daniels would be best used to play both sides for fools to either flatten the Federation or twist it in his own benefit.

First, this was only a minor incident, where they simply had to make sure the Federation existed.

Daniel's faction ultimate goal in Archer's time period is a massive change from the original Federation. He is trying to manipulate Archer, who's a major player in the UFP's creation, appear as a time cop, trying to stop the evil future guy (he's really just as bad).

And the EFG and Daniel are only minor factions. Pakistan and India compared to USSR and USA. They both have the abbility to destroy each other, and are forced to border skirmishes; quietly manipulating time to their whims.

The real large players of the Cold War will be brought in.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-08-01 05:35pm

Okay, first thing's first. B&B are so fired. That frees up a surprising chunk of change for more important work on the show.

Second, all of the current writers are fired, except for one or two of the small pay-check variety. Their job is to get the new writers up-to-date on the characters.

Next I hire the as many of the writers for MI-5, the Simpsons, Farscape, SG-1, TOS and attempt to hire the guy responsible for the hilarious firsttvdrama.com site as are needed for a show like this. I would give the science advisor sweeping new powers, and actually bring him into all phases of an episode's creation. I selected the writers of those shows for a couple of reasons:

They know how to write characters, which are sorely lacking in ENT.
They understand the need for research.
Most importantly, none of these shows insult my intelligence the way ENT does regularly. I actually have to pay attention to understand the plots of these shows, and none of them rely solely on special effects to get the ratings up.

Next, I would make sure that each of the characters has specific personality traits that come across as often as they should. Discussing this with the revamped writing team, I would make sure that everyone has an identifiable personality that is unique from the rest of the crew. Characters were the basis for all of TOS and TNG, as well as much of DS9. They are the most integral part of any show. ENT, right now, has no characters. That must be rectified to make the show stronger. To that end, I would institute the following general personalities:

Captain Archer is a doofus, but he is also a reasonable leader and so the crew is willing to put up with him because they think he's a good guy. He tries to do the right thing, but was given the position of captain primarily because of his father. Back home there are concerns about him, but no one is willing to openly question his appointment (at first) because everyone knows about his connections and no one wants to hurt his feelings because he's a nice guy.

Doctor Phlox is a pragmatic individual who has agreed to travel with the crew because he realizes that there's no one else willing to do it with his qualifications. While he doesn't always like what they do, he also cares about the preservation of life and so he grows increasingly concerned during the Xindi War arc, but eventually befriends some of the crew.

Reed is a cynic and thinks their mission is doomed, but he doesn't want Earth to go down without a fight. He is competent with weapons, but doesn't particularly understand people and so this leads him into conflicts with the insecure Hoshi and with Travis and Archer.

Trip is the most competent member of the crew. Not coincidentally, this means that he falls in love with Hoshi but he doesn't want to tell her about it because he doesn't think that their odds of surviving the Xindi conflict are all that great. However, Trip is obviously the smartest of the bridge crew and comes up with most of the solutions to the problems that they face. He is resourceful, and the people who interact with him recognize his talents, but he sometimes has trouble convincing others that his ideas will work because he lacks the leadership skills that Archer has. Most importantly, Trip remains angry about the death of his sister, and feels a personally responsible that the crew succeed in their mission to avenge her death.

T'Pol is a Vulcan (big change there). She is fascinated by humans and human emotion, but unlike Spock who wanted to become a Vulcan, and Data who wanted to become human, she doesn't quite know what she wants to do. She does care about her shipmates (which is why she agreed to go with them in the first place), but isn't sure if this is an emotional attachment or a logical one. She realizes that she's violated the orders of the High Command by going with them, but she's also confident that she is the best possible liason officer for the humans because she has served with them. Her knowledge of alien races and technologies exceeds everyone else's on the ship, but she's not always capable of putting two-and-two together as quickly as Trip, and so she sometimes doesn't understand the relevance of what she knows.

Hoshi is also intelligent, but her talents are highly limited. Reed thinks that she's next to useless, but eventually grows to respect her even though he disagrees with her utility as a translator. Other than that, she is chronically insecure almost to the point of cowardice. She doesn't want to be on the ENT, and had to have her arm twisted to get her to go along with the crew. Eventually she decided to go along because she felt she owed it to Captain Archer's father to make sure that his son was taken care of (she knew him before he passed away), and so she's willing to protect Archer from other people and from himself. She will obey Archer's orders, and is the most fanatically loyal of Archer's crew members. Due to a series of 'fortuitous' coincidences, many of the ENT adventures fighting the Xindi require that a translator and a certain chief engineer work closely together, and she grows close to Trip along the way. Strangely enough, the journey is unusually easy, and Hoshi and Trip seem thrown together by circumstances that seem engineered by the Xindi.

Travis' practical understanding of navigation makes him extremely useful to the crew as they begin their journey into the virtually unplottable nebula. He and Trip become friends because they share many of the same qualities, but Travis is even more frustrated with Archer's incompetence and inability to reason than Trip, which leads him into a conflict with Hoshi (whom Trip is willing to try to protect because he's still in love with her). Travis serves on the Enterprise because he thinks he's the best human for the job, but because he is more knowledgeable and smarter than even Captain Archer, he is willing to disobey orders from time to time if he has a better idea, despite the large difference in rank. Archer feels this is insubordinate, but he's also in a bind if he tries to discipline Travis because Travis really is good and Archer needs him to run the ship well, because Travis is friends with Trip who's the most capable crew member, and because Travis doesn't respect Archer enough to care about the guy. However, Travis also recognizes where his limitations are and respects Archer's decisions regarding diplomacy and when to freeze and when to fire. He only ignores Archer in matters that directly pertain to navigation, and sometimes when he decides to use an old trick he picked up on a freighter, in order to save the ship.

In regards to the Xindi War arc, it will eventually be revealed that Trip is in fact the mysterious man from the future. He is attempting to alter the past, in which Archer's stupidity ended up killing Hoshi and the entire Xindi species. However, the current Trip slowly begins to deduce that the Xindi actions don't make any sense (ie. test firing the weapon on Earth, rather than on another target that wouldn't have alerted the humans to the plot), finally recognizing that he is the guy from the future and deducing that he has been stringing himself along the entire while so as to allow his own relationship with Hoshi to develop and so as to make sure that the ENT eventually reaches the Xindi homeworld. Trip will eventually have a show-down with himself from the future (in the old cliche), in which he informs future-Trip that his actions killed their sister. Future Trip already knows this, but decided that their sister would be a small price to pay to save Hoshi and the billions that Archer erradicated. Present-Trip disagrees, and ends up killing his future self. Still furious about the death of his sister, Trip orders the destruction of the Xindi, who were ironically the people whom future-Trip was trying to save. This leads to the obligatory moral dillemas, etc., but doesn't take so much time that the Klingons and Romulans can't also declare war on Earth.

During this story-arc, it is shown how Archer ended up destroying the Xindi. The Xindi were allies of Earth in the original timeline. Archer was assigned to lead the fleet protecting the Xindi homeworld, but stupidly pursued a feint and allowed the Romulans to move in behind his fleet and destroy the Xindi (killing Hoshi in the process). In the new timeline, however, the Xindi do not exist because Trip has already wiped them out. This makes the war even more difficult, and eventually allows the Romulans to prepare a strike on Earth. The Klingons attempt the same feinting maneuver that in the original timeline drew Archer away from the Xindi homeworld, but this time Archer has learned from Trip and from his previous mistakes. He doesn't bite on the feint, and leads his fleet to rout the Romulan forces approaching Earth, forcing the war to end in a stalemate and a peace treaty similar to that of the original timeline, establishing the Neutral Zone as it always was.