USS Enterprise-H (25th Century)

[Lorna]

I would like to see a new Star Trek series based around the Enterprise but I'd like it to skip the Ent-F and G so we can move a little further along in the timeline. I'd like to place this series around 2440, it's this far forward because between the Ent-E and Ent-F there was a long period before the F's construction.
The first episode of the series will be a 2 hour special and will be designed to grab the attention of a fresh audience with a mix of seriousness, modern day style humour, plenty of action and special FX but of course there will mostly be great acting and a deep storyline.

First of all I would like to share with you my own vision of the mid 25th century.

By 2440 the Federation has successfully developed Transwarp technology based around Borg Transwarp conduits. Every major planet within the Federation is now connected via a vast network of Transwarp conduits. A trip from Earth to Bajor for example now takes a few hours at most. This Transwarp technology however is still pretty sophisticated and requires special ships to create the conduits and requires interspacial manifolds (protected by shielding and armour) to keep the conduits from collapsing.

Due to the great tactical advantage of the conduit technology tensions arose between the Federation and other powers including the Klingons. To ease tensions and prevent conflict the Federation agreed to a new treaty which stipulated the Transwarp conduit technology would only be used within Federation space but it also gave the same limits to the other treaty signers for when they obtain the technology themselves in the future. Failure to uphold the treaty would be considered a hostile act and would lead to war.

The Enterprise-H is the new top of the line starship of the mid 25th century and boasts the latest technologies including deployable ablative armour, Singularity Torpedoes and Multi-Modular Shielding.
By the mid 25th century however this technology is widespread and well known. The Klingons and Romulans for example have shielding capable of defending against the torpedoes so it's not considered super tech..

The 2 hour long first episode of this series actually begins with the Enterprise-E. It's 2390 and we're immediately put in the middle of a large Federation battle fleet. The Ent-E is leading the 5th fleet into battle against an unknown vessel within Federation space that has abducted millions of people off several colony worlds. The unknown vessel is only the size of a Federation shuttle but all ships to come into contact with the ship has been destroyed without mercy.

The unknown ship is extremely predictable and seems to be moving from planet to planet in an obvious pattern, so the 5th fleet has arrived at the ships next target world and lays in wait ready to engage the enemy ship.
The vessel appears out of subspace in a flash of light and heads straight for the 5th fleet. The unknown vessel looks spherical and has a reflective surface showing no signs of surface features. When the vessel is about to engage in battle however the shape of the sphere changes into an octahedron and each side deploys torpedo launchers.
The vessel attacks the fleet with torpedoes and the torpedoes penetrate through the shields of the 5th fleet instantly destroying ships with only a few torpedo strikes.
The Ent-E is heavily damaged but continues to fire on the unknown ship with the remaining ships of the 5th fleet. Before the unknown vessel reaches the planet it re-enters subspace and disappears. The Ent-E is too critically damaged and the alert to abandon ship is sounded, not long after the Ent-E explodes.

We jump forward through time now to 2440. The Ent-H is about to leave spacedock when the ships Captain (use whatever name you like) is sent a priority one message. The ship from 2390 is believed to be back in Federation space, all communication with a Federation colony has ceased and the Ent-H is to investigate what's happened along with 5 other ships.
Upon arrival the colony is completely devoid of colonists. Judging by the previous pattern the unknown ship used the Ent-H heads for the next planet they believe is on the list, they use the Transwarp corridors and get there just in time to find the unknown ship in orbit of the Kasheeta Homeworld. The Federation battle group engage the vessel but take heavy damage themselves, the shields of the Ent-H succeed in deflecting torpedo damage but the 6th and subsequent torpedoes as before begin penetrating the shields. The unknown vessel abducts more than 70% of the planets population before entering subspace.

The Ent-H notices the subspace corridors the ship used to leave the system is similar enough to transwarp corridors that the Ent-H could follow the ship. The Captain of the Ent-H orders the helm to follow the ship. With the rest of the battle fleet either destroyed of heavily crippled the Ent-H follows on their own.

As the Ent-H travels through the corridor there is a sudden flash, a large bump and the corridor changes colour and consistency. the Ent-H exits the corridor but there is no sign of the ship or any sign that they know where they are but wherever they are it's nothing like the universe they just came from.

The exploration of this new location and the search for the unknown vessel and the billions of people it's abducted begins.

Now before you jump to any conclusions it's only the first series that deals with this new unknown dimension and the unknown vessel.
I don't think this storyline could possibly go beyond a single series so the second series would have the Ent-H back home and with a new focus.

 

[Commodore_Rook]

Wow! I would pitch this to CBS! This sounds very cool!!!

 

[C.E. Evans]

I did something like this with the Enterprise-H in a fanfic last year. Probably a thousand other Trekkies have done the same...

 

[Lorna]

I did something like this with the Enterprise-H in a fanfic last year.

Is it online somewhere where I can read it?

Probably a thousand other Trekkies have done the same...

But I have not finished. You don't know who the ship belongs to, where it's actually come from or why it's been abducting billions of people. You don't know how the Ent-H is even going to get the billions of people back or if indeed it's even possible to. I'm sure you can however work out how a shuttle craft sized vessel is able to abduct Billions of people, it's bigger on the inside.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

Sounds intriguing, Lorna! I like your idea!

 

[Scout101]

couple questions: why the Enterprise-H? Other than saying you want space from the current franchise, does it buy you anything? Any reason it couldn't be a closer-timeframe ship, just out in the outskirts? You're throwing them out of the dimension anyway, so locality isn't really an issue.

Same deal with the tech: so what? distance between locations is a function of the plot, not the tech. DS9 was the frontier, except when they needed to work in Earth, and then it wasn't that bad. Improving the tech (faster ship, better weapons, shields, etc) doesn't really change anything, because it either makes the ship invincible (boring), or they write the bad guy's weapons to equal it somehow, and cancel it all back out. Additionally, given the presumably large time frame (3 Enterprises past what we've seen, plus however long the E-E lasts. Gotta be at least 100 years, maybe a lot longer, as these babies are planned to last 100 each, but just end up getting beaten up a lot)., the tech should probably jump a lot MORE than you have. Given the time jump, what role do SHIPS play in the future? Inter-planet beaming may even be more plausible in that timeframe.

As for the rest, you've got a lost ship and a mystery. Done the lost ship bit before (and it makes it harder, because you can't bring in familiar elements, like klingons and romulans if you need a fix), and the rest feels far enough outside what we've got established that you're really just pasting a star trek ship onto it. Actually, the colonist mystery part sounds pretty similar to the Endymion saga out of the Hyperion Cantos...

Sounds like fun, but not sure how long you stretch it out. Fun episode, great mini-series, but can you get 7 seasons out of it? Is too much of the main problem/mystery really tied to technobabble?

 

[EyalM]

I would like to see a new Star Trek series

Don't we all?

First of all I would like to share with you my own vision of the mid 25th century.

Why? From your description of the pilot we only spend 10 minutes there...

The Enterprise-H is the new top of the line starship of the mid 25th century and boasts the latest technologies including deployable ablative armour, Singularity Torpedoes and Multi-Modular Shielding.
By the mid 25th century however this technology is widespread and well known. The Klingons and Romulans for example have shielding capable of defending against the torpedoes so it's not considered super tech..

So the shields and torpedoes act exactly the same like they did since TOS?

The 2 hour long first episode of this series actually begins...

...The exploration of this new location and the search for the unknown vessel and the billions of people it's abducted begins.

Now before you jump to any conclusions it's only the first series that deals with this new unknown dimension and the unknown vessel.
I don't think this storyline could possibly go beyond a single series so the second series would have the Ent-H back home and with a new focus.

Sounds intriguing, but your plot so far is just two space battles. You need to flesh this out way more then you did. For example, you described in detail what an alien ship looks like, but not a single word on who your characters are...

 

[Lorna]

couple questions: why the Enterprise-H? Other than saying you want space from the current franchise, does it buy you anything? Any reason it couldn't be a closer-timeframe ship, just out in the outskirts? You're throwing them out of the dimension anyway, so locality isn't really an issue.

I was thinking they wont necessarily be stuck in the Dimension permanently. The idea at the start is to simply make the viewers aware that the ship is from an alternate dimension. By the second episode travel between Dimensions will be achievable. It's Star Trek, anything can be accomplished if the writers choose it.

Same deal with the tech: so what? distance between locations is a function of the plot, not the tech. DS9 was the frontier, except when they needed to work in Earth, and then it wasn't that bad. Improving the tech (faster ship, better weapons, shields, etc) doesn't really change anything,

It changes the feel of Star Trek, makes it seem a little fresher. New tech makes it a little different from the previous Trek and also expands the Trek universe. I don't see why we need to stick around the same time periods all the time. DS9, Voyager and Next Gen were all around the same period and I just think it's time for a bit of a leap forward.
Having Federation space no longer taking months to traverse opens up plot opportunities. If the Ent-H is at Bajor and Earth is under attack they can be there within hours rather than months.

because it either makes the ship invincible (boring), or they write the bad guy's weapons to equal it somehow, and cancel it all back out.

As I said, the ship is not invincible and the unknown ship is in fact far more advanced but I don't see why there needs to be a reason for tech change and time period change. Some times change is just change so we get something a little different instead of the same old same old.

Additionally, given the presumably large time frame (3 Enterprises past what we've seen, plus however long the E-E lasts. Gotta be at least 100 years, maybe a lot longer, as these babies are planned to last 100 each, but just end up getting beaten up a lot).

Go look up how long Enterprises have lasted. I took a look and did a bit of math to come up with a very accurate time jumps between ships. I had to say at the beginning of my post that after the Ent-E was destroyed there was a gap of many years before the next ship. Otherwise I would not have been able to have the H during the mid 25th century.
The Ent-J was around in the 26th century but that could easily have been at the beginning of the 26th century meaning a mid 25th century time range for the Ent-H makes sense.

the tech should probably jump a lot MORE than you have. Given the time jump, what role do SHIPS play in the future? Inter-planet beaming may even be more plausible in that timeframe.

I disagree. We've seen ships even as far ahead as the 29th century, even when they're capable of beaming a person to any time period and any location. I highly doubt that a mere 68 years since the commissioning of the Ent-E that tech has advanced as dramatically as planet to planet beaming, at least not on a massive scale beyond emergencies and I doubt they could beam someone from Bajor to Earth which is where ships and Transwarp corridors come into play.

As for the rest, you've got a lost ship and a mystery. Done the lost ship bit before (and it makes it harder, because you can't bring in familiar elements, like klingons and romulans if you need a fix),

It's not necessarily lost. I've only given a basic premise, the ship could find a way to traverse between the dimensions by the second episode. The truth is I never intended the ship to be lost or stuck in that Dimension because I know myself that it would make it another Voyager.

and the rest feels far enough outside what we've got established that you're really just pasting a star trek ship onto it.

That's quite a stupid remark, not sure how to even respond to it.

Actually, the colonist mystery part sounds pretty similar to the Endymion saga out of the Hyperion Cantos...

I don't even know what that is and don't feel the necessity to go find out. I doubt there's any correlation at all.

Sounds like fun, but not sure how long you stretch it out. Fun episode, great mini-series, but can you get 7 seasons out of it? Is too much of the main problem/mystery really tied to technobabble?

Please feel free to read my posts more clearly. I said the unknown ship, alternate dimension and search for the billions of abducted people would be only for the first series.

It's at the very bottom of my first post, I said don't jump to conclusions and yet you still went and did it. If you're capable of doing that even when I said not to then what does that say about the rest of your post and your opinions?

Here is the part of the original post I mean:

Now before you jump to any conclusions it's only the first series that deals with this new unknown dimension and the unknown vessel.
I don't think this storyline could possibly go beyond a single series so the second series would have the Ent-H back home and with a new focus.

 

[Lorna]

Why? From your description of the pilot we only spend 10 minutes there...

No, I've described the main episode but never actually said they're stuck where they are or that they cannot make it back when they want.

 

[Dac]

Reminds me of the plot to Mass Effect 2, with an all powerful race going round abducting humans from colony worlds and taking them to an unknown area of space.

That aside, the fact you haven't given any thought to the characters is worrying. You've got an ok-ish plot going on, but without any good characters to carry it out, root for and hate its going to be the most boring thing this side of watching paint dry.

When I was younger, I'd have written something very similar, but after watching a lot of non-trek TV shows, you come to realize its all about the characters, and the plot is something for them to do. The characters dictate the plot, not vice versa. Otherwise you suffer from "idiot" plots like the latter seasons of Heroes came up against where you have characters acting out of character simply to fulfill the plot. It just doesn't work.

Captain "whatever" will be a much more interesting character if he or she was rescued as a child by the Enterprise-E from the colony that is attacked in the opening, and so seperated from the federation they begin a quest for answers which takes its toll on them and ultimately becomes one of revenge for what these aliens did to him and his family as a kid.

Or perhaps this is your first officer or tactical officer and the Captain is an alien or simply doesnt share this quest for vengence, instead wanting to find a way back to Federation space ASAP and get back up, which the aforementioned officer doesnt agree with. There, you have drama between two characters at least, something to interest the audience on a more personal level than "oh, theres evil aliens out there".

 

[Lorna]

Captain "whatever" will be a much more interesting character if he or she was rescued as a child by the Enterprise-E from the colony that is attacked in the opening, and so seperated from the federation they begin a quest for answers which takes its toll on them and ultimately becomes one of revenge for what these aliens did to him and his family as a kid.

Or perhaps this is your first officer or tactical officer and the Captain is an alien or simply doesnt share this quest for vengence, instead wanting to find a way back to Federation space ASAP and get back up, which the aforementioned officer doesnt agree with. There, you have drama between two characters at least, something to interest the audience on a more personal level than "oh, theres evil aliens out there".

Excellent idea! nice input!

See, giving and sharing ideas works far better than simply criticising an idea, which some people tend to be only capable of doing.

 

[Galileo7]

Lorna excellent idea. What would the USS Enterprise-H (25th Century) look like...any images?

 

[Scout101]

couple questions: why the Enterprise-H? Other than saying you want space from the current franchise, does it buy you anything? Any reason it couldn't be a closer-timeframe ship, just out in the outskirts? You're throwing them out of the dimension anyway, so locality isn't really an issue.

I was thinking they wont necessarily be stuck in the Dimension permanently. The idea at the start is to simply make the viewers aware that the ship is from an alternate dimension. By the second episode travel between Dimensions will be achievable. It's Star Trek, anything can be accomplished if the writers choose it.

IMO that kills a lot of the drama/tension right off the bat if they're only lost for an entire episode. I'd think if you're going to go so far as to introduce this big bad species, plus a whole new dimension, you should probably spend more than 40 minutes exploring it. Half a season, minimum. You lose a lot of the tension and ability for interesting storytelling once you reconnect them to their support system.

Same deal with the tech: so what? distance between locations is a function of the plot, not the tech. DS9 was the frontier, except when they needed to work in Earth, and then it wasn't that bad. Improving the tech (faster ship, better weapons, shields, etc) doesn't really change anything,

Having Federation space no longer taking months to traverse opens up plot opportunities. If the Ent-H is at Bajor and Earth is under attack they can be there within hours rather than months.

No different than how any of the other series dealt with it, though. TNG was out exploring strange new worlds, except for when they needed to use familiar elements. DS9 was way out on the frontier, except when they wanted to use Earth, and then a couple minutes of ship on starfield later, they were on Earth. The ship moves at the pace of the plot, so if you want them to take a long time to get places, you can write more on the ship and the travelling. Want to tell the story at the destination? Don't dwell on the travel time, and any magical drive tech works fine.

As I said, the ship is not invincible and the unknown ship is in fact far more advanced but I don't see why there needs to be a reason for tech change and time period change. Some times change is just change so we get something a little different instead of the same old same old.

But making it a big deal is a waste, because it's NOT any different. Shields still work like shields, enemies have weapons of equal power, etc. Doesn't matter if they are shooting each other with Mark XXXV phasers that deal eleventy million hit points per strike, they've got shields that respond just like what we've seen. Only way to make the tech interesting is to REALLY change the game. Weapons that fire at such long distance that ships no longer see each other. Weapons that cut right through shields, so battles are fought drastically differently. But that's not really Trek. In Trek, we've got monster battleships that fly like fighter jets and take damage like dreadnoughts, so you can't really introduce much of that and keep the Trek feel.

Go look up how long Enterprises have lasted. I took a look and did a bit of math to come up with a very accurate time jumps between ships. I had to say at the beginning of my post that after the Ent-E was destroyed there was a gap of many years before the next ship. Otherwise I would not have been able to have the H during the mid 25th century.
The Ent-J was around in the 26th century but that could easily have been at the beginning of the 26th century meaning a mid 25th century time range for the Ent-H makes sense.

Not necessarily. These things were all designed to last much longer. Yes, some lasted longer than others, but you'd think that not EVERY one would meet with a disaster so short in their lifespans. Not really important, though, as it's just an arbitrary letter, and not part of anything. OTOH, they are pretty unlikely to use "I" as a designation letter, so you really only have to account for F and G, I suppose, which makes the timeline fit better.

I disagree. We've seen ships even as far ahead as the 29th century, even when they're capable of beaming a person to any time period and any location. I highly doubt that a mere 68 years since the commissioning of the Ent-E that tech has advanced as dramatically as planet to planet beaming, at least not on a massive scale beyond emergencies and I doubt they could beam someone from Bajor to Earth which is where ships and Transwarp corridors come into play.

Doesn't really show us a lot about that time period, though, so who's to say that ships were standard, or the norm. I'd argue that that was lazy storytelling at best, because if you jump technology ahead 500 years, things shouldn't look so recognizable. Compare technology from the 1500s to what we've got today. Commonplace things here wouldn't make a lick of sense back there. To limit the change to "well, they've got better transporters" seems silly. And if they DO have transporters that can move you through time and space with ease, is interplanetary beaming all that shocking? Spock and Scotty (per the new movie) were beaming to targets travelling at warp speed (and thus, presumably out of the system) as early as the 23rd century, apparently. Maybe 24th, if you assume Scotty didn't develop that until after he was with the S.C.E...

It's not necessarily lost. I've only given a basic premise, the ship could find a way to traverse between the dimensions by the second episode. The truth is I never intended the ship to be lost or stuck in that Dimension because I know myself that it would make it another Voyager.

A negative, IMO, because you're negating the big part of your gimmick far too early. You've got a ship tossed into a mysterious new dimension, but it's able to escape by the 2nd episode? Yes, there's still part of the initial mystery, but the tension is gone, and you've created a fun two-parter, and then tossed it aside to get back to regular Trek fare within 84 minutes...

That's quite a stupid remark, not sure how to even respond to it.

I'd recommend something better than a weak flame, at least. Maybe even explaining it further, or why it's "stupid" in your opinion. I went through more trouble than to just respond "that's stupid" when you posted your idea, so that same courtesy would be nice. Presumably, you posted this here looking for feedback, so don't get bent out of shape if it's not all backpatting (try FanFic for that). There ARE good points in here, but constructive criticism should be welcomed when you're tossing out ideas...

I don't even know what that is and don't feel the necessity to go find out. I doubt there's any correlation at all.

How big of you. If you don't know what it is, and don't feel the urge to find out, how could you possibly have any opinion on whether there's a correlation?

For the record, in those two books, there's a ship running colony to colony (partially running from the bad guys, partially exploring what's going on and how bad it is once they start to see a pattern), and finding missing colonists where there were once thriving colonies. Most look to have just disappeared while performing everyday activities. Our good guys try to unravel this as part of their journey, find out what happened to them, and restore them if possible.

No correlation? Not saying you borrowed from this at all, just saying it sounded familiar to me, and gave an example. Kinda arrogant to blow it off without even looking, and being proud of the lack of curiosity...

Sounds like fun, but not sure how long you stretch it out. Fun episode, great mini-series, but can you get 7 seasons out of it? Is too much of the main problem/mystery really tied to technobabble?

Please feel free to read my posts more clearly. I said the unknown ship, alternate dimension and search for the billions of abducted people would be only for the first series.

Ok, please continue to flesh out your idea, then. You've only given us a ship name and enough material for what you say will last one season, although you're solving their biggest problem within the first 2 episodes. What are you planning to do with the other 6 years of your series? All of your big drama points are gone within a season, and you haven't explained your overarching idea for the series as a whole, just one self-contained season. They beat the bad guys at the end of the year, and get the colonists back. And then? Don't need a play by play of 7 years of plots, but when you're pitching an idea, you should be setting up the big drive of the series, what the hook is. Fun pilot episode, but once you resolve it, the show has to keep going, so you need bigger ideas. Is it really political? Exploration? Are these bad guys from Dimension X part of some bigger thing that the ship is going to be fighting for years? Can only work with what you give us...

It's at the very bottom of my first post, I said don't jump to conclusions and yet you still went and did it. If you're capable of doing that even when I said not to then what does that say about the rest of your post and your opinions?

It says you don't respond well to criticism, even aimed to help strengthen your idea, and when questioned on it, got mad at me for not thinking it was great as-is. I get that it's only intended to last a season, but that just means you're pitching a series that you only have a plan for 1/7th of so far. Didn't give us any information about overall themes or big ideas. And since you're removing most of the drama you're creating before the pilot finishes, not sure how this even gets stretched out to last a season.

See, giving and sharing ideas works far better than simply criticising an idea, which some people tend to be only capable of doing.

And if you can't take any constructive criticism regarding your ideas, don't bother. Spent enough effort to read through it and suggest improvements, and you fired back rather than consider that it might not be perfect. I didn't suggest character names or backstories (what he suggested isn't a bad idea), but was still looking at the big picture first. You didn't talk about characters, so I didn't address it. First things first...

 

[Lorna]

I don't like your attitude whatsoever and I'm putting this ignore feature to good use. I certainly hope you don't speak to people away from the internet like this.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Lorna, with respect, Scout101 has gone to considerable effort to explain what he does and doesn't like about your proposed series. I have seen people respond to suggestions much more rudely and much less constructively than he has. you might want to reconsider the use of the 'ignore' option. Surely engagement with your suggestion is much better than apathy or the 'it sucks' sort of response that pitches on this forum frequently receive?

 

[Scout101]

Honestly, if that's the response she's come up with, probably not worth the time. If you can't stand even the slightest bit of constructive criticism, probably shouldn't post ideas in the first place, as the internet must be a scary place.

As for how I speak to people? I didn't say anything negative about her, and believe SHE quickly went to the "that's a stupid remark" comment in regards to my input on her idea

 

[BillJ]

Lorna, with respect, Scout101 has gone to considerable effort to explain what he does and doesn't like about your proposed series. I have seen people respond to suggestions much more rudely and much less constructively than he has. you might want to reconsider the use of the 'ignore' option. Surely engagement with your suggestion is much better than apathy or the 'it sucks' sort of response that pitches on this forum frequently receive?

This.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I did something like this with the Enterprise-H in a fanfic last year.

Is it online somewhere where I can read it?

Nah, it wasn't good enough to put online. I actually got to the end of the "pilot episode" and then deleted it due to it exceeding the fanboy factor.

Probably a thousand other Trekkies have done the same...

But I have not finished. You don't know who the ship belongs to, where it's actually come from or why it's been abducting billions of people. You don't know how the Ent-H is even going to get the billions of people back or if indeed it's even possible to. I'm sure you can however work out how a shuttle craft sized vessel is able to abduct Billions of people, it's bigger on the inside.

In my "pilot," I had a 25th-Century Enterprise-H (complete with transwarp drive and all sorts of other silly fanboy stuff) going after a mysterious alien ship "rewriting" life-forms on various worlds across the Quadrant with technology was far more advanced than anything of that era. I didn't reveal who the aliens were, what they looked like, or even why they were doing what they were doing.

Then I discovered other people who had developed fanfics involving a 25th-Century Enterprise-H...

It wasn't until after that I realized I needed to start over and maybe concentrate more on characters rather than an over-the-top ship and a premise that was perhaps too fanboyish for its own good. Right now, I'm learning the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) approach...

 

[indolover]

I think it's a good idea, but what are your thoughts on characters?

Would the CO be human? Would you have characters of different species? Characters that had new quirks from the previous series (,i.e. a Klingon and an android in TNG, Changeling and a sapient symbiont in DS9, sapient hologram in Voyager, etc.)?

 

[Lorna]

I think it's a good idea, but what are your thoughts on characters?

Would the CO be human? Would you have characters of different species? Characters that had new quirks from the previous series (,i.e. a Klingon and an android in TNG, Changeling and a sapient symbiont in DS9, sapient hologram in Voyager, etc.)?

Due to the volume of criticism I made a few changes to the idea and started a new thread. If you're interested it's on the main page. Just look for the other thread started by me.