I've heard that it was going to be future Archer but they eventually went to a different storyline instead
What mysteries of Star Trek would you like to see solved (and, if you want to say it, how would you solve them)?
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Interesting. Personally subscribe to theory of it being a Romulan . They already have shown to use time travel as a method to try to collapse the Federation ( Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow). And Romulus's destruction gives them even more motivation.
The Dyson Sphere. I'd set an entire show there, a small team is sent in a smallish ship to investigate. Somehow it's stabilised and inhabitable.
More land than a million worlds. It's impossible to comprehend.
More land than a million worlds. It's impossible to comprehend.
Probably why it was relegated to the subplot of one episode where the primary focus was the return of a TOS character.
An episode explaining why Starfleet / the Universe seems so small.
(Starfleet should be a humungous organization, many, many times the size of all armies of Earth combined. Yet they frequently run into people they know from previous assignments, are a long-past love interest, and so on. Same for meeting individuals on planets. The federation population probably runs into the trillions, yet they often meet old acquaintances; that should be a very rare occurrence. Fortunately it ultimately didn't happen but we almost had Rasmussen just being a roommate of Archer. I mean, what are the odds, and that's not even taking into consideration that Rasmussen could have been as much as 50 years younger or older than Archer as well. )
Also, an episode explaining why, during (mostly accidental) time travel, they end up into the 20th / 21st century comparatively often (and not in the 10th, 51st, or -123th century, for example).
(Starfleet should be a humungous organization, many, many times the size of all armies of Earth combined. Yet they frequently run into people they know from previous assignments, are a long-past love interest, and so on. Same for meeting individuals on planets. The federation population probably runs into the trillions, yet they often meet old acquaintances; that should be a very rare occurrence. Fortunately it ultimately didn't happen but we almost had Rasmussen just being a roommate of Archer. I mean, what are the odds, and that's not even taking into consideration that Rasmussen could have been as much as 50 years younger or older than Archer as well. )
Also, an episode explaining why, during (mostly accidental) time travel, they end up into the 20th / 21st century comparatively often (and not in the 10th, 51st, or -123th century, for example).
Having a new character be known by one of the main characters allows writers to expand on our hero's backstory, personalizes the problem by making it someone with a shared history rather than a stranger (added emotional tension). The trope was invented for smaller fictional worlds...what would be a better equivalent for large ones? I suppose if you both run in the same circles, it's a little more realistic (eg same field of study, both Starfleet members, etc)
At least with Trills, for instance, you can say, oh it's someone whose symbiont's former host knew my symbiont's former host - you have both the smaller population of one species as opposed to the whole universe and the fact that it's shared symbionts that bind them, not "I personally knew this person".
Time travel episodes are primarily used to speak to the issues/culture of the present day/near future in a more obvious way than typical allegorical Trek does. It'd be an extra layer if we went back in time relative to our day to discuss a present problem as seen by people of the future.
^I know of course that these are the out-of-universe explanations and that they're done for narrative reasons too, and I was just being a bit flippant about it. A bit like 'how come they always only succeed at preventing the explosion in the last possible second? Is there some force of nature that works that way there?'.
(Though I am serious about how such 'narrative conventions' ultimately diminish the credibility of the world they're building. )
(Though I am serious about how such 'narrative conventions' ultimately diminish the credibility of the world they're building. )
What could we replace them with?
The early story ideas for First Contact had the Borg heading back to medieval times and lasted long enough for concept art to be generated before being dismissed upon the realization that while knights in shining armor fighting Borg drones might look cool, it really doesn't make any sense.
An interesting question, and one I don't have an immediate answer to.
I also realize it's easy to criticize, but harder to come up with solutions.
Perhaps it's good for such a writer to take a step back once in a while and reflect on how often he actually goes for 'the easy choice', and whether there's no better alternative.
Examples would include i.e. Picard being extremely dogmatic about the Prime Directive in Homeward because they need to set up the conflict for the episode between Worf and Nicolai, or inventing an 'even primer than prime directive' just because they want to tell a one-off episode (The Omega Directive) ). A directive that potentially can put many historical events in a different light, and even begs the question how enlightened the Federation ultimately is ('we'll screw primitive civilizations over if that's needed to protect warp travel!').
Then again, Star Trek is just a TV franchise, producing 45-minute episodes for casual entertainment that most people only watch once. Of course my level of obsession, and thoughts about episodes like these clearly is absurd. I'm not really their target audience, I suppose
I suppose if a character has a conflict/past with a member of a particular species, introducing another member of the same species in the story is more realistic than meeting your old friend/lover/nemesis by chance. Less personal that way, but the character would still make it personal, and there'd be more exposition, not just "remember the time we-" "oh, yeah, that was wild".
Explaining the difference between tos tech and TMP tech
What ever happened to the Enterprise E
What ever happened to the Enterprise E
The first there basically isn’t any difference, just a new look. We can write that off to “a few years passed and fashions changed, and tech improved slightly like it always does”.
The second: well, whatever it was, it’ll only have been one story. Which definitely wasn’t Worf’s fault. It’s probably funnier not to know the details.
They don't discuss it with outsiders. 
So it's probably taken on a life of its own, with the rumors wilder than what actually happened.
So it's probably taken on a life of its own, with the rumors wilder than what actually happened.
Can you really, though? Not one set of controls looks the same or even similar. Not one readout is familiar. The tech they are using is all-new.
People accept it because:
1. They grew up on it so automatically accept it as normal
2. It looks really cool
And of course, anything modern will be lacking point 1, no matter how much they smash point 2 (and SNW definitely does ad far as set design goes)
I believe it really was one of the Sovereign class ships we see in Prodigy's S1 finale, where it was either destroyed or so severely damaged it wasn't deemed practical to repair. The timeline fits and it really wouldn't have been Worf's fault.
An episode dedicated to the Ent-D crew trying to locate the ship's toilets, by several angles of attack: Worf leading an exploration away team in the bowels of the ship, through less-traveled corridors; Geordi and Data scouring the databanks containing the ship's design searching for an answer; Riker and Deanna using their diplomatic clout and empathic abilities with Utopia Planitia to find out; and Picard coordinating the mission from the bridge.
Granted less time has passed in-story than in reality, but my office computer “readouts” today look nothing like the ones I worked on in the late 80s (green or gold text on a black background, mostly text-only, sometimes these little artificial “tick” noises when you pressed the keys; except when we used optical drives in the early 90s, with weird BRIGHT COLORS, which was also different from what’s used today). I can buy that, LCARS and that seemingly immortal ALERT graphic aside, alongside a presumably higher/constant rate of new tech development, Starfleet modifies its surface interfaces as often as it does its uniforms, with the McCoy-types (of which I would undoubtedly be one) understandably always complaining about it.
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Both good questions.
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