Wanted: Ent-Era Trek Reboot Main Theme Ideas

[Vondy]

BTW i know it SOUNDED like Rod Stewart, but was actually sung by a Tenor named Russell Watson. It's title is actually "Where My Heart Will Take Me".

The song originally appeared in the movie Patch Adams where it WAS actually sung by Rod Stewart. I am sure that the Enterprise production didn't have the budget to actually pay Mr Stewart for this version of the song.

 

I know that this is picky, but There's a part of me that likes being correct.

Good to know.

[Doc Shadow]

I don't know if this will help any but way back before ENT, I did up a mod for the FASA Trek RPG that was set in that general era. The very early days of the Federation. Hope it's useful.

 

 

 

To Sail a Starry Sea

a campaign for

Star Trek: the role-playing game

 

Stardate: 0/3603.10 (Old calendar date 10 March 2136)

Starship: USS Hyperion, NCC-21

               Heavy Cruiser, Horizon class

   Gross - 43,750 tons

   Crew complement - 203 (national make-up as follows)

     80% Earth

     10% Alpha Centauri

       5% Vulcan

       5% Tellar

Assignment: Galaxy Exploration Command

                   3 year Cruise

Homebase: Trolak Fleet Base, Calgary, Griswald 3489

                Commodore C. Elliot Penhaligon; SUSF, F.S.

 

Orders

To: Captain Jean-Pierre du Gracey; SUSF, F.S., commanding UES Jellicoe, SCC-74, Warp Cruiser - Union class

 

From: Admiral Savaj; VSSP, F.S., Commander - Starfleet - Quadrant II

 

Stardate: 0/3601.08

 

I.                   It is the decision of the Starfleet Commanding Admiral that in view of the case of the UES Marconi SCC-97 on Stardate 0/3510.21, the Union class Cruiser is to be withdrawn from active Starfleet service. The UES Jellicoe SCC-74 is to be delivered to Trolak Fleet Base where the Starfleet Material Command will prepare the vessel for transportation to Earth.

II.                Upon arrival at Trolak Fleet Base the Officers and Crew of the UES Jellicoe shall be paid off and disbursed to new assignments. You are therefore posted to command the following:

                     USS Hyperion, NCC-21

             Heavy Cruiser-----------------Horizon Class

             DWT----------------------------43,750 tons

             Crew Complement------------203 persons

             Drive----------------------------Second Generation Warp Drive

             Range---------------------------4 years at std. Cruise speed

             Registry------------------------Calgary, United Star Ship

III.             Nature and duration of mission: 3 year Galaxy Exploration Patrol

IV.             You will patrol Quadrant II sector 3, within a 10 parsec radius of Griswald 3489 system and Trolak Base.

V.                Consistent with the limitations of your vessel and equipment you will confine your landings and contacts to class "M" planets approximating Earth/Vulcan conditions

VI.             You will conduct this patrol to accomplish primarily:

a.)     Scientific investigation to add to the Federation's body of knowledge of alien life forms and social systems, and

b.)   Federation security via exploration of intelligence and social systems capable of a galaxial threat, and

c.)    Any required aid to the several Federation Colonies in this sector and the enforcement of appropriate statutes effecting such Federated commerce vessels and traders as you may contact in the course of your mission.

VII.          On Arrival at Trolak Fleet Base you will report to the Officer commanding: C. Elliot Penhaligon; Commo. SUSF, F.S.; for patrol parameters and operational orders. You will be under the authority of the Commandant - Trolak Fleet Base until re-assignment or termination of your present mission. In the course of your patrol USS Hyperion shall be assigned to independent duty, you are therefore expected and required to exercise command initiative as necessary to the successful performance of all General and Specific Starfleet Operations.

 

Savaj

Admiral, VSP, F.S.

Commander Starfleet

Quadrant II

 

 

Adaptations

 

The following skills are not available at this time: Transporter Operational Procedures (TOP) and Transporter System Technology (TST)

 

Please make the following changes to the Character Generation system:

   In the Space Sciences Curriculum replace TOP with Shuttlecraft Pilot.

   In the Engineering Branch School Curriculum replace TST with Shuttlecraft Systems Technology.

   In the Core Curriculum replace Federation Culture/History with Native.

   In Command School replace Federation C/H with any race of your choice.

 

Uniforms in these early days of Starfleet were somewhat different. They consisted of black trousers, with black boots and gray leggings. A turtle-necked jersey color-coded for department and a gray jacket with a wide belt. The right shoulder of the jacket bears the National Fleet symbol (example the Solar Union Space Fleet) and the left the Ship patch (example the USS Hyperion), while the Federation Starfleet emblem is seen in its old familiar position on the left breast. Rank is designated by a secession of 1, 2 and 6 centimeter black stripes on the left sleeve of the uniform jacket as follows:

 

   Midshipman - one 1 cm stripe

   Ensign - one 2 cm stripe

   Lieutenant j.g. - one 1 cm stripe over one 2 cm stripe

   Lieutenant - two 2 cm stripes

   Lieutenant Commander - one 1 cm stripe between two 2 cm stripes

   Commander - three 2 cm stripes

   Captain - four 2 cm stripes

   Fleet Captain - one half disk over four 2 cm stripes

   Commodore - one 6 cm band

   Admiral - one 2 cm stripe over one 6 cm band

   Flag Admiral - two 2 cm stripes over one 6 cm band

   Admiral of the Starfleet - three 2 cm stripes over one 6 cm band

 

The space between stripes is always 1 cm.

 

Also by 3, 5 and 10 millimeter by 14 millimeter barred silver pins worn on the right side of the turtle-neck in a similar secession:

 

   Midshipman - one 3 mm bar

   Ensign - one 5 mm bar

   Lieutenant j.g. - one 3 mm bar to the right of one 5 mm bar

   Lieutenant - two 5 mm bars

   Lieutenant Commander - one 3 mm bar between two 5 mm bars

   Commander - three 5 mm bars

   Captain - four 5 mm bars

   Fleet Captain - one half disk over four 5 mm bars

   Commodore - one 10 mm bar

   Admiral - one 5 mm bar to the right of one 10 mm bar

   Flag Admiral - two 5 mm bars to the right of one 10 mm bar

   Admiral of the Starfleet - three 5 mm bars to the right of one 10 mm bar

 

The space between bars is always 2 mm.

 

The initials after an officer's name indicate the national fleet in which he holds his commission and whether or not he has qualified for Starfleet service.

   SUSF - Solar Union Space Fleet

   CFC - Concordium Fleet Command

   VSP - Vulcan Star Patrol

   TTSN - Tellerite Territories Star Navy

   AIF - Andorian Imperial Fleet

   FS - qualified for Federation Service

Some of the newest officers have been commissioned by the Federation itself and use SFC for Starfleet Command in place of a national fleet.

 

Weapons - Standard Lasers with the following changes: Power packs only have half the normal power available and pistols do 60 points of damage rather than 80. There is no stun setting.

 

Communicators are larger, about 4"x3"x1.5" and have a small 2"x1.5"x1" microphone connected by a retractable 2' cord. The mike is usually clipped to the jacket slightly above the Starfleet emblem while the main unit is attached to the belt. They have a maximum range of 10,000 km.

 

Bicorders are sensor devices that can scan and record out to a maximum range of 50 m. but are only effective at ranges of 10 to 15 meters. Unlike Tricorders, Bicorders are not able to analyze the readings taken; the officer must do this himself.

 

There are no "Universal" Translators although translation programs can be loaded into the communicators in the case of known alien languages. Other items that don't exist are the Life Support Belt and Subcutaneous Transponder.

 

Subspace Radio has yet to be invented. Ships are therefore equipped with the slower Warp Communication. The system only works within a Warp Field and has a maximum transmission speed of Warp Five at this time.

 

As a Horizon class Starship Hyperion is powered by an Orion III  plasma fusion plant and is driven by two SA-12 2^nd generation warp engines with three Geodyne IV fusion engines for sub-light travel. Hyperion's standard cruising speed is Warp 3.25 at a maximum Cochrane's Factor (warp speed multiplier) of 80, her emergency speed is Warp 3.8 and she can reach a maximum velocity of 2744 c. The average CF of her patrol area is in the low twenties.

 

Hyperion's armament consists of two forward mounted Proton Cannons with maximum effective range of 200,000 km, four dual Laser Banks with one mounted to fire in each direction and a maximum range of 300,000 km and finally two forward and one aft torpedo tubes for 75 Mk. III Fusion Torpedoes with a maximum range of 5,900,000 km. Defense is provided by a Thermo-Kinetic Force-field which can deflect away 50% of the incoming fire and 20 cm of Adaman Alloy hull armor which will absorb the first 2 points of damage to punch through the force-field per salvo. As for your weapons for the time being consider your lasers to do 3 points of damage at out to 100,000 km, 2 points at 100,000 to 200,000 km and 1 point at 200,000 to 300,000 km; forcefields have no effect on laser fire. The Proton Cannons can do up to 5 points of damage depending on how much power is routed to them, out to their maximum range but are affected by the forcefields. The Fusion Torpedoes take 1 point of power to arm and do 10 points of damage each, they are affected by forcefields.

[Tasha]

That does touch on one other thing as far as my tastes go. If I were to run an Enterprise Reboot campaign, I would abandon the TNG looking Akiraprise NX-1 and go for a Ship design that looks either like the USS Kelvin from the movies or something that looks like a TOS version of a Miranda Class.

 

If you had to stick to the NX design the upgraded Columbia is a step in the right direction.
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Columbia_class?file=NX-01_refit_quarter.jpg

[Vondy]

That does touch on one other thing as far as my tastes go. If I were to run an Enterprise Reboot campaign, I would abandon the TNG looking Akiraprise NX-1 and go for a Ship design that looks either like the USS Kelvin from the movies or something that looks like a TOS version of a Miranda Class.

Oddly, the Akira is my favorite Trek ship design. So, even though the NX-01 wasn't wholly original (ahem!) I liked the look of it. The Miranda and Kelvin are some of the better Trek designs, too. My only issue with them is that they look like latter-era Trek ships -- weirdly "modern" for Trek.

 

If you had to stick to the NX design the upgraded Columbia is a step in the right direction.

I have some concept art from this that was marked an an NX-01 refit concept. I'm not sure why it would be "Columbia." The Columbia was the NX-02 and looked almost identical to the NX-01. The refit is pretty cool, though. I'm not really sure which way I'm going with the ship.

[Vondy]

Dupe. Where is the delete button?

[Doc Shadow]

How about this?

 

 

[Doc Shadow]

Or maybe this?

 

[Vondy]

Or maybe this?

 

This one is pretty cool. Will ponder.

[Vondy]

Its interesting!

In terms of rank and organization,

I have the United Earth Starfleet as a uniformed officer's corps for the civilian United Earth Space Probe Agency. It is intended to provide a cadre of specialists tasked w. operating manned warp-capable exploration craft outside the Sol System. Their primary duties are exploration, contact, research, and some coast guard style duties.

I modeled them on the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps w. is under the civilian NOAA w. is under the Dept. of Commerce. They can, theoretically, be militarized the way the ostensibly civilian USCG and NOAA Corps can -- but they aren't the military. To that end, I wanted to get away from the traditional wet-navy ranks and the traditional enlisted-commission divide.

There are four ranks, O1-O4: Officer, Sr. Officer, Chief Officer, Line Officer. A line officer must complete command school and then receive a "patent" from the secretary-general of United Earth. There are two kinds of patents give to line officers -- "line patents" and "patents of command." All line officers, in the current SF, must rise through the ranks -- no one goes straight to command.

Shipboard, those with patents of command are "captains"; those with line patents are "captain's mates." Captain's mates are usually addressed first officer, second officer, third officer -- etc. Those w. line patents who are not appointed to ships are termed "commander," and typically run SF's run staff departments.

O3 is the the terminus-point for most careers -- and shipside being a chief means being a department head. However, the system of "chiefs, rates, and mates" is more important than rank in terms of function. This is generally because there are very few "officer's patent" on board.

 

Typical ship structure:

• Officer's Patent: Captain and Captain's Mates (if any).
• Chiefs: Master, Doctor, Gunner, Engineer, Bosun, Sysops.
• Standing Officers: Quartermaster, Armorer, Master-at-Arms, Radio.
• Rates & Mates: Section Mates, Corporals (Red Shirts), Steward, Cook, Clerk.
• Watch officers: Captain, Captain's Mates, Master, Gunner, Bosun.

In most cases a chief is an O3. The exception is the ship's doctor and science officers. The ranking physician serves as CMO irrespective of rank -- even if they are an O1. Meanwhile, ships don't automatically have a science officer or science chief. Rather, science officers are staff officers assigned to SF Command's Science Division.

Science officers administer and work with civilian scientists working on SF research & development projects, or consult on civilian research projects of interest to SF and the UESPA. When assigned to a SF vessel -- generally with the civilian scientists they work with -- they are called the "science chief." However, this position isn't a part of the shipboard command structure.

SF -- being very small at this point -- does have a handful of rear admirals (one for each major division) and a vice admiral who is the chief of staff. It will grow.

[BlueCloud2k2]

For those with more whimsical tastes:

 

 

 

EDIT: Lyrics for those who care

 

The USS Make S*** Up by Voltaire

 

I was stranded on a planet, Just me and Spock
We met a nasty nazi alien who locked our asses up
We found a hunk of crystal and a metal piece of bed
We made a laser phaser gun and shot him in the head

Bust a move, Tog

I was standing on the bridge when Sulu came to me
His eyes were full of tears he said "Captain, can't you see
the ship is gonna blow do something I beseech"
I grabbed a tribble and some chewing gum and stopped the warp core breach

And I say,
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things, lad, we're making s*** up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some s*** up

And though he's just a child, and some think him a twit
Wesley is the master when it comes to making up some s***
He's the guy you want with you when you go out in space
Now if only he could beam those pimples off his face

And if you're at a party on the starship Enterprise
And the karaoke player just plain old up and dies
Set up a neutrino field inside a can of peas
Hold on to Geordi's visor and sing into Data's knee

And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making s*** up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some s*** up

Sisko's on a mission to go no bloody place
He loiters on a space station above Bajoran space
The wormhole's opened up and now they come from near and far
We'll keep the booze but please send back the f***ing Jem-hadar

What is with the Klingons, remember in the day
They looked like Puerto Ricans and they dressed in gold lame
Now they look like heavy metal rockers from the dead
With leather pants and frizzy hair and lobsters on their heads

And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making s*** up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we just make some s*** up

Well, I was stuck on Voyager, pounding on the door
When suddently it dawned on me I've seen this show before
Perhaps I'm in a warp bubble and slightly out of phase
'Cause it was way back in the sixties when they called it "Lost in Space"

We were looking for a way to make the ratings soar
So we orchestrated an encounter with the Borg
Normally you'd think that that would get us into s***
But this one has a smashing a$$ and a lovely set of tits

And I say
Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
Thats the way we do things lad, we're making s*** up as we wish
The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
'Cause if we find we're in a bind we're totally screwed but nevermind
We'll pull something out of our behinds, we just make some s*** up

Edited June 15, 2014 by BlueCloud2k2

[Tasha]

For the Voltaire song you really WANT the newest version that Covers the movies and Enterprise. Song's language is NSFW.

 

[Vondy]

I found this fan design. Its interesting. I like the lines. It might make for an interesting NX W5 testbed ship. Two thoughts occur to me, 1) the other United Earth classes were also flatter and had sleeker lines (the NY class was shaped like an arrowhead), and 2) its sufficiently different from Federation ships that it doesn't look like an anachronistic copy. It seems smaller than the NX based on bridge size-location, however. Maybe 150 meters incl. Nacelles, five decks, and a crew of no more than fifty?

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

[csyphrett]

The side view doesn't seem to match up with the rest of the drawings. Expendable cargo holds maybe?

CES 

[Vondy]

The side view doesn't seem to match up with the rest of the drawings. Expendable cargo holds maybe?

CES 

 

Do you mean detachable cargo holds? The problem may be the frontal view. The "sweeps" that envelop the front and hold the nacelles should probably be shown to "rise up" from the main hull instead of being flush. 

[Vondy]

Of course there is the "delta class" that we see in a few Enterprise episodes.

 

Give it a slightly (but not too much) "hotrodier" nacelle and have it be the first W5 vessel....

 

[csyphrett]

Do you mean detachable cargo holds? The problem may be the frontal view. The "sweeps" that envelop the front and hold the nacelles should probably be shown to "rise up" from the main hull instead of being flush. 

I think that is the problem. The side view makes it look like you have a bridge section, then another section like an engine housing I guess, then the nacelles. The front and rear views just show wings extending from the bridge. It kind of makes it look like what happened to that middle part in your mind.

CES

[Vondy]

I think that is the problem. The side view makes it look like you have a bridge section, then another section like an engine housing I guess, then the nacelles. The front and rear views just show wings extending from the bridge. It kind of makes it look like what happened to that middle part in your mind.

CES

 

I think I'm going with the "warp delta" version -- the second one I posted.

[Gary Miles]

That does touch on one other thing as far as my tastes go. If I were to run an Enterprise Reboot campaign, I would abandon the TNG looking Akiraprise NX-1 and go for a Ship design that looks either like the USS Kelvin from the movies or something that looks like a TOS version of a Miranda Class.

 

If you had to stick to the NX design the upgraded Columbia is a step in the right direction.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Columbia_class?file=NX-01_refit_quarter.jpg

So, something like this?

[Vondy]

So, something like this?

 

 

The speculative NX-01 "season five" refit that surfaced is sometimes called the "columbia refit."

 

[Gary Miles]

I actually was responding to Tasha's remark about a TOS-era Miranda.

 

Though I've always liked Drexler's NX-refit a lot.

[Tasha]

You both are right. I like the speculative Season 5 Refit, which was talked about in one of the Enterprise Novels.

I couldn't find a good TOS looking Miranda Class. Thanks for the nice looking render.

 

In the TOS days (pre movie Trek) there was an idea that early Human Federation ships weren't all saucer shaped. With them being more square looking. Starting in one of those blocky ships with Armor and no shields would be very interesting to me.

[Vondy]

Talk about studio meddling: Moore and Braga wanted Season 1 of Enterprise to occur on Earth with the NX-01 heading to the stars in the season finale. They wanted to focus more on United Earth, its internal politics, human-vulcan relations, and building the characters. They also wanted to avoid episodic stories for the most part and focus on building to the Romulan War and UFP (which they managed to do some of in season four). In other words, it would have boldly stayed until the first season finale, but would have built a solid foundation for major story arcs.

[BlueCloud2k2]

I have not seen Enterprise, but based on that description I can see why they vetoed that plan altogether.

 

IMO A better plan would have been to have season 1 be the "shakedown" cruises (let's see what prototype technology breaks this episode and how much ductape and bailing wire (or chewing gum and tribbles) is it going to take to repair) and then while the ship in is the shop have episodes "laying the foundation for major story arcs"

 

Though I think it'd have been hilarious if they did use duct tape to fix something.

 

Or they could have released some graphic novels leading up to Season 1.

 

Just saying.

[Vondy]

I have not seen Enterprise, but based on that description I can see why they vetoed that plan altogether.

 

IMO A better plan would have been to have season 1 be the "shakedown" cruises (let's see what prototype technology breaks this episode and how much ductape and bailing wire (or chewing gum and tribbles) is it going to take to repair) and then while the ship in is the shop have episodes "laying the foundation for major story arcs"

 

Though I think it'd have been hilarious if they did use duct tape to fix something.

 

Or they could have released some graphic novels leading up to Season 1.

 

Just saying.

 

Its a question of subjective tastes, IMO. Done well it could have been an awesome way to begin. Done badly, well, it would have been an even bigger disaster. I think DS9 proved Trek didn't have to be episodic ship in space stories out of the gate -- though you do want ship in space stories. On the other hand, alien planet of the week stories don't do a lot for me. They should be leaven rather than the main dish.

 

In a world of popular slow-burn and arc-driven storytelling I think there is room for a different kind of Trek story to be told. In fact, Enterprise's 2-3 episode story arcs like the Klingon, Augment, Andorian, and Vulcan arcs were some of the best Trek done, IMO. And, the episodes that focused on setting up the formation of the Coalition of Planets and Earth-Romulan War were the ones that demonstrated the show had potential and was starting to get some traction and direction.

 

 What's more, the episodes where they explored the events prior to Enterprise (First Flight, Shuttlepod One, etc) were the ones that really established the characters and provided some complexity. Now, with that said, I don't think a whole season would have worked -- its just too darned long. But, the first half of the season before the holiday break with the Enterprise launching just in time for Christmas would have worked. Esp. if the second half of the season could have gotten down to the business of those developmental arcs and macro-plot set ups.

[Tasha]

Problem was that I stopped watching after half way though season 1 (I am sure that I am not the only one who did so). I didn't care for Scott Bakula's Archer. He just didn't seem to have any charisma and leadership (which was why the Mirror Universe Eps were so wonderful when we saw him get eaten alive by the universe).

 

The whole series was bad decisions by both the Producers and the Studio. All of the extra crap just turned me off. I started watching again in the middle of the crappy zindi thingie and got bored again. Then there was T'pol and Trip's kid. I just seemed like no one could get the Star Trek spark right. That thing that made TOS and the TOS movies so fun to watch. Enterprise just seemed devoid of anything that I could care about.