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07.23.2003 Producers: Expanse Mission May Last Entire Season
The journey into the Delphic Expanse and the search for the Xindi and their alleged new weapon of mass destruction will be an ongoing multi-episode storyline that will likely define much of Enterprise's third season, according to the show's producers and lead cast.
"It's a very, very complex story we're going to be laying out that may very well last the entire season," said executive producer Rick Berman yesterday during UPN's summer press tour for the Television Critics Association. Fellow exec producer Brannon Braga also attended the press conference in Hollywood, along with Scott Bakula ("Captain Archer"), Jolene Blalock ("T'Pol") and Connor Trinneer ("Trip Tucker").
"We kind of have a master plan — it's the first time we've ever really known where a season was going," Braga said, but qualified, "This is not just going to be a season of battling with these aliens trying to destroy Earth. There are going to be twists and turns and attempts at peace and all the kinds of things that we think Star Trek viewers expect."
The highly publicized change in tone and direction for the prequel series has brought a certain amount of debate from many quarters, and the reporters in attendance raised those concerns. Among them was the issue of the apparent parallels to contemporary events, or at least the perception thereof. "What motivated this direction was really more of what seemed to work historically with Star Trek," Berman responded. "It had nothing to do with 9/11 or the recent war. We are trying to be vigilant not to make comparisons that seem unwise."
It may be ironic in light of this comment that the premiere date for Enterprise Season 3 has been set for September 10, 2003, the eve of the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks which changed the world.
The other controversy raised by reporters was the issue of declining ratings and what bearing that has had on the show's new direction. "It's no secret that our numbers fell last year more than we expected them to," Berman said. "And obviously, we, like any other responsible producers, wanted to do what we could to try to lure back some of our viewers. And what we thought about was the fact that, of the Star Trek movies, two of the most successful and popular amongst both the general box office and the fans were 'Star Trek IV' — the one about the whales — and 'Star Trek: First Contact.' They were both movies that dealt with impending destruction of the Earth, huge stakes that Enterprise and its crew had to go out and undo. So our thought was that, rather than just have a general mission of exploring space peacefully, that it might be interesting to do a portion or maybe even an entire season where we had a very specific and a very immediate and a very dangerous situation — in this case, a terrible attack on Earth, with the promise of a greater attack coming — and Enterprise having to go into an uncharted, dangerous part of space to save the day. We've never done that before. No single season of any of our Star Trek series was based around a [single] mission."
Bakula addressed his views on the show's creative needs. "Somewhere probably in the middle of last season, I started to feel that the storylines that we'd introduced in the first year-and-a-half — the Suliban, this Temporal Cold War — there were elements that we kind of left dangling. And for me, as an actor, I felt like we needed to address these things in a more earnest fashion or move on." It was during a conversation with Berman and Braga around February that he learned of the new story plans. "It seemed to me that this has followed a natural progression with this franchise, but it didn't come out of, 'Oh my God, we've got to change the show, there's something wrong with the show.' It came out of, 'Where do we want to go, where have we gotten ourselves into, and how can we move the show forward in an exciting and compelling and dramatic way?'"
"We always knew that we wanted to start this series off in baby steps and have the crew kind of dip their toes into exploration," Braga added. "But we also knew in the back of our minds that we wanted to do some major event that humanity had to deal with, with Archer and his crew being front and center and defining their place in the Star Trek history book, so to speak." He and Berman both clarified that the Suliban and the Temporal Cold War will play an integral part of the Xindi story arc later in the season. But other than that, Braga explained, there are no plans to bring Klingons or Borg or any other "familiar faces" into Season 3.
The other actors on stage were asked about new directions for their characters, in particular the "new look" for the Vulcan crew member. "T'Pol is getting a little bit of a revamping," Blalock responded. "Another wig, a little bit different, a little bit longer, a little bit cuter, a little bit more girly ... A few new suits, so I actually change clothes — because I haven't washed that brown one in the last two years!" Asked if she's going to be "a little less Vulcan," Blalock replied, "Not necessarily less Vulcan ... you're still going to get that logic — Scott likes to call it 'sucking the air out of the room.'" But, "Now it's taken on another dynamic, just because she's no longer backed by the High Command." The character will be acting from her own opinions, rather than representing her superiors, which will add "another equation to the development of the character."
Trinneer's character will have to deal with his feelings toward the aliens who killed his sister in light of his responsibility to the ship and Starfleet, a balancing act "which I don't think he necessarily does particularly well," he said. "I feel like I'm being asked to be rebirthed," Trinneer added, with the new emotional levels he's been given to play.
Asked about rumors of an Archer-T'Pol romance, Berman revealed, "I think if we see any romantic interaction between Ms. Blalock and anybody on this panel, it's probably the man sitting to her left." He was referring to Trinneer, who raised his fist high in victory, drawing laughter from the press corps.
Braga clarified, "It's a little bit early in the season to answer [the romance] question, but one thing that's beginning to evolve is, [Tucker] suffered a great emotional loss and is having trouble dealing with it. And T'Pol's character has a lot of ability controlling emotion, and they begin to form a connection with one another dealing with that, that may or may not evolve into something a little more interesting."
Bakula also spoke about new directions for his character, particularly in light of the events that took place in the last few episodes of last season. "There's a drive underneath him... There's a certain darkness to him now that's a little bit tunnelvision — which is, you know, 'Whatever it takes,'" he said. "But the idea of being the peaceful, we-come-in-friendship-from-Earth [type of captain] — that guy is gone. And it's not that a warrior has replaced him, but [someone more] determined and motivated, because there's so much at stake for his character and for Earth." He further revealed, "Some of the things I've done in the first three episodes [of Season 3] have shocked the other people on the ship, and I think that's all good."
And yes, Archer's dog is staying on Enterprise through the whole Delphic Expanse experience. "Porthos wouldn't stay at home, so, yes, Porthos is with us," Bakula said.
"He's going to talk next season," Braga joked.
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