First, read this. Some new interesting stuff there, including the present day reverse repercussions of Archer's temporal yoink into the future. But most fascinating to me is this:
"Starfleet and the Vulcans become agitated when the Enterprise is three days overdue for its first return to Earth. "
At this point in the series, the Pre-E will have been in space for about a year. Having them back home in a year's time makes sense, given how much unexplored space there is out there. It also fits in with my suggestion that the Enterprise was planned to do a loop out from Earth, come back, and then do another loop out in a different direction. However, it will not fit in very well with the time-distance factor, since in "Two Days and Two Nights" they were out - what, 80 ly? At warp 5, you can't do that in a couple months. They could do that in a year, which is what I was assuming. There goes another attempt at rationalizing the warp scale...
Still, I'm glad they *are* going back home. While Star Trek series have traditionally not been Earth-centered, having a base to go back to is something of a relief in this series where space travel is stillrelatively primitive. The notion that they could have easily run back home in the early first-season episodes was an interesting concept. Also, various staff on the show have said that they may do some stories in and around the solar system, giving us a glimpse at how Earth and the other planets were at the time, and how they're developping as time goes by. For example, if the Warp 3 engine became commercially available ("Fortunate Son"), it'd revolutionize the current Earth-based interstellar trade industry. I really hope they show us something about that.
Mark
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Personally, I thought they were going outward in a spiral...
Posted by Tahna Los (Member # 33) on :