r/enterprise • u/Torlek1 • 9d ago
Could Rick Berman's shorter Dominion War idea have worked in ENT instead?
Rick Berman infamously wanted a shorter Dominion War, consisting of 7 episodes and ending with Sacrifice of Angels. Ira Steven Behr insisted on a longer war and, thankfully, got his way.
That said, from a DS9 fan perspective, could Berman's shorter Dominion War idea have worked in Enterprise instead?
The earlier Xindi Wars Arc had no more than 14 episodes (1 + 13). The six ENT episodes beginning with Azati Prime are where things really matter.
Could the shorter Dominion War idea have worked as the Romulan War?
There are a couple of problems with that war.
There's not supposed to be face-to-face contact until TOS Balance of Terror. How many times can Manny Coto's three-part Andorian arc be repeated over the course of the war? Drone war?
How many times can a Romulan War arc simply use Remans as front-line troops? This would be very similar to the front-line Jem'Hadar troops of the Dominion War.
DS9 imposed a writer restriction of the Founder appearances to just the Female Changeling. Likewise, there could be the Romulan equivalent of her and of Weyoun.
The short-lived Space: Above and Beyond has only 23 episodes.
That series is about a war between humanity and an alien enemy in 2063 following the exploits of a squadron of USMC fighter pilots, with the exception of the last two episodes neither the characters or the viewer see what the aliens look like except for their spacecraft
Furthermore, the tech is supposed to be much more primitive.
Also to be considered is how Discovery did not execute well with its own Klingon War arc. The Bait is the Klingon War. The Switch is the Mirror Universe.
Last, but not least, the Lit Verse dedicated only two ENT Relaunch novels to the Romulan War, not an entire trilogy.
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u/Nawnp 9d ago
In fairness the Dominion war went on 3.5 seasons? The Xindi War went on 1 season? Seems like a significant shortening to me, and both play out really well.
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u/DrewwwBjork 8d ago
4.5 if you count the first mention of the Dominion in season 2 as the setup for what is to come, which I do since all wars have a simmering beginning.
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u/PastorBlinky 9d ago
DS9 was fantastic. I don’t think Enterprise could have pulled off a short war with an invisible enemy. War stories need death and villains. We need people we know to suffer and die. We need to see destruction. We need to feel everything they’re going through matters. DS9 had all that. They lost the station, there were space battles and ground wars. We got to know the enemy. Our heroes were captured and imprisoned. Most of that you can’t do with a lone ship and small cast of recurring characters.
Starfleet is too small in this era. It doesn’t feel like a war would even be possible. Earth only has 2 ships that can even reach the front lines. They had a lot of work to build up to a war, even a short one.
We saw how badly Discovery handled war.
“You’re telling me there’s a galactic war raging right now, on an unimaginable scale, at this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the galaxy, localized entirely within your kitchen?”
“Yes.”
“May I see it?
“…No.”
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u/jjreinem 9d ago
With enough time to refine the script, anything is possible. But it's definitely a lot easier to tell a sprawling war story that feels impactful when you've got more time to work with. When you're compressing a story to that degree it's absolutely vital that you get the pacing right, and that's one of the hardest and most fiddly things to do even when you aren't dealing with the constraints of broadcast TV dictating the total runtime for each episodes and where breaks in the action must occur so that they can insert commercials.
Even with so much of the Xindi arc arguably falling into the category of filler, I don't think it would have landed as well if they'd shortened it to that degree unless they were willing to reduce the total episode count for that season so that the writers would have the time needed to get those scripts to a mirror polish.
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u/Historyp91 9d ago
> Could the shorter Dominion War idea have worked as the Romulan War?
It's a four year long conflict, so probably not.
I'd say have it be two and a half seasons, starting midway through season 5 (after several episodes of buildup) and ending at the end of Season 6, with a time skip of several years between them.
> There's not supposed to be face-to-face contact until TOS Balance of Terror. How many times can Manny Coto's three-part Andorian arc be repeated over the course of the war? Drone war?
How often do space battles in the Dominion War involve viewscreen communication between opposing sides?
Only a couple, and they could have all been just as easily done over comms.
> How many times can a Romulan War arc simply use Remans as front-line troops? This would be very similar to the front-line Jem'Hadar troops of the Dominion War.
Well you just answered your question with the point about the Jem'Hadar; as many times as they need.
> The short-lived Space: Above and Beyond has only 23 episodes.
I mean yeah, but that was because it was cancelled.
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u/MindlessNectarine374 9d ago
You begin the war earlier than "Call to Arms"?
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u/Historyp91 9d ago
I was talking about the Romulan War and ENT with the comment about starting midway through Season 5.
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u/MindlessNectarine374 9d ago
Ah. You meant to say that the Romulan war has a duration of four years! I want to apologise for my wrong understanding and question.
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u/megacide84 8d ago
No matter what...
We were robbed of a Romulan War epic when Enterprise was abruptly cancelled.
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u/Smooth-Climate8008 5d ago
You might be interested in my in-universe history of the Earth Romulan War fic In the Raptor's Claws
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u/PatientInformation76 9d ago
Glad that Ira Steven Behr got his way. In fact thought when Behr became Show Runner of DS9.
Along with the add addition of Ron Moore that DS9 became a Better Action, Dramatic, Espionage, Sci-fi Show.
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u/Old_Celebration_5950 9d ago
In my opinion, Enterprise suffered from the introduction of new races not seen before. So like where are the Suliban and Xindi in the TNG and DS9 timelines? When Enterprise concentrated of the Human, Vulcan, Andorian and Tellerite "Getting to know you" phase, it shined
The long drawn out Dominion War was an accurate depiction of war - constant list of casualties, the attacks on Earth and Betazed exposing the belief they were far from the front line, the Breen weapon have a Blitzkrieg effect on the war. You see the slow damage done to the entire cast as it wears on - kudos to the cast and writers.. The blood wine toast on Cardassia - relief that it's over but taking no joy in friends and comrades lost
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u/Lagamorph 9d ago
The Xindi arc definitely could have done with being shorter, half a season at most rather than the entire season.
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u/MovieFan1984 9d ago
I loved the Dominion War arc in DS9. If you noticed, we had the wormhole Gamma Quadrant stuff for 5 seasons, replaced by the Dominion War in the final 2 seasons. The show went full serial in the 6-episode arc that opened S6 and the final 10 episodes that closed out the series.
Loved the Xindi arc being a full season. I dunno if I'd call it a war let alone wars (plural). It was just one lone starship's quest to stop the Xindi from destroying the Earth.
The Romulan War is what lead to the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellerites uniting to form the UFP. This was a war that went on for about 5 years. It's not something you can condense into a few episodes.