www.ditl.org

I dunno, warp 5 isn't bat out of hell fast but it's still quick enough to get you between star systems in two weeks or so, maybe two to four for inhabited systems. Constantly putting the crew down and waking them back up would seem counterproductive. Especially if they pass interesting stellar phenomena along the way. They could be conducting a lot of data analysis between stops as well.

Agreed, I don't think cryo-sleep would really be needed. Earth has few enough ships that she can afford to rotate crews.

One interesting possibility would be to have the NX-01 as the first non-sleeper ship, due to its higher speed than any other ship. We can see the crew dealing with the whole "we're stuck in a tin can floating through space" syndrome.

Is that any different then a crew of a Sub?

Not really, but it'd still be new for TV audiences.

The claustrophobic environment should've been a larger factor, for sure.

Agreed. Longer missions than previously, consumables become an issue, etc.

I think that I would make the ship look something like the Neptune Class because it makes me think of a space shuttle with nacelles. The main anti-ship weapon would be a massive foward firing laser. The other fields of fire would be covered by railguns/coilguns or some future equivalent. There would also be several types of missles available: small anti-ship missles on pop out turrets (would have to be pulled back in and manually reloaded after firing), larger anti-ship/surface missles fired from tubes much like torpedos, and a few big nukes for surface attacks or large ships launched from the spine of the ship like submarine missles. The nukes would be viewed as a last resort and provide an ethical quandry for the crew in any situation where they can be used. The ship would have very little of the technologies seen later in Star Trek.

The crew would be armed with projectile weapons based on the larger ship mounted weapons for use in ground based combat. These weapons would be "kill" only weapons. To avoid damaging the ship, shipboard combat would use futuristic tasers that would fire a miniturized barbed taser and be capable of firing multiple rounds from a clip. The taser rounds would be available in "kill" power settings and "stun" power settings. Lasers would be too big and bulky to be used as anything other than tripod based weapons.

I would make each season = ~2 years and use dialoge to establish the time between episodes.

Season 1: Establish that the ship is going on a 4 year exploration mission making a loop to end up back at earth. The ship goes out, meets new species makes some friends and enemies and occassionally trades for technology seen later in the trek universe. There should be a lot of small breakthroughs in technology during the trip. Near the end of the first season some examples of hand held laser weapons are aobtained. Season 1 ends at the halfway point of the 4 year mission.

Season 2: continues with the return mission. Same sort of stories as season 1. When enterprise reaches home, it is announced that it will undergo a major refit to incorporate the new technology discovered during the mission. Everybody is a hero and lots of promotions are expected. End with a "will the crew be broken up?" cliffhanger.

Season 3: Establish which characters remain with the ship. Establish that the human space fleet is growing rapidly as is human expansion into space. Introduce the refit enterprise, which would be a little faster and the railguns have been replaced with the new, more compact laser system, as well as improving the main laser. The hand held projectile weapons would be replaced with hand held lasers. Send the ship out on another four year mission in a different direction. Same sorts of stories as the first two seasons. Discover shield technology, but be unable to incorporate it into the ship. Near the end of the season start hearing whispers of an unnamed power nearby that might pose a threat. Many of the treaties should include mutual defense agreements. Finish season at halfway point of the mission.

Season 4: Finish return trip. Enterprise due another refit.

Season 5: Enterprise now has shields. Starts another 4 year mission, but one of the new allies from the last trip calls for help, and a human fleet is sent to their aid, beginning the earth-romulan war. The earth forces are vastly inferior in equipment, but through human stubbornness and ingenuity, and some exceptional commanders manage to slow the romulan advance. Some alien species help, but earth bears the brunt of the combat. At the end of the season, the enterprise is saved by the appearance of the Daedalus, Earth's first battleship (I would make it about twice as big as what DITL has it, and arm it to the teeth)

Season 6: Earth-Romulan War. Even with the Daedalus class, earth is still slowly losing, but forcing the romulans to take territory inch by inch. Towards the end of the season, earth starts to add more allies because of their ability to go toe to toe with the romulans, and at the end of the season, the two sides are at a stalemate.

Season 7: Earth's success has caused more planets to join their coalition and they start to push back against the romulans, there have been tremendous losses of life on both sides and by mid-season negotiations for an end to hostilities have begun to take place. The negotiations lead to the end of the war and earth turns toward getting it's coalition against the romulans to become the UFP. The series ends with the creation of the ufp, the enterprise being decommissioned, and admiral Archer on board his new Daedalus class flagship saying that some day some other ship will wear the proud name of enterprise.

I like all of it but the Earth & her allies part. I think we've covered this before but it was called the Earth-Romulan War. Other then that its not a bad setup.

Deepcrush wrote:I like all of it but the Earth & her allies part. I think we've covered this before but it was called the Earth-Romulan War. Other then that its not a bad setup.

Essentially what I have in mind, is that for the entire first half of the war, the allies of earth are extremely minor players. Kind of like if a country is going to war and deploys 100,000 troops and thier ally sends 100 troops to help. The initial support from earth's allies would be so inconsequential that it would become known as the earth-romulan war, and then towards the end earth would pick up some allies that would be able to contribute milliarily.

But thats still an alliance, not just Earth.

I don't see that as an issue. Anyone heard of the French-Indian war?
Others were involved besides the French and the Native Americans.

Um...
The French and the Indians were one side of the war in fact.

Yeah, it was called the "French and Indian War" by the colonists, because we fought against the French and the Indians.

Anyway, I do agree that the Earth-Romulan War should have been fought between, well... Earth and Romulus. But I don't mind seeing some sort of Lend-Lease or other support program between the Andorians/Vulcans and Earth.

There's a difference between that and an Alliance between powers.