Was Star Trek: Enterprise's Temporal Cold War a Waste of Time?

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▶Chapters
0:00 - Intro
03:29 - "Carpenter Street"
08:39 - "Storm Front"
18:43 - Was It Worth It?
25:38 - The Future Calling

[@BritneyLaZonga]

The Future Guy is basically just a stand in for the studio execs meddling with the story...

[@adrianvanleeuwen]

Best answer yet!!

[@ironinquisitor3656]

Lol.

[@ravenRedwake]

“And make her clothes tighter, and add more ‘decontaminating gel’ scenes”

[@RedEyed2012]

{Slaps head} Why didn't I see that?

[@moon_yeka]

Honestly never thought of it that way, but you're spot-on

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

Obviously, Daniels needed Archer to go back to 2004 in "Carpenter Street" because he's so good at striving to put right what once went wrong.

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

Didn't this video have enough Quantum Leap references already?

[@johnbockelie3899]

Enterprise/ Quantum leap crossover.

[@benjiskyler7836]

And Al Calavicci's role is to run an allegory to the Japanese internment camps and interrogate Sam, I mean Captain Archer, about his previous encounters with the Suliban. Ziggy says there's a 100 percent chance the temporal cold war was a waste of time.

[@OldJerzyDevil]

Loved how Steve slipped that in! All the Quantum Leap references were Mint! But Nazi's in the White House too soon.. Pure Gold!

[@shibolinemress8913]

Oh, boy...

[@James_Tn]

Enterprise is invaluable for giving us Shran. More Andorian episodes would have been better

[@jessewoellhof6843]

Is it the same actor as Weyoun in ds9?

[@tomaspabon2484]

The literal only saving grace of enterprise. That and scott bakula, he's always a win

[@cammclean5460]

What I love about enterprise is that Steve's jokey abridged recaping of conversations is literally how most of the dialogue sounds in the show

[@danielmccullough2107]

Given that Brannon Braga revealed in 2012 that Future Guy was supposed to have been a future version of Johnathan Archer kept alive by Suliban genetics, I would be very interested to know what the original resolution of this story arc was intended to be.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Archer pulling the mask off Future Guy demanding to know Who Is Number 1, finding out that it's himself, and a closing involving travelling down a motorway in a truck to Dry Bones?

[@WFierce]

Something, something, all-Bakula fist-fight.

[@mackinator]

Discovering he was future guy would lead him down the path of becoming future guy, heh.

[@boriszakharin3189]

If that's true then it must have been scrapped before season 3 started because that's when "These are the Voyages" was written as the "perfect" series finale for any situation the show finds itself in when it's canceled (or so the rumors go).

[@BattlestarZenobia]

I was under the impression Bragg was joking

[@jbz4788]

I think the whole temporal cold war thing could’ve been an interesting thing if it had actually been put in with an actual plan on where it was going. Or maybe if Archer and crew never knew it was happening at all and their contributions to it entirely caused by Daniels nudging the crew in the right directions to clean the mess up. As for future guy’s wanting Vosk’s time travel tech I think we’re supposed to come to the conclusion that while he could use any of the known time travel methods if he wanted that would be like sending up a flare to the temporal agents compared to his whole “time skype” thing.

[@OldJerzyDevil]

Temporal Stealth Technology! 👍

[@mrbojangles8133]

didn't Archer believe Daniels a bit to quickly?

[@Raye938]

Every time I see neck pinches I think it would have been an excellent rebuttal in Measure of a Man to Data's "Off Switch." I imagine him walking up to Riker and saying "What opposing council neglected to take into consideration is that he too has an off switch" *pinch* Or better yet, just walk up and do it without a word. "I rest my case"

[@Talisguy]

"Was the Temporal Cold War a good idea, or a waste of time?" I think it was both. An idea with a ton of potential that was doomed to failure. It doesn't matter how interesting an idea could be: if you force that idea on writers who hadn't planned for it, don't want it and are only writing about it because they have to, then it's not going to reach its full potential. Especially given that it's an arc plot (and arc plots require careful thought and advance planning) based around political intrigue and time travel, two story elements that you absolutely cannot afford to make up as you go along. You can even see it in the severely inconsistent time travel mechanics: depending on the story, changes in the past either take time to ripple effect their way through history to affect the future, or they're completely instantaneous. Unless you're writing for Doctor Who, where the "no fucks given" approach to continuity, time travel and science has been part of the show's charm since the sixties, or you're writing a comedy, you need your time travel to follow at least *some* kind of rules to maintain audience interest. The fact that there are clearly no rules really shows how much of an afterthought this all was.

[@sunyavadin]

Star Trek Online ended up taking the Temporal Cold War storyline to great places, that I think probably justify its existence in Enterprise alone, by having it kick off as a result of events you interact directly with in the game's plot, in a seemingly unrelated storyline from an earlier season of the game where you accidentally erase the soon-to-be main antagonist's wife's species from history with Annorax's temporal weapon, in order to undo a mistake that let the Borg conquer Romulan space. Well worth playing.

[@ZoeMalDoran]

Well that saves me the trouble of telling Steve ;)

[@caml1720]

everything i hear about the stories in STO make me want to play it. is the gameplay any good?

[@a.morphous66]

@@caml1720 It’s actually pretty fun earlier on. However, in the later levels, the enemies so are much more powerful you are unless you commit to ridiculous levels of grinding or just spend money that it becomes an extremely frustrating experience at times. Still, it’s free, so there’s really no harm in trying it out

[@rohenthar8449]

@@a.morphous66 Yes and no. You can still get free stuff but only to T6 level, the only thing that you need to pay for is Legendary series and in my opinion this is what is killing the fun and the game today. I have Legendary dreadnought or Galxy-X but some skins and perks are unavailable until you get Legendary Galaxy or Legendary 10th year anniversary bundle which are very expensive..., not to mention that you can't get them via exchange. Also the Legendary series is vastly superior to even Lock box/Lobbi series ships. I do have some of them, and they are no match for Legendary series at all be in terms of consoles, stations or even perks/traits available for them.

[@GSBarlev]

I want a Temporal Cold War "Long Trek" directed by Chris Nolan or The Daniels. Make it so disorienting and confusing that you need a PhD in Applied Mathematics to untangle the plotlines across the various timelines. Then we can put this whole timey-wimey nonsense to rest. Which is one of the things _I love most_ about Discovery S03-04-that time travel is *completely* off the table.

[@Purple_Lilith]

The plan was that the Future Guy was Archer. I'm still not sure how Berman and Braga were planning to have that reveal in the show and it making sense.

[@Bastian227]

(big reveal) And he would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!

[@benjiskyler7836]

Ooooohhhhh, boy!

[@SuspiciousKoala]

Honestly, I liked that idea more than how Star Trek Online handled it...

[@WFierce]

It's Berman and Braga. I don't think it making sense was very high on their list of priorities.

[@toronaldaris]

This is where the "Federation" and the "Terran Empire" Diverge. The Alternate reality becomes an Alternate reality instead of actuality. Nailed it.

[@Seanginty1]

Time travel, like magic, just introduces so many problems if there aren't some consistent rules set down. At worst it becomes a Deus ex machina generator-like in Doctor Who. It also raises so many difficult problems. How do you establish any stakes if one side can just go back and undo anything the other side does? It also begs the question of why don't rogue elements bring back future tech to sell on the black market?

[@nathanieldaiken1064]

In Dr. Who, you cannot keep recrossing your own timeline! It'll f up the timeline...😝

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@nathanieldaiken1064 which is why he conveniently comes to Earth in the present day lol

[@TangomanX2008]

They actually had an episode like his in TNG. I think it involves some guy from 22nd century New Jersey that got a hold of future starlfleet shuttle with the capacity of time travel that used it to steal stuff from his future to sell back to his 22nd time. Pretending to be some kind of Archaeologist (if I remember correctly) traveled to the 24tj century and tried to steal stuff from the Enterprise, including LT Data, but he was outsmarted by Data and they arrested him.

[@SapphWolf]

Truthfully I don't really understand what the executives were thinking. It's a show, whose ultimate premise is "The founding of the Federation." Trek fans will turn up for that. That's all the show had to do, was tell a compelling narrative involving Archer initially meeting and eventually befriending representatives from all of the founding members of the Federation. Probably have Archer bring them together to collectively kick the crap out of the Klingons or something like that to show them that they are stronger united than they ever were alone. Then the final episode is the signing of the Federation Charter. If only the whole show was like season 4.

[@idontknowyou6319]

So, so, so agree. They could of just done TNG ST for a bit but emphasising the difference between early earth explorers compared to experienced federation explorers, with the overall arc covering Vulcan/Andorian/Tellerite tensions leading to the Romulan war - *maybe* then some kind of brief time travel arc (done well) - maybe get S31 involved (maybe they have been using future knowledge to help “protect” the federation). I wanted to see all trials they all must have faced to build a brand new, practically human led, Galactic superpower.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Totally. Although the enemy in question would probably be the Romulans.

[@nathanieldaiken1064]

Amen!

[@Relius70]

I remember even from the very beginning thinking, "Ah, this is how they're going to try to manufacture the 'stakes' for the show, since it's a prequel and we know how history will unfold".

[@grifonecoronato]

Archer: "I thought this was your job??" Daniels: Yeah but getting authorization for this takes FOREVER, ugh!" Archer: "..." Archer: "..." Archer: "..." Archer: "You have a TIME MACHINE!!! Who the hell cares how long the authorizations take??"

[@NotThatSarahLevy]

I enjoyed the idea that Future Man is an older Archer; it's a shame they never actually did that.

[@Quivex1]

I've always liked the idea, but have never been able to head canon a way that gives a satisfactory explanation as to how and why. I obviously would have loved to see what the writers could have come up with, but even if that was the plan it seems like it would have been a difficult task to bring it all together in a conclusive way that made sense. Either way, it's hard to imagine it wouldn't have been better than what we got, even if it wasn't perfect.

[@andrewmurray1550]

why they could have done a true crossover the future man is Sam Beckett in Archer's body. Perfect match since the are the "same person" :).

[@Otokichi786]

The Jedi consider Death to be a quaint concept.

[@wolfiebassache4146]

Prequels always sounds like a good idea but for one reason or another most of them, if not all (and I don't want to go off on a tangent about this), never seem to pan out. However having said all that I've often felt that if Enterprise had been produced when they were working on Voyager, then the spirit of Voyager's exploration coupled with the prequel idea of Enterprise would have led to a far better show. Definitely achieving seven series status. Although what would have become of Voyager is anybody's guess... At least the Borg would still be scary.

[@Bastian227]

Enterprise felt like "just another Star Trek" to me, almost from the beginning. The iconic technology of Star Trek was immediately introduced into the show. I would have loved to see stories about WHY phasers were created; the Enterprise crew have been running around with standard guns. Maybe they can't use electric tasers because there's no telling if it's lethal to an alien. How about an entire season or two where everyone is afraid of the transporter, and even an emergency didn't justify its use? How about episodes where they show shield technology being researched, useful in limited applications, but it never quite gets to the point of shielding an entire ship. Warp speeds could have been slower, or had minor time dilation effects still happening. It felt like a familiar technology was introduced, it worked almost flawlessly, and everyone got used to it almost immediately.

[@aaronsugar7228]

I wanted to see the development of shield technology. My head canon is that Trip had a lot to do with taking existing shield technology (from the Andorians) and tweaking it to the point where "Starfleet shields" became a major breakthrough in technology.

[@mystic-malevolence]

If they were going to use transporters, they could have at least included a case of transporter psychosis.

[@Stephen-Fox]

I'm still amused by the fact the stated justification for doing a prequel rather than literally anything else was that Trek had become too reliant on technobabble (Which... Fair, it had), and somehow Enterprise was worse for technobabble than Voyager. Almost as if the problem leading to an obsession with technobabble wasn't the time period but the writing philosophy being employed, or something. And since this wasn't an issue on DS9 but was starting to creep in towards the end of TNG and really became a major one during Voyager... Maybe the issue is the folk at the top that TNG and Voyager had in common but was a step or two removed from DS9? Meanwhile, if you wanted to do a _different_ Star Trek series at that point, there were a billion ways of doing so. Off the top of my head - Set it on a foundational Federation colony rather than a space ship or space station; put it on one of those medical ships the final episode of TNG depicted would become a thing and make the show mainly about figuring out medical mysteries; put it on a Klingon or Romulan ship, or if that's too drastic, a Star Fleet ship that isn't majority human; make it a Section 31 show; put it far enough into the future that you can use one of the time ships Voyager occasionally interacted with and make it primarily a time travel show; make it a sit-com set at Star Fleet Academy... Enterprise, to me, felt like 'Same old Trek that's been the premier form of Trek for the past 14 years between TNG and Voyager, but with a submarine aesthetics, occasional tension depicted between humans and Vulcans, and a few different sci-fi sounding terms for the same stuff'

[@alanpennie8013]

I seem to remember they had episodes about transporter malfunctions, but I guess every iteration had those.

[@maximeteppe7627]

I've never watched enterprise, but I've seen first contact, and a welll constructed show exploring the transition from the first faster than light flight and first contact with the vulcans towards the TOS status quo sounds like a blast - but that requires a focus and dedication to an evolving status quo - something beyond even DS9.

[@alexweigelhikes]

The series was doomed as soon as they showed up in Detroit. Everyone knows that in Star Trek, all historically important events happen in San Francisco. It's a rule. Steve even said so.

[@cashflodigitalsportsnetwork]

Detroit has more hookers… 💃🏽🕺🏾🤷🏾‍♂️

[@TheAnalyticalEngine]

Enterprise could have still had its "obligatory Trek time travel episodes" without the temporal cold war being involved at all Meanwhile, a "Time Cop, but this time it's Star Trek" series could have been interesting in and of itself

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

Of all the "could've, should've, would've," moments in Trek, the Temporal Cold War was the biggest missed opportunity. Could've been interesting. Should've been great.

[@johnbockelie3899]

When all storylines fail, time travel always fills the void.

[@Onodera1980]

Highly unlikely; time travel is a terrible storytelling technique. It is almost always done poorly, leading to potholes galore.

[@johnbockelie3899]

All this time travel stuff only effect was to give Captain Kirk's crew that swinging 60's look. That's why TOS has that 60's look. Every other Trek does not have that " look".

[@TheDunbartxeen]

Year of hell from Voyager makes my number one Spot. Could be a whole season or at least a good multi episode arc

[@nathanieldaiken1064]

To quote Janeway, "Time travel always gives me headaches!"

[@floriangunzer6244]

I myself liked Enterprise almost from the get go back in the day. I liked the "retro" Star Trek style and the actors and how they portrayed their characters. Also I have to admit I kinda liked the Trip/T'Pol dynamic as cheesy as it was at times. Hopeless romantic here with a thing for star crossed lovers. Keep up the good work, Steve.

[@johnchedsey1306]

Trip & T'Pol are the best things about that show, cheesy or not! I agree with you completely on this point!

[@epicurius1]

Didn't they feel the need to tie tie the whole third season/Xindi war thing into the Temporal Cold War? They said it happened because the Spherebuilders, who were aliens from the future that...built spheres convinced the Xindi to worship them as gods and wipe out earth so they could stop the Federation from forming, or something?

[@alanpennie8013]

Is the Star Trek: Discovery Sphere supposed to be a Spherebuilder artefact?

[@bloodink9508]

@@alanpennie8013 pretty sure it is not.

[@johngingras]

Great video, Steve. You make a great point and put into words what always nagged at me about Enterprise. It's best episodes were when it was set firmly in its own time showing this novice crew from Earth taking their first steps into a wider galaxy, and the temporal cold war really felt out of place and contradictory to that.

[@johnchedsey1306]

I've grown to generally really like Enterprise over time, but yeah, the Temporal Nonsense was some of their weakest material. In fact, ending the Xindi season with the Nazi cliffhanger ranks as one of the most annoying season enders I can think of. They needed to do a cathartic, emotional character driven episode like Picard & Family after the Borg invasion. I will say Carpenter street is saved by the actor who plays Loomis. I can't think of his name at the moment, but he's outstanding. I loved him as the psychopathic hologram on that Voyager episode.

[@TheLittleMako]

When I watched ENT for the first time I was a bit surprised to hear an early side character say "Everyone knows the suliban get their orders from the future". Normally that sort of thing would be some sort of grand conspiracy. The idea of a faction/nation in a sci fi show being open and obvious agents of a temporal manipulator sounds like it could be really interesting. Just... not this sci fi show, I guess.

[@sarahscott5305]

Enterprise is, for my money, the best Star Trek series (after DS9 of course) and I am also the one person alive who liked the Temporal Cold War. They didn't do too good a job paying off the idea most of the time, though.

[@observerdude9809]

I think they're arguably the best. Deep Space Nine and enterprise are the darkest of the star trek shows

[@marsbitrona5920]

I knew I wasn’t the only one! I only needed one person to share my opinion to feel completely vindicated.

[@Quivex1]

Don't worry, you're not entirely alone haha. I enjoyed it as well, but agree with Steve (and the general consensus) that the pay off was extremely disappointing. In fact I would argue people that weren't invested in it probably cared less than we did since they didn't care as much about how it would be resolved. Regardless, season 3 still gave us the Xindi arc which did have a good conclusion and was one of the best seasons in all of Trek imo so there's that at least.

[@johnchedsey1306]

It is a shame they didn't get at least two more seasons to really establish itself. Season 4 definitely had some great material and it felt like they finally figured out the show when it got cancelled.

[@Donnagata1409]

Not quite the only one... 🙋🏻

[@ArgonTheAware]

It had the effect of showing the indisputable conclusion that time travel was a reality and proving it to T'Pol in direct contradiction to the Vulcan Science Academy, so taking them down a peg and showing them to be fallible despite their smug superiority was worth it! After all, what could be better than that?

[@charleschamp9826]

The slingshot around a star method from Star Trek IV: Save the Whales apparently isn't too good if you care about supplementary sources, books, comics, reference guides, etc, that kind of thing. If you remember after pulling it off the crew was knocked out for a while. Apparently the further you travel back the longer you're knocked out due to temporal technobabble. Go back far enough and you'd starve to death before the technobabble allowed you to wake up.

[@TheDarthEddie]

In my head canon Future Guy was a Romulan from the 28th century trying to change his world's history with humans, the Federation and other powers and change how the political balance of the mid-22nd century shook out and let the Romulans come out ahead of Earth, the Klingons and other species. Even more tragic now that we know of Romulus' fate after the 2009 movie.

[@Jennifer_Elliott]

Love these commissioned videos & excited to hear there are more to come throughout the year.

[@PhilDonaldson]

The Temporal Cold War - like Enterprise's final episode - feels like a cheat. We're kept from seeing the true grit, wit and sagacity of the crew forging their way through The First Mission. Instead, we see them with temporal training wheels on. Steve, I love your asides, especially for the "Storm Front" episode. 🤣

[@kerishannon775]

Star Trek Enterprise was my favorite of all the Star Trek franchises. It answered a lot of questions about the Vulcans and how the mind meld evolved. And it brought in the Andorians to a more real level. And it was a more human level of Enterprise than the "Gods in Space" level of TNG. I found the Temporal Cold war intriguing . It brought about thought exercises about paradoxes.

[@theevilascotcompany9255]

Time travel stories in Star Trek need to be handled with care, because conceivably you shouldn't need a top-of-line starship just to act as a glorified time machine, thereby invalidating the very premise of the show. To base entire seasons to a time travel storyline is folly (will watch the new Picard with an open mind, but with my skepticism intact).

[@mgscheue]

And whenever anything goes wrong, why not just fly around the Sun or whatever and go back in time and fix it? I think it was a big mistake introducing time travel, into the past, into the franchise.

[@marsbitrona5920]

Temporal Cold War may have fizzled out in the end, but it led to a number of really cool episodes. Shockwave and Future Tense stand out as memorable time travel stories. And frankly, it was all worth it for the Enterprise-J scene in Azati Prime. It even ended up being an important piece of backstory in season 3 of Discovery.

[@TangomanX2008]

They should write a new song "Temporal War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

[@cometquest8510]

Hi steve I really love all the trek content you do and whenever the latest einsigns log podcast drops it's the highlight of my week! I was wondering if at somepoint you could give us a breakdown/ interview with Jason harding about how you produce the einsigns log, like how you come up with ideas for your story that sort of thing

[@ClockworkBard]

It's kind of like the temporal cold war wanted to be Deep Space Nine's emissary metaplot, except without the meaningful character development, relatable themes and contemplative nuance. But it was a metaplot, and nobody can take that away from them.

[@Kae6502]

What the mysterious character at the end of your video has yet to reveal, is that Ford's Theatre in the altered timeline is named "DeLorean's Theater"

[@brianschwartz7937]

Great video! One small gripe though......when Captain Archer/Sam Beckett wakes up in 1944 and sees Alicia, you missed a golden opportunity to drop an "Ohh, boy!" in there.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

The temporal cold war COULD have possibly been interesting, if they had actually done something with it. But they never did, it was just kinda there. And I don't know what kind of drugs the person that came up with Daniels's "uniform" or whatever that Venom-looking monstrosity was, but it must've been good.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

The problem was that it was introduced before it was planned out what it was actually supposed to be about. Compare that to the Babylon 4 subplot from Babylon 5 that worked out as well as a time travel story can possibly work.

[@nacoran]

It's been a while since I watched Enterprise, but other than the T'Pol and Tucker love story I only remember the Temporal Cold War theme. (As a harmonica playing, pecan pie lover I always liked Trip's character).

[@nathanieldaiken1064]

The Tripp/T'pol thing was great! That her mom sorta approved (on the sly!) was a bonus!

[@matthewtopping2061]

Personally I think Star Trek is at its best when it stays as far away from time travel/time loop plots as possible.

[@theevilascotcompany9255]

It's a problem with the franchise: it's Star Trek, not Time Trek. A show about an advanced starship exploring space should be about EXPLORING SPACE, and not just going back and forth in time, which is what a Tardis or DeLorean is for. That stated, it becomes a contradiction in terms when you think about how many wonderful Star Trek stories have involved time travel (First Contact, The Voyage Home, City on the Edge of Forever, the first J.J. Abrams movie).

[@johnbockelie3899]

Future guy is just a studio head who's in control of the whole show, and it's ratings. He has the power to hire and fire.

[@JosephKano]

Trials and Tribulations was a good one.

[@matthewtopping2061]

@@theevilascotcompany9255 Lol, I challenge your assertion that First Contact is a "wonderful Star Trek story". Give it another watch when you have time. Geordie fanboying at Zefram Cochrane with "AND IN THE FUTURE, there's a museum named after you, AND IN THE FUTURE...." is one of the most cringe and irritating scenes in the franchise. There are compelling time travel stories out there, but I think Trek regularly misses the mark.

[@MusikCassette]

I think the temporal cold war was an Idea, that had potential. But you are right that it did not go anywhere. And it distracted from Interesting stuff. In an alternate reality Enterprise had the time to tell a good temporal cold war story and to actually tell the story of the founding of the Föderation.

[@MusikCassette]

also first ^^

[@BleydTorvall]

I rather like the idea of a time traveler getting killed, and then younger versions of himself showing up later on. The implications being that he would know that he was interacting with the people who killed/are going to kill him, and that he must have known he was going to be killed when he traveled to the point at which he did die. Just think of the psychology of such a scenario.

[@michaelramon2411]

The movie "Tenet" has some of that, though it's not a central focus.

[@Zurvan1947]

"Archer gives the virus to Dr Phlox who will probably think its neat"......my favorite line this whole video. 😁

[@Krunnky]

Enterprise is such so frustrating. It showed signs of greatness at times and then it would just randomly veer off in the most dumb directions.

[@rosswieloch1115]

Best thing to come out of the Temporal Cold War was the moment when Reed and Tucker and investigating a small ship from the future. Open a hatch in the floor and drop a wrench and it falls for several seconds. "Malcolm, how can this thing be bigger on the inside?" Any Doctor Who fan watching got a big laugh.

[@autarchprinceps]

Future guy may be able to go back in time, but only in such a manner easily detected, circumvented and punished for by the temporal agents. His "time skype" may just be, as the Na'kuhl's actual time travel one, a less obvious means. I mean Daniel knows about the Suliban, but apparently cannot stop the interference at the source either, probably exactly because nobody knows who he is. I do agree that it should have focused more on the earlier levels of tech. I was rather disappointed when they got photon torpedos or phasers, because it breaks that concept too. While some old technologies from the original series are outdated by modern tech, these were random technobable elements, that could have easily stayed replaced with there less advanced counterparts to keep up the "before the federation" framework.

[@JDEhlert]

Considering this, my only thought about the time travel stuff was that if they had to include it, for myself, I would've shown hints of time-travel or temporal anomalies, but no actual signular person or group dealing with time travel as a cold war. Basically, take the idea of 'first-time events' into the temporal part of the franchise.

[@Niclmaki]

I'm always a fan of these "time travel gags" lol. The "where i got the hat from" is my favourite.

[@ZS-bg7jo]

I always thought this was a missed opportunity in Discovery: early exposure to the Borg, bumps in the technology thanks to the Suliban and other time travelers change the timeline. The Federation would not be the only powers affected by this and the 'Klingons' of Discovery are not Klingons, but H'urq. The technology upgrades make the spore drive possible, but based on Xindi tech and dangerous to use. Propagation of these changes forward would allow for similar but different storytelling that leaves the existing canon alone in their own timeline. So many potential storytelling options open up if they had leaned into this.

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

I like the tie in to the most reckless time traveler video. That was the icing in the cake!

[@camortie]

Nice video Steve, particularly in particular I enjoyed your quantum leap jokes and references to lord dampnut. I do think you should have included a visit from future Steve in order to wrap up that storyline in the same way that storm front wrapped up the cold war storyline. Side not, didn't watch the last few minute before I wrote that last part, my bad.

[@si7dsc]

Bro I love you… “Nudged it over to the right a bit.” Love it

[@johnpowers9058]

I didn't mind the temporal cold war. I do agree that there was not enough done with it, it did not wrap up well, and who was the mysterious alien? That being said, it helped to in cannon explain the inconsistencies between TOS and Enterprise. I know that cannon is not always a driving force for you, but there were statements made about the early days of Starfleet exploration in which there were no view screens, or transporters, etc. While never specifically stated I assumed that while evil aliens were attempting to alter the timeline with massive changes, the Starfleet of the future was countering with subtle changes in the timeline. Introducing technological achievements slightly earlier than normal. I don't disagree with what you said, but handled better it could have a major tool in the story telling box of the show.

[@jamesheartney9546]

A big thank you to Steve for doing this one. I'd remembered that "Temporal Cold War" was a thing in early Enterprise, but it was so amorphous and dull that I didn't remember how it resolved. While watching Steve's recap, I did remember seeing Stormfront, but again it was so generic that I didn't remember much about it. Probably the fact that the main villain was Xindi confused me a bit, so the fact that it ended the Temporal Cold War didn't stick with me. Enterprise, like Voyager, was very inconsistent, with good episodes mixed with forgettable ones, plus various bold-but-unsuccessful ideas (like turning T'Pol into a drug addict) sprinkled throughout. When Enterprise was cancelled, I thought it was probably for the best, and that the franchise needed to lie fallow for a few years, then be taken up again by someone other than Berman & Co. This was eventually done, with some success IMHO. Enterprise was often not well served by those in charge of it (Berman & Co. as well as the studio suits). It always seemed a bit stale, and its ending was atrocious. The franchise badly needed new blood and new vision. Thankfully it's seeming to get those.

[@kirok2011]

I would like to think that the cold war started in Voyager , starting with the Captain Braxton story line , But the execution of the story on Enterprise never paid off , the should have just reset the timeline and allow Enterprise to continue as a prequel

[@adarkerstormishere]

"Was a Temporal War a waste of time?" That's some clever wordplay right there.

[@JLWilliams51]

Although it was realised poorly I think it’s always given writers a great tool for allowing a bit of fudging and loosening the canon that allows changes to future shows. Why does the enterprise / uniforms / tech / characters look different in Disco onwards? Maybe not everything was completely reset after the temporal Cold War? These little differences are the lingering after effects.

[@djkittycat]

Yay ENT content! I hope some of those other topics are also ENT!

[@johngingras]

Also, that bit at the end killed me. 😆

[@siesonaladventures]

As a Trek fan since ST:TNG days, I wish ST:E could have finished off with one more season, season 5. The "finale" of the series at the end of Season 4 made me give that the "waste of time" award 😮

[@thelifedyslexic]

The Temporal Cold War always felt like a built in Ctrl Z for any community issues within the series. A cool idea that was wasted. That said Future Tense was the best Temporal cold War espoide in the early seasons and it did give us the Xindi arc which I enjoyed.

[@mattmelanson6246]

Eugene Tooms... That's a deep and hilarious cut.

[@lwrncschmchr]

+1 for "Eugene Tooms superpowers" old school, my dude

[@G00NTER]

what if they did a new series where admiral Archer gets tossed into the 28th century, and somehow has to orchestrate a temporal cold war to get back to his time. where he was the shadow man the whole time?

[@Stardust_7273]

In case you didn’t know, Scott Bakula was the outline of FG. James Horan was the voice.

[@OsirisMalkovich]

The greatest lesson we can learn from the start of the 21st century is "prequels are always a mistake."

[@caddan4175]

The problem is that prequels are a bit like time travel themselves. After viewing a "current" event, you're now traveling to the past to view an earlier event. Like any time travel story, you need it properly planned out to avoid paradoxes. It's not easy, but it can be rewarding if done right.

[@TheDavemarz]

I love the fact that you are so busy commissions that you can't take any more commissions. Happy to see you doing well with this.

[@BirthQuakeRecords]

17:27 Sick “Squeeze” reference 👍

[@RandallStephens397]

Thank you for the Quantum Leap jokes.

[@Mr_Top_Hat_Jones]

Most of my favorite Star Trek episodes (of any series) have been time travel related. Maybe that’s why I never had a problem with the Temporal Cold War. In fact, I enjoyed the vast majority of Enterprise… except for the series finale. That shit was garbage.

[@TheKitsuneCavalier]

" . . . and they have a plan."--Battlestar Galactica I love the ending of this video Steve!! : D

[@NostalgiaBrit]

Dunno about anyone else, but for me the episode _'Carpenter Street'_ felt a lot like something out of the _'Time Trax'_ series. Also, re. the ending of this video: *_Best. Ending. Ever._* 😄😂🤣

[@johndittmer8488]

ST: Enterprise had a lot of wasted potential. It should have been more focused on those events and relationships that lead to the creation of the Federation.

[@nickjeffery536]

Are the "Sphere builders" the same ones that built the sphere that Discovery's computers now contain the data from?

[@amazedsatsuma]

There has been no evidence connecting the two

[@alanpennie8013]

I was wondering that too.

[@gronank]

I feel that star trek (and the latest star wars triology) often falls in the trap of constantly creating bigger and bigger stories. You end up with the fate of existence in the hands of the main characters. It doesn't make the main characters seem important, but it does trivialize existence. I would love to see like a Band of Brothers style Star Trek. There's big dramatic stuff going on, but in the background and the stories are about how the characters deal with it. You could center it around a rookie captain on a small vessel who is keeping up that star fleet shine while struggling with the weight of command.

[@salenstormwing]

I think they did the Temporal Cold War stuff better when it was called Quantum Leap. Scott Bakula goes through time to right things that went wrong. Plus, Al was a lot cooler than Daniels. Edit: Of course Steve makes a huge Quantum Leap joke in the middle of the video. Just my luck. Now I will have to go into the past to make sure he never makes that joke.

[@gavincassells7585]

The Temporal Cold War may have been poorly realised in Enterprise, but it's been really well used in Star Trek Online. Lots of great stories there. The graphics are dated, but the game is free (or at least the stories are), and some of the stories are definitely worth your time.

[@Cythil]

Star Trek Online generally do the storylines well. Though some might say there are a bit to much Fan service. With them trying to connect all things to stuff that happened in the shows. Still, I like it. It is the MMO I have kept playing for the longest.

[@wearwolf2500]

They mention the Temporal Cold War in Discovery even though it supposedly never happened. Which means the spore drive was more classified than a time travel conflict. The security people in charge of burying the information about the USS Discovery should have gotten metals for the job they did.

[@joshhardin666]

"that's not supposed to happen until the 21st century" - I cried.

[@christopherross8358]

I really loved Enterprise. Also, loved pretending that Quantum Leap is canon in Star Trek. ...and Scott Bakula is amazing HOT. ...it's been a long road, getting from there to here...

[@djmannik]

I love stormfront, its precisely my kind of cheese. But its just a bizarre choice to place it where they did in the series.

[@yensid4294]

His Eugene Toom power? Love the X File reference 👍

[@verbalkint5450]

Eugene Tooms reference, awesome!! haha

[@benroberts2222]

The part I found most annoying was the constant breaking of the rule to show, not tell. "Archer, you and your ship are SOOOO important that multiple factions of aliens from the future are heavily invested in disrupting your destiny!" If it's that impressive the writers could have just written those events into episodes and made the series good

[@therikerp]

Without watching your video, my opinion of the temporal Cold War was this: it needed mention in the first 2 seasons in order to make season 3 work. Season 3 was great, in my opinion. One ship and crew trying to save all of humanity.

[@geoffreyrichardson8738]

Hey we saw Stukas with laser weapons, that was cool.

[@LabyrinthMike]

I must admit, I think that the most story lines for Enterprise should have been building toward the war with Romulus and Federation building. They should not have met with Klingons in the first episode. Maybe even save that for the second season. Do not go mucking around with the Xindi. I loved intrigue of the Vulcans and the Andorians. And while I loved T'pol saying that time travel was impossible, I had always hoped we would see how Archer brought all the factions together to form the Federation.

[@adamparra3973]

Thanks for the QL references.

[@amazedsatsuma]

I completely agree that the Temporal Cold War was an albatross for early Enterprise. Maybe it could have worked if the writers developed Future Guy motivations and some of the other major players following the first season...so it would be fleshed out for the second season and so forth. Instead the Temporal Cold War was still half baked in second season, only tangentially connected to the Xindi War of the 3rd season before it was exorcise at the start of the 4th and final season.

[@Ghostie.]

Enterprise actually does have a few awesome episodes I'd love to hear your take on. Maybe one day down the line you'll give it another shot.

[@madislanddoctor]

I like to think, that there's an original TOS timeline where none of the Temporal Wars happened. Archer's first 5 year mission would have been significantly different. What we see on TV is the 2nd run thru the timeline. I would be very happy to see an on-screen version of the NX-01 crew; either in the new Strange New Worlds continuity, or with the Kelvin timeline crew.

[@bewilderedboy1]

Nice x-files deep cut with the Toomes reference

[@Northfan42]

The temporal cold war was passingly interesting texture to the main Xindi-flavoured meal that was Enterprise. The episodes that tried to make it a main feature were like people cooking tofu for the first time and omitting all possible spices. No real reason to come back for seconds.

[@Jayk129]

Awesome video Steve! Quick question though. I know commissions are closed, but regarding something you said in the recent Dr. Pulaski video, when they do open back up again, exactly how much would it cost for a video titled “How Lwaxana Troi would have made Voyager awesome” Also I loved the X-Files reference.

[@Kinkajou1015]

Prime timeline, Lincoln goes to Ford's Theater. Alternative timeline, some "goodie two shoes" with a time machine gets Lincoln to stay home and learn to make Japanese food. Upside Lincoln lives and America becomes much more open to Japanese food specifically sushi. Downside, American sentiment in World War II is sympathetic to the Japanese and the war lasts an additional ten years because nuclear weapons aren't used until Eisenhower pushes the button. Shadowman needs to make sure WWII ends when it's supposed to and not last forever because his spouse/partner is a descendant of someone that would die on the front lines of the war in 1947 if it continued.

[@JagoHazzard]

I hoped they were going to use the Temporal Cold War to do something really significant, like create the Mirror Universe or explain why the Eugenics Wars didn't happen. Or really mess with people by killing Captain Kirk's grandfather or something.

[@NimhLabs]

I thought the Eugenics Wars didn't happen because "ET Gave Us Wifi" when one of them future doods tried to pick a fight with Janeway? Or is that still listed as headcanon for the current time?

[@squee222]

Eugenics wars didn't happen cause it's not our universe.

[@KairosZenith]

Enterprise is actually one of my favorite Star Treks and Scott Bakula is one of my favorite Star Trek Captains and i wish he would have been a captain in a Star Trek movie :)

[@marcelo_27]

Just the title is enough for me to love this video