User:Intricated/temp

Star Trek: Enterprise, the latest series based upon the Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry, debuted in September 2001. Even before the series aired, some Star Trek fans began criticizing the show for allegedly violating well-established continuity of previous Star Trek series. As a prequel to the other Star Trek series, Enterprise came under noticeably intense scrutiny from fans.

Many of the points of contention have been divisive among Star Trek fans, with often emotional debates and arguments being exchanged. While some contend that the series cannot reconcile with earlier shows, others respond that most if not all alleged continuity violations can be explained. The number of perceived continuity violations has led to some fans to refuse to accept Enterprise as canon, although it is undeniably so according to Paramount Pictures, owners of the Star Trek franchise. Other fans insist on claiming that Enterprise takes place in an alternate timeline from the other Star Trek series, even though Brannon Braga has declared that it is "of course not" the case. On the other hand, it should also be noted that, whilst co-creator Brannon Braga claims he and his staff were "slaves to the continuity", he concedes that the production team "bent rules" whilst making Enterprise.

It should be pointed out that inconsistencies such as these are not exclusive to Enterprise, as they are present in all five of the live-action Star Trek series. However, this has not prevented this series from becoming a magnet for criticism in that area. This is partly due to the explosive growth of the Internet and Internet-based fan discussion boards in the period between the debut of the previous Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager in 1995, and the arrival of Enterprise in 2001.

The following is an accounting of apparent continuity problems encountered on Enterprise. When available, a counter-explanation based on official sources, such as the show producers or episodes of other series, is given. Fan speculations and theories are kept to a minimum, and only used when they are absolutely necessary and when the theory is based solely on canon evidence.

To clarify the article, the various Star Trek series will be referred to by their standard abbreviations. The original series is denoted by TOS, "Star Trek: The Next Generation" by TNG, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" by DS9, "Star Trek: Voyager" by VOY and the new series "Enterprise" is ENT.

Cloaking
In the episode, the existence of the Romulan cloaking device comes as a shock to the crew of the NCC-1701, and Spock states that such technology had been, until then, only a theoretical possibility:
 * Invisibility is theoretically possible, Captain &mdash; selectively bending light. But the power cost is enormous. They may have solved that.

Yet during its mission over a century before, the NX-01 encountered several races with cloaking technology, and even took possession of and used a cloaking pod from the Suliban. So by Spock's time, cloaking technology would hardly be only theoretically possible.

It has been pointed out that the crew of the NCC-1701 also expressed surprise the second time they encountered cloaking ships, in, despite already having had first-hand experience with the technology. However, in that case, they were not surprised at the cloaking technology itself, but rather at seeing Klingon ships uncloaking in the Romulan Neutral Zone for the first time. The same cannot be said of their surprise in "Balance of Terror". Indeed, in the episode, the crew of the NX-01 encounters a Romulan ship with cloaking abilities as well as a cloaked Romulan mine field. So it was already well known to Starfleet that the Romulans had cloaking technology.

Some fans have speculated that the cloaking technology used in ENT was long obsolete by the time of TOS, and that the episode "Balance of Terror" marked the first use of a new kind of cloaking device. However, the dialogue of the episode does not in any way hint that the Romulan cloaking technology is an upgrade, but instead indicates that invisibility had never been accomplished before.

Intraship beaming
Even using the transporters of the NCC-1701, intraship beaming was said to be extremely hazardous in (TOS):
 * It has rarely been done because of the danger involved. Pinpoint accuracy is required. If the transporter should materialize inside a solid object, a deck or wall...

Yet Captain Archer performs it successfully in, using the far more primitive transporter of the NX-01, without any mention of difficulty or danger.

However, it was made clear that transporter technology was still new in ENT. All teleportations were seen as dangerous by the crew of the NX-01 and rarely done, and Archer's teleportation is the only case of intraship beaming mentioned on the series. Given these facts, it seems possible that the difficulties of intraship beaming had simply not yet been discovered prior to that attempt. Furthermore, the beaming was done as part of a ruse, under enemy threat; Archer had pretended it was a Human custom in order to fool them into allowing it. Any new difficulties his crew would encounter while preparing to do it would therefore have to be kept quiet, for obvious reasons.

Phase pistols
In the episode, both Lieutenant Worf and the time travelling character Rasmussen established that there were no phasers in the 22nd century. In addition, Captain Pike used lasers in, suggesting that the subsequent switch to phasers in is recent, and thus that phasers are new in TOS. This seems however to be contradicted by the fact that the crew of the NX-01 used phase pistols, which appear to be an early version of phasers.

The contradiction with "A Matter of Time" can be explained by noting that Worf was answering the question "What do you see as the most important example of progress over the last two hundred years?" So Worf's comment only establishes that phasers were invented at some point in the previous 200 years, and didn't exist before that. Moreover, the exact year of the 22nd century from which Rasmussen originated is not given. In, which takes place midway into the 22nd century, phase pistols are introduced as a brand-new innovation. This does not contradict Worf's statement and, if the time traveller originated from before that year, then it doesn't contradict his statement either.

No official reason has been given for why Starfleet would have phase pistols in the 22nd century but would give them up for lasers, only to switch back to phasers a century later. However, the phase pistols on ENT lack the power to vaporise objects, something the laser of Captain Pike has no problem doing. So it would appear that, despite its seemingly more primitive name, Pike's laser is actually more advanced that the NX-01's phase pistols.

Subspace radio
A line Captain Kirk said in the episode is sometimes interpreted as meaning that subspace radio had not been invented until after 2168. If true, then there is a conflict with the episode, which has the NX-01 deploying and using subspace radio relays in 2151.

An issue here is that Kirk's line is open to interpretation. The exact line said in "A Piece of the Action" is:
 * We received a report 100 years late because it was sent by conventional radio. Your system is on the outer reaches of the galaxy. They didn't have subspace communication in those days.

This could be taken to mean that subspace communication did not exist in those days, or simply that this specific star system didn't use it back then. The episode "Silent Enemy" only causes a continuity problem if the first interpretation is the correct one, and if we assume the "100 years" value is not a rounded-off value for 117 years or more.

There is no official date regarding when subspace communications started to be used in the Star Trek universe. However, it is worth noting that the episode "Balance of Terror" (TOS) established that the Romulan treaty that ended the Earth-Romulan War had been negotiated by subspace radio. Although the exact dates the war took place are unknown, it is a well-established fact that it led to the creation of the Federation in 2161. Therefore, subspace radio was already in use at least seven years before the events described in "A Piece of the Action". It is thus clear that the second interpretation of Kirk's quote is the correct one - subspace communication did exist in 2168, but was not available in that system.

Romulan warp drive
A controversial line by Scotty in the episode "Balance of Terror" (TOS) has led many people, including the designers of the game Star Fleet Universe, to believe that the Romulans did not have warp drive technology until the Klingon-Romulan alliance in the 23rd century. The dialogue in question is:
 * Kirk: "The question remains. Can we engage them with a reasonable possibility of victory?"
 * Scott: "No question. Their power is simple impulse."
 * Kirk: "We can outrun them?"

This would be contradicted by the episode, which featured a Romulan vessel capable of warp 5 in the 22nd century.

However, Scotty was clearly mistaken in his assessment of the Romulan ship's power. Indeed, the ship travelled several light years in "Balance of Terror", first crossing the Romulan Neutral Zone, then travelling to several Federation outposts along it. Such a mission would have taken several years for a ship limited to impulse speeds. Though there has been no official explanation for Scotty's mistake, several theories have been put forward by fans. One popular theory stems from the fact that Romulan ships use an artificial quantum singularity to power their warp drives instead of the common antimatter reaction used by other races, a fact that Starfleet only discovered decades later in TNG. Scotty, unaware of this fact, would have scanned for an antimatter drive system and, finding none, would have assumed the ship lacked a warp drive.

There is a lot of evidence that Romulans had warp technology long before the 23rd century. They are an off-shoot of the Vulcan race, who were a space-faring species as far back as the 5th century, when the Romulans left Vulcan for Romulus. Given the distance between Vulcan and Romulus, warp drive would be necessary for the journey. The Romulans also fought at least two interstellar wars before the 23rd century. In addition to the famous Earth-Romulan War in the 22nd century, the episode (VOY) established there had been a Vulcan-Romulan war in the 21st century. Neither of these wars would be possible without warp drive.

In conclusion, the idea of Romulans having warp drive in ENT does not seem to contradict Star Trek continuity.

Weapon technology
According to "Balance of Terror" (TOS), the Earth-Romulan War which took place around the time of ENT was fought using atomic weapons. However, the NX-01 is armed with phase cannons and Photonic torpedoes, and the Romulan ships seen in ENT have a similar armament. Furthermore, the Vulcan civil war that raged in Surak's time, in the 4th century, was shown in the episode to have been fought using nuclear weapons.

This is a clear continuity problem. Indeed, why would Starfleet fight a war with nuclear weapons if they have more advanced phase cannons and photonic torpedoes at their disposal? And why would the Romulans still be using nuclear weapons, after 18 centuries? No official answers to these questions have been given.

Holodecks
In the episode, Commander Tucker visits a ship with a holodeck. It is implied in the episode that the technology was shared with both Earth and the Klingons. Yet holodecks didn't appear again until the time of TNG. Moreover, in some of the early episodes of TNG, such as "Encounter at Farpoint" and, members of the crew of the NCC-1701-D react to the holodeck as if they were quite unfamiliar with it. The disappearance of this technology for nearly 200 years seems to be a continuity error.

However, the simple fact that holodecks were not seen or mentioned on TOS does not mean they didn't exist back then. The fact is that there is no official indication given regarding when holodecks came into use. Consequently, there is no contradiction in having holodecks in ENT. The reaction of the TNG crew to this 200-year-old technology as if it were something new is harder to understand. However, none of them ever explicitly say that the holodeck is new, and making this assumption may be reading too much in their reactions.

In the episode, two characters discuss Kirk-era Starfleet in these terms:
 * Janeway: Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages. No plasma weapons, no multiphasic shields. Their ships were half as fast.
 * Kim: No replicators, no holodecks.

This is harder to reconcile with the presence of holodecks in ENT. If the quote is taken to mean that holodeck technology did not exist in these days, then there is a clear continuity problem in ENT. On the other hand, it could be taken to mean that holodeck technology was in its early stages, which would account for it never being seen in TOS. However, given that ENT took place a century before TOS and that holodeck technology seemed quite advanced at that point, it is hard to understand why, a hundred years later, it would still be considered in its early stages.

It is interesting to note that Roddenberry had intended for the original NCC-1701 to have a holodeck, but budget limitations prevented this. The animated series episode revealed that Kirk's ship did possess a holodeck-like "rec room". However, neither Roddenberry's intents nor TAS are considered canon.

Eating habits
The episode "Broken Bow" (ENT) established that Vulcans do not eat food with their hands. T'Pol even demonstrates the extent of this taboo by eating a breadstick with a knife and fork. This, however, is contradicted many times, both on ENT and in TOS.

T'Pol herself is seen eating with her hands on several occasions on ENT. On the episode, T'Pol is ordered to eat food with her hands while being in captivity. In later episodes she willingly eats food with her hands. She eats popcorn by hand while watching a movie, and eats a meal by hand in. Fans dismiss these inconsistencies as evidence that T'Pol is adapting to being around humans. However, this explanation does not account for other Vulcans who are seen eating with their hands. Indeed, Mestral eats a pretzel with his hands in, and Spock eats a lump of meat with his hands in. It seems that the Vulcan taboo about eating with their hands is not as strong as T'Pol makes it sound in "Broken Bow". In that regard, some fans note that Vulcans had a strong "holier than thou" attitude towards Humans in the first season of ENT. T'Pol's comment about eating food with her hands could simply be another example of this attitude.

Pon farr
In, T'Pol undergoes pon farr. Some fans feel that this contradicts what Saavik explained about pon farr in. Specifically, they feel that Saavik's explanation makes pon farr an exclusively male condition, and therefore that T'Pol, being female, shouldn't experience it. This is however an error on the fans' part. Saavik's line in the movie is:
 * Pon farr. Vulcan males must endure it every seventh year of their adult life.

Saavik does not address the question of female pon farr at all, and neither had any other character until "Bounty". This does not mean that female pon farr does not exist, simply that it never came up in conversation. Given that Vulcans have a very strong taboo about discussing pon farr, this situation is not surprising.

Trip and T'Pol
The relationship between Commander Tucker and T'Pol contradicts the idea that Sarek and Amanda Grayson were the first Human-Vulcan couple. However, this contradiction rises from a misconception, as it has never been officially suggested that Sarek and Grayson were the first mixed-race couple of this sort.

It has however been strongly implied that Spock is the first successful Human-Vulcan hybrid. Trip and T'Pol's relationship led to two such hybrids on ENT, a century before Spock was born. However, despite the appearances, this does not contradict continuity. Indeed, the first of Tucker and T'Pol's children, Lorien, only existed in an alternate timeline that was erased at the end of the episode. Their second child was their daughter in the two-part episode and. This child was a clone created by Terra Prime, and only survived for a few weeks. She was therefore not a successful hybrid like Spock.

Borg
The episode features humanity's first contact with the Borg, when drones that survived the destruction of the Sphere in  and had been frozen in the Arctic Circle for decades are reanimated. This brings into question the exact date of humanity's first contact with that race. A lot of people feel that first contact with the Borg happened when the race was first introduced in the Star Trek universe, in. This is based on the fact the NCC-1701-D's crew was unfamiliar with the Borg at that point, and that Q|Q intended to show Captain Picard a new danger in space.

However, it is never explicitly stated in that episode that the Borg are a previously unencountered race, and the NCC-1701-D's crew unfamiliarity could very well be due to the fact the last overt contact with them dated from over 200 years ago. On the other hand, there is evidence in other Trek series that Starfleet knew of the Borg before the events of "Q Who". In the movie, El Aurian refugees make contact with Starfleet following the assimilation of their homeworld by the Borg. It seems logical that they would have warned Starfleet about the Borg, although such a warning is never shown onscreen. The episode clearly established that there were some people in the Federation who knew of the Borg prior to "Q Who", and that at least one non-Starfleet mission was sent out to study them.

Also, the Borg do not introduce themselves in "Regeneration", and the NX-01's crew never learns their identity. This would make it hard for the NCC-1701-D's crew to recognise the newly-discovered Borg as the nameless species briefly encountered 200 years ago and 7000 light-years away. The problem would be further compounded by the fact the Borg are not the only partially-cybernetic race known to the Federation. Other such races include the Bynars, who were introduced in.

Ferengi
The NX-01's encounter with four Ferengi in arguably contradicts continuity on when first contact with that race was made. Indeed, the episode clearly indicates that the contact the NCC-1701-D made with the Ferengi in that episode was the Federation's first. However, TNG clearly established that the Federation knew of the Ferengi before the events of "The Last Outpost". They were previously mentioned by name in, and flashbacks in show that Captain Picard battled a Ferengi ship nine years earlier, though without being aware of the identity of his attackers.

There is therefore precedent in Trek canon for unofficial contacts between the Federation and the Ferengi before "The Last Outpost". The events of "Acquisition" can certainly fit in that category. The Ferengi in that episode were pirates, not official representatives of their race. In the episode, the crew of the NX-01 is busy trying to retake the ship from them, and never bothers to investigate the identity of their hijackers &mdash; the name "Ferengi" is not even said once. The later episode has Captain Archer being reprimanded for his sloppy first contact methods.

Klingons
In the episode, Captain Picard described first contact with the Klingons in this manner:
 * Centuries ago, a disastrous first contact with the Klingon Empire led to decades of war. It was decided then that we must do surveillance before making contact.

Given that Picard was talking about the Federation, this comment would seem to indicate that a disastrous first contact took place between the Federation and the Klingons. This interpretation is supported by the episode, which established that the area around Sherman's Planet, near the Klingon Neutral Zone, was "under dispute between the two parties since initial contact". This means that the Federation was already well-established and had strong territorial claims before encountering the Klingon Empire.

However, the episode "Broken Bow" (ENT) clearly contradicts this. Here, races of the Alpha Quadrant encountered the Klingons long before the birth of the Federation, and no "decades of war" are ever mentioned. Humanity also has its first contact in that episode, and it is not disastrous. Quite the opposite, the NX-01 helps avert a Klingon civil war, and the Klingon High Council "thanks" Captain Archer, in a Klingon manner.

Moreover, Picard's comments imply that the problem with this first contact was a lack of knowledge about the Klingon, which created the need to covertly study races before making contact. However, "Broken Bow" established that the Vulcans are already well-versed in Klingon culture.

Finally, ENT also contradicts the timeline given in TOS. In, Spock mentioned a 70-plus-year-long period of "unrelenting hostilities" with the Klingons. This would put the beginning of hostilities, which Picard's comment in "First Contact" indicates to be soon after first contact, in the 2200s. On the other hand, "Broken Bow" takes place in 2151, decades before that date.

On the other hand, it is worth noting that Picard never actually mentions whose first contact with the Klingons led to decades of war. Although the context implies that it was the Federation's, it is not impossible that he was referring to some other race. Picard's explanation was given to a planetary leader who had never encountered aliens before, so Picard could have omitted the race's name in order not to overwhelm him. However, this explanation only accounts for one of the continuity problems depicted on "Broken Bow".

Non-corporeals
In the episode, Spock spoke of noncorporeal life as "not life as we know it at all", implying that the Federation had never before encountered such life-forms. Continuity was violated by having the NX-01 encounter noncorporeal life-forms in, a century prior to "Errand of Mercy".

First ship to bear the name?
The episodes and  both established that the NCC-1701 was the first Federation starship to bear the name Enterprise. The NX-01 is stated as the first Earth Starfleet starship named Enterprise. This is corroborated by the NX-01's decommissioning upon the formation of the Federation in the ENT series finale, and by the fact the "Relics" episode specify that "there have been five Federation ships with that name". However, the "Trials and Tribble-ations" dialogue does not make such a distinction.

On the same note, the refitted NCC-1701 recreation room seen in shows a progression of famous ships to bear the name Enterprise, including the pre-Federation aircraft carrier Enterprise and the Space Shuttle Enterprise, followed by the USS Enterprise (XCV 330), and then the NCC-1701. Considering the importance of the NX-01's mission for Earth's survival and the founding of the Federation, it is hard to see how it was not included.

Female captains
The episode features one of the most controversial lines in Trek history, when Dr. Janice Lester tells Captain Kirk:
 * Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women.

Lester had tried to achieve command of a starship, but had been denied, she claimed, because she was a woman. This line, combined with the fact no woman captains appeared onscreen until, has led many fans to believe that only men were allowed to be Starfleet captains. Gene Roddenberry himself went on record saying that the "Turnabout Intruder" discussion was an example of chauvinism, and that he regretted it.

At any rate, a century before Lester's accusation, the NX-02 was commanded by Captain Erika Hernandez. Whether this violates continuity depends on whether Lester's claim should be taken at face value. Several arguments have been brought forward to say that it should not. The first and most convincing one is that Lester was clearly insane by the time of "Turnabout Intruder", as was noted by several characters around her. Furthermore, in "The Cage", which takes place 15 years before "Turnabout Intruder", Captain Pike's first officer was a woman. She was acknowledged as the ship's most experienced crewmember and, when Pike was kidnapped by the Talosians, she took command of the NCC-1701. Finally, there is no evidence in the Trek universe that women were ever barred from being captains, saved for that single quote.

Furthermore, Lester's quote can also be interpreted to have a more figurative meaning. Indeed, Lester had been involved in a romantic relationship with Kirk, which had ended sourly when Kirk received command of the NCC-1701. It is possible that Lester meant that starship captains such as Kirk didn't allow any room for love, because they were married to their ships. And it is true that Kirk's love for his ship was stronger than his love for any woman, a fact made clear in the episode, when the reputedly all-powerful love-spell of an Elasian female fails on Kirk because his love for the NCC-1701 was stronger.

Alien fleets and ship designs
By the time Earth develops warp-5 travel in ENT, several species have been space-faring for a very long time and built their own spaceship fleets. Notably, the Vulcans and Andorians both have large and powerful fleets. Yet a century later, by the time of TOS, only Starfleet ships seem to be available. No official explanation has been given regarding what happened to the large alien fleets seen in ENT. However, it is possible that a large quantity of ships were destroyed in the Earth-Romulan War, which was by all accounts devastating. The surviving ships could have become obsolete over the century separating both series, and replaced by Starfleet ships.

A bigger question is that of Starfleet ship design. It is clearly based on the same design as the Earth ships seen in ENT. However, Earth developed warp travel after many other Federation races. Races that have been space-faring longer than Humans use drastically different ship designs, as can be seen on ENT. Most notably, the Vulcans, who had been using warp travel for 1800 years before ENT, opted for round warp nacelles forming a circle at the back of the ship. Why Starfleet decided to keep the presumably more primitive Earth design rather than a Vulcan design perfected over nearly two thousand years, or any other more advanced alien ship design available, is never addressed.

New alien races
Despite being a prequel to the other Trek series, ENT featured several new alien species that were never seen or referenced in the other series. These include the Xindi, the Suliban and the Denobulan. Some people feel that the addition of new races in the past of the Trek universe that are not present in the future constitutes a violation of continuity. However, the fact these races are not seen in any other Trek series doesn't mean they don't exist at that point &mdash; simply that no member of these races happen to cross path with the crew of each series. That situation is not impossible: the Alpha Quadrant seems to be a very crowded place, with well over a hundred different races seen or mentioned during the various Trek series and movies, in most cases only once or twice. Furthermore, no official complete list of Alpha Quadrant races has ever been made, so it is impossible to claim that these races are not part of the Trek universe in other series.