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Star Trek: Enterprise was originally conceived to have taken an entire season before getting our cast into space. The first season of the show would have taken place on Earth. The characters and setting would have been introduced and fleshed out. The culture of humanity would have been established. The importance of the NX-01 mission, with the goals to send humanity into the stars, would have been of focal importance. Instead, the show was launched like any other Trek series: an episodic series where everyone is already in space. “First Flight” hints at what could have been.
The Wikipedia plot summary for “First Flight”:
As Enterprise is about to investigate a dark matter cloud, Captain Archer is informed by Admiral Forrest that his former Starfleet colleague, Captain Robinson, has died in a rock climbing accident. Archer, seeking solitude, desires to travel into the nebula in a shuttlepod armed with spatial charges to excite the dark matter. Sub-Commander T’Pol, noting that captains are prohibited from traveling off-ship unaccompanied, joins him and while underway, she coaxes him into relating the story of the Warp 5 program on Earth.
In a series of flashbacks, Commander Archer meets with Commodore Forest, and is informed that although he excelled in simulations, his colleague Commander Robinson has been awarded the test ship, the NX Alpha. Disappointed, Archer goes to the 602 Club, a local bar, bumping into Robinson there. Later, Robinson takes the scheduled flight aboard the NX Alpha, breaking the warp 2.0 barrier. He refuses a command from Forest to stop and instead increases speed; the craft soon destabilizes and is destroyed as it approaches warp 2.2, but Robinson escapes. The Vulcans argue that the warp program should be postponed, but Archer wants the program, and his father’s engine research, to continue. Archer, and his new friend Lieutenant Tucker, then go to the 602 Club to discuss the problem. Robinson arrives and blames Archer’s father, and the two end up in a fist fight.
The next day Archer discovers Robinson packing up the contents of his locker. He concedes that it is primarily an intermix problem, but that the engine could still work. Archer and Robinson then steal the NX Beta, with Tucker in flight control, but it starts to suffer the same issues as the Alpha. As Starfleet security detains Tucker, Archer and Robinson manage to coax the engines towards their goal of warp 2.5. Afterwards, Archer and Robinson are reprimanded by Starfleet, and the Vulcans ground the program for a year, but they eventually confirm that his father’s design was sound. Back in the current Enterprise timeline, Archer launches his final 2 charges into the cloud, and a breathtaking nebula slowly reveals itself. Missing his former flight partner, Archer calls T’Pol over to watch the actual nebula with her eyes, rather than monitor it through the sensors. Returning the regard, back on Enterprise, T’Pol mentions the human tradition of 1st discoverers of astronomical phenomena having naming rights to the event/body. Archer makes a sarcastic crack about calling it the “T’Pol/Archer” entity. T’Pol gently responds that she was thinking Archer could name it the “Robinson Nebula”, after his friend.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “First Flight” and how Star Trek: Enterprise would have been best served if it had been allowed a chance to establish itself on Earth for the first season. Plus! The guys talk about their favorite time of day to drink at the bar, the “friendship” of AG Robinson and Jon Archer, and what seeing the Enterprise floating in space should feel like.