ENT: Singularity

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

I think the answer was just to do a timeskip montage. At the end of Broken Bow have Archer admit that they're not ready yet, but then insist they will be. Give him some humility while making him smart and heroic.

The problem is that Jonathan "You can't be afraid of the wind" Archer would never admit such a thing.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

"Perhaps by focusing on one incident, a single event that exemplifies your relationship with your father, you'll be able to condense your thoughts."

Preface begins: "When I think of my father, I most remember that one time the Vulcans were mean to him..."

*golf clap*

[stryke]

The problem is that Jonathan "You can't be afraid of the wind" Archer would never admit such a thing.

Indeed, and alas would be a huge problem with so much of the show.

[Nealithi]

Another edition of: The NX-01 never should have been launched in the state that it was in.

Tactical alert - or red alert - never should have been invented by Reed on the fly. It should have been there from day one. A single button that activates every offensive and defensive system on the ship and gets everyone out of bed.

Let's add this to: the phase cannons not being installed, the torpedo guidance systems being broken, and the ship not actually being capable of reaching warp 5 with its warp 5 engine. And the multiple OSHA violations such as the lift that cuts your hand off - let us not forget those.

I'm not sure what the writers were playing at here. It makes Starfleet and Archer look stupid that the NX-01 was never recalled for a couple of weeks. At least the Enterprise-B was just doing a circuit of the Solar System which is why it wasn't fully equipped yet - the NX-01 is a frontier ship at a time when there were no other ships!

I think it's OK in the idea that the Enterprise was sent out unprepared and not fully completed due to Broken Bow.

I could forgive the phase cannons or the torpedo guidance not fully calibrated and functional. Those things who you do when in dock. Or that they never was able to fully achieve Warp 5 right out of dock. It kinda gives the vibes that they were sent sent out too soon. Also that they were still testing out systems.

The lift that could cut off fingers or hands should have never been on there in the first place. Even brand new ships, first of their class. Those sort of things get ironed out very early on from safety officers.

I am going to do some defense of Enterprise here.
Archer was not the only one that wanted to get the Enterprise underway. The vulcan high command seemed like they wanted to remove all human warp drives. Their mantra of "You are not ready" is annoying. "You have the warp drive wrong, do it again." Is the kind of crap I got in school. You got these math problems wrong, do it over. And over and over, with not one explanation of why it is wrong. Then if you get the right answer? It is still wrong because you did not use the method the teacher wanted, even though they never explained a damned thing.
So Star Fleet let Archer push NX01 out of the dock for its maiden mission. Then kept them out there for fear that if he did come back the vulcans would insist the NX01 be scrapped and start again anyway.

Now the lift thing? A few instances come to mind. Now my father has been in the navy and then went on to work for the Philadelphia navy yard as a draftsman and designer. Also a navy/WW2 history buff. So lets hit what I have heard. First off OSHA rules are written in blood. Things get built, then an accident happens, then it is changed. Next off is a system my father worked on. SLEP work with a cargo loading system. My father included cage arms and infrared sensors all over this thing to make it safe. Six months later someone literally lost their head on it. Because all the safeties were slowing things down. So the sailors disabled them and one pallet was slow coming down and someone stuck their head in the chute.
Last for this argument. A ship was built and put in service. (I think the Kitty Hawk but it has been years since I heard this story) Ship is in service and does several missions. New Lt, on the ship is exploring a bit and notices that one side of the ship has a space under a deck area. The opposite side had a dead area. No one knew what that space was for, there were no doors or hatches. Eventually they cut it open and found a fully furnished machine shop inside that no one on the crew knew about. Because the fitters never cut the hatch ways before the ship was commissioned.

This is 20th century US navy. You would think they have their act together. But they are human and circumstances mean mistakes can happen.

[McAvoy]

Snip

I am going to do some defense of Enterprise here.
Archer was not the only one that wanted to get the Enterprise underway. The vulcan high command seemed like they wanted to remove all human warp drives. Their mantra of "You are not ready" is annoying. "You have the warp drive wrong, do it again." Is the kind of crap I got in school. You got these math problems wrong, do it over. And over and over, with not one explanation of why it is wrong. Then if you get the right answer? It is still wrong because you did not use the method the teacher wanted, even though they never explained a damned thing.
So Star Fleet let Archer push NX01 out of the dock for its maiden mission. Then kept them out there for fear that if he did come back the vulcans would insist the NX01 be scrapped and start again anyway.

Now the lift thing? A few instances come to mind. Now my father has been in the navy and then went on to work for the Philadelphia navy yard as a draftsman and designer. Also a navy/WW2 history buff. So lets hit what I have heard. First off OSHA rules are written in blood. Things get built, then an accident happens, then it is changed. Next off is a system my father worked on. SLEP work with a cargo loading system. My father included cage arms and infrared sensors all over this thing to make it safe. Six months later someone literally lost their head on it. Because all the safeties were slowing things down. So the sailors disabled them and one pallet was slow coming down and someone stuck their head in the chute.
Last for this argument. A ship was built and put in service. (I think the Kitty Hawk but it has been years since I heard this story) Ship is in service and does several missions. New Lt, on the ship is exploring a bit and notices that one side of the ship has a space under a deck area. The opposite side had a dead area. No one knew what that space was for, there were no doors or hatches. Eventually they cut it open and found a fully furnished machine shop inside that no one on the crew knew about. Because the fitters never cut the hatch ways before the ship was commissioned.

This is 20th century US navy. You would think they have their act together. But they are human and circumstances mean mistakes can happen.

I was in the Navy and believe it or not but on three deployments with three different aircraft carriers. George Washington, Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Plus did short stints on the Enterprise, JFK and when she was brand new, the George Bush. If I stayed in longer than eight years, I would have done at least one more deployment on the George Bush as well.

Now saying that, I do wonder if that is just a old sailor's tale when it came to the Kitty Hawk (when I was in she was called the Shitty Kitty because of wore down she was). The reason why say this is because a fully furnished machine shop with no holes cut into it raises questions because that would have been done while under construction. Usually hatches are precut when the frame are installed as well. But it is possible. I suppose.

As far as disabling safety features because it slows things down. We'll that happens all the time. Workers not wearing seat belts while driving forklifts for example. Or wearing a helmet or harness when up in the air with scissor lifts or boom lifts because they get in the way.

Now what I suppose could have happened with the Enterprise with the lift is the safety officers who were supposed to go over the ship didn't get their time before the ship left dock. The crew operating that lift were given verbal instructions not to put their hands there. Even then still a severe safety operating procedure in any case.