Coto Plans To Fulfill ‘Enterprise’’s Promise

Coto is full of plans for the new season, considering everything from high profile guest stars to ambitious mini-arcs. Coto is hoping to get William Shatner (James T. Kirk) for one of the planned arcs, which recently-hired Enterprise writers Judith Reeves Stevens and Garfield Reeves Stevens, who collaborate with Shatner on his novels, might pen.

“They%u2019re actively talking with him,” Coto said of the network and Shatner. “They%u2019re going back and forth with numbers, I know it%u2019s a tough negotiation. I couldn%u2019t tell you whether it%u2019s going to work out or not, I%u2019m hoping that it will. I know that there is interest from UPN and Paramount, they really want to try and make it work, but it%u2019s a tough negotiation. It [would be] later in the year.”

One familiar Trek face Coto has already snapped up is Brent Spiner (Data), who will play Arik Soong, the ancestor of Dr. Noonien Soong, Data’s creator, in a three-episode arc that is filming now. “When we found out that Brent was interested we tried to tailor it to him, and having seen the dailies he%u2019s terrific in this part,” Coto commented. “For a little while I even toyed with the idea of him playing Colonel Green [from Star Trek’s “The Savage Curtain”], but I think he%u2019s more interesting playing this character.”

Coto also has plans for episodes focusing on the Vulcans, which Trek fans have noted are very different from the Vulcans they’re familiar with in other Star Trek series. “I didn%u2019t present it in the sense of ‘let%u2019s explain it,’” he said of the time when he initially broached the idea of exploring 22nd century Vulcans with Berman and Braga. “It exists, ‘this is what you guys did; let%u2019s use it as a fascinating springboard to tell a terrific story arc that kind of shows the evolution of Vulcan from, kind of, where you guys started to how the Vulcans were in the original series.’ So it wasn%u2019t much to say ‘I%u2019ve gotta explain what you guys did,’ but let%u2019s use it. ‘This is what you did, it%u2019s not going to go away, so let%u2019s use it.’”

One story Coto is planning would take Captain Archer and T’Pol to the deserts of Vulcan. “We%u2019re actually developing that story now and it%u2019s turning into this great, really fascinating Lawrence of Arabia tale with T%u2019Pol and Archer in the desert to go and find these Vulcans who are traitors,” he said.

Coto hopes to address Jolene Blalock’s (T’Pol) hopes that her character will go in a new direction in the fourth season. “By the end of this Vulcan arc she will become hopefully she will find her center as a Vulcan, and will become a Vulcan in the grand tradition of Spock and other Vulcans that we have known, and will accept the true Vulcan calling,” Coto commented.

Fans can even expect the Romulans to show up again, but Coto is very conscious of the fact that continuity demands that no one learns what the Romulans look like. “No one will know what the Romulans look like. No one will know,” he assured fans. “Although I don%u2019t have the whole story worked out yet because we%u2019re still fleshing it out, but there may be a possibility of someone finding out and that person can die. There are ways to do it so that we can preserve canon, but no, no one will find out that they were Romulans.”

Make it so.