Writer Mike Sussman recently emphasised how important continuity is to the Enterprise writing staff.

"We're very conscious of what's come before, and we always try to respect it," Sussman told the Star Trek Communicator (via TrekWeb). "We're all fans of the other series, and we enjoy tossing in a future reference, even if only a handful of viewers will get it.

"I think Phyllis [Strong] and I have dropped in more references in our scripts than anyone else this year," he continued. "We mentioned the Malurians, Tellarites, Coridan. We even dropped in Spock's hometown of Shikahr from the animated series."

Sussman knew that the first season of the show trod on some controversial ground. "Meeting the Ferengi was probably one of the more controversial choices this season," he said. "But I think we structured the show in a way that preserves Picard's first contact with them. Besides, every DS9 fan knows Earth's real first contact with the Ferengi was in Roswell in 1947!"

The scribe was also keen to stress that meeting an alien race too often on screen could damage them. "There are lots of other aliens I'd love to tackle. Who wouldn't want to see first contact with the Tholians? But that's the challenge and the danger in writing for a prequel series," he explained.

"I think one of the reasons the Tholians are such a favourite is because they are mysterious; we only saw them one time on the viewscreen. Are they some kind of crystalline lifeform, or was that just a guy in a helmet? As soon as we start filling in the blanks, there's a risk they'll become a little less appealing. Some people have said that's what happened to the Borg after a couple of years."

Much more from Mike Sussman, including his thoughts on Vulcans and Klingons can be found in the current issue of the Star Trek Communicator. Alternatively, a transcript is available online here at TrekWeb,

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