I will admit, I haven't seen very many episodes of Enterprise, although i am currently working on it. I have a question: What is the difference between Archer's and Kirk's mission?

When I watched the original series, I was always under the impression that Kirk and his crew were the first to embark on a mission of that type. Kirk has more technology, but why was his such a big deal if it had been done before. Did Kirk go much farther away from earth?

Just to be clear, when i asked "why was it such a big deal," I mean why was Kirk and his crew such a big deal as part of the fictional story? They became heroes and legendary on earth, but if it had been done before, why so?

Anyone have any ideas about this yet?

The NX-01, Archers ship, could hold a crew of over 80. The NCC-1701 Kirks ship, could hold a crew of over 400 and was much bigger, faster and could travel further in a lesser amount of time. And by the time the 1701 constitution class was built, the united earth space probe agency and the federation had a much better, more relaxed relationship with the Vulcans.

I don't think Kirks mission was much different from Archers, only that Kirk had a much superior vessel to carry out the mission with.

And one more thing. At the time that the original series was made, the 1960s, I doubt that the writers could foresee the future of Star Trek, and the fact that there would be a series with an earlier class of ship than the 1701 so that's why they considered Kirks 5 year mission the first one. And this is also why they were considered heroes.

If you had seen Enterprise episode In a mirror darkly, the crew of the NX-01 acquired control of a ship from the future (The USS Defiant) that was being held in a Tholian Web and were amazed at the superiority of the ships size, speed and weaponry, which was the same as the 1701, Kirks ship. This episode was also taken from the idea of a TOS episode titled The Tholian Web.