Star Trek: Enterprise in Danger of Being Cancelled 1080
jkcity writes "According to Cinscape.com The Star Trek Enterprise set is awash with rumour that it will not be renewed for a 4th season, It was previous told it was safe by UPN but so was Enteprise's lead-out show Jake 2.0 which was just Cancelled. Star Trek: Enterprise has also been reduced to 24 episodes this season by UPN, things don't look good for the Star Trek Television Franchise and after the flop of Star Trek: Nemesis it could be many years before we ever see any new Star Trek outside of books."
Good (Score:4, Insightful)
It's sad letting our favourite things end, but moving on is cool too.
Re:Are you really surprised? (Score:4, Insightful)
The magic that captured us was that TNG wasn't about space or the technology but about the people. Enterprise always seemed like it didn't make the grade there. It isn't a drama the way it needs to be for success.
Am I the only one that says.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to knock the entirety of Star Trek, but the recent "Franchises" (do you want fries with that?) have been crap. I could barely watch Star Trek: A Three Hour Tour, and Star Trek: Boobies and Scott Bakula was not even worth the John Tesh opening theme. I'm not saying the age old "Ever since Gene died...blah blah blah", but the corporates at Paramont really have taken over and pissed on the whole deal.
There are better sci-fi shows out there: Bablylon 5, Farscape, Stargate SG-1, to name a few. Some are in threat of being cancelled or already in limbo. Support THOSE! Try to revive the GOOD series!
Let Star Trek die the death it has been begging for since ST:DS9 ended. Don't let it drag on. (Flame on!)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Shame really (Score:5, Insightful)
Those shows had more originality, creativity and quality writing than the Star Trek franchise can hope to match. Not to say that Star Trek wasn't good and original in its day, but that day has passed.
I recently showed Firefly to a housemate for the first time, he was hooked after the pilot. After each episode (we just finished the last one), he sits in stunned amazement, quietly saying "why was this cancelled?". It's sad really.
Should we blame Berman, as always? (Score:5, Insightful)
Much of the discussion about "how much Trek sucks" usually ends up blaming Rick Berman. How much of this is his fault here? I have no judgement, but I'm tossing this out for discussion's sake.
I think my personal opinion is thus: Create work that is quality, and I will consume it.
I thought that's how the system was supposed to work... but yet, somehow, shows like UPN's planned "reality" show chronicling the wacky misadventures of Amish teens have more marketability than (insert your genre of interest here).
Fire the Producers Instead (Score:3, Insightful)
I think they keep trying to draw audiences by injecting episodes with BIG ACTION and SEXY SITUATIONS... well, that's not what made TNG good. TNG was good because of interesting ideas that were expanded on, often very subtly, sometimes without any threat to human life.
And every episode seems to follow a plot that's been done, what, like three, four times on previous Trek shows? My advice to save Enterprise is to fire Brannon and Braga, and hire only writer s that have never worked on any of the shows before. Keep around a 'bible' expert for continuity, but look for talented writers and producers. This is what will save the show.
Closure (Score:3, Insightful)
Rus
Re:Why am I not surprised? (Score:2, Insightful)
FLOP?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
*smacks forhead*
How about this: Don't release movie number 10 in a series of niche movies a weekend before one of the most anticipated movies of all time, which had been promoted for several years, comes out.
I didn't have a problem with nemesis. I actually liked it. Did I go see it in a theatre? No, i saved my $15 for Lord of the Rings. Duh.
~Will
Re:Syndication? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is apparently a major problem for UPN, whose affiliates are largely made up of not-very-committed-to-the-network stations (Like WRBW) or even shared with WB network.
If Enterprise gets canned, quite frankly I hope the entire UPN network folds, as has been rumored. We don't need another network filled with generic ethnic sitcoms and Reality Shows.
I wouldn't want Sci-Fi to pick it up. They'd completely ruin it and then bury it at some odd time, or turn it into "Tremors: in Space".
Why can't they learn (Score:5, Insightful)
Events from one episode have to influence future ones. Babylon 5 did this. So did Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Star Trek franchise managed to learn this in the end with DS9, but now they've totally forgotten. Season 3 has had a couple of references to the Xindi backstory, but really we need more than that. We never get the feeling anything has happened after an episode has finished.
Paramount doesn't even seem to want to try. There were clear signs of a subversive effort to change this in Voyager, with Janeway slowly losing it in Equinox, but then the franchise backed away. At the end of that episode all was forgiven and forgotten. Chakotay decided that going on the Ahab revenge thing and locking him in the brig was only a minor misunderstanding, and they could still be friends.
Re:Good (Score:4, Insightful)
What's Wrong with Enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the series had instead of going with this "temporal cold war" idea gone with a simple "explore nearby space and meet new races" type idea, I heavily suspect that things would have been better. I mean, hell; TNG and TOS were great; DS9 was alright, but Voyager was a step in the WRONG DIRECTION.
Just my
What worries me ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, we have these mind-numbing 'reality' tv shows, vapid sit-coms, and corny teenage melodramas.
I watch Enterprise. It's not that I think it's that great, it's just better than most of the other rubbish on TV. At least it's mildly entertaining, and I need something to watch while I exercise.
Does anybody REALLY want another Joe Millionaire/Survivor 14/Bachlor(ette) clone to replace it?
I might shoot plot holes though Enterprise all day, but at least my brain functions while doing it.
Re:Gee (Score:5, Insightful)
umm how do you explain Star Trek 1? Vger? come on take the cosmic dust off for gods sake. worst movie of them all. 2 was best. i know it had holes but i was never a fan of TOS so i thought it was great and continue to repeatly watch it. 3 ok. 4 wacky humor. 5 is where we start seeing a down turn until after generations.
Good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Western in space. Kinda campy but did have its moments. Very memorable characters. Fanbase: Big enough to get a few movies going after its cancelation. Noteworthy: The fans loved the show and movies enough to get an entire freakin' space shuttle renamed. Nae bad.
Star Trek: The Next Generation:
Pretty deep plots. Much deeper than much of what is shown on TV, which really doesn't say much. Very memorable characters. Very powerful episodes. (Remember the one where the crew find a probe and Picard spends a lifetime on a dieing planet?) Had many people who aren't fans of scifi watching. Noteworthy: Roddenbery died during this series.
Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Very deep storyline spanning many seasons. Characters not as memorable as those on TNG, but memorable none the less.
Star Trek: Voyager:
Unmemorable characters, superficial plots, enough gaps in the plot to make Spock have a stroke. The previously immortal and near unbeatable borg were made to look like a bunch of pussies in this. Time travel became more cliche than it previously was. It's crap, Jim.
Star Trek: Enterprise
New 'hip' series that shits on the pre-federation history laid out by the previous series and movies. Superficial. Unmemorable characters. Plots so shallow not even an infant could drown in them. Superficial. Tries to grab your attention with random semi-nudity. Predictable. Superficial. Theme song sucks. Superficial.
As somebody who used to be a HUGE Trek fan 10 years ago - good. The horse is laying in the middle of the field, four broken legs, broken ribs, and is oozing blood out of its ears. Just shoot it and get it over with. I hate seeing my childhood fave raped for ratings.
Berman and Braga can kiss the fattest part of my ass.
Re:Why am I not surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
I believe Roddenberry already came up with a similar premise. Now known as "Andromeda."
Re:shame (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen guest characters on TNG get more character development in a single episode than Mayweather, Hoshi and Malcom have in 3 seasons.
Re:Good (Score:3, Insightful)
I would much rather see Farscape or more of the Battlestar Galactica genre. How about SciFi based on today? Getting to the Moon and Mars. Perhaps that could help increase public interest in such projects in real life.
Re:shame (Score:5, Insightful)
It was the nearest series to ourselves in terms of time, culture and technology.
The think the way they designed the ship with all those flat screens and the jumpsuit uniforms gave it a more contemporary look. I don't want to get started about how it doesn't fit in with the 1960's show, but it definately seemed to gel with TNG, DS9 and Voyager I thought personally.
I do hope they give it more of a chance, Hopefully this will happen sa they have more invested in this franchise than other series that are being cancelled, along with a much larger fan base that has acculated over the years. If they are thinking of cancelling it they'll also give them another series to wrap things up properly. I don't see Paramount doing a 'Crusade' to Enterpise and just stopping it in the middle of nowhere.
As for plans for any future Star Trek I think we're going to have to push future into the future rather than coming back in time, otherwise we do end up with all sorts of continuity problems.
Ideas for better new Series (Score:4, Insightful)
1. We have for years had teasing hints of the Post Kirk Era, in seeing Sulu on the Excellsior(I know I spelled that wrong). I had been hoping that perhaps a new Trek Series would go down that line.
2. We have also seen bits of the Post Kirk Pre-picard Universe in seeing the Enterprise-B, and C I had hoped that maybe a new series would go in this direction especially the C. The Federation in the middle of an all out war would make for a refreshing change from the general Peace and love universe we are all used to seeing.
3. I heard a rumor of a Star Fleet Academy show at one point, Not sure about this one, but it might have worked.
4. A Post Picard Setting, where the Federation is on the verge of, or has already colapsed.
5. A Post Picard Setting way way into the future, jump forward 100-200 years (Leaves lots of room for back story) set on the the Enterprise - L. Perhaps things are very different in this age, the Romulans, Klingons and Cardasians are Full Memebers of the Federation, perhaps the Enterprise is even Commanded by a Klingon, with a Vulcan/Romulan first officer (A decendant of Spock fathered during his time on Romulus).
Sad to be alone (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Bakula makes a good captain and his play with the Vulcan Sub-Commander is good. That can't carry the show however as much of the other crew hasn't been allowed to breath (except for Hoshi in the Psychic/Alien episode which isn't saying much).
But there is a lot of untested material in the Star Trek universe. There should be more Andorran plots and it would be really nice if the writers remembered the Gorn Empire or the Tholians. The universe was unstable back then (as opposed to TNG Federation/Romulan/Klingon triumvirate) and that instability could make for some good shows.
This season's "Expanse" theme is interesting and I personally like it. However, it can't go on forever, for the very fact that none of it was ever mentioned in any past series.
The show needs to get back to its beginnings. USE the tried plot but lets not forget that space is a new and exciting and unknown place. Everything that the crew seems to encounter has already been encountered before. The original series used that unknown as the backbone of plot. TNG really built up a crew centric aspect. The other two kind of let me down. Enterprise has the potential to do a lot but isn't going anywhere.
They should really let the fans be the writers. Set up a contest or something on the website to submit an episode. Star Trek is a good and proven concept but there needs to be more trekking and more weird discoveries.
Just remember... (Score:3, Insightful)
They will replace it with EXXXXTREME Survivor Pop Idol Challenge Get Me Out Of Here!!! Now with MORE Celebrities!!!! Some of whom you might even have heard of!!!!!!!
The kind of programming so bad that the 15-20 mins of advertising per hour are actually the highlight.
4+ comments are all negative towards startrek (Score:2, Insightful)
Sci-Fi producers should canvas slashdot for community advice since its not the diehard supporters (ie: the few hundred that read alt.sf.star-trek (or whatever)) but the public that they seek to entertain.
-Tim
Re:Gee (Score:3, Insightful)
Huh? 5 was the most awful of them all, and Generations was... meh, not bad. But, 6 was possibly the best, IMHO. I can understand if it's not someone's favorite, but it was a good movie and deserves some recognition, dammit! :)
Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)
"subtle" parallels (Score:3, Insightful)
Enterprise did one thing even worse, the "technology'll get us out of this jam" routine. I mean, c'mon, they were able to defeat the bloody Borg (the doc even purged what were now strangely slow moving nano probes out of his system). Need to sneak into a place? Fortunately someone left their cloaking pod and we'll just borrow that (and oh yeah, an overload in it will cloak someone's arm...)
So what do we get now? Star Trek: Law & Order (plots ripped STRAIGHT FROM TODAY'S HEADLINES!!!)
The whole idea of Star Trek was to escape from today's problems, not bask in them with transporters.
Re:Good (Score:3, Insightful)
For comparison - if this were a Joss Whedon show, Trip might actually be dead and gone
My other big clue is that the other half of the household can no longer stand to be in the same room as the show...
Re:Maybe it's time? (Score:1, Insightful)
If people have high expectations of Trek they have the wrong idea. There were plenty of bad episodes of TNG - go watch the entire first few seasons. Enterprise's first few seasons have been a lot better than TNG's were, overall.
Remember the pro-Terrorist episode (Score:3, Insightful)
The desert "terrorists" who were portrayed in a positive light wore the headgarb associated with Arabs (which really is generic desert gear, but we see it on Middle Eastern Arabs all the time), and the representative from the world government was a Jewish guy with stereotypical Jewish curls...
I couldn't watch the show after that. ST:TOS was a drama that tackled big issues b/c being in space, the metaphores were there but not in your face. This one offended me, as I couldn't help but see it as Anti-American/Anti-Israel/Anti-Semetic bullshit.
Enterprise blew from the beginning. They used what appeared to be left-over ST:TNG scripts, instead of protraying the crew as REALLY being the first crew in space. Too much idealism, no sense of Real Politick, no concept of making allies for Earth... just not realistic for the first flight out.
The show should have been "rougher" than Star Trek, not more enlightened than ST:TNG.
That was the idea and premise, but the delivery was ST:TNG with new aliens... It was Voyager. Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, all started with the premise of "something new" in Star Trek, with odd crew memebers (terrorists, terrorists, pre-Kirk days), and quickly became another ST:TNG ripoff.
ST:TNG had the background for the super-enlightened team... Giant ship with families on board, shields and weapons that can waste ANYTHING in space (until the Borg), older, established Captain. Fleet's flagship with unlimited resources. That makes it reasonable to do a happy-shiny enlightened show. The other 3 shows were "frontier" Star Treks (like the original), but didn't have the campy shoot from the hip feel that Star Trek had.
Alex
I won't cry (Score:2, Insightful)
On a more serious note, the whole Star Trek genre has been stale for a long time. I watched a fair bit of Enterprise, almost out of habit, but I wasn't really "wowed" by any of it. Star Trek seems to run off a formula, to such an extent that you can almost map Enterprise episodes onto past stories from the other series. (And even within those, there was never huge variety.)
On the other hand, Farscape really drew me in. I was looking forward to the next episode to find out what happened, rather than watching just because "it was on".
I'm also rediscovering Babylon 5. I didn't really appreciate it at the time as I missed half (or more) of the episodes, but now I'm rewatching it all in sequence, I've come to the conclusion it's the best sci-fi series of all time. In Star Trek, nothing really surprising happens - you know that in each episode the crew will face some insurmountable challenge, overcome it by suddenly discovering they can supe-up some component of the ship, and at the end of the episode things will be just the same as they were at the start. B5 on the other hand (and to a lesser extent, Farscape) has real suspense and drama. Sure, you know they'll win out at the end, but you have no idea what is gonna happen on the way.
And I'm glad to hear, there are rumours abound [google.com] of another B5 project in the works. Surprised that
Mod me -1 troll if you want, but this is really what I think.
The making of a failure: How to (Score:2, Insightful)
I could go over a whole list of stuff they did wrong but the first mistake was simply ignoring the fans.
Way back (1993?) Paramount let slip rummors of plans for a star trek exploring the foundations of star fleat. The fan base booed the idea and continued to boo the idea for many years.
You'd think after a few years of booing Paramount would get the idea.
Re:shame (Score:1, Insightful)
Without the big breasts it would/should have been cancelled long ago.
Star Trek must not die. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why Enterprise was bad ? because of non-inspiring roles. Viewers care about people, not about philosophical experiments in outter space. In other words, TNG and the TOS was successful more because of the captains and the crew and less because of the story.
Let's take Lord of the Rings and remove the tension, the battles, Gandalf, Aragorn, Frodo and Legolas, and put Mr Smith travelling across the Middle Earth without participating and taking sides, only narrating what is happenning. Suddently, LOTR is transformed to a bad concept, just like the Enterprise.
In a few words, people want to view other persons' dramatic moments. If you take that away, then viewers can not identify themselves in the presented situations, and the movie/series will fail.
In order to resurrect Star Trek, the Star Trek writers must bring back the drama. Perhaps an intergalactic war between Federation and Klingons/Romulans, coupled with the great destruction of Earth, a love story, and a few dramatic characters will resurrect it.
Unlikely to drop before 100 episodes (Score:3, Insightful)
If they believe they can sell it to syndication, they'll keep going, by all means. If they don't think they'll sell it, it probably won't last out the season.
How can they keep it alive? Half-dressed Vulcans don't seem to be enough.
Re:Shame really (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Star Trek: Enterprise to be cancelled? (Score:3, Insightful)
Kate Mulgrew and Patrick Stewart were virtual unknowns at time of casting? Not that I liked Voyager mind you (did love TNG -- it's still my all time favorite TV show) but I'd hardly call either of those actors (not to mention Brent Spiner or Avery Brooks) "virtual unknowns".
Great start, then went downhill quickly (Score:1, Insightful)
And then, about the 6th episode, things just started to go downhill. The 6th episode, I believe, was that stupid one about the lost Earth colony that got struck my some kind of radioactive meteor, and only the kids survived because they were in undergound tunnels or something. It was a completely horid episode.
After that, they kept putting on episodes without a spark of originality, essentially just rehashes of old TNG or Voyager episodes. I still kept watching for a while, since they seemed to be getting back into the temporal cold war, and the first season ended nicely, but then all the work to develop that storyline was tossed out of the starboard airlock with the season 2 premier, never to be heard from again. Instead, they seemed to want me to abandon any concept on continuity by expect that everyone in the TNG timeframe would have forgotten that humans had already encountered both the Ferengi ("The Last Outpost" was their first face to face meeting) and the Borg (In "Q Who", I could have sword they had no idea what they were).
Since they not only did not respect their OWN previously established mythology (the series and movies, not the books), and abandoned good storylines to show me rehashed stories that I had already seen on their other shows, I actually stopped watching and haven't seen an episode since midway through that second season. Of course, part of that had to do with my supreme disappointment that Firefly had been canceled, and out of spite I did not want to stay with an inferior show. I for one won't be sorry to see this sorry attempt to destroy the mythos of Trek go.
I hope Porthos get some work though. The dog was the only character I managed to care about...
Come now... (Score:1, Insightful)
And the guy playing the captain? Geez.... completely forgetable.
There's the vulcan chick, she's pretty hot, but she can't make up for the rest of the series.
Did I mention the captain kinda sucks?
Re:Remember the pro-Terrorist episode (Score:2, Insightful)
Um.... ok. I haven't seen that episode, but maybe they were simply trying to make you look at things from different perspectives. As the saying goes, One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. Ok, so perhaps they were a little too obvious with the arab/israeli similarities. Does that really justify the cliched knee-jerk reaction of calling it Anti-American?
Enterprise deserved to be cancelled (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not any one factor that makes the series uninteresting, but a combination of factors that screams (or bleats) out "we're only going through the motions here". It wasn't the viewers that killed Star Trek, it was the producer.
Re:Can't say I'll miss it... (Score:4, Insightful)
Our current collective struggle is against the Ferengi. They are threatening to eliminate the power of the nation states and replace them with international corporate governance. People will be less valuable then equipment to them. Feudalism would once again fall upon the Earth.
I'm Easily The Biggest Trekkie I Know (Score:5, Insightful)
After Nemesis and Enterprise, Star Trek needs to die. Brannon Braga and Rick Berman are a bunch of greedy fuckwits, dumbing down and morally sterilizing the franchise (God, I hate Janeway) to attract Mr. and Mrs. MTV lobotomized American, and should be killed as horribly and painfully as possible.
Okay, a little far. But Star Trek needs some serious time off, after which it should be handed over to someone who might actually care about the franchise, and hire proven, good writers who aren't afraid to take a chance. Berman, the franchise's current head, was Roddenberry's money guy, and Braga, the main writer, is a wannabe Jerry Bruckheimer hack, and he's not even very good at that. Someone like Joss Whedon (not sure if he even likes Star Trek, but he'd still do well), Ira Steven Behr, or even fucking Jonathan Frakes. I'm sure there are other, better candidates, but I haven't done my research.
The best idea I've heard, I'd even go so far as to say the only idea that might salvage our beloved Trek, is to do "Star Trek Adventures" (lame name, but I'm not in fucking marketing). Essentially, a series of short miniseries set in various times and places throughout the mythology. Like 3 gritty episodes following a Klingon strike team in the Dominion War, then a few following Q around, having fun. You could jump to way the fuck in the future and watch the crew of the Enterprise-Q make first (well, second) contact with the Andromeda galaxy, spend an episode following the successful assimilation of a civilization from the people's point of view, then another, from the Borgs', and then spend a few weeks chronicling Khan's rise to power in the 21st century. You could take any genre, jam it into a Star Trek setting, and have a go. It's unlimited! They could even pander to a few episodes of CSI: Ferenginar, or a stupid sitcom set on Bolius Prime. Hell, after a hiatus, you might even enjoy dropping in on the NX-01 for a while.
The current producers need to go, they need to get the fuck off UPN, and they possibly even need to ditch the whole lone ship of exploration thing. TOS and TNG were mostly original, DS9 went somewhere entirely different, and did damn well at it (mostly because Berman and Braga ignored it, and left it to his subordinates), Voyager was utterly derivative of TOS and TNG, with a quarter the enthusiasm and passion, and Enterprise started out as the third iteration of the law of diminishing returns on the whole lone ship in an increasingly sickeningly PC unexplored space. Something like "Star Trek Adventures", without Berman and Braga, is the only way to save Star Trek.
Good Riddance (Score:2, Insightful)
TNG: great
DS9: good
STV: poor
ENT: awful
and it started out on a good foot. I overlooked the obvious inconsistencies in the interest of light entertainment, but over time the plot just seemed to stagnate. They introduce the expanse and the xindi to 'spice' the show up and the new season has been so obviously slutting for ratings. The new uniforms, the close intimate scenes between T'Pol and Tucker, the added combat element, the "ohnoes we're in constant danger" expanse ( with klingons thrown in for good measure ), and the melodramtic revenge motives all add up to something that deserves to be dead and buried and forgotten.
Enterprise tried to be a "star trek for the common viewer" but in doing so it has disenfranchised the Star Trek fanbase while failing to impress on any new potential audience.
Temporal Cold War was a mistake (Score:2, Insightful)
What I mean is - it's been discussed on the newsgroups that Enterprise is creating a future for itself that is *not* the NCC-1701A, due to the meddling of "future guy" and the Suliban. So we have an Enterprise that is creating a timeline that may not even *include* Kirk or Picard.
The most boring episodes of TNG were those where Picard gave a knowing wink to Guinan and said something idiotic like "I'll see YOU in 500 years in a few minutes". This "anything goes because the writers have a trap door for all situations" removes tension and human interest.
The writers and producers of this show lack any spark of creativity whatsoever. The Trek franchise is a friggin' Cuisinart of bad and repetitive writing. One episode last season was a blatant ripoff of "Alien Mine" down to the shape of the lizard alien's head. And they have to rely on elaborate deus ex machina crap for most of their story ideas and for resolution of plots.
Kill it, Jim, it's dead already.
Re:Are you really surprised? (Score:3, Insightful)
Finally, someone gets to the heart of why ST:TOS and ST:TNG ruled and everything else sucked. They were both very strongly character driven. TOS had an edge over TNG because instead of frustrated sitcom writers they had some very good science fiction writers (Ellison in his prime for one example...need I say more?) writing for them.
In ST:TNG you still had that emphasis on character development and story development. Even Wesley Crusher [wilwheaton.net] developed beyond the "brat on the Bridge" that every red-blooded trekker hated.
I blame Berman. Berman didn't "get it" from the very start. Instead of following in Roddenberry's footsteps and emphasizing story and character development, he emphasised bright shiny objects and fanservice.
It's time to put the whole ST continuum to bed. Say goodnight, Enterprise.
Re:beg pardon? (Score:3, Insightful)
William Shatner wants to appear on Enterprise; they should let him, every trekker would tune in.
Put Wil Wheaton on the next week (maybe let Kirk kill Wesley Crusher? ahh, the visuals), that's another additional 200,000 viewers above normal.
Kill the time-travel aspect after that, it sucks.
It's the writing,stupid. Or maybe the vision thing (Score:4, Insightful)
The point is, the thing that really had me rolling my eyes at many of the Voyager and DS9 episodes is how poorly written they were. They were organized around gimmicks which were simply patronizing to the fans of the franchise. To be fair, doing something memorable is going to be a huge challenge in along running franchise like ST. However, I think the ST writers would do well to be suspicious of "concepts" that scream to be summed up on one line ending with an exclamation point, e.g. "Let's have the whole cast play a baseball games against the vulcans!", or " Let's have Janeway fall in love with a hologram (OK, I can buy that) from a cute irish village!" Message to Mr. Berman: desperation is showing.
This has been a bit of a problem in every post TOS series, but it has steadily grown. Enterprise is the worst offender. I often feel like the writers are talking down to me. Or perhaps they aren't trying to talk to me, but to a demographic. You know, the kind that has to have "edginess". It's art by formula, but Komar and Melamid [diacenter.org] they ain't.
It's not a mystery that the franchise has lost its way since Rodenberry's death. The thing about Rodenberry is that he had a vision. At times it was a cringe-inducingly naive and parochial vision. But it was a vision you could buy into because the show really believed in it.
With Enterprise, the franchise's masters are trying to recapture the sexiness of TOS. But they fail because what they come up with is as artifical as a pair of regulation issue 40DD boobs. Enterprise doesn't believe in sexiness, it just needs a certain amount of it to meet the product specifications they have in mind. Take so much T&A, so much gunplay and battle, sprinkle at least one gimmick, stir and serve lukewarm.
Even when Enterprise raises what could be a provocative issue ("can torture be justified"), it ends up shying away because it doesn't believe anything. Time for another half nude shot of Jolene Blalock! No offense to her; despite her obvious endowments I think she is quite skilled and talented, as is much of the rest of the cast. They just aren't given anything interesting to do. I'd be glad to see a half-nude or even full-nude shots of Jolene Blalock in every episode. Rodenberry would have loved it. Just give the rest of my brain something to keep it occupied.
So, Enerprise just drifts in limbo, having neither the freshness and energy of TOS, or the gravitas and maturity of TNG. What it does have is "edginess", which I suppose is a kind of nervous tick. The fascination of that kind of thing is rather limited.
Re:Can't say I'll miss it... (Score:2, Insightful)
I've read about half the comments and all the positively modded were against the show continuing.
WTF. This isn't some matrix cult idea that should not be messed with. While I may wish I only watched the first matrix and left it at that I can't agree with the same philosophy on Enterprise.
I find the stories about the expanse interesting. I want to know how the Zindy (i think that's how you spell it) problem gets solved. And I don't mind the rub-down scenes. Actually now that I think about it the new format has made my girlfriend complain less about me watching the show and sometimes she even watches it.
So without inviting flame wars here. I suggest that you all think about why it is you at some point liked ST and take it with a grain of salt. ST:TNG came out over 15 years If ST:E dies now it will be a sad end to the franchise since we all clearly agree that ST:E is not the creme of the crop.
Support ST by watching even though you may not think too much of the show. We all know you secretly do that anyways.
B&B are the problem (Score:4, Insightful)
1) Think of Star Trek as a franchise to be exploited, instead of as an opportunity to tell great stories. This means that everything is derivitive retreads of existing material, because that's the safest tactic. This is whey don't hire real SF writers (e.g. Niven, Ellison, Gerrold) but instead hire TV writers who slap SF gadgetry and doubletalk over generic TV show plots.
2) resent the fact that everyone likes Gene Roddenberry's work better, and keep trying to create an "original vision" instead of executing GR's vision well. This is why they even took the name "Star Trek" off of Enterprise. They don't want to make Star Trek a success, they want to make something "new" a success, only they don't have the guts to actually create anything new, so they're trying to hijack Star Trek. This same issue is why the movie of Dune sucked (the director didn't want to simply film Dune, but had to get his ego involved), but LOTR was wonderful (Jackson told the original story perfectly, no ego BS), only Enterprise gets to suck weekly.
It's a shame, since Star Trek has so many fans, and the actors and effects in Enterprise are first rate. It's just the writing that sucks.
My advice: hire real SF writers and give them real creative control. Or watch Outer Limits instead. Or Farscape, Lexx, or SG-1....
Re:shame (Score:3, Insightful)
This sort of shit should be left to email with the SO, you know?
I mean, you're going to have a hard time selling that to anyone who has seen any of the other Treks.
That said, Mulgrew had like twelve minutes to prepare for the role, and most of the scripts for Voyager massively sucked.
Just like Enterprise. I mean, c'mon, we're talking about a series that is supposed to trace mankind's first steps into the cosmos and what's the first thing we see? A fucking Klingon!
Anyways, season three started out really good. The Night of the Living Dead episode with the Vulcans was actually extraordinary. Bakula seems to have had an encounter with a cattle prod as is acting now. T'Pol is showing more skin (just go with it.) The marines were a nice addition, if only because they're pissing Malcolm off, which means we get to see what he looks like when he's experiencing an emotion. I like Trip, but if it's a choice between him and the beagle, well...
Basically, the problem with Trek ever since Gene died has been that Berman and Braga think they're writers. They aren't. Compare the by-lines before Gene died and after. Before you had a rich assortment of talent putting out the stories. After, at least half of the stores are by Berman and Braga. They can't even fill 42 minutes with a story, they have to split the episode up and fill it with extraneous crap all of the time.
Trek should be allowed to die, if only because it goes public domain that much sooner. And as spent as the concept seems today, I have a feeling that in a few years, after our leaders have sent us to hell and back and we're light a few billion people, the rest of us will finally get it.
Everyone's going to be begging to be a Trekkie.
Re:It's About Time Too... (Score:1, Insightful)
Funny. ST has been a Berman/Braga show since ST:TNG Season 4. Best of Both Worlds parts 1 and 2 were Braga (and what netted him his long-term role), and quite a few of the great Season 4 and later episodes of TNG were theirs. They did DS9 as well (although they pitched to Roddenberry), and I'll disagree and say it started strong, stronger than the other ST series I've watched (including TNG).
However, they shouldn't have been in charge of subsequent series. This is a JNT sort of problem (John Nathan-Turner, of Dr. Who). JNT hung on for too many years and Dr. Who became The JNT Show (so to speak). Long-running franchises need new thoughts, new directions, new blood from time to time, or they stagnate.
Braga, for all his later stagnation, was that new blood for TNG. But, it's time to get someone else with new bits in there.
You have a great idea there. (Score:3, Insightful)
But I'd go a bit further. Hire the good writers to come up with a story that can be broken down into 5 years worth of scripts. A real story. One that fits with the existing mythology.
Then, each writer could handle different scripts. Each episode would be part of the same story, but they would be told in a different fashion. You could even have one writer handling a sub-story for 5 or 6 episodes in a row.
Do the original, "5 year mission" of the FIRST star ship to leave our solar system. Things break, people get on each other's nerves, people DIE, the crew sees things that no other human has ever seen. The characters grow and develop.
If they did that right, they could even get two movies out in that time frame.
Good writers (not all science fiction) collaborating on a multi-year series and a couple films.
It will never happen, but I think it would be a great idea.
Star Trek: TNG (Score:5, Insightful)
TNG was about making statements on humanity and exploring social issues, using the backdrop of a sci-fi space drama.
They keep showing the episode on Spike TV where the young recruit goes on the undercover mission with the terrorist organization, grows fond of them, and eventually defects. The last shot of the episode is Picard sitting in his room in defeat, lost in thought, wondering if he pushed her too hard...
That was good writing.
Bah (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously. Commercial TV is dead. We'll keep skipping commercials as long as it's still technically feasible to do so. Studios will cease making series that run multiple years, or cost tons of money. And ALL of Human Civilization will be better off.
Hate, from the bottom of my soul, to say this ... (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't say I'm sorry to hear that Enterprise is in danger of cancellation. I recently began reading Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry, and hearing in Roddenberry's own words about his vision of Star Trek, I can only say that the current Trek producers are pretty much raping the hell out of the Trek dream for pure marketing and financial reasons. Most of the movies and television series have become incredibly jingoistic and militaristic, and both ironically pretty much encompass almost every single thing that Roddenberry warns against. Roddenberry didn't have it perfect, either, but he cared with an obsessive-compulsive passion about the cohesiveness of his creation. The loss of that shows clearly. And the sheer contempt for prior series continuity that is evident in Enterprise absolutely disgusts me.
I'm a Trek fan. Not a con-attending, fanfic-writing one, but certainly semi-passionate; I often find myself reading the books, trying to catch the movies, etc. I was a Trekker even before TNG came out, and read the books as a young teenager. And right now, I could see nothing better for the franchise than for it to die. It's been milked to death and beyond, and the people in charge of the franchise now remind me of necrophiliacs who will simply continue humping the corpse until it decays to dust around them. Strong words, but sincerely, non-trollishly meant.
Re:shame (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, none of the other Trek series premiers had a decon-gel scene with a half-naked Vulcan. ;)
Star Trek shows are always a love/hate thing (Score:1, Insightful)
I've always been surprised that someone over at Paramount hasn't realized this and pitched the idea to have a sort of "Star Trek: Anthologies" series. Take the entire expanse (both in space and time ) of the Star Trek Universe, create one to three episodes (or maybe more across different seasons) around a decent storyline and run with it. Different casts, different ships/planets/sets, but all exploring this universe Gene created.
The "idea" of Star Trek has only stuck around so long because the format was so successful at creating stories and characters we care about. No one said they had to stick around forever! Far better to keep pushing the boundaries instead of creating yet another ship and crew that are interesting only some of the time. After all, it all started with a show that only lasted three seasons.
Look at Farscape, a show that often played with (and sometimes broke) the usual model of TV SciFi storytelling. It may not have been a huge ratings blockbuster, but it was definitely one of the best shows on in recent history.
give it a rest (Score:3, Insightful)
When I first heard about Enterprise... (Score:2, Insightful)
I honestly thought the first mission into deep-space would be tossed into a new galaxy -- a sort of Voyager on steroids.
I said, wow, not only are they going to be fresh out into deep space, but way out into some crazy, unknown worlds. The Vulcans, Klingons, and all the rest would be history. What a way to avoid the legacy, I thought.
Alas, I was in error. Instead, they churned-out the same old, same old.
The original Trek series tackled the greatest sci-fi concepts of the time. The Next Generation tried its best to emulate this idea and bring it into current times (the later episodes excepted).
Enterprise sucks. Hell, I even regret defending Bacula being cast as lead role, as he has been flat and lifeless.
Enterprise's death will not be the end of Trek on TV, I assure you. It will, however, clear the way for truely innovative efforts and captivating stories that deserve to be told.