Is Star Trek on Life Support?

[rayman]

Well it seems Paramount isn't interested in doing another movie or TV series, at least at this point. After Next Generation the ratings started to decline on each spinoff series, I feel mostly because they strayed away from Gene's vision of the future. For some "Enterprise" was the last straw that broke the camels back. Are people finding other science-fiction shows for entertainment like Stargate SG1, Atlantis, or Battlestar Galactica and avoiding the optimistic view of the future in Star Trek? Is Star Trek too lame for the younger generation of viewers?

[slytherinpinup (deleted)]

No, I honestly dont think that it's a point of being too lame. But The Original ST opened the door for so many ideas and oppertunities. The first show with minoroties in leading parts, heck the first show where the black woman wasnt a maid, but an officer!

But time keeps going, and because of ST we have been given so many other great shows. It was the catalist.

Now Enterprise, that was a mistake. And it and the ST movies just kinda faltered peoples beliefs and expectations.
We WANT our Captian, We WANT the stories, the conflicts, the humor and pathos. But we have others to choose from.

Just as what is happening with CSI. The standard was cast, and the spin offs just keep cranking out. Right now we are deluged with so many crime investigation and reality shows that it's just been DONE.

However, give it time and let things roll around once more, the pattern will be over looked and a new flavor will come back, hopefully from Genes vision and design.

[rayman]

Enterprise could have been so much more if done right from the very beginning, but on the other hand a prequel would not have been my first choice as a creator/writer. I do think a little bit of the blame goes to Rick Bergman but that's for another thread discussion. I quote one fan for saying "We didn't leave Star Trek, it left us." that seems to be how most fans feel.

[robinseaberg (deleted)]

The hardest part about accepting a new series has to be the crew. People get used to having the characters that they have grown to love and find it very difficult to adapt to new ones. You can usually tell that the writers know this because they got the original cast members to appear on DS9 and Voyager as much as they could (as well as having DeForest Kelly (Bones) on the first episode of TNG). I have a friend who really got into the "Enterprise" show and said that it was really good- I watched quite a few episodes and liked it alot, but I miss the Next Gen Crew (my homies!)... even if they are all aging now... I'm sure I am probably going through the same traumatic experience that the baby boomers went through as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy got older.

Anyway, if there are to be any more shows/movies, there had better not be any more prequels... maybe something involving Voyager and the Enterprise together? Maybe that would go over budget in the area of hiring all of the actors...

[datalaughing (deleted)]

I think Enterprise was a big mistake. It was a step backward in every sense. Star Trek isn't about going backward (unless it's a time travel episode). It's about going forward. The whole concept of Enterprise was just un-Trek as far as I'm concerned. I think it poisoned the franchise in a way. Now, in my opinion, it needs some time to recover. Let Trek sit out for while, get some R and R. Then, when the scars of Enterprise have faded bring it back with a new good concept for a show, and fans will flock to it again.

[thenighthawk_PREV (deleted)]

Enterprise wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't great either. The biggest problem for me was that we have an established continuity, and here comes this prequel show to muck things up. Romulans already have cloaking devices, pre-Balance of Terror? And more advanced-looking ships to boot? Most Vulcans can't mind-meld, and the ones who can are rebels? And why do Starfleet's prototype explorers seem more advanced than the Daedalus-type ships they supposedly used in the earliest days? It was just a big, fat mess. They would have done better to keep things either in the TNG timeline, or maybe work within the "lost era" between the OS-based movies and TNG.

[tstone (deleted)]

The biggest problem with Enterprise is that it promised to be something new and turned out to be the same ol' same ol', except with alot less passion and enthusiasm. Season three started on the right track, with a season long arc (tho using a major event that had not, to this point, been hinted at before, but I can let that go). Season four much more on the right track, as they brought on new writers and a new series boss, taking Berman and Braga out of the driver's seat, like they needed to a long time ago. You had writers who knew and loved their Trek. I suspect, had Enterprise been permittted to continue, we would have had a few season of some of the most memorable Trek in a long time.

Unfortunately, the well had been poisoned by those who were less about creative storytelling and more about sheppherding a corporate brand.

So, we got what we got. Maybe, when Trek reemerges, the passion will be back. It still exists in the book series...

[rayman]

I couldn't agree more Tstone. The reason season 3 & 4 of Enterprise was so much better was because of new executive producer/writer Manny Coto. Manny was fixing the mistakes Berman and Braga left behind and giving us the Star Trek we remembered. He is a fan himself and it shows in the episodes of those seasons. Unfortunately Paramount was itching to cancel the show and the rest is history. Manny is executive producer/writer for 24 this season so maybe it was a good thing for him.

[fayjprufrock]

You know, I never even think of Enterprise when I list the Star Trek franchise shows in my head. It's sort of like the 8th Doctor, in my mind.

The handful of episodes I caught were okay, but somehow it never really felt like Trek. It felt more like fanfic. Actually, it felt EXACTLY like fanfic.

I don't hate the concept at all - I think that it was a genuinely interesting premise, and one with potential. As I've only caught a handful of eps I can't really comment on whether that potential was realized, but I think I was decidedly off-put by the fact that they'd cast Scott Bakula in the lead - the other spinoffs had ensembles who were led by...well, not newcomers, but excellent actors who had more of tabula rasa thing going on within genre. (Okay, so Patrick Stewart was in Lynch's movie of Dune - that's not in the same ballpark as casting the guy from Quantum Leap.) I never was able to look at him and see him as Captain Archer, because he looked and sounded and acted much the same in both roles, so I was always conscious of him being an actor PRETENDING to be a Star Trek captain, rather than looking at Picard and seeing Picard, for example. If that makes any sense to you? Made suspension of disbelief tricky.

(I know that a lot of actors work in genre movies and shows, and heaven knows I don't look at Magneto and think 'Hi Gandalf!', for example...but I do always see John DeLancy as Q, and I fear that if I ever get around to catching SG:1 Season 9 I'll be all 'Hey, Chrichton! What the hell is Aeryn wearing? What gives?'...but if you've already had a lead in a longrunning genre show, then trying to establish yourself as an entirely different person in a different genre show? You're going to need the character to be VERY different indeed, I think, or else there's going to keep right on being that disconnect for the casual viewer.)

And you know, the other thing that I found offputting? And this will sound terribly shallow, but I think it bears consideration - the title sequence. On the one hand, I thought it was very pretty. But on the other hand, it really seemed to scream "Not Trek! Not Trek! Even if you don't like Star Trek, hey, give this show a try!" And that pinged me a bit - one gets so weary of SciFi movies/shows/books that try to distance themselves from the genre, and this felt like a similar kind of thing, almost.

[rayman]

I remember when it was announced that the words "Star Trek" would be above the title of Enterprise (this was in its third season if I remember correctly). It was like "Okay, we made a mistake, it is Star Trek. Here's your title back." lol

[brianwebber (deleted)]

I've said it before I'll say it again; the novels are where Trek is living on. The first novel Trek series, New Frontier (the only Trek series ever to feature subtle oral S-- jokes far as I know ) has made the New York Times Bestseller list several times (with Book 11 being the biggest; Book 17 just recently came out). Star Trek Stargazer and Star Trek Titan are receiving critical acclaim. Then there are the new DS9 books which continue the story (some fans refer to the books that run from A Stitch in Time through to Unity as Season and are doing fairly well. Then there is the e-Book series Starfleet Corp of Engineers which is popular on the internet though not so much with actual paperback buyers. There's also I.K.S Gorkon, and Star Trek Vanguard (a space station during the TOS era), and the Voyager continuation, all three of which I know next to nothing about, but the Voyager series (which I guess also counts as Season is in like it's fifth or sixth book already.

[tstone (deleted)]

Yup, and it's like the end of the original series. Literature is where fandom found sanctuary until 1980. Thing is, you have some AMAZING stories being told in that medium. When the phenom comes back to a visual medium, TPTB would do well to make note of the better writers there.

[brianwebber (deleted)]

tstone wrote: Yup, and it's like the end of the original series. Literature is where fandom found sanctuary until 1980. Thing is, you have some AMAZING stories being told in that medium. When the phenom comes back to a visual medium, TPTB would do well to make note of the better writers there.

Well they were going on that track before Enterprise was cancelled. I'd stopped watching the show early in Season 3, but I did see a few Season 4 eps, and the ones that were really good were written by Judith & Garifled Reeves-Stevens, who've written (or in the case of The Return co-wrote with Shatner) some of the better Trek novels, inlcuding but not limited to Federation, which was a much better way to tie TOS and TNG together than Generations was.

[tstone (deleted)]

Season three was where Ent started picking up. Season four is where it began to truly rock. Ent could have been some of the best Trek ever, had it continued on that track. Forget that abysmal series finale that was a Frak U to the fans from the killer B's.

Yup, when Trek comes back, they need to note the great writers in lit right now.

[brianwebber (deleted)]

Well, I did not care at all for the Xindi storyline. But when it came to Season 4, I did like the two-parter that took place in the Mirror Universe. th CGI old school Defiant was gorgeous, and if you ask me it's proof that they could've made this the Captain April series that many Trekkies have wanted, as opposed to the show we actually got which, with all due respect to Scott Bakula who was great in Quantum Leap, with Archer who had all the command presence of Captain Crunch.

They need to let Peter David create the next series. If nothing else it'll be the funniest Trek series ever. Let me give an example of soem classic Peter David dialouge (all form his Trek novels);

"My lap is chilly."
"Gracious in defeat my ass, I'm going to kick the crap out of them."
"Is he dead?" "We're trying to determine that."
"Is everyone on this ship obsessed with romance?" "Not me. I have goldfish."
"Mr. Kebron, may I ask why you've submited a request to have a coy pond put in your quarters?"
"Oooh, pretty colors."
"You are totally full of crap!" "Now now Robin, he' only 50% full of crap." "Hey!"
"Well what do you want me to do, crawl out a topredo tube?" "Well, actuallly..."
"In this vision of yours, was I wearing anything?" "Nope." "Some things never change."
"bull---- Mac!"