Our friends at SciFi Storm have several links on the subject. The long and the short of it being that despite retooling, the show’s ratings have not significantly improved. This echos a piece a few weeks back in TV Guide, hinting that Enterprise would not make it past season four.
Questions remain: Will we really miss it? And how long until UPN/B&B throw us some more crap?
whats really sad
is that they have 25+ years of name recognition and generations of viewers… and they can’t make it work.
I’m not saying I’m a genius producer, but Star Trek has a lot of room for growth and a lot of new places to go. And they can’t make it work.
Nobody every tries anything new… and the old is looking pretty lousy about now. Without risk, there can be no gain.. and nobody in TV sci-fi is risking anything.
makes me sick
Re: whats really sad
Well, I am an Genius and they should let me fix it for them ;)
Hear, Hear
I agree completely. B&B are stupid. That can be the only answer. Their parents made them eat too much boiled cabbage when they were children, and it not only affected their sex drives, it made them write weird screenplays.
IDEAS FOR ENTERPRISE SEASON 4
After an earlier-than-established encounter with the Cardassians, who are planning to invade a mysterious world referred to once as “the Bajoran homeworld,” Reed develops the first quantum torpedo 220 years early. The scriptwriters forget about the “Polarised Armour” bollocks and just use shields, which are no different from polarised armour anyway.
Archer takes the Enterprise’s warp 5 engine to its maximum emergency speed of 9.999, which is somehow an infinite speed even though it’s only about 3,000 times the speed of light. Somehow time does not pass more quickly for the rest of the universe than it does for the Enterprise crew, which is okay since they can now travel to the Klingon homeworld in 4 seconds instead of 4 days.
Enterprise will encounter another Starfleet ship whose crew are all dead and will then survive the subsequent alien attack, which isn’t really an attack, the aliens are merely trying to communicate and the 200 dead crew members are just an accident. T’Pol will get her tits out. Doctor Phlox will become the foremost expert on how to prevent assimilation by the Borg until Phlox’s entire species vanishes without reason. Through all this, Trip will experience between 3 and 5 shuttle crashes, being stranded with an unfriendly alien each time. Captain Archer will revert to being unable to act. Porthos will be mentioned once or twice.
How’s that sound?
Darn
What pathetic scifi tv shows can I crap on now??
Considering that I might actually like a series based on the new Battlestar Galactica, I’m kind of lost as to who can earn my blistering criticism.
I could pick on Andromeda but that’s like making fun of the kids on the short yellow bus.
The Bionic … oops, I mean Jake 2.0? Nah, I’m already ignoring it for the West Wing.
Little help here?
My prediction
End of season 4…
…Archer is doing something boring, solves the temporal time war or whatever they’re calling it, and then they’re just bumping into the E in a pod with Trip at the beginning of season 1. That little quantum universe is stuck in a mobius loop and they never get anywhere, and never really were around to affect TOS, TNG, DS9 or Voy in anyway.
Thoughts on Doing Star Trek Better
Creating a good Star Trak spinoff for a franchise that’s aired in the last 5 consecutive decades is a very difficult feat.
I won’t miss Enterprise if it is cancelled, because it is not a very compelling TV show. But, consider how many things it has going against it:
1) The curse of continuity: Generating new ideas is difficult because most everything has already been done. Yet, anything new that writers try must be consistent with the fictional history of Star Trek or risk derision by the faithful.
2) There’s only so many story lines you can make about a few people riding around in a spaceship. How many good stories could you come up with if you were confined to working with half-a-dozen people cruising the ocean in a small ship. Sticking them in a boat called “Enterprise” (or “Voyager”) doesn’t change that fact. Every protagonist must come from outside the ship, which easily devolves to the “monster of the week” syndrome. (Internal protagonists can’t be developed lest they threaten the crew itself.)
3) The sense of majesty and grandeur viewers expect from every Star Treak episode is very difficult to achieve and sustain. It wasn’t nearly as present in older series as poeple think it was.
So, now what? I think they’ve got two choices:
1) Move the story line so far into the future that continuity isn’t an issue. Move it way ahead, even beyond all those centuries hinted at in Enterprise.
0r,
2) Move the story slightly beyond the NextGen era, but introduce a new malevolent threat against which even the Borg pale. In fact, set the stage for a Borg-human alliance to battle this threat. Make the stakes transformational in nature. E.g., good and evil fighting it out. Lend an air of metaphysical mumbojumbo to the story so we know that both sides are acting as proxies for even more fundamental and powerful entities behind the scenes. (Yes, this smells more than a bit of B5, but….) Good use might be made of the “Q” by allowing them to be serious, instead of behaving as cosmic omnipotent court jesters.
Re: Thoughts on Doing Star Trek Better
excellent points… I agree.
Another good show could easily be something that is much more simple.
Make a show that fits in the timelines between First Contact and Enterprise. Have it be about the colonization of Mars or some other low tech topic. If it didn’t attempt to be epic in nature (thus effecting the whole timeline), it could conceivably do well as a sci-fi show… Make it a show more about characters than about a showcase of technology. Heck.. Make “Alias” in the future… That would draw me.
I’ve always been intrigued by the more gritty “realistic” sci-fi.. like Alien, where the ships were boxes of metal with a lot of stuff strapped on… Or Niven’s tales of asteroid miners and cargo smuggling…
Re: Thoughts on Doing Star Trek Better
First of all, you mean antagonist.
But more importantly, there can be conflicts generated from within. Voyager had recurring villains in both a spy and a psychopath in the crew, and the inevitable clash when the two crossed made for a good episode. Much of the larger storyline in DS9 came from the politics involved with having multiple groups with interests in the station.
Voyager and DS9 both had a blending of two groups that don’t get along perfectly in their premise, so that could be what’s intended with bringing the marines onto Enterprise, and how they clash with the security team.
Re: Thoughts on Doing Star Trek Better
I don’t agree, any movie has continuity – its just continuity with reality, its simply some rules you work wihtin. As for stories, i could give them a few ;) But stories are not that important if you care about the characters (which most don’t at the moment)
not sure, but is it worth giving a chance?
ALL Star Trek serieses started off badly. We all remember what season 1 and even 2 of ST:TNG was like. By all accounts, they should have aborted that series too, not to mention DS9. In the end, they mostly got better and/or grew on us (well maybe not DS9, personally). Why is everyone so hasty to kill this series off? True, after all that experience with the franchise you’d think they’d have it right by now but you could say that about the previous series as well. For a change, I’ll be an optimist and hope it stays around and gets better. I might miss watching T’Pol otherwise.
Re: not sure, but is it worth giving a chance?
This is a popular defense by the Bermaga, and they started using it when people were pointing out what a complete bag of shit Voyager was. Of course, Voyager remained firmly in the “so stupid it hurts” territory until the very end. Given that, there’s little reason to suspect Bermaga can produce anything decent.
IMHO, DS9 actually did get fairly good towards the end. Relatively solid characters, a decent and intriguing story arc, and some fairly daring narrative moves. What’s interesting about this is that the quality of the show was inversely proportionate to the amount of attention the Bermaga were paying to it. Since Bermaga was focussing its attention on Voyager, the writers were able to work without their influence, and not produce shit.
Bermaga’s plans for turning it around:
My question for you is: why should you continue to spend your time patronizing lazy, stupid crap? Why reward them for cranking out this dreck? Wouldn’t it be better to pretend we live in a world where sci-fi fans can actually demand quality? We might just get it.
Re: not sure, but is it worth giving a chance?
I’m not quite sure this is totally true. IIRC, TNG didn’t get better until Master Roddenberry all but left fine control of the show, leaving it in Berman’s hands. I can’t speak why the final few seasons were generally the best (though I suspect the absense of Wesley was a large contributing factor) and how much he was involved with it. For the other series, maybe he ran out of ideas, I don’t know. Maybe the quality bar was raised above what he could produce, who knows?
As for rewarding the cranking out of dreck… for me it has less to do with that than trying to recognize some good potential. I think of all the people who missed out completely on Babylon 5 because they wouldn’t give it a chance based on the first half-season or so (though I admit the episodes were better quality than we have with Enterprise). True, I’d rather Enterprise never existed than see this continue or to see the saga truncated without any good resolution. But you don’t know if it’s going to be good until it’s made. Maybe the Trek franchise should have just retired but to me it was worth a shot.
George Takei has wanted to do a show …
He’s been pushing Paramount to go with a show based on the Excelsior for several years now. To me it makes sense, and they can bring in TOS characters, at least the ones left alive. On the other hand if the concept’s handed to Berman it’s dead in the water. Could we possibly let Takei produce it, and have Nimoy come in and direct from time to time?
-Joe G.
Re: Everyone and his brother has wanted to do a show …
Certainly, having real SF writers write the show would help, like this, only seriously, but I think that, in the end, good SF isn’t going to come out of the Trek “franchise” (sorry, Technogirl) anymore. It’s rooted in now hopelessly-dated concepts of SF and overly anthropomorphized notions of aliens. We need Whedon and others to keep throwing out new approaches to SF and fantasy on TV, and hope one of them sticks. Trek‘s exhausted its run. Berman and Braga wrecked one of the few remaining concepts for its universe, the prequel.
Or, someone could hire us….
Re: George Takei has wanted to do a show …
Heck, I’d let Takei write. I know it won’t be as bad as Enterprise or Voyager that way.
NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
They can’t kill Enterprise without doing an evil mirror universe ep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
No, please DO kill it before they do a mirror universe the sheer horror of an evil T’Pol complete with BDSM gear and gottee (hey she is supposed to evil) makes me shudder at the thought.
Re: NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
I’ve been hoping that all along they’ll end it in such a way as to show that the Enterprise universe is actually the mirror universe.
Of course, they could have said that from the beginning, and they would have had a much more interesting show.
Re: NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo
The mirror universe stories have plot holes big enough to drive a Peugeot 406 through! They are fun though. Kinky Kira – ROWR!
UPN Prime-Time Coverage
One big difference between TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT is that TNG & DS9 were syndicated and VOY & ENT were/are UPN network shows. I can’t help but think that the fact that first-run ENT episodes have to necessarily go up against 8-10PM weekday programming is hurting viewership some. Especially given the fact that it’s currently up against Smallville.
I’ve actually enjoyed the series more this year. I just wish the show was available in HD; that might not increase viewership currently, but in a year or two it could be a factor.
Re: UPN Prime-Time Coverage
More people might watch it if it had no competition, but only because there was nothing else on. There have been a few interesting episodes, but even the Battlestar Galactica people realized that you need to tell a good story. Enterprise has a good plot, but they haven’t developed much in the way of good stories yet.
Re: UPN Prime-Time Coverage
They should stick Hoshi in another short dress like they did in “Exile.” It takes a nice pair of legs to make you realise how attractive someone is. The little tease!
Smallville
I would totally watch Enterprise if it didn’t compete with Smalleville. They are stupid for putting it up against that. The audience for SF is so small, why force it to divide? They should put it on the timeslot right before or right after smallville, because neither channel can come up with a good lead-in/follow-up.
As for the content, my biggest beef is that some of the episodes are just boring and pointless. I mean, DS9 spoiled us, by giving us a story arc, and even pointless episodes like the baseball one serve, at least in part, to support that. Same with Voyager. At the end of the day, whatever they did was toward some sort of goal. At least with the whole Xindi plotline, the series has some sort of direction. They should make that stronger. Include a brief backstory as part of the opening of the show.
How to end Enterprise
Daniels appears in Archer’s cabin. Daniels is smacking his malfunctioning hand-held computer saying, ‘It says here that your place in history has nothing to do with the Temporal Cold War or the Xindi. It’s something to do with a terrible virus that crosses from another species to humans and kills all life on Earth. I’ll get back to you when I get more information.’
Later that episode Archer accidentally leaves Porthos in an airlock that gets cycled. Porthos is whisked into cold vacuum where he explodes. Just then Daniels reappears with a trimphant look on his face, ‘You did it Archer! That was it’. Electrical arcs of Quantum plasma cover Archer’s body as he leaps from this time-line. Archer reapppears in 1950 Mississippi in a dress and can only say ‘Oh boy…’
Re: How to end Enterprise
Or better yet, Bob Newhart wakes up in a cold sweat next to a mostly naked Jolene Blalock and proclaims, ‘I had the strangest dream…’
Re: How to end Enterprise
Man, we could only hope. That would be a great way to end the show…
The real problem
DS9 and Voyager had one important element that’s missing in Enterprise – a Benson actor in heavy alien makeup.
The solution – a sympathetic Xindi defector played by Missy Gold falls in love with Archer and joins the crew.