Star Trek: Enterprise 5/05/'04 "e²" (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

For the first two seasons 24 would have encore showings on FX during the week, but when there was no new episode to run, Fox has shown something else Tuesdays at 9ET.

And while Smackdown! likely gets a larger audience than Enterprise, the issue I brought up is that the audience for Enterprise doesn't exactly overlap with anything else on the network - the fans of Monday's black-skewing comedies and those of the barely-integrated Enterprise don't share many members, whereas fans of 24 may also be watching The Simpsons, The OC, Arrested Development, Tru Calling, etc.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Star Trek Enterprise is unlikely to be renewed for a fourth season, according to a report in a Hollywood trade paper yesterday.

In an examination of UPN's possible fall line-up in anticipation of the network's official announcement on May 20, Daily Variety's Rick Kissell said "Star Trek: Enterprise is really struggling and likely will not return".

The trade paper gave UPN's successful Monday and Tuesday night comedies, including One on One and the Will Smith-developed All of Us, the thumbs-up, and said that UPN now needed to concentrate on its drama line-up.

UPN requires a "signature Wednesday drama" to establish itself as a "consistent player", according to Variety's analysis. The network has several detective dramas in development, including Veronica Mars, Mystery Girl and Nikki & Nora, two of which could pair up on Wednesday night. There is also Silver Lake, starring Kerr Smith (Dawson's Creek) as a psychic record store owner, and Kevin Hill, with Taye Diggs (Chicago) as a playboy laywer.

The possibility of Enterprise moving to Fridays has been mentioned in several media reports. But Variety cautioned: "Until the net gets something going on Wednesday, don't look for it to spend too much energy on Friday, where movies could return."
http://www.trektoday.com/news/100504_01.shtml

And of course Rick Berman who doesnt seem to have both feet in reality anymore thinks they will.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/080504_01.shtml

 

[Jack Briggs]

Mikel, got a link to that?

 

[Greg_S_H]

I know it's fashionable to lash out at Berman, but his comments in that link don't sound delusional at all. For one thing, they were taken from a magazine, so they aren't cutting edge, up-to-date. And when he uttered those words, the situation was exactly as he described it: the show's future was up in the air, but there was at least a chance it would survive. Come to think of it, that's still the situation. And, I hope it does make it. The plans for next season sound interesting.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yeah, they would use that spot to air one of their "reality" stunt shows, like Who Wants to Give A Giraffe a Hand Job?, or whatever. That's Fox's admittedly brilliant strategy- integrate attention grabbing garbage with high quality programming.

UPN doesn't have the ability to do that.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Hearing e2 was a great episode and much better than the other episodes this season I decided to watch it. This is the first episode I have seen in quite some time and I do have to admit it was decent. Still a long way to go from Great or anything with as much resonance as say B5 but it was better than the empty stuff I had seen the first two seasons. It may be too late since a majority of fans have already tuned out on a regular basis. I think it is too bad that we never really got to see the show we were sold on and thats the Birth of the Federation, not the Xindi thing but I dont think they are creative enough to tackle something to that magnitude; they have proven that.

 

[Nelson Au]

Here's a link to a USA Today TV section article about Enterprise that should have Mikel and Rex and Jack salivating.

USA Today

The article discussing the possible cancellation of the show, includes Berman and Mike Pillar comments. The idea that the franchise may benefit from a rest.

Of interest is the article mentioning the business impact of keeping Star Trek on the air for Viacom and the revenues it generates. By taking it off the air, they risk losing that revenue. But they also benefit by making a fourth season for the magical 100 episodes needed for the syndication market.

Not everything in the article is all that new to most of you.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I didn't realize Paramount was still making $200M/year on Star Trek; I figured it was a much more modest number by now. Even in Hollywood terms, that's a lot of money; if not having Trek in current production cuts that in half, say, then it makes sense for Paramount to keep spending $40M/year to produce Enterprise and basically tell Les Moonves that it's on the schedule.

I also wonder what agreements with licensors might have to do with it. Much of the ancillary merchandise is done internally - Viacom owns Pocket Books and SpikeTV, for instance - but they signed a potentially lucrative agreement with TokyoPop to publish Star Trek manga starting this fall; those guys might be ticked if there's no tie-in any more.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Yep, that's what sucks. If the plans for the birth of the Federation are in the works somewhere during the last 4 seasons and they cancel it now, we'll never get to see it.
Thanks for all of the bitching guys!

Genn

 

[Mike Broadman]

Yes, it's our fault that you won't see a birth of the Federation. It has nothing to do with the quality of the show itself.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I, likewise, am certain that my complaints over Star Trek's quality the last five years are a primary contibutor in UPN considering giving this the axe. Though I'm not sure why they opted to keep Berman & Braga in charge for the past few years instead of hiring good writers. Spite, I guess.

Seriously, if bitching on the internet had any real effect on network programmers, unscripted shows would have disappeared two or three years ago.

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

Your welcome.


I dont know if I would be salivating from cancellation news.I'd be more sad that the powers that be ran the franchise into the ground. I want good Trek and I am sorry Glen that it is my fault that we arent being entertained anymore.

 

[Bill Williams]

Scott Bakula appeared on the Wayne Brady Show yesterday and had some really interesting tidbits about what might happen in the season (series?) finale, "Zero Hour":

One of four things may happen: The Enterprise succeeds in its mission against the Xindi and makes it back home. The Enterprise doesn't make it back at all. The Enterprise makes it back, but without Archer. Archer wakes up and finds himself on William Shatner's couch.

The fourth one is hilarious, of course, but one of the first three is very possibly the real ending. Only a couple of more weeks to go, and we'll all find out...

 

[Mikel_Cooperman]

How about a fifth one where the Enterprise battles the dreaded Aliens called Nielsen's?

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jason Seaver wrote (post #68):


You're quite welcome.

 

[Andres Munoz]

Because she's had a lot human "in" her?

Oh wow. A Star Trek series possibly lasting "only" 3 seasons? I'd call that a big failure.

 

[Bill Williams]

The last time that happened, we got out of it umpteen numbers of conventions, an animated series, 10 feature films, four spinoff series, and a cottage industry of merchandising. Not too bad for a "big failure". It could happen again.

 

[Jerry Parker]

I hope next year are the Romulan wars Although according to the Trek "timeline" the Romulan wars dont start for 2-3 more years, I think it would be AWESOME to have an entire season based on fighting between Romulus and Earth. I thouroughly enjoyed the Dominion wars on DS9, and I think the Romulan wars would be VERY interesting and answer a lot of unanswered questions about the forming of the Federation.