Can Star Trek Be Saved? (lighter topic alert)

TV Guide ^ | 2/03 | Nollinger

[pabianice]

After launching at warp speed in the fall of 2001, Enterprise, the UPN prequel series designed to reenergize the aging Star Trek franchise by attracting younger viewers, is limping along on impulse power. Midway through its second season, ratings are down 24 percent from last year. "What can you say?" executive producer Brannon Braga says. "We're bummed." And in clear violation of the series's prime directive, viewership is actually skewing older.

The news is even worse at the box office. Despite good reviews and generally enthusiastic fan response, Star Trek Nemesis, the most recent — and likely final — adventure to exclusively feature the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast (more about that in a moment), took in just over $40 million, making it the lowest-grossing Trek movie by far (translation: with production costs of $ 113 million, "Nemesis" was a financial disaster).

After five live-action series, 10 feature films, stacks of book titles and Q knows how many mass-produced trinkets, has the multibillion-dollar sci-fi franchise founded by the late Gene Roddenberry lived too long to prosper?

Corporate executives maintain that a warp core breach is far from imminent. Despite its ratings woes, Enterprise is still the top-rated drama on perennially struggling UPN and is in no danger of being canceled, says network president Dawn Ostroff. "Hit shows often take years," she says.

As for Nemesis, Paramount Pictures vice-chairman and chief operating officer Rob Friedman attributes the movie's flameout to tough competition from other holiday films. "I think we probably got 'Lord of the Ring'-ed," he says of the blockbuster Two Towers sequel that opened the following week. "Would we have preferred to have another $20 million at the box office? Sure. But that doesn't foretell any concerns about the future of Trek."

Maybe not. But it doesn't take a positronic brain to recognize that droves of fans have deserted in recent years. Movie ticket sales have declined from about 21 million for First Contact (1996) to 15 million for Insurrection (1998) to less than 8 million for Nemesis. On TV, the Trek audience has been shrinking since Next Generation's peak 11 years ago, when it averaged 17.7 million viewers a week in Season 5. Today, 4.3 million people watch Enterprise.

The series may be going where no man has gone before, but some Trek fans say the producers forgot the "boldly" part — those steamy decontamination-chamber scenes with Archer (Scott Bakula) and T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) notwithstanding.

"Enterprise has potential," says Jamahl Epsicokhan, a 27-year-old Web designer who has posted Trek episode reviews at Star Trek Hypertext Online since 1994. "But it doesn't take risks." Steve Krutzler, editor of TrekWeb.com, an Internet site that gets 150,000 visitors a month, says the series "was being hyped as a radical departure, [yet] everything feels like the same Star Trek we've gotten for 15 years."

Although Braga is not ready to divulge details, he says "epic challenges... that better exploit the sense of awe and danger" are ahead for the crew. "Let's just say there will be a slight revision in our mission, and a slight revision in the part of space that Enterprise is heading into," says executive producer Rick Berman, who has overseen the franchise since Roddenberry's death in 1991.

As to where the movies are headed, Berman is less certain. "I doubt because our box office fell off on Nemesis that it's going to be the end of Star Trek films," the producer says. "I can't imagine numerous other movies won't occur."

Though there have been no discussions as yet, Berman hints at one tempting scenario: combining characters from the various series in one grand adventure. "There are a lot of interesting possibilities," he says.

Berman's remarks suggest Trek is in an adjustment period; some fine-tuning is needed. "I don't think that there's any television franchise that people love to take potshots at as much," Berman says. In fact, he refuses to concede that Trek will ever run its course entirely. "Would anybody have guessed when the original series went off the air in 1969 that 34 years later it would still be part of the American mythos?" Berman says. "It's part of our lexicon."

Adds Braga: "You've got to keep an optimistic viewpoint. It's come this far, and it ain't goin' anywhere."

HOW TO FIX TREK

1. MAKE IT OBVIOUS It's cold and dark in space. Enterprise needs real peril, dread and fear so that characters are tested to within an inch of their lives. Introduce a chilling, powerful, wholly original threat that can't be vanquished in an hour. The Suliban aren't bad, but they're no Borg.

2 MAKE IT MORE REAL Let the crew make grave mistakes. Let them argue and be driven by less-than-moral impulses. Let the phaser beams rip through metal and bone. And let there be dangling emotional threads that weave through the lives of these otherwise bland characters.

3 LET CAPTAIN ARCHER BE HEROIC As written, Scott Bakula has as much commanding presence as Cap'n Crunch. Archer, like his beagle, is benign and a little too cute. He has an annoying tendency to second-guess, which trickles down to the rest of his whiny crew. Either light a fire under this laconic guy or kill him in a blaze of glory that explains why starships, planets and star systems should one day be named Archer. (And while you're at it, take out that annoying Ensign Hoshi with him.)

4 OPEN FIRE AND CLOSE THOSE PIE HOLES Enterprise should expand our belief about what is possible and transport us to realms unimagined with its ideas. But if it can't also be packed with action and adventure, move it to Lifetime. We're weary of the endless Trek babble on the bridge, the shuttlecraft, the crew quarters. Enough!

5 GET US ON THE EDGE OF OUR SEATS You shouldn't be able to figure out what the general direction and ending of any given episode is by the first 12 minutes. "Oh, here's where Hoshi overcomes her fear of failure..." "Well, it looks like Trip and that belligerent alien are going to work together to save both their hides..." Why not try some longer, unpredictable story arcs? Cliff-hangers, big and small, give a series purpose, poignancy and punch. Make us miss you this summer.

And at the movies...

It's no secret why Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the whale tale) was a fan favorite. It had humor, nostalgia and intelligent cast interplay. Why did Nemesis leave us wanting? It zipped through the Riker-Troi wedding, a payoff fans had long awaited. Worse, the film didn't include a farewell scene for Picard and his crush, Beverly. The heart of Trek is heart, and Trek's best films tap into relationships.

[discostu]

I thought Kirk vs Spock was the ep where he was "in season" and a little irrational.

As for Archer cold cocking a Vulcan: glass jaws. Some humans have them some don't, apparently some Vulcans have them too. Or we can say that Kirk didn't put a full load into his punches because he and Spock were friends. Or maybe Archer is just a better pugilist.

In the FASA game (always a good source since it was cannon and with a gaming audience they actually had to explain things) they said that Klingons actually had smaller muscle masses than humans but because of their highly combative society used it better and hence got a 5% bonus to their strength stat. Thus showing there are a lot of possible explanaition for things, try not to over think it.

[Frank_Discussion]

What Spock did would be termed pummelling, and we just haven't seen that yet on 'Enterprise'. As far as one-punch knockouts, some big fellas been taken down by the right shot in the right place, especially when surprised.

Also, in Amok Time, Mr. Spock was a bit pumped up, feeling no pain, as it were.

As irritating as Archer's been to the High Command, I'm betting he gets smacked by a Vulcan someday.

[discostu]

FIRST being the operative term. First you learn to be a grunt, then you learn to fly, then you've cost the Corp too much for them to make you a grunt anymore. These guys had been taught to fly, no more grunt duty.

SAAB was about a bunch of whiney uninteresting people that were miraculously winning every engagement while the planet they were fighting for was losing the war. Bad TV.

[Bogey78O]

"Commander Thor..."

"That's SUPReME Commander Thor."

[demosthenes the elder]

well, they have just started B5 releasing collector edition DVDs of the series, in letterbox, for a reasonable price.
So I can retire my well-worn VHS commercial-ridden TVscreen-format tapes...
The joy, the JOY!

[Bogey78O]

This goes back to comic book arguments.

By that I mean you can make a comic book where the Hulk can pick up a mountain and then have another where Superman has trouble picking up a mountain and draw the conclusion that Superman is weaker.

They scripted a few episodes where the captain has to make tough decisions. Big whoop. The character was weakly scripted.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

This is a quasi-military ship representing a government, not the Love Boat in space.

Statist! (just kidding) :)

[mg39]

"As irritating as Archer's been to the High Command, I'm betting he gets smacked by a Vulcan someday."

Actually, he already got walloped by a Vulcan. Remember the ep where that group of Vulcans who indulged in emotions ended up on the ship, and that one Vulcan basically mind-raped T'Pol. At the end he and Archer got into it, and he basically swatted Archer around like a cat swats around a mouse.

So maybe that Vulcan at the temple had a glass jaw. Okay. Still, I miss the Spock version; I mean, would kids today look up to Enterprise's Vulcans they way kids of my generation (me, anyway) looked up to Spock?

[Bogey78O]

Get on Kazaa. They have the season finale on there already I believe.

[demosthenes the elder]

prob'ly

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: By that I mean you can make a comic book where the Hulk can pick up a mountain and then have another where Superman has trouble picking up a mountain and draw the conclusion that Superman is weaker.

They scripted a few episodes where the captain has to make tough decisions. Big whoop. The character was weakly scripted.

First, I do not agree with your comic book argument other than to say it sound like something out of a comic book.

Secondly, I asked if you viewed all the episodes? Not a few, but all? If so, name me a few that showed Janeway to be weakly scripted? Name me one?

[lonewacko_dot_com]

1. Get rid of Scott Blackula.
2. More space lesbians with big tatas (Is it too late to save Jeri Ryan from the clutches of David E. Kelley?)
3. Bring back the Farengi.
4. Bring back Roxann Biggs-Dawson.
5. Get off the friggin' ship. Even if every planet you visit looks like Vasquez Rocks (L.A. park where many outdoor shots were shot for the original series), get out and mingle with those space foreigners.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Re: By that I mean you can make a comic book where the Hulk can pick up a mountain and then have another where Superman has trouble picking up a mountain and draw the conclusion that Superman is weaker.

They scripted a few episodes where the captain has to make tough decisions. Big whoop. The character was weakly scripted.

First, I do not agree with your comic book argument other than to say it sound like something out of a comic book.

Secondly, I asked if you viewed all the episodes? Not a few, but all? If so, name me a few that showed Janeway to be weakly scripted? Name me one?

[Frank_Discussion]

No Way. I'm a TV-Broadcast-Only Luddite, and am at least a season behind, maybe two. I don't wanna know...

[AFreeBird]

Hehehe yea, Thor's rejoinder driving home the point that he wasn't some lower worker bee was classic.

[AFreeBird]

DOH! AAAARRGGGHH!! I havn't seen that SG-1 ep yet!!! My eyes, my EYES!

Sorry dude. Don't worry, you'll still enjoy it. I kinda figured something like that would happen. Even watched the repeat at the later hour because I missed the first 10 minutes and still enjoyed it the second time. Great episode. Although I did miss the episode before that one and I wonder if it set the stage for this "Disclosure" episode.

[Burr5]

1). How To Rescue the T.V. Show: HYPE the damn thing a little! I haven't seen a T.V. ad for Enterprise in over a year, and I'm both a frequent viewer of the station it airs on locally, and a long-time Trek fan. But I honestly don't even know for sure what day or time it airs. If you don't get in the habit of making time for a show, you're probably watching something predictable (FoxNews in my case).

2). How To Rescue the Movie Series: Stop killing off your most beloved characters when you're not even sure you'll make enough profit to make a sequel and resurrect them. (Two notes on this: Nemesis' $40 million gross is U.S. ONLY-2/3 or so of a movie's gross typically comes from overseas, so add that and video sales/rentals in and they broke even at the least. And as for Data, if some Xerox copy of his "soul" winds up in B4 I'll A). be glad he's still around, and B). puke my guts out because it's an unbelievable premise, and also because they already pulled that trick with Spock). Here's two ways to get the Movie Series back on its feet: 1). STOP RELEASING THEM THE SAME WEEK AS CULTURAL PHENOMENA WHICH YOUR FAN BASE WOULD PREFER TO SEE! I knew Nemesis was doomed when I heard they were dumb enough to release it four days before "The Two Towers" (best movie ever, that LOTR!) 2). Roll the dice and marry the DS9 cast and TNG cast in an all-out action flick- possibly centering on Worf, the Klingons, and a new and mind-bogglingly terrifying threat from the Gamma Quadrant.
Spend some money on it. You have to cast your bread upon the water for it to come back dough!

[The Grammarian]

Robert April, a man's man, was the first captain of the Enterprise, not this slack-jawed twit with his mangy, flea-bitten beagle and range of emotions that run the gamut from A to B.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one that got annoyed when the "first Enterprise's" captain turned out to NOT be Robert April.

[Connservative]

Good points. By the way, I always thought it would have been cool, if you need truly evil, recurring, geniunely BADASS villains for the Federation they should have brought back the (literally) cold blooded Gorn.

It didn't stop B&B from bringing in the Ferengi...

[Bogey78O]

I've watched about 75% of the Voyager episodes. Sorry if you don't see it. But every episode would be like watching Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley kissing. Her character came off as fake and nonsensical.

It wasn't just her though. Everyone on the ship came off that way. The only one I really thought felt real was Paris and Tuvok.