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.

[freedumb2003]

>> The death of Roy Fokker comes to mind, and the way that loss haunts Claudia for YEARS after<<

Don't forget the fact that Roy and Claudia are a bi-racial couple (the first one I ever saw in animation of any sort).

And also, the ENTIRE CAST gets wiped out (other than Rick, Lisa and Minmei for continuity). Can you imagine if B5 got blowed up, leaving only 3 characters? The series couldn't survive. And as this thread is all about, if the Enterpise blew up and no one survived -- now THAT would be the way to end a series (of course not now with the terrible Columbia disaster so fresh on everyone's mind).

My undestanding is that RT was taken from an ancient Samauri tale about a kingdom that, like Earth in RT, gets its butt kicked 3 times but somehow survives, if less-than-intact.

[discostu]

They're out, well they're on the way out, Seasons 1 and 2 (The Sopranos really started something with this release the whole season thing) are out with the rest to follow, some nice extras. Check Amazon.

[nobdysfool]

First thing they need to do is stop all the PC crap! I don't want to be preached to about "social responsibility" and "diversity" and "tolerance" and all the other Liberal code words. I want to be entertained! I want to be on the edge of my seat. I want to see how what this crew does sets precedence for what Kirk, Spock, and Bones do after them. I want this series to make me think about possibilities tomorrow, not preach to me about how we should not discriminate against people who are different than us (you know which episode I'm talking about), with PSA about AIDS at the end. That's horsehocky! I don't need to be told in a TV show how I'm supposed to act! I already know that discrimination is wrong!

No more Politically Correct storylines. You want to know why viewship is down? There's your answer!

[Charles Martel]

It would be interesting to see them go back and redo the animation to modern standards with the same voice tracks. Some of the stories were pretty good.

What an interesting idea! They certainly have enough audio clips of De Kelley to enable them to retain the McCoy character. Hmmm...

[freedumb2003]

>>copy of the original Japanese Macross and Mospeada series with the original storylines and soundtrack. <<

I have heard about that. I will be looking for it as soon as time permits.

Thanks.

[Tolik]

Is it known if the B5 series will ever make it out on DVD?

Yes:

1.

Babylon 5 - The Complete First Season (1994) DVD ~ Bruce Boxleitner Avg. Customer Rating:

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2.

Babylon 5 - The Complete Second Season DVD ~ Bruce Boxleitner Avg. Customer Rating:

Not yet released

List Price:		$99.98
Buy new:		$74.99

 

 

3.

Babylon 5 - The Gathering (Pilot) / In the Beginning (1993) DVD Avg. Customer Rating:

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List Price:		$19.98
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[Charles Martel]

Just found an even more interesting quote that would apply to liberals versus conservatives.

"Forgive me, Mr. President, but they hate us with every fiber of their existance. We love freedom, we love independence, to feel, to question, to resist oppression. To them, it's an alien way of existing they will never accept." – [Lorne Greene]

BattleStar Galactica

Speaking of which, GUESS WHAT THE SCI-FI CHANNEL IS UP TO.

Looks like the series is being "re-imagined" and crafted into a four-hour miniseries. Richard Hatch and everyone else who was part of the original series and who expressed interest in the new show (and who kept fan interest alive for 20+ years) has been told to get lost. BTW, Hatch produced a slick theatrical trailer to pitch his concept of the revised/updated series. That was probably the last acting role (however brief) for John Colicos, who died shortly thereafter.

Here's a taste of just how bad this is gonna suck: the Starbuck character has been recast as female. It appears that instead of an upgraded BSG, they're going to present the viewers with a new Galactica 1980 (*ack* - ptoooie!). Stupid, stupid, stupid.

One other thing... the above quote could apply to the Islamic extremists as easily as it applys to liberals. I know... not much difference in many cases.

[MadIvan]

Darth Vader is and has always been a hero.

One of my personal heroes too.

Regards, Ivan
Webmaster, TheDarkSide.Net

[HamiltonJay]

Enterprise is certainly not the worst Star Trek ever... Voyager clearly holds onto that crown... my god 7 seasons and the only character worth a damn was the HOLIGRAM!

Enterprise however is very disappointing. Human's first voyage (for the most part) into deep space and we are lead by a captain whos thinks he's Jesus (every even they encounter her tells some historical parable or other) Who self doubts himself routinely, who has all the leadership ability of a box of exlax.... You're the captain, you don't have to justify your orders, and you don't have to debate the validity of them with some gal who's only reason for being on the show is T&A.

The series suffers from poor writing, more than anything else. There is so much potential here, and all we get are cookie cutter drivel more often than not. Again like voyager the only character of interest seems to be the Doctor.... Has the star trek universe forgetten what it is to be a CAPTAIN? Janeway they wrote so crusty that they overplayed her being in command (I guess because she was a woman, had to be overly hard nosed) Archer is written like a pansy... even when he puts his foot down, its hard to take him seriously.

T'Pal character is empty. Sure she's a vulcan, but she can have a personality, and can express it. The chemistry of Spock, Kirk and Bones worked, Tpal Archer and the other one don't... The writers need to get over the sanctimoniousness as well... I have no problem if you want to put a social commentary into your shows on occassion, but at least make an effort to have a plot around them that works, not invent the plot post facto, just written soley for the purpose of providing a hardly visiable cover over your hour long political diatribe.

You really need to work on the writing, there is so much potential here... and cookie cutter is what seems to be being produced.

[colorado tanker]

you don't have to debate the validity of them with some gal who's only reason for being on the show is T&A

True, but you must admit she's really good at T&A.

[Question_Assumptions]

You can order Macross from AnimEigo. The remastered the entire series and cleaned up a lot of the frames. The DVD looks "cleaner" than the Japanese LDs (Laserdiscs) that I have.

ADV will be releasing Mospeada soon.

I've never seen the Macross Movie on DVD. I have a Japanese LD. I sold my English dub because I thought it was that bad. You can probably follow the story, even if you don't know Japanese, if you've seen Macross.

[Patriotic1]

To be completely honest, I stole the "gamut of emotions" line from Gertrude Stein (I think) ... ;)

I'm not sure of the timing, but Dorothy Parker wrote that in a review of Tallulah Bankhead's stage acting.

Why do I know these things?

[Patriotic1]

And didn't B5 have Harlan Ellison as their creative consultant? I never was a big fan of his SF (the term sci-fi makes me cringe), but his writing style was superb.

[Bogey78O]

I just watched Stargate SG-1 episode 621- "The Prophecy". All I have to say is this is the best episode of Stargate I ever saw. Well, maybe on par with a few in the past but it's really great even though it's not the season finale.

[Bogey78O]

Ooops...forgot to ping you.

Just saw episode 621, IMHO it's one of the best episodes.

[southern rock]

in ST The Motionless Picture certainly didn't look 1950-ish. And it was only a poorly-seen silhouette in one fleeting scene - you could slap all the bells, whistles, and gimcrackery you wanted to on the basic outline.

There is a (pre-Enterprise) Trek book out called "History of the Future" which shows models for supposed 21st century ships that had globes instead of saucers. Those were cool looking. I don't know why they didn't use that design for Enterprise NX 01

And a show explaining how the Klingons got the lobsterheads would be fun. Do a story arc dealing with the "genetic experiment gone awry" that Worf alluded to in STTNG.

That was on DS9, and I thought is was dumb. How could 24th century humans not know that there was a compleatly different race of Klingons only a hundred years earlier? Duh!

[Tolik]

Yes, you are right. Harlan Ellison was involved with the Babylon 5 project.:

The show was created by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS), who is executive producer along with Doug Netter. It has been in development since 1987.

JMS has been involved with genre television for many years, as story editor and writer for the Twilight Zone TV series (syndicated version), Captain Power, and the animated The Real Ghostbusters. He has also written for Jake and the Fatman and Murder, She Wrote. JMS has also had many published short stories, an anthology, and two fantasy/horror novels. Until recently, he was co-host of Hour 25, a Los Angeles area science fiction radio talk show.

Doug Netter is an equal partner in Babylon 5 and has been in the business for a long time. He was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at MGM Studios from 1970-1975, where his nickname was Rattlesnake, thus Rattlesnake Productions, the production company he founded in 1978. Doug mainly handles the business side and leaves the creative work to Straczynski, which is how they first worked together on Captain Power. Recent executive producer credits include "Captain Power" and "The Wild West" 10-hour miniseries documentary.
 

Harlan Ellison is the conceptual consultant for the series. He has written a "manifesto" for the show that explains to other writers how to write science fiction for television and Babylon 5 in particular. On a day-to-day basis, he has no preassigned duties (though he plans to write a script or two) but is something of a generalist, helping refine many aspects of the production, from writing to sets. JMS refers to Ellison's position as "a free-roaming agent of chaos."
see more here: http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/creators.html

[GunRunner]

"will little Worf get along with his classmates at Klingon Kindergarden?"

ROFL! Yeah, that whole Worf Jr. thing was stupid. Did you ever see the episode where Worf and Troi got busy?

That one left me a little sickened yet curious. Did I just say that out loud?

[GunRunner]

Does anyone know what USS stands for in USS Enterprise?