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Rick Berman: Enterprise May Not Suck Next Year
Steve Krutzler writes "Star Trek producer Rick Berman has made his latest comments in a new interview with a British magazine and he says the season finale of Enterprise ("The Expanse") will begin to change the ultimate mission of the show for the better: 'I think our final episode of the season is going to be quite startling because we're going to do a cliffhanger that will put a new twist on the series as it enters its third year.'"
Oh, give it up. It's over. End this soap opera. Don't try to save it. Be like Buffy; she knows when to quit.
When talking about why ST: Nemesis was a failure Rich Berman (basically the head of all things Star Trek) said that opening between Harry Potter 2 and The Two Towers was tough on the film (70 Million to make only took in 43 Million in the US). I'd say to Rick, paying to watch such a bad movie was tough on the audience. The reason Nemeses failed was that it was BAD, both the story and directing.
...oh no that's in the interview too!!!
I DO like Enterprise but after reading the article to find out that the Borg are going to be in an upcoming episode. I feel sick.
Paramont please fire Berman and replace him with someone who does not rehash old ideas and thinks they are exiting story lines. It took are huge letter campaign to get ST from Paramount/Gulf-Western/Desi-Lu's closet to the Big Screen. Anyone want to write to "Impeach Berman" ?
What's next have a new young helm officer named James T. Kirk?
Hot gel-showering hot chicks aside.. I kinda like the series. I do think a "change of direction" would be an improvement though.. you can only go so far in space with that naive "we're from earth.. please don't kill us" thing. Maybe they'll develop some better weapons and grow some larger space nuts too!.. and MAYBE... just MAYBE... we'll get the scoop on this whole Klingon forehead thing.. No ridges... Ridges... That's a choice in potato chips, not aliens dammit!
chown -R us
If you didn't like it, oh well. But MANY of us did. There was lots of good stuff happening.
Voyager had one of those season finales every year and the show just kept getting better and better!
paintball
... Rick Berman, Executive Producer of the Star Trek(r)(tm)(c) franchise is announcing his retirement from creative control of Star Trek...
C'mon guys... It won't stop sucking until Berman is out of the driver's seat. He doesn't know how to do anything truly creative. He was Roddenberry's financials guy, for crissake, not the creative pillar behind the series.
IBM had PL/1, with syntax worse than JOSS,
And everywhere the language went, it was a total loss...
Actual cliffhangers considered by Paramount:
Sorry, that was one was added by me.
The best TV-watching decision I've made all year was deleting Enterprise from my list of TiVo Season Passes. I'm a huge DS9 fan (still rewatching episodes as they air), I watched every episode of the other series (well, I missed a few Voyagers, I think you understand), but I can't believe people are still watching Enterprise.
The Slashdot story I'm waiting to hear is that Terry Nation's Survivors is coming out on DVD. Terry Nation was a science fiction script writer who could actually write.
I can't stand it. I tried to watch it when it started but the opening theme music is so freaking painful that I am forced to change channels or just turn the tv off in shock.
There are many nasty things you can say about Rick Berman: lousy writer, assumes audience consists of morons, rips off actors and writers, etc. But even if he had none of these issues, he'd have no hope of producing a watchable SF series. 'Cause he has no idea what SF is.
He thinks SF is all about the Gee Whiz Factor. Fancy effects, pretentious pseudo-science, lots of gadgets. That's why he abandoned the Picard/Sisko/Janeway thread: it was getting to hard to top himself with fancier and sillier gadgets and effects. So he goes back a couple centuries, where he can derive GWF from the "this is where it came from" element.
Real SF has nothing to do with the GWF. It's about playing with ideas, fiddling with them, seeing where they will go. That's why Star Trek developed a serious following in the first place.
Enterprise has pro forma "ideas" of course. But they're lame, silly, invented by retarded people who don't even know Junior High science.
Ironically, absence of the GWF is also why Stargate SG1 is doing so well. Which is really weird, because the premise of SG1 has got to be the silliest ever. (The USAF is secretly involved in intergalactic exploration and warfare? Yeah, right.) But the better SG1 episodes do what Star Trek used to do -- find interesting ideas and use them to tell simple interesting stories.
Bah, Berman has fell victim of the conservative trekkies. There are a lot of people who already like Enterprise. And majority of the people who like Enterprise are a "new breed" (IMO) of Star Trek fans (such as myself) who have never seen Star Trek before, but like this series.
The reason I like Enterprise is because it's more "humble". There really isn't a prerequisite to the show, so I was able to be introduced to "Star Trek" just as the crew (staff) of the show is. It's less technical and deals more with the human experience. (Like Voyager) I heard that people dislike the intro, but I think it works very well. It keeps up the "human"/"humble" theme. Even though the orchestra openings are good, I don't think there's a problem with the opening song (Faith of the Heart). (BTW, if you want to see what the Orchestra version would of been like, a "leaked" recording is here*.)
Now that I got into Enterprise, I've also started watching Voyager nightly, and now TNG on the "New TNN" and I'm having a new appreciation for Star Trek as a really good collection of shows, instead of the stereotype "geek" show that I used to make fun of.
Anyways, I hope they don't mess up the series. The last few episodes ("Stigma" & "Canamar") have been pretty good, "Stigma" went on about the politics of an AIDS-like disease among the Vulkcans (via Mind Meld). Though, they should of done something like that years ago.
I'll keep watching.
He's already destroyed star trek and he's digging an even deeper hole for himself (to soon be filled with molten lead).
Enterprise has already broken the star trek timeline so many times that it's just not funny anymore. The plot lines are cheesy rip-offs and hold no future for the show.
I bet his idea of "quite startling" is "implied nudity" and "cliffhanger" is "predictable ending" and "new twist" is "old and abused nonsense."
I think the whole status of the franchise can be summed up with the opening theme for Enterprise. Hands down, people hate that song. Sure, there may be one or two fans, but for the most part, it sucks.
When asked about the backlash brought on by the atrocious theme, Rick Berman's response was "I like it". That there, to me, is the whole problem. Berman doesn't give a shit about what anyone else thinks. If he likes it, good to go. And, since Berman has shitty taste and doesn't know the first thing about Trek, we're stuck with substandard crap.
Nevermind that they had never been heard of prior to the last season of The Next Generation, and nevermind that Voyager already tried to ret-con it so that Seven of Nine's parents actually knew about them prior to the events of "The Best of Both Worlds," and nevermind that each successive appearance of the Borg in TV and film has made them less interesting, but can the writers come up with no better ideas? Even after the Borg were introduced in The Next Generation, the writers kept trying new things and didn't rely on them. Deep Space Nine's Dominion plotline was dramatically insulting, but they found a way to deal with non-Borg life. Voyager I can understand, since that show took place a long way away from the Federation, but... but... Enterprise?!?
Mr. Berman, hear this: If you have to rely on the Borg to make your show interesting, you need new writers! And quick!
--Matthew
"If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
Do you remember when Enterprise was first introduced? We were promised it would be "Star Trek with phasers". In other words, lots of action, less "character development" episodes and other slow topics.
That recent "Stigma" episode (T'Pol has mind-meld disease) was as far from "Star Trek with phasers" as you can get. On the other hand, that recent "Canamar" epsiode (Con Air, in space) was pretty cool.
Here is the best hope for the series: Berman and Pillar have stopped writing all the episodes. Every time I watch Enterprise, I make careful note of who wrote the episode. The whole first season was purely written by Berman and Pillar. Recently, we have had a string of episodes written by other writers.
If they want to make us happy, they ought to get some scripts from actual SF authors. How about John E. Stith, David Weber, or Catherine Asaro? (I draw the line at Piers Anthony, though...)
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
Watch DS9. One of the reasons it's so great is that towards the end of the show, they understood that they needed plot arcs to keep it interesting.
No, that's not really what Star Trek needs to become relevant. Remember that the original Star Trek did just fine with almost nothing but individual episodes that didn't really connect to each other. But that series had writers willing to write intelligently and take chances. None of the new series have really had that. They have to be sanitized, inoffensive, familiar. When is the last time an episode of Star Trek really took a chance, made a bold stand on something? That's just not what Star Trek is about anymore.
Babylon 5 was the show that sacrificed its episode-by-episode pleasure in favor of a lengthy story arc, and it got away with it because its creator really knew what he was doing. The long story arcs in Deep Space Nine and, to a lesser extent, Voyager were embarrassing because they lacked continuity, forethought, and dramatic integrity, exactly what J. Michael Straczynski brought to Babylon 5. Note I'm not saying Babylon 5 was perfect--it wasn't. But it did this better than Star Trek ever has because it was its entire purpose for being. The Star Trek writers don't know how to do this.
And they shouldn't need to. They need to be true to the precepts that Roddenberry built the show on. But they don't want to do that, because he's dead and Berman is in charge. And with every new "innovation," he buries Star Trek further and further. It's sad, but it's the way it is.
It might be time to put Star Trek to bed. Babylon 5 was the first revolution. What's the next one? I think we're ready.
--Matthew
"If the lights of Broadway blind me, I won't mind..."
- Conceive show
- make pilot
- promote promote promote
- show pilot
- run series
- Make money!!
Some how- conceive show
- make pilot - but don't show anyone
- run series - but don't tell anyone
- don't make money
- cancel series
- run pilot
That just isn't as impressive.Kinda like the episode of The Next Generation where they find a cloaking device that allows a ship to move through solid objects, and is never mentioned again... heh
Star Trek is like Windows. They have run out of ideas and just keep recylying old ones. And like in Star Trek, people are becoming aware of it.
We already have T'Pol. She is filling the niche that 7 of 9 filled in Voyager.
Jeri Ryan played a woman in a tight jumpsuit that played a character that didn't quite catch on to humanities finer points like emotions and social interaction.
Jolene Blalock is a woman in a tight jumpsuit that plays a character that doesn't quite catch on to humanities finer points like emotions and social interaction.
" I thought the point of going back to the past was to get out of the arc idea. Back to the Sci-fi roots of TOS."
Yeah, that seemed to be the case until the Enterprise crew just started to invent all of the tech we see in the other Treks, and now it's basically just more of the same.
- Tossing in the Defiant will fix Deep Space Nine because now they can get off the station (well, they could with the runabouts too, but those weren't cool enough)
- Tossing in Worf will fix Deep Space Nine because now we'll have Klingons, and Klingons R Kool
- Tossing in a big multi-year bunch of B5-envy will fix Deep Space Nine because we didn't know what this show was supposed to be about in the first place, and the Bajoran/Cardassian thing is getting boring.
- Tossing in Seven of Nine and killing off Kes will fix Voyager because Borg R Bitchin' and you can never have too much of them
- Jumping 10 years closer to home will fix Voyager because everything we've set up with the Kayzon and the plague and stuff just isn't working
Sigh. I believe anime term for this kind of viewer abuse by a long-running series is "Tenchi Restart Money-Grab". It's obnoxious, and nobody should be falling for it anymore.What's the next one? I think we're ready.
That could have been Firefly, but FOX killed it.
- "The Andorian Incident": The transporter is new and not guaranteed to work. By taking hostages, the Andorians have already forfeited their lives, but rather than beaming them out, an away party is beamed in.
- "Cold Front": Near the end, Archer has a phaser on Silik, yet does not kill him.
- "Fortunate Son": The Enterprise away team is under fire from the freighter crew. They could have had their opponents beamed out or heavy weapons beamed in--on the gripping hand, neither option would be necessary if Starfleet Academy could find non-Stormtrooper marksmanship instructors.
Conclusion: The protagonists' survival is attributable solely to their being characters in the Star Trek universe. Were they nonfictional, they wouldn't last five minutes in a firefight.I think the fourth episode of Enterprise was a rerun of the second.
But the good thing is that with no real plots or character changes, you can run practically anything at any time.
Genius! YOU CAN RUN SHOWS AT ANY TIME AS LONG AS NOTHING CHANGES.
Yet the fans still watch. WHY? (Pounding chest like Heston) WHY, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO YOU STILL WATCH?
Honestly, I stopped watching Star Trek when the characters could not grow, for the exact same reason that you mentioned.
...Remember that the original Star Trek did just fine ...
:(
No it didn't. It was cancelled just a couple of seasons in. It didn't suit the audience of that time and didn't truly enjoy success until it was syndicated and gained a cult following.
The new trek series have tried to meet the wants of the trekkies while being completely formulaic in order to meet the wants of the average spoon-fed network/viewer.
If HBO picked up a Star Trek option, I wouldn't be surprised if it ended up with tight writing, good continuity, and a strong following. Sadly, fat chance of that happening
Perhaps Berman is finally resigning! That would improve the show no end!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Let's face some basic facts, kids.
SciFi on the TV/big screen is nearly dead. Why? Well, it's not lack of plotlines or new stories.
There are literally thousands of scifi books out there with original plotlines.
It's because Hollywood execs are braindead. They don't want to take risks anymore.
They are not willing to take risks because these shows cost money. Whoa. Duh.
It's all about ratings, beancounters and return on the dollar.
Where's the modern Roddenberry when we need him?
Jackson seems close...
Herder of Catz
The Pied Piper was an amateur.
Well, never one to keep my opinions to myself, I hereby bravely head in to the breach.
Until Enterprise came along, I hated Star Trek. I didn't find ANY of it entertaining, from TOS, DS9, and whatever else was out there. I gave every new series a shot because it was considered the 'geek-correct' thing to do. For years I hid my shame, and hid my disdain for ST.... No longer!
Yes, you read that right - I'm a geek, I hate Star Trek, and love enterprise... Mod away!
Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
Too bad the arcing plots sucked on DS9. The only time DS9 was really good was when they got away from the Federation and Bajor (home of probably the most uninspired sf aliens ever) and dealt with seedier settings. Like those alternate universe episodes were decent. And no, not just because of the fanservice...
I too enjoyed Voyager very much. While it had some episodes dealing with time travel and such that didn't work very well, it had many time travel episodes that did work well. I found the character development to be absolutely extraordinary, and I continue to be amazed as I watch how the crew grew into a family over the 7 years the show ran. A crew of renegades, criminals, and uptight Starfleet types managed to pull together and grow to a point where any one of them would give their life for the others. Personally, I could have stood to see it go on another 2 or three seasons. Endgame, in my view, was a gimmicky end that left far too many questions unanswered. The show, the crew, and the fans deserved more.
In terms of the Borg, they've been ruined time and time again in Star Trek, movie and show alike. What began as the perfect enemy, a force of nature if you will, was turned into little more than collection of LANs brought together by a subspace wireless WAN, controlled by a single individual who somehow rose to power in the collective. Its unfortunate that such a truly ingenious design was so completely destroyed, but it wasn't accomplished soley within Voyager. I suppose at some point, something had to be done to make the Borg somehow less powerful though. One cube nearly assimilated Earth a number of times. What would 20 have done?
Species 8472 is another point which many ST fans dislike. Personally, I liked them a lot in their first few episodes. Up until the point where they were building that Starfleet recreation, they were doing quite well. They were powerful, adaptive, could annihilate entire planets at once, and destroyed Borg cubes like childrens' toys. Their only weakness was on the bio warfare end of things. The whole Earth recreation episode just made everything a bit too cheery and nice; as if things always work out for the best in the end.
Overall, I think the series was very captivating. It had its share of plot holes, dead episodes, and other assorted issues, but it also introduced us to the next generation of Starfleet personnel. We were given a glimpse into the future of Star Trek with this younger, smarter crew whose captain was more intelligent and strong than just about anyone before her. Personally, I liked Kate Mulgrew as the captain. I think she brought a very strong, yet compassionate personality to the role of captain; a depth of character not seen before in the Star Trek world. I liked Tom Paris, who grew from a troubled child into a responsible, dependable family man. I liked Tuvok, who did more for teaching us about the Vulcan race than Spock could have done in 20,000 seasons of TOS. I liked how they went to their tricorders when in unfamiliar surroundings instead of feeling around and staring at everything like an idiot. I liked the fact that they had to deal with real problems on that ship, including depression, starvation, death up front and personal, and human interpersonal relationships. While Kirk ran around trying to bang every blue-skinned quasi-female he came across, Janeway and Chakotay dealt with a near constant sexual tension between them; something that could never come to be. I liked how Neelix was annoying. Why? Because he annoyed everyone, which made for some humerous situations. I found Tuvok's dialogs with Neelix to be hilarious at times. Sure Neelix annoyed me, but he really annoyed Tuvok, a vulcan. How the hell annoying do you have to be to annoy a Vulcan?
So while many have judged Voyager's episodes as bad, or even unwatchable, I found the series as a whole to be far better than any that had come before it. You could plug a season 2 TNG crew in a season 7 episode and notice little difference. Try plugging a season 2 Voyager crew into a Season 7 episode. The doctor? The captain? Kes? Tom Paris? Neelix? Chakotay? Harry Kim? They were all completely and totally different people by season 7. The hardline captain, the frustrated commander, the renegade pilot, the naive and scared ops officer, the undeveloped and rude doctor; they wouldn't stan
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
It sounds like I'm very much in the minority here that likes the show as it is. It does take time for the characters and stories to develop but I think this series has done the best job of that since TOS. And it had all the feel of a show that was ready to take on issues of our day, like TOS.
So now they want to make some drastic change to impress non-fans. Wonderful. Anyone remember Sea Quest? There was a show that was off to a good start but once it got on track and just started building up steam they just had to screw with it.
Ever seen Andromeda? I doubt you have but it was another Roddenbery show that was just getting good when WHAM! they decide it needs a little more pep.....so they turn the damn thing into a freakin soap opera!
What made Star Trek TOS so good was that you didn't have to see every episode. You could see a single show and figure out the relationships of the crew and the jist of the federation of planets. Each show was its own story and that story dealt with some social or political issue it a way that didn't make a statement but got you to think of a statement of your own. At the end of the show it was done and if you came back next week it was because you liked that, not for some cliff hangar. I only remember a single episode that was a two part, and that had to be done because there really was no way to tell that story in an hour, not just for the sake of cliff hanging.
And there's the problem. Berman seems to want drama for the sake of drama, not for the sake of a good story.
IMHO, I like the show the way it is and wish they wouldn't fsck with it too much.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Does anyone think that the Star Trek franchise has failed to explore the benefits and constraints of the Prime Directive adequately? How many episodes have they devoted to this?
...Look at me, I traveled through time, and we still suck at History in the future, so I don't know how to act, but hilarity and drama will ensue.
Does Someone out there think that they have failed to get people interested in space exploration? Maybe it doesn't seem like it now. That's because they already did it.
Haven't they challenged stereotypes and social hang ups? But remember when it was more sophisticated instead of being insultingly spoon fed to you? And aren't these the same lessons they repeat over and over again?
Haven't they already made exciting suggestions about technology in the future? And didn't it use to be more thought provoking or interesting ideas? More things seem possible now. The changes in technology they challenge us with now, are hard to swallow, and difficult to fit into a reasonable timeframe. Aren't we basically beyond the level of computing used in the original series?
And I have stopped watching any Star Trek to avoid seeing one more boring, reaching for ideas, TIME TRAVEL EPISODE. The people in the enterprise have traveled through time so many freaking times that I can't believe the universe would have not been destroyed by now. Really, how many Federation officers must be their own great grandfathers by now?
In other words, their plot devices are used up, their technology is outdated and irrevelant, their moral lessons are dumbed down and insulting, and in an effort to make a timeline justify itself with the obvious problems based on a 30 year old prediction of the future there are ludicrous attempts to redefine technology.