Slashdot Mirror
Star Trek: Enterprise in Danger of Being Cancelled
jkcity writes "According to Cinscape.com The Star Trek Enterprise set is awash with rumour that it will not be renewed for a 4th season, It was previous told it was safe by UPN but so was Enteprise's lead-out show Jake 2.0 which was just Cancelled. Star Trek: Enterprise has also been reduced to 24 episodes this season by UPN, things don't look good for the Star Trek Television Franchise and after the flop of Star Trek: Nemesis it could be many years before we ever see any new Star Trek outside of books."
Could it be that such innovative plot twists as alien 768 is an alien because it's got REALLY funny headbumps isn't enough to entertain the audience anymore?
I loved TNG, liked DS9, and my attention started to waver half way through Voyager...that said, I'm impressed that they could keep it going for another series and a half. I gave them much more of my time than I would have given ANY other medoicre show. Looks like I'm not the only one that managed to stop watching this year. (Funny, I didn't miss it, either.)
I turned Enterprise on last week while channel surfing to find it was the exact same formula that's been used every week for the last _five_ years. (0:06 mystery, 0:23 find out mystery is horrible threat, 0:42 make threat seem impossible to overcome, 0:58 solve problem with seconds to spare, 0:59 have credits roll over zany laughing cast.)
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
I think Enterprise is a pretty decent series (compared the the dreck of 'reality tv' and teenage melodrama) and would hate to see it gone. I think their Tucker-clone episode was especially good and topical for a network TV show.
UPN is a bit of a misfit channel (not available in my area). They'd be better off still making it and selling it for syndication to whomever wants to broadcast it. Of maybe SciFi channel will pick it up. WOuld make a far better choice than continuing the 'battlestar glactica' kitch-remakes!
As much as Enterprise sucks it's still one of UPN's highest rated shows.
Why?
Everything else on UPN is worse.
Maybe it's time for the franchise to take a rest. I was a fan of the original series. Then with TNG came out, after the first season, I started to get interested (I think the actors didn't really find their characters until mid-second series).
I know a lot of people enjoyed DS9, though I didn't really care for it that much. I personally enjoyed a number of episodes of Voyager.
But maybe it's time to let things rest for a while. Maybe come back to it in 5 or 10 years with some fresh ideas and in the meantime, let people build up their appetite for it again as well. I think they've just really gotten to the point where their grasping for new story ideas and nothing is really drawing people in to the series. Maybe it's just me. I watched a few episodes of Enterprise. It's not bad, but it's not that great either.
People have high expectations of the Star Trek franchise, and if they're not going to be able to meet those expectations, they ought to let it rest until they can. But that's just my opinion.
It just occurred to me to ask the question of why Enterprise needs to be on every week for each new season? Why not go with a mini-series every year. The hype increases, there is more latitude to do something different and there is less danger of worrying about ratings.
Just a thought....
Jake 2.0 hasn't even started over in the UK yet, and its already cancelled! Another good buy by Sky!
Enterprise is a good series, much grittier than TNG, on a par with DS9. Pity to see it go.
http://www.22balmoralroad.net/ http://www.tinynetworks.co.uk/
Well, it worked. It also helps that the show is nothing at all like Star Trek. Basic premise of every episode: Let's take a good idea from TOS or TNG, update it with a new cast and new effects, and completely ruing the meaning!
A recent episode had what seemed like interstellar terrorists on it. The theme was a sort-of "with us or against us" thing, as if the episode had come straight out of a propaganda machine. I don't need my Star Trek telling me what to think. I want my Star Trek making me think. That's what Trek was always best at: making people think about things. What if? Why? The settings was incidental. The effects were irrelevant. The story was what mattered. Enterprise ditched that and focused on everything else. The result?
Star Trek Lite: It tastes bland and isn't very filling, but people accept it anyway.
The sad thing is the cast works. I think Backula does a great job, and I loved his role in Quantum Leap. Phlox is pretty entertaining. But these few perks just can't make up for the general disarray of the series.
And don't even get me STARTED on Star Trek timeline continuity. If Trek continuity were a person, it would be time for it to seek rape consoling! The Borg episode... the Romulans? What the hell? Have the writers ever even watched any of the previous Treks?
Sorry Enterprise, but I can't say I will miss you.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
With each new iteration, Star Trek distorts and dilutes its own mythos. I thought this would be an interesting take on Starfleet's early history, with raw, unpolished versions, or complete absence of, the day to day technologies that the TOS and later crews used and of course modified at the eleventh hour to avert a crisis. The writers wasted no time updating/uprating Enterprises' systems and accoutrements ("phase pistols" anyone?) so now the ship is nearly indistinguishable from its descendants. The exploration oriented format is too similar to the preceding shows. The TOS crew have earned a Campbell-esque place in our pantheon of modern day mythic heroes. Picard may ascend to that pinnacle. Janeway and Cisko never will. Neither will Jonathan Archer. Star Trek is in a decadent stage. A long hiatus with no series and no movies would serve everyone best, giving both the general public and hardcore fans some time to build up some real desire. Hire completlely new writers and give them years, if need be, to come up with a really fresh take. Some ideas for a next Trek: How about a show with a built-in limited lifespan, starting right at the post-Shuttle era, and ending with Archer's Enterprise? Each season would be a complete epoch, showing the development of the technology, and the adaptation of people to long-term life in space. Another idea: breakdown of the Federation. It collapses sometime after Picard's retirement, and a starship crew makes the rounds restoring order to worlds and rebuilding alliances. Once again, a series that's planned out ahead of time to run for a certain number of seasons. See, the open-ended nature of each Star Trek series is the problem. I hope the next writers come up with something great, but most importantly, KEEP FOCUSED!
Its sad to see the "Star Trek Franchise" fail so misserably. But after Nemesis and Enterprise, it seems like they finally killed it for good.
:-/
The entire idea of a pre-quel sounded hokie from the start. But well, I did try to like it
I still think Deep Space 9 was the best series. It could have used one or two more seasons.
---- join dshield.org Distributed Intrusion Detec
I'm sorry, but so what? Star Trek jumped the shark as soon as they threw that half-baked Battlestar Galactica rip-off, Voyager, on the air. (Don't agree? Borg = Cyclons, Voyager = Galactica, far from home and lost.) Berman and Braga fucked up what could potentially be a great series by trying to do the same stupid Time War shit they did with Voyager, etc.
In the end, as much as I find the characters interesting, I just can't bring myself to care too much about the premature end of this five-year mission. You can't keep a show running, much less grabbing public interest, based on potential. This show had it, but it failed to deliver on it.
blog |
I think you got the link wrong. It should have linked to here Instead. Yes, it is all Rick Berman's fault. Every ST movie that has royally sucked was his fault. Every episode that royally sucked was his fault. It's his genius idea to NOT write (or even allow) star trek episodes that reference any part of the star trek mythology.
Seriously, when the FIRST episode of Enterprise didn't fit in the continuity (Klingons, huh?). I knew it was dead, despite the amazing amount of potential a pissed captain has. Right now they just took the events of 9/11 and turned into into a third season of ST:Enterprise.
A review at the beginning of the season in USA Today brought up some very good points on the lack of focus in Enterprise. Although Paramount wants you to think they took the show for a dramatic twist this season, nothing really has changed. They are still exploring the unknown, which is what they have been doing the first two seasons. Nothing to see here, move along.
To fix Enterprise they need to:
Be a little more subtle with public commentary. Compare Similitude with TOS's Let That Be Your Last Battleground
More friction among the crew.
Lose the T'Pol-Tucker story line
Slow DOWN THE TRANSPORTER!!!! It's faster than The Original Series'!
There have been a couple good episodes:
Shockwave
Chosen Realm
And a lot of duds:
A remake of Data's Day: Dear Doctor
An A-Team episode: Marauders
And just a really lame episode: Extinction
What, me worry?
...IMHO Enterprise should make a whole lot more of the fact that they're much closer to NASA, military outfits, etc, than the others.
Which doesn't mean technology which doesn't work as well... it means a completely different social structure and way of doing things... the crew shouldn't be one big happy family.
I have yet to see a really entertaining episode (although I admit I've only watched five or six random ones).
I suppose I should probably accept that I'm not in the target demographic... although exactly what the target demographic is, I'm not sure. As a 19-year-old compsci student I should be quite a good bet for sci-fi...
Right. And every one knows that crossovers are an absolute necessity for good drama, rather than just a tired old cliche, used by writers who are totally out of ideas.
Ok, I'll bite.
I don't suppose you have ever watched Angel, by any chance? Just to prove that cross overs don't negate good writing, rather they add to it.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
I thought they were on a roll, managing to get two scenes with the female characters half undressed, and a tacticless space ship fight into almost every episode.
When I first heard the premise for this new series, I was actually quite interested. A primitive Entreprise, first real deep sapce ship from Earth, presumably out gunned by almost everyone they meet, and maybe having to do some interesting things to win through.
But no. They turn out to be able to beat crap out of almost everyone. The only way to get a plot is to have something blow up on board, or mysterious `gravimetric bullshiterons' hold them while the inferior aliens attack, so that 10 minutes later they can beat crap out of those same aliens without breaking sweat... scene of vulcan underwear giving engineer a hand job... end of episode.
_O_
.|< The named which can be named is not the true named
I am truly saddened by the demise of Star Trek, though I haven't watched it this season. It just got so bad I couldn't take it anymore. Perhaps this will prompt a good housecleaning at UPN and at least open the opportunity for the show's return. It's only a glimmer of a hope, but I'm afraid it's all we long-term fans have to hope for. Again, I am truly saddened.
"Is this Winkhorst a nova criminal?" "No just a technical sergeant wanted for interrogation."
It's about time, and about 1 1/2 TV shows too late. Star Trek is tired out; time to rest for a decade or two.
After 25 solid years of production, any show and/or movie would be. No shame in admitting that, and a lot of shame in grinding on producing mediocre content when you've obviously run out of gas. Or dilithium, or whatever.
I kinda like their present plot, and enterprise is one of two shows I watch with any regularity (the other being West Wing). If they continued with traditional plots people would complain about them only rehashing already explored subjects. That said I would like the see more of the relationships between the Big-Three Species (Klingons, Romulans, Vulcans).
They have, however created a plot line that could easily extend for some number of years. The time-traveler plot has taken a back seat to the Zindi excursion, but I suppose that will be tied back in by year's end.
There is a lot of good plots out there though, so much stuff to cover in pre-Federation human society. Come on UPN, don't you realize this is the only show some people watch on your network?
Why, o why must the sky fall when I've learned to fly?
A decade of Berman at the helm has proved that mindless action, tight outfits, gibberish Trek pseudoscience, and petty, artificial conflicts does not a compelling sci-fi series make.
It's time to replace him with some one who can put mystery, suspense, and yes, realistic characters back into Trek.
I've got an idea. Take a capable producer and a couple of good writers, not necessarily from sci-fi backgrounds. Over the course of a month, Have them spend a week at JPL, a week aboard a nuclear submarine , a week hanging out with David Blaine, and a week with Donald Trump. Afterwards, lock them in a cabin for a week and tell them to transport the characters they've met to the Trek universe. I'll eat my shoe if they can't come up with a blockbuster.
I've thoroughly enjoyed Enterprise so far. I would hate for it to be cancelled. Was Jake 2.0 cancelled? I thought it was just on hiatas.
This signature has Super Cow Powers
than Mayweather, Hoshi and Malcom
Who?
Star trek, always has, and always will be about saving former or future porn stars, who may or may not be painted greem, and possibly wearing silver gogo outfits, from either guys wearing fu-man-chu's, what you see when you look in a kaleidoscope, a burlap sack, or nazis. There is a very good reason for this. Nerds, like all guys like stuff blowing up and girls in tight or non-existant clothes. But they also like space. And everyone hates Nazis and people with bumpy foreheads.
I also like snappy banter, pop culture references, girls with guns, and body paint, which is why I prefer Farscape. (Which is essentially Buck Rogers re-imagined with a wink and a nod to go with the camp.) "Cocksure American saves universe by swaggering while exotic foreign babes salivate" fits in nicely with my world view.
Trek needs to take a "break". Too many bad ideas have been put on screen for the sake of getting something on screen.
Personally, I considered Voyager unwatchable. There sheer stupidity of the writing compelled me to scream. Likewise, I saw NOTHING on Enterprise that would compel me to keep watching.
Farscape kicked ass because it was new and different. They didn't shy away from characters with personal flaws. To borrow from the seminar from "Adaptation". Conflict is what makes something interesting. All those well adjusted Star Trek characters make for no internal conflict and predictable enemies: White hats and Black hats.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
Something about this series had me interested right from episode 1, and I can't say that about the others. With every Star Trek series there has been a period of growing pains. Spock smiling, Data using contrations, Riker without a beard, etc. But Enterprise had their characters and concepts nailed as soon as it started. I hope this can be saved. I'll miss this show.
Enterprise has been well in line with Sturgeon's law: 90% of the episodes have been crap. Instead of buying decent scripts, they (hmmm) "borrowed" and rehashed old, hoary plots, substituted random nudity in favor of developing characters you could care about, and have saved so many impossible situations with the deus ex machina time-travel garbage that, well...
I just want to see the puppy save the ship. Once. I'll Tivo episodes and fast-forward 'til I see that.
One thing *could* save the show: Solicit scripts from old heavies. I know it's painful, but buy some writing from the likes of Harlan Ellison, David Gerrold and other people with reasonable horsepower. Doesn't even have to be their best work; I'm sure they've got something stashed away that could be adapted quickly. Heavily publicize the eps. Watch the ratings spike.
Until some good writing happens, Enterprise will be good riddance as far as I'm concerned. Bring back Firefly. Jesus, what a business.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is insufficiently documented.
Eh?
Enterprise is pretty lame - just like Star Trek, TNG, DS9 and Voyager before it. In fact, of the lot I prefer Voyager, but that's pretty much only because of the cast - if they'd only killed bloody Neelix off then it would've been a pretty watchable show. Janeway was the best captain by FAR.
Having said that, I saw an Enterprise last night where they found this deathstar-like thieves den, and it WAS moderately enjoyable.
That was classic intercourse!
You missed the "evenly divisible by 5" rule, which explains the real stinkers. We didn't know about this rule until Nemesis came along and demonstrated it for us.
You can't go any farther into the future. The TNG era technology has already established that you can pretty much do anything. You can order the computer to solve any problem, produce any goods or services, create artificial crewmembers that are as good as the real thing, etc.
A good premise for a ST series would be similar to what you were saying about the "verge of collapse". Have a disaster that renders federation/klingon/romulan/major species computer technology useless. As a bonus, have it somehow involve the destruction of the borg for all time.
They have to retrofit what ships they have with older technology. The plot of the series can be discovering what went wrong, and defending the federation from the minor races who now have the technological advantage.
Yes, Enterprise is excellent, far superior to Voyager. More than any current series (other than 24 :-) it deserves to continue and develop.
:-).
I love the characteristation and mood of the series, and I'm glad that it's got some brains and hasn't degenerated into a special effects driven shoot-'em-up. The cast are all as good as I could wish for. I like that the characters react realistically to being in a completely unknown hostile environment, having naively assumed that everyone would be as friendly as they.
As for the plots, well, in every area everything has been already been done. It's pleasing and surprising that Enterprise is as original as it is. I would like to see it cover the whole business of "exploring and colonising space" a lot more, perhaps with a season about the establishment of Earth's most distant colony (I've suggested this before
I can only assume that if ratings are dropping it's because most of the audience for television are now looking for explosions, technobabble, gunplay, flashy effects and The Borg. Well, if I had a TV show that's exactly the sort of audience I wouldn't want to attract.
Perhaps Dubya could endorse and support Enterprise as part of the PR effort around his mission to occupy the Moon and invade Mars? "If you're a patriotical American, watch the televisual programmation Star Track: Enterprise".
Oh, and IIRC the Tholians appeared in the episode Future Tense.
There are several things I like about Andromeda (I haven't caught many eps this season due to the show being moved around) was that it didn't take it-self too seriously. They could have a comedic episode every once and a while and not break the series format. They would also expermement with different techniques every once and a while (The Timecode ep was interesting but wierd). It was B-grade SF, and knew it. The best part was the one liners that got tossed arround ("Nothing can blow up a Black hole ... ... well almost nothing ... "). That said, Andromina get the science right more often the Star Trek does. Inter system communication often takes the form of messages that will take x minutes to get to the destination, and hence 2x minutes for a reply message. In short, Andromina is one of my guilty pleasures, and I am surprised that it has stayed on the air as long as it has.
I must admit that part of me agrees with you. The reason I watch(ed) all of the various ST series is because I was raised on the the first one. because of that one, I was also raised on Space:1999, Quark (I know, it's a guilty pleasure), Buck Rogers (original and the 70's version), and who knows what else that's been produced over my 35 years. I'm a fan of the genre, and will watch scifi on TV whenever something new comes out. I'm still pissed that Farscape got cancelled, and miss B5 very much.
Having said that, I totally agree that B&B have turned the Star Trek world to shit. There's no imagination anymore. There's no innovation, and no risk-taking. There's also nothing even remotely mentally stimulating about what has been produced since DS9 ended. I can't watch any ST episode with a holodeck, because they're all uniformly bad. I have never seen why more than one trip to 20th Century Earth or another planet suspiciously similar was necessary.
Here's my greatest wish for Star Trek: Make a new series set in the same time as the previous 3. Now that a really rich universe has been created with lots of different species and locations, rules, technology, and other such factors there's a real strong environment for creating something interesting. There's a tremendous amount of familiarity with all of this in the viewer population.
Now, instead of a serialized show with the same characters in it every week, make it more of an anthology. Different characters and different stories every week. One week, maybe the story revolves around a Ferengi merchant ship and some issue they face. The next week, parents deal with the fact that their child is (or is not) joining Star Fleet. Another could be comical - Klingons trying to spy on the Federation or someting like that.
The fans would get the "in" jokes, already know the political environment, and understand the different cultures of the species from the show. There's this huge universe to draw upon, and so much of it hasn't been explored...like anything NOT having to do with Star Fleet.
So, who would write the shows? Fans. You and me. Anybody could submit 1 (one) story per season. The best ones would get produced. You'd have good writing, fresh ideas every week, and a show that I believe people would look forward to every week. If you get a bad one, it's no big deal because it's not like you're going to have to put up with the same crappy acting or writing the next time. If somebody does exceptionally well, they could come back and do another one the next season. We would end up with some favorite recurring characters...maybe you would see a popular, flamboyant character (Harry Mudd, anyone?) in some small role occasionally to lend a sense of continuity.
Maybe I'm just insane. I just think that there's so much here to draw from that it really takes tremendous effort to make something as bad as Enterprise or Voyager. Like I said, I'll still watch them because it's hard-coded into my behavior. But that doesn't mean that they can't be better.
I do thik the writing is inconsistent, and plotlines die off like neadertals (so, are Trip and T'Pol gonna make it or what? Whatever happened to the Space Delta Force guys?) But overall, I like the cast and their mission.
One major problem is that it competes directly with two hit shows - That 70's Show and Smallville. A move to another time slot might help.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
"Star Trek: Voyager:
:)
Unmemorable characters"
Unmemorable characters? You've got to be kidding. Character development was the hallmark of Voyager. Kes left the show mid-way through, yet most people who watched even occassionally are sure to remember her. Who could forget the wise-cracking EMH who turned into a compassionate individual and a valued member of the crew? How can anyone ignore the transition of Tom Paris, from unprincipled mercenary to dutiful Starfleet officer, and finally to loving husband and soon-to-be father? Harry Kim went from being a lost little schoolboy scared to death of anything that moved to being a confident officer not afraid to take charge and make a decision. His drive to get home kept hope alive. Chakotay, the angry warrior, turned into a wise and cautious adviser to his Captain, who easily would have been his wife if circumstances allowed. Seven of Nine's transition from single-dimensioned drone to caring individual is pretty plain to see. The point is that the evolution of the crew turned them into much more than just a crew - it made them a family. Go back and watch every episode from Season 1 to Season 7 and tell me differently.
"The previously immortal and near unbeatable borg were made to look like a bunch of pussies in this."
The Borg's power was destroyed in First Contact. Before then, the hive mind made an unbeatable force of nature function nearly without fault. Introducing the Borg queen, which was done in FC, was what turned the Borg into pussies. Once you leave the fate of the collective in the hands of one individual, you completely destroy all that made them powerful. Voyager did nothing to help the Borg, but it wasn't what turned things against them either.
"Time travel became more cliche than it previously was."
I would disagree. Manipulation of space-time and tinkering with alternate realities/dimensions functioned in a number of ways. First, it really hammered home what Einstein, Hawking, and others have been telling us for a century - that there are no absolutes. It also delved into questions of destiny, fate, morality, and so on. With time travel plots, we were given a glimpse of the types of problems that exist if you allow for the possibility of time travel. Different loops and paradoxes were explained in a new and interesting way. I don't think that Hawking would berate anyone for educating the masses on complicated theories in new and interesting ways. That such episodes were more commonplace than in previous series merely shows that Voyager's writers were more open to taking chances. In some episodes, things worked well, whereas in others, things simply didn't work at all. Would you have prefered that no risks were taken? DS9 pre-season 4 was what you get when you take no risks.
"Star Trek: Enterprise Theme song sucks."
I actually like it a lot. It is, in fact, the only part of the show I do like. I enjoy seeing the evolution of mankind's exploration and discovery. I think it's a great reminder of how far we've gone and how much further we have yet to go. The fact that the rest of the show is incoherent and completely out of touch with 4 series of Star Trek world-build doesn't make me like the theme song any less.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
> Espcially the episode where the Vulcan gets mad
I really like Enterprise, but that really irks me. Not necessarily that episode (I haven't seen it) but she seems to show emotions quite often.
Keep in mind, however, that Vulcans do have emotions, but they are trained to suppress them. She must not have been trained too well.
I don't quite get what people are all bitching about, in regard to enterprise. I mean, yes for the first couple seasons it was pretty lame, but that's always been a standard for Star Trek series'. TNG, seasons one and two blew donkey balls. DS9, while personally my favorite, also had some fairly shitty episodes in its first two seasons. As far as voyager is concerned, even that series was decent up until about season five or so. If any of you dittoheads would just watch the latter part of season two, and up to the latest episodes, you might notice that it doesn't quite suck anymore. In fact, I'd rate it higher than Voyager, even when I put myself back to a time when I actually liked it.
I agree that a captain that's not a gigantic linebacker, or one that doesn't have an english accent, may not be as impressive at first as the former. But archer has really developed a much-needed ruthlessness, and overall has gotten more comfortable in his role, which really helps flesh out the character, and I've even noticed a much smaller emphasis on showing off T'pol's tits for rating's sake.
So, conclusion: Enterprise is doing what every star trek series EVER has done, it's gone from being incredibly shitty the first two seasons, to actually being decent and even GOOD. Now if you mindless assholes would just give the show half a chance, maybe you'd realize how wrong you were. Then again, this is slashdot...
I agree with the comment in the article that we may not see any good Star Trek outside of the books. Thing is, the books have been doing it better than anything on screen ever since DS9 (the last good show IMO) ended.
As a matter of fact, the recently culminated DS9 literary relaunch was like a printed version of the TV show except better... fates of established characters played out, new and interesting characters introduced and given significant development without neglecting others, hanging plot threads from 1st season TNG and beyond brought back and redeveloped... and this is only one example of many being published right now.
Peter David's New Frontier flat-out rocks even if it streches credibility in some places, the Lost Era series has filled in long-standing continuity holes (including aforementioned Sulu-Excelsior, Enterprise-B, and Enterprise-C stories) spectacularly, and next month will see the beginning of a TNG miniseries that will hopefully explain the travesty that was Nemesis. I've watched a total of three episodes of Enterprise, two of which were hyped as the heralds of a new era for the show, and I was barely entertained by any of the three. I could pick out the archetypical Trek crew positions, but some of those were so woefully underdeveloped that they might as well have been cardboard standees. Judging from reviews I've read of other episodes, I can't expect any better fare from this show. Thankfully, the books allow me to remember the magic and good storytelling that assimilated (hur hur) me into Trek fandom.
Now, like every armchair producer, I have my ideas about where Trek should go from here. I would be thankful if Enterprise went away, for the very simple reason that it would reduce the likehood that somebody could confuse it with something I'm actually interested. New and good Trek is already being produced in the books, but this would clear the way for something decent onscreen, which I miss dearly. Unlike most everybody else, I don't think Trek should just disappear for a decade (I've got three movies and part of a TV series planned out in my head... yes I'm a shameless fanboy). They need something epic and awe-inspiring like LotR. I'm not saying rip off LotR (which is probably what Berman would do). LotR did not focus on producing something quick and flashy just to get butts in the seats. LotR was one of the biggest movie productions ever, and it got massive numbers of butts in the seats (including mine (do I even need to mention this on slashdot?)) because it had a story to tell and didn't care how long it took or how much money it spent to do it.
LotR and Trek are similar because they both have an established fanbase and mythos. In the end, I think whoever ends up producing Trek (Christ, get Johnathan Frakes, he's passionate about it) should and should want to focus on this. Put out something that will tell a compelling story with compelling characters and hey, you've got a good product.