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UPN Renews 'Star Trek: Enterprise'
Tycoon Guy writes "TrekToday reports that 'Enterprise' has been renewed for a fourth season. UPN will make the official announcement on Thursday, but production executives already told the SaveEnterprise.com fan campaign the show will be back, and the show's actors have been ordered back to work. The only snag? It looks like 'Enterprise' might be moved to Fridays next year, and Firefly fans can tell you what a great place that is..."
Well, this is good news. Enterprise is not my favorite flavor of Trek, but it's better than nothing. Besides, there have been a couple good episodes this season.
I'm sure some people would have revelled in an Enterprise cancellation... to them, I'd like to pose a question which always bugged me: if you don't like a show, you don't watch it, right? If you don't watch it why would it matter to you whether or not it is cancelled? It just seems so mean-spirited to wish for a show's cancellation-- over a hundred people lose their jobs as a result, and I'm not talking about high-paid actors, I'm talking about camera men, editors, janitors-- normal people. It's not fun losing a job, folks.
Anyway... on with the flame fest.
jrjBlog
Please tell me they are leaving that dreadful theme song behind.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
We just know how Star Trek fans are all out paintin' the town red on Friday nights.
What UPN should do is just send small cheap TV sets to every collectible card shop in the country, so fans of the series can watch the show while playing Magic: The Gathering in the back.
While they're at it, they should send some Red Bull and Cheetos, too.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
UPN is one of my favorite channels lately, and definately more so now. Far more interesting that watching "reality" TV. That crap is so fake. Those shows will end up killing the bigger networks.
--
New deal processing engine online: http://www.dealsites.net/livedeals.html
Why do they always try to drop shows when they reach their peak?
I'll be the first to admit that Enterprise doesn't live up to the standards of TNG or DS9 but IMHO Season 3 has been much better than the first 2 seasons.
I'm sure all 3 fans will be happy
They should be more worried about being on UPN. Buffy fans can tell Enterprise fans what that's like.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
I read that they made a deal for a couple of million bucks to have Jar Jar come from an alternate dimension to visit Enterprise. How incredibly sad for a good franchise. Lucas is spreading is lameness to Trek, Roddenberry must be spinning in his grave.
Firefly was actually well written and acted...
Enterprise is just horrid.
don't watch it then.
MABASPLOOM!
Yah, wish UPN would pick up Angel like they did with Buffy. It's a quality show, sucks to see it going out so soon.
Please, just put us out of its misery. The last two series have been horrid crap. Let Star Trek fade into myth with what little dignity it still has left.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
This is how NBC killed ST:TOS...
Yeah, Lucas' people confirmed someone from the first 3 episodes would appear but never said which. Jarjar? Ug..
Fridays are definitely a death slot on the UPN network. Many UPN affiliates, even some the network owns, have Friday-heavy packages to air games from the local MLB team. Stations affected include...
Boston's WSBK "UPN 38" which airs "Friday Night Baseball" Red Sox Games nearly every Friday night in the season.
Connecticut's WCTX "UPN 8" is part of the Mets broadcast network.
Seattle's KSTW "UPN 11" is the flagship of the Mariners broadcast network.
In short, it's hard to get anything to work on UPN Fridays during the start of the TV station because about a quarter of the network just plain falls apart on any given Friday night due to baseball coverage when its in season.
"But it'll still be awful. "
Those who've been watching this season would disagree with you. I remember similar things being said about DS9 in season 3 as well.
"Derp de derp."
Well, presumably they'll include a token white guy, you know, because the future is diverse.
If Enterprise, Joan of Arcadia, and Andromeda all share the same time slot?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
YAY.. Oh and if you don't like it then don't watch it and STFU
AcmeShells.com The cheapest Eggdrop
instead of upconverting 480i to letterboxed HDTV resolution like they are currently doing in major markets.
Thousands of Enterprise fans will, after celebrating, move back into their parents' basements to plot their next letter campaign.
But first, a celebratory all-night Magic: The Gathering game! Bring on the dancing girls! (oh, wait...)
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
IIRC, The X-Files aired on Fridays (except for maybe the last year or two), and it did fairly well. With VCRs, TiVos, etc., I'm not so sure that it matters when a show airs.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
From what someone at UPN said, the Enterprise franchise and the Star Wars franchise are both losing interest. They figured this sort of cross-promotion would work. They're someone going to tie in JarJar's visit to Enterprise to Episode 3.
I have NO idea how they'll pull that one off.
sorry but i think Star Trek has been sufficiently ruined past the point of no return don't you ?, shame what greed in the 21st century does to a idea
Fridays killed Dark Angel too. It was doing pretty well on Tuesday. I think someone didn't think about their target demographic in that case...
Enterprise certainly did stink to high heaven during season one and most of season two, but lately it's really taken off. If it can keep up its momentum and improve the "sci-fi" aspect of the story lines, it could really become one of the best ST spin-offs yet! (Excluding ST:TNG, you can never hope to beat it) What makes the new episodes of Enterprise so great are the continuing, evolving story line. Granted, its no Babylon5, each episode begins where the previous one left off, and they have actually been doing some character development! ST extras that tend to die after 5 minutes of screen time have been replaced with guest characters that last two or three episodes before biting it. Antagonists have risen to the ran of Guest Star, much like Gul Dukat and Gherak did on DS9! Enterprise has really had a huge turn around from its early crap episodes. Give a try, watch a few episodes. You might actually enjoy it.
Before "Enterprise" was announced as a replacement for Voyager, I was hoping that one of the more amusing Voyager epsidoes - one involving the "USS Relativity" creating all manner of time havoc - would have been the likely candidate.
Perhaps because the set of the Relativity looked more permanent than most - but given the insane plot loops available in any time based episode - why the Star Trek creators didn't co-opt Dr. Who in full-series form has always confused me.
Perhaps it also explains why I couldn't visualize Scott Bakula in a new series for that matter.
for that turd.
So it is shown usually at 11:00 pm Friday, but sometimes the Fox station moves it without telling anyone. Not only that, they replace the "next episode" teaser with ads for their own WWE shows. I hope someday that CBS shuts down UPN and moves the couple/few UPN shows worth saving to the regular CBS schedule.
This Fox affiliate actually showed the UPN show "Dilbert" only at 1:00 AM Sunday morning. I kind of wanted to see that one.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
It looks like 'Enterprise' might be moved to Fridays next year
That won't be so bad for me. No real UPN station here; Star Trek: Enterprise is carried in syndication on a Fox affilliate on Sunday evening as the only airing in the week. First UPN airing on Friday means less spoilers to avoid and better chance to take part in discussions while interest is still high.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
how embarrasing
WAZOO, it's got another season! :)
UPN has squat for a lineup right now and don't have a whole lot in the way of money. Plus, who the hell wants to show scripted programs when you can show crap reality TV for a fraction of the price?!
This happens all the time with Star Trek for some reason; they never start out well. The first season of TNG was particularly terrible. The most infamous example being "The Naked Now", where the crew (with their standard Star Fleet issue miniskirts) became 'drunk' from an anomaly and Data had sex with Tasha Yar.
Conflicts with the Romulans and the Borg didn't heat up until about season 2 or 3, although Q did have his fair share in the beginning.
DS9 had a more successful start, but didn't get really interesting until Season 3 when The Dominion were introduced.
In every Star Trek series there seems to be a counter-evil they perpetual battle, ie.
Star Trek TOS - Klingons
Star Trek TNG - Romulans
Star Trek DS9 - The Dominion
Star Trek Voyager - The Borg
And with Enterprise it's the Xindi, but you start to feel the redundancy. Trying to out-evil Cardassians or the Borg is going to prove challenging.
Corporations: your universal scapegoat for all society's ills.
Come join the cerebral fun on UPN!
I thought Andromeda was cancelled. I never could get into it. I do not have a fondness for shows with sets that are so poorly lit that you have an irrational desire to shine a flashlight at the TV screen just to see what is going on.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Honestly, what else have they got? Besides Enterprise, they've cancelled everything else that gave them ratings. At least this is a built in fan base. Oh, and as for the Friday timeslot, that's when Farscape was on, right? I'm sure UPN will replay it on Sundays before primetime.
Those who've been watching this season would disagree with you. I remember similar things being said about DS9 in season 3 as well.
True enough. Wathcing DS9 (my favorite Trek) on Spike has reminded me how weak seasons 1-3 were; I'm just not sure that the continuity-impaired Braga will be able to pull it off for Enterprise. Best of luck to them, though.
Carthago delenda est!
Forget Andromeda, it also got canned at the end of the 4th season... the last two episode where a quick & dirty attempt to finish the story... :-(
Renew Enterprise. Cancel Berman and Braga.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I agree. I didn't really get into DS9 until around season 3, which is roughly the time when the conflict with the Dominion got interesting.
And so far, this season of Enterprise has been pretty good... can't really complain.
Can never be happy. Stay with me on this one before you hit that mod button :). Basically either you have shows people liked that get cancelled in their prime, thus to be lauded forever as the best show ever if only it had been able to reach its potential...
OR
You have them where they go on too long and thus should have been cancelled long ago. Thus you have purists that only recognize seasons 2,3,5, but not 4 where they went to that alternate dimension, what were they thinking!.
I guess this can be said for most shows, but it seems to apply more to scifi for some reasons. I think really only Babylon 5 went out on the perfect note, mainly because thats when it was supposed to happen.
What's a VCR?
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
I for one, look forward to seeing the amount of trekspam increase in proportion to viagra pitches. I also look forward to the words evolving to evade filters: "SAV TRECK SP0CK RULES and "WRITE LE.TTERS TO PARAMOONT - CAST NIMOY AS CAP.T IN NEW SHOW
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Actually JarJar doesn't come through from a "parallel universe" (your term). He's sucked through a black hole in a stolen Empire prototype ship and shot forward through time to Enterprise's timeline. The story will actually make some sense once you see it. (My uncle happens to work on Enterprise)
Is it just me, or do others here find 'Enterprise' uninteresting? The plots always seem corny, and it just ends up seeming silly rather than thought provoking (which is what good sci-fi should be).
I tried watching again when they started the HDTV broadcasts.. It looked good visually, but the content was still uninspiring.
Yea, I agree, this season has actually compelled me to watch. I watched the first few episodes of the series, and lost interest eventually. But this season has brought me back. This arc with the Xindi is really interesting. Maybe a little long... but still interesting none the less..
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
There goes my hopes for the return of Quantum Leap :)
My friends know I used to be a real die-hard trekker. I stuck with Enterprise through its first two seasons, but this last one finally drove me away. Now I only watch it if I can't find a rerun of the Simpsons -- and with 150 channels on my digital cable it's rare that Simpsons isn't on somewhere.
I don't know when most of my favorite shows come on now. I Tivo them... Enterprise isn't my favorite show and I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it but it's decent filler, if I can watch it when I have time.
Agile Artisans
Yeah, it's Jar Jar. There was a leaked storyboard which was verified as legit. He's in a stolen ship and goes through time or something goofy.
Ever since his first appearance in "Episode I".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
P.S. I think series three is superb ( if a little slow at times) but I still have withdrawel symptoms from lack of my FireFly Fix.
The original Star Trek series ratings fell when it was moved from Thursday night to Friday night the second year. It lost much of the teenage male crowd.
Yeah. Stupid reality crap is destroying TV. They wonder why ratings for male 18-24 year olds has gone way down? It's partly because of all the crappy reality shows. I don't know any guys in this age range who watch those reality shows. Make some decent scripted shows and maybe we'll start watching more.
The first two seasons of TNG weren't that great. In fact, much like Enterprise, they were full of rehashings of old Star Trek episodes. Also like Enterprise, it took until the 3rd season for the characters to really become more than one-dimensional, and to settle into their roles. Also like Enterprise, there were inconsistencies with TOS riddled throughout the first seasons.
Since both Andromeda & Mutant X have been cancelled, Enterprise can hire those excellent writers to improve the show. Perfect. (I kid! :)
Oh, plus Enterprise should hire more babes - the babes of those two shows (especially Lexa Doig, the hacker 'Cowgirl' herself!) would certainly improve ratings.
When the 'new Trek' concept was being worked on, it was apparently down to two concepts - the 'pre-Federation' concept (which we got), and a more military-themed one about a Starfleet strike force of some type, with lots of fighting. Let me tell ya - Enterprise got a lot better right after they added more fighting (and a military team aboard Enterprise, which they've totally wasted so far). It seems obvious that they chose the wrong concept.
Though I do like what they've been doing with T'Pol, but they've basically eliminated Hoshi and others this season, which is too bad. I certainly like this collection of characters more than those of any of the other Treks, as a whole. DS9 had a _really_ annoying cast of characters. (Okay, I loved Ezri just too damned much!)
I've given up on the Trek series. To me, several versions back it stopped being good science fiction and started being 100% fantasy / soap opera. And, it's getting more and more like they just take the scripts from last season, change the name of the planet / evil nemesis, weave in some ridiculous love interest, viola!
I was hopping they would cancel this show and put us trek fans out of our misery. This has to be easily the worst Star Trek series ever. DS9 was ok, Voyager was bad, but Enterprise is just awful. I really like how the idiot producers have destroied Star Trek and how the show has become so boring, with the same stupid stories that have been told for the last ten years being used over and over.
In my opinon this show should have died a long time ago, and Star Trek should have been put to rest for a while, so that maybe in a few years it could have been revived with some fresh writers and some enthusiasm for a new series.
Sadly we're stuck with this crap that's nothing but a bunch of shows with no plot and boring characters, and don't even get me started on how this show has destroyed trek continuity with the orginal series.
Did you see how it unfolds?
Jar-Jar is in a ship they stole from one of the Emperor's labs (or something) and flies too close to a black hole. Gets taken into the hole and is spat through time to Enterprise.
No explanation on how he gets back as the ship is destroyed when he goes through time the first time.
I remember similar things being said about DS9 in season 3 as well.
Yeah, and I remember people saying "Voyager is really picking up steam now!" every year. Except that in retorspect it's 7 identical years of unwatchable drek.
Come to think of it, most DS9 episodes also blew until they got into the last 2 seasons. (Boring military officers sitting around a bar jawjacking is not good science fiction.)
I've always had to watch Enterprise on Fridays with my local station. This show is inspiring. I am happy to see it on the air for another season. Now the writers and producers will have to match this season's story arc, that isn't as easy as you might think.
Go Gusties
If you disagree with me state your arguments. Moderating me down as a troll because you don't agree with me is immature at best.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Oh, sweet *shit*... I'm *so* going to hell for laughing at that.
More opportunity for Rick Berman to urinate on Roddenberry's vision.
:-) The man just doesn't understand what Roddenberry created, and now he's trying to compete head on with other Sci Fi or with the memory of Babylon 5. Is it any wonder Star Trek has been in a downward spiral for the past 10 years?
I know it's cool to knock Enterprise, but I've been knocking Berman since long before it was cool.
Enterprise's ratings weren't good enough "just exploring" (and as they were doing a poor job of it I'm not surprised), so instead they spent a third of season 2 building up a relationship with the Klingons only to drop it at the last second to run off on a blatant 9/11-inspired warmed over mini-epic. (And stolen from a 1980s Star Trek computer game for the Commodore 64 called "Star Trek: Rebel Universe".) Everything about it is predictable, from the plot right down to the characters involved. And of course there's no tension, because we all know (since it's a prequel) that Earth isn't going to be destroyed.
Of course, Berman isn't pitching to people who know Star Trek, he's pitching to 20-somethings that the beancounters like to pitch to. Of course, those people don't watch Star Trek BECAUSE it's Star Trek. Don't alienate your existing fan base to go after a new one that doesn't want you.
Of course, after this season's finale, then what? Go back to exploring? Yeah, that will help ratings now that they've said that exploring "isn't big enough". Throw in another huge season-long pseudo-epic plot thread to further destroy the timeline? I don't know what they're going to do.
On the one hand, it's Trek, yay, there will be more. On the other, this isn't the Trek I grew up on (TNG and reruns of TOS), and I wouldn't greatly miss it.
Although moving the show to Friday night means that it won't be lasting much longer. That is how NBC killed the original series, after all.
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
Isn't Entreprise a reality show?
What I would love to see next season, is more on the Klingons, the Romulans....the Vulcans. How the war between the humans and the Klingons came about....The formation of the federation, Invention of tractor beams, shields....
In short, try to channel the story to the TOS timeline.
...what day it's on. I'll watch it regardless. If I can't be there to watch it, I'll set my PVR500 to record it so I can watch it later.
I thought the series started off a bit slow at first, but with the last few episodes, even though I know Earth will be saved and the evil dooers trying to reconfigure space will be defeated, I still find it interesting.
I think they should put FireFly back on the air either right before or right after Enterprise. That would be cool.. =]
bork bork bork!
I know everyone thinks friday night tv is some black hole that shows go to when they're ready to die, but this could be good. As it stands right now Enterprise is battling Smallville on Wednesday nights along with American Idol. At least friday's are faily wide open, so this might actually raise the total number of viewiers.
Those of us who were around for Star Trek: The Original Series remember that, after NBC was forced to renew ST:TOS thanks to the massive letter-writing campaign, they moved the show from its original 8:30 time slot (Thursdays the first season, Fridays the second) to Fridays at 10 PM, thereby ensuring that the show would never make it to a fourth season because that time slot was a ratings graveyard.
Today with VCRs and TiVos abounding fans of the show will probably be able to catch it no matter when it airs, but still, couldn't they have found a better time slot? Seems to me it's sort of like being in a half-empty movie theater and choosing to sit in the worst seat possible.
Someone you trust is one of us.
Does it have anything to do with T'Pol removing more clothing in more episodes than any other season? I guess Hoshi didn't do it for you, in the second season?
Maybe the fourth season with have T'Pol AND Hoshi - together!
I have one word that can save the Friday timeslot...
PVR
Actually, that's three words... but seriously, it's the only way I get to watch Enterprise as it is...
The only snag? It looks like 'Enterprise' might be moved to Fridays next year, and Firefly fans can tell you what a great place that is..."
Doesn't every self-respecting 'Enterprise' fan just TIVO it anyway?
You insensitive clod!
Enterprise never appealed that much to me, but apparently there are some very intense fans and there must be a good reason for that.
Firefly didn't float my boat either, but I seem to recall it getting good reviews.
Farscape was constantly gaining new fans for its four year run. And I paid really close attention to the events surrounding Farscape. It was the show that pulled SCIFI out of relative obscurity among cable stations, their most popular show, yet they tried like hell to get it canceled. They jerked its time slot around when they stopped liking it, surrounded it with lackluster programming (Invisible Man being an exception), and as far as advertising goes, did their best to pretend it didn't exist.
Looks like the same thing is happening with Enterprise. The devoted fans (basically a captive audience for advertisers, read: A GOOD THING) saved the show it appears, and yet the network is screwing up its time slot to drive its popularity down. If you don't want to air the show, just fsckin' say so and send it to another network.
Is there a petition out there to bring back the NextGen crew for another few movies? ST:TNG was some of the best Trek ever.
I for one am glad that Enterprise will be renewed. I've never owned any ST merchandise much less been to a convention, but I have watched all the Star Trek series and I liked having them around.
I agree that Enterprise is not perfect, but show me a Star Trek series that was?
TOS had more than a few god-awful episodes (e.g. And the Children shall lead, Miri, Charlie X (title?).
TNG started out very shakily IMHO as the actors/writers settled into the characters (e.g. Picard wasn't quite yet his reserved and commanding self, and Worf just snarled at everything); and for the length of the series you had many fans screaming about any episode which Troi or Wesley starred in.
DS9 was pretty good, though I think the situation is somewhat comparable with Enterprise in that the show, IMHO, has a stronger and more interesting supporting cast than the 'starring' captain.
Voyager had a lot of well-known problems.
Perfect shows are rare - enjoy your favorite parts of this one and hope the other parts get better.
"I think really only Babylon 5 went out on the perfect note, mainly because thats when it was supposed to happen."
Babylon 5 remains my hands-down favorite sci fi series of all time. Damn well done, wish we had more like it.
Now I'll no doubt be speedily corrected if wrong ;-) but actually wasn't the push to retake Earth completely rushed due to Babylon 5 nearly being cancelled a year early?
My impression was that Sheridan's capture, interrogation/Psycorps torture, and Ivanova's leading the rebel forces to rescue Sheridan, defeat of Earth conspiracy was all meant play out over the better part of a season. Instead it all got wrapped up in warp gate time.
Then the damn network turned around and renewed the show, the whole "cancellation" seeming nothing more than a !$&%! bargaining ploy.
Which sucks, since I was rabidly awaiting that juicy thread of the plot arc to play out along Straczynski's usual beautifully orchestrated storytelling. Man, given the proper time to unfold, that plotline would have kicked serious ass!
I have to say that towards the end of this season it has kept my interest. I was starting to tire of the whole story arc with the xindi, but the story has picked up steam. I am glad it is staying.
I liked that in some aspects that Archer was willing to set his P.C. outlook on some things to get stuff done.
BTW:I don't care what night it is on, that is why I have Tivo.
"If you have done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways" -- hhgg
What kind of self-respecting nerd uses BOSE speakers?
"Enterprise is getting better. "
When you're at the bottom, you can only go up.
WTF is up with Friday?
It used to be I could watch Crossing Jordan and 3rd Watch on Monday nights, trying to relax after work.
Then they put 3rd Watch to Fridays, and now I've completely lost on the storyline. I don't want to watch Fear Factor or the 2000th installment of Dateline NBC.
Ah yes, Fridays is the waiting room for the graveyard of television shows.
Why is this modded troll???
I like the show, although I am annoyed that they've already resorted to time travel. I thought they'd already figured out that that's when the other shows started going down hill.
I'd also like them to take a more X-Files approach, where you mix the continuing storyline with single standalone episodes. I think they've concentrated too much on the Xindi (?). If you don't like that storyline, the whole season's been a wash, and while I like the storyline, it's just been going on too long.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Thank the powers that be that it is being renewed
basically these days star trek == nerds looking at tits.
Actually a few, but the most critical is the actor who plays the captain. Just wicked awful. I mean, poke your eyes out with a pencil awful.
Kill the guy of (in the show, not in real life) and just get a better actor in place. Until that happens, the show will be a lot of potential, nothing more.
Personally, I think this last season of Enterprise has been great. Season 2 was in many ways better than Season two of TNG. I mean, think back to the ridiculous conspiracy Season Finale of Season 2 in TNG and compare it to last year's entering of the "expanse" in Enterprise.
Enterprise is also dealing with many ethical issues that were previously not tackled by any major series because it seriously conflicts with popular morals.
We are talking about growing humans for the purpose of harvesting of organs, eugenics, utilization of psychological manipulation to extract information, and many other examples.
It is such a refreshing alternative to the feel good BS of TNG where there was almost NEVER any moral ambiguity and the good guys always win.
With Enterprise, especially in the past year, we don't know always who the good guys are... we are presented with people working to save their planet, all other moral concerns are ultimately secondary to that goal.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
**karma burns in a storm of trekkie flames**
Anyone remember that? The Suliban and all that? What happened to it?
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
If you haven't watched Enterprise lately, you'll be in for a treat the next two Wednesdays. The last several epiosdes have been absolutely riveting. Just check your Trek-continuity dogma at the door :-). A little piece I wrote about why this is a good show:
& id =20040513_enterprise
http://66.51.173.18/cgi/gofuton.cgi?action=rant
As far as the move to Friday, I think it will be a good thing. If anything, maybe they can attract Smallville viewers.
Kudos to the thousands of hard-core fans who pestered UPN for months to keep the show! You can make a difference.
dinner: it's what's for beer
Chris Griffin: Where do you think you go when you die?
Southern boy: I learned from church that if you're good you go to heaven but if you're bad, you go to a place where the dead believe they're still living and they pray for death but death won't come.
Chris Griffin: UPN?
No wonder my first impression of Enterprise was that it sucked the shit out of a dead man's ass. >_
I cooled on Trek when I read about the Voyager cast (the Doctor being an obvious Red Dwarf rip and Neelix being too annoying for words)... I was hoping Enterprise wouldn't suck ass, but between the obvious T&A, the HORRIBLE intro music (this is Space : The Final Frontier, not DAWSONS CREEK) and a plot synopsis with the words "temporal cold war" in it, well.... other production companies have been doing much better with much less for much longer- without shitting all over their own continuities.
Why was it bad? Well, there's the obvious: the Bryan-Adams-would-call-it-pussy-rock theme song, the T&A pandering, the timeline-mangling, desperate gimmickery of bringing in the Borg and the Ferengi; all this just a stupid, doomed-to-fail attempt at attracting Joe Fucktard to the show (which is why they didn't call it 'Star Trek: Enterprise'), that just ended up alienating their core fanbase of nerds and geeks *. But, ignoring this, my theory is that they moved too soon into character stories. With the other shows, you got to know a character through their everyday performance on duty before they took you deep into their personal life. But, with Enterprise, every other episode is was damned soap opera, with characters you don't care about. With TNG, they could get more personal, because they had characters you couldn't help but be fascinated with from the beginning (Data, Worf). But Enterprise has no such characters. This keeps it from being a great show, but getting too deep into those characters it has before the audience gets a chance to get familiar with them kept it from being a good show.
Why is it good? Well, moving to a continuous story arc, instead of individual episodes, is a major part of it. My opinion is that all the good Sci-Fi concepts that the Star Trek universe can handle without seeming too contrived have been done to death, by the previous four series. This is why the last few seasons of DS9, with the Dominion War story arc, were so much better than the last few seasons of Voyager, which just rehashed old TNG episodes, with maybe a dozen decent ones (a subject for further ranting, in itself). DS9 then, and Enterprise now, are no longer Sci-Fi: they're Space Opera. And that's the only place Star Trek, in it's current form (ie, not the 'Star Trek Adventures' idea) can thrive.
* For whom the producers have repeatedly shown contempt, as if our dollars aren't as good as the MTV set's; actually, everyone involved in the production does this, but the actors usually have some sort of breakdown and epiphany, come around to accept they'll never be cool to the cool people, and accept and embrace their adoring, dorky public(see: Leonard Nimoy, Wil Wheaton).
In order to enchance continutity with future star trek series, producer Rick Berman will fall victim to a horribly debilitating transporter accident.
Fear not! Dr. Who returns to the airwaves in 2005. And thankfully, it's only at it's "Next Generation" phase.
CJF
IMHO 'Enterprise' has been renewed for a fourth season... is a BIG mistake.
/. already were psyched up (Heh..."out" I should say perhaps) for the series to end and now all that has occured is a temporary life support system has been installed. The show still is the worst of the Star Trek group and (again...IMHO) with that said, the whold Star Trek Universe needs to go into Hibernation for a few years to *ahem* charge its batteries shall we say...
Think about it, the readers here on
What would Gene Roddenberry think about this series?
I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. -- Hunter S. Thompson
the Friday timeslot tolls, it tolls for thee.
The government's moral compass is controlled by GPS.
In times of crises, they alter it to suit their needs.
The Dude abides...
... not.
the Dude abides.
Don't take it personally. It's not like DrEldarion or the Enterprise producers peed on your rug.
I'd be upset if Enterprise were cancelled... for me, JoJo Bla-Lo really ties the room together
Anyway, nobody told you to silence your opinion. We just have an OPINION about how awesome it is
Say it right: "Nuc-le-ah Powah".
With DVRs so prevalent these days, what does it matter when a TV show comes on? Heck, I haven't watched live TV since I bought my first VCR 20 years ago!
OK, I don' t know that for a fact, but that' s my guess, going by what the season finale teasers are showing.
I am a fan of StarTrek. I have watched every single episode ever made of the original series, TNG, DSN, Voyager, or Enterprise (and all movies).
That said, after I started to watch StarGate SG-1, and I am watching them on DVD (I am on Season 6 now), I have realized what a terrible terrible series the StarTrek series (any flavor) really is. The writing in SG-1 is miles better than any of the drivel written in StarTrek.
My brothers and I joke around that the writers of StarTrek should be forced to watch the SG-1 series, as a "seminar" for them on how to write good sci-fi scripts.
- Alain
Ahhh... what would slashdot do without unoriginal types quoting from Coen brothers' movies.
In the last decade I can think of only 2 really good Science Fiction shows, Babylon 5 and Jerimah. I would much rather see decent Science Fiction shows made, even Andromeda is fairly entertaining.
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
There had been a rumor the Berman might get the axe at one point? Is that still a possibility?
Get someone in there who cares more about the quality of the show then about demographics and the show will definatly get better.
Technoli
Personally, I find the usual format of star trek (one captain/crew/ship) limiting. After all there is supposed to be an entire FLEET of ships zooming around the galaxy, but it seems there is ever only ONE ship having interesting adventures. I would like to see a anthology ST series, sort of like the old Police stories series where you feature a different ship/crew every week (or two). You could use the premise of history lessons at starfleet academy to set up each episode and tie the series together. It could be called 'Star fleet chronicles' or some such. Of course, whatever type of series they make, they need better, more imaginative scripts, that aren't retreads of the same old tired themes. (time travel, alien possesion, ect.) That and I wish they paid more attention to continuity. I don't read Star Trek novels, because they have nothing to do with series or movie cannon.
So does this mean we will see more of Kirk?
I'm still waiting for a new Trek Series:
Star Trek: Galaxy Quest
It's about time for a parody (and "Galaxy Quest" was just a movie; I want a series where every episode the captain cries "Khaaaan!" for no reason).
Well....
I hate to say it, but if they want a quick fix for ratings. Just add more sex appeal like they did with voyager.
Contrary to many trekkers snearing at the idea. I LIKE the idea of adding gratuitous sex to the series!
Gosh, I can't believe we made it to season 4! Many didn't think they would make it beyond day 4! Of course, whatelse are you going to watch these days? Yet another season of Survivor? Our the next installment of slutty guy/girls sleeping with each other on national TV pretending to pursue a "real" relationship? With shows like these, STE should do well next year. :)
SPAM solution made easy: 1 spammer, 5 cords of rope, 5 hourses, and fireworks. Be creative.
Whiner.
And of course there's no tension, because we all know (since it's a prequel) that Earth isn't going to be destroyed.
Dude, I hate to break it to you, but I'm pretty sure that the Earth is going to be destroyed, or at least seriously screwed in some fashion. Look, you've got time travellers always zipping about the place, so expect next season to be all about that and trying to get the Earth restored, sort of thing.
I mean, what better way to ensure a continuing plot line than to completely rewrite history every season? Sounds exactly like something B&B would do. And hey, what a cliffhanger season finale, right?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Okay... maybe I'm misreading this, but that phraseology makes it sound like the actors were formerly away from work on account of strike action by them, which was in violation of some sort of contract agreement. But if that were the case, how was it that they ever ended up away from work in the first place? Why wouldn't any such contract have automatically expired right away, once it was believed to be the case that the show was unlikely to return?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
It's the Sphere-Builders.
And it's already been speculated on some of the email lists that the Sphere-Builders are actually the Founders, before they figured out how to exist in our space (albeit in "liquid" form).
dinner: it's what's for beer
Riker: They were just sucked into space.
Data: Blown, sir.
Riker: Sorry, Data.
Data: Common mistake, sir.
(The Naked Now)
Or, Simpsons, South Park, Dr. Who, or, like, even, yknow, like ST-TOS, man.
It's actually pretty fun when someone else starts it.
Say it right: "Nuc-le-ah Powah".
It's pretty obvious why Archer was picked to be the captain now. He's a tactical moron. He's extremely emotional. He violates ethical rules without blinking. He has the diplomatic skills of a rabid wolverine. He doesn't grasp the concept of morale. And the only way to give him morals is to infect him with alien goo.
If this guy was under my command, I'd want to send him as far away from my planet as possible too. It's a shame losing the dog too.
Because a small niche of people considering a show "good" isn't enough to combat the other 90% of the population who couldn't care less. If people aren't watching, it's an expense to the network to keep producing the show.
I like Enterprise. No, I really like Entrprise. It's not high art, it's not religion, it's entertainment! And they are getting better. At times even a little gritty, (a good thing). Remember back, TOS - ground breaking, but some really dopey episodes. And the constant attempts at levity got really annoying. TNG - Data's constant navel gazing: "Why am I not a real little boy Geppetto?". The lame holodeck vehicle for plots. DS9 - One of the best, from what I've seen, but they kept moving the darn thing, and it took that show 3 years to find a groove. VOYAGER - Gilligan's Island meets Star Trek. That show was lost in many ways. I tried to hang in with it, I really did. Ick. I like that Enterpise has real challenges. Things that don't work. They can't just blast whatever they see. The effects are good, as are most, but still, credit where it's due. The cast is good, I like the characters. Even Archer, he's played as a guy under real stress, not some comic book character. Don't get me wrong, TOS was very good. TNG was good, at times, when it didn't try to preach too much. (Thanks for the Borg). I need to catch up on DS9. But I don't miss Enterprise. I have refused Neilson boxes in the past, but if offered again, I'll take it and tune in to Enterprise.
Holy fucking christ you're a nerd.
Enterprise is the worst StarTrek yet. IT DESERVES TO DIE. Scott Bacula is, by far, the WORST captain of the enterprise (yes, I'm including Janeway in that comparison). Every Star Trek show has always centered around a strong captain. Not anymore! Capt. Archer is the biggest fucking pussy I've ever seen. Being ex-military, I can assure you that no one in the military would do what that wimp ordered. The show is a disaster and needs to be put out of its misery for godsakes.
Thanks saveenterprise.com. Thanks for saving a piece of shit show that deserved to be cancelled the first fucking year you fucking retards.
>Fire Berman and his team and hire some REAL writers (DC Fontana, Diane Duane, Diane Carey, Peter David, all old Trek hands who "got it"), and maybe Trek will start not-sucking again.
While I can agree with DC Fontana, The other 3 I don't agree with.
At least Diane Duane needs to do some more homework on how things work in the current military before transposing it forward. It isn't the "overall" picture, but some of the little things that she misses.
And one in particular which she based a whole book upon was contradicted in TNG, just as I told her it would be (via Fidonet, back in the 90s).
It's been a long time since I really watched any television.
Who would have ever thought that the bugs and lizards would be the evil races, while the sloths, man-likes, and manatees would be good?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Kaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhnnnn!!!!
We can but hope that Berman gets cancelled. A quote attributed to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Next Generation artist Andrew Probert opines that Berman doesn't know jack about scifi...
/. headline: Berman on Enterprise: "It's dead, Jim."
;-)
Personally, I think the mooted Friday-night slot is ironic, the final nail in the coffin. Anyone remember where classic Trek was put by the network for its third season before cancellation?
Yup. Friday night. When its core audience was out doing other things, the sort of things young people, young adults, do... if they'd had demographics back then, the advertisers would've run away in droves. (As it is, they didn't bring in the demographics til much later - and classic Trek proved, in syndication, to be an ideal show for the advertisers to hit certain groups.)
As an ex-Trekkie, all I can say is... roll on those Friday nights, I'm waiting to see the
(Or, admittedly, a clip of Dean Stockwell on the bridge, saying something like, "Uhh, Sam... you're not really a starship captain...")
"It is dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue." -- Zork
Baaaarrrrrf.....oh wait, sweaty cleavage...yay!
Vote in November. You won't regret it.
I think it was lack of fan interest. The Tal..er Suliban did not impress anyone the way they had hoped, so they were pulled. The same thing happend with the Ferengi in ST:TNG. Roddenberry expected them to be the major adversaries of the entire series, but once these snarling barely-sentient Perot's saw the light of day no-one was impressed and they too were pretty much phased out until they were re-tooled for DS9.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
--If something I said could be taken two ways, and one of those ways made you cry, then I meant the other way.
I've never understood the complaints about fridays. I mean as a parent of a 2 yr old and a 8 month old Friday evenings are no different except I might stay up a bit later because I can sleep in until 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning before my kids wake us both up.
There's nothing on Fridays except for Third Watch. Everything else is worthless in my opinion, I hate 'reality' television and I'm glad to see something will be on Friday as we move forward.
Farscape did well on Fridays, Firefly didn't do well not because of the time slot, but because of the out of order playing & the lack of network support. I've been watching the DVDs and keep wonder what the hell were they thinking cancelling that. Great story/character development, and I wasn't an Angel/Buffy fan either.
Oh well, I for one shall TiVo it every week just like I have been. Now they can be on one TiVo so now I can watch it th day it was aired so that my two TiVo's aren't competeing and trying to figure out the Smallville/That 70's Show/ST: Ent conflict.
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Quite full circle, considering the Original 60's series got a last-minute reprieve to a Friday Night slot.
"Spock's Brain", "And the Children Shall Lead", "Way to Eden". Yep, worth the renewal.
Hail, hail, fire and stone...
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
Star Wars Episodes one and two made money. For their producers they were better than nothing, no question. For the soul of the series, they were unmitigated disasters. The really amazing movie in the series, Empire..., now looks worse as a result of being in the same room with Jar Jar.
Do we really need other examples of your point about damaging the franchise? Try the cartoon Lord of the Rings -- that set back Tolkien mania for a long time, and it's really not as bad a disaster as people say, it was just ordinarily mediocre for its time.
Personally I'm not really rooting against Enterprise, because other than TNG there hasn't been a Star Trek series for me since I was 10. I don't really care either way. But then, that kind of underscores your point...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Although the studio may be in serious legal trouble, the fifth season of Andromeda is still a go - the casting sheets have already been sent out, and the preproduction process has been on for about a week now.
I've no idea how (or why) it was saved, as the show was never that good to begin with and went downhill from there, but the reports of its death have been greatly exagerrated.
Alain, I couldn't agree with you more. Stargate SG-1 is a masterpiece. The plot is consistent and well written. It amazes me how many different stories they can come up with.
Jim
Funny, Stargate SG-1 seems to be kicking ass on Friday nights... (and saturday and sunday especially monday also tuesday and wednesday and thursday etc)
[o]_O
but when do hoshi and t-pol get it on in the name of science and vulcan-human peace? mmmmmmmm peace :)
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
If you don't stop complaning, we will bring back Wesley Crusher!
- Trek Production Crew
Table-ized A.I.
My gripe with this show is that it seems to be little more than a vehicle for leftist propaganda. It only makes a half-hearted attempt at being subtle in this regard. I was greatly concerned the first time I saw captain Archer whine at the Klingons. Playing the pussy diplomat may be consistent with modern euro-centric left-wing political ideology, but it just doesn't work in the real world, unless of course you're trying to get someone to attack you. The episode about AIDS, disguised as a vulcan mind disease, was particularly insulting. I don't know about you, but I've been fully aware of the AIDS epidemic for about 20 years now. I really don't need a TV show to preach to me about it.
What Enterprise needs to do is hire some of the writers from Farscape and wrest control away from the ideologues who think the show is there so they can propagandize.
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
There's klingons off the starboard bow
...there's more, but I can't remember it anymore.
starboard bow
starboard bow!
There's klingons off the sarboard bow,
scrape them off, Jim!
STAR Treckin'!
Across the universe!
Only going forward,
Cause we can't find reverse!
As much as I hate racial stereotyping, UPNs flagship shows have been typicaly targeted tward the urban African Americans. The only thing missing are commercials for StoveTop Cornbread. In fact, only BET shows these commercials dispite the fact that cornbread tastes a hell of alot better then their stuffing.
I only heard that Enterprise might not be renewed a few days ago, and it really wouldn't surprise me if it had been cancelled. With the likes of Crusade, Futurama and Legend of The Rangers, it often seems like only 'lowest common denominator' shows can keep the interest of the big networks. If you like a show which requires an attention span longer than 12 minutes, or - god forbid - 12 IQ points, it's going to have an uncertain future. Don't get too attached to the characters.
I think the how ratings are measured should be changed. Enterprise is one of the most popular bit torrents out there. That is how they should measure the success of a show, how many people download.
If that was the case Simpsons, 24, and Star Trek would live forever. Fuck shows like American Idol and the Bachelor.
"Its too hot out for a Penguin to be just walking around. - Billy Madison"
T'Pol and Seven of Nine bikini jello wrestling could save Enterprise.
--
What would Bill Clinton do?
amydox@hotmail.com
The Friday showing hasn't hurt Stargate any. I think it largely comes down to content, rather than when a program airs. Enterprise has suffered from a bit of half-heartedness and more than a bit of political correctness. This was supposed to be pre-Kirk times, so bring on the running gun battles! The galaxy was less a friendly place back then!
I watched the first two seasons of Enterprise and enjoyed reading the well-written reviews by Gisele La Roche. Interestingly, he's given Season 3 some pretty good marks. Already, he's given:
A+ (5 episodes)
A (4 episodes)
Compare this with Season 1:
A+ (0 episodes)
A (2 episodes)
And Season 2:
A+ (0 episodes)
A (2 episodes)
I enjoyed the 4 "A" episodes in the first two seasons, so I'm eager to see the season 3 episodes which prompted the "A+" ratings.
The only bad thing is I'm a huge Stargate Fan, and this is the last season of SG1, so now I better get the Tivo fired up if they are in the same time slots.
Basically, I am glad they renewed the show, and I hope they keep up the good story lines...
fuckin' fascists... ;p
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
You have to be kidding. SG-1 episodes can be SOOOOOO repetitious. (SG-1 goes to planet, brings back artifact, artifact threatens world, SG-1 gets rid of it, world is saved.) I'm sure patriotic Nazis who thinks the US Armed Forces can-do-no-wrong must eat this show up, but SG-1 is not a warm, psychological blankie for me.
Season 6? You're in for a disappointment. Parker Lewis (Corin Nemec) can't fill Dr. Jackson's shoes.
Don't get me wrong, I think SG-1 is good sci-fi. But it doesn't beat ST:TOS, ST:TNG (season 3+), or ST:DS9 (season 2+). (Well, maybe ST:TNG...)
I'd rather force ST writers to watch Farscape or (hee hee) Lexx.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Time and channel do not matter, when you have a TiVo. ;^)
A lesbian hologram with Nurse Chapel and her 150-yo counterpart, Lwaxana Troi!!!
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
On their first season I was warming up the idea of following the series until they ended it with that stupid cliff-hanger. I was so pissed off I completely skipped season two and part of season 3. I just got back to it thanks to a site with .torrents of all previous episodes.
I don't know about you guys but I hate when they try to pull your leg with cliff-hangers and all these popup-like annoying techniques.
Hopely the story will have and ending this season since they expected the show to be cancelled.
HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
That is why only one other person knows what means "toteo sabetendo unforgiven never shines as the sun butt but I can shine as the bright white on black leather and blue velvet in the kitchen of the house of the Rose Lords that keeps Kathleen Turner, Cybill Shepard, Gillian Anderson, Natalie Portman, Jessica Alba and Jolene Blalock in my bed tonight".
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
Let's face it, as soon as we all saw that intro we knew we were all in for a bumpy ride.
30% off web hosting. Coupon code "SLASHDOT".
I KNEW Clay Aiken was a Trekkie!!!!!!
That would explain his apparent asexuality and lack of biceps.
Thanks, I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Wouldn't the Target Audience also be the largest set of Tivo-type device users?
Of course, that also kind of shoots the advertising in the head...
But what's the point? Nielsen confirms: SF is dying.
The networks know that the "Star Trek demographic" will watch anything remotely Trekish or science/spec fictional. So why go to all the trouble of doing decent hard science fiction i.e. using a consistent set of rules with no Deus Ex Machines, or even decent drama, like B5 or some of the more daring DS9 plots.
It's too much trouble. It's too risky. They know we'll watch it anyway. The target market they have to win is Joe Sixpack, and Joe doesn't like to feel like he's missing something. So just pad it with Plasma Discombubulators, Tachyon Defragglers and sprinkle liberally with large breasted aliens and sub soft core teasers (c.f. Enterprise pilot), and remember: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
With Farscape and Stargate gone, we're pretty much out of self aware shows. Berman and Brago toughed it out by never compromising their one overriding principle - give Joe what he wants - and now they're the only game on the block. Scient Fiction is dead. Long live Emo Fiction.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I hope they finish/kill the stupid temporal cold war story line. Friday nights will kill the show for good though.
Where at? I have had terrible luck with Limewire.
It looks like 'Enterprise' might be moved to Fridays next year.
Perfect. Finally geeks can claim with some credibility that they've got a reason for staying in on a Friday night.
I mean, really, there was some SERIOUS sexual tension there. If one (or both) of them had been a woman, there would have been a sex scene by now.
Am I gay? Does it matter? It's just clear that those two ARE and I feel bad for them. It's what, 2200? We'd have been doing gay marriages for 200 years by then. Besides, it's a ship. They've been serving hot buttered buns on naval ships for hundreds of years.
Luckily, I've got karma to burn on this post.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
People who pirate music, movies, and software are freeloaders who get bitter when the free ride is taken away.
I thought that said "...who get bittorrent..." Of course, I'm currently "pirating" Fedora Core 2, and having to do so over http because nobody on the torrent is sharing. >:-O
To stay on topic, though, kudos to UPN for keeping on what has turned out to be a decent program (I have watched each episode from the beginning, and was amazed with the quality the show has attained this season). B&B need to be fired, though. From a cannon, preferably.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
BEEP!!! BEEP!!! BEEP!!!
Don't forget backing up to the kiss of death fridays.
I think that wouldn't be so bad if they used an airing system like ADULTSWIM on cartoon network. They run a show three times a night and their timing lets them catch all the night owls. If UPN replayed the show say at 1am and 3am they would catch everyone coming in from a night of fun. Drunks like scifi too!
Party at O'zorgnax's Pub! Buy me a Slurmtini aye?
You know every show of Trek is a different flavor. Your not going to like all the flavors all the time.
If you don't like the current flavor, the best way to get what you want is to write down what you want in a flavor (show) and send it to the Trek empire, Trek fan groups, and possibly your own website. That way the next incarnation may be pleasing to the pallete, OR the current show my have a flavor change (Much like the change in DS9 when they changed production companies in '96 (if I recall))
Party at O'zorgnax's Pub! Buy me a Slurmtini aye?
One of the great things about this season (at least the last half dozen eps or so) has been the sense of continuity. One episode leads into the next, and yet there is an episodic feel to things. It's almost as if they've been studying Babylon 5...
Of course, they're just going to go back to the disjointed episodic system after this season is over, but as someone else said, it's better than nothing.
I'm not worried about the show moving to Friday night. X-Files got a huge boost from Friday night, and it might be just what Enterprise needs to get its numbers up.
The year it moved to 10 was also the last year the Nielsen ratings didn't adjust for demographics but just reported on "total viewership". Had it gotten the exact same rating only a season later, it would've been one of the biggest ratings hits ever.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
to no longer be the "Unwatchable Programmes Network":
1. Let (read: force) LeVar Burton direct as many episodes as his schedule will allow, and
2. Get Wil Wheaton to guest-star.
MSIE: The world's most standards-complaint web browser.
What's the matter? Pissed that your precious Farscape got cancelled? :p
the entire Star Trek francise should be GPL'd. Do the same for any number of other essentially good -but cancelled- science fiction that didn't survive the for-profit entertainment model.
Thesis in summary: GPL sci-fi: distributed script writing and video production present new opportunities for old sci-fi series.
related links:
freefilm.sourceforge.net www.freescriptexchange.com
note to self: distributed video production will present interesting continuity challenges.
Committee for Symmetric Distribution of the Future
It's life Jim,
but not as we know it,
not as we know it,
not as we know it...
Scotty has a verse too, but I can't remember it.
-Mark
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
Well, somebody do it all ready. Take action people. The future of all TrekDom is in your hands!!!
To be honest, are there any other shows on UPN other than soap-opera for nerds and soap-opera for rednecks?
I've got Tivo and so should everyone else.
They could run it at 4am Monday morning and it wouldn't make a bit of difference to me. I wish more networks would figure that out. Heck, Hallmark is showing Magnum PI at 1 and 2am. Fine with me. In fact, that's better than a prime time slot because it doesn't interfere with anything else I may want to watch.
I see this over and over, again and again in these posts.
Can anyone provide some factual, documented, examples of why these two are the BANE of the ST universe?
I agree, they were given enough chances, put them out of their misery!
Hmmm...
Actually, I can say that "The Mullets" is infinitely more entertaining then the sickening rash of do nothing, provide nothing garbage that is "Reality" Television, minus the actually decent ones like "Trading Spaces". (The shows you can actually learn a thing or two from...)
The rest, like "American Idol" and its ilk can be wrapped up in 100 year old newspapers, doused with as many flammable liquids as exist and then have a liberal application of flaming napalm applied to them...
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
It was an episode in the first season. The ship's token Vulcan sent an encrypted private message to her parents. The human crew found it suspicious that the message was encrypted, so one of the officers "just" decrypted it.
Drink that in. Puny humans flick a switch and break strong encryption created by Vulcans.
Ok, so let's go on the assumption that all encryption is weak in the future. Suppose they have computers that break all kinds of inconvenient laws of physics in order to nullify the effects of all public key-style encryption. And suppose that the all-logical ('cept on those rare Pam Far days) Vulcans, in spite of this awareness, do not opt to use one-time pads for secure communication.
...
Yeah. Doesn't work. I know it's just a show, but it's not like MST3K: they're trying to be serious. It irked me. I stopped watching, anticipating more crap like that.
This series is too militaristic. The writers are reacting to the Saudi Arabian massacre of Sept.11 (heard of it? check the web if not) by imposing a Gulf War II-type of ambiance onto a series that takes place hundreds of years in the future.
It leaves a metal taste in my mouth.
People simply aren't going to think and act this way in the future.
The writers should take the actors and plots and move them to a contemporary Gulf war setting if they want to celebrate techno-warrior jingoism. They would get all the ratings boost that they need to keep going forever.
The ST:Enterprise writers should read some real modern science-fiction and stop feeding us all this John Wayne-meets-Star Wars stuff. Because, to tell the truth, they don't really do it as well as John Wayne (check out some of his 1950's movies on DVD if your not familiar with his persona) and George Lucas.
It wouldn't hurt (except the ratings) to lighten up on the rubber mask characters and the contrived sexual tension between the crew members. In two hundred years, people will either just anomomously fuck, take anti-Viagra pills, use virtual-reality porn, or bring their families with them on long space voyages. Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose
Please reply with tips for getting those funny accented characters from obscure European legacy languages into Slashdot messages. Thanks.
Everybody does. The hell with Xindi! What's that, Xindi?
It got picked up by Sci-Fi and new episodes have been running. It's no longer in syndication, and Andromeda I believe is only running friday nights on Sci-fi, but since this is a cable channel, it works out better as you don't have to have such a huge share.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
Huh?
You can not change the laws of physics
laws of physics
laws of physics
You can not change the laws of physics
laws of physics jim!
Listen for your self
OK...season 6 is done and gone. Michael Shanks came back and Corin left to do broadway? After a while he kinda grew on you. It was a great part specificly because it forced the writers to really WORK at it. You must be still watching syndication....Season 8 starts in the fall...It's gonna be the final season...an REALLY cool!!!
The Original Series was moved to Friday after a campaign to save it, and Friday is where the execs sent it to die. UPN could be doing the same thing. If the show does really well in the ratings for a Friday they may save it, but if the ratings are bad they will justify that in killing it.
Also, I don't watch it, and I wish Rick Berman would be replaced.
In my humble opinion, this is terrific news (if true). I love the show. I'm relieved that they haven't betrayed an interesting concept (like Voyager did after, oh, 5 episodes or so), but this self-contained Xindi/ Expanse season has allowed them to be more daring with tighter stories. And there's been some real character development and plausible ethical dilemmas.
And no, it hasn't contradicted Star Trek continuity- not that that really matters much.
I don't have any viewing figures to quote but I suspect that Enterprise is pretty popular here in the UK. Sky (satellite TV) shows it on Monday evenings at 8:00pm, repeated on Saturday at 3:00pm and Sunday at 7:00pm. Channel 4 (terrestrial TV) shows seasons several months later on Sunday afternoons as part of a string of programmes targetting teenagers, repeated (uncut) very late on a weeknight (TiVo!). Those sound like good time slots to me.
So, there may be vocal people in the USA who dislike Enterprise and it may be losing in ratings to reality TV and sitcoms (who would have thought that the Lowest Common Denominator would be so low and so common?), but that's not even close to the whole story.
We're lucky to have Enterprise on TV. If you want schedules to consist solely of Queer Eye For The World's Wackiest Survivor Idol Friends then carry on ignoring and/ or criticising Enterprise.
*Rant on*
Well, let's see...could it be... fireflyfans.net? Not obvious enough for ya?
Oh wait, that was sarcasm wasn't it? hmmm... Trying to suggest that there are no firefly fans? I guess Universal's making that $50M Firefly movie for no one?
Don't try to lay the cancellation on the lack of fans. I think we've proved that we are many through the DVD set sales. A combination of Friday nights, no promotion, and airing the pilot as the final episode was why the viewership suffered.
*Rant off*
Did you even watch the show? The station DS9 was not really located within sight of Bajor, let alone orbiting it. It was a deep space station, after all.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Enterprise is bad for the same reason Voyager and DS9 were bad- the writing. We haven't seen even decent writing since TNG.
Yes, I'm a geek. yes I've seen every TNG episode like 100 times. But why is it so many geeks have such bad taste in SCI-FI? If you fight to save shitty shows then all SCF-FI gets is shitty shows.
What am I saying? Scifi fans are killing sci-fi.
I'm right cause I'm on of those rare geeks with taste. God, stop watching it already.
if you're interested in good story lines.
for my money the best site is http://www.fireflyfans.net. Check around and you can find links to where all of the shows are available for download.
Enjoy
It seems that I never care for a new ST series when it is on first run. In addition, it seems that the newer the series, the less I like it. I love TOS and TNG, althought I only got into TNG a couple of years ago. I've caught a couple DS9 episodes lately since SciFi has been running them a lot and I've found those somewhat interesting, although I again found the show all but unwatchable when it was in first run. I started watching Voyager when it came on, but lost interest (sorry to say I ended up hooked on Melrose Place instead - ugh) very quickly. I managed to watch two episodes of Enterprise. The first episode was ok, but like everyone else I kept wondering why he didn't leap after saving the Klingon. Just couldn't get that out of my head. The second episode I saw was brutal, and that was it for Enterprise for me.
Here's a better idea. Quit coming up with bottom-feeder narratives. As long as Paramount owns Star Trek, and as long as Paramount is a company in the business of making tv shows, that is all we will see, more of their formula. Until a network decides "whoa, take a chance on this," we are left with lowest common denominator pieces that fit the largest demographic. Budgets unleashed only make for eye candy, like the computer graphics festivals, and great props. They don't make for meaningful stories.
In short, they are "in power" so why create anything revolutionary? This is the wrong kind of conservatism. Its the "low fiscal risk" conservatism.
Here are some ideas which won't fly well with the Paramount executives:
- Kill off main characters and NEVER bring them back, no matter how far-fetched and witty your approach may be. Show people as they adjust to loss, and have that actually last a few episodes.
- Borrow heavily from the 'risky science' budget at NASA and actually put some of those off-the-wall concepts/realities like antimatter into common knowledge.
- Show a downward spiral in someone's character, and how people react to it.
- Explore and expose real, heart-kind evil.
- Show amazing heart-kind love.
- Carry on a dialogue which demonstrates something less than perfect communication.
- Explore more than the command crew social circle, regularly.
To their credit, it was nice to see the Enterprise limp along for an episode after it received heavy damage. I particularly liked it when they had to participate in some colony fighting to get their rare minerals. The Voyager episode with Janeway wandering into what amounted to crewmen in "steerage" was unforgettable.Perhaps you're referring to
STAR TREKKIN'
Star Trekking, across the universe,
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk.
Star Trekking, across the universe,
Boldly going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
Lt. Uhura, report!
Uhura: There's Klingons on the starboard bow,
starboard bow, starboard bow.
There's Klingons on the starboard bow,
starboard bow, Jim.
Analysis, Mr. Spock!
Spock: It's life, Jim, but not as we know it,
not as we know it, not as we know it.
It's life, Jim, but not as we know it,
not as we know it, Captain.
Medical update, Doctor McCoy!
McCoy: It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim.
Dead, Jim. Dead, Jim.
It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim.
Dead, Jim, Dead.
Star Trekking, across the universe,
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk.
Star Trekking, across the universe,
Boldly going forward, still can't find reverse.
Starship Captain, James T. Kirk!
Kirk: Ha-ha! We come in peace, shoot to kill,
shoot to kill, shoot to kill.
We come in peace, shoot to kill,
Scotty, beam me up!
Engineer, Mister Scott!
Scotty: Ye canna change the laws of physics,
laws of physics, laws of physics!
Ye canna change the laws of physics,
laws of physics, yet
Star Trekking, across the universe,
On the Starship Enterprise, under Captain Kirk!
Star Trekking, across the universe,
Boldly going forward, and things are getting worse!
Many versions seem to be floating around, some much longer...
"Do not drill any holes in your cat - it will not like it."
-- Nick Davies
When its core audience was out doing other things, the sort of things young people, young adults, do
You mean like sitting in their parents basement going blind looking at thehun.net?
You obviously dont know the 'core audience' of ST!
You have problems with Herc., I have problems with that goofy Quantum Leap guy, the 5ft british jockey and the rest of the melrose place crew.
zak
Friday night is traditionally the babysitter night, because adults, teens and young adults worth anything will have figured out SOMETHING ELSE TO DO and gone out for the evening rather than staying at home watching TV all night.
Those left behind at home are the kids and their babysitters, hence the plethora of harmless sitcoms ABC has been running for years.
This is mostly the same for Saturday night too. If you're home on Saturday night, you just didn't try hard enough to find something else to do.
Either way, it means the target audience for stuff like Star Trek or anything with a fantasy theme is simply not home to see it, which automatically means the show will get low ratings and get killed.
the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" philosophy does apply. Why cancel it when you can just not watch it?
Because I want to watch Star Trek. Not that crap that uses familiar words from the trek franchise, I want to watch Star Trek.
I want to watch a show about a future techno utopia where a united humanity ventures forth to the stars in a spirit of friendly exploration.
I don't want to watch "the search for weapons of mass destruction...in space!". And as long as that shit is there, maskarading as Star Trek, I won't get to watch new trek. I want it canceled because it is killing star trek, I want that cancer removed before the entire organism (ie, franchise) is dead.
I'm not saying I don't want you to get CG work on lame shows, or that people who enjoy shows about sexy people rubbing each other down with space goo shouldn't get to watch them. I would gladly simply not watch it if it were some random crappy show. But its a parasite sucking the blood out of something I loved, and that is why I hate it instead of simply ignoring it.
Rick Berman must die so that trek will live again.
You can't take the sky from me...
I stand corrected. See topic!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
>Check around and you can find links to where all
>of the shows are available for download.
Actually, you should BUY the entire Firefly series, the boxset is already out and well worth the $35.
Remember, vote with your money. If you download crap (i.e. current pop music, fine). But try to support good Sci-Fi.
Perhaps if the pointy haired execs see that the Friends DVD is outsold by Firefly and TNG box sets, they may get a clue.
The solution to TV Scheduling is called TiVo!