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Paramount Says Enterprise Cancellation Is Final
Kethinov writes "The Save Enterprise campaigns appear to have been for naught. Paramount has declared that they will not be accepting any amount of money from fans to continue to produce Star Trek Enterprise. With the decision final, Star Trek Enterprise will be the first Star Trek show since the original series not to run a full seven seasons." From the letter: "Paramount Network Television and the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise are very flattered and impressed by the fans' passionate outpouring of attention for the show and their efforts to raise funds to continue the show's production." Commentary also available from TrekToday.
Enterprise never had a chance to grow. The first two seasons of Ent were decent, but still a bit mediocre. The third season was a nice ride, but not the show we really wanted out of the prequel. Manny Coto's 4th season is EXACTLY what the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seasons should have been, but too little too late. I love the show, always will, but TV politics have ruined many a good show. Look at the original Star Trek, or look at Farscape...
In their place, reality TV dominates. Why watch intelligent TV when we can have Growing Up Gotti?
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
There should be plenty of room for all 3 fans in my parent's basement
I mean, what could the network possibly be thinking? Don't they understand that they're cancelling the most original, innovative and entertaining Sci Fi show of this generation? How can they cancel a show with such a devoted following? How can they turn their backs on well-developed characters with their flaws and nuances? What about the great staging and the inspired writing? How can they ignore such incredible potential?
What about the tremendous buzz behind the show? What about the devoted legions of fans who are careful to never miss an episode? The ratings on this have to be through the roof -- everyone I know watches it religiously! Christ, I know people who went out and got TiVO just so they could start going out on Friday nights again without chancing setting their cheap VCRs wrong and missing it!
I mean, I'm upset, I'm angry and most of all I'm just plain astonished. I just can't get my head around this. I mean really, it just doesn't compute. I think the SciFi network ought to be ashamed of themselv...
(whispering, pause)
Oh, wait, they cancelled Enterprise?!? Just 100% for sure this time? Pft, well duh! Gee, you really had to be Miss Cleo to see that one coming. All the attention this was getting, I just figured that they must have cancelled Battlestar Galactica! Heh, oh Jesus, don't scare me like that! Heh, my hands are still shaking, man, you freaked me out! Whew...
C'mon, are you serious? You mean there were actually people willing to pay to see more of this crap? Like, real money? C'mon! An online petition with two signatures I might buy, but *pay*? Riiight....
Cancelling Enterprise... Yeah, whatever. Tragedy for all three fans of the series, I'm sure. Heh, pft... "Save Enterprise". Yeah, let me get right on that! What will the galaxy do without the heroics of Captain Archer, inspiration to mildly retarded people everywhere? What about all the memorable characters we know and love, like... er.. You know, hick-sounding white guy! Or british-sounding white guy? Or the chick in with the big boobies? (okay, 100% seriously: I will miss those boobies, but then again there's always the internet). LOL, "Save Enterprise". Ooh! We got to save Enterprise! Because, you know, it's, um, like a TV show with spaceships or something. Heh.
Whew.
Hey, is it July yet? Man, I couldn't believe that cliffhanger -- I tell ya, I haven't been genuinely surprised by a TV show in ages...
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
... would perhaps be to try to redirect the money to The Internet Movie Project ...
...
Begin Quote
Our dream is to create a movie with the POV-Ray raytracer,
as a collaborative effort of many people from all over the world,
just for the fun of it, "because it can be done" -
very much like POV-Ray itself is developed.
End Quote
or a similar instance
Yes, I am daydreaming.
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
Maybe, just maybe, it'll be like TOS. Or maybe, just maybe, we'll all go watch reruns of Farscape.
Either way, I'm good.
One down, reality shows, Friends reruns and 60 Minutes to go.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
"I'm sorry son, we'll never allow a hooker in this house, and that's final!"
I don't get it.
but that's not the final word on the subject...is it ever?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Breaking news: Cancelled show cancelled.
oh poo.
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
Good riddance, if you ask me.
Have you read my blog lately?
KAHHHHHHHHHHN!!!!
Disclaimer: Not a flame, just an observation that a previous version of ST was saved by fans.
How come the legions of fans didn't save Enterprise from the same fate of Star Trek?
Are the fans just less hard core? Or is all that money they sink into merchandice not affecting the bottom line enough?
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
I thought I heard the muffled cry of milions of geeks from their mothers basements. I pop on Slashdot and it's confirmed.
Season 3 tried to bring in a good story arc (it was good). Season 4 is pretty good, but it's too little, too late.
Seasons 3 and 4 are what seasons 1 and 2 should have been like. That Cold War temporal thing when NO WHERE.
The first seasons didn't have very gripping episodes. You had the same moral dilemmas and tired clichees and the blatant use of T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) as a sex symbol to attract testosterone-pumped young males. This is something she herself didn't like - Blalock wanted T'Pol to have more depth.
But anyway... Enterprise was interesting at first. It was interesting to see starfleet outmatched against pretty much everyone they met and how they dealt with the situation.
It is certainly sad, but I guess they had their chance. Blame the Diabolical Duo Berman and Bragga. They have the negative Midas effect. Anything they touch turns to crap. Which is why the first few seasons of DS9 were also not that great. It didn't get interesting until Michael Piller took it over and Berman turned his attention to Voyager. The actors in Enterprise, I think, did a decent job.
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
I never got into this Star Trek like the others. Even now, I would still rather watch old repeat episodes of TNG than Enterprise. I think that for all its flaws, TNG really hit it on the head. Voyager still had some of that good stuff too, but Enterprise lost it. Maybe they were trying to appeal to a wider audience or something, i don't know.
Suffice to say, I for one will not really miss it. Give me Firefly back tho!
Paramount might be waiting for Berman's and/or Braga's contracts to expire before they relaunch another ST series again?? Perhaps they want a producer that can create something other than crap? Hellooooo... Coto or Joe??
Maybe they have more neurons then we give them credit for...then again
Well a girl could hope....
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
Happy people make bad consumers.
There is still hope; Netcraft has not confirmed the cancelation!
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
"Star Trek Enterprise is yet another Star Trek show since the original series to run a full six seasons."
:)
Maybe because it's getting cancelled after the fourth season?
Vivin Suresh Paliath
http://vivin.net
I like
Frankly, what killed Enterprise in the end was that same thing that made Voyager suck. The writers, producers, et al got lazy and sucked the meat off a franchise which had a loyal following for many years. They indulged themselves in the stories and forgot to work at producing a good quality show that would keep the fans wanting more and that put the fans first. In the past they didn't have that much compting with them, but the new battlestar galactica, farcape, the new doctor who and other shows that put Enterprise to shame. Manny Coto helped, but by then the damage was done.
When, if, they resurrect the franchise, they best not do so simply because they take the fans for granted and that they feel a suitable period of star trek starvation has passed.
"Paramount has declared that they will not be accepting *any amount of money* from fans to continue to produce Star Trek Enterprise."
This should tell you something important.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Obviously someone at Paramount just doesn't like Star Trek.
Couldn't this be rephrased in a completely positive way to say: "Star Trek Enterprise is yet another Star Trek show since the original series to run a full six seasons.
Because Enterprise only ran 4 seasons, TOS ran 3 seasons, and all the others ran 7 seasons?
Don't they understand that they're cancelling the most original, innovative and entertaining Sci Fi show of this generation?
Guess you missed Babylon5.
-Valiss
So it's actually the 2nd show to not run 7 seasons??
my blog
I'm not sorry to see it go. This series was a waste of talent (some of the actors are *way* underrated) on predictable plots and softcore scenes.
But the franchise really needs to rest for a while. Next Generation was great because it was sort of a revival. Maybe a few years from now somebody will come with a great idea for a Star Trek series that doesn't look like its milking the same tired cow.
Old comics book series have gotten big on the big screen. Battlestar Galactica surpassed my expectations. And for the fans, just because it's on hiatus it doesn't mean the franchise will die.
On the other hand, we need new series. Too bad Firefly wasn't better realized. It had great potential.
No sig
This may be OT, and mod it so (...) if you wish, but: Why is it that we cannot have a prime-time TV Sci-Fi series that does not contain one or more pointless romantic subplots? This is one of the things that really irked me about Enterprise, and kept me from giving a rat's ass about the show. It's as bad as that whole pathetic Riker/Troi thing in TNG.. the whiny dating the pompous.
Does any real Sci-Fi fan care who is banging whom? Let's just all assume they are banging each other, and get on with the relevant content please.
If I hadn't read this /. article, I'd never even have noticed it was gone.
There's a Starman, waiting in the sky / He'd like to come and meet us, but he hasn't got the time.
And give your Enterprise donation money to Africa or Asia. They need the money much more!
True, they do need it more, but make sure it's given to someone that actually does something useful, like provides teachers and books or malaria-preventing tents for girls, not just money that will be waylaid by some warlord.
Or invent something useful to help the world with the money.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I can just see it now. Sam Beckett going back in time and saving Scott Bakula from making the worst career move of his life (After Major League 3, that is).
OH, pardon me. I'm slow today.
I didn't know what your TLA stood for.
my blog
All they need to do is go back in time and kill the Nazis that cancelled the show! ...Oh wait, that's why they're being cancelled...
TOS: enjoyed it in reruns as a kid. Thought the first season ruled, the second season was mostly good, the third season was headed downhill fast. Lesson: the quality (read: intelligence level) of the show's producer(s) matters. TNG: first seasons wildly uneven. Cheesy opticals (FX), unclear story lines, characters were thin at best. Season 5 was generally good. In the end, okay, but cut out about half the episodes. Lesson: quantity does not equal quality. DS9: A great idea, indifferently executed. The whole Bajoran gods idea could have been a fantastic bit of sci-fi, but in the end they just were used as deus ex machina. The introduction of the war story arc (although probably a response to Babylon 5) rescued it and made me actually want to tune in. Lesson: go somewhere with your big idea by giving the writers a framework. Voyager: Interesting idea (lost, out of touch), horribly executed. Janeway was in need of serious medication, as she was at a minimum bipolar. I wouldn't follow her as a leader for a month, much less years. The producers introduced ideas and at the end of the episode would use the "magic reset button" of time warp, tech change, or the jargon of the week. The ship acquired technology which gave it advantages, then the next episode it would be gone and might as well have never existed, to say nothing of frequently suffering damage which should have required time in dock. Utterly uncompelling and frustrating. Lesson: there's no point in having a show if it's not going anywhere with the characters, story or even the technology. Enterprise: I knew that when I heard who would produce that it would be garbage. When I heard the theme song, after cleaning up the vomit, I knew my worst suspicions were nowhere near what they should have been. The time-machine reset button, the unbelievable screwing with the canon, the notion that a ship could be remote controlled all the way from the Romulan Empire... Just...let...it...die, folks. The idiots who produce it are incapable of doing good work. It's just a money machine to them. Giving them your money is counterproductive. Find someone talented like Joss Whedon or Strasczinsky (sp?) instead. Don't save Enterprise.
Kinda Sucks for the Fans who actually gave money to the cause they probably won't even get there money back. Star Wars Episode III May 19
Yes, but the first since TOS, meaning in all series which followed TOS.
Why is there such difficulty with this?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
I do get pissed when I see a good TV show cancelled before it has a chance to find an audience. But a proper chance is two or three months, not 3 years.
Even most Trekkies found the early Enterprise scripts rancid. Stand back from your Trekkieness for a minute and consider that from the network's POV. They spend millions of bucks on a TV show, and it can't even inspire enthusiasm among hard core fans who are supposed to be a lock. Any other show that screwed up that badly wouldn't have lasted a full season, never mind getting renewed twice. Didn't get a chance? Spare me.
With the $3.2 million they have raised why don't they just finance a star trek project of their own, it probably wouldnt be enough to finance another season of enterprise but if they are that determined they could finance a nice 1st season of something new I would have thought! If they're that desperate of course
I would like to have been in on the meeting that decided to alienate their diehard fans.
I'm amazed no one has said it (at least up until the time I started typing this post)!
Quite honestly, I've never watched the show, but if you're right and it took four seasons for them to get it "right" then it was three and a half seasons too long.
It has nothing to do with politics, it has to do with ratings and budgets. If the show had been done "right" in season #1 or #2, then maybe it would have had the audience to generate the cash to see it through to season #7.
I'm supposed to watch 3 * 26 hours of television just to wait until it starts to get good?
Sorry...there's too little time to waste waiting for crap to stop smelling so bad when there is decent stuff to watch.
The cake is a pie
...and someone will try to bring back the bloated corpse to life. This is what Enterprise was about, there's no getting around it, and it deserves to go.
Can we toss Berman out an airlock at the same time?
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
the one surprise about this is that they didn't let the series go for a full five seasons. common wisdom has it that in order to successfully syndicate a series you have to have at least five seasons (about 130 episodes) of a series for it to be really profitable.
syndicated series are typically stripped - one episode a day five days a week. one season, 26 episodes is enough for just over five weeks. 2 seasons is ten weeks (two and a half months). 4 seasons is five or six months of programming. maybe a little more. it's kind of iffy for a 3 or 4 season series to be successful in syndication. classic trek was exceptionally successful with only 3 seasons. other series aren't always so successful.
perhaps the dynamics of syndication on cable, sales of dvd box sets, and the reduced profitablity of conventional teevee and cable broadcasts are changing how expensive series like 'enterprise' are financed. but i always thought that it was with the fifth season that the accountants could finally throw away the bottle of red ink.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
Well put. IMHO the Star Trek franchise has for a long time been suffering from a bad case of Deus Ex Machina Disease. Just when things are getting really hairy, just play the temporal card. It also works as a means of foiling the characters just when things are going their way.
In more capable hands, the concept of temporal confusion might have been handled with much more imagination and in a more believable fashion. I mean, the Crewman Daniels dude who is supposedly from 900 years in the future is utterly incompetent. You'd think humans would have learned a few things by then.
Anyway, I for one am sick and tired of time travel in Star Trek. It's an out for the writers, because they can't consistenly come up with good story ideas, despite the wealth of opportunities in the Trek universe. Let's let Trek rest for a few years, then see if a new team can breathe some life into the old franchise.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
earmarked to keep the voyager probes up and running.
That way you'd be funding real space stuff and it still has Star Trek relevance.
Or acts in a Television Sci Fi series.
Really sad about his. Told my wife and cried in her arms. Only show I tuned into that is not in reruns. Fuck TV sucks. Yoho
Paramount Network Television and the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise are very flattered and impressed by the fans' passionate outpouring of attention for the show and their efforts to raise funds to continue the show's production... but please fuck off already, you fucking nerds.
"The advanced societies of the future will be driven by competing systems of psychopathology." -JG Ballard
When Gene Roddenberry created the original series, he attempted to make the series as inclusive as possible. The TOS included characters such as Uhura (black African, NOT African-American), Sulu (Asian, not Asian-American), Chekov (Russian), and many other diverse characters. In one eposiode of the TOS, when Kirk was going through some kind of court-martial based on video evidence, the Starfleet judges (admirals, actually) included not only a person of Mongoloid descent but also of Asian Caucasian descent (he looked like a South Asian). That is two out of 5 judges which is quite impressive given that the TOS was made during the 1960s when racial equality was just coming of age.
After the TOS, successive Star Trek shows became more and more white and American-centric. Anyone who looked Asian in those successive shows could not be mistaken as a person who came directly from Asia as their behavior was too American. Ditto for the "blacks". Travis Mayweather is a prime example of this American-centric nature of the successive Trek shows. Why couldn't they just have named him Emekah Olowokandi or something like that??
Where the heck were the Africans, the Indians, the Chinese, the Middle Easterns, the Egyptians, the Brazilians, the Mexicans, and of course, the Australians in the Trek shows after TOS??
Only Trek: Deep Space Nine even tried to come close to Roddenberry's ideal. Dr. Julian Bashir was obviously Middle Eastern. But they could have had a Nigerian or a Kenyan as the black commander instead of Benjamin Sisko from Louisiana.
Unfortunately, Star Trek TOS was and still remains the ONLY Sci-Fi show that attempted to be inclusive of all cultures and individuals around the world. After TOS, nothing came close. Not even Battlestar Galactica.
Thanks I needed a good laugh.
You cannot seriously compare the importance of a gutter crappy shat out star trek show to the serious and grave problems of poverty and disease that exist in the world today which was the actual point. But to look at it from your POV, Star Trek is bad fiction anyway. It is not Shakespear. There is nothing revelatory about it or informative or for most people even entertaining. It's recent endless spin offs are just the usual junk fodder made for a group of fans who can't get on with reality and are upset when it's cancelled.
what's that?
that would make sense if the shows had been designed from the start to have some story arc or whatever to span 7 seasons, but none of them had that.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Ya know, you had me agreeing until you said you thought SG:Atlantis was better than BSG. Yikes.
I'd rank them thusly, for what's currently in production:
1) BSG
2) The 4400
3) Dr Who (only 3 eps to judge by, but it's fine)
4) Stargate SG-1 (this has gone way downhill with the cutback of Anderson's screentime). In it's prime, I would've put this at #2, easily.
5) Regenesis, if you consider this SF, which I do, though many wouldn't.
Stargate: Atlantis is so bad, I can't bring myself to put it on such a list, sadly. But every show has its fans, and I'm glad _someone_ likes it, though I will admit, you're the first I've heard say so.
If Space: Above and Beyond was still on, I'd have it at #1, bumping BSG to #2, (though not by much), and if Babylon 5 was still on, I'd have it at #3. First season of Farscape would be at #4, but boy did it take a quality nosedive once the whole Scorpius/crazy Crichton thing started. Visually, LEXX was stunning, but I could never get into the story.
Visually, LEXX was stunning, but I could never get into the story.
That's because there was none.
Dude, that show sucked. Talk about beating a dead horse.
Weird aliens that always look like humans, good guys that ALWAYS win at the last possible moment with some crazy technical miracle, magical SciFi gadgets that are backed with ridiculous jargon, doctors with miraculous cures for every insane ailment.... bleh, spare me.
I love SciFi, and there was a point in time when that entertained me, but I need a new story. This one has be rehashed and told too much.
As far as space dramas go, my money is on the new Battlestar Galactica series. No doubt, it's an old title. But at least is has been reworked to avoid tired SciFi cliches.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Lower the cost of the DVDs of the thing to a price normal people can afford :)
that ST has reached its *Final* frontier.
^^;
As one of their posters says...
Quitters never win, winnners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.
Seriously, it's time for these people to hang it up. Insisting that they can still save the show at this point is just pathetic. Look, I appreciate someone who's passionate about something, but enough is enough. Trek is tired, and it needs a rest.
Why can't these fans put this much effort into demanding quality Trek instead of seemingly endless crap like Enterprise?
I never thought anything could be worse than Voyager and remain on the air, and then Enterprise went and surprised me. The only plausible explanation I could come up is that Rick "everything I touch turns to shit" Berman had some really good blackmail material on the execs at the network.
Thank christ that's over with.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
They already mention that they hope fans will be looking forwards to the next chapter of trek.
Well, unless some sort of miracle happens before this next chapter starts airing, I predict a new tradition of cancelled treks.
If they start another series and quit half-way though again, even the most loyal of trek fans will start turning their backs on Paramount and trek.
My not following through with Enterprise, Paramount has slapped the franchise's fans in the face, which is highly unlikely to help the next series' marketability.
The fan base is Trek's main marketing asset. Killing series will quickly decimate the fan base. Finish Enterprise or quit the Trek business altogether - I feel Trek is unlikely to survive another cancellation. (I mean after Enterprise)
The reason I said make sure the money goes to something useful, was because of this editorial in the International Herald Tribune.
Still, I'll miss it, but am glad we have BG which is way more interesting.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You can honestly say that you find Paris Hilton believable? Or any of those overdone, made-up singers on American Idol? Please. It may be "reality", but there's not a damn thing real about any of it.
There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
...To the first theme song in ST history that wasn't instrumental.
And of all songs... Faith of the Heart? Are you kidding me?
Seriously. Enterprise was stillborn. Let it go.
I currently have no clever signature witicism to add here.
Lexx: "Lost in Space" with boobs.
If babelfish had a translator for PR-speak here is what it would REALLY say:
Dear Trekkies,
F*** You.
Sincerely,
-Paramount
sometimes, i wonder if i'm the only conservative on teh intarweb. ah well, back to mah hogs and warmongerin'....
Farscape was good stuff, imo- the Scorpius / John bits were a lot of fun, but on a re-watch, the crap part wasn't that aspect of the show, it was all of the filler that leaked in with seasons 2-4. Quite a few one-off throwaway episodes, with the result being something in between Trek and BSG for continuity, leaning much closer to the Trek end of the spectrum.
Farscape compares favorably against the likes of SG:A, Lexx and what I've seen of the current Doctor Who season (wish they'd spent as much effort on the SCRIPT as they have on the PRODUCTION), but the sheer number of fluff/throway eps and the plot pacing leave a bad taste in my mouth. Great characters, for the most part - more than I can say for most television these days.
Certainly there is an amount that would change their mind.
Lets hope that Bill Gates is a really really really big Star Trek fan.
Actually, how many sci-fi series haven't ended up being cancelled?
As opposed to all the tv shows that were never cancelled? Almost all tv shows die the same death, declining ratings and cancellation. I can think of about 3 tv shows ever that were simple ended because the all actors were sick of them, and decided to do other things.
Profitability is based off of viewership. The more people who watch, the more the producers can charge to advertise. Sci-fi just isn't that popular on the whole (compared to say crap like friends or reality tv series dujour). Keep in mind though, that there is an opportunity cost of putting a show on the air. When you put a show on, you lose a timeblock. So, while you might make $250,000 profit each time you show an episode of 'Buck Rogers, space manwhore', you may be losing money because another producer at your station has a show ready to go that might make you $1,000,000 per episode. ('Paris Hilton gets nekkid and acts stupid, yet again!')
Profitable shows with small viewership will always get run over in limited bandwidth situations like this.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
You heard them...they think the money is in buying books, dvd's and other materials. There is less to be made from producing a viable television show- it costs too much and they don't get the return.
So join me now and stop buying their books, DVD's of past shows, and other materials. There is no sense being a fan of the star trek show when the 'show' doesn't produce any movies or any series. They need to realize that its not the property that generates the book sales, its the movies and tv series.
Make the pledge- don't buy a single star trek item until there is a series worth supporting. Don't make it a property they want to own...make them sell it off to someone who will restore it to its potential and use it for something other than raw financial gains.
Greed has infested the entertainment business and it needs to be shut down. I'm all for pouring money into the movies and shows we love, but I'm also all for cutting them off when its clear that their motivations come only from greed and not from the passion of making art.
Its time to cut off star trek. Those behind it are driven by greed. Its not enough for them to make some money, they'd rather take that money and use it on something that gives them a better return. Its a bunch of bankers... support independant science fiction instead. Spend your money on productions that aren't driven by huge corporations. Give that 3 million or so to some passionate group who is trying to make a good film or series and put and end to greedy franchises.
Last time I checked, The Animated Series is since TOS, and it did not run 7 seasons.
It's dead Jim.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
"Paramount Network Television and the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise are very flattered and impressed by the fans' passionate outpouring of attention for the show and their efforts to raise funds to continue the show's production. Unforunatly we need the time spot for a stupid reality show no one cares about staring Britney Spears acting slutty and retarded with her husband. We know that even though there'd never be a "Save the parkers" campaign or a "Save Girlfriends" campaign these are the shows we are going to continue to air while a show with massive fan support will now be canceled. Thank you for your interest.
---- "Excuse me. Where's the children's gun section?"
First Terri Schiavo, then the Pope, now Star Trek. The trifecta is complete. "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."
It's a very dark ride.
Its getting to the point now where fridays are a pain, because 'everyone' (who has $) goes out, and every bar/cool place is jamm packed to the hilt.
If you do real statstical counting, I bet no more than 10% of the population go out on fridays, the rest DO stay home, and perhaps invite friends over too. Though TV is probably not on the high list of things to do.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I don't dress up, or go to conventions or nitpick the blueprints of every Federation ship, I am just a fan. I fall deeply into the cores of every show there is almost, and their writing style.
I grew up on Star Trek. From TNG, to DS9 to Voyager and now Enterprise. I expanded my sci fi tastes to Farscape (god I miss it, so much), Firefly, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, Buffy, Angel (more fantasy on those last two), and I even started to get into Battlestar Galatica despite how I don't like it's politic driven stories.
What is left? Sure Stargate SG1 is around but how long can they keep it going? I love Ben Browder being added to the cast but seriously, it's on its last season or two. Atlantis shows promise but I'm gonna say it lasts maybe 4-5 seasons. I'm not a huge BSG fan, it's good but I can't feed my sci fi craving off of just it alone.
Trek is gone. Paramount has basically said "fuck you" to the fans. I mean how much money has been raised here, for more episodes? Once Enterprise is over I will be removing UPN from my digital cable lineup just like I did "G4TV" after they shafted TechTV.
Even the Sci Fi channel learns from its mistakes. Sure they fucked over Farscape after season 4 but at least they had the balls to make a mini series to AT LEAST TRY and give fans closure. Paramount will finish this season but at what cost? It's a sheer slap in the face saying they won't accept money for new episodes. I mean what other show on earth thats cancelled/going to be cancelled could be run simply by fan donations? I'd pay money every week for Trek. Alot of fans would too.
Am I too far gone to be objectional? I think not. The first few seasons of Enterprise had their lows, I mean they really had their lows. But they had some good episodes too. And even more so I love Enterprise cause it's more human. Alot of themes, ideas, and ways of things are still done in the time period of Enterprise. People still wear hats, watch old movies, have more human forms of recreation. It seems silly but it relates more, you can actually imagine 100 years from now some form of space flight similar to warp drive, you can see how the Trek timeline actually fits in. It's doing what a prequel does, tells the backstory and sets up the future series.
Monday through Thursdays I usually watch dvd's to fill the gaps. Ocasionally I'll tune into Smallville on Wednesdays. Fridays are Trek and Stargate for me. Saturdays maybe the new weekly movie on HBO might be entertaining, and Sundays will always be dominated by The Sopranos and Carnivale.
Prime time tv is owned by sad reality tv. We have become a society of lemmings following whatever is popular and being entertained by the lowest common denominator entertainment. Even Picard would order our extinction, out of fucking mercy.
Aw Frell this
I watched one last night for the first time in perhaps years. It was the insectoids being born ep.
I noticed how virtually all the good cast was gone, and the new ones were dull, and not very LIVELY and charismatic, "yes sir commander" dull style like SS troopers in germany.
What we need is a blairwitchproject style 'action' in space, "OMG the aliens are attacking"
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
S:AaB was a great show, but would it have been so well remembered if half the cast hadn't been unexpectedly killed in the final episode? All the depression and death was what really made the series.
Slashdot - Mutual Assured Discussion
>Star Trek Enterprise will be the first Star Trek
>show since the original series not to run a full
>seven seasons
Not so. That honor would go to Star Trek: The Animated Series.
Bruce
I have seen every episode of TNG, DS9 and Voyager. I would've seen every ep of TOS if they were available on video when I was a Trekkie.
The rot started about half-way through Voyager when 7 of 9 was introduced. Although her character was okay and there were a number of decent episodes, the quality of the show from that point on went downhill.
By going with the "Sexy Borg", the Star Trek people began to appeal to the lowest common denominator. From that moment on, stories seemed to be written to a very precise formula and began to be drab, predictable and uninteresting. Essentially, Star Trek became conservative.
The nadir for me was when Tom Paris and Bellana entered that intergalactic Indy 500 race with that stupid ship of theirs. It was pathetic. When I needed to get up half-way through to go to the bathroom I told my wife not to pause the video.
And the ending to Voyager was insipid and unmemorable. I don't even remember what happened to tell you the truth (whereas I can tell you all the plot-holes in the final episode of TNG).
When Enterprise came on I put off by the sentimentalist crap that passed as a theme song. Then we got Captain Archer and his bunch of Earth people who obviously represented America railing against everyone else for restricting them - obviously the international community. I don't mind allegories but this was very militaristic and indicated a mindset in America that was very amenable to direct military action. Now we had Republicans in space.
Then there was decontamination. That erection convinced me that Trek had died.
My trek books sit on my bookshelf dusty and unread for years. I might throw them in the bin one day. I now hate Star Trek for its mediocrity and its conservativeness. I visit Wil Wheaton Dot Net because I was a closet Wesley hater and realise now that Wil was a victim of the rot which had settled in very early.
Trek couldn've gone out with a bang. Instead it has fizzled out pathetically and embarrassingly for the past 10 years.
Blimey, the knives seem to be out for Enterprise now. It's like some sort of anti-fanboy brigade or something. Do people think it's fashionable to knock Enterprise or something?
Yes the series had plenty of problems. Yes, there were plenty of lost opportunities to explore the implications of the absence of things like the universal translator and teleporter.
But compared to some of the utter shit that infests tv, was it really so bad? Worse than soap operas? Or reality tv? Or those pop idol things?
To those people who seem intent on shouting "good riddance" after it, were you strapped to a chair and forced to watch it or something?
Maybe it could have been better, but as one of the few shows to portray the future in a positive light, it provided me with a good few hours of undemanding light entertainment.
I for one will miss it.
If the fans could have made a deal which somehow involved pushing more merchandise, then this might have worked. Its all about the licensing - the studios make little money on the actual series with the big money coming from ties to the show. That is evidenced by this comment from the article:
"We believe the franchise is still very vital as evidenced by the fans' demand for books, DVDs and all sorts of related merchandise."
Took a look at saveenterprise.com and they had over $3 million in donations. So.... Where's that going?? I poked around for a while and didn't find a "what happens to the $jack$ if they cancel the show anyway" statement..
The odd thing is that there is no mention of this on their forums or on the front page.. The "donate" link is also still there..
If, in fact they did get the letter I would think that the first thing they would do is stop taking donations.
Its a little early to call this a colossal scam, but it seems a little fishy atm.
Starts with a bad starting soundtrack to the show. Tried to be different there. Next was the show was way too dark looking, like the sets. There is also too much similarity now to other CGI shows. Maybe it's time to move away from CGI and go back to 'models' which are excellent in detail and realism.
Another small point is that most Star Trek fans could always expect to see beautiful women on the show. But not anymore. They took the hottest chick and turned her into an adrogenous man-woman. If they would have had any sexiness to Jolene Blaylock that would have converted to a couple of 'shares on the nielson ratings'. I would have stopped channel flipping if they costumed her anywhere as hot as her mzxim or stuff layouts.
Jolene Blaylock dressed as a real hot vulcan would dress with disdain for clothing
If they said they were leaning towards continuing it, I would have started a help kill Enterprise campaign, and I'm sure I would have easily raised billions.
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
WTF, have you ever watched the show? Jesus Christ, she's from a completely different fucking planet! BETAZED! It's why she's a goddamned EMPATH! HELLO! She's not from Greece! She's NOT EVEN HUMAN!
Chakoty was of native South or Central American descent. I don't think they ever made this clear. But, he was Americanized (through away all his traditional values in his youth).
Are you sure Kim was Chinese? He sure looks Chinese, but I don't remember them saying for sure. He doesn't look Korean, for sure.
Oh, and Picard was clearly a French impostor. If his english accent isn't enough to give that away, his french one was.
Do daemons dream of electric sleep()?
Spot on, IMHO.
He was not a strong leader, and the writers actually let the crew argue with him. I dont recall Kirk or Picard having to explain themselves to their crews, or repeat an order to a subordinate. Hell, the almost never even had to raise their voice. The problem might be that Hollywood is now so GAY, they have no idea how a Strong Male Character should act. Maybe they should have been forced to watch Kirk save the planet, punch out the villain and bone the vixen, all within 48 minutes.
If Capt. Archer had a pair, he would have had the Vulcan with the inflatable chest naked on her back by the middle of episode 2.
Can you imagine a Federation Starship populated by Australians?
"First streaker in Space maaaaatee!!!"
"I shower in Romulan Ale!"
"Sorry, the captain can't communicate with you Mr Romulan commander, he's watching the State of Origin"
"Spock, what is that person doing in the window of that Australian starship?"
"It appears that his pants have dropped and his buttocks have been glued to the glass Captain"
"Captain, the warp core is nearing criticality!"
"She'll be alright!"
"Starfleet calling USS Drongo! Starfleet calling USS Drongo! We will be engaging the Borg at Wolf 35..."
"Bloody radio! Anyway, me and chas were streaking through engineering..."
(Australian Starfleet officer is confronted with a Klingon weilding a Bat'leth)
"That's not a knife!"
"Why are the Klingon guests so angry sir?"
"They don't like eating Chiko Rolls for lunch - they say they taste terrible!"
"We Romulans demand that you apologise for invading our space!"
"Well... let's just say that we express regret..."
"Attention. This is your captain speaking. We have decided to attack and invade this planet because scans from other ships have revealed that they are armed with weapons of mass intergalactic destruction. Even though our contribution to this invasion goes against Federation law, we must show the galaxy that we can lick arse with the best of them!"
"Sir! If we fire the photon torpedoes now, we'll destroy the USS New Zealand!!"
"Good!"
"Sir, the leader of this planet is a black man who wears a skirt"
"Geez... you getter ask him to take his shoes off in case he has a bomb in them!"
Hey, if they don't want it, give it to the fans who can appreciatae it more!!!
Lightly rehased(?) western set in space?
What's unoriginal about that? What was repetitive about it?
BTW, the original Star Trek was just a lightly rehased(?) cop show set in space. You may not have liked the western themes (and who could like those ridiculous gingham dresses and the humongous sun bonnets?) but the ideas made sense and the plots were great. The lethal blow was Fox's idiocy. The demographics on the show were virtually identical to the demographics for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which was on WB. Different networks, same ratings; one got what, 11 seasons? while the other got 13 episodes. The difference? Idiots in charge. Same thing that fucks up everything.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
The 4400 is more of a miniseries, I suppose, but it's coming back for more episodes. It's about 4400 human alien abductees returned to Earth. They're from several different time periods, but none has aged, so some have to deal with very short spans of being gone, some with much longer. Each starts to find out they've been changed, and each now has a particular ability they didn't have before. Very interesting.
Regenesis - seems to be a Canadian show (I get it online, not sure of it's origin), about a group of biohazard response team scientists. Nifty stuff.
re: LEXX
I guess I'm a sucker for a storyline, I just can't get into LEXX.
re: Farscape criticism
I liked that the characters were very obviously alien (except, of course, for the Peacekeepers), and I liked the early tense camaraderie the show had, but eventually they all seemed to dislike each other too much, and distrust each other too much, and I just didn't find it as fun, though it was still well-made.
Sliders was a good concept, but went downhill fast. The idea that those characters would so often be important people in alternate worlds was a bit too much, and the replacement of the entire cast just became way too much for the show to continue. Once you get rid of Sabrina Lloyd, you are DEAD to me as a show. DEAD.
DEAD.
Paramount has declared that they will not be accepting any amount of money from fans to continue to produce Star Trek Enterprise.
Because we can't be giving people the idea that, you know, the audience ha anything to do with whether shows stay or get axed. That's for suits in a skyscraper to decide, not the viewing public.
The actual post
I just get so sick of the Firefly fandom always popping up to spout all their little reasons and conspiracy theories about why the show got cancelled. First, did you even watch the show when it aired? Or are you yet another fan late to the series on DVD? Because, if you had watched it, you would know that it aired three episodes (9/20,9/27,10/4), was pre-empted once (10/11), and then aired five more episodes (10/18,10/25,11/1,11/8,11/15). Hardly what I would call preempted CONSTANTLY. If so many of the fans wouldn't have been so freaking late to the party, maybe it wouldn't have had Nielsen numbers that went 4.0, 3.6, 3.3, 2.7 for the first four episodes. Notice a trend? You want more 'facts'. Among all fox original shows, Firefly placed 14 of 15, 14 of 16, 12 of 12, 12 of 14, 15 of 15, 19 of 20...etc.
As far as the out of order argument, that's just stupid. What are you, 8? If you couldn't figure out what was going on in the show by watching The Train Job, then I am not entirely convinced you can operate a television in the first place. It's not rocket science, it's TV.
I could go on, but let me just sum this up for all of the Firefly, Dark Angel, Farscape, Enterprise, Roswell, Miracles, Milennium, Invisible Man, etc fans out there. These shows were cancelled because nobody fucking watched. It really is that simple. Get a top 20 rating and the network will trip over their dicks doing things for you. Flounder at the bottom of the list, nice knowing ya chump.
Instead of asking why all these networks keep cancelling all of the sci-fi shows, you should be asking why sci-fi fans cant be bothered to watch the shows in the first place. Why does a show have to be in danger of being cancelled before anyone can be bothered?
I am one of the biggest Firefly fans you will run in to, but I don't blame Fox for cancelling their last place show. I blame the crappy Whedon fans that didn't watch, and didn't tell people to watch. I blame every bastard I have seen post on a message board after seeing the DVD something like "This is a great show, why did it get cancelled?"
The borg are Microsoft, the ship runs on Linux, Linus is the captain, and the talking penguin desires to be human someday. Vulcans do not get along with Earthlings because they run BSD. The Romulans are SCO. The engineer wears jeans, a black shirt with a Tux logo, never shaves, and always gets in trouble with the captain for not helping aliens running Windows. The touchy-feely ships counsoler is an Apple fanatic. Just please don't make a Goatse episode (maybe they already did on TOS when Spock looked into that glowing box and freaked out).
Table-ized A.I.
Your points are all excellent AFAIK. I didn't watch hardly any Enterprise, because I can smell a stinker a mile away. Notice how the Trek topic immediately got suborned by people talking about good SF: B5 and Firefly.
The Blalock head above is the wrong icon for this story; it should have the foot! Get a life you trekkie nerds! Quit watching crap and good stuff will have a better chance.
Trek is dead, and should have a good long fallow period.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
And it's a "Star Trek show," so it counts. Evidently there are no Trek fans working as Slashdot editors, which is probably the whole problem. ;)
Am I the only one that thinks Enterprise is a perfect candidate for Paramount to try some sort of alternate distribution channel? I didn't care for the series much myself, but with a group of fans loyal enough to pay for production, wouldn't something like a pay-per-download service be a viable option? Enterprise may not nab the ratings UPN wants, but with a good number of fans already offering to pay to see it, I think this would be the ideal prototype for something like that. Anyone agree?
Meanwhile, at the Paramount backlot..
*BLAM!* *ch-chik* *BLAM!*
"Now stay down! Damn zombie shows."
In other news, Microsoft Windows users are now covered under the Americans with Disabilties Act...
The series was obviously foiled by unflattering uniforms.
Actually, this is a good way to predict of a Star Trek series will be any good. What is the token hot chick wearing?
TOS: Short skirt and knee-high boots: SUCCESS!
Next Generation: Cleavage Top: SUCCESS!
DS9: Jump suits with intermittent out-of-unifrom scenes: Average.
Voyager: High-neck jump suit: FAILURE!
Enterprise: High-neck jump suit: FAILURE!
Clearly, the success of a star trek series rests primarily with the wardrobe department.
Or maybe it is the writers:
Long-haired human female: SUCCESS!
Long-haired empathic human-looking female: SUCCESS!
Long-haired spotted human now-recently-female: Average
Short-haired near-robot: FAILURE!
Short-haired, asexual Vulcan: FAILURE!
Rick Berman is so bad he can even screw up pandering.
paintball
However, the recent decision to conclude the show's run on UPN is final.
That seems too leave it open to be picked up by other networks, the other part of it seemed more along the lines that Paramount did want money from the fans just for the production of a series.
While I certainly am not opposed to them outright cancelling Enterprise, I really wish they had cancelled a Star Trek series much sooner, like around Voyager.
I don't get it, BSG is one of the cheesiest sci-fi shows to be released in years, and everyone keeps raving about how cool it is. Entertaining...somewhat. Cheesy....definitly.
Lets see...Bad guys that look look everyone else. Duh!!! That is the most uninspired piece of chedder I have ever heard of. Just because there is 'terrorist' whining all over the news, doesn't make calling the 'terrorists' Cylons a good idea. Besides, Stargate has had bad guy aliens that look just like everyone else for eight seasons. Not to mention the movie before the series.
Then there is the Monterey Jack idea of making Starbuck a woman. That way we can have all that sexual tension between Starbuck and Apollo. Woo Hoo. Like that didn't run it's course on Silk Stockings. Oh, and while your at it, make Boomer a woman too, that way you can have one more military romace, or two!
Then we have Pressato girl, Seven on Nine...er...I mean Six. You know the tall hot blond that is kind of human and kind of machine. Come on, if your going to rip off another show, you don't rip off Voyager. Cheese!!!!
We can't forget the Montasio camera work. I know, they thought that they were making it 'gritty' with the crappy shaky camera, but it just comes off as a failed attempt to be 'cool'.
We then have to ask how after 20 years and huge improvements in special effects, you can make ships and cylons that don't look half as cool as the originals.
Then there is the Brie effect caused by trying so hard not to be cheesy. Did they have to change the characters names into 'Call Signs'? If we can have guys named Jesus, and women named Mary in a Christian based culture, what is wrong with Apollo and Starbuck in a spacefaring Greek/Astrology/Egyptian Mythos based culture? The switch was just another failed attempt at trying too hard.
Honestly, while BSG is a reasonably entertaining show, calling it Battle Star Galactica only hurts the original, as it just isn't as good.
Actually, all these fund raising folks should donate their money to the Star Trek-New Voyages project. If they don't end up getting sued, they are onto something really good!
Lex
Not to say it was horrible, it just didn't interest me
Mens et Manus
No matter how bad enterprise is it's still better than "Martin"
Fortunately, the less interesting stuff is available, the less tempeted i will be two watch the stuff. maybe i'll finally be able to ween myself from the "time burglar."
(crap i'm posting on slashdot now.)
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Are you sure Kim was Chinese? He sure looks Chinese, but I don't remember them saying for sure. He doesn't look Korean, for sure.
:-D It just seems sometimes like they do it to be 'politically correct', to make some 'quota' and just count on audiences to be too ignorant to notice. /rant :-)
This has really irked me about some of the later Treks... why do they have their character profiles so etched in stone that they can't accomodate their actors...
Harry Kim -- an obviously Korean surname, played by an actor of obviously Chinese descent... Would all those scripts have been different if they just changed his character's name to Harry Chang? Or crap, how about not even using an anglo name like Harry...
Hoshi, too -- what they couldn't find a Japanese actor? Well then why on Earth didn't they change the character name when they went with a Korean actress? Too weird to have a Korean lingual prodigy? I guess Hye-Jun would be too far of a strech for the clueless Enterprise writing team. Oh oh, or they could have looked up a Korean reading of the same kanji, like Seong, or spelled the same name in a compatible romanization like Heo-si. Caveat: I liked Enterprise, but was disappointed with many episodes. Sigh.
Anyway, at least George Takei was of Japanese descent.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
They even made a joke of that on BtVS, one of the later season characters had a appearant crush on 'Capt Archer'.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
And the voice box of American propaganda had it chopped?
Color me surprised, cuz I'm certainly not going to look shocked without face paint.
My guess is that Firefly was killed similarly for the Anti-Government message it traded on with every second episode.
Remember: Television was not invented to entertain and inform you. McLuhan was bang-on; "The medium IS the message." --That is, the medium is a flickering box which dilutes family cohesion and lulls people into a hypnotic state where the implanting of selected thought patterns is very easy. Ponder that message!)
-FL
so some guy's just made $3,144,033?
From the letter: However, the recent decision to conclude the show's run on UPN is final.
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but the TrekUnited campaign is trying to get the show moved to another network, most likely Spike.
during the launch of the fascist American nation, illustrates through fiction, corruption in government, how to weed it out and create a functioning, healthy system of rule by the people?
You must be joking. Maybe the later 'Treks, but this one was W's wet dream. At the point I stopped watching (season 2/3 cliffhanger), an unknown enemy made an unprovoked attack on earth, killing massive numbers of people and Archer & Co. were right up there with the "Kill 'em all", "With us or against us", "Fuck the rules, we have guns now" attitude. Subtle, real subtle.
... put it into space research!
"Good news, everyone!"
If Paramount goes ahead with the cancellation, Enterprise fans should protest by downloading any future paramount films by p2p instead of buying their DVD releases. Hit them in the hip pocket as punishment!
RebateFX.com - Spread rebates for Forex traders
The names being bad enough but do you know how often i have ranted about scotti. .....
/Rant...
Now i lived 17 years of life in Aberbeen and Scotti did not have anything even close to resembeling a Scottish accent let alone a Doric/aberdeenshire accent.
And that eppisode where Dr Crusher goes to her familys planet was so offensive that i nearly threw something at the TV
jean luc picard being played by the excelent patric stewart sounds about as French as Sean Connery sounds spanish in Highlander.
O'brian atleast is played by a guy from Irland and is the only authentic accent i can remember in the entire shows history apart from some parts of the USA even then i think these people often sound like they come from difrent states (although i must admit im less familliar with accents from much of the USA).
So they may be representing alot of coutnrys but they are doing in really really bad ways... If your going to pretend to be from another country its alot better if you get your facts straight
I also noticed the name thing and i belive im not the only person in the world to find this PC leaning highly offensively half baked... not to mention the lack of overweight people , people with difrent builds of fiqures other than aliens and the total lack of gay people bar some trill but that doesn't even count. oh wait i think my rant continued for a paragraph
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Ok I am a scifi geek. I will watch almost any scifi show. But Enterprise went out to luch basing the whole series on time travel crap. They may as well have written the whole story inside a holodeck, that other device you use when you can't come up with a story.
The current season is exactly what trek fans want, a look at the old races and rivalries, how they got to the point of being in TOS timeline. Mind you they have lost 80% of the audience after 3 seasons of drek.
But since they were killing it maybe it would have been better if season 4 was more of the same drek, because then I could have gleefully danced on its corpse. Now I just say damn this is what they could have did.
Freaking Morons.
And the fuss is??? It wasn't even that good.
I am a crip! LLamas
Distribution? Bittorrent, snailmail video of DVDs, video streams occur to me. There might even be ways to get fan-driven shows onto cable networks.
Studio technology, special effects, etc.? What are you reading this post with?
I'm not being facetious, there are OpenSource video tools... get a bunch of x86 Linux boxes, cameras... and a fan community that's say, 1M + is probably big enough to have somebody capable of writing SETI-style distributed apps, this time used to do rendering... with more access to CPU cycles than was used on LOTR.
The pieces of the puzzle are available, it's just a matter of putting them together. Why offer $3 million plus to a bunch of fuckheads who if they'd gone for the deal, would be pocketing the profits themselves?
Enterprise dead? There's plenty of other SF books that can be turned into series just as good, and the better writers from Enterprise might actually find working on a fan-driven show an interesting change from working for Fox.
If you don't like the news, make some of your own.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Its clear to me that they miss managed the show. bad air times for one thing. and another is that they failed to develope some of the ships systems. I think a lot of us were expecting at least a tractor beam by now. WHat they should have done is the same thing they did with voyager- To save the series they should have gotten a blonde bimbo in a skin tight outfit and had her prance around a lot They would have had a lot more of the male foot ball crowd tunning in to get a look at the hoochie mamma trek...OR maybe Scott Backula in a dress. Not an orginal concept as it would not be something he had to get used to. All kinding aside though. I think the show had a bit of bad management. In the end the series will live on in the books so I wont worry.
Enterprise was simply a bad series. Star Trek has historically relied on a very loyal core group to support it's new series. Viewership was never spectacular, yet it was enough to convince studios to continue down the road. Enterprise however was so poor, that it lost more than half of the small loyal audience they had in previous series runs. They had to let it go.
these shows are never treated like the others by networks - never see advertisement - they never get a timeslot that is convenient or when people actually have time and sit down to watch a little tv.
where I live these shows were on at 8:00 pm saturday night - don't know about everyone else but I am usually not watching tv on a saturday night.
Now how about tuesday, wednesday at 9:00 pm or 8:00pm
I bet a lot more people would watch it.
Their rating plummetted in the last couple years.
I haven't seen T'Pol decontaminate in several years.
At the risk of being modded up as funny, I doubt the two aren't related. I'm serious. "Informative", moderators, not "Funny".
Thanks.
"...Paramount Network Television and the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise are very flattered and impressed by the fans' passionate outpouring of attention for the show and their efforts to raise funds to continue the show's production...."
Means: "Your pathetic attempt to subvert our decision to find more lucrative programming is laughable. We will be cancelling the show because you don't really matter when we can be making shitloads more money with a show that targets the MTV demographic. Have a nice day, you pathetic geeks."
It's a simple matter of economics--they want to make money selling shitty brainless programming. They're not interested in quality or cult status.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Eventually, everything gets canceled or goes the distance. We have over 40 seasons of Star Treks in the banks. It's a niche product. It's not like crime and law dramas, that seem to multiply like lemmings and occassionally go like energizer bunnies (think CSI, Law and Order).
Sci-Fi can make it work because they have low expectations, and less overhead than the cable stations. But UPN, they've got affiliates.
Star Trek's problem is simple: it's not the only game in town, anymore. And it doesn't have a tradition of disciplined storytelling.
Might as well whine about the X-files, because that show really has no mass-market replacement. But times and tastes change.
And yes, Virginia, there are girl geeks on /.
-yet another girl geek
Do not disturb. Already disturbed. http://www.teaaddictedgeek.com
I believe you have it exactly backwards. The X-Files started off on Fridays - http://www.chriscarteronline.com/articles/xfiles/1 993/Fridaynightcontact.html
It used to air right after The Adventures of Briscoe County, Jr., which unfortunately did not survive. I'm pretty sure X-Files moved to Sunday when Millenium started.
... i think Star Trek was cancelled long ago.. when TOS ended!
I fuse with Mercer every single day...
I hear you loud and clear, but no, I was not joking.
--The show wasn't cancelled during the 'Dark-Enterprise' seasons where torture and hatred were rationalized through a host of idiotic story contrivances. It was cancelled during the pendulum swing where the writing turned back into real Star Trek and the exploration of worthy ideas.
-FL
Looks like you missed the fact that the Vorlon manipulate many races to see the Vorlon as holy beings via genetic manipulation. This shows that they are far from being purely good.
Their conflict is more between order/chaos than good/evil.
For that matter, what SF show moved furthest away from this old dichotomy?
Blake's 7 ! Seek it out.
I know that it's not a good idea to feed the trolls, but...
The characters in BSG are not stereotypical. They are archetypal. You are stereotyping them. There is a hell of a lot more going on with (taking your example) Starbuck than being "a hot-shot cop/pilot who cant keep his/her mouth shut & is constantly fighting with the chief/C-O". Just watch her face. This girl has issues. Baggage, failures, occasional successes. She's human. I think it interesting that you can't see past the stereotype that you've defined the character with.
All of the characters are "human" in BSG. Including the cylons. They may act odd and have mysterious motivations, and simply be "biological machines" (think about that for a sec), but they are human. But, then again, my personal definition of human is much broader than most.
You keep expecting to see John Wayne? In BSG? WTF? When? At what part of the story did you think that was an appropriate thing to happen within the frame of the plot?
It's time to upgrade your eyes.
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
First of all, Paramount already signed a syndication deal for Enterprise. Second, Star Trek shows traditionaly run seven seasons, not five. :)
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
So it would have been "...the Vampire Slayer"
Nice finale though. I thought the series held up remarkably well over its run.
Wow, I stand corrected. My mind couldn't even formulate a theory on how they could have bounced back from the subtle-as-a-train-wreck, "Go U.S." cheerleading.
So... you watch shows because everybody else (or at least those who decide ratings) watch the show?
Well, don't we all to some degree? I watch it because it's good, but it's a good show that's getting great ratings and has a wave of critical support that supercedes even Farscape or Firefly, and especially Enterprise. As far as not seeing Battlestar, there are other ways of getting it both legally and questionably (the first episode is available on scifi.com).
Then again, you could also be a 13 year old girl in disguise too!
Do not disturb. Already disturbed. http://www.teaaddictedgeek.com