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'Star Trek: Enterprise' Cancelled? 842

Tycoon Guy writes "There seems to be no avoiding it this season: TrekToday is reporting that the Enterprise production crew has been told they will all be fired in March, after completing filming on another four episodes. If true, that leaves only very little time to participate in the Save Enterprise campaign. But even if Enterprise is cancelled, all may not be lost: Rick Berman said today he's working on a new Trek feature film that will have "a larger scope and budget" than ever."
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'Star Trek: Enterprise' Cancelled?

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  • Sad if true (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:11PM (#11398452)
    This season was much improved, and much closer to fans' original expectations. I'm afraid Sci-Fi's decision to move Stargate an hour earlier against it pretty much cemented the cancellation, though.
    • Re:Sad if true (Score:5, Interesting)

      by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:21PM (#11398635)
      I got spoiled by B5, where we were set up for one thing, and instead of spending the series waiting for it, when it came, it was setting up something else. Once I saw they were doing a 1 year arc, I knew they'd save Earth in the last 15 minutes of the last episode. Even though they had a few stories, and got better toward the end (they actually brought in some interesting characters), it was still a bad idea.

      Who didn't expect them to save Earth? (After all, without Earth, where would Kirk, et al be?) And who is going to come into a show they haven't been watching if they know it's about to start a year long story? I know I don't get into shows where I think I'll need to see it every week to keep up with it. (While you didn't need to watch every week for the Xindi arc, how would someone know that without watching?)

      The 1 year arc was just a bad idea.

      Bringing on Manny Coto was the best thing they did in the entire run of the series (putting Brannon Braga in charge was the worst). I just wish, after finally doing something good, they'd get out of the way and give it a few years.

      On the other hand, wouldn't it be ironic if some other network tried to pick it up?

      Joe Straczynski (who did Babylon 5) said he pitched an idea for a Trek series to Paramont. Maybe we'll be lucky and they'll let him do something good, since he's a proven talent.
      • by Jack William Bell ( 84469 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:57PM (#11399217) Homepage Journal
        Ghod; Joe Straczynski doing Trek? That is like, well, bringing Linus Torvalds in to lead the Windows Longhorn team. It makes so much sense it could never happen.

        OTOH Rick Berman can kiss my hairy butt. You could replace him with an baboon and get better results...
        • Re: Joe Straczynski (Score:3, Interesting)

          by farrellj ( 563 ) *
          Rick Berman is scum.

          A friend of mine who is a certain well know West Coast fazine fan once ended up at a party where Berman was at, and talk about a glory hog. He actually was confused that she did want his autograph...

          Berman is a cancer in the Star Trek universe, and the sooner he is removed, the better for Trek. I mean, there is a good reason that Majel Barrett (Gene Roddenbury's wife) has had very little to do with Trek since Next Gen....

          Now, getting JMS to take over Trek...that is as you said, too se
        • No, it wouldn't. (Score:3, Insightful)

          Why would you tie the hands of a genius like Straczynski with the weight of too damn much shitty, contradictory continuity?

          Justin Rye's commentary [demon.co.uk] is a good place to start on it. At the bottom of most pages where it says "Star Trek does x wrong", it says "Babylon 5 did x right, and here's how".

          For example, when the crew can beam onto the Borg ship, they can blast a few things with phasers, but don't think to bring, say, a five hundred megaton nuke into the center of the ship and set it to detonate as soo
      • Re:Sad if true (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Long-EZ ( 755920 )

        Bringing on Manny Coto...

        Manny Coto was the executive producer and did a lot of the writing for the ill fated Odyssey 5 [sho.com]. The show had a weird but interesting concept, was intelligently done, was creative, and was one of the best SF shows I've seen in quite a while. It had a lot of geek appeal, but was still approachable to non-geeks. The entire cast was excellent.

        Too bad it was the sort of thing that takes off slowly, and was probably killed by cable network executive goofs at Shotime in the first

    • Re:Sad if true (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MrLint ( 519792 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:23PM (#11398684) Journal
      IIRC UPN moved enterprise to friday (from its original wednesday) up against the much stronger (in that slot) stargate. This means that Sci fi fans are competing on which show they will watch, as opposed to being able to easily watch *both* which would ensure better rating for the now much less crappy Enterprise.
      • by Rufus88 ( 748752 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @06:29PM (#11402527)
        This means that Sci fi fans are competing on which show they will watch, as opposed to being able to easily watch *both*

        If only someone would come up with a way to watch one of the shows while it was being broadcast, but watch the other show later. Some way of "capturing", if you will, the video signal as it travels through the air or down the wire. Oh well...
    • by NoMoreNicksLeft ( 516230 ) <john.oyler@noSpAm.comcast.net> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:33PM (#11398837) Journal
      That said, who here doesn't think that his "biggest scope ever" Star Trek movie will be the cinematic equivalent of a 20th year reunion special for some sappy sitcom?

      Warf will be captaining Deep Space 9, Picard will be an admiral, Shatner will somehow show up, perhaps as his evil universe twin, while Janeway comes blasting out of the Epsilon quadrant to save the day. And of course the quantum leaper will time travel to the future to see it all with the help of his friend from the "Queer Eye for the Time-traveling Guy" department of a futuristic Federation. Then, at the last minute, Henry Winkler will show up on his motorocycle, and they'll shout "Fonz!".

      Well, maybe Wheaton will get a chance to be onscreen, at least.
    • Re:Sad if true (Score:3, Insightful)

      by cshark ( 673578 )
      Just when it was getting good. Speaking of Sci-Fi, maybe they should take it over. They've done it before. Shows used to go to sci-fi to die, but the last few have been doing pretty well.
      • Re:Sad if true (Score:3, Insightful)

        Speaking of Sci-Fi, maybe they should take it over. They've done it before.

        Both UPN and the Star Trek franchise are owned by the same company. So it will never go to a competing network.

        It's like saying that the next Mario game should be on PS2.
  • by Craig Maloney ( 1104 ) * on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:12PM (#11398462) Homepage
    I think I'm not alone in saying this, but if Rick Berman were to show up on my porch selling Star Trek cookies, I think I'd still slam the door in his face.

    I'm sick of having the next "Trek thing" shoved in front of me as though I'm supposed to care. Enough already.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11398578)
      Sure... Blame the crew and not B and B. What Paramount needs to do if they want Star Trek to come back is to fire those two jokers. They had such a great opportunity to write out the founding of the Federation, The Romulan War...etc all events we know to have happened... But they just had had had to mess it up with time travel.
      • There is speculation that since the events of the Enterprise universe are largely incompatible with the rest of the series that the temporal cold war would eventually erase enterprise altogether and thus still be compatible with the universe...

        That being said, you're dead right.

      • by Khomar ( 529552 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11398820) Journal
        They had such a great opportunity to write out the founding of the Federation, The Romulan War...etc all events we know to have happened... But they just had had had to mess it up with time travel.

        Agreed. One of the things that was starting to annoy me with the Star Trek series was that the story was being lost to technology. With each new season, they continued to progress so quickly with technology that they could not keep consistency in their universe. When I first heard of it, I looked at Enterprise as a burst of fresh air. Yes, we knew what was going to happen (mostly), but that would just allow us to get more into the characters and the world around them. Instead, they added advanced technology and disrupted the universe.

        Why do so many TV show and movie makers think that Sci-Fi is exclusively about technology? Good Sci-Fi uses the technology as a backdrop to character development and asking interesting questions. Technology is a vehicle not the destination.

      • But they just had had had to mess it up with time travel

        But, Berman said the Time Travel and Holodeck episodes were the best ones on TNG. He LOVED them!
        • They can be. They should be. Two of the best Star Trek episodes of all time, Yesteday's Enterprise and City on the Edge of Forever, were time travel episodes.

          They give writers and actors an opportunity to put much-beloved characters in a different environment. It gives them a chance to play "what if", like watching Superman and Batman fight.

          The Holodeck could be used the same way as well, but it never worked, possibly because they started with a "the holodeck is f*ed up" episode before they used it pro
    • by _PimpDaddy7_ ( 415866 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11398588)
      I need to emphasize the parent. He is dead on.

      As a Star Trek fan, call me a trekkie, trekker, whatever(and no I don't dress like a klingon), who's watched the original series, TNG, DS9, Voyager, this man(Berman), has simply destroyed this franchise.

      I hope they cancel this show for good and Berman never works with sci-fi again. The man has no idea what he's doing. The storylines are so bad high school seniors can come up with better storylines.

      Let some FRESH ideas from some FRESH new people make it to the screen/TV.
      • It would be a shame to cancel Enterprise at this point, because this is the first season it has actually been watchable. The three-part story arc on genetic enhancements featuring Brent Spiner was especially enjoyable (because of and in spite of Brent Spiner's presence), as was the story arc involving Vulcan politics and religious turmoil. Imagine that, a thoughtful Trek show! I hate to say it, but this is the best sci-fi show on TV right now, as Stargate SG1 has floundered so far this season.
      • Maybe if we sold enough of them we could fund our own series!
      • by Golias ( 176380 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:33PM (#11399955)
        Everybody likes to bash Rick Berman, but people conveniently forget just how week TNG was until Berman pried it from Roddenberry's cold, dead fingers.

        Season 1 of The Next Generation was beyond awful.

        Season 2 was almost good.

        Season 3 was when it became worth watching, when Dr. Crusher was brought back (in spite of Roddenberry's strong objections), and more and more control of the show was being passed to Rick Berman.

        He's also one of the guys behind the stealing of B5's ideas to create DS9, which was probably the best of all five Trek shows.

        Sure, everything he's touched since then has been terrible, but the franchise he destroyed is one which he helped build.

        Credit where credit's due, that's all I'm sayin'.
    • by ClosedSource ( 238333 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11398819)
      While it's true that Berman hasn't done much lately, I'd say he's the primary reason that TNG made it beyond the first couple of seasons (which IMHO were some of the worst Trek episodes ever). It was only after Berman took over completely that TNG hit the mark.
    • by SuperBanana ( 662181 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:34PM (#11398860)
      if Rick Berman were to show up on my porch selling Star Trek cookies, I think I'd still slam the door in his face.

      I know everyone loves to bash Berman, but to be honest, the problem isn't him. Rather, after twenty seasons of Star Trek, pretty much every plot had already been exhausted. If you think he was the first to recycle material, well- how many times did the crew get "trapped" in a holodeck world in ST:TNG?

      There's a reason many call it Soap In Space. It's been formulaic and recycled for almost twenty years. The real problem is that the whole ST formula has completely worn out to the extent that no Vulcan sexiness will bring it back.

      • by Scrameustache ( 459504 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:39PM (#11400079) Homepage Journal
        I know everyone loves to bash Berman, but to be honest, the problem isn't him.

        You're confusing "honest" with misinformed/delusional.

        I've been a Berman hater since 1991. Why? Because of a magazine article I have where he explains all that he thinks that is wrong with Star Trek. He basically lists all the reason why Star Trek became a phenomenon instead of a forgotten low-budget campy sci-fi show.

        He hates the humanist message.
        He hates the bridge cammaraderie.
        He hates the para-military Starfleet mainly in charge of commercial space travel, exploration and self defense.
        He hates the techno-eutopia of earth.
        He hates the idea that humanity could grow and become better than it is now.
        He hates the entire message that Gene Roddenberry gave us.

        He then described how he thought Star Trek should be, and you know what it was? Exactly what the first 3 years of Enterprise was: Darker, lower tech, on-ship conflicts, etc.

        When Gene Roddenberry died, they had a bust of him made. That bust was in Rick Berman's office, with a blindfold and earplugs on, because he damn well knew that Gene would not approve of what he was doing to his creation.
        And you know what? The fans don't approve either, the commercial partners don't approve, the ratings don't approve.

        The only reason his endaevours haven't COMPLETELY tanked is because of the recognizable brand-name. He's been riding the inertia of Star Trek's past quality, but he's been making nothing but crap since.

        Rick Berman must die. Nothing short of this will save Star Trek: It's in the hands of am egomaniac who's been twisting something beloved by generations of sci-fi fans into his lame, insipid vision.
        Had he made these shows from scratch instead of abusing a known setting, he would never had made it past a single season.
        • Actually (Score:4, Insightful)

          by geekoid ( 135745 ) <{moc.oohay} {ta} {dnaltropnidad}> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @04:55PM (#11401280) Homepage Journal
          I think a darker grittier Star Trek would be a good thing, but it needs good direction and writing.

        • I think the problem with a lot of those things is they must make it very hard to tell interesting stories. ST:TNG brought back Sc-Fi to the small screen, but watching it now, man a lot of it sucks, and is dull and predictable. It was already recycling it's own plots.

          Characters need some flaws to be interesting, humans who are better than us, a lack of conflict between the main characters, a utopia Earth are all pretty dull. You can't get much out of them.

          If I had to write with those limitations, I'd hat

          • You REALLY need to check out the top rated episodes towards the last 2-3 years of TNG. There are some amazing writers that really put out some wonderful episodes. (Tapestry (ep 141), Inner Light (ep 125), and a few others.) I'd argue that some of the TNG space-time episodes weren't bad. (They were much unlike the usual "go back to the past and fix history".) One of DS9's best episodes was a time travel episode (Trials And Tribble-ations). (Don't hate the plot device, hate the writer...)

            Yeah, I'm more o
        • Maybe you're on to something here. Could it be that this isn't the Rick Berman of "our" universe? Could it be that this is the mirror universe Rick Berman and he just shaved off his trademark mirror universe goatee? Could this all be intentional?

          I think you're right and I think he needs to die.

          And by the way, the simple fact that Battlestar Galactica rocks and Star Trek is terrible should tell everyone that the world has turned upside down. If someone had told me twenty years ago that I'd be getting
  • Definate maybe. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) * on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:12PM (#11398464) Homepage
    Hm, first line of the article: Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto today denied a rumour that crew members had already been told of the show's cancellation.

    Note that's not actually a denial that the show is about to be cancelled, however, so let's proceed assuming that it is on the chopping block. Can't say I'd be too surprised by that -- once Enterprise got in the Friday night timeslot-'o-doom, it was definately on the road to rerunville. Oh well. Ever since I got my TiVO, I've come to view watching TV as having X amount of time each week to sit and veg with the shows I like, and frankly I can use the extra time to spend on more deserving shows.

    Enterprise got quite a bit better the last two seasons, but it never actually got very good. In a lot of ways, it's like watching a clumsy kid playing sports or President Bush giving a speech -- you know they're going to screw up, so each minute that they don't is like a little victory. Given that, it's hard for me to imagine that there are actually people looking to save the series. I mean, why?

    At least they waited until Battlestar Galactica got started up -- now there's a show I actually look forward to. Frankly, Enterprise only stayed on my viewing schedule into season 3 because I was too lazy to remove the series record from my TiVO.

  • what moron (Score:3, Insightful)

    by XO ( 250276 ) <blade.eric@NoSPAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:12PM (#11398466) Homepage Journal
    Would make a "Save Enterprise" campaign? It is horrible, awful, and bad.

    I'd rather gnaw my arm off than sit through an episode of it.

    In fact, I would gnaw my arm off to get OUT of sitting through an episode of it.

    And Berman needs to be shot for what he's done.
    • Re:what moron (Score:5, Informative)

      by A beautiful mind ( 821714 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:22PM (#11398653)
      Well, this may be true for season 1-2, but the end of 3rd season until the last episode i've seen (4x10) was great. They improved a LOT on the show since they started it. In season 1-2, T'pol was the 'thing' for a lot of fans, but since then the show gained momentum and started to rock. I enjoyed that they extended the storyline on the timetravel stuff and the Zindi parts were awesome. Its one of the 3-4 series i can actually watch without getting bored.
  • Finally (Score:2, Funny)

    by say__10 ( 768448 )
    The beating of the dead horse has ceased, yay.
  • Make up your bloody mind - Editors/Moderators. The article says that the show is canceled, but the article linked to says that the show's cancellation has not been announced? Journalistic integretity my arse.
  • interesting.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by schnits0r ( 633893 ) <nathannd@saskte l . n et> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:13PM (#11398495) Homepage Journal
    Considering that there are 5 more episodes [startrek.com] for season 4, they say nothing about it on the news section of the site either.

    I was really hoping for it to continue, season 4 is by far the best.
  • by Average_Joe_Sixpack ( 534373 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:13PM (#11398497)
    to all three fans.
  • You are.

    Fire yourself and hire some new writers that don't hash the same tired stories and ideas.
  • I hadnt even noticed..

    I am only partially joking.. after the last 2 dismal seassons, i really didnt even bother watching if it wasnt on when i sat at the tv..

    Just wasnt worth the trouble...

    A great idea, with a lot of promise, was killed off early by what ever moron was writing/controlling the show.
  • Rick Berman said today he's working on a new Trek feature film that will have "a larger scope and budget" than ever
    Does he have enough money to hire someone to replace himself? Only then will a large budget be warranted.
  • Very sad (Score:3, Interesting)

    by m50d ( 797211 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:14PM (#11398511) Homepage Journal
    Enterprise was actually getting pretty good - better than some seasons of the other series in fact. I know I kept watching it. Of course it had the prequel-with-better-looking-technology-than-the-se quel problem and a few difficulties fitting in with accepted ST history ,but when there's so much of it, it't pretty impossible to be consistent with everything. I will certainly be joining this campaign.
  • Some shows should die.

  • Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman today denied that Paramount is unhappy with his concept for Trek XI, and in fact suggested he intends to make the next Trek film more ambitious than ever.

    That's written to sound as if poor concepts and ambitious concepts are mutually exclusive, when in fact they are quite likely to be closely correlated.
  • by thhamm ( 764787 )
    new Trek feature film that will have "a larger scope and budget" than ever.

    no please dont. they said this everytime since ST VII.
  • ..when you only show 7 episodes this season?

    Granted, it's a few more than "The Simpsons" and a few less than "West Wing", but c'mon! A typical season is 24 episodes. This is about the middle of the season, so there should be more available.

    All that being said, the last season (and this one) aren't bad. The mini-arcs (3 episode stories) is a great idea and allow you to miss a few episodes without feeling completely left out.
  • all may not be lost: Rick Berman said today he's working on a new Trek feature film

    Might as well have stopped right there. If Berman's working on it, all is lost.

    Replace Berman with "J. Michael Straczynski" and I would have continued reading.
  • 1) When will hollywood realize money does not make a good movie. Story does. Acting does. Special effects mean shit if they are attached to a crappy movie. Special effects are most effective when NOBODY NOTICES THEM, in my opinion.

    2) Larger scope? For years, the trek people have strived to grab the biggest scope in effort to make their series mean something. Borg, time, ect... Refer to #1 for what they can focus on instead.
  • by Yo Grark ( 465041 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:16PM (#11398543)
    First line when I go to read the article?

    "Enterprise showrunner Manny Coto today denied a rumour that crew members had already been told of the show's cancellation."

    Not only is the article based on a rumor, it was officially denied.

    "As to the crew being let go in March," Coto said, "we've always been scheduled to finish production in March!" A DUH.

    If they want to cancel it fine, just don't play this stupid media OH NO game slashdot. Please & Thank you.

    Yo Grark
  • I watched the first 2 execrable seasons hoping it would get better, gave up and then tuned in recently. It's a nearly unwatchable show.

    It's frustrating to see a good idea butchered so badly. I turned it on this week and it's another transporter episode! This series has done as much ill to the Trek franchise as Star Trek 5 did. (Well, okay maybe not that much--after all there was Voyager.) Oh, and I know I'm going to burn some karma here, but I know I'm not alone in feeling this way.

    • Re:Good riddance. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MalHavoc ( 590724 )
      Yeah, that Transporter episode was pretty bad. It's gotten to the point where the producers and writers are having people like Brent Spiner guest star on it in an effort to save the show, but it ain't working. Last season was pretty good, I thought. But this season isn't going so well. The disjointed single episode thing just doesn't carry me as well as a season-long plot. It doesn't help matters that the last few Star Trek series rely on gimmicks to pull them along. Voyager had the Borg (lots and lots
  • by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:16PM (#11398551)
    Who'd a thunk that "Star Trek" at this time would be a dead horse, and "Battlestar Galactica" would be hot?
  • "...all may not be lost: Rick Berman said today he's working on a new Trek feature film that will have 'a larger scope and budget' than ever."

    If you don't think that's a reason to despair, you obviously haven't seen ST:Nemesis.

  • Let it go (Score:5, Interesting)

    by btempleton ( 149110 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:17PM (#11398566) Homepage
    Well, Enterprise has done some good episodes this season but generally I think it's time to give it a rest. I mean space-nazis?

    I was even going to do a version of their theme-song telling them it was time to lay it down for a while.


    Its been a long road, getting from there to here.
    Its been a long run, but that time is finally here.

    We have see our dream come to die at last
    Please don't milk it dry

    And theyre not gonna tune the dial no more,
    And space-nazis will never fly.

    Have the grace to depart - Vulcans don't have hearts all achey

    We'll keep faith, if you leave. Take the clone and everything

    You can travel in time, but do it every show you'll break me.

    Close the final frontier

    Have the grace, have the grace, grace to depart.

  • season 4 is great (Score:5, Interesting)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaa@NOspam.SPAM.yahoo.com> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:17PM (#11398567) Journal
    If you havent watched season 4 yet, go and watch a few episodes. It is great especally after manny coto took over. It is mostly 3 part arcs which have tons of good story and character development. Topics covered include the future vulcans, foundation of the federation, romulan war, kingon ridges. I think had it been like this since the beginning, it would be a very beloved series. It would be bad to cut it just when it strted getting good.
  • Bad time slot, bad advertising and bad beginning. If they had fired the writers after the first five episodes, maybe they would not have to fire everyone now. I am not a regular viewer and cannot speak on their latest material because I never went back to watch after the first few episodes. Considering Enterprise and the new Battlestar Gallactica, I am even more dissapointed in Enterprise. Gallactica is what Enterprise should have been: gritty, dirty and frantic. The acting is way better than I could h
  • Hello, editors? (Score:5, Informative)

    by iantri ( 687643 ) <iantri@gmxSTRAW.net minus berry> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:18PM (#11398592) Homepage
    As I write this it is 2:12 PM. The article was posted at 2:10 PM. TrekToday has already retracted their story.

    So what I want to know is, did anyone at Slashdot even READ the fine article before a story about it?

  • by noewun ( 591275 )
    Enterprise is, for me, the most enjoyable of the spin sequels. It's nice to have characters identifiable as human, rather than emotionless audioanimatrons. I guess it's back to every episode being resolved by the same inane technobabble.
  • Seriously, how did they expect that show to take off when they hired a guy who used to wear dresses as the captain of the enterprise? He doesn't walk, talk, act, or do anything that makes me believe he is a leader, let alone the captain of the Enterprise. I'd take Janeway over him any day of the week. Unbelievably bad casting, imo.

    Good riddance.
  • One thing I noticed about the Trek movies is that the ones that really made you feel as if there was this huge universe out there around the characters brought in the most money at the box office. The size of the canvas seemed to be proportional to the size of the returns.

    The problem with movies like Insurrection and Nemesis - to name a few - was that in the end it was one ship vs one ship and the whole feeling of this bustling galaxy was gone. Sure, the Enterprise alone verses the Scimitar was pretty coo
  • One more mainstream "Science Fiction" show bites the dust! Hopefully this will clear more room on the scedule for things (like Farscape, Firefly, etc.) that don't have to be mainstream. (Wishful thinking on my part...)
  • Why? The show sucks! - As much as I love seeing Hoshi and T'pol all 'hottied' up, the entire format is just ...old.

    What I would propose is an entirely new show - call it.. "Star Trek - Federation" and have it be about the folks back at home at the time voyager was lost. It could follow attempts to get them back from the delta quadrant, as well as explore other ships and missions based at federation central. Lots of opportunity for new show ideas, lots of cast and a showcase of earthbound 24th century techn
  • Let it lie fallow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Embedded Geek ( 532893 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:29PM (#11398771) Homepage
    This is hardly a new observation, but Paramount should give Trek a rest for a while. While it's easy to pick at Berman & Braga, the simple fact is that the Trek universe is suffering from production fatigue. When there's been too much put out there at a constant rate it's inevitable that quality will drop.

    Instead of dragging out ideas that were rejected for TNG, DS9, and Voyager (and we all know of more than a few stinkers that made it there anyways), they should just stop making the stuff for a while. Give the fans a chance to hunger again. Then, perhaps in 2009 or so, crank up the machine and have at it again.

    But, as long as there's a buck to be bled out of the franchise, they'll probably instead just keep cranking out crap. That's a truism in our vertically integrated Hollywood these days. Heck, /.ers might like to pick on them, but the fact is that you don't even need B & B to ruin it anymore...

  • by gelfling ( 6534 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11398803) Homepage Journal
    Enterprise, the Reality show.

    A house full of goofy retards who dress and act like ST characters and pretend to have a real life.

    Go ahead mod me, I got more.
  • Good season (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Zed2K ( 313037 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11398811)
    This season has actually been really good. They are back to earth and doing missions around the neighborhood instead of crazy time travel crap. The biggest problem is Berman himself. He's an idiot.
  • Uneven show (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Orp ( 6583 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:31PM (#11398815) Homepage
    Personally, I thought the Xindi storyline was quite good.

    Then this awful, awful storyline on Soong's mutants or whatever. Almost too painful to watch. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

    Then the Vulcan thing - pretty good again. But, alas, that storyline seems to have come to a somewhat abrupt close.

    I haven't seen the latest episode. Tivo tells me it's about transporter technology or something. I wish they could have extended the Vulcan thing, I think there is some good stuff to explore there.

    I just think the show has been uneven, not horrible, when you average the good and the bad you kind of end up on the good side of "meh." I am "Berman agnostic" - quite honestly I don't know or care why people hate him so. I enjoy what I enjoy and I think it will be too bad if Enterprise dies, and I certainly think there is more ground to explore in the Stark Trek future.
  • by gadlaw ( 562280 ) <gilbert@gad l a w.com> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:40PM (#11398969) Homepage Journal
    If you feed this man, he'll just keep coming back. He'll keep coming back, raping our childhoods and messing with our memories of a great Star Trek series and a pretty good Next Generation series. After that it's all been crap to include the killing of Captain Kirk in the most asinine nonheroic way possible. He doesn't deserve another penny from any of us to continue sucking dry Rodenberry's ideas and legacy. Don't go away mad Rick Berman, just freaking go away.
  • WHAT?!!? (Score:5, Funny)

    by rscrawford ( 311046 ) <rscrawford.undavis@edu> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:41PM (#11398984) Homepage Journal
    Wherever shall I get my weekly dose of Nipples the Vulcan?!!?
  • by JoeShmoe ( 90109 ) <askjoeshmoe@hotmail.com> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:53PM (#11399161)
    for the plotline comparing Vulcans to homosexuals.

    You know...how the "bad intolerant Vulcans" wanted to oppress a minor group of Vulcans who couldn't help the fact that they could mind meld...they were just born that way!

    The analogy was as clever as a knock knock joke as as obvious as a Mack truck sitting in your living room. It blew hundreds of episodes of Vulcan lore and mythology for a poor imitation of the Trek of years past.

    Let's take a look at how the real Trek series handled controversial issues. TOS has the half-black/half-whites fighting the half-white/half-blacks. Still a classic and balls out the most in-your-face episode about racism I think I've seen in sci-fi. You could put the most inbred confederate-flag-waving Klan member down in front of that episode and he'd be the one who laughs and says what a ridiculous notion is was.

    TNG was I think the first to tackle the issue of homosexuality where Riker visits that unisex planet and discovers that sometimes people are born with a sex, and have to hide it. The unisex angle was reallly smart because even a conserative Christian could understand what it would be like if they were stripped of their sexual identify (especially since they are very big on enforcing sexual identity, girls dress/act one way, boy's another). Even at a time where gay rights issues were barely on the map, that episode raised a very valid what-if that applied to any viewer.

    DS9, while making it an obvious pandering to ratings by scheduling the episode during sweeps, also I think did good work with the Jax/lesbian episode. The issue was touched on earlier when Beverly Crusher fell in love with the first Trill/symbiote on a TNG episode, but at the end when the symbiote was put in a female host, it was a sad end to the relationship. DS9 took the other direction, where Jax still felt love despite the change and had a relationship with a woman. I don't know if this was the first lesbian kiss on television or not...but it wsa definitely something that riled people up. Still a little pandering tho...I mean, the symbiote could have just as easily been in an older less attractive female host...

    Back to Enterprise. All Berman/Braga did was take the most generic tale of gay oppression and replace all instances of the word "people" with "Vulcan" and "sex" with "mind meld".

    Somehow, I don't see this episode as becoming the theme song for the gay rights movement. What it did too was take all of the nobility and enlightenment of the previous four seasons worth of Vulcans and flush it down the toilet. The Vulcans who showed up on Earth back in First Contact were supposed to be these enlighted souls who had unified their planet after decades of war, who had turned away from emotion that let to nothing but conflict and embraced pure logic, who had conquered space and really owned the galaxy as far as it had been explorered.

    Now, thanks to Berman/Braga, the Vulcan's are no better than humans, there's civil war, people getting high on emotions, racism/meldism, leaders using terrorism as a pretext for wiping out followers of another religion (cough cough, gee I wonder what analogy that is)

    It's enough to make Sarak role in his future grave and make any Trek fan vomit in disgust. If there's anything that Trek fans would consider sacriledge, I have to believe it's turning the Vulcans into the squabbling mess that Enterprise depicts.

    I'd rather watch a series that followed the life and times of the Voyager Borg kids than watch a single episode of Enterprise.

    -JoeShmoe
    .
  • by HangingChad ( 677530 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @02:56PM (#11399200) Homepage
    Let it go already. The Star Trek franchise is now something like 40 years old? Or close to it. Let go.

    What follows is just my opinion but I liked Star Trek better before it got so preachy and, for lack of a better word, pussified. Every so often you just have to say screw the prime directive and stick a photon torpedo up some mofo's tailpipe.

  • by EEBaum ( 520514 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:16PM (#11399592) Homepage
    With Nemesis as the last "even" Trek movie, only time will tell what a suckfe^H^H^H^H^H^Hdelightful gem this next "odd" movie will be.
  • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:23PM (#11399721) Journal
    The idea of a Klingon-centric series seems fairly popular.

    Set at the point soon after Klingons join the Federation, two human Starfleet cadets are assigned to a Klingon ship. It would be the ultimate culture clash.

    Klingons have a wide appeal, such as football and wrestling fans.
  • by Random BedHead Ed ( 602081 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:23PM (#11399734) Homepage Journal

    This has been a good season, so it was nice so see this Slashdot story contradicted by this:

    So at least this season will stick around. Of course writing a letter in support of the series can't hurt.

  • by Ranger ( 1783 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:31PM (#11399910) Homepage
    I gave up on Enterprise halfway into the first season. I enjoyed Star Trek V'ger when I stopped thinking of it as Star Trek. I gave up on DS9 when it turned into a Bajoran soap opera, but the turning point to suck came in Star Trek the Next Generation when they had that retarded episode, Force of Nature [tvtome.com], that warp drive was wearing out the fabric of spacetime. I think they ignored it after a while, the way they ignored the Organians after the first Klingon episode in classic Trek. Doctor Flox is even more annoying that Neelix. So killing Enterprise would be a mercy. Though I think they could save the show by having Six of Nine hot oil wrestle with T'Pol in a remake of "Gamesters of Triskelion" using time travel to grab competitors. I'd wager 30 quatloos on that.
  • by Enrique1218 ( 603187 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:38PM (#11400072) Journal
    I feel it may time to relegate the whole Star Trek universe to television history. For one, Gene Roddenberry was the best creative influence on the show and now he has past on. The creative heirs of the show are gradually running out of ideas as evident by the rehashing of heroes, villians, and themes from different spinoffs. The themes of paradise, egalitarianism, enlightment, and global peace seem absurd in this post 911 world. Shows like Battlestar Galactica have more parallel with today's reality. The human struggle to survive with little hope in sight reflects our struggle with hatred that now pulls our societies apart with little end in sight. Last, the only reason any studio would consider airing another series is to ring every drop of commercial gain from trekkies. This will eventually leave a sour taste and overshadow the shows' real sucess in tv.
  • by Dieppe ( 668614 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @03:51PM (#11400299) Homepage
    Let Enterprise finish its run... but start work on a post ST:TNG/DS9/Voyager Trek with Wil Wheaton starring as Wesley Crusher as a captain on some ship... yeah, the same old story, but instead someone in Star Fleet who has a thing against Wesley for his hijinks at the Academy. So he's sent off with a crew who hates his guts, a ship that's barely functional, and sent to map some "badlands" type region of space.

    Oh, or better yet... a new warp drive has been invented that appears to be able to traverse interstellar space and they need a crew to test drive it---so they point it at M33 and... No, not invented, that one that was "discovered" in the Gamma quadrant by Janeway and her crew...

    Of course something goes horribly wrong... etc.

    Not suggesting this because I hate Mr. Wheaton, of course.. but wouldn't it be cool to get him a job again NOT to mention the fact that many geek fans LOVE him. Not the ST:TNG character, as much, because he was a kid playing a role the best that he could written by adults who didn't know what they were doing.

    Hm. I guess we'd have to get rid of Berman for that to ever happen, huh??

  • by soccerisgod ( 585710 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @04:00PM (#11400454)

    Why not a season earlier?

    Seriously. Enterprise is the wrost Trek series of all times, and that includes the future. The first two season were - though not exactly great - acceptable. But the third season was just unbearable. This whole Xindi thing was just plain stupid.

    I for one would applaude the cancellation of this show. As others have said before, the franchise needs a break. Then, in perhaps 20 years time, we will see the likes of TNG and DS9 again.

  • by reallocate ( 142797 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @04:37PM (#11401037)
    Hello? Anyone actually read anything?

    TrekToday is actually reporting the showrunner's, Manny Coto, denial of the cancellation rumor. Rather the opposite of the Slashdot tease.

    As for the alleged March production crew layoffs, Coto says Enterprise production always ends in March.

  • by Mustang Matt ( 133426 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @04:39PM (#11401063)
    I thought this season was top notch so far.

    I think Scott Bakula makes an excellent captain for the show. My biggest complaint is how some (all?) of the episodes have become mirrored controversial topics of today. All the cloning and intolerance of this and that... whatever. I'm sick of political correctness propaganda.
  • by dwntwnboi ( 820586 ) on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @06:15PM (#11402399) Homepage
    look, the following is opinion. you may strongly disagree, so be warned.

    that show has f*cking sucked since the 3rd episode. struggle after stuggle, from blalock's emotional bleed-through and crack whorage on the space-drugs, and scott bakula's transformation from an incredible actor into a stilted hack, this show was doomed from the beginning. they alienate the hell out of trek fans, especially the older ones, with their horrible inconsitancies and poor background research, piss-poor dialogue and incompetant directing.

    it started when rick berman and brannon braga made the borg sexy. they were the scariest foe in trek history until they gave the borg boobs-- and big 'uns. with voyager, you could really see the beginning of the decline as the budget increased and the amount of fabric or jeri ryan's body decreased. they have trivialized everything that was meaningful about trek and change the whole concept of it. it used to be about peace and diplomacy and scientific discovery. confrontation was rare, but certainly necessary, but only when it was necessary was it used. now you see everyone blowing EVERYTHING up because that's what get's the masses of america to turn on and tune in: boobs and lasers and explody spacebourne objects.

    the sad thing is that you can tell that some of the actors really tried hard to make the show better by acting better only to finally give up. poor john billingsly. theonly good actor on the show, and he has such a small presence.

    let us not forget poor Mayweather (as it seems the writers have). why is he there? just to fill space? why would they cast a regular actor if they're never going to give him any meaningful involvment in but a few episodes?

    if you ask me (which you didn't, but whatever), this show has only ber-maga and the writers to blame. the fans tried and tried to save it, but they were the only onse being ignored. HA! that's what u get.

    ugh, and the theme song...
  • FUD FUD FUD (Score:3, Interesting)

    by chrome ( 3506 ) <chrome&stupendous,net> on Tuesday January 18, 2005 @09:11PM (#11404114) Homepage Journal
    The person who posted the story should have RTFA:

    http://www.saveenterprise.com/sfxrumor.htm

    I quote:

    Popular British Science Fiction Magazine reported Enterprise set crew being fired in March.

    According to SFX, supposed set spy "Trekspy" who works on Enterprise's set is due to be out of a job by March. "Trekspy" may be out of a job, but our sources confirm that this is NOT due to Enterprise being cancelled.

    Our source say although UPN can pull the plug on the show anytime, the current plan on the set is to continue through the planned 22 episodes this season. The article is correct in that the last episode of the season (episode 22) will conclude principle photography in early March.

    Manny Coto has also told TrekToday "It's another inane rumour. Right now, the crew is building the sets for episodes 20-21, which I'm writing. Rick [Berman] and Brannon [Braga] are writing episode 22, which is going to be fantastic!"

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