Enterprise Canceled, here's my two cents...

[JCVaughn]

Turn out the lights, the franchise is over. At least for now. Star Trek: Enterprise has been canceled according to its network, UPN.

The series had blossomed creatively under fourth season executive producer Manny Coto, but unfortunately the highly (some would say "insultingly") predictable first three seasons under Rick Berman and Brannon Braga had already done the damage. The ratings this season never rebounded and the show was buried on Friday night.

Enterprise was a prequel to the original Star Trek series, but the bulk of its early episodes carried on in the traditions of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, shows on which monologues passed for character growth and A-to-A plots (stories in which characters and events start at Point A and eventually end up in the same place) were the status quo.

Paramount executives were quick to point out that the series had run its course, which it had presuming "its course" was a simple oval track. For close to two decades, the powers that be there have been remarkably short sighted.

First, they missed the big one: Space, as Carl Sagan said, is vast. But Star Trek aliens generally were humans with extra bumpy noses or foreheads.

Second, they went for the short term, time-filling type of stories rather than showing us something epic, something as big as space. So, they made short term bucks but for now have killed the franchise.

"Enterprise will end its run on May 13, thus bringing to a close 18 years of Star Trek spinoffs on TV," the Chicago Tribune reported.

Think about what they're losing.

"Now, if you add the 79 hours of the original series, the one-hour original pilot, 11 hours' worth of animated episodes and about 20 hours' worth of feature films, that's a grand total of 735 hours of Trek," said the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's website.

And it's not just the past they've lost. C'mon! Think about it. This is Star Trek!

They've lost the future.

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[pctchuck]

It might have helped if the show had been carried on a "real" network.  Inorder to see it I would have had to order up a second satellite dish to get the station here in St. Louis.  I really would have loved to seen an episode or two, as my wife and I really loved Scott Bakula during the Quantum Leap shows.  I thought the concept of the show would be neat, showing how man reached out into space for the first time, but I will have to watch and see if a cable station picks up the show, or a DVD of the show gets out.  For those of you who saw Enterprise, is it worth my time?  Thanks for any replies.

[JCVaughn]

 For those of you who saw Enterprise, is it worth my time?  Thanks for any replies.

Season 4 is. The others? Not so much.

[jsniderfamily]

Any time the story explained more about Vulcans, it was interesting and worthwhile.  It added to the STAR TREK history for me.

[Delvie]

Although I enjoyed Enterprise from afar, I still enjoyed it. Being an Extrasolar Planet hobbyist, I approached scifi from a more reality based view. Humanoid looking aliens were always a block for me. But w/ limited viewing opportunities, what can ya do. If their is another 'Star Trek' Series, I hope they follow the 'Farscape' mold of @ least attempting to use alien looking aliens. Rygel, Pilot, Progenitor Mad Scientist, etc looking aliens could help the series immensely.

That being said, I still watched 'Enterprise' on Wednesdays. The move to Friday was a bad move (IMO) as they had to then compete w/ the already established 'Stargate SG-1' siphoning off the scifi fans.  By the time UPN decided to air 'Enterprise' on Fridays, my point of view was "I'll just buy the DVDs in a year or two." Don't get me wrong, all the other scifi shows still on need major improvements & aren't necessarily better than 'Enterprise,' but had already established themselves on the friday schedule.

I will certainly miss Enterprise & especially Jolene Blalock & Linda Park. I agree w/ you, Joe, when the storyline centered on the Vulcan Culture, the show improved doublefold. I also felt the same when the previous Star Treks centered on the the Feringi(sp) culture & especially the Klingon Warrior Culture. I didn't get into the previous Star Treks as much, but relied on my brother (who IS a Trekkie) to record & seperate relevant storylines from each episode into seperate culture specific tapes.  

[JCVaughn]

Any time the story explained more about Vulcans, it was interesting and worthwhile.  It added to the STAR TREK history for me.

I think they're exploration of Federation "history" was great, but they did far too little of that... until this season.

[JCVaughn]

Anyone heard the latest about the efforts to save this show?

And why is it that they waited until this year for it to be good?

[Delvie]

No, but I just heard that a co-star of one of your least fav Scifi shows will be filling the shoes of Jack on SG1 since Jack's role will be more background in season 9.



It never occured to me that his initials on his previous show were also JC.

[JCVaughn]

No, but I just heard that a co-star of one of your least fav Scifi shows will be filling the shoes of Jack on SG1 since Jack's role will be more background in season 9.



It never occured to me that his initials on his previous show were also JC.

I'm sure I'm missing it...but what are you talking about, old bean?

[Delvie]

I was under the impression from previous posts that you were a SG1 fan. & you've expressed a certain distaste for Farscape. Ben Browder will be filling the gap left by Richard Dean Anderson's diminished role.

[JCVaughn]

I was under the impression from previous posts that you were a SG1 fan. & you've expressed a certain distaste for Farscape. Ben Browder will be filling the gap left by Richard Dean Anderson's diminished role.

Yeah, I just didn't get that's what you were saying.  ::)

We'll see how he does.

[JCVaughn]

Hated hated hated hated hated hated to see the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast in the finale episode of Enterprise. Reminded me of how awful that show was.

You know, c'mon, let's stand around and talk about how we feel and let it pass for character development or action. Oh, brother!

I'm sorry to see Enterprise go (based only on this season, to be sure), but I won't be sorry to see it out of Berman's and Braga's hands eventually.