From IESB.NET
The End of an Era...We Chat With Cast and Crew of Star Trek Enterprise!
First things first, I am not a Trekker but I am sure going to miss Star Trek. I have enjoyed Star Trek for the last 18 years on TV but I have never been a fan of The Original Series (TOS) with Kirk, Spock, Scotty and the rest of the gang.
Author: Robert Sanchez
Let me explain. When Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted back in 1987 it helped fill a void that I had as a Sci-Fi fan. Back in 1977, at the age of 4, my life forever changed when I saw Star Wars at the Mann’s Chinese Theater. Between the years of 1977 to 1983 I had my regular fix with everything from underoos to cool Burger King collector glasses and, of course, the action figures all from that galaxy far, far away. But that all ended after the release of Return of the Jedi.
Plenty of my friends lost interest in Star Wars and started becoming fans of G.I. Joe, Transformer/GoBots, and the Masters of the Universe. Sure there was great TV back then - Fraggle Rock, Knight Rider, The A-Team - but we didn’t have a quality Sci- Fi TV show. Buck Rogers had a decent run from 1979 to 1981 but I personally never got attached to the show. There was no show on TV during that time that was able to transport me to another place until 1987.
I had read in a TV guide that there was going to be a new Star Trek show coming out. But I didn’t give it a second thought until I found myself flipping the channels one night. My mother grabbed the remote and changed it to the channel that was going to air Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Encounter at Farpoint (Part 1) was the first episode that aired and I was shocked - this wasn’t my father’s Star Trek. The special effects looked great. The show had a cool android and the ship looked awesome. And I was always thrilled to see the credits read Special Effects by Industrial Light & Magic – the same team that did Star Wars.
Since Farpoint, this franchise has had a very long trek (pun intended) – 600+ shows, three additional series, tons of merchandise, and plenty of films. There’s no denying that Star Trek has had a positive effect on our culture. It has inspired many to become scientists, doctors, actors, or simply just plain better people.
The cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise is the end of an era. This fall will see the first TV season in 18 years without a first run Star Trek series.
Why did Enterprise fail? In my humble opinion it was the lack of interesting characters and the simple fact that I as a viewer could never feel an emotional tie to the cast.
I am going to start from the top - Scott Bakula. I loved him as Dr. Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap but his character of Captain Archer was as inaccessible as a character as Bakula is in real life. Ask yourself this? When was the last time that Scott did a fan meet and greet at a Trek or sci-fi Convention? Bingo! It was easier to meet the Pope then it was to meet Scott in person. In my opinion, the first thing that Scott needs to do is to fire his long time publicist (a.k.a. Grouchy Smurf) and start going to some cons. A genre actor needs to be known by his fans if he’s going to win over the shows core audience.
Linda Park was never able to establish her character as someone that you gave a rats ass for. Linda is a sweetheart in real life but her Enterprise character was just simply boring.
Jolene Blalock was supposed to be the eye candy for the geek viewers, but she was more of a turn off than a turn on. In my opinion, she needs to eat a meal – she’s just too damn skinny! And another word of advice - Jolene, don’t bitch about a show that you currently working on. That only pisses off your fans and your bosses.
Connor Trineer, Dominic Keating and Anthony Montgomery were the only main cast members that were even remotely interesting to me.
Let’s not forget about the storylines. Simply put, they need to be interesting. Paramount needed to be a bit more aggressive on upper Star Trek management and demand better scripts. There was too much “playing it safe”. The new Galactica is a great example of this. Fans were bitching that the “re-imagining” of the new show was too extreme. I was one of them! Yet, today it is one of the best on TV. They took risks and they succeeded.
Then again, as Brannon Braga told us during the wrap party, Star Trek might’ve become its own worst enemy. It’s all but impossible to have fresh ideas for 18 years straight, and sometimes they had more than one show airing at the same time - as was the case with TNG, Voyager and Deep Space Nine.
Another thing that aided the demise of Star Trek was that Gene Rodenberry’s vision was clearly lost. Even though I wasn’t a hardcore TOS fan, Roddenberry created The Next Generation as well, and I acknowledge how daring and visionary these two shows were. Any future Trek shows or films have to be equally bold and daring.
But after everything is said and done, we also have to realize that Paramount didn’t support Enterprise 100 percent. Its budgets were cut season after season. It had a horrible time slot going up against Smallville (which targets the identical demographic) and then some genius thought it would be a good idea to go up against Sci-Fi channel’s block of solid hit shows - Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis and the mega-hit Battlestar Galactica.
So what happens to Trek next? Only time will tell. But for now enjoy these video interviews from the Star Trek: Enterprise Wrap Party!
Go to the website for the video links
The End of an Era...We Chat With Cast and Crew of Star Trek Enterprise!
