Trekked Out?
Since Gene Roddenberry came back in 1987 to resuscitate Star Trek on television, it has been on the air in one form or another for the entire eighteen years up to today. In 1993, when The Next Generation had one year left, Deep Space Nine went on the air. A year later, Voyager joined in and the two Trek shows ran concurrently. When Voyager went off the air in the Spring of 2001, Enterprise picked up the ball that autumn and has been running since. TNG, DS9 and Voyager each ran for seven years before they were retired–but it looks like Enterprise will not be so lucky. After the end of this, its fourth year, Star Trek: Enterprise will face cancellation–and it looks like no fan uprising will keep it on the air.
The reasons for cancellation are pretty clear-cut: it’s doing badly in the ratings, so much so that its rich demographics can’t save it. Part of the ratings problems have to do with the fact that it is on UPN, which is not exactly a powerhouse of a network; part has to do with the fact that it has not been the most appealing show on the air; and part of it has to do with the fact that it was tossed into the Friday-night trash bin (like the original series was in the 60’s) where it has languished this year. Paramount has its 100 episodes which will keep the show alive in syndication, and for them, that’s all that is necessary. And hopes that the show might be picked up by the SciFi channel, like the popular, long-running Stargate SG-1 series (now in season eight) after Showtime axed it, have been dashed by Exec Producer Rick Berman, who says the show won’t be shopped around.
Which is too bad for Enterprise, which was just getting its footing. Each Trek series got off and running at different times, and Enterprise, which got a good push last year with the season-long “Xindi” arc, has been doing much better this year, winding plotlines and Trek “history” from the original series into the Enterprise storylines. But probably the most important improvement has been that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga finally let go of their control to the show and gave it to Manny Coto, who improved the show tremendously. But it came too late–Berman and Braga let go only because they knew the show was doomed.
So now they’re talking about giving the franchise a rest, which might not be such a bad idea. But what it really needs is new blood. Berman and Braga had been with Trek ever since it began its current run in 1987. Eighteen years is too long for two people to be in control of the franchise, and their stagnant direction has been one of the biggest reasons Trek has not been doing well. Hopefully, when Paramount decides to revive the franchise again in four or five years, they will be wise enough to seek out someone talented and fresh, with a respect for the show and the fans.
Part of the problem with Berman is that he was hand picked by Gene. This gave him some sort of sense that he was the golden child and that he could do no wrong. His main problem was that he got to where he thought every idea he had was brilliant and there was no filter to stop him. He saw a money making machine that he had to keep running no matter what.
Take Voyager for example, talk about missed oppurtunities. You had a Starfleet ship without any help for years, you would think the ship would have shown some wear-and-tear. Nope, it ended the run just as pretty as it started. With the basic concept of Voyager you would have thought that you would have started to see access panels missing on the walls…tubes sticking out at weird angles as they have had to patchwork things…uniforms start missing pieces….nope..ship was all shiny and pretty at the end.
And don’t even get me started on what a waste Chakotay turned into.
What bugged me about Berman, Piller and Braga on Voyager is that they didn’t respect the viewer. It ranged from small stuff–like the idea that matter itself was a resource and could be recycled in a replicator, rather than the energy that the replicator ran on being the resource–to huge stuff, like continuity. The “Year of Hell” episode is a prime example. In the episode where Kes lives backwards, she not only sees what happens with the Krenim, but actively states that she’s going to make a full report on it. And then in the Year of Hell two-parter, Voyager approaches Krenim space, and they act like they’d never heard of them before. It’s not just disrespect to the viewer, it’s also sheer laziness on the part of the writers. I could think of two or three different ways that the continuity could have been upheld, even making the opening more interesting–but Braga, who wrote the episode, just completely disregarded the storyline established by the series just ten or so episodes previous. I understand the producers had little respect for continuity–and hardly any more respect for the viewers.
I agree completely…Star Trek went downhill in varying degrees after DS9’s second or third season. There are some caveats to that, of course; the concept of the Dominion war and many of its relavant storylines were great, Garak could still turn a horrible episode around with enough screen time, and Gul Dukat got more and more interesting until late season 6.
It always seemed to me, however, that the show had its best resource on or about Bajor. “Shakaar” comes to mind as a good example – think how relavant to current events it is to have a plot concerning the perils of church/state fusion!
Voyager had its good moments, as well, but was a disappointment overall, as you’ve said. Enterprise has been a devastating experience for me…I’m ashamed to have my girlfriend watch it sometimes. There have probably only been a few really good episodes, many of the characters are misused, underused or get barely any screen time whatsoever (Hoshi comes to mind).
Luis, did you ever see the TNG episode “The Drumhead”? There’s a fair amount of political insight in that episode, don’t you think? Here’s an example:
Worf: The Federation *does* have enemies. We MUST seek them out!
Picard: Oh yes, that’s how it starts. But the road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is shorter than we think.
And Picard’s speech when he’s being “questioned” about “freedom denied” is a classic. I miss those days of Star Trek.
Justin:
Actually, I think DS9 got better after the second or third season–but then, I enjoy story arcs. Recently, a Japanese cable channel has been showing 8 episodes of DS9 each week, 2 a day four days a week, and I’ve been recording and archiving them on DVD. They just started the 7th and last season, and there have been quite a few good episodes here.
“The Drumhead” was good, but IMHO it was a little to unsubtle, and the villain a bit too over the top–not to mention that it suffered from the “evil Starfleet admiral” syndrome all too common on TNG. The political statement was good, but I think the episode itself could have been written better.
Truthfully, I think Trek has done much better when adhering to the roadmap the original series followed: hire talented SF writers to create more unique and outstanding shows, instead of having too much milktoast injected because the producers want to collect the writer’s checks. Unless, of course, you have producers who can really write great, which is not always the case.
But sometimes it is. For an excellent example of political insight, one should instead reference Babylon 5. The political storyline from the end of season one to the end of season four is beyond compare. A politcal assassination and grab for power, the use of alien threats to frighten the people into accepting an authoritarian regime, the creation of government bodies such as the “ministry of truth,” an SS-like organization called NightWatch; parallels to McCarthyism, fascism, control by powerful players behind the scenes… some incredibly good stuff in there, very well-written cautionary tales. All sorts of historical references and parallels. At some times, the way we see our government run today is frighteningly similar to the Earth government portrayed in Babylon 5–the “life imitating art” factor all too accurate.
In comparison, the political commentary on recent Trek series has been all too sparse, and somewhat ham-handed when approached. There have been some good moments–like in Enterprise when Archer had to choose whether or not to steal parts from an alien ship, disabling them, so that his ship could fight for Earth. And there have been fair episodes, like “Homefront” and “Paradise Lost” on DS9 where militarists fake Dominion attacks to wrest power so it can be exercised more ‘responsibly.’ But even then, the episode was somewhat of a cooked ham, not to mention suffering yet again from the “evil admiral” syndrome…
For my money, and I know this is likely to get me killed, DS9 was the best Trek series of them all. Like Luis though, I am a sucker for story arcs. DS9 had that in spades. I tire quickly of the “threat-of-the-week” TOS/TNG/Voyager style stories.
My brother feels the same way about DS9, and I can see the point. For me, DS9 may stand out a bit above the others, but I kind of like all of the series, each for a different reason.