Topic: Rumors swarm of ENT's cancellation

[Scott Allen Abfalter]

Quote:
Once when I was touring the small naval museum in Vancouver, B.C. where they store the ship that made the Arctic passage in the early 1940s, I saw a display of TNG memorabilia.  The display pointed to the fact that the core theme of naval exploration in Star Trek mirrored the real-life exploration done in the 18th and 19th centuries by the Royal Navy with famous captains like Captain Cook.  So, it is little surprise to me that Star Trek writers and directors that draw on the  Horatio Hornblower series for inspiration in their Star Trak writer and direction exploits produce the best and most profitable Trek shows/movies.  Ronald Moore wrote many good episodes in TNG, did most of the writing of First Contact and really took off with the Dominion war arc in DS9.  He just currently did the writing for the new BSG mini-series and brought the special effects people from DS9 to the BSG initiative.  Nicolas Meyer was the director of probably 2 of the best Trek movies ever in ST2 and ST6 and he too used Horatio Hornblower as a key reference.  Currently, Master and Commander is doing well in the movie theaters to show that there is a stable niche market for this naval exploration theme against the background of geo-political struggle.  For example, the TOS Federation and Klingons mirrored the global power struggles of England and France in the Napoleonic wars, the continuing struggles of Western Nations with Germany in WW1 and WW2, and the Cold War struggle of NATO and the USSR.

Is it any surprise that writers like B&B that totally disregard the core naval quality and geo-political struggles of the core Star Trek by continually messing with the timeline in serious matters are harvesting smaller and smaller ratings while those that embrace it like N. Meyer and R. Moore do well?  When will B&B understand that the only timeline shows that will work in Trek are of the non-serious comedic variety with regards to global politics like what was done in Star Trek IV that was basically a funny ST intro movie that the GreenPeace party would love.  Or, time-travel episode where you have to repair the timeline marred by aliens or baddies or loonies like the deranged McCoy in the TOS time travel episode to 1930s USA. But, start making key arc episodes based on time travel is ludricious and makes the Star Trek fan base refuse to take such a series seriously. There is nothing to look forward to when the rules are constantly changing or could be changed at the time-traveling magic machine's whim.  It almost feels like one of those nightmare Software projects where the users were never told to freeze the requirements and there was not enough process analysis done. The project invariably gets in big trouble by missing deadlines repeatedly and someone eventually gets fired over it.  So, B&B should not be surprised if it happens to them.

Right now, it looks like the chances are good that B&B Enterprise is cancelled while the Ronald Moore  BSG series is picked up.  I call that market forces dispensing with justice in the Sci-Fi genre and it's about time.      

Cinescape reports a rumor from a previously reliable source that BSG will get an initial six episode order.

 

[Baker]

 I grew  up in the TNG era as well and while I found TNG itself pretty good, I found that DS9 was one of the ST shows. I rank it high primarily because we see a darker side of Star Trek.