He's Dead, Jim.
So, the inevitable has happened. I read in today's edition of USA Today that Enterprise is being cancelled.
Just when the show was starting to show some promise, too.
The first two seasons weren't spectacular, by any means, but that was to be expected. Every Star Trek series struggles for the first two seasons. Let's face it, even Star Trek: The Next Generation was awful for the first two years.
Enterprise's third season (a.k.a. The Year of the Xindi) showed some promise that the series was turning around. We saw some genuine character development, and the writing (and consequently the dialogue) got much better. All of a sudden, Enterprise was transformed from 'Star Trek with skin' into a legitimate, story- and character-driven series. And the season finale, the climax of the Xindi War, was one of the better episodes from any of the Trek series.
The fourth season has been equally rewarding. There have already been two very good story arcs - the Augment story featuring a cameo by Brent Spiner, and the Vulcan dissidents story. The silicon virus story, where Archer convinces a highly advanced culture to re-examine their version of the Prime Directive, was also very good. And I was impressed by the plot twist involving the Romulan ship at the end of last week's episode.
So it's a little sad that it has to end.
UPN is citing ratings as the reason for the cancellation. There's something they could have done to save the series, though: move the series to syndication. Nobody watches Enterprise on UPN because nobody watches anything on UPN. Other than Enterprise, the network's lineup sucks, and always has. ST:TNG and ST:DS9 did well, at least in part, because local stations could pick them up and show them at times that were good for their audiences. When Paramount decided to launch their own TV network, they also decided to tie it to their most successful franchise: Star Trek. I feel that this move cost Voyager a lot of viewers in its day, and is directly responsible for the premature death of Enterprise.
Fare thee well, NX-01. We hardly knew ye.
Just when the show was starting to show some promise, too.
The first two seasons weren't spectacular, by any means, but that was to be expected. Every Star Trek series struggles for the first two seasons. Let's face it, even Star Trek: The Next Generation was awful for the first two years.
Enterprise's third season (a.k.a. The Year of the Xindi) showed some promise that the series was turning around. We saw some genuine character development, and the writing (and consequently the dialogue) got much better. All of a sudden, Enterprise was transformed from 'Star Trek with skin' into a legitimate, story- and character-driven series. And the season finale, the climax of the Xindi War, was one of the better episodes from any of the Trek series.
The fourth season has been equally rewarding. There have already been two very good story arcs - the Augment story featuring a cameo by Brent Spiner, and the Vulcan dissidents story. The silicon virus story, where Archer convinces a highly advanced culture to re-examine their version of the Prime Directive, was also very good. And I was impressed by the plot twist involving the Romulan ship at the end of last week's episode.
So it's a little sad that it has to end.
UPN is citing ratings as the reason for the cancellation. There's something they could have done to save the series, though: move the series to syndication. Nobody watches Enterprise on UPN because nobody watches anything on UPN. Other than Enterprise, the network's lineup sucks, and always has. ST:TNG and ST:DS9 did well, at least in part, because local stations could pick them up and show them at times that were good for their audiences. When Paramount decided to launch their own TV network, they also decided to tie it to their most successful franchise: Star Trek. I feel that this move cost Voyager a lot of viewers in its day, and is directly responsible for the premature death of Enterprise.
Fare thee well, NX-01. We hardly knew ye.
posted by Michael at
4:33 PM
2 Comments:
This season of Enterprise has been the most enjoyable by far. I love the exploration of the Vulcan and Andorian cultures. A couple of fan groups have already organized campaigns to save the series; let's hope they can have an impact. Like you, I think the only hope is to scale back the budget and go for syndication.
By
dilliwag, At
February 04, 2005 12:03 AM
If they'd ended Enterprise after year two, I'd've not been that upset. But now that we've had season four that is fulfilling the promise of premise of this show, I'm saddened by the loss.
By
Michael Hickerson, At
February 04, 2005 11:14 AM
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