Star Trek Enterprise getting a clue?
Published August 01, 2004
Manny Coto, new co-executive producer of Star Trek: Enterprise, might just be the ticket to saving the slumping series.
"I'm a fan of the original 'Star Trek,' and Season 4 for me is going to be everything I, as an old Star Trek fan, would want to see on 'Enterprise,' which is basically a lot of touchstones connecting 'Enterprise' with the old series and with the 'Next Generation' series,"
Now that statement is something that will bring up conflicting emotions for any of us old-time Star Trek TOS (The Original Series, for the unwashed among you) fans. One the one hand, it's exactly what we want to hear from a producer of the show... but on the other, haven't we heard it all before?
Ah, but the difference this time is that it's not Rick Berman exhaling these words, but Manny Coto, who has been responsible for a number of well-done episodes this past season. For some strange reason, despite the fact that show has obviously not been very good overall (to any discerning Trek fan that doesn't accept everything Trek as manna from Heaven), I keep giving it a pass. Now I do watch it, hoping every week that it will be good... but I realize that stacked up against something like Stargate SG-1 it completely bites.
Coto wants to do some cool stuff: Bring back more of the classic aliens from TOS (remember green-skinned Orion dancer girl?), delve further into the Vulcan background and explain how they got from where they are in Enterprise (a bit more emotional than we're used to) to where they are in TOS and TNG.
Manny, you want to do me and the fans a favor? Make us CARE about the characters. Within 3 episodes of first tuning in to SG-1, I felt like I knew the characters well, I felt the chemistry between them, and I cared what happened to them. On Enterprise, I still don't have some of their names straight after watching every week for 3 years, because in my mind they are disposable. You could put the security guy and the navigator/pilot out an air lock and I wouldn't miss them for 5 seconds.
I hope you can do what you say you will: bridge the gap between Enterprise, TOS, and TNG.
I wish you the best of luck, bud, and I'll be pulling for you.
Source: Sci Fi Wire
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- Star Trek Enterprise getting a clue?
- Published: August 01, 2004
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- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: SF, Video: Television
- Writer: Screen Rant
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Comments on this articleComments
Oops! That Avery Brooks sentence should have mentioned DS9 as the series.
I also forgot to mention that the budget for Enterprise was slashed to under a million per episode. That was part of what kept it on air another season. It's the first ST series to go under a million per ep since TOS, IIRC. That's gonna hurt them a lot, I'm sure.
On the other hand, some of my favorite moments from the final Xindi eps had to do with the small character moments that peppered each episode: Hoshi, Trip and T'Pol, etc. That's what I watch ST for, as well as the SF and ST stuff. I hope that the reduced budgets will force more episodes about the *people*.
For example, take Hoshi. She had to be cajoled by Archer into joining the mission and almost bailed on him in the first season. Now, she's been kidnapped and tortured by the Xindi, then driven almost to death by a Captain who didn't care if she survived as long as she completed his mission! There's a rich vein of stuff to mine in there -- a whole new Archer/Hoshi relationship -- if they go with it. Will they?
I stopped watching "Enterprise" about half-way through this season because it was like a retarded beagle, it just wasn't going to develop any further. The characters were all caricatures, and I just didn't care about any of them.
As for Busty McVulcan, I might tune in if there was full-frontal, but otherwise, why bother.
Reducing the budget is really good news, because it means they will be forced to concentrate on things which don't cost money, such as decent scripts and characters. And we don't have to like the characters either, a character or two we really hate would be more than welcome, at least it would be something to care about.
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I'm one of those who is deeply disappointed by Enterprise, but I also remember that most Trek series take about three or four seasons to hit their final groove. TNG gelled in Season 4. It took until Season 5, when Avery Brooks finally unclenched his character portrayal. With VOY, it took adding Seven of Nine, and upending all their character dynamics. So, maybe Manny will help Enterprise finally find its stride. I'm not holding my breath, though.