I've been wondering how a franchise with such a large following could be booted off TV back in 2005. Do you guys think commercialization had something to do with it? I can remember as a teenager during the 1990s, I was a huge fan of Star Trek, but I can also remember being turned off by the fact that DS9 was a "non-exploration" show and I remember watching the first season of Voyager and then losing track of it. I never got into Enterprise, even though I tried watching an epiosde here and there. But I also remember being routinely pissed off with Rick Berman and company because I percevied the TNG movies as too safe, and I felt maybe too much commercialization was turning fans away? Is there a consensus on what caused the franchise fatigue?
It's a big question. - Variable quality of the TV shows is likely one reason (DS9/VOY/ENT all have their fans, but also plenty of criticism.) - "Too many trips to the well", as Berman always said. There is definitely an argument for "leave the audience wanting more", and not over-saturating the market - all of which is easy to say with hindsight. - The way in which people watch TV, and the sheer volume/variety of channels and shows may be a contributing factor. To whit, in the UK in the early 1990s, 5-6 million people watching a show was a disastrous rating. In 2014/15 - that's a guaranteed series renewal. Why? Because instead of 4 terrestrial channels (and a minority of the public who have access to some satellite channels) we now have 40+ free-to-all channels, and hundreds of satellite ones. Voyager and Enterprise kind of fall in the middle of this time period. Enterprise may have only pulled a few million viewers on first airing - but did that take into account those who watched on catch up? recorded? Were waiting for the DVDs? It certainly didn't take into account international viewers/success. I think producers might be a bit more savvy to that now. - My (limited) understanding was that a lot of political shenanigans with UPN were occurring around the time of Enterprise, which may have contributed to its cancellation. - I also think it's natural that franchises like this go through peaks and troughs. That's how it works. Star Wars has had ups & downs, Transformers, Bond, Doctor Who, TMNT... it's almost cyclical. Trek had a very good decade in the sun from about 1986 - 1996, culminating in the 30th anniversary hoopla. A lot of people (maybe not the diehards) naturally gravitate over time toward other things etc.
TNG came along when there was a shortage of sci-fi & fantasy shows on TV. By the time ENT came along, that was no longer the case and in some cases, Trek was competing against itself as some markets had earlier Trek shows running alongside newer ones. So there might have been a lot of people watching Trek, but not all of them were watching the newest incarnation of it (be it DS9, VOY, or ENT). Some may even have had their fill of Trek after several years and started watching something else, IMO.
Way too much what? Star Trek, channels, sci-fi shows, or all of the above? I believe one problem is the vast universe of channels out there. There are so, so many, perhaps too many. Choice is good, but there has to be a saturation point and I think we're there. If you are good, though, people will watch. For Star Trek, I do think that it could come back on TV in one of two ways. One, as an animated series ala what Star Wars has been doing out there, or two, as a live action 'limited' series. By that I mean a 6-8 episode series where a story could be told and tied up in that period with options to do another the following year. Hopefully it would be good enough to leave people wanting more.
I am a fan of Seasons 3 & 4 of ENTERPRISE - especially three. But the show just wasn't exciting television, for the most part. As a prequel, it potentially offered a chance to be more gritty, more realistic and it wasn't, with the possible exception of the fact that we actually saw Men in real suits, with ties. It took every STAR TREK cliché and redubbed it, basically: "Photonic Torpedoes" and "Phase Cannons" was about as far as this shows producers wanted to stray from formula to preserve Gene Roddenberry's Vision of the Future. I guess ENTERPRISE should've been more like THE RIGHT STUFF, showing a certain breed of Men & women who were more believable and flying by the seat of their pants sort of thing. Instead, it's a very familiar setting, with very familiar trappings. I love Rick Berman and what he did for TNG. He's really good at his job and he really believed in this mission he took upon himself to preserve what he felt was Gene Roddenberry's influences. But every artist, every athlete, everyone loses their stuff, eventually, and Rick had just held onto STAR TREK for too long, when it came time for ENTERPRISE. That's not to say that it would've been a wild success in anyone else's hands, but it certainly would've been a different way of presenting STAR TREK. And in the end, that's probably all it really needed to be ...
There is a tendency I think to look at ST decline in isolation (i.e, it was a TV only thing.) But the 1990s also marked the introduction of some serious competition for one's discretionary time. Don't forget, that decade saw the introduction of the Web, the mainstreaming of PC games, and the advent of modern gaming consoles.
There's no big mystery, the franchise was just running out of steam. When Enterprise came along, it was clear they were running out of ideas, given in the first two seasons most of the episodes were either rip-offs of other Trek stories or even other stories from sci-fi, or completely ridiculous concepts such as Vulcan mind-melding causing some sort of Space AIDS disease, Ferengi and Borg showing up, and the idiotic "temporal cold war." By the time the show got to its final season only the die-hard uberfans who live and breathe Star Trek were bothering, and with that season only they could follow it anyway. Trek had become stagnant, we know Voyager had UPN enforcing the show to be "TNG-lite" and it's clear Enterprise was continuing in that mold. Hell, I don't even think much thought was put into developing Enterprise's characters beyond "this is who sits at that station, that is who runs that department on the ship." Back in 2005, audiences were just getting tired of the "same old Trek." And there were alternatives, you had the Stargate franchise offering Trek style stories but with some fun and humour. BSG had just started and was showing more drama and relevant social commentary than Star Trek had in years. And Doctor Who was returning proving that you can change things in long-running sci-fi franchises without ruining them
My experience since I began interacting with fans of ST in 2009 is that there is never a consensus. There will be the segment that is certain it was 'this thing' that was the cause. There will be the segment that is certain it was 'that thing' that was the cause. There will be the segment that...... etc. I perceived the TNG movies as ones I enjoyed more, ones I enjoyed less. And I am part of the segment that hypothesizes franchise fatigue does not exist. I know lots of Real Time ST watchers of every incarnation series & movie as they aired who indicate getting tired of series & movies doesn't compute with them. They watched everything ST on TV and every movie at the theater. They had interest, the shows matched their Taste, they had Time, and Life wasn't intruding enough to effect the watching. I personally know many Real Time ST watchers of every incarnation who simply say they liked 'X' or 'Y' series but Life distracted them with necessary other things during the time it aired and they missed most of it, but if Life hadn't interfered they would have. But did watch the other series they could, and saw all or most of the movies. I know a couple of people in Real Time who did not watch a particular series because it wasn't what they liked. But watched most or all of the other series and all the movies. My Real Time perception is that franchise fatigue has never been a factor. That it is Taste, Time, & Life circumstances instead. I devoured Star Trek on TV and would 'not' have watched NextGen because I had no interest in a ST show w/out Kirk/Bones/Spock. But my friends were going to watch the premier episode... so I did too. And immediately found for me ST was more a concept than a particular cast of characters. For the next seven years I devoured NextGeneration. Life was going on Big Time and I totally missed DS9 as it aired. Had no idea it even existed. Had no idea Nemesis even existed until years later. Life intrusions. Was still busy with Life when I casually heard about Voyager, and passed on it. I certainly wasn't experiencing franchise fatigue because my last dedicated watching was years past with NextGen. And movies only come every few years so there was no franchise fatigue there. It was Life intruding on my discretionary time In 2000 Life provided me with Time, and being home at 9:00pm weeknights provided me an introduction to Voyager reruns. Bells clanged, lights flashed, fireworks went off... and I DEVOURED Voyager five nights a week even while I watched season seven as it aired. Life provided me Time and Taste provided me the interest in watching it. Which proves to me that if Life had given me Time I would have watched Voyager every single week for seven years as it aired because it matches my Taste of what I want from ST. When Enterprise came Life presented me with enough Time to watch. I was dedicated into the second season but began to find it not to my taste with the Xindi thing and the "Continued next week" and "Last time on Enterprise" thing. And the seasonal cliff hangers. Not my taste. I stopped watching. Not from franchise fatigue but from personal Taste. When I discovered DS9 on VHS Life provided me with Time and I watched every episode, but found it was wayyy not my Taste. It was the wars and Cardasians that were not to my taste. So it was a few years before I watched any episodes again. But not franchise fatigue.... personal Taste. I later watched Enterprise on DVDs, which gets me passed the distasteful "Continued next week" factor because I could watch the "Last time on Enterprise" immediately. The Xindi thing was more tolerable because I could get through it faster so it wasn't the long and boring story to me. Which allowed me to have lots of positive experiences with it so I like it now. But I did not watch it on TV as it aired because it didn't fit my Taste in that TV format. Then I got the DS9 DVDs, and things changed for me there too. I didn't have to watch the long and boring war if I didn't want to. I could watch a Jadzia episode or a Bashir episode... or even better... A GARAK EPISODE! And slowly the more I found I could like the more I developed appreciation for the parts I had previously disliked. But I would never have been interested in watching it as a weekly TV show. Taste. So my take on franchise fatigue is that it doesn't exist. People will watch what they like if there is Time in their lives to watch it. Taste, Time, & Life intrusions are the mitigating factors to me. And with StarTrek 'age' gives or takes away Time, e.g., dating, work, retired, still in K-12, family raising, no social network, extensive social network, etc. Personal taste in the viewer's vision of what they enjoy & want from StarTrek lends interest or lack there-of. Life adds family illness or problems, financial difficulties, working two or three jobs, too busy, etc. Nope, I do not nor do my Real Time ST watcher friends perceive that franchise fatigue exists. Blaming this is simplistic to me and factors out everything else that comes into play when watching/not watching something. Law&Order has been airing in one series or several simultaneously for 15 straight years. Each in simultaneous re-runs nearly that long too. Stargate aired for 13 straight yearswith two series overlapping for three years, and years of re-runs and movies and videos going on at the same time between them.NCIS has been airing for 12 straight years so far with sometimes three series running simultaneously. And they also run heavy in re-runs simultaneously. CSI has been airing for 15 straight years so far with sometimes three series running simultaneously, and a new one is getting ready to start in March. Without even going into how many re-runs of all the series run simultaneously now. Supernatural has been airing for 10 straight years so far, with re-runs going all the time. Bones has been airing for 10 straight years so far, with re-runs going all the time. These seem to me to be reasonable evidence that lends support to this hypothesis. Anyway, that's my experience. Me and my friends I mean. Right! Those ARE very strong factors!
Could you explain what you mean by commercialisation? It's not like they had Apple computers and a special appearance by Joey from Friends.
The market was already oversaturated by the end of VOY. Starting ENT immediately after the end of VOY was pretty much the straw that broke the camel's back. "I'm afraid the strain was more than he could bear." -Doc Holliday, Tombstone
The format was probably getting tired too. The last couple TNG movies probably failed because they followed the same old format, and appeared like glorified TV episodes. TNG was popular, but I've noticed others say its re-watchability is not as good, because the format (perfect characters, plot of the week, playing it safe, etc) seems outdated and boring. Garrett Wang said the cast was told to be as bland as possible in order to make the aliens interesting. What better way to make sure the show suffers from being boring. DS9 was not as popular, classic or mainstream as TNG, but re-watchers tend to rate it higher in content because it was more grittier and 'realer' than TNG. It tried to step out of the mold, the other shows kept returning to it. And maybe more entertaining for some.
If the franchise had continued after Enterprise then people might have grew tired of watching. While each show varied a little bit they all had the same formula: exploring space and meeting aliens. There's only so much you can do with that. I'd rather something stop while it's good then continue just because.
Eh? DS9 was surely not a lighter version of TNG. The real issues have already been brought up-oversaturation, the changing television landscape that brought more choices for television scifi, and declining quality.
Did you see the first season? Annoying Space Disease, Wacky Alien Holodeck Antics, Guy Who's In The Opening Credits Is Accused Of Murder!, Q, Troi's Mom, and I'm sorry but it's really too much work to keep watching if it's going to give us more of that.