Enterprise should of had seven seasons

[ALF]

It was a business decision to get rid of Berman.

It had to have been.
A global financing initiative, coupled with TrekUnited's effort, offers from Sci-Fi channel and moving production to Vancouver... and everything expect approval of the Queen of England ended up with a flat "no" from Les what's-his-name of CBS.

 

[kissthestar]

Ent writing picked up a lot as it went along. I don't think Whedon is so pessimistic as some above have said. He seems more inclined towards the message that, OK, sometimes life is a load of ----, but we can survive and make a difference. The Ent message seemed kind of like that too. Maybe Whedon as an Ent writer would have been a good idea.

 

[Quagmire58]

The main strategy seems to have been to starve the fans, in the hopes they increase the bums on seats numbers for Star Trek 2009. Biting Paramount's hand off for whatever is eventually offered.

They kept us old folks waiting for 10 years between the end of the series and the first movie. With only 3 and a half years since the end of the last live action TV series, I will take about anything they throw my way. Hopefully the next movie will be a good pitch.

 

[pookha]

But the Temoporal Cold War was a good one? Like Voyager, Enterprise was a great concept that went down the crapper in the first episode. Unlike Voyager, it recovered after Manny Cotto took charge.

The TCW was interesting, but got completely killed by Coto without thought. I'm not sure where Berman and Braga were going, but at least it seemed planned out.

Coto had the crappiest episodes of season 4. So I think death belongs to most of the head writers. I'll say again -- Joss Whedon or Reeves/Stevens would've been great.

i dont know how much they had planned out.
but there were contradictions that were never delt with in the tcw story line as far back as cold front.
things just got worse with shock wave, carpenter street well just about every time daniels showed his face.

 

[DanCPA]

I liked Enterprise
And I think that S3 and S4 were wonderful improvements on the last 10 years worth of ship-based trek...
But I do think that Enterprise had to die for Trek to move on.
Too many people had too many complaints and sadly too many of the people that watched the show were too busy bashing the series instead of focusing on the improvements!

 

[darkwing_duck1]

It was a business decision to get rid of Berman.

It had to have been.
A global financing initiative, coupled with TrekUnited's effort, offers from Sci-Fi channel and moving production to Vancouver... and everything expect approval of the Queen of England ended up with a flat "no" from Les what's-his-name of CBS.

It wasn't "business" so much as Les' well known hatred of sci-fi in general. To "niche" and "highbrow" for his tastes.

Look at what took Enterprise's place: teen dramedies and urban black sitcoms.

 

[Keith1701]

It was the cost of blasting Rick Berman loose from the franchise. Enterprise had to die for Star Trek to have a chance to live. Brutal truth, but there it is.

really???? who really knows at this point......

 

[Cyke101]

If the whole second season was wiped out and the resulting seasons moved up instead, then Enterprise would've been about on par with all the other spin-offs, with the whole "the first two seasons suck, but it got better by the end, and then season 3 is when things really took off" syndrome.

 

[TEH BABA]

I was thinking, maybe bsg led to trek's downfull?

 

[Nebusj]

I was thinking, maybe bsg led to trek's downfull?

Oh, no, not at all. New Battlestar Galactica didn't air at all until December 2003 (and that as the miniseries); by that time, Enterprise had had its first two seasons get a reception ranging from lukewarm to horrifying and pitched its original premise overboard for the Xindi Menace storyline.

By the time Battlestar Galactica appeared as a series Enterprise was being allowed to run up to a hundred episodes for a useful syndication package, then to make a graceful exit.

 

[TheGodBen]

Another franchise killer is Ronald Moore and his pet dufus, David Eick, (who, himself, killed The Bionic Woman franchise in record time), the Berman clone (clown?) and protege', but that "story" belongs in another forum entirely.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion about nuBSG, many people don't like the direction it took, but to call Ron Moore and David Eick franchise killers is incorrect. They took a franchise that had been dead for over 20 years, a franchise that few fans even wanted revived (I personally thought it was a terrible idea) and they made it into an international success. It became Sci-Fi channel's hottest property. They chose to end it after season 4, they are going to be doing several TV movies after the show is off air, and they are going to be making a spin-off series based 40 years prior to the events of the show.

Hate Ron Moore and what he did all you want, but don't claim that he is a franchise killer when he successfully revived a franchise.

Plus, I don't think he gets along all that well with Rick Berman.


On topic, Enterprise couldn't continue past season four, it was losing the network too much money. I know they had offers from Sci-Fi and the like, but they wanted to keep complete control of the franchise so they could bring it back at some point. I wanted a pause for a few years after Voyager but they decided to keep going, and I wanted Enterprise to stay on air for seven seasons, but it was the right financial decision to make.

 

[Mach5]

Hate Ron Moore and what he did all you want, but don't claim that he is a franchise killer when he successfully revived a franchise.

Plus, I don't think he gets along all that well with Rick Berman.

Here's what he said about Braga:
(from wikipedia, article here)

"I have very hurt feelings about Brannon. What happened between he and I is just between he and I. It was a breakdown of trust. I would have quit any show where I was not allowed to participate in the process like that. I wasn’t allowed to participate in the process, and I wasn’t part of the show. I felt like I was freelancing my own show. ... I was very disappointed that my long-time friend and writing partner acted in that manner, that crossed lines to the point where I felt like I had to walk away from STAR TREK, which was something that meant a lot to me for a very long time, from my childhood right through my entire professional career."

 

[TheGodBen]

^ It's a damn shame what Braga did to Moore. Braga's first Star Trek episode was with Moore and they worked together on many great episodes of TNG, especially the finale. Then Braga went to Voyager and started writing a load of crap and Moore went to DS9 and started writing some really great episodes.

I would say that though, considering he's my favourite Trek writer. It's nice to think sometimes what Enterprise could have been had he been the person in charge. . .

Then I watch nuBSG and I'm glad he did that instead.

 

[DWF]

Hate Ron Moore and what he did all you want, but don't claim that he is a franchise killer when he successfully revived a franchise.

Plus, I don't think he gets along all that well with Rick Berman.

Here's what he said about Braga:
(from wikipedia, article here)

"I have very hurt feelings about Brannon. What happened between he and I is just between he and I. It was a breakdown of trust. I would have quit any show where I was not allowed to participate in the process like that. I wasn’t allowed to participate in the process, and I wasn’t part of the show. I felt like I was freelancing my own show. ... I was very disappointed that my long-time friend and writing partner acted in that manner, that crossed lines to the point where I felt like I had to walk away from STAR TREK, which was something that meant a lot to me for a very long time, from my childhood right through my entire professional career."

And the very next sentence says that they patched things after Voyager ended and they must've since they did the Generations commentary afterward and they were quite friendly towards each other in it.

 

[Mach5]

And the very next sentence says that they patched things after Voyager ended and they must've since they did the Generations commentary afterward and they were quite friendly towards each other in it.

Friends tend to reconcile. That's a good thing about friendship.
I quoted RDM to show just how different he is from the Beebs creatively. AFAIK, they never worked together again (and doing a commentary doesn't count as creative collaboration).

 

[DWF]

And the very next sentence says that they patched things after Voyager ended and they must've since they did the Generations commentary afterward and they were quite friendly towards each other in it.

Friends tend to reconcile. That's a good thing about friendship.
I quoted RDM to show just how different he is from the Beebs creatively. AFAIK, they never worked together again (and doing a commentary doesn't count as creative collaboration).

They never had the opportinuity to work together again.

 

[pookha]

Another franchise killer is Ronald Moore and his pet dufus, David Eick, (who, himself, killed The Bionic Woman franchise in record time), the Berman clone (clown?) and protege', but that "story" belongs in another forum entirely.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion about nuBSG, many people don't like the direction it took, but to call Ron Moore and David Eick franchise killers is incorrect. They took a franchise that had been dead for over 20 years, a franchise that few fans even wanted revived (I personally thought it was a terrible idea) and they made it into an international success. It became Sci-Fi channel's hottest property. They chose to end it after season 4, they are going to be doing several TV movies after the show is off air, and they are going to be making a spin-off series based 40 years prior to the events of the show.

Hate Ron Moore and what he did all you want, but don't claim that he is a franchise killer when he successfully revived a franchise.

Plus, I don't think he gets along all that well with Rick Berman.


On topic, Enterprise couldn't continue past season four, it was losing the network too much money. I know they had offers from Sci-Fi and the like, but they wanted to keep complete control of the franchise so they could bring it back at some point. I wanted a pause for a few years after Voyager but they decided to keep going, and I wanted Enterprise to stay on air for seven seasons, but it was the right financial decision to make.

actually an executive at turner contradicted that the series was losing money especially when things like future earnings was taking into account.

 

[TheGodBen]

actually an executive at turner contradicted that the series was losing money especially when things like future earnings was taking into account.

That's not how business works though. They were spending a lot of money on Enterprise for a small profit now and a modest profit in the future. A business cannot justify that when they could be spending less money on a show that can make a modest profit now and a sizeable profit in the future.

 

[trekkerguy]

I would say that though, considering he's my favourite Trek writer. It's nice to think sometimes what Enterprise could have been had he been the person in charge. . .

Or Manny Coto. I enjoyed all of ENT, but the part he was in charge of was the best of it.

Then I watch nuBSG and I'm glad he did that instead.

Agreed.

 

[DWF]

actually an executive at turner contradicted that the series was losing money especially when things like future earnings was taking into account.

That's not how business works though. They were spending a lot of money on Enterprise for a small profit now and a modest profit in the future. A business cannot justify that when they could be spending less money on a show that can make a modest profit now and a sizeable profit in the future.

That's one reason why they cut Enterprise's budget, but the ratings fell even futher in the fourth season so it didn't make much of a difference.