Coto: Trying To Save Star Trek: Enterprise

[Drone]

Yes it was.

For what I understand, the "internet" thing and trek on TV really got it's start with Voyager.

It was full fledged by the time Enterprise came around. A huge headache for the series.

Uh, no. When I first got hooked up to the internet in 1993, Trek was one of the major generators of discusson, fan fic, artwork, etc. Back in the early days of AOL, their Trek forum was one of the busiest if not the busiest on their network. Most of the talk back then was of TNG and TOS and the movies, of course. The defacto "mod" in that forum was a guy who called himself DATA1701D. That guy was interviewed on a T.V. news program about Trek on the internet.

Fan fic was practically invented by Trek fans long before Voy came along. Voy was simply the beneficiary (as it were) of what AOL and Usenet started, (as were DS9 and Ent) and the addition of more PC's and Macs connecting to the 'net.

And speaking of Usenet, that serrvice had a thriving Trek presence even bigger and older than AOL and the rest of the WWW. There were newsgroups dedicated to all aspects of Trek from who knows how long ago -- probably the '80's. Those were the original internet discussion forums.

To the o/p, yeah, 'net buzz was humming in Ent's last season. As for what was going on here; you have no idea, bro.

Riker, Troi, and Shat (had he been on the show) were never anything more than ratings stunts calculated to grab as high a share for TaTV as possible (and it did). And I agree with the o/p that Shat's presence would have further obscured the NX-01 crew's farewell.

Mea culpa, displaying my isolative ignorance of the reality of the times here!!! My thought was to point to the less pervasive, encompassing scope of online generated awareness, to the society at large, of popular media buzz 8 or 9 years ago. To the slight degree that that perception even has much credence is irrelevant anyway, as publicity concerning anything relating to Enterprise wasn't likely to make much of an impression on more than the very outer periphery of the prevailing zeitgeist.

Now taking much time and effort in removing foot from mouth!!!!

 

[Daddy Todd]

Back in the early days of AOL, their Trek forum was one of the busiest if not the busiest on their network. Most of the talk back then was of TNG and TOS and the movies, of course. The defacto "mod" in that forum was a guy who called himself DATA1701D. That guy was interviewed on a T.V. news program about Trek on the internet.

Didn't DATA1701D grow up to be Trek novelist Dayton Ward? That's how I remember it.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Riker, Troi, and Shat (had he been on the show) were never anything more than ratings stunts calculated to grab as high a share for TaTV as possible (and it did). And I agree with the o/p that Shat's presence would have further obscured the NX-01 crew's farewell.

Short answer: "But it's ... it's Bill Shatner!" (paraphrasing Dax)

Long answer: Shatner probably would overshadow the rest of the cast, but the potential rewards would be huge if the audience perceived the interaction between Shatner and the crew was genuine. Of the five times a TOS regular appeared on one of the spinoffs, only one agruably fell flat: Flashback, the one that was most structurally alike TATV.

It's difficult to overestimate Trek's debt to Jonathan Frakes (or his sideburns), but his star power was as big as other actors (especially with the audience outside fandom). Spiner, who has a much higher profile than Frakes, drove the episodes he appeared in, but arguably didn't outshine the cast the way Frakes actually did. (And as I argue repeatedly, a lot of that simple reflects the narrative structure: the gimmick that Braga used to bring the characters together.)

Having Shatner (or Nimoy or even Stewart) could have created a sense of a special connection between ENT's characters and and a beloved hero. And if anything, the finale should created the sense that the NX-01's crew contributed to a great saga, Valentine or not.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Shatner would have been too old and fat to do Kirk. And I say this as someone who adores Shatner.

Voice over, sure.

Frakes seems to be a nice man but Riker is a crud bucket. I would have forgiven any Shat, ANY SHAT AT ALL. Because, Kirk. But poor Frakes had to portray a sleazy turd and so ruined TATV, though other things also ruined it like you know the whole concept.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

^Oh, overshadow physically, not dramatically!

 

[gblews]

Back in the early days of AOL, their Trek forum was one of the busiest if not the busiest on their network. Most of the talk back then was of TNG and TOS and the movies, of course. The defacto "mod" in that forum was a guy who called himself DATA1701D. That guy was interviewed on a T.V. news program about Trek on the internet.

Didn't DATA1701D grow up to be Trek novelist Dayton Ward? That's how I remember it.

Really? Is that confirmed? If so, I was unaware. Interesting.