If it had been delayed, where would it have aired? UPN was gone w/n a few years, and the CW does shows for young females, and that doesn't include space opera, certainly not Star Trek's quasi-military style of space opera. Delaying it one year just gives it one year less to live.
ENT's problems would not have been solved by delay, unless that delay meant that a new creative team would have been brought in, with more interesting ideas than dusting off old VOY scripts.
But creative deficiencies were only part of the problem, and not the biggest part, either. The biggest problem was the proliferation of competing entertainment options that have driven network audience levels down, down, down, to the point where it's difficult for any show to survive, much less one with the budget requirements of space opera. That problem has only gotten worse over time.
ENT's problem was that it debuted too late, not too soon. If it debuted now, it would need to be on cable, and would need to be strikingly different. Different in what way is impossible to say, since what would work on TNT, AMC, FX, HBO/Showtime or (shudder) Syfy are all different things.
Whether and in what form space opera can survive is an open question, even on cable. There are no successful examples right now, other than The Cartoon Network, where The Clone Wars and Green Lantern work because cartoons are less expensive than live action.
ENT's problems would not have been solved by delay, unless that delay meant that a new creative team would have been brought in, with more interesting ideas than dusting off old VOY scripts.
But creative deficiencies were only part of the problem, and not the biggest part, either. The biggest problem was the proliferation of competing entertainment options that have driven network audience levels down, down, down, to the point where it's difficult for any show to survive, much less one with the budget requirements of space opera. That problem has only gotten worse over time.
ENT's problem was that it debuted too late, not too soon. If it debuted now, it would need to be on cable, and would need to be strikingly different. Different in what way is impossible to say, since what would work on TNT, AMC, FX, HBO/Showtime or (shudder) Syfy are all different things.
Whether and in what form space opera can survive is an open question, even on cable. There are no successful examples right now, other than The Cartoon Network, where The Clone Wars and Green Lantern work because cartoons are less expensive than live action.
