But there's no way in hell CBS would ever produce a TV movie using funds from fan donations. That would not make sense on all sorts of levels. That's why I never understood the point of the Save Enterprise campaign.
Yeah, the economics of the whole thing was (and would have been) weird. I recall the campaign (didn't donate) and wondered if anyone would do an accounting on it. At barest minimum, that had to happen. With Kickstarter and the like now, there are some safeguards built in, but there weren't then. Plus CBS, etc. would never have accepted that. It was essentially charity from fans. To have taken it would have caused shareholder panic. The whole thing was economics and not creativity-based. It does trouble me that the show was cancelled at 98 episodes, though. My understanding is that 100 is a kind of magic number for syndication. I realize the show was expensive to produce, but they were only 2 away - a pair of bottle shows could have pushed them to 100 and (presumably) greater syndication profits. That's what I was always unclear on, that the economics were all over the place. They'd claim the show was too expensive to produce, but then they couldn't take fan $$. They'd cry poor mouth and then not do bottle shows or not do enough of them, or create a new species (Xindi - don't get me wrong, I love the Xindi) with expensive sets, costumes, and makeup, yet deny the canon era-appropriate war with the Romulans (an invisible enemy has got to be cheaper to show). There were likely places where footage could have been reused, etc. Consider how TOS worked things out in their third season. This show was intended as a prequel to TOS, so why not use some of the money-saving techniques of that series?
Um. You know that 100 episodes is not literally magic, right? That syndication deals are made between corporations, not between pixies and other wee fae folk? 100 episodes is a ``magic'' number because that's enough episodes that you can run them daily, or even twice a day, without the audience feeling too often that it's seeing the same episode every time they tune in. It's a guideline. The only thing that 98 episodes can't do that 100 episodes can is to have a ``100th Episode Special'' clip show.
I am well aware that it's not pixies. I was just unaware of why 100 in particular was a preferred amount. Now I know. Thank you.
Our customers are giving us free money - NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! To be fair, they were foreshadowing the Romulan war in the season 4 Andorian arc (and at the end of the Vulcan arc).
That's not the way CBS would see it. It would make it look like CBS needs to rely on their own viewers' charity to produce a show. There's no way in a million years they'd ever make themselves look like that.
So... are we done bashing TATV this round? Time to put this thread out of its misery? Until the next new fan collides with that waste of an hour and needs to sound off, anyway.
Agreed! I became aware of the novels early 2014 and binge-read them all to that point and have kept reading as they're released. I really enjoyed Christopher Bennett's latest in the series "Uncertain Logic".
I binge read also! And Bennett is probably my fave of the authors. A lot more detail goes into the books than can possibly go into a t.v show. Nearly everything in the books makes logical sense enough to me, that I take them as "canon". Well, I know they really AREN'T canon, but in MY head they are!
I like to think of them as canon as well, even though they obviously aren't, because one of my favorite characters isn't killed off in TATV and more stories can be developed with his character
And the way that the "death" is explained is logical to me. And, yea, they could go on and develop stories with THAT character, as well as the characters connected to him. If only there were a season 5, they could have used that explanation to continue the series for another year or more.
When Trip is being slidden into the medical chamber Phlox and Archer exchange a look. You can see in Phlox's eyes that they are engaging in subterfuge and he's expecting it to work.
I totally buy into that! I wish they had any of the actors come forward to admit that they "played" the scene that way. But, so far, no one has come forth to claim that was their intent....