Why do they still let Braga do TV shows?

[DarthTom]

The viewer fragmentation has meant that even the most popular show today gets 60% of the viewers it got 20 years ago. There are just only so many viewers and tv hours to go around. Maybe the average ratings of broadcast shows would have been a better measure, but those numbers weren't as easy to find. The fact remains all shows get lower ratings today than they did 20 years ago, and Star Trek is no different.

I don't know how you can blame ST Enterprises FREE FALL in ratings by season two on audience fragmentation? It was bad writing and as Dennis says people got bored with the franchise.

BTW, The Walking Dead by comparison eclipses Enterprise which was on a quasi national network whereas WD is on pay cable and AMC at that.

 

[xortex]

Berman's milking of the cow kept all the production values remaining the same if not slightly worse and frustratingly so which didn't help for a show that could have and should have taken risks. The dark sets and his surefooted greedy slick and subtle vision wasn't cutting the mustard.

Braga is certainly not entertaining or light hearted. Trek needs gravitas but it also needs to breath and that wasn't being allowed. It was a depressing show and I hear a depressing atmosphere to work in too.

 

[DarthTom]

Berman's milking of the cow kept all the production values remaining the same if not slightly worse and frustratingly so which didn't help for a show that could have and should have taken risks. The dark sets and his surefooted greedy slick and subtle vision wasn't cutting the mustard.

He also lost touch with the fan base. I dunno know how either Berman or Braga would actually believe that These Are the Voyages would be an homage and as they said at the time, "valentine," to the fans?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Berman's milking of the cow kept all the production values remaining the same if not slightly worse

Enterprise's production values were as high or higher than any in Trek's TV history.

I don't know how you can blame ST Enterprises FREE FALL in ratings by season two on audience fragmentation?

Your partial chart ignores the context of Enterprise's ratings decline.

It's a pretty predictable curve - if Enterprise was in "free-fall," then you have to say that the whole Franchise was from about 1994 on.

 

[Sindatur]

Berman's milking of the cow kept all the production values remaining the same if not slightly worse and frustratingly so which didn't help for a show that could have and should have taken risks. The dark sets and his surefooted greedy slick and subtle vision wasn't cutting the mustard.

He also lost touch with the fan base. I dunno know how either Berman or Braga would actually believe that These Are the Voyages would be an homage and as they said at the time, "valentine," to the fans?

Seriously? You prefer for your choclates to be filled in, in the center with candy goodness? You honestly don't like them hollowed out with thumbtacks and sour milk in the place of the center goodness? Damn, if only they would've known, imagine what TATV could've been

 

[xortex]

So somebody likes their Star Trek devoid of music with depressing sets. Right..

Rick Berman. Why is it always someone named Rick?

 

[DarthTom]

Enterprise[/I] was in "free-fall," then you have to say that the whole Franchise was from about 1994 on.

Thanks for the context. It's interesting that DS9 did better in syndication whereas Voyager and Enterprise on UPN struggled to find a voice.

And yes, I'm a DS9 - slut/whore/love child - even moreso than my fan boy love of Wars.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

DS9's ratings collapsed along the same curve as the later series - an almost steady drop, week after week, for seven years. It started with higher ratings, but fell just as far percentage-wise and just as fast.

What's remarkable about Trek's decline when you graph it is that the curve was so unvarying that you could really have plotted the graph out ahead for months if not years.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Recent history lesson.

Stargate Universe wasn't doing well.

They just needed a couple weeks hiatus to get their shit together.

They played some TNG as a space holder.

Star Trek the Next Generation's ratings made Stargate Universe look like a punk.

 

[DarthTom]

DS9's ratings collapsed along the same curve as the later series - an almost steady drop, week after week, for seven years. It started with higher ratings, but fell just as far percentage-wise and just as fast.

What's remarkable about Trek's decline when you graph it is that the curve was so unvarying that you could really have plotted the graph out ahead for months if not years.

So do you attribute Trek's decline to 'series fatigue,' as you suggested earlier, the poor decisions by Berman and Braga as the OP asserts or as mentioned up thread fragmentation within the viewing audience with more choices? Or perhaps all of the above?

The commercial success of Falling Skies seems to suggest that there is still an audience for sci-fi but just not 'space opera.'

Also perhaps apcopolypse drama as seen in both Falling Skies as well as the Walking Dead also may suggest that space drama, at least right now, isn't viable.


TV By the Number

Falling Skies scored more than 6.9 million viewers in its first season and ranks as basic cable’s #1 new series for the year-to-date. The series also finished summer as basic cable’s #1 drama among key adult demos. In addition to Spielberg, Falling Skies is executive-produced by DreamWorks Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. Remi Aubuchon and Greg Beeman also serve as executive producers.

 

[xortex]

I remember the creatives from the new Twilight zone saying the same thing about being always frustrated by guys like Berman steering the ship into the reefs. The power hungry middle men made it impossible to control artistically. Braga may have been the so called show runner but he was far from in control as evidenced by him having to fight just to get an ear piece for Hoshi. GR was used to such fights but that was before the sophisticated fix was in and the studio had it all wrapped up. Power is intoxicating, even more so than money or fame, which is saying something. This is why people like Ellison is such a fiesty fighter for his vision, but so was GR. Trek doesn't have a creator anymore so it is very hard to reimagine without it getting blunted into submission by some mediocre studio wet blanket middle man executive who lights his cigars with twenty dollar bills.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

"Studio interference ruined Trek" is a boring, vacuous argument.

 

[doubleohfive]

Why do they still let Braga do TV shows?

Why shouldn't they?

 

[xortex]

Because he can be boring and vacuous? especially when he's in charge or doing something he doesn't really believe in or not worthy of success.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The commercial success of Falling Skies seems to suggest that there is still an audience for sci-fi but just not 'space opera.'

Or just that cable is a friendlier environment to any sort of niche programming.

Remember, Falling Skies and Terra Nova were both getting around the same audience size - 6M or so. One is a bit hit for TNT, the other is cancellation bait on FOX. And then there's runaway hit The Walking Dead - 7M, which is insane numbers for AMC.

There's no one "right" or "wrong" approach or audience size. It's all relative to where the show lives. As for the budget, I'm no more impressed by Terra Nova's dinos than Falling Skies skitters & critters, so I hope the former wasn't a lot pricier than the latter, or FOX was not getting their money's worth, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

I can envision space opera surviving just fine on cable somewhere, getting at 6M or so level, even less on premium cable. You probably want to steer clear of "childish" elements like blue and green aliens, and overly pat stories, stuff that just doesn't mesh with cable audience's expectations.

A space opera version of Game of Thrones, with complicated political and personal stories set amidst galaxy-spanning empires, with lots of sex and violence, could work. So, what we're looking for is basically, Dune. (Or another space opera book series with that kind of notoriety and following, I'm sure there are several.)

Another possible template is to keep it close and personal instead of grandiose and epic - revive Lost in Space, or that kind of story, with a small group built around a family unit attempting to survive on a cruel world filled with nasty critters...that's basically The Walking Dead in space.

Unfortunately, none of this sounds very much like Star Trek. Taking a risk on space opera is a tall enough order, so most likely it will use inspiration from other sf/f shows that have been successful. Genre shows as a whole are doing pretty well, they just don't involve outer space.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ An Iain M Banks adaptation perhaps?