UPN cancels Star Trek: Enterprise

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Cruddy
Hooray!

It was PANTS...

You had someting better to watch on BBC2 on a tuesday? I bet you're loving 'Ready, Steady. Cook'

[Starchild]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Personally I think that DS-9 was the best of the Star Trek series. It had the best plot line and the best characters. Particularily unique for the Star Trek genre was the fact that the "bad guys" were named individuals: Dukat, Kai Gwynn, Wayune the Horta, and the Founder he served. They appeared frequently enough that they were able to develop characters instead of being virtually nameless space monsters.

Here's a trekkie question for you: If you were going to have one person devote his or her life to you like you were a god who would it be: the unflinching toady Wayune or the relentlessly ruthless Kai Wynne?

Vorta. Weyun is a Vorta. Hortas are silicon based life that live underground.

As for the question, though I do love toadies, I like my followers with a touch of steel in them. I'd let Kai Wynn bow down any day.

[Ming]

SciFi shows on broadcast TV will continue to struggle for many reasons. And Enterprise was no exception.

First, there is a limited audience. Even if the show is a hit, they still can't generate the large audience numbers like an ER or even a Survivor can.

Second, we are all spoiled by the special effects available to us in movies, and TV shows just don't have the budget to keep it up episode after episode. While a full length feature film can spend millions for a two to three hour epic, to do so for an hour (48 minutes) each week is just cost prohibative.

A good example of this was Fox's Firefly. While it was considered a good show by many, it was too expensive to produce for the limited audience numbers it generated. However, they feel it will be viable in Movie format. Only time will tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if they produce more than one movie, because the economic model for movies is different than TV.

Third, UPN is one of the lesser networks, and can't use cross promotion as effectively as the major networks.

The SciFi channel gets away with it by spreading the cost out more. Each original program they have is broadcast multiple times, providing larger potential audiences and more advertising dollars. In addition, they usually negotiate for the rebroadcast rights (like they did for Andromada) so that they can fill in their schedule with reruns.

The networks have repeatedly tried to launch SciFi shows, and have failed miserably. It's actually a surprise that Enterprise lasted as long as it did. It was losing money from the start, and the only reason they kept trying to make it work was because it was their flagship product to launch the network in the first place.

It will take a real good SciFi show to make it on the networks. And just from reading this thread, it's tough to please everybody.

[General Ludd]

Which is why all the good shows inevitbly get canceled while all the crap shows stay on.

[Tattila the Hun]

Crap makes money.

I was under the impression, that ENT was UPN's highest rated series...
Even after they moved it to one of the "deathbed" timeslots, it gained ratings. Then again, the rest of UPN is "pro" wrestling and "reality"...
Seasons 1 and 2 were fine, watchable, but 3 and 4 really got me glued to the tv set... Welll, monitor.

And I'm gonna miss T'Pol.

[Ming]

Highest rated on UPN doesn't mean a lot

And it still comes down to money. It was an expensive show to keep on the air. Especially when with each passing year, the cost of talent increases as well. At first, only Scott Bakula could demand the big bucks. The rest were no names... now they aren't

While the numbers were good at first for a UPN show(but declined over the years) they were never what had been expected. It should have been cancelled after last season.

[chequita guevara]

Historically, it has taken Paramount two years for each series of Star Trek to come into its own and start producing quality scripts. Last season wasn't great, but it was okay. This season is turning out to be really good, which kinda makes me made that I stopped watching it at the beginning of the season and only picked up again in January.

Another part of the problem is they thumbed their noses at their fan base, almost deliberately insulting them. This coulda been a great series, but they didn't want it to be, it seems.

[DinoDoc]

I was hoping we'd get to see the Earth-Romulan war before it left.

[chequita guevara]

Earth would lose. They only have two war ships.

[DinoDoc]

What were all those ships they sent against the Xindi as they approached Earth?

[chequita guevara]

I didn't recall seeing any ships. I do remember them saying the other starship wasn't finished, and that's why Enterprise had to go into the Expanse.

[optimus2861]

Originally posted by Kamrat X
In all fairness, Enterprise has the best first season of any of the ST series. DS 9 is a close runner-up.

Well, TNG and VOY's first seasons both stunk (but then all of VOY stunk IMO) so they're no competition. But ENT-1 better than TOS-1 or DS9-1? Not from my seat. I couldn't even get through all of ENT-1 before giving up on the show outright -- it put me to sleep something like three weeks in a row ("Rogue Planet" was the last straw). TOS-1 is simply superb ("Where No Man Has Gone Before", "Balance of Terror", "Tomorrow is Yesterday" "Space Seed", "A Taste of Armageddon", "The Devil in the Dark", "Errand of Mercy", and last but not least "The City on the Edge of Forever") , and DS9-1 was a solid start to that series, though DS9 really didn't get a full head of steam until season three.

ENT got two more seasons than it deserved. Hopefully we've seen the last of Rick Berman/Brannon Braga-style Star Trek, abomination that it is.

[child of Thor]

Star Wars is better. although the vulcan chick in Enterprise........well her thing with Captain quantum leap was fun
We had the first two series on non-sky/cable tv here a year or so ago. I liked it as it sort of reminded me of the origonal series, fist fight diplomacy etc.

[Garth Vader]

If this had been the first or second season of Enterprise and there never had been any "temporal cold war/xindi/alien Nazi" crap I would be disappointed. Now I am only going to miss nitpicking the show.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I didn't recall seeing any ships. I do remember them saying the other starship wasn't finished, and that's why Enterprise had to go into the Expanse.

Ya but didn't they spend months in there.

Plus while Enterprise may be their flagship, they could possibly have all sorts of smaller or lesser ships. heck they could have a few ships not capable of long range space travel butwhich could be available for planet defense.

I'm just thinking that something like the Xindi attack would focus earth on the need for ships and fast.

I'm thinking a little here of the naval efforts of the allies in WW2. While some major warships were involved, a lot of the construction went into tiny corvettes, PT boat, minesweepers and in providing merchantmen with some capabilities.

So I am assuming earth would step up their "battlecruiser" construction but that would still be the work of years. That does not mean that they would not have a substantial fleet with some armaments in short order.