Text 635, 110 rader
Skriven 2005-02-05 02:36:00 av Kevin Karmann (1:278/230)
Ärende: ENTERPRISE canceled!
============================



----- Original Message -----
From: "David A. Berkowitz" <dberkow@wowway.com>
> We're talking about different kinds of ground.  I was thinking more of
> production values, story format and background and things like
> that.

Hmm... production values for Trek have always -- from the '60's to the '80's
to the present -- have pretty much been state of the art, I think.
Certainly, the SFX, sets, etc. have always been top-notch.  Heck, in
comparison to pretty much any other series out there, the CGI alone is
closer to movie theater level than television.  Of course, these things are
the very reason Rick Berman points to as being unlikely to allow Trek run in
syndication or cable.  Interestingly, someone on TrekWeb suggested that fans
create a fan effort to raise the money necessary to produce a season of
Trek.  The most surprising thing is that -- provided it could be organized,
which would be highly unlikely -- the idea is workable.  The rumored price
of an ENTERPRISE episode is $1.6 million.  With 22 episodes, that comes to
$35.2 million per season.  A big chunk of change, true, but when divided
among 3 million viewers... it comes to $11.74 per person.

It is true that, for the most part, Trek has kept mostly to conventions of
writing and directing developed... well, a long time ago.  While DS9 -- and
more recently ENTERPRISE -- have delved into the serialization pool a bit
more than previous Treks, they remain far away from anything approaching a
FARSCAPE, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, or B5 approach.  Then again, as rerun
syndication has taken poorly to many of those serialized series, television
in general has slid somewhat back into stand alone episodes (i.e. CSI, LAW &
ORDER, et al).   On the other hand, this season has seen a lot of success
for much more serialized series -- you can't get much more inter-connected
than LOST, 24, or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, all of which have been doing very
well.

> Thematically, TOS reflected the climate of the 60s, TNG reflected
> the climate of the 80s.  And since then, we've had a steady stream of Trek
> production that reflects those values - specifically, the values of the
> production team (though maybe it's that team's vision of how GWR would
> interpret modern day Trek.)

Hmm... one of the things that Berman and company have always said they've
been trying to do with post-TNG Trek was to make it more accessible to new
viewers.  Hence, they plopped Voyager into a "new universe" in the Delta
Quadrent.  Of course, the greatest problem there was they initially (and,
although they did try, never really got over it) never really accepted the
other issues involved in the idea, like the necessity to leave the Kazon
behind or the hardships of survival.  (By capitalizing on these very things,
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA may be the first truly successful series of the "lost
in space" variety.)   With ENTERPRISE, they were trying to go back to the
beginning, so people felt like they were coming into something that didn't
require hundreds of hours of continuity to understand -- to the point that
they dropped such trappings as the "Star Trek" name and the traditional
instrumental theme.

In both cases, they saw no real success, of course, but that doesn't mean
they were wrong.  Granted, this forum isn't necessarily representative --
all of us pretty much came here from the old days of BBSing, which would
make us part of an earlier era of Trek fan by default (those who came in
with TOS or TNG).   Still, I've done a lot reading on the Usenet and the
web... and it appears to me that holds true almost everywhere.  Oh, I've
seen maybe two people say they came into Trek via the later series (one for
DS9, one for VOYAGER, I think), but not much beyond that.  And, over time, I
think the differences among these newer Treks -- DS9 and VOYAGER
particularly, as you couldn't find two more different series under the same
umbrella -- have done a lot to divide the pre-existing fan base.

So the question becomes... how to draw new viewers (who might find 700 hours
of pre-existing material daunting) while uniting the old ones?  I've been
doing some thought on this and there seems to be a limited number ways to go
about it.

An attempt to try to repeat the success of TNG could work -- taking Trek
farther into the future aboard, say, the Enterprise-H or something, keeping
most of the trappings but abandoning many of the specifics on a weekly basis
(aliens on the ship, to be sure, but no Vulcans, Betazoids, Bajorans, etc.)
at first, so they can be slowly re-introduced later.

As much as I hate to say it, though, the best answer may be to "reboot" the
Trek universe by creating a whole new TOS with a new cast and an updated
approach, much like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.  On the one hand, as a long
standing fan, that would seem to be abandoning all those years of continuity
(given that, unlike the new viewers, I *have* watched the 700 hours of
Trek... many of them,  multiple times...).   If nothing else, it probably
would makes James Dixon's head spin.  :-)

But I was thinking... what if, early on, it was made very clear that this is
a completely different universe, just similar to that of the Trek we know?
The concept of parallel universes certainly has a major place in the Trek
universe -- not only do we have all the "Mirror" episodes, but also "The
Alternate Factor" from TOS and "Parallels" from TNG -- and the technology
used to create "Trials and Tribble-lations" could certainly be worked into
some kind of parallel universe episode.  The "original" Trek universe would
certainly continue in novels and such -- maybe even in TV films or movies,
if desired, but the "new" version would be far more of a ground floor
idea...  I don't know if I'm completely sold on the idea, but if it would
make a Trek series popular again -- and give the writers a boost with pretty
much infinite ways to approach this new universe (after all, there's no
guarentee the "rules" would be same as in the Trek universe we know), who am
I to argue?

Kevin




---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2á˙* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 2/5/05 2:36:13 AM
 * Origin: MoonDog BBS, Brooklyn,NY, 718 692-2498, 1:278/230 (1:278/230)