OK here we are a year and a half into Enterprise - and he finally admits what I, and a LOT of net denizens had been barking about well before Voyager had finished:
Berman: 'Enterprise' May Have Come Too Soon
"Star Trek producer Rick Berman recently admitted Enterprise may have premiered before the audience was ready for it.
"Perhaps we weren't careful enough in giving the audience some breathing room � a year or two they could have lain fallow," Berman told Time Magazine. The magazine drew attention to Enterprise's diminished ratings as part of a feature article exploring the entire Star Trek journey."
The rest of the article is at Trektoday - the also have a cool article - that I've only read the first part to, interviewing Ron Jones who did the scores for memorable episodes like Heart of Glory and BOBW 1 and 2. He was fired for trying to 'add' to the scores.
Well, this issue does kind of deserve its own topic.
I myself have argued since I first started joining internet discussions in the fall of 1999 that Trek needed to rest for a while. I even wrote an article in November 1999 that was intended to be part of my website's "soapbox" (an idea that I never really developed but still remains).
Before anyone here who reads that commentary starts throwing jokes, I wrote that essay three whole years ago when I was still a wide-eyed fanboy, relatively new to the Internet and just starting to learn about some of its subtleties. Also, over time I've gotten a bit more cynical. And I guess it's a perverse irony that "Enterprise" arguably fills the four major criteria that put forth for the then-undetermined new series.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Oh my god, he's admitted that they might have made a mistake! Damn him and his children!
MM's article:
quote:The basic plot of the series should be laid out in advance. J. Michael Straczynski did this with "Babylon 5," although I don't think that the show should be plotted out so meticulously. A basic idea of what the series as a whole is about and where it is going should definitely be considered.
Y'know, I liked Babylon 5, I really did. But it is not a show to be copied if you're trying to find commercial success. Rathings wise, it was fairly awful.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Sorry, I meant to put this on too.
quote: OK here we are a year and a half into Enterprise - and he finally admits what I, and a LOT of net denizens had been barking about well before Voyager had finished:
A lot of net denizens also think that the new series should have had the Defiant fleet with the type XXXXIIII phazors and I can't even be arsed doing the fake 733t speek anymore, so tired I am of it. But the point remains. A lot of net denizens are idiots, and should never, ever be listened to. Ever.
Posted by E. Cartman (Member # 256) on :
Words to live by.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Just net denizens? Also, only awful ratings-wise?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"Before anyone here who reads that commentary starts throwing jokes..."
And since you've stated your disclaimer, now we can start making jokes?
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by TSN:
"Before anyone here who reads that commentary starts throwing jokes..."
And since you've stated your disclaimer, now we can start making jokes?
Sure, go ahead.
I just wanted to point out that it was an old article, and I've gotten a little... well, I'd like to think "wiser," but as Liam pointed out, there are a lot of idiots on the net, and I'm still just a fan with a keyboard.
quote:Y'know, I liked Babylon 5, I really did. But it is not a show to be copied if you're trying to find commercial success. Rathings wise, it was fairly awful.
Yeah, I know it really struggled ratings-wise. And I know that a lot of things are affected by the production of a show. I meant that there should be a basic idea of the overall course that the show would take, even if a lot of the details were changed.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
I didn't read the whole article in Time, but I think it's interesting that the quote suggests Berman's not accepting much blame. He's really blaming us for not being ready for (ie able to fully understand and appreciate) his excellent TV show.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Well, why shouldn't he be? Has it ever occured to you that he might actually like it? Shock, horror! Or, even that other people watching might? Crazy!
The Time Europe article was rather nonsensical anyway. DS9 was popular because its gooey spirituality appealed to female viewers? I believe the proper response to that claim is "the" and "hell?"
Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
One hopes that his admission is also a plan to ACTUALLY have a direction in the future.
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