[pabianice]

Hey; here's your chance. Paramount Studio reads Free Republic.

[OpusatFR]

Stop making Scott Bakula come across as Captain Janeway with a hairy chest.

It needs more testosterone. I need more testosterone!

[The Toad]

Interesting. Frankly, I think "Enterprise" is far superior to "Voyager" and has better, more diverse (personality-wise) characters. It's disappointing to hear that it isn't doing very well, but often, the first couple of seasons of a new Star Trek series are a little bland anyway.

[Semper Paratus]

The whale-toy was the beginning of the end with a touch-feely Star Trek.
Janeway et al just about croaked the franchise.
I had hopes for the new series but Archer has lapsed into Clintonian sensitivity.

Do like the Vulcan chick though.

[John H K]

What's killing the show is the lack of interaction with the traditional enemies of the first Star Trek; I think what people want to see is how the hatred and distrust between the Earth/(and later the Federation) and the Romulans and Klingons got started. Instead they give us the Suliban who are never heard from again the rest of Star Trek.

More Romulans, more Klingons. That's all that's needed. At least they busted out the Tholians recently.

[The_Victor]

1. MAKE IT OBVIOUS
2 MAKE IT MORE REAL
3 LET CAPTAIN ARCHER BE HEROIC
4 OPEN FIRE AND CLOSE THOSE PIE HOLES
5 GET US ON THE EDGE OF OUR SEATS

Quick summary: Fire the frickin' PC writers, and enfuse the show with some testosterone.

BTW, I still enjoy Enterprise.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

THe real problem with Trek (and this is from a second generation fan) is that they've gone to the well too much, too frequently.

There was approximately twenty years between the original series and the next generation. This gave the producers and writers nearly two decades of new issues, new techonologies, etc., in our society to ponder the implications of. It also gave them time to come up with new characters who were equal to the original crew.


Since then, however, they keep cranking out one series after another, sometimes with two shoes running simultaneously.

TNG, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise all aired original eps within the last ten years. That's a lot of sci fi to come up with during that time period.

ANd, of course, you also had the movies going on.

In addition to running out of plots, or because of it, the shows also infuriate long time fans by having glaring continuity holes.

To make matters worse, the edict from Roddenberry shortly before his death to make the future "politically correct" and conflict free meant that it is difficult to get a real level of drama going. We can't have the great sorts of debates we used to have between Kirk, Spock and McCoy because, now, every one has to get along. We can't ever have a really EVIL alien race because that would be politically incorrect (notice how, one after another, the Klingons, Ferengi, Romulans and now ever Borg, are getting sanitized and made into noble races).

Personally, I'd like to see a moratorium on anything Trek related for at least seven years.

[Revolting cat!]

Let me suggest market consolidation. If Star Trek Corporation bought out Star Wars Corporation (or vice versa) they could consolidate operations, trim costs, get down to their core competencies and manufacture a superior end product as Star Trek Wars Corporation!

[Centurion2000]

"What can you say?" executive producer Brannon Braga says. "We're bummed

That's because you're politically correct .... show us some images of a big honkin war against an implacable enemy with photon torpedoes going off planetside ....

People are tired of Star Trek ships being a bunch of pansies and trying to address 'social issues'

The busty vulcan chick is a step in the right direction, but they need a cowboy captain that doesn't take any crap from aliens.

[laotzu]

"HOW TO FIX TREK"

1) Give the first officer a real job. Its bad for morale to have someone hanging around, and only goes to work if the captain dies. Put him to work, or get rid of him.

2) Stop making the bridge(and its occupants) have the look and feel of a nightclub. Enough with 5-6 people lounging in comfy chairs, entertaining each other with their wit.

3) If there must be a ships sex kitten, she should be naked. Be overt, and proud about it, rather than pretending some lame "I sense danger!" job(as torpedos explode against the hull).

4) Stop sending ships, with thousands of people on-board(including whole families), into unexplored, hostile space. It makes no sense, and is insulting to the viewer.

5) Show the federation slave planet(s), from where all materials so freely used in the show come from. All this stuff has to be acquired somewhere, and they don't use money.

[CCWoody]

If you want to save "Enterprise" then quit warping the timeline. At least that will get you on the right track.

[Hodar]

Despite good reviews and generally enthusiastic fan response, Star Trek Nemesis

Huh? Sorry, but Nemesis was boring.

Gene Roddenberry created a whole paradym when he created his races. I'll use Vulcan's as an example. Imagine a world with 1 race, 1 language, 1 religon and 1 culture. This race would develop a common set of traits, in this case the goal of pure logic.

To be PC, the producers injected various races to play Vulcans; thus obliviating the entire premise that Roddenberry had set up.

The original series set the rules; a Captain that every boy dreamed of being. An advanced society set out to observe and not interfere. A crew that liked each other, and was different; yet used these differences to strengthen the team.

Now, let's contrast this to what we have lately. We have a crew that celebrates the individual, instad of the team. We have ego-centric members who overstep their rank. We have left the realm of fun fantasy; and assumed the role of using fantasy to justify the Politically Correct rules of conduct.

When I watch Star Trek, I want to be entertained, not lectured to.

[Billy_bob_bob]

I got tired of the franchise long ago. Just too much propaganda and not enough entertainment. Too much "tolerance" and not enough action, at one point the plotlines were hilarious, like "will little Worf get along with his classmates at Klingon Kindergarden". Feh.

If I were to try to develop something to save the franchise, I would take a whole different spin on the series, do something more episodic and less central to one crew. How about a "Starfleet Chronicles" show that has a different cast and crew on a different ship every week? Maybe have some overlap between crews from previous episodes? This way you could have a storyline where the ending is that all hope is lost and the ship is blown to smithereens. Subsequent episodes could show people reacting to that reality as they deal with their own perils. Not everything always gets solved. Sometimes people make heroic sacrifices and disappear forever. None of this crappy "time loop" or "cloned characters" bulls#!t that drags the whole series down to kiddy comic land.

The current paridigm has no real conflict or peril because we know the central characters will always survive and everything ends happily ever after. The first episode of a "Starfleet Chronicles" that stars a ship and crew, and then ends with said ship being blown to flinders and killing everyone on board will show that this isn't your parents Star Trek.

[Xenalyte]

Can Star Trek be saved?

I doubt it. I was a rabid Trekkie when Kirk and Spock were extant, but four spin-off series and Lord-knows-how-many movies just bled the franchise dry.

And the idea of a franchise offends me as a purist.

Frankly, I won't miss any but the first series.

[StolarStorm]

The biggest problem with Enterprise is that it is too damn liberal and slappy happy. The characters act like they are stoned most of the time.

[ArrogantBustard]

Can Star Trek Be Saved?

No. It's hopelessly politically correct.

I enjoyed the original series (when it was first run). I enjoyed some of the feature films. I never managed to get through an episode of TNG without wanting to hurl. Or hurl things at the writer, director, producer, and actors.

Too much has already been invested in bad storytelling.

Let it die.

[Bogey78O]

They need to go back and rewatch the original series.

Rodenbery's genius wasn't in his plots. It was in his scripting. It was in his characters. Most of his plots were rehashed moral plays but he kept the excitement and drive in it.

They didn't sit down the writers every week and told them to come up with a problem that the crew can solve in 30 minutes by inventing some new type of technology. And that's part of the reason why Voyager was a failure in getting new viewers. Every episode started with a new challenge that threatened the entire crew and they had no way of defeating.....excpet by inventing some new technology by the end of the show.

Also notice how the show went from FX limited to FX overload? That's what weak scripts rely on.

[discostu]

One of the things I really like about Enterprise is that episode tied to the Temporal Cold War arc (which has been pretty cool all around) aren't pre-announced, they just show up. Though the Suliban are pretty boring as an enemy, they need to either be beefed up or replaced. Threats also need to be more external to the ship, as a friend of mine who has actually written for Trek says "everybody knows they won't blow up the Enterprise", as such threats within the ship lack a certain urgency. One thing that would be good is to have the Suliban actually win a round or two in the Temporal War, the more regularly they lose the lower the threat. I really like the fact that they've broken out of the episodic model, episodes don't start and end in the same condition, when the Enterprise gets damaged it's really damaged and they really need to get it fixed. Don't lose that.

As for the movies the author couldn't be more wrong. They need to be LESS like Spock humps the whales, that was boring and stupid without the joke the movie would be insufferable. More action, more edge of your seat. They've proven in the movies that they actually WILL blow up the Enterprise, that's good. One thing for sure: less Borg. The Borg are a bad enemy because they're too good, defeating them always require deus ex machina garbage. I would say more Romulans but somehow in Nemesis they made the Romulans completely boring. Bad guys need to be cool not just destructive, if the viewer can't understand why the bad guy would do what he's doing then they lose suspension of disbelief. In order to do that they need to breath more life into the cultures of the bad guys.

[clamper1797]

1. Lose the PC social engineering Bullsh!t. Janeway/Voyager should have taught the writers that people are NOT interested in a PC soap opera in space.

2. Get some better fire power (a lot more) and don't be so DAMNED panty waisted about using it. People don't like seeing the Enterprise crew being pushed around by every space capable species.

3. Give us some REAL enemies that we REALLY have to arm up for ... Klingons and/or Romulans would work well.

[clamper1797]

1. Lose the PC social engineering Bullsh!t. Janeway/Voyager should have taught the writers that people are NOT interested in a PC soap opera in space.

2. Get some better fire power (a lot more) and don't be so DAMNED panty waisted about using it. People don't like seeing the Enterprise crew being pushed around by every space capable species.

3. Give us some REAL enemies that we REALLY have to arm up for ... Klingons and/or Romulans would work well.

[Texas_Jarhead]

"OPEN FIRE AND CLOSE THOSE PIE HOLES"

Right! and get off your damn social soapbox with all the liberal blathering