The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Backwards, Into the Future

Consider this a follow-up on Tuesday’s post.

I’ve only been the most casual fan and viewer of Trek series since ended. Deep Space Nine. Voyager failed to catch my attention (at least in any positive way – there was seldom a shortage of things to ridicule) with either plots or characters, and Enterprise has generally struck me as a show with conflicting impulses. They have to try to show new adventures, yet since the show’s set earlier than all of the other series not only must the tech be markedly more primitive than that seen in the other series, but the threshold for new & strange becomes trickier. Sometimes they’ll introduce alien races we’d never seen in any of the earlier (our time)/later (in terms of Trek continuity) series, and other times they’ll play out some version of first/ early contacts with various races, from the Klingons to the Andorians. The feel is a little claustrophobic, creatively. However, it can’t be written off just on those grounds since general historical fiction continues to be very popular, and many people (myself among them) are looking forward to tonight’s second season debut for HBO’s Deadwood, set in the American West of the 1870s.

Whatever the combination of factors, Enterprise apparently hasn’t been able to convert enough non-fans into fans, and I have no idea how many fans of earlier series have leapt off the train along the way. Ideally, the show should be reaching out to those who are looking forward to the high adventure of mankind’s future frontiersman period of interstellar travel. Chronologically and technologically, after all, it’s closer to our own time period than any of the other series.

"Enough" may not be an entirely fair statement, though, as it's not simply a matter of sheer numbers, but one of bang for the buck. For the past few years many "reality" shows have consistently delivered far more viewers per dollar spent on programming than shows requiring far more elaborate production elements do. In the bottom line world of the quarterly report andexplanations to shareholders, it has become more difficult to justify an hour-long weekly drama unless it can deliver high ratings.

My general impression is that the view from the outside is that it’s more hidebound than any of the other series, though, as the hardcore Trekkers insist (understandably – being a comics continuity-insistent fan myself) on it all meshing with the history as it was laid out in references made on the other Trek shows, not to mention items laid out in the various, authorized and so supposedly canonical novels.

I'd looked in on TrekUnited a day or two ago, and then again after reading a note from a fan who was mulling over making a contribution to the fund. The general fan contributions have been edging towards the $100K mark, but the relative pace (compared to the $3Million boost it took on March 1st) seems almost glacial. I'm sure there's something going on behind the scenes, but aside from the offline contribution setup established on Thursday all's been quiet.

Noting the most recent item referenced in the press, from Friday, we see that:

- UPN says their decision to cancel (the purchase and broadcast of new episodes of) Enterprise is final.
- Sci-Fi Channel expresses no interest in the show at this time.
- Spike TV reps are at least talking about possibly being interested.
- The cost of a full season is pegged at $30 million, so the fan fundraising is only just over one tenth of the way there.

The entire affair is an interesting experiment in media, if nothing else.

The virtually no strings attached offer to Paramount - simply agree to produce a fifth season of Enterprise and the money is theirs - is the most intriguing aspect of this. Paramount will probably have to make a decision soon or else there'll be a big delay in gearing things up for a new season; I'm presuming most of this season is already shot, and the people in front of and behind the cameras have to figure out where their income for the back end of 2005 and into 2006 will be coming from. Whether or not Spike expresses enough interest in the show appears to be the true key at the moment. A deal there will depend upon:

- A commitment from Spike to buy a full season from Paramount.
- Paramount giving Spike some sort of a break on the rebroadcast of the first four seasons of the show -- they're not likely to want to air season 5 unless they can lead into it with the earlier episodes, preferably all through the summer and into the fall.

In the meantime, allowing the contributions to mount not only sweetens the deal for Paramount, but allows both them and Spike to evaluate the long term fervor of the fans. All of the players will be watching two sets of numbers: The trekunited pot, and UPN's ratings for the rest of Enterprise's current season. It's all going to come down to the numbers. So, the fans should be focusing their attention on letters of interest to Spike TV and doing what they can to get people to try out Enterprise in the time remaining on UPN.

(As an aside note, I see that UPN is running a poll & contest to determine the best episodes of the series and to win a Captain Archer uniform worn by Scott Bakula, or perhaps one of 25 season 1 DVD sets. The uniform's almost a ghoulish touch, isn't it?)

One way or another, the only ones who are guaranteed to make out on this are the financial institutions/conduits, most notably PayPal. PayPal's probably rooting for the deal to fail to manifest, as then in addition to the transaction fee they take up front from the online contributions, they'll be able to take one during the return route when the remains of the doubly-depreciated contributions are returned to the donors.

For what it's worth, I continue to hope the fans get what they want. I don't expect to become a convert to the show, but then again I waved off Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel during their early seasons, too, only to later find each easily taking a place in my theoretical top 10 favorite television series of all time list. Probably easily in the top five, come to think of it, as we're talking "favorite", and not the almost inevtiably pretentious "best." Not that I have any intention of making such a list anytime soon. I generally don't do Top 10 lists.

Addition: Dwight mentioned in a later email a related, chiding and meandering piece in the Toronto Star that I've decided to link to here. Writer Rob Salem throws everything handy into the brew - I'm presuming he's paid by the word - but it at least confirms that they've shot the final episode of season 4, and possibly of the series. By this time next week the link will almost certainly be closed to all but subscribers.