TrekWeb.com - UPN Chief Moonves Says May Be Time for TREK "Break", Bakula Not Ready for End

UPN Chief Moonves Says May Be Time for TREK "Break", Bakula Not Ready for End

By Steve Krutzler / 07:03, 19 January 2005 / Enterprise

Speaking at UPN and CBS's winter press tour this week in West Hollywood, UPN chief Leslie Moonves signaled a cool opinion on the chances for STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE's renewal. In quotes published by Sci-Fi Wire, Moonves says no decision has been made but shelving the series is definitely on the table.

"The ratings aren't great," he says. "It may be a franchise that should be rested a year or two. I know the diehards are not in favor of that, but I think if we rested a year or two, it might be a better thing. But we'll see what happens the rest of the year."

When pressed on what kind of expectations the show, which has improved UPN's Friday night ratings significantly, should be meeting, Moonves declined to predict.

"I think the show this year has been much better [creatively] than last year. I like the changes that have been made. ... [As for the ratings,] when you're dealing with UPN, you're dealing with different expectation levels."

Star Scott Bakula was quick to deny rumors that he wants out of the four-year old series. The actor said he isn't ready for the show to end.

"I'll be disappointed if we wrap up this year," Bakula said in a separate interview with the site. "I'd hate to see it end this year... We're waiting to hear. It's a funny place to be in. I love the crew. I love the cast. The work situation has been tremendous. We're doing creative work, still, I think. And I know we have a lot of fans out there. So... as a television gig would go, it's a great, wonderful gig."

Bakula says UPN is under no obligation to facilitate the writing of a final episode by giving early warning of cancellation, but that he believes they may.

"The indication was [and] has been often that this would be our last season. But then... we were told we were going to get an early indication of that so we could wrap the show up in a nice way. And here we are, it's the end of January, and I know that they've broken stories through the 21st [episode]."

Last year, the show wasn't renewed until well after production had wrapped. In a separate interview available at Now Playing, Bakula says he's in for the long haul.

"We heard some crazy thing the other day about that," he says of rumors he wanted out after this season. "That's totally unfounded and [I'm] here for the duration.

You can read much more from Bakula and Moonves in the original Sci-Fi Wire and Now Playing articles.

	More Top Stories	Comments
Nov 24	Cover and Info for Star Trek Movie Adaptation Comic Book	3
Nov 24	Scott Bakula on Why He Played the Role of Captain Archer in Enterprise	10
Nov 24	Leonard Nimoy Talks About Star Trek XII and (Not) Watching New Movie with Shatner	0
Nov 23	J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine Talk How Gratifying That Star Trek was Well Received, Working with Leonard Nimoy and Star Trek XII	4
Nov 23	Chuck returns to NBC with a special two-hour show on Sunday, Jan 10, 2010, before returning to its regular time slot, Mondays at 8pm on the following night. It's return to prime time television can be attributed to a successful fan renewnal campaign last year. CHUCK is a one-hour, action-comedy series that follows Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. This upcoming season will include some special guest stars, including Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" who will play CIA agent Daniel Shaw in an episode, and the addition of SUBWAY restaurant as a major advertiser to the show. Chuck averaged a 4.0/6 rating last season, about eight percent better than the recently cancelled "Trauma". Ratings-challenged Heroes moves back an hour when Chuck returns on Monday nights. STAR TREK VOYAGER's Robert Duncan McNeill serves Chuck as a supervising producer and director.	0
	Story Archives...Browse:

ENTERPRISE Mission Schedule \| Logs by Season: 1 2 3 4
Episode Number	Title	Airdate

27 comments Post New | Help

RE: Early Warning | Report this post to moderator
By: Sennik (Odo's file, contact) @ 15:18:23 on Jan 19, 2005

You bring up an excellent point. WB, in looking at their decision to cancel Angel in it's 5th season (and one of my favorite ones), saw that "Oops, we made a mistake in cancelling that show." They actually tried to get the whole cast back for either TV movies, or continuing the series. Most of the cast had moved on to bigger things, and no one seemed all that interested in coming back. One of my favorite series was cancelled because WB gave them an early warning to wrap up the series in a cool way. However, if they had waited until May, I'd probably be watching Angel season 6 right now.

While Enterprise has been better this season, I'm not sure it's at the same level as Angel was. The 2-part Nazi thing sucked. Home was an average episode. I liked the 3-part Augments arc, but that was probably because I liked seeing Brent Spiner again, and part 2 of the arc was stellar. The 3-part Vulcan arc was ok, but dragged on in parts and was obviously just done as a clean-up of continuity to bring the Vulcans to where we know them to be. And the stand alone Daedelus episode was good from a character level. Unfortunately, Enterprise hasn't had many character episodes, and those episodes build on each other. You have a spattering of character episodes in the season, and each season you get to know the characters better. Look to Buffy's 7 season run, or Angel's 5 season run, or Babylon 5's 5 season run, and they all have strong well defined characters by the end. I mean there's no reason Hoshi, Mayweather, and Reed should be ancilliary characters. Was Spike, or Anya (from Buffy) characters used as back ups? No. They had clearly defined personalities. If the Star Trek writers had been there, Anya would only have a few lines here and there because she would never have been developed as a character. An ensemble show should actually include the whole ensemble.

I would, if I was a UPN suit, wait out a little longer and see how Enterprise does this season with Coto in control. No early warnings because then it's over. Keep your options open. Maybe Manny has some good character ideas in the pipe, and maybe the ratings will improve, and cancelling it would be a mistake, a la Angel and the WB. If by May, it's still the same old show with the same old ratings, bring the axe down, send everyone packing, and shelve Star Trek for a few years.

When you do bring Star Trek back from that, DO NOT have Berman and Braga return. Hand full control to Manny Coto, and bring in some writers with a series or two under their belts (hint at maybe some Buffy and Angel writers might be looking for something to do).

Quote

Parent

Top

RE: Early Warning | Report this post to moderator By: Sennik (Odo's file, contact) @ 15:18:23 on Jan 19, 2005

RE: Early Warning | Report this post to moderator
By: Sennik (Odo's file, contact) @ 15:18:23 on Jan 19, 2005