All right, this is going to sound like I'm randomly name-dropping to make myself sound cooler, but there's a point...
Back when I was still living in L.A., working as a comic artist, I met a guy name Dave Rossi. Great guy, big comic book fan, and he loved my work. All things that really endear me to a person.
Dave worked (and still works) as an associate producer for Rick Berman, who produces Star Trek. At the time, I was doing a little screenwriting, so Dave got me invited in to pitch for ST:Voyager, which was an amazing experience, even if they didn't buy anything. When they cancelled that show, I was given a chance to pitch for the new show, which didn't have a name yet.
So I went to Paramount, sat in an office and listened to an overview of what they were planning to do with the new show. They still hadn't written a bible for the series. As I sat there, I got more and more excited. I thought it was an incredible idea. And the way they were talking about it, I saw all sorts of possibilties for cool things. A lot of the stuff they told me made it into the show, some of it didn't, but boy it all sounded cool.
I pitched a bunch of general ideas, they didn't buy them, and then I moved back to Albany, NY, mainly just to get out of L.A., it's a bad, bad place for a guy like me.
The fact that the show is now cancelled is very dissapointing. It's the only Star Trek show that really excited me since they launched ST:TNG. And besides, I still have their phone number and I was hoping someday to come up with something that they WOULD buy.
--Matthew
Back when I was still living in L.A., working as a comic artist, I met a guy name Dave Rossi. Great guy, big comic book fan, and he loved my work. All things that really endear me to a person.
Dave worked (and still works) as an associate producer for Rick Berman, who produces Star Trek. At the time, I was doing a little screenwriting, so Dave got me invited in to pitch for ST:Voyager, which was an amazing experience, even if they didn't buy anything. When they cancelled that show, I was given a chance to pitch for the new show, which didn't have a name yet.
So I went to Paramount, sat in an office and listened to an overview of what they were planning to do with the new show. They still hadn't written a bible for the series. As I sat there, I got more and more excited. I thought it was an incredible idea. And the way they were talking about it, I saw all sorts of possibilties for cool things. A lot of the stuff they told me made it into the show, some of it didn't, but boy it all sounded cool.
I pitched a bunch of general ideas, they didn't buy them, and then I moved back to Albany, NY, mainly just to get out of L.A., it's a bad, bad place for a guy like me.
The fact that the show is now cancelled is very dissapointing. It's the only Star Trek show that really excited me since they launched ST:TNG. And besides, I still have their phone number and I was hoping someday to come up with something that they WOULD buy.
--Matthew
Oh,what!? Enterprise canceled? Here in Tokyo, it's only just begun!!! 
RussM Wrote:Just saw that Star Trek: Enterprise has been canceled with the last episode middle of May. No replacement series in the works. Will be the first time in years that no new ST series is on.
Russ Madden
Sad news, I really like the show and have been following the production reports for the upcoming episodes and they look great. Finally we find out why the Klingons look different in TOS. And a Mirror Universe 2 parter that ties into the Tholian Web. At least we'll go out on some high notes.
Well, It explains quite a lot really, especially in view of the fact that the first four series are starting to be released on DVD in the UK and USA from May 2004......Pisses me off, as I really liked this series.............I think some hasty re-writes will be in order to establish the Federation's establishment for continuity before it goes off the air !!!! Laters, Kevin
Kev The Brit Wrote:Well, It explains quite a lot really, especially in view of the fact that the first four series are starting to be released on DVD in the UK and USA from May 2004......Pisses me off, as I really liked this series.............I think some hasty re-writes will be in order to establish the Federation's establishment for continuity before it goes off the air !!!! Laters, Kevin
That should have read May 2005 - DOH !!!!!
Kev The Brit Wrote:That should have read May 2005 - DOH !!!!!
I caught it few times, and didn't really like it. I think Warren Ellis sums up my feelings about the show here:
And so another Star Trek show descends into
TV Hell. I met someone last year who'd been
brought in to pitch a new Trek show: but, more
than half a year down the line, I haven't heard
anything else. So my suspicion is that Star
Trek is gone from our screens for a comfortingly
long time.
And, with the final Star Wars film on the way,
it seems that by the end of the year the culture
will feel peculiarly cleansed. As if the shackles
were released from us in our cultural basement,
and we can finally take from our mouths the
shattered antique underpants used as gags and
wash old men's semen out of our bum crevices.
Seriously, let's not hear from Star Trek (or Star Wars) for a while. Let's get some people in who can do space opera in a new way, with new ideas.
johntfs Wrote:Seriously, let's not hear from Star Trek (or Star Wars) for a while. Let's get some people in who can do space opera in a new way, with new ideas.
I have to agree with that. We've been living in the shadow of Star Wars and Star Trek for a good long while now. The time has come for a new look at the Genre, and all I have to say is one word -- FIREFLY. It's a raving fanboy kind of thing to say, but I really think that the show was the freshest, most interesting take on the whole concept. Halfway through the pilot episode, I'd pretty much forgotten that I was watching Science Fiction, I was just really sucked in to the story and characters. Hopefully the upcoming movie will live up to the same standards. All early reports suggest that it does.
--Matthew
Matthew Smith Wrote:I have to agree with that. We've been living in the shadow of Star Wars and Star Trek for a good long while now. The time has come for a new look at the Genre, and all I have to say is one word -- FIREFLY. It's a raving fanboy kind of thing to say, but I really think that the show was the freshest, most interesting take on the whole concept. Halfway through the pilot episode, I'd pretty much forgotten that I was watching Science Fiction, I was just really sucked in to the story and characters. Hopefully the upcoming movie will live up to the same standards. All early reports suggest that it does.
--Matthew
For me the best science fiction (hell, best show) on TV is Battlestar Galactica. Excellent writing, pace, direction and acting. Edward James Olmos is amazing in this thing. Plus, the show is smart enough to bring up the "sci-fi" elements only when doing so won't hurt the drama. People curse by saying "frak" instead of "f--k." They drink ambrosia. Their money is measured in "cubits" and many normally square/rectangular items (like books or photos) are octogonal in shape. Their religion is also, apparently, at least quasi-polytheistic in nature.
However, the emotional payloads that need Earth-familiarity are not sacrificed on the altar of "Sci-fi" conventions. The Cylons didn't use "mass drivers" or "Death Beams" to destroy humanity's population. They used nuclear weapons, complete with mushroom clouds and radiation poisoning. The President isn't sick with "Zarban's Syndrome" or "Venusion Brain Fever." She's got inoperable breast cancer and her doctor recommended radiation treatments and chemotherapy (with nasty side effects) to try to deal with it. And first (and so far, best) episode of the series so far, the Cylons weren't unrelentingly attacking every 33 "centons" or 33 "bleems." They were attacking every 33 minutes. Which lets you imagine what it would be like to endure that, without sleep, for over a week.