Interesting Enterprise Finale Rumor

[Crothian]

Well, considering she serves one pupose on the show and that is eye candy, I never held her opinions with any credit. Yes, she has complained about the show and with luck if the series continues she will get replaced.

 

[takyris]

Crothian, no argument about the fact that she was eye candy, but she was eye candy who was a Star Trek fan growing up. If you're a girl who grew up loving Star Trek and whose favorite character was Mr. Spock, and then you find out that you're gonna be playing a Vulcan on a Star Trek show, I don't imagine that "Gosh, I hope they make me eye candy" is your first reaction. And if you turn out to be eye candy because of the part that is written for you, well, that's likely to bum you out, no?

Regardless of your opinion of her, it's hard to argue with her statement that the show premiered with 11 million viewers and managed to lose 9 million of them. I was one of the 9 -- and at least in my case, it wasn't because of scheduling problems or poor advertising on UPN's part. It was, well, the fact that the show failed to entertain me.

 

[Raloc]

Well, is it just me or has Jolene Blalock been basically trashing the show from nearly the get-go? I got the impression a while back that she had a pretty low opinion of the show, and saw it as a barely-tolerable source of income.

Then again, I lost my cable a few years back, so I haven't been able to see Enterprise since the first season. :/

I believe she's said that she doesn't like how poorly UPN marketed the show, and some of the earlier writing. She's stated many times that the show is anything but, "a barely tolerable source of income." It's more like she doesn't like the way that some people (UPN and Braga basically) are screwing with the show.

Edit, I also believe she meant, "apalling" in the sense of what it does to the story, not quality of the writing

 

[mojo1701]

I believe she's said that she doesn't like how poorly UPN marketed the show, and some of the earlier writing. She's stated many times that the show is anything but, "a barely tolerable source of income." It's more like she doesn't like the way that some people (UPN and Braga basically) are screwing with the show.

Edit, I also believe she meant, "apalling" in the sense of what it does to the story, not quality of the writing

That's one of the reasons why I like her. She's the one that's vocal about what should be fixed with the show. Also, because she was a fan of the original series (esp. Spock, from what I read).

From IMDB's ENTERPRISE trivia page:

T'Pol's eyebrows change appearance between the second and third seasons, becoming more arched and Vulcan-like. In a 2004 interview with Femme Fatales magazine, Jolene Blalock revealed that she and her makeup artist unilaterally decided to sneak a change in T'Pol's eyebrows amongst the character's pre-third season hairstyle and costume alterations, and no one from the production office complained.

Also, there was an argument between her and the producers about her eating popcorn during the showing of a movie in one episode. She complained that, in an earlier episode, she wouldn't eat food with her hands (the breadstick), but she was to eat popcorn in this episode. The producers overruled her, so she asked if she could at least eat with a napkin. I don't remember the result, since I don't remember the episode, but...

 

[Raloc]

Yeah, that's one reason I like her too. She's been completely vocal about the things she thinks people have done poorly.

I saw the episode you mention a few days ago, though I don't recall if she was eating with a napkin or not. In fact, I believe she wasn't eating popcorn at all. I seem to remember Phlox was though.

Good news, it seems Brannon Braga is out of the picture in terms of a 5th season. I think Manny Coto is taking his place (which is AWESOME, considering that Manny is a huge fan of ST and responsible for turning the writing of the 3rd and 4th seasons around).

 

[Crothian]

Crothian, no argument about the fact that she was eye candy, but she was eye candy who was a Star Trek fan growing up. If you're a girl who grew up loving Star Trek and whose favorite character was Mr. Spock, and then you find out that you're gonna be playing a Vulcan on a Star Trek show, I don't imagine that "Gosh, I hope they make me eye candy" is your first reaction. And if you turn out to be eye candy because of the part that is written for you, well, that's likely to bum you out, no?

Regardless of your opinion of her, it's hard to argue with her statement that the show premiered with 11 million viewers and managed to lose 9 million of them. I was one of the 9 -- and at least in my case, it wasn't because of scheduling problems or poor advertising on UPN's part. It was, well, the fact that the show failed to entertain me.

Pretty much everyone on a trek show has said they were fans of the show, so her saying it was just a good PR. And all shows lose fans from the premier to through the seasons unless they happen to be a huge hit like Friends or Sienfiled.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

And I don't think that Friends and Seinfeld had huge ratings until after a season or two..... But then, I used to watch Friends but quit after about the 3rd or 4th season..... I've watched more Seinfeld than Friends over the years.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Pretty much everyone on a trek show has said they were fans of the show, so her saying it was just a good PR. And all shows lose fans from the premier to through the seasons unless they happen to be a huge hit like Friends or Sienfiled.

This is true, but not in the staggering numbers that Enterprise lost viewers. They're lucky it was on UPN, it's probably the only reason it made it through a whole season, let alone three. Well, I'm sure Paramount owning both properties helped too. Any sane network executive, and most of the insane ones as well, would have dropped the show because it was leaking viewers so badly.

 

[takyris]

Pretty much everyone on a trek show has said they were fans of the show, so her saying it was just a good PR. And all shows lose fans from the premier to through the seasons unless they happen to be a huge hit like Friends or Sienfiled.

For the first point, I don't disagree with you, but what I vaguely remember from her statements made it sound more sincere than the usual "Uh, yeah, I love the idea of Star Trek, always liked the show, you know, so many good ideas..." stuff. I'm not saying that there's no possible way she could just be faking it, but the stuff that was wrong with the show leads me to side with her against the producers. I don't recall Jeri Ryan, for example, striking me as much of a sincere fan before joining Voyager.

For the second point, 11 million to 2 million is pretty impressive, as drops go.

 

[Raloc]

I believe it's 3million. As far as UPN is concerned, I think the show would have done *much* better on SpikeTV. Also, had Manny Coto been aboard from the beginning, things might have been different. There is a noticeable difference in quality of the plots from season 2 to 3 (and 4).

I too got the impression that Jolene was more sincere than the random, "Uh yeah, I'm a fan. Sure." I believe she was at the rally in Los Angeles, as was Eugene Roddenberry and some others. I believe most of them support TU.

I hope UPN goes down, hard. They show nothing but crap, excluding Enterprise. Also, you have to remember that not many people even know of the show, since UPN didn't barely advertise it, and moved it around so much. Similar to what happened with Futurama. The network claims bad ratings, then goes and moves the show around so much that no one can keep up.