In the stroke of a pen on a contract, the network could go from being hated and despised as "the network that canceled 'Farscape'" to being loved and venerated as "the network which saved Star Trek." So, set your fingers on crossed.
The Sci-Fi Channel apparently is seriously interested in picking up "Star Trek: Enterprise," which UPN canceled this month after just four seasons.This news is no mere idle Internet rumor.
"Enterprise" cast member Dominic Keating called up to Trek exec Rick Berman's office last Wednesday to ask about the deal, according to M.J. Rogers, founder of The Enterprise Project.
A deal to bring "Enterprise" to the Sci-Fi Channel is far from a done deal, but neither is it just a long shot, either. It depends on complex, byzantine corporate politics within the various subsidiaries within parent company Viacom, Rogers told fans this last weekend at the Farpoint science-fiction convention just outside Baltimore.
While honcho Les Moonves and the suits at UPN are less-than-enthusiastic, the folks at Paramount Studios are eager to keep "Enterprise" alive. It was Moonves who decided to give the show the ax.
While I'm not always a huge fan of "save our show" campaigns, in this case, this one has better-than-average of helping the cause because Rogers said that Sci-Fi wants to see a lot of fan support to counter all the bitching UPN has done about low ratings for "Enterprise." That fan support may be what Sci-Fi Channel suits need to see to give the deal a green light.
To that end, The Enterprise Project is planning a massive "Save Star Trek Day" on President's Day, Feb. 21.
The Enterprise Project and Save Enterprise groups are taking out a full-page ad that day in The Los Angeles Times in support of the series. In addition, the groups are planning to storm New York City that day.
Activities begin at 8 a.m. at the "CBS Early Show." Not only is CBS also owned by Viacom, but Moonves' wife, Julie Chen, is one of the co-hosts of the morning show. Fans will be standing outside the studio windows with banners that say, among other things, "More Trek. Less Moonves."
Fans will move on at noon to Viacom headquarters to protest the cancellation, and finally, wrap up at 3 p.m. at the offices of the Sci-Fi Channel to persuade that network to move forward with a deal.
More information on getting involved is available online at:
www.enterpriseproject.org.
It would be best if the Sci-Fi Channel acts to save "Enterprise" before the end of March, Rogers told me.
Actors are still under contract through that month, the sets will be intact, and anything the producers write in to wrap things up as a "series finale" can be redone to more easily allow a fifth season to go forward.
After March, cast members may be off at other jobs, the sets will be struck, and it will be harder to change a series finale, she said.
Picking up "Enterprise" would be the ultimate "win-win" scenario for the Sci-Fi Channel.
The Trek series would be the ultimate next step for the network, which recently has been regrowing its stable of original series after pruning it back a few years ago by canceling "Farscape," "The Invisible Man," and others.
More than that, although it didn't quite turn out that way, the Sci-Fi Channel originally was set-up as a home for all things Trek. Although it was only able up until now of scoring rights to classic Trek, years ago Sci-Fi Channel executives had hoped to rerun episodes of all the other Trek series, as well.
That being the case, becoming the first-run home to "Enterprise" would be especially sweet.
EDITOR'S NOTE: SyFy Portal has not been able to corroborate this report of Sci-Fi Channel's interest in continuing with original episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise." So please treat this information as you would any other rumor.A former entertainment journalist, Scott Nance is a member of the USS Chesapeake, an independent science-fiction and Star Trek club in the Washington, D.C., area. He is a columnist for SyFy Portal, and can be reached at
scottnance@syfyportal.com.
