Ranger REG said:
That's what those network "suits" want, which is why FOX cancelled good shows like Firefly and John Doe. They want instant rating hits like ABC got for Desperate Housewives and Lost.
While genre shows are becoming more mainstream, they are not mainstream audience's major attraction. Network "suits" should know that. It takes a while to build up a fanbase, as long as the show's production keep cranking interesting stories week after week (and not the craps that Berman & Braga expelled from their brownholes).
I just don't agree with the assumption that Star Trek couldn't win that instant audience the brand managers want. I'm pushing for the reboot because it would have certain gimme elements:
1. Like it or hate it, people would watch to see what was done with it - just like every Star Trek series since TOS.
2. No reintroducing the characters. Whether or not you think that Kirk walks on water or not, I'm fairly certain that everyone but the very youngest viewers out there would instantly know what to expect. Character development, something that's pretty hit or miss in Trek, could be the focus.
3. Continuity. Unlike Enterprise, where B&B recklessly screwed with just about every canon element of Trek they could scrape their paws on, a reboot would essentially "fix" this. Especially if the writers took advantage of the possibilities in "knowing how the story ends", which could allow Trek to use some storytelling techniques that very few shows every get the opportunity to use effectively.
4. The time is ripe. It's a mythos reeling under mismanagement, if Universal leaves the brand as it is now who's to say what shape the thing is going to be in the next time they want to sink a few million dollars on a Trek movie gamble. Enterprise ticked enough fans off that if you'd
ever manage a reboot it would just about have to be now.
5. Kirk must fly again. Like Superman or Hamlet, it would be a terrible shame if the role were never reprised. Unlike Enterprise, which seemed like they were toying with the audience sometimes with reprising elements of TOS (in a bad way), a reboot could revel in the flat out certainty that comes from shamelessly copying.
6. Old actors, different roles. Speaking of reveling in copying, the episodes of Smallville with Christopher Reeve in them before his death were interesting and much better done than seeing the aging Frakes try to be Riker again. Seeing Brent Spinner
not being Data was nice in Enterprise. I think giving every old Star Fleet veteran a chance to visit as completely different characters is a neat idea. If Frakes wants to be the new Kirk's chef and show up every twentieth episode giving advice on the Romulan Cloaking Device....
Anyways, a Trek that's not on the screen isn't garnering new Trek fans. Since the old Trek fans are getting...old this is a bad thing. How you can support your massive Trek-related sales each year with everyone getting older and each Trek show getting steadily smaller in audience and worse and worse I can't imagine. Why not go back to what worked in the first place? Of course I also think that UPN should take the claws off the brand a little and see if they couldn't argue/fund/beg/sell the whole idea to one of the larger networks. Being able to compete with Alias would be great, but coming on right after Alias or Lost on the same channel would be golden. Film it somewhere cheap, and run the animations from non-union sweatshops in Bollywood or something.
If anyone is associated with Universal: I'm willing to move, and I'd write the first two episodes for room & board
