Manny Coto, new co-executive producer of Star Trek: Enterprise, might just be the ticket to saving the slumping series.
“I’m a fan of the original ‘Star Trek,’ and Season 4 for me is going to be everything I, as an old Star Trek fan, would want to see on ‘Enterprise,’ which is basically a lot of touchstones connecting ‘Enterprise’ with the old series and with the ‘Next Generation’ series,”
Now that statement is something that will bring up conflicting emotions for any of us old-time Star Trek TOS (The Original Series, for the unwashed among you) fans. One the one hand, it’s exactly what we want to hear from a producer of the show… but on the other, haven’t we heard it all before?
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Ah, but the difference this time is that it’s not Rick Berman exhaling these words, but Manny Coto, who has been responsible for a number of well-done episodes this past season. For some strange reason, despite the fact that show has obviously not been very good overall (to any discerning Trek fan that doesn’t accept everything Trek as manna from Heaven), I keep giving it a pass. Now I do watch it, hoping every week that it will be good… but I realize that stacked up against something like Stargate SG-1 it completely bites.
Coto wants to do some cool stuff: Bring back more of the classic aliens from TOS (remember green-skinned Orion dancer girl?), delve further into the Vulcan background and explain how they got from where they are in Enterprise (a bit more emotional than we’re used to) to where they are in TOS and TNG.
Manny, you want to do me and the fans a favor? Make us CARE about the characters. Within 3 episodes of first tuning in to SG-1, I felt like I knew the characters well, I felt the chemistry between them, and I cared what happened to them. On Enterprise, I still don’t have some of their names straight after watching every week for 3 years, because in my mind they are disposable. You could put the security guy and the navigator/pilot out an air lock and I wouldn’t miss them for 5 seconds.
I hope you can do what you say you will: bridge the gap between Enterprise, TOS, and TNG.
I wish you the best of luck, bud, and I’ll be pulling for you.
Source: Sci Fi Wire
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4 Comments
Oh, did you just diss Travis? I like that guy; he’s one of the more enjoyable characters on Enterprise. It’s a mixed bag to return to TOS territory, first because TOS only lasted three years, and second because it’s primarily remembered for its campiness. But I must admit, if I had to choose between all the different flavors, I would take TOS every time. There’s just something about how all the characters interacted with each other that’s endearing.
Let’s hope this latest move isn’t a day late and a dollar short.
Brian
Ah, you youngster you…. TOS is most definitely not remembered for it’s campiness. At the time it was a groundbreaking TV series. Introducing faster than light speed, a starship unlike anything seen before (with no rocket engines), transporters, and cool aliens. Remember what the competition went with?:
Lost in Space.
Now THAT is remembered for it’s campiness, at least from the second season on, when the people in charge decided to have it compete with Batman.
Vic
The main thing I remember about TOS is that…it really and truly took us where no one had been before, and had a real sense of wonder about it.
It just seems that, rather than be original, ENTERPRISE is banking on old continuity, rather than building a future.
It’s watchable, but just barely - I’m having a wait-and-see attitude.