Star Trek: Enterprise

I got this from the New York Times website...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/26/opinion/26tue4.html

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An End to the Enterprise

By the middle of May, the "Star Trek" franchise will be no more, having died a death as long and lingering as -- well, insert your favorite Trekkie long-and-lingering-death simile here. UPN has decided to bring "Star Trek: Enterprise" - the latest version of the saga - to an end and to give the whole idea of "Star Trek" a creative rest. The producers of the show have rejected a hopeless last-ditch effort to raise funds directly from fans to continue production.

The original "Star Trek" series proved what a little imagination, a little patience and a lot of plywood and foam core could do for televised science fiction. It ran for only three seasons on NBC in the late 1960's but attracted a devoted following that seems, somehow, to have replicated itself by cloning. It also inspired four additional series, 10 "Star Trek" movies and a delightful parody called "Galaxy Quest," starring Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, which flirted momentarily with the nihilistic possibility that a television show about space might merely be a television show about space.

For "Star Trek" fans, a future with no "Star Trek" at all must seem as empty as one of those great space voids the ever-endangered starship Enterprise kept getting sucked into. But somewhere, a TV executive is undoubtedly repeating the slogan about going where no one has gone before - and wondering how to make that idea about direct fan-financing work.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

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I'm not really a Trekkie. I just like Star Trek: Enterprise because the plot is really amazing: How mankind would possibly face the first steps in making our existence known to the universe. ST:Enterprise is different from the other Star Trek series, or with, at least, ST: The Next Generation, most episodes of which I've seen already. This is because you can feel the mankind's struggle in every episode, based on how the characters deal with the issues involving travelling REALLY AWAY from home. And if you get stuck with the 4 seasons of this show, you'll notice that you remember the episodes not because the characters are cute, but because you remember the essence of the story. (Then you'll want to see how humanity does in the next couple of centuries- thus wanting you to buy DVDs of other series as well- The Next Generation, Voyager, the original series, Deep Space Nine... do you see a new Trekkie being born here? teeheehee...)

How would mankind react when attacked for the first time by alien species? What would a starship captain do in a situation wherein he should choose to save between one member, or the rest of his crewmates? What would someone do if offered with knowledge never seen by man, in exchange from never going home again? what would possibly be mankind's role in the unification of planets? what are mankind's benefits in a given situation, against those of Vulcans, whose logic outweighs emotions? Aside from the joy of seeing starships traveling in warp speeds, these questions would really tickle your minds to think: What if?

I'd say cancelling Enterprise is very bad idea. There are just a few TV shows that depicts the ability of mankind to dream the not so near future, with a very intellectual, oftentimes philosophical approach. And these TV shows are being cancelled and put to extinction in exchange for mostly reality TV, which doesn't really makes sense to me at all. Is this because shows that make us dream, hope and think doesn't sell anymore? Have we lost our drive to dream?