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Fan Enthusiasm Seeks to Curb Cancellation Worries With Second Hollywood Reporter Ad

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By Steve Krutzler / 07:24, 6 February 2004 / Enterprise

Fans of STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE have rallied to save the show that officially isn't in jeopardy yet. It's no surprise when a popular series is cancelled after 13 episodes and an Internet petition immdiately crops up to champion its survival. In fact, it's a phenomenon that STAR TREK fans helped solidify with their historic letter-writing campaign to NBC in the late-1960s, winning a third season for the original STAR TREK series.

The lack of a major ratings turnaround and silence on the part of UPN network execs has fomented speculation in recent weeks that the newest STAR TREK series might make history of another kind and become the first since the original to go out early. UPN even reduced its order for the series from 26 episodes to 24 this season, confirming that the struggling network is pinching pennies. Recent rumors have ranged from cancellation at the end of this season, to the firing of producer Rick Berman, to the bittersweet theory of a final fourth year crafted only to improve a potential syndication deal.

One group of fans isn't waiting for the axe to fall, however. The ENTERPRISE Project collected donations last fall to run a full-page ad in the entertainment trade paper Hollywood Reporter, demonstrating support for the show. According to a new press release from the group, they've done it again. A second advocacy ad proclaiming fan support for ENTERPRISE will run in the February 24th edition of the paper.

"The campaign's purpose was to publish a collective letter to [UPN chiefs] Dawn Ostroff and Les Moonves, verifying that millions of fans consistently watch and highly value ENTERPRISE and look forward with anticipation to a fourth season and a long, successful run," writes group representative Anita Balestino in a release announcing the success.

"In only 16 days, Enterprise fans from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe contributed enough funds to publish the letter on a full page in the Hollywood Reporter. They hope the publicized message to UPN's top executives will confirm the fact that audiences for ENTERPRISE are much larger than the current flawed ratings system reflects."

Tuesday's edition of the HR charges $3,385.00 for a full-page ad and the group says it has raised $3,664.80. Extra money will be donated to the The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in the names of Jerry Fleck and Kellie Waymire, ENTERPRISE's assistant director and guest actress who both passed away in 2003.

The ad, which is directed specifically to Ostroff and Moonves, reads in part: "Now, with new arc-driven stories that often examine the troubling issues of our own time, ENTERPRISE has reinvigorated its appeal to its audience, recaptured the praise of media critics and is reengaging the interest of former STAR TREK fans. The show has hit its stride and is gathering momentum to fulfill its enormous potential and emerge as a bona fide classic series."

You can learn more about the ENTERPRISE Project efforts here.



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RE: The Wrong Endeavor | Report this post to moderator
By: c.p. (Odo's file, contact) @ 17:39:50 on Feb 06, 2004

Based on what's been said in the posts here, I think those who want the show gone and those who want to save it are both motivated by the same thing: their love for Star Trek. The latter wants to hang on to any reincarnation, overlooking its weaknesses, appreciative of the fact that there is any Star Trek on the air at all, especially in a wasteland of less deserving shows. But the former would rather have less Star Trek as long as it's good Star Trek, than more Star Trek that's mediocre, because it cheapens the Star Trek mythos as a whole. I have to count myself with them, though I probably wouldn't say it with as much venum as some have. I save that for the Greed that milked this franchise—its writers, its producers, its fans, and it's good name—to the point where it can only produce a watery version of its past greatness.

The Grand Old Lady doesn't need "a rescuer waiting in the wings", she needs a well deserved nap.

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Maybe you just don't get it... | Report this post to moderator
By: Spockjaw (Odo's file, contact) @ 12:54:25 on Feb 07, 2004

Canceling Enterprise IS moving on to something better. If there is no Trek after that, so be it. We will still be in much better shape.

And as far as, "at this point nothing would satisfy the most rabid Trek 'purists.' Of that I'm convinced," how about good writing and acting? Not to mention music that isn't so watered down, dreary, and dull.

ENT is most definitely NOT worth the effort at this point.

And yes, I do find reality shows more than awful, and a sign of the dumbing-down of society as a whole, but it sure as hell doesn't make up fo the way ENT is attempting to dumb-down the Trek audience. Just because people are making those shows popular, it doesn't mean Trek has to take some 'new' approach, ruining what ST is by emulating the other crap on tv.

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RE: The Wrong Endeavor | Report this post to moderator
By: Xenoclone (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 15:47:20 on Feb 06, 2004

^Well, put!

--------

"Unless we learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] we will die together as fools." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

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