Star Trekkin'

Just thought I'd pass on something from this week's TV Guide:

NOT OUT OF THIS WORLD:
As Enterprise Hits Ratings Turbulence, UPN Seeks Ways to Fire Up Its Sex Appeal

A scant season ago, the latest Star Trek series, starring Scott Bakula, was a Top 20 show with 18- to 49-year-old male viewers. But Enterprise's ratings have plunged, and critics say the series doesn't have the same creative juice as its predecessors. "Enterprise started out strong," says Stacey Lynn Koerner, senior vice president and director of broadcast research at Initiative Media, a media-buying firm. "But this season it seems lost in space." UPN president Dawn Ostroff says that the Enterprise crew is ready to explore new directions and that trailers for the series shown in theaters in conjunction with the release of the move "Star Trek Nemesis" should recharge interest. "We've been working on the show," Ostroff says. "It's getting sexier. We're exploring relationships more and pushing the dramatic elements of the show. You'll see a lot more sides to the characters."

Sigh. Guys, guys, guys... This desperate desire to make the show "sexy" is, in my humble opinion, a large part of the problem. I know I've said this before, but it's coming across lately as though the writers are trying to force the series into certain directions not because its what's right for the show or what works for the characters, but because they're trying to fit some notion of what those all-important 18- to 49-year-old males want. This is not a good thing. And, truly, if that last epsiode ("Vanishing Point," or whatever it was called) is an example of what they mean by exploring dramatic elements and showing more sides to the characters, please, please, just give me the Random Evil Alien of the Week instead.

On a more positive note, TV Guide also had several articles on Star Trek: Nemesis, which looks pretty cool. (They also have some related stuff on-line here.) I am a bit annoyed, however, at how many plot points they reveal, including some very major hints about the ending. And I was doing such a good job at avoiding spoilers for this movie so far...