XPost: alt.startrek, alt.tv.star-trek, alt.tv.star-trek.enterprise
From: spam@wonderful.spam
Preface:
Now, I don't want to start a flame war here or anything. And please
don't flame me. Hopefully - and yes I know it's a stretch - there can
be some intelligent dialog here. After all, we're Trek fans, not
reality show fans!
I've been a fan of Star Trek since the Original Series since I was -
to use Scotty's slang - "a wee lad." I grew up on it, went through the
years of not having new episodes on TV, hope for the movies, etc. And
I also realize that being a fan doesn't mean you're disloyal if you
don't like something about the subject. Heck, none of like *every*
episode in all the series'. Saying this, I ran across this person's
view the other day, and want to post it here....
Ron moore posted this on his Blog on February 4th. Now, don't go all
psycho with the whole "Battlestar vs Trek" thing. Just read it with an
open mind, and remember... someday Trek will be back. It's not dead.
Ron makes some good points.....
"Trek goes back to the Fans
Now that Enterprise has been cancelled, we're about to enter a period
not seen since the orignal series ended its run just a few weeks
before Apollo 11 landed on the moon: a time without a Star Trek film
or TV project on the horizon. From the reaction I've seen thus far,
the consensus view seems to be that this is merely a pause in the
trek, and that before too long, we'll be talking about the newest take
on Roddenberry's universe, be it television, feature, animation or
sock puppet. I tend to agree, insofar as I know first hand that Viacom
considers "the Franchise" to be one of their crown jewels and I've
personally heard them refer to the "next fifty years of Star Trek" as
a corporate priority.
So Star Trek isn't dead and it isn't dying. It has, however, entered
into an interregnum, a pause in the treadmill of overlapping
productions that have become the norm for the series that was once
considered "too cerebral for television."
Certainly there is sadness in this news. There has been a Star Trek
production either in prep or being filmed on Stages 8 & 9 on the
Paramount lot since 1977, when Star Trek: Phase Two began initial
construction for a second series featuring all the original characters
but Spock (these sets were then revamped for Star Trek: The Motion
Picture). An entire infrastructure has been built around the
productions, staffed by people whose involvement in the Franchise goes
back over two decades. The dedication, passion, and talent of these
artisans and craftsmen cannot be overstated. The unsung heroes of
Trek, the people who sweat every detail, who take the time to think
through continuity and try to make the vast universe consistent,
people like Mike and Denise Okuda, Dave Rossi, Michael Westmore,
Herman Zimmerman, Bob Blackman, and many others, are about to leave
and take with them an enormous body of knowledge and talent that
cannot be and will not be replicated again. That is cause for both
tears and eulogies as the close of Enterprise signals the true end of
an era.
However, there is another side of this story, one that perhaps is
somewhat more hopeful and positive: Star Trek has now been returned to
the care of its community of fans.
I say returned because there was a time when the fans were the
exclusive owners and operators of what would later become the
Franchise. From 1969 until 1979, a genuine grassroots movement of fans
gathered together in conventions, published newsletters (in the
primordial ooze of the pre-internet era, no less), wrote scads of fan
fiction, created their own props and uniforms, and dreamed the dream
of what it was to live aboard the good ship Enterprise.
I was one of those fans; I was a kid growing up in the 1970's who
found Star Trek in strip syndication and bought every book and
magazine I could lay my hands on and every piece of fan merchandise I
could con my parents into buying and I can tell you that some of those
efforts were abysmal and some were brilliant, but all of them were
driven by a sense of passion rooted in a belief that Trek was our
secret club. We, the fans, embroidered the Trek tapestry while the
powers that be at Paramount dawdled. In those years, the best stories
told not those written by Gene or any other "professional writers" (no
offense to the short-lived, but well intentioned animated series), but
by people like Sondra Marshak, Myrna Culbreath, and Jacqueline
Lichtenberg. Who are they? Fans. People who loved Star Trek and were
able to breath life into it during the interregnum between the show
and the Franchise.
Star Trek now returns to the care of its fans and its fans can decide
for themselves what kind of experience they want to have during this
next interregnum. They can consume the seemingly endless licensed
products available to them from the Franchise, everything from barware
to shower curtains, and read only the mainstream, officially licensed
and sanctioned books, or they can go their own way. Some of the most
daring and creatively challenging Star Trek material has been created
not by Paramount, but by amateurs, who simply had an idea for an
interesting twist on the Trek universe. Think Kirk and Spock were
secret lovers? Wonder about the social and cultural history of the
planet Vulcan? Believe the Mirror Universe is more fascinating than
our own? All these topics and many others were, and are, tackled by
fans in their own fiction, their own stories, their own dreams.
Step back from the merchandising. Rediscover the joy and wonder of the
universe Roddenberry created. Talk to people who share your common
interest and who understand the difference between phaser mark I and
mark II (duh!). You don't need another series to enjoy Star Trek. You
need only your own imagination and the desire to boldly go where no
man has gone before."
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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