Let It Go

I was reading in the Houston Chronicle about how Enterprise fans were rallying to protest the demise of the show, as all Star Trek fans have done with the cancellation of each and every series. I have three words for them:

“Let it go.”

Frankly, Enterprise, like Voyager, never got my attention. Deep Space Nine almost did. I consider Star Trek, The Next Generation as the best of the Star Trek series with the Original Series as a close second. I’ll sit down to watch episodes of either of the latter two even though I’ve seen nearly every one a dozen times. But Enterprise I only watched when I had nothing to do; and after trying to get into Voyager, I abandoned it shortly after it aired.

There is a formula to Star Trek that works. Take a multi-faceted crew; weld them together with wit, animosity, and love (yes, I said “love”); throw them into adventurous situations, and keep projecting them into the future and you’ll have a winner. Don’t get lost and don’t go into the past. (Even Lucas has barely gotten away with backfilling a storyline. The current crop of Star Wars releases is doing well largely because they are being released while the generation whose imaginations and hearts the originals captured are still alive.) I predict that the next Star Trek winner will be a crew 50 to 70 years ahead of where ST:TNG left off.

Those folks trying to keep Enterprise going are simply keeping Paramount and the Star Trek franchise distracted. Give them a rest and an opportunity to come up with the next great thing in the Star Trek line. It’s too lucrative a franchise for them to drop entirely or forever.