Stark Trek: the Next Crappy Show

Very interesting piece on Enterprise and why it didn't work:

When Enterprise debuted on UPN in 2001 it was with a self-assured sense of success. Sure Star Trek was in a bit of a decline after all the misfires of Voyager, but Enterprise promised to remedy all of that by taking Gene Roddenberry’s vision in a fresh direction, rewinding the clock back to where the Federation began to rediscover the spirit of adventure and exploration that used to be the hallmarks of an aging franchise now drowning in overwrought techno-babble. 

I'd like to second that last part 'drowning in overwrought techno-babble.' God that got annoying.

Now let's just hold on a second.

At one point, all that techno-babble was necessary. In the original Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry didn't care all that much about science. His crew was basically a bunch of Americans cruising around doing American things to all these god-damn foreigners who'd all be speaking German...er...Klingon if it weren't for the Federation.

TNG needed to be Star Trek, but more than that too. So they made the skipper a frog, and made the crew a bunch of techno-geeks with advanced degrees. The techno-babble and science was good, it was interesting and different.

But with Deep Space 9, which became incomprehensible, and the later horrible Voyager the techno-babble became an end unto itself, as if simply studying hard enough would revel all its secrets. Remember in Voyager when they stumbled upon a Borg warp node and figured out not only how to use but how to cripple the Borg to boot?

So with Enterprise they wanted to take Star Trek back to its roots. The ship looked like a submarine, the crew wore jump suits and baseball caps. For the first time they had a limey character. And a Texan.

I lasted about half a season.

The above linked article goes into better detail on Enterprise's failings than I can.

I hope they do another show, the franchise could use one. Oh god, not Captain Worf, please.

I have two suggestions, Star Fleet Academy (yes this would be a Star Trek 90210) or take the show and update it another 50 years or so.

Get some knew writers and set some ground rules. Everyone has to be an expert on the tech, honestly people if I could learn the ins and outs of an M-1 they can do the same. No time travel. No Borg. And absolutely no holo-deck.