master_q 0 Posted May 21, 2003 Scott Bakula Talks . . . Warning: Spoilers (From TVGuide) As UPN's Enterprise wraps Season Two — the finale airs tonight at 8 pm/ET — the Star Trek prequel takes a bold new direction. Alien freaks called the Xindi zap Earth, Vulcan vixen T'Pol gets emotional, and best of all, Trekkers have the solace of knowing the fun isn't over, it's just beginning. Here, TV Guide Online opens hailing frequencies to debrief Capt. Archer himself! Um, that just means we rang actor Scott Bakula on his cell phone.TV Guide Online: Were you ever really worried Season Three wouldn't happen? Bakula: I don't think you can count on anything in my business anymore. Witness Becker and other [recently cancelled shows] like that. It's good to hear officially that you're going to be back, and we're excited about it. TVGO: With T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) exploring her emotions more, are she and Archer going to hook up? Haven't they already made love — or am I having a senior moment? Bakula: (Laughs) No, you're not having a senior moment. We had a little dream sequence in November. I spent the night in sick bay with Dr. Phlox, so I was loopy, and I had romantic moments with her during this nightmare. It was very cool, but bizarre. We haven't done any official hooking up. TVGO: Will you? Bakula: As far as plans for Jolene and I to get together romantically, there's been no mention of that from the writers. The only conversation has been that she's going to start experimenting with some of her emotions as she gets further away from being Vulcan. Everybody wants them kissing, so who knows, but it raises ethical and moral issues if they do. TVGO: Still, Archer can't just chase the Xindi nonstop. Doesn't the man need to, well, release his stress? Bakula: I don't disagree with you at all. I think that would be great — and it would be a shame to limit it to a crew member. If we're going to go there, I think [alien guest stars] are more in the tradition of the Star Trek franchise. I always liked the girls with go go boots and green faces that Kirk got to mess around with! TVGO: With Buffy gone, is Enterprise carrying the network? Bakula: I think we have been for the past two years. I'm just going by the [Nielsen] numbers. Because Buffy started at the WB, there was a different energy about that show, with all the turmoil surrounding it. The Star Trek franchise has always been a big part of UPN. We've held our own on Wednesdays, though we've got work to do, obviously. There's even more pressure on us now. TVGO: How do you explain the Star Trek slump? The last movie bombed, Enterprise struggles in the ratings... Bakula: The idea of Star Trek has been around for 37 years now. It's always a challenge to keep pumping life into it. It's like, are people as excited to see Terminator 3 as the last Terminator? TVGO: It must be tough carrying the whole Trek legacy on your shoulders. Bakula: I wasn't quite ready, this season, for us to be singled out the way we were in such a negative fashion. I was surprised by that. Any TV show has a second season slump where viewership is down from the initial tune-in. The reality is, we're one show on a network that's struggling and doesn't have 100 percent coverage [in TV markets] across the country. All we can do is keep trying to make great episodes. The fans that are watching us really seem to enjoy it, and at the end of the day, that's who we work for. TVGO: UPN promises the show will get more "action-packed," by the way. Bakula: It's really more a function of costs than anything, how much action you can do in an hour show. I think we get an awful lot of action in, to be honest, but we've refitted the ship with bigger weapons and cannons. It's awfully phallic. Isn't that what guns are all about? --TVGuide http://www.tvguide.com/newsgossip/insider/ Do you agree with him on the question . . . ? How do you explain the Star Trek slump? The last movie bombed, Enterprise struggles in the ratings... Master Q StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
master_q 0 Posted May 21, 2003 I’m more in the middle with agreeing and disagreeing when Scott Bakula answered the question “How do you explain the Star Trek slump? The last movie bombed, Enterprise struggles in the ratings...”. It is true that when a show or program has been on so long and has done so much as ST has it is hard to keep the ratings staying high or make them go up, having fresh ideas, and so forth. That is true. I agree with that, but the reason I think the last movie and ENT’s ratings are low is because the quality has not been that great. ST10 for example had a great concept, but I don’t think that concept was executed good or correctly. I have stated that many times. Some people that I know and from other message boards said that they read the book that’s based on this movie they said that the book was great. Even though I have not read it I would bet that is true because I really believe that the concept of the movie is good. For ENT it’s really that it does not have a true direction. Of course we are getting one now and let’s hope this “new direction” is a good one. (You can see my other post about this on this board if you like . . .) Master Q StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
