Redheaded step children

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Robert and I acquired the Firefly series on DVD and spent most of Memorial Day weekend watching all the episodes. We love it! I can honestly say I still like BSG better but I am looking forward to watching the Firefly series in July on the SciFi channel and catching the movie in September.

There is a lot to like about this series. It’s basically a western set in a science fiction future. The sets are believable, the characters are well cultivated (are you listening George?), and the relationship development is relevant. You can tell the actors really enjoyed making this show. The final episode is wild. If you get the DVD set, be sure to watch the last episode with the commentary. It will make much more sense. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone(ALEX!),but they did pull out quite a bit of strangeness and humor for the last episode. The whole series is chalked full of humor. But, not the kind where you need to have a physics degree or know why Bones would tell Spock he really has gone where no one has gone before. It is the type of sci-fi show anyone could get behind. But the fact that it IS science fiction makes it all the more appealing to sci-fi fans such as myself.

That said, it got me to thinking….I have a big complaint. I have been told Firefly had inconsistent scheduling. I never even knew the show existed until very recently. And Fox execs wanted to start the series by showing an episode meant to be shown later in the series instead of using the order Joss Wheaton had intended. Fox also thought the series didn’t have enough action. Didn’t have enough action?!?!? Fox has got to be kidding! Most of the characters have been shot or participated in a shooting by episode 4 or 5. What do these TV studios want? Non-stop raping and pillaging? Mindless aliens hell-bent on destroying the entire human race in every single scene? No wonder there is so much crap on TV these days. It would seem that watching which bachelor is going to pick which bachelorette has been determined by TV execs to be what the American public wants to sit and watch night after night. Now there’s some action for you. I’m pretty sure you can catch the same action down at your local bar.

The other big TV studio I take issue with is UPN. I am not necessarily upset with the ending of Enterprise. There will always be plenty of sci-fi to keep us fanatics happy. What is bothering me is the way UPN rubbed our noses in it. In the past, we have talked about the SCIFI channel not picking up Enterprise and instead choosing to show bad programs such as Scare Tactics. In keeping with tradition, UPN has canceled Enterprise and is giving us a lovely program about Britney Spears along with some other dim-witted programs. I read somewhere that a critic described the Britney Spears show as self-indulgent crap. AMEN!

I could not believe the reparation of the same stupid commercials during the last two episodes. I wanted to call my cable company and ask them to no longer send UPN to my cable box. Seriously, UPN is a terrible channel and the only reason I watched it was Enterprise. Even so, I liked the way they ended Enterprise. Who better than Number 1 to say “end program” except maybe Jean-Luc. But who cares, it was still cool. We still heard Jean-Luc and Kirk in the end. I was given some hope as Enterprise flew off into space. Perhaps this is not the end... It is my hope Enterprise will be put into syndication. Although, I do agree that the last season is really the only one worth watching again. I am sure that sometime in the near future you will be able to buy the final season on DVD as well.

The question is who should I be angry with now? UPN or the Enterprise producers? Leigh Christian Ashton makes several excellent points in the article he wrote for SYFY Portal. In his article he calls Rick Berman and Brannon Braga the “Killer B’s”. Mr. Ashton holds the "Killer B’s” responsible for the demise of Enterprise, sighting past Star Trek projects that have done
well due to their lack of involvement. He makes a good argument. He goes on to talk about the theme song. Anyone who knows me personally knows how much I hated Enterprise’s uninspiring theme song. It seemed every season it was changed ever so slightly. There were no amount of changes that caused me to develop a fondness for this theme song. It was just so “un-Star Trek” to me. It sounded more like every other pop song you hear on your local top 40 radio station. The vocals made me want to scream. And oh joy, even Rod Stewart did a version of it! The mute button on my remote got a lot of use. In the episodes In the Mirror, Darkly, parts one and two, they completely changed the theme song. Now this one I liked. It was much more in keeping with the character of Enterprise. But it seems we had to go to an alternate universe to get a quality theme song.

Now that I have gone on and on, I can sum it up simply by saying this…I hate the way the Major 3…4…5 networks regard science fiction shows. They are not the redheaded step-children of the TV world, but they sure are treated that way.