Star Trek: End of an Era?

When the final two episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise" air on Friday night, an era will come to an end. For the first time since 1987 there will not be a fresh "Star Trek" on television. The passing of "Enterprise" and quite probably all things "Star Trek" is a landmark television and cultural event. The franchise boosted William Shatner to icon status, created a long-running, highly successful film series, launched one television network and nearly another, inspired the name of the first space shuttle and gave birth to perhaps the oddest, smartest and most intense fans in pop-culture history.

Washington Post staff writer Frank Ahrens was online Monday, May 9, at 1 p.m. ET to take your comments and questions on the end of the "Star Trek" legacy and discuss his Sunday Arts article, The End of a Space Odyssey .

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Frank Ahrens: Greetings, all, and thanks for joining us in the discussion today.

As a lifelong Star Trek fan (I'm going to avoid the quotes around show titles to speed things up a little bit), I felt it was important to mark the ending of this era, with the final two espisodes of Star Trek: Enterprise this Friday.

Evidently from the number of questions and comments, so do you.

As the Star Trek fan group is unlike any other, I think it's fair to say, let me give you my bona fides and blind spots up front: I've seen all episodes of the original series. all of TNG, almost all of DS9 and ENT, missing I'm guessing 10 episodes between the two. My weak spot is VOY. I've probably seen about half of the episodes, because it has not seemed to have had such a vigorous life on cable as TNG and DS9.

Also, I am ill-equipped to answer questions such as, "Why is the plasma vent on NX-01 on the dorsal side of the warp nacelles instead of the ventral side?"

With all that said, let's go boldly....

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Silver Spring, Md.: I'll be watching on Friday to see if there are any flying leg kicks or brain melds. That stuff never gets old.

Frank Ahrens: Hahahaha!

What a great way to start off!

A terrific reference to William Shatner's Capt. Jim Kirk, who rarely met an alien he couldn't subdue with a flying leg kick. I even alluded to the oft-overlooked fighting tactic in a profile I did of the great man back in 2000.

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Arlington, Va.: I was a big fan of "Next Generation," although I could never get into the original or subsequent programs. How successful were the films? Was the decision to stop making them economic or were the actors just hoping to move on in their careers?

Frank Ahrens: The first nine of the 10 films were reliable earners, averaging about $80 million domestically and more than $100 million internationally. The last one, Star Trek: Nemesis was a dud, and likely the most expensive, costing more than $100 million to make and taking in only $40 million stateside. It seemed to me to be derivative...many of the sets and costumes seemed Matrixy, even down to the signature dark-green color, and the TNG crew, much as I loved them, seemed kind of long in the tooth. I would be surprised to see another big-budget Trek movie anytime soon, if ever.

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McLean, Va.: Frank,

While we can't go back to The Listener days of yore, it's good to see you online again.

Good article. I think the prediction of future product going towards online, on-demand shows and games is spot-on. As more and more program viewers have given up and followed Shatner's infamous SNL advice ("Get a life!"), I think the number of Trek geeks has diminished to the point where traditional mass programming is no longer viable. Serving Trek geeks through geek media makes good business sense.

I found the comments of Rick Berman interesting. He seemed to be saying that if he had the power, he would not have given the green light for one or more Trek series. So perhaps Berman does not bear the strategic responsibility for killing the golden goose. However, from a tactical perspective, Berman and Braga helped speed the death of the golden goose by producing "mix 'n match" episodes that could be aired in any order rather than creating long narrative arcs that would hook viewers for long periods of time. Also, Berman and Braga went to the same story lines too many times. I am sure that your online research you found many pejorative references to programs that used the Big Rest Button at the end of the story to completely negate what occurred before. A storyteller can use the Big Reset Button only so many times before its effect wears out on the audience.

Bottom Line: The franchise has a good run. It was a cash cow. But it's over. Time for Trek geeks to either get a life or retreat into cyberspace.

Frank Ahrens: Yes, there's a Latin term for the Big Reset Button dramatic device that I'm forgetting. It means, essentially, one-episode story arcs, where the characters and situation are not radically changed from the beginning of the show, unlike the second-season, season-long story arc of ENT, where they were chashing the species that was trying to destroy Earth.

Many fans have said in chat rooms that they've really loved the recent episodes of ENT, which have coincided with the return of longtime former producer and writer Manny Coto. They are saying, it's too bad it's too little, too late.

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Richmond, Va.: "Battlestar Galactica" gets roughly the same number of viewers on the SciFi Channel as "Enterprise" got on UPN. I think the future of "Star Trek" is a cable TV franchise down the line.

Frank Ahrens: If it has a future on television, I think you're right. Cable is built on smaller, niche audiences that reach viewers that advertisers want. And, with special effects able to be done digitally and with such impressive results--see Galactica--cable can do a high-quality sci-fi series.

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Alexandria, Va.: Frank,

Are there going to be any fan gatherings in the D.C. area for the Friday night's final two episodes? I would like to know if there will be, as I don't want to cry all by myself alone in my apartment as the show comes to an end.

Frank Ahrens: I don't know but I'm posting this. Maybe someone is turning their house into a makeshift Ten Forward for the last viewings...

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Washington, D.C.: Hey, thanks for taking our questions!

I'm a big Star Trek fan, but I was wondering, what's it going to hurt for the franchise to take some time off? I think that constantly having a Trek series for the last 18 years or so has been good, but I think it's really robbed the show the opportunity for new life and creativity.

Look at "Battle Star Galactica." The time away from the series allowed creative people to reimagine the series in exciting ways. Perhaps we can just watch our reruns for five years (or more), and then be pleasantly surprised by a new incarnation.

Frank Ahrens: Possibly. When Brad Grey took over Paramount Studios earlier this year, and I was interviewing him and his boss, Viacom co-president Tom Freston, I asked if the Star Trek movie franchise was dead. Freston said that it was not dead, that it could be "dusted off" and re-invigorated, but that's essentially a decision for Grey. Paramount has a lot more pressing issues than continuing to make a movie series that tanked the last time out. They need to make some smaller-budget hits and get back on their feet again.

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Washington, D.C.: How much fun did you have writing your article?

Frank Ahrens: Was it that evident? It was a labor of love.

I felt like I could have gone on longer. For instance, I wanted to expand on the whole Roddenberry-God issue. In the first episode of TNG, Roddenberry introduced us, for all practical purposes, to God in the form of Q, an ominpotent, omniscient being. Though wonderfully played by John de Lancie, Q was a malevolent, menacing, insulting character. Roddenberry's message: If this is God, then God is a jerk.

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Wheaton, Md.: Did you ever attend a convention?

Frank Ahrens: One: BUT ONLY TO REPORT A STORY, I SWEAR!

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Woodstock, Ill.: In your article you poo-poo space travel as being too dangerous for humanity. Too bad you weren't around a few hundred years ago where you could have made a very effective argument about leaving shore for the perils of the sea as humanity began its exploration of the Earth. How many lives could have been saved if our ancestors had stayed home instead of venturing abroad in rickety sailing ships?

I would argue that while any loss of life is a horrible tragedy, a larger tragedy would be to turn our backs from the challenge of space travel (or any challenge for that matter) because somebody might get hurt. As a "Star Trek" antagonist once said to a starship captain bemoaning the loss of life on a mission, "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you should crawl back under your bed. The universe isn't safe, it's wondrous, with wonders to satisfy appetites both subtle and gross, but it's not for the timid."

Frank Ahrens: Listen, I'm an Apollo baby. Not understanding at the time that it was the Cold War, not some innate need to explore that the U.S. govt. altruistically funded, that drove the space race, I assumed and hoped space progress would continue in a straight line and, by 2000, I or almost anyone could afford to buy a trip at least into near-Earth orbit. There always has been one thing I have wanted to do before I die and that's to see Earth from space and experience zero-g.

The point I was making is that I believe we have a different attitude toward space today than we did 30 years ago.

And as for early sailors, true, going was tough. However, they did not risk passing into an oxygen-free vacuum at Absolute Zero and being instantly fried by radiation the second they fell overboard.

And I appreciate the Q quote.

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Detroit, Mich.: "Star Trek" should have ended long ago. The first "Star Trek" had poor acting (except for Nimoy) and often silly scripts. The second one ("Next Generation"), was the best (except for the boy character) and was probably the only reason this franchise seemed to keep going.

Frank Ahrens: I'm just going to use this opportunity to pile on Wesley Crusher, as played by Wil Wheaton in NextGen.

One of the biggest differences between TOS and NextGen was that the latter had entire families aboard the Enterprise. This is an example of the touchy-feely nature of the show, which included a ship's counselor that sat at the captain's right hand (Can you imagine Jim Kirk with a counselor? The closest thing to that would have been Yeoman Rand and I think you KNOW what kind of counseling I'm talking about.), that really dates NextGen as a product of the progressive '80s and '90s even more than TOS is dated to the '60s. I mean, take a look at NextGens and look at all the feathered and blow-dried haircuts and '80s colors (every room looks like a Hampton Inn hotel lobby, as my friend Hanks has observed).

Now, for Wesley: Reason No. 1 to not bring families on-board. Went from over-eager to sullen and whiny.

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re: Big Reset Button: "Yes, there's a Latin term for the Big Reset Button dramatic device that I'm forgetting."

Deus ex machina. Famous in Greek/Roman plays where the god/goddess shows up at the end to fix all the problems

Frank Ahrens: Thanks much.

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Leesburg, Va.: I think the Latin term for "big red reset button" you want is "Deus ex machina" -- the actor playing a god comes down on wires and ends the play.

Maybe we should be a little more gentle with the "geek" remarks...

Frank Ahrens: Agreed. Everyone has a passion, an avocation, and each is as valid as the next. Is Trek any more geeky than scrapbooking or dog-showing or caligraphy? Nope.

Even Shatner (Get a life!) was converted. He wrote a book of that title in which he went into alien disguise at conventions (!) and came away impressed with the knowledge, goodness and self-depracating humor of fans.

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Falls Church, Va.: "There are four lights!"

What episode and who said it?

In my humble opinion, the best episode ever in Star Trek history.

Frank Ahrens: Okay. Give us a hint.

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Washington, D.C.: Will we see any familiar faces on Friday? And how will this finale look compared with those of TNG and DS9?

Frank Ahrens: Yes, let me give you a little taste SPOILER ALERT!!! of what's ahead.

I've seen a rough cut of the final episode and it is true that Riker and Troi appear and that a holodeck is involved.

Some of the Internet chat groups that hate Trek producers Rick Berman and Brannon Braga have "reported" that the entire four-season run of ENT was nothing more than a fictional hologram run for the amusement of the NextGen crew, much like Data's Sherlock Holmes holodeck program or Dr. Bashir's Las Vegas program on DS9.

Not true. Yes, the ENT characters in the last episode appear in this episode as holograms, but they always were real characters. (Stop. Review that sentence. Okay, move on...) Think of it this way: Riker is using the holodeck to read some history.

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Long-ago fan: So did Kirk ever go head-to-head with Q? Would have been entertaining, unless Kirk tried to overcome Q with his usual big sloppy kiss.

Frank Ahrens: Hahahahaha!

Can you imagine? It was great when Kirk and Khan went against each other in Wrath of Khan, with Shatner and Montalban out-acting each other all over the place.

I imagine that first Kirk tries a flying leg-kick to the chest, and he passes right through Q, then, later, with the help of Spock, out-wits Q. Maybe in a game of three-dimensional chess.

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Falls Church, Va.: "There are four lights!!"

From a "The Next Generation" and it follows a torture session with Cardassian interogator.

Frank Ahrens: Yes, yes!

Picard is a hostage and they try unsucessfully to break him, trying to get him to say there are not four lights in front of him when he knows he is seeing four. A nice bit of Orwellian imagery.

For my money, the Cardassians were terrific characters. I love how unctuous and eloquent they were and how they changed. They were intially presented as heartless and cold-blooded (they were lizards, after all) but, in DS9, after they realized that their alliance with the Founders was crippling Cardassia, they were shown as admirably patriotic in revolt. Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) is one of my favorite characters. Speaking of which...

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Frank Ahrens: Thought I'd pass along some of my favorite characters:

-- Kirk and Spock: alpha and omega. Two of TV's greatest characters.

-- Bones McCoy: Wonderfully cranky DeForrest Kelley.

-- Data: Brent Spiner's amazing range made Data the top mail-getter from fans of NextGen.

-- The Doctor: He was only a hologram but he was the most lively character on VOY, thanks to actor Robert Picardo.

-- Dr. Phlox: Same on ENT. John Billingsley was a wonder as the alien doctor who was curious about all without being condescending.

-- Seven of Nine: Like you have to ask why.

-- Quark and Odo: Acting under all that makeup is tough but the Ferenghi barowner and chief of station security on DS9 formed a great, married-couple like bond.

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Arlington, Va.: The real problem with the latter Treks (and most shows, really) is that it played it safe. You KNEW the Enterprise would come away unharmed, that Voyager would make it through, and that the Federation would be OK.

The only show that tinkered with this was DS9, and for that reason it was the best. People died, the Federation got dragged into war, and not every character was on the good side all the time.

Star Trek needed to live up to its calling and take more risks. It played it safe and died. Look at Nemisis, it was just Star Trek II combined with Star Trek VI, and it was terrible.

Set phasers for kill.

Frank Ahrens: It's a good point. Yes, DS9 was a dark and messy place. The Federation was flawed, having sold out its own people in a truce with the Cardassians and in the process creating an internal rebellion, the Maquis.

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Fair Oaks, Va.: When I was at UVA in the late 1970s, I attended a lecture by Leonard Nimoy. He was burned out on Star Trek, wanted to talk about his poetry. No one wanted to discuss his poetry. He grudgingly agreed to answer Star Trek questions.

He appeared in the Star Trek movies, so I guess he got over his hostility.

Frank Ahrens: Hahahaha!

This reminds me of a story I had to once cover: A reunion cruise of the surviving members of Gilligan's Island. Everyone still alive--Gilligan, Mary Ann and the Professor--and come to terms with their celebrity and endorsed it. Everyone that is except for Tina Louise, who handed me a three-page acting resume that included everything BUT Gilligans Island. It was filled up with stuff like community theater produces of The Seagull and such. I mean, you had a three-year run where eveyrone in America knew who you were, many loved you and remember you. What's wrong with that? Oh, I suppose you'd rather be remembered for your star turn in the Chekhov play in the basement of the Omaha Public Library in '84.

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Arlington, Va.: The Post is simultaneously running chats on (a) the future of Star Trek and (b) better communication with one's mother. Any guesses as to the gender distribution of the audiences for the two chats?

Frank Ahrens: Funny you mention that. My first Star Trek memory is of playing in the back yard when I was a kid and my Mom calling me inside to watch TOS. She liked Spock and his pointy ears.

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Detroit, Mich.: Ah, the inevitable segue into "best episode ever" talk! Okay then --

For TNG, I always thought "The Inner Light" was one of the best. This is the episode where a probe containing the last communication from a destroyed planet mentally "grabs" Picard and makes him think he has been living the past 30 years on the planet. Then the probe releases him and it turns out he's been unconscious for an hour or two.

Another episode involving unconscious goings-on is also quite good, the one where Riker has been kidnapped and tries to free himself by mentally traveling through various "layers" of reality until he finally wakes up in his captors' torture room.

These kinds of episodes always struck me as much superior to the typical fighting-with-the-energy-creature story. But I can see how the comparative production expense makes the energy creature more attractive.

Frank Ahrens: Yes, Inner Light was quite inventive...Picard lives an entire life in another time and place over the span of a few of his ours. It was one of many Trek episodes that made one think about the nature of perception and memory, i.e., what if we had an entirely different reality impressed on us? How would we respond? In one DS9, Miles O'Brien time-shifted and encountered himself a few hours in the future. It is the future Miles that makes it back to the current time, not the old one, and he can't shake the fascinating feeling that he's not really him.

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Waldorf, Md.: How many different earth cultures did the writers borrow from to create the Klingons and the Ferengi?

Frank Ahrens: Interesting question. The Ferengi are a caraicature of lassiz faire capitalism...i.e., their heaven is the Divine Treasury, and so forth. In that they were introduced in TNG in the late '80s, it's hard not to see a little Wall Street/Boesky in them. They were originially meant to be a threatening species, like the Klingons or eventually Borg, because they had comparable technology to the Federation, but their comic potential overwhelmed that and they became light relief.

As for Klingons, I suppose you could look to any warrior culture in Earth's history that placed high emphasis on honor, etc., such as the Roman Legion or the Crusaders.

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Arlington, Va.: You note that Star Trek was progressive. But, when were B and B going to introduce an actual gay charatcer? And I'm not talking about really awful plotlines about Riker and androgynous planets or strange Vulcan mind meld diseases resemble AIDS. That kind of cowardice was the reason I couldn't watch anymore.

Frank Ahrens: That's a very good point. I belive there were some hermaphrodite characters, and Dax on DS9 was an asexual creature (a wormlike thing) that lived in the belly of humanoids, male or female, so Dax had been a man and a woman. But as for actual gay characters as we would recognize them, none that I can think of. Anyone?

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San Antonio, Tex.: My aunt used to give Gene Roddenberry rides down to Union Station in Los Angeles when Roddenberry was employed as a speechwriter for LAPD. After 39 years, do you believe that Star Trek has outlived its shelf life?

Frank Ahrens: Wow! What a great anecdote!

I think it has on network TV and in the movies, at least for now. I think the Web is a natural home for its next iterations, whatever they may be.

So are you saying that Gene Roddenberry, the man who took us to warp speed, didn't have his own car?

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Arlington, Va.: Hi Frank,

In your opinion, what was "Enterprise's" main flaw? (Aside from that wretched theme?) I watched it for two years and then just couldn't bring myself to care about the third season. I think the characters were just flat and dull, (except for Phlox). I generally like Scott Bakula but felt he was a bit too earnest and boring. The writing improved, but enterprise just didn't have the cool characters that the other shows did.

Frank Ahrens: An astute fan e-mailed yesterday to point out that ENT was too dark, meaning that Berman and others modeled the ship after a 20th century submarine, which makes sense, but that it was a dark as ship underwater, with some characters literally fading into the darkness. It looks like Paramount hasn't paid its light bill. it's a fair criticism.

in general, I think the show seemed too interior.

I think Bakula was miscast as captain...I think Trip would have made a better captain. I agree that Pholox is terrific and I think that the Andorian captain, as played by the terrific Jeffrey Combs (who also appeared in DS9) was a hoot.

Also, the theme song, as I may have mentioned.

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Annandale, Va.: Interesting fact: Waldorf MD anagrams to "dwarf mold" and Frank Ahrens anagrams to "Khan ran serf."

Frank Ahrens: KHAN!!!!!!!

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Star Base 20009: The big problem with Enterprise for me was that by going back into the past they eliminated my own version of how we got from Alan Shepard to James T. Kirk (not that I spent a lot of time thinking about it.) I always assumed that we Earth people (i.e. Americans, since we were clearly the dominant force on TOS) started exploring space on our own after the creation of the warp drive, and eventually ran into the Vulcans, Klingons, etc. while proselytizing democracy and the U.N. along the way. But the series (and the First Contact movie) didn't leave any room for that. Not only did the Vulcans seem to be ahead of us, but in this series there are an awful lot of other aliens who already have their own interstellar spaceships with equally powerful weapons. Seems to me this series should have paralleled the Old West, where we pursued our Manifest Destiny of expansionism while overrunning the Indians along the way; but instead we got the Odyssey, with a year of 9/11 thrown in.

Frank Ahrens: Good point. Thanks.

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Baltimore, Md.: What does it say about a world without Star Trek? Star Trek was always a positive vision of the future, a place where humans had really become better than ourselves. To the best of my knowledge, no other science fiction comes close to portraying that. Even Star Wars, with all its George Lucas/Joseph Campbell mumbo jumbo does not offer a place where things are any better than Beltway Washington. Are we too cynical for Star Trek?

Frank Ahrens: Can't depart without taking on the Star Wars vs. Star Trek debate.

i have found very few overlapping fans of the two. You're either one or the other.

For my money, I find Trek much more satisfying that Wars. Star Wars is a fairy tale for children, and even starts out that way (A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...). It is all Wookies and Ewoks and princesses and dark lords and so forth.

Trek is about grown-up reponsibility and Prime Directives and quantum mechanics. Star Trek's space is a grown-up place for grown-ups.

The one area where Wars is superior to Trek is in its vision of the future. We know now that Roddenberrys and other utopians are doomed. Star Trek said that with time, we would get better. That, of course, is wrong.

Star Wars correctly tells us that, with time, we'll be pretty much the same with better technology. Case in point:

Walk into Ten Forward, the bar on NextGen's Enterprise. It's a clean, well-lighted place where nattily attired species of all kinds converse in appropriate tones.

Now, walk into the cantina in the first Star Wars. As my friend David Von Drehle correctly observed, it proves that any bar, anywhere in the universe is filled with losers.

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Athens, Ohio: Hey Mr. Ahrens,

As a non-"Trekker" I viewed Star Trek's renaissance in the late '80s up to the present, and caught the old episodes in syndication. Unlike the Old School Star Trek, which was pretty much a Space Epic, with a sense of drama, suspense and a sweeping storyline, "Star Trek" eventually became more like "Human Resource Trek" or "Total Quality Management Trek." ALMOST EVERYTHING, was open to discussion and debate. Everyone was enlightened (even the villains), to the point where it became pretty much a management soap opera:

"The Next Generation": Let's discuss this...

"Deep Space 90210": Drama, drama, drama, action.

"Voyager": Hey! Another opportunity to go home, but no let's save these people with the shrimp faces.

"Enterprise": four words -- Bon Jovi Theme Song.

Frank Ahrens: Hahaha!

One of my favorite bits of Trekiana is when Trek fans make fun of themselves.

This is great. Reminds me of the gentle gibe aimed at Picard, who was so overly formal and unsexy, compared to Kirk. Starship captains with derring-do get battle tactics named for them, "Defense Pattern Kirk Epsilon," and so forth. When Picard stood up and straightened his tunic, it became know as "the Picard Maneuver."

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Rockville, Md.: While I enjoyed the series since I was a kid and beyond, the franchise is getting stereotyped and repetitive -- it's all about the phaser guns and military space combat. There's been too much original Trek history being eaten up in story-tie ins, obvious historical revisions, no new exploration ideas, and far less of the romances and seductions faced by our heroes like in the original Trek. I stopped watching long ago and now even have a steady girlfriend! Folks at UPN: time to get some fresh original writing in a future series. (How about some experimental mini-series?)

Frank Ahrens: Have to include this. Well done.

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Enterprise failure?: I've been a life-long Trek fan, but had trouble getting myself to watch this show. Just everything on the new set looked so advanced compared to TOS Enterprise and the episode with the Borg was just silly. Do you think it was a mistake in developing this series?

Frank Ahrens: That admittedly was a problem that ENT designers faced: 2001 cell phones looked much more futuristic (and small) than anything Kirk had in the 23rd century.

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Frank Ahrens: That's going to do it, folks. Thanks so much for all the good questions and comments.

Now, let's all perform one last big mind-meld and say after me:

"I....AM....KIROK!!!!"

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