So apparently they're coming out with a new Star Trek series for next fall. Star Trek V. It's the fifth show. The rumor is that it's like a prequel, to the original series (TOS to trekkers). There'll be a captain, sort of like a swashbuckling Kirk type. And a woman Vulcan as the first officer. Noticing patterns yet? That's pretty much where the similarities to TOS end though. The doctor is some sort of alien. Ah...what else? There's some black guy, who plays the navigator or something like that. A Japanese woman plays the communications expert. Southerner plays the engineer. And a few others that I've forgotten. Anyways. That's the rumour. Except that some of the hard core trekkers out there are saying that this rumour is false. And that the new Trek will be something totally different. Personally, I don't much care what it is, as long as that Japanese communications expert is hot!

I don't think they should make a new Trek so fast. There's a few reasons for this. First of all, we've had three in a row now, all overlapping. This will be the fourth, and it's so close to overlapping with STV that it might as well be. STAR TREK OVERLOAD!! STAR TREK OVERLOAD!! You see what I'm getting at here? Just too damn much. They're starting to look all the same. Who can tell the difference between ST:TNG, DS9 and STV anyways? One's more intellectual than the others, one's more substantial than the others and one's more.....visually pleasing than the others. But basically, Rick Berman and his team of writers are out of creative juice. They warmed up during the first years of ST:TNG, hit their peak from about the last three seasons of ST:TNG to the middle of DS9, and have been on a steady decline since then.

Second reason: we need a break after the fiasco that masqueraded as STV. That show was pretty much awful from start to finish. Well...the pilot wasn't awful. But it soon degraded. I feel fairly confident in saying that that show turned away many fans who were initially attracted by ST:TNG and DS9. I mean, yes, perhaps it's hard to follow the tremendous success that ST:TNG was, but there is no way that the powers that be should have let it slip that badly. I mean, they really dropped the ball on that one. I mean, it's turned from hard hitting exotic exciting stimulating tv into....what? Mindless inane drabble. I don't know how many fans were disillusioned and disheartened by Voyager, but I have a feelings that the numbers are high. I'm one of them. I wasn't a hard core trekker, but I was a pretty big fan. And now I'm not. They're losing fans out of their most important sector too; the die hards. Hey Berman! The people aren't idiots! They know crap when they see it! Ah, he didn't hear me. We need a break. A recovery period maybe. Maybe a mourning period. Whatever you call it, we need it. Perhaps they can start rebuilding our trust through a couple good ST:TNG movies.

I've made reference to the Berman situation. The man is a problem. He's no longer an asset. He's the guy who's clogging up the gears, preventing a shift into a higher creative mode. You get rid of him, and you fix the whole show. Unfortunately, since he RUNS the whole show, this is easier said than done.

Basically, enthusiasm for Trek, though strong, is at like an all time low. Give us a few years. Leave us hungry. Let's get a show by doing a letter writing campaign. Let's not get one by having it shoved down our throats, when we're already choking on STV. Live long and prosper.

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