E!Online reports that “Star Trek: Enterprise” is going where no Star Trek series has gone before: into an early demise. It’s the first Star Trek spin-off that hasn’t had seven seasons on air.
UPN and Paramount announced Wednesday that Enterprise will be phased out in May after four underwhelming seasons. Arguably of even more significance was what was not announced: Another new Trek series.
If Paramount doesn’t come up with a Starfleet-staffed show for the fall, and there is no indication one is the offing, it’ll be the first time in a decade that an outgoing Trek series has not replaced by an incoming Trek series.
Couple that with the franchise’s space-docked big-screen program, and Star Trek, in the words of one Federation expert, “may have run its course.”
“We believe in the show creatively, but the ratings just weren’t there,” a UPN spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Reportedly ordered to shape up or ship out last spring, Enterprise is averaging 2.9 million viewers on Friday nights this season. Of late, the show has dipped so low–2.5 million for last week’s episode–that it’s being matched, sometimes even surpassed, in its time slot by Sci-Fi Channel’s Stargate SG-1.
Ironically, Enterprise’s Jolene Blalock has guest-starred on Stargate SG-1 as the leader of the Ha’ktyl warriors and Teal’c’s love interest Ishta.
This is good news for Stargate SG-1 fans, particularly with all the cast changes to come in Season 9, but we can all feel for the fans of Enterprise, losing their show.