Coto Believes Next Trek Showrunner Will Be Outsider

Star Trek: Enterprise executive producer Manny Coto said that he knew from the start of the fourth season that the show would likely be cancelled, and suspects that someone from outside the franchise will run the next Star Trek series.

"The handwriting was kind of on the wall," Coto told Cinefantastique magazine (via TrekWeb). "I went into this season knowing we were moved to Fridays and the budget had been reduced and there was no promotion."

The newest of Enterprise's executive producers said that he was saddened, because he felt that the episodes produced during the show's fourth season were "only the tip of the iceberg of what we could have done." He did not expect a similar opportunity to arise again, saying, "My guess is that in two years some hot new show runner, someone who is popular and has established hits, will come to Paramount and say they want to do a Star Trek series and Paramount will say terrific."

Coto felt that because the brand name of Star Trek remains so strong, "there are very few people out there who would not want to do it", and that any of the many people running science fiction series "would die to do a Star Trek series."

"In two or three years that opportunity will be open," he concluded.

In related news, StarTrek.com has posted new photos of Coto and others from behind the scenes of the Enterprise finale, "These Are the Voyages..." Coto can be seen in a Starfleet uniform, as can several other crew members who worked on the series, and there are pictures of guest stars Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis on the page as well.

The full interview with Coto about Enterprise's cancellation is in the new issue of Cinefantastique. The excerpts above may be found at TrekWeb.

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