Ron Moore: 'Enterprise' Changes Came Too Late

Former Star Trek writer Ronald D. Moore recently revealed he liked the year-long Xindi story arc from Enterprise's third season, but said the new show format came two years too late.

"It's always difficult to reinvent yourself after a couple years on the air," Moore told TV Week for a long article on the state of the Trek franchise. "If you change pitch in mid-stride, it's going to be a problem."

Moore is currently heading the Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica remake, a dark and gritty take on the space opera genre. But Moore said Trek's optimism can still appeal to viewers. ""I don't think Trek needs to become Battlestar, but it does need to reflect and change and deal with what's out there. The first series gave you a hopeful view of the future by dealing with things like racism and the Vietnam War. You want to play to where the audience is today."

As for when Star Trek will have another shot to win the attention of modern audiences, Moore offered no predictions, although TV Week noted that most people expect Trek's TV break to last about three years. "We view this very much as a hiatus in the history of the show," Paramount Network Television president David Stapf told the magazine. "And I'm actually kind of excited to see what the next chapter will bring."

TV week concluded its article by noting that as far as Hollywood problems go, it's not so bad to have a franchise for which after ten movies and five series, people still seem so sure that after a while it will return to TV again. "There's really no other property that's faced this kind of problem," Moore said. "It's just this enormous, well, enterprise. There's no other template to look at. There's no other thing that's had this kind of life."

The entire TV week article also contains several comments by Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman on how Paramount may have taken one too many trips to the Trek well, and the "no-win situation" the producers faced on Enterprise's creative direction. Click here to read it. Thanks go out to George Gilbert for this!

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