Berman On Ratings, Stars and 'Similitude'

"We don't get too excited when the ratings go up and we don't get too depressed when they go down," executive producer Rick Berman declared in a recent interview about Star Trek: Enterprise. "My interest...is to continue to turn out good product."

Speaking to Star Trek Monthly (via Sci Fi Pulse), Berman said that he and co-exec Brannon Braga are pleased if the ratings are up because it means more people are seeing the show's development.

The decision to add "Star Trek" to Enterprise's title was made by UPN, he said, and he "had very mixed feelings", since he thought "most likely everybody who has any interest in Star Trek knows that Enterprise is a Star Trek series." Though Berman said he did not think that the name change was "going to be a major asset or a major problem", he did not explain why he might have opposed the addition beyond requiring new TiVo settings.

"Right now, we're shooting an episode shooting an episode in written by our new executive producer, Manny Coto," he said of tonight's installment, "Similitude."

Calling it "another provocative episode", he promised, "We're not killing Anthony Montgomery again."

Berman confirmed that he and Braga are writing an episode together in which Archer and Crewman Daniels "find themselves back on Earth in 2004 and hunting some Xindi reptilian doctor/scientists who are up to no good."

Asked about potential guest stars, Berman said that not many name actors were interested in making television guest appearances and that he was more interested in offering roles to previous Trek alumni like Brent Spiner and Alexander Siddig. "I'd love to find legitimate ways to bring these people back to Star Trek."

He did not expect to make a cameo himself, however: "I'm not a big cameo kind of guy. I was in the final episode of Cheers. I was invited to go sit at the bar during the last episode. That was fun."

The full interview may be found in issue 111 of Star Trek Monthly. Thanks to Sci Fi Pulse for the excerpts.

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