Ever since my all time favorite TV science fiction show "Doctor Who" went off the air in 1988/89, I've always wondered that. The people who faithfully watched this TV series have gone with our lives. If Star Trek ever went off the air totally how would the "Trekkies" go own with thier lifes? Granted their TV series has been broascasting forever since NBC cancelled the original series. They have the "Star Trek" movies, the Next Generation, DS9, vogager(all of these are constant reruns), and enterprise, the series on video/DVD, countless books etc to watch read, the "Star Trek" conventions etc.

If fans of another cancelled TV series can go on living with our favorite series on the air can fans of this TV series do the same? I know paramount sees this a cash cow but with all this "Star TreK" stuff are'n t they even sick of it all?

If this situation ever happened how would fans of this show go on with life?

Happy B-day Amos!

Aren't you really asking how obsessive fans will deal with reality?

Go watch the excellent documentary "Trekkies" for your answer.

I guess they'd be either forced to find other shows to watch or maybe go outside and do something?

Still with the advent of DVD, you never need to worry about cancellations - you can simply continue to watch reruns...

Well, as with all things, they'd realize it is just a TV show and move on.

I doubt we'll ever see it totally disappear. Star Trek is as much a part of our culture as Star Wars. Though the series and movies will eventually die, reruns, toys, books and more will carry on. It will continue to be a part of our culture for a long, long time.

That's why there's DVD!

I think most people wouldn't care one way or another judging by the rating we see these days. Back in the TNG days (and even DS9), I couldn't wait another week for a new episode. Now, I couldn't care less if the show is on. Heck, I haven't seen an episode since middle of last season.

suicide among the geek community would be up 75%. conversely pocket protector sales would be down by 70% (some geeks like to double up).

Look, I'm a huge Star Trek fan, and I've been saying for years that they need to have a year off between spin off series to build anticipation.

I'd love to see a year with no "new" Star Trek shows.

Now that Enterprise is going we'll have to wait for a while to see if Paramount actually has the guts to do the smart thing. Rather than forcing out another version of the show (which hurts it creatively - when it's forced it's more contrived and you end up with something like Voyager).

How long can this thing go? Hell, how did it go this long? 1966 - 2002 with no signs of stopping.

To me, the best thing for both Star Trek and the fans would be a minimum of a one year layoff between shows, and maybe longer. The break between the original series and the Next Gen was, what? 18 years? (Not counting movies.)

Can you imagine the excitement around a new Star Trek show if there was a 4 or 5 year gap between series? And they would have had a lot more time to develop the new show and get some absolutely killer scripts together rather than the usual develop the show as fast as you can and rush it out there as fast as possible thing.

If Paramount doesn't do that next time around the next spinoff may be the last. For a while anyway. Maybe another 10 or 15 years even...

That might be a good thing.

I would suggest that the more purist spectrum of the Trekkie community would be happy to see the show disappear for a while. In fact, I'd assert that there hasn't been a Star Trek series on the air for sometime. The one thing B&B got right in their attempts to destroy the franchise is refusing to use the "Star Trek" moniker. Consequently, Star Trek is for all intents and purposes "off the air."

Gene's vision, however, is pretty timeless, so there's no reason for it to be gone forever.

As for "going on with our lives" I don't even know what the hell that means. I go on with my life now. Perhaps you haven't heard, but "it's just a TV show dammit ... it's just a TV show." On the whole, Trekkies are about appreciating a quality message, gathering with people who share the common belief of accepting humanity in all its uniqueness, and using such gatherings to affect positive change in the community. Those things will never change, whether a series is on the air or not.

das

I agree with B5Erik that there's gotta be time off between shows. One year definitely isn't enough, it has to be at least 4 or 5 to build up the anticipation and rejuvenate the creative juices.

In spite of how bad ST:TNG was, it eventually evolved into one of my all-time favorite shows. Watched some DS9. Watched the premiere episode of Voyager, but my ears bled after hearing Kate Mulgrew speak. Didn't come back until Jeri Ryan's body was on display.

Was impressed with Enterprise, but am completely burned out on the franchise. The longer breaks wouldn't affect the die-hard fans since they have the novels or other serials to fall back on during the downtimes.

das, as usual, elegantly put. this week's enterprise almost made me vomit.

I used to love ST:TNG and still watch it in reruns on TNN. I also enjoyed the movies, original series and sometimes DS9. The constant oversaturation of the series with Voyager and Enterprise really burned me out on the whole thing though and I enjoy Trek much more when I avoid it for a few months and come back and watch a few episodes or movies for a short time.

What would happen?
Paramount would probably go bankrupt.
They are the ones that keep greenlighting yet another Trek show and putting the wrong people in charge.
They need to get a clue and figure out that they need to GIVE IT A REST!

It's only a matter of time until we have the Star Trek Channel..

24 Hour Trek! Trek any time, all the time.

Wrong question. What will happen [is happening] if Star Trek never went off the air? If Paramount kept whipping a dead horse?

Keeping the franchise going just to keep the franchise going is BS. It is no incentive to produce anything resembling a quality product.

Until somebody grows some brass ones and puts the fear of God [cancellation] into the mix, we’ll continue to have mediocre shows. Unfortunately, network execs are all castrated sheep.

Riots in the streets, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

What? No human sacrifice?

A sudden spike in "Sex For Dummies" sales.

The world would explode? :-)

as long as Berman is there.. any Star Trek show will be on the air...

Wizdar hits the nail on the head.

Right now, I'm finally finding time to watch my Star Trek: The Next Generation DVD sets... I'm about halfway through Season 2 right now. It is really striking how much better (fresher, more interesting, more original) these shows are than anything that has *ever* been released under the name Voyager or Enterprise. And these are the *worst* seasons of TNG! It only gets better.

Anyway, it's really striking the differences between the shows... it makes me hate Enterprise all that much more (and, yes, it has finally become full-blown hate. Nearly on the same level as Voyager).

The current shows are weak and are being produced for one reason only -- because someone, somewhere feels there HAS to be a Star Trek show on. Nevermind that they have terrible writers and no clue what they are doing. The goal is to keep producing watered-down, mediocre programs that bear almost no resemblance to the ST of the original show or next gen.


I'm a huge longtime Star Trek fan, but (in answer to the thread's question) I would be dancing in the streets if they took it off the air for a while. A nice 5 or 10-year gap would be great.

To me after DS9 was over trek went down the crapper for a while. Voyager had its moments with like 3-4 good episodes a season but that was about it. Its probably the only trek show i taped and havent watched it since. Enterprise has come along and Its had a lot more bright spots then voyager. This season of Enterprise has been better then the first in my opinion. Hopefully it only gets better

capt

• Quoth bboisvert •<HR SIZE=1>Right now, I'm finally finding time to watch my Star Trek: The Next Generation DVD sets... I'm about halfway through Season 2 right now. It is really striking how much better (fresher, more interesting, more original) these shows are than anything that has *ever* been released under the name Voyager or Enterprise. And these are the *worst* seasons of TNG! It only gets better.<HR SIZE=1>

In total agreement here. I haven't really viewed many TNG episodes from the first couple of seasons in many years. They're just not as strong as the later seasons, so they haven't received much recent viewing. But as I've gone through the DVDs and watched them in context of Enterprise and Voyager which are both pretty fresh in my memory, I see that they're significantly better than the dren we're getting now. Context is everything. In the context of later seasons of TNG, they're just average. In context of the last 10 years of Trek, they're pretty damn good.

The spirit of the franchise will never go away, but as I said before, I think a large portion of Trekkies would be quite happy if there was nothing on the air parading under the guise of Trek.

das

Well, it's not just the writing that makes TNG better, it's the acting, namely Patrick Stewart. None of the leads (with the exception of Avery Brooks, who was rarely given as good material to work with) since have had the potential to drive a Trek show like Patrick did.

I'm almost done with the season 4 set. The interesting thing is that many of these episodes were written during the build up to and during The Gulf War. Some of the episodes are so relevant with today's situation it's shocking. "The Wounded" is especially cogent, as well as "The Drumhead" which I watched last night. Patrick is brilliant!

You don't see B&B doing any of this with Enterprise do you? It is the lack of Rodenberry's vision that causes the bland, boring, scripts that have been coming out of Enterprise. I hear B&B are going to do an AIDS awareness episode. God, I hope not, TNG already handled such topics 15yrs ago. B&B aren't subtle or brave enough to take on the establishment the way Roddenberry did in ToS and TNG.

What a shame.

Maybe I should of reworded the question? Thanks for helping out BTW!