Fans fight to save Star Trek: Enterprise

Fans fight to save Star Trek: Enterprise
Show has been canceled, but effort continues

By KAREN SCHWARTZ
Columbia News Service

Anita Balestino, 50, is fighting to save her favorite television show. She's been working four to five hours a day since January to try to make sure the cast and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise can continue their weekly space adventures.

She, her husband and now-grown children gather Friday nights at 8 p.m. in their Columbia, Md., home to watch the adventures of the crew they've come to love over the past four seasons.

Though Star Trek: Enterprise, the latest series in the 39-year-old space saga, was officially canceled by UPN and Paramount Network Television in early February, thousands of the show's loyal viewers have joined forces to protest what they see as its early termination.

Fans say the show presents a uniquely positive view of humanity and its potential.

"It has historically promoted tolerance and acceptance, and its stories comment on the human condition by translating that to other cultures, alien cultures," said Balestino, a medical technologist.

Fans from the United States to the United Kingdom to Malaysia lit up message boards, voicing their dismay over the end of a show. Many wanted to see the show come full circle: Enterprise is a prequel to the original series, and was intended to end where the first Star Trek began.

With its cancellation, efforts shifted from trying to raise ratings to trying to get the show picked up by another network. Rallies were held in Washington, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tel Aviv in early February, and by the end of the month fans had already donated $48,000 to trekunited.com, where Tim Brazeal, the campaign leader and also the founder of saveenterprise.com, hopes fans can raise enough to pay for a fifth season.

Not counting the original show, which ran for three seasons, each of the show's other spinoffs — Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager — ran for seven seasons.

None of the spinoffs drew Balestino in like the original, until Star Trek: Enterprise.

The show has been in jeopardy before. Marsha Robertson, 46, who acts as a liaison between enterpriseproject.org and saveenterprise.com, said the show was almost canceled at the end of its second and third seasons. She joined in the effort to save it because she thinks it's worthwhile.

"It's still something all ages can enjoy and can discuss," she said. "There aren't very many shows on evening television my friends can watch with their kids."

And being a Star Trek fan means more than watching the show, she said. Regardless of what happens with the program, she'll still have the friends she's met through it, she said. A passion for Star Trek often serves as a social outlet, connecting Trekkies first through their common interest.

Mark Williams, 38, from Anderson, Ind., says he's met "some of the nicest people" traveling in Star Trek circles. As a child, Williams watched Star Trek after Saturday morning cartoons.

"As a kid I watched that and I thought 'that's cool,' and that's before real life gets in the way," he said. "I guess I still follow in those ideas, from being a kid trying to look on the bright side of things."
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