Star
Trek: Enterprise executive producer Rick Berman recently said he remains
upbeat about the show's future beyond this season.
"I
am confident [...] that we are going to get a season 4 from UPN,"
Berman told the Star Trek Communicator after the filming of this season's
final episode, "Zero Hour". The magazine asked whether Enterprise
would be shopped around to other networks if UPN declined to pick
it up. "I would think that, just for the general sense of stability,
our primary goal is to keep the show going on UPN. If it is not picked
up on UPN and it could be picked up elsewhere, that would be a terrific
thing as well."
Admitting
that the rumours of the show's demise have made things "difficult
at times", Berman said Star Trek has been extremely fortunate
over the years in receiving regular renewals each season. "TV
is a business that relies on yearly pick-ups, and we have been very
blessed that we have had lots and lots of those. To have to deal with
the anxiety of not knowing whether a show is being picked up or not
is par for the course in TV production."
The
producer said he saw the advertisements placed by The Enterprise Project
in support of Enterprise in the Hollywood Reporter. "I never
know whether it helps, but it certainly is appreciated by everybody
on the crew and the cast of the show. I have seen that the fans of
Angel have been doing the same kind of thing on a regular basis now.
I know that it was fan protest that brought the original series back
for its third season, so I have no idea. We appreciate it, though,
and every little bit helps."
Despite
Enterprise being "on the bubble", Berman and his writing
staff have already begun planning for season four. The producer said
the the final episode, "Zero Hour" will set up a "mini-arc"
for the beginning of the new season, but added, "If I tell you
more right now, I will give away the ending of the season."
He
continued: "My feeling is that Enterprise will probably not go
back to the first and second season job of simple exploration of space.
I think there will be missions, but not missions that are anywhere
as lengthy as what we have done with this 25-episode Xindi arc. I
think that we will probably be dealing more with smaller arcs, maybe
arcs of three, four or five shows. We see season four being as different
from season three as season three was from season two."
To
read the complete interview, pick up the latest issue of the Star
Trek Communicator. Many thanks to 'Cyrus' for these excerpts!