“Where the Hell Were All You People when It Mattered?”

The campaign to save Enterprise is in full swing. Volunteers have been mobilized, funds contributed and the Powers-that-Be given notice that its fans will not allow it to go quietly into that good night.

I have but a single question.

Why bother?

Look… Enterprise has had its moments … but they have been so few and far between that summoning the kind of exertion it would take to sway Paramount/Viacom from its decision is so unlikely as to be functionally impossible.

Granted, reasonably cogent arguments abound for why the effort to bring it back is a worthy one:

· It has shown improvement this season.

· Its cancellation means no new Trek on television for the first time in 18 years.

· This generation of Trekkers (Trekkers: The Last Generation?) want to show that their devotion to their series—or, rather, franchise—is so potent as to resurrect an already-cancelled show.

Are any of these, or even all of these, valid enough reason to inspire such determination?

In my opinion, no—not even close.

Enterprise, for the best part of three years, alternated between adequate and execrable. It broke no substantive new ground… and its viewer-ship declined from the debut episode’s 13,000,000 to the current regular audience of less than one-sixth that. Unlike many of its predecessors, it is not considered brilliant or even high-quality science fiction by either the hoi polloi or the hoidy toidy. Instead, it’s chugged along in both relative and absolute obscurity, ignored by all but that knot of obdurate fans unwilling to see the writing on the PADD.

Sorry, people. Find a worthier cause for all that misplaced passion. Enterprise should not be saved simply because it is Star Trek. In point of fact, Enterprise should have never needed saving… and would not have if it had lived up to that name.