I have noted before that I think that Rick Berman didn’t really understand how best to run Trek (see, for example, here and here).

Now, TrekMovie.com notes an interview with Berman wherein he admits to not even having watched all of the original series (and he ran Trek for about 15 years!) and criticizes the direction Enterprise took during its fourth season under Manny Coto:

Manny had a tremendous amount of excitement about the potential links between Enterprise and the first season of the original series, and he wanted to build those bridges, or at least create steps that would foreshadow some of the things that would happen in the original series. I think to the hardcore fans it was a terrific direction to go. On the other hand, the ratings continued to slip a bit.

The shows best writing and episodes were in that fourth season. Indeed, had Manny Coto been in charge from the beginning of the series, it would’ve been a hit that ran seven seasons at least. The smart thing to have done would have been to have built on the base of Trek fans by making the show a true prequel to TOS. That would have energized the base, so to speak, and allowed the show to build a following. What would it matter to new viewers that it was a prequel? It would be new to them no matter what. Instead, Berman seemed to think that screwing up the Trek universe (as with the Vulcans in seasons 1-3) was somehow a way to attract new viewers and keep the base? That makes no sense.

The ratings continued to slip because Berman & Co. had already screwed up seasons 1-3. Heck, as much as I love Star Trek my attitude towards Enterprise was mostly lukewarm until Season 4. Indeed, had I not acquired TiVo, making it easier to watch TV, I might never have returned to Enterprise after I drifted away in Season 2.

A little Who clip/music video:

The year was 1978 and ten-year-old me was a true scifi geek in the making. That meant that I would’ve watched practically anything that was related to Star Trek, Star Wars, superheroes or the like. Heck, at that point I thought that the original Battlestar Galactica was pretty good!

I probably would’ve watched animated cowpies if they had had Star Wars costumes on them. Indeed, on November 17, my sister and I watched something that was a bit worse than that, the Star Wars Holiday Special.

George Lucas has refused to re-release this gem wherein we first saw Boba Fett, amongst other delights (including Carrie Fischer singing a “Life Day” song to the tune of the Star Wars theme–I kid thee not).

However, the glories of YouTube means that no video can be kept down by the Man.

Here it is in all it’s ignominy.

And here’s an amusing article, with some of the clips from Giant: It’s A Very Star Wars Holiday Special For All.

Provided by GIANT Magazine.

Some good stuff–especially if you grew up watching cartoons in the 70s.

I was sent a copy of Orson Scott Card’s new book Empire, which I finally finished last week.

Given that there has been some Blogospheric discussion of the book today and yesterday (for example: here and here), it seemed like a good time to post my review.

The proximate cause of the discussion was a review in yesterday’s LAT of a number of dystopian novels (including Empire and Robert Ferrigno’s Prayers for the Assassin which I have a proof of, but have not yet read). The LAT’s review wasn’t kind (but then again, neither is mine).

Below the fold are my thoughts on the book, including some spoilers.

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If you haven’t gotten into NBC’s new series Heroes, you can watch all the eps online here.

Also, the main web says that there is going to be a Heroes marathon on January 1.

Over at Babylon5scripts.com has posted some photos and info on the upcoming direct-to-DVD B5 movies.

It’s the Battlestar Galacticsimpsons

h/t: BogieBlog

Those who might be fans of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, might be interested to know that he has recorded some podcasts about his work. The first, which deals with the origins of the series can be found here: Episode1.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object).

The list of podcasts are on this page at the bottom right.

If you are unfamiliar with the series, I highly recommend it. It is easily the best non-Tolkien fantasy series I have ever read. Very complex and compelling.

The bad news that one finds on his livejournal page is that Dance with Dragons will not be done by the end of this year. At one point the publication date was tagged as February. Sadly, that will not come to pass.