THE TREK IS OVER

UPN has announced the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. Like most people with progressive ideals and too much time on the internet, this is a disappointment for me. Sure, Enterprise might have recycled the same elements that have orbited around the Star Trek universe since the late 60's, but in a cultural galaxy that's more marked by the juvenile, the brutal, the vain and the insipid every season, a lot of us related to Star Trek better than we ever will to 'Reality' TV.

Like the current Star Wars movies, Enterprise is a prequel, set decades before the original Star Trek series. In telling the 'history' of the Star Trek universe, the franchise came full circle. It also appears to have come full circle in a few other ways: In 1967, George Takei, as Ensign Hikaru Sulu, was the only Asian presence on American prime time television. In 2005, if I'm not mistaken, Linda Park, as Ensign Hoshi Sato, is the only Asian presence on American prime time television.

It may be better that Star Trek beams itself up for good after the Enterprise finale on May 13. The past two series (Enterprise and Voyager) have aired to mixed reviews, and the last feature film involving the Next Generation cast, Star Trek: Nemesis, bordered on embarssing. Also, the prequel format would have eventually cornered the show's writers into either embarking on more clunky, overreaching story arcs (like the Xindi crisis, last season's 9/11 parable) or monkeying with story continuity until Star Trek's backstory read like Star Wars Episodes I and II.

That book is true, everything you needed to know you did learn from Star Trek. Notice how successful the franchise was at the beginning, when Gene Rodenberry stuck to his vision, refused to compromise the integrity of the project, while a small but enthused and vocal fan base kept NBC from pulling the plug. The Next Generation proved that an original drama could work in syndication, allowing creative talent a little more freedom from dictates of the major networks, setting the stage for moments on Deep Space Nine you wouldn't see anywhere else: a clever story about union organizing, a same-sex kiss, and not one, but two African-American lead actors (Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn) performing outside of stereotypical black roles.

Now, look what happened when the franchise put itself fully in the hands of the bean counters and deomgraphers at Paramount in order to regain its mass appeal. The aforementioned Star Trek: Nemesis. The Rock's guest appearance on Voyager. Enterprise saving Earth from Xindi annhilation only to be bumped from its time slot on Wednesday nights for the catfighting antics of America's Next Top Model. The moral of the story, it doesn't matter if you're Rick Berman (Star Trek's executive producer, not the ESPN guy) or a leader in your union, activist group, or your community: don't sell out your principles to be popular, and to thine own Trek be true.

Live long and prosper...in reruns.