Eulogy for Star Trek

[Originally published on N:Zone in May 2005]"All good things..."May 13, 2005. The finale of Star Trek: Enterprise has just aired. I feel awful.A cultural phenomenon like Star Trek deserved so much better than this furtive, hastily constructed holodeck coda to usher it into history. Did they actually plan to pull the plug on Friday the 13th? Probably not, but that doesn't surprise me. In my

A failing Enterprise: is there hope for Star Trek, or is the franchise dead?

[Originally published on N:Zone in 2004]Once upon a time in the early 1970s, Star Trek was an underground hit. Original 1966-1969 series reruns were being stripped every weeknight at six. New fans were watching the episodes over the dinner table, and catching on in droves. Star Trek conventions sprang up spontaneously all over the place, and fan fiction was born. Star Wars swept the country,

Is there life after Buffy? And can Star Trek be saved?

March 2, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]It's official; Sarah Michelle Gellar has quit her slay job to do movies. Movies like the Scooby-Doo sequel, I suppose. I wish her the best of luck; thank you for seven great years, Sarah.The big question for me is: can there be a viable spinoff, now that the proposed Faith-based spinoff has gone down the tubes?Right now, I'm hoping that the

Do We Have a Lack of Faith?

February 25, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]Welcome to my new column!My major obsession first:No solid news yet on the fate of Buffy, with only six episodes left and counting... but the handwriting is certainly on the wall that this is The End. Sarah Michelle Gellar is in negotiations to do a movie in August, after filming the (ick) sequel to Scooby-Doo, and August is when shooting on