The end of Star Trek?
September 24, 2003MSNBC had a story about the end of Star Trek. Basically talking about how a lot of fans are not tuning in to the latest series, Enterprise.
The author makes some good points–there’s definitely a lot more SF available to people, and of course there’s video games that let you interact in fantastical worlds. Basically when Trek was the only option it did well. Now it’s part of a universe of options and is struggling to stay relevant.
I feel their pain–that’s kindof what happened here at CNET. At first we were the lone tech news site, ruler of the tech news universe. But as the Internet grew the market fragmented and we are left holding a smaller and smaller portion of the pie. Of course the argument I hear is that the pie is much much larger now. So even though our slice is smaller, we’re doing better overall.
Same for Star Trek–they may not be the dominant sci-fi franchise but then sci-fi itself is a much larger genre today than it ever was. There’s a dedicated sci-fi cable channel, there’s mainstream shows with clear sci-fi influence, many of the biggest blockbuster movies are sci-fi, and so.
I hope that argument is right. For the sake of Star Trek (yes, I am a trekker). And for the sake of CNET.
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