Is anyone following the New Plan to Save Enterprise?
 

This is such complete madness that I figure it has to appeal to some fellow members of the Fiver community:

This is from the TrekBBS thread (http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showf...Number=3952274) that came within a hair of crashing the server yesterday:

Similar threads have popped up on the saveenterprise, trekweb, stuniverse, and startrek.com forums. I have literally sat and watched messages appear pledging a total of thousands of dollars, and, I'm told, there is far more on Tim (Saveenterprise founder)'s e-mail server.

A central domain is being set up as I write, with a secure server for donations.

Call me an optimist, but it is not yet the time to give up hope!

Stay tuned...

I have no IDEA how to react to this.

I'll agree to that statement!

I can't help but wonder how many of the people pledging large sums of money donate to charities...

It's a valid point -- but I can't help but wonder if those making it donate to charities either. And if not, whether that bothers them when they pay to watch movies and such.

However, I take this point more seriously here than I did during the SaveEnterprise ad campaigns. We're talking about a LOT more money this time. That's one of the reasons I find this pay-it-yourself plan somewhat unsettling.

I hate to be the voice of doom here, but every time other people try to so much as borrow the rights for Doctor Who from the Beeb post the '89 cancellation, they turned down the offers. I have nothing against trying, but I thought I'd better just say that this kind of stuff has been tried before, and it doesn't necessarily work.

Here are my questions, which I'm sure have been raised in the threads mentioned, but I haven't read them.

1. Has Paramount been officially asked about this? I somehow don't think showing up at their door with $36 million will necessarily guarantee a 5th season. I can see Paramount's lawyers getting scared by the idea of a fan-funded 5th season and then turn down the idea.

2. Are the people making pledges really going to go through with it or are they not going to pay later?

3. Are the people already donating money going to get their money back if it fails? If not, who will get the money?

um I paid 700 dollars this past year for Voyager DVD's. The way I see it... I've more than paid my dues already. I'm not giving anymore money to Paramount or Trek. Maybe it's wrong of me, but I've bought movies and magazines and Trek dolls! Dude. I paid to see Nemesis in the movie theatre! They owe me!

Ok sorry for the harshness. The fans that want to do this, great! I'll watch Season 5! But as for me, I can't see myself donating money to this when I have a family to think about. Of course I never bought a Kirk autograph off Ebay for 300 dollars! Or been to a convention and paid over a thousand dollars.

Admiral, that's perfectly sensible, not harsh. Real life has to come first, not TV, ultimately.

Hey, petitions got Family Guy back on the air. :D Just remember that!

Syndicated reruns beating some first-run shows in the ratings and millions of dollars in DVD sales got Family Guy back on the air.

The new site is TrekUnited. Yes, they already have a lawyer on board. I think they've made overtures to Paramount. Tim says WRITE SCIFI NOW because they are also interested but they want to see what the fan base does. If the effort fails, I believe the figure is 97% of the money will be refunded to the donors. There's a FAQ on the TrekBBS and I imagine it'll be up on the TrekUnited site in a few days.

Yes, I donate to charity, local and national, every year. Yes, I donated to the tsunami relief effort. Donating to help pay for a S5 will likely be mostly symbolic, but if you already have an entertainment budget (junk food, movies, magazines, CDs, MP3s) then you already have spare money if you wanted to donate to this cause.

I would rather go down fighting and know that I did whatever I could to keep ENT on the air than shrug my shoulders and let Les F*cking Moonves tell me what I can and cannot watch.

LOL My thoughts exactly!

I think its a lovaly idea, it realy does show devotion. However I personaly have no plans to donate money to a TV show however much I like it. I have (and will continue to) written letters on behalf of ENY, but thats my limit. Although if it does work I'll feel guilty about watching it becaus I didn't help out.

I don't have the money anyway, so thats an academic point.

Does anyone know if this has been tryed before?

lol after reading the Trip/T'Polers forum and a few other threads about this I'm now convinced I might want to send in money. (stupid hormones!) Of course I just want to send money so we can show those people that they can't control what we watch. LOL give me an hour and my mind may change again. Who knows?! Will spare change help? How about I go around collecting all the pocket change I can find... cash that in and that's how much I'll donate to the cause. :)

Well, yes. That helps too. ►_►

Good heavens! This must be stopped at once! Don't you see, once the networks pick up on the idea, that means that if they get a show with a bit fan following on their hands, all they need to do is threaten to cancel it and then just watch the money pour in! It's madness, I tell you!

;)

One more thing. Even if paramount says yes to s5, it will take some time to sort out. Wont the actors have other work lined up by then?

Not if the casting agents have seen their work on Enterprise. *rimshot*

I kid, I kid. In all honesty, I think the best shot for the series to survive would be if SciFi picks it up... and considering what I've seen from that network so far, I suspect the series would improve several times over.

I agree. I think I'm going to concentrate on emailing/mailing Sci fi network. It's less costly! ;)

Whoo... lots of questions. The TrekUnited.com forum is now up, by the way, but they're busy trying to hammer out the PayPal accounts (which, I believe, gurantee 99-100% refund in case of failure.

From the TrekUnited FAQ:

Shoot. This was to be a long note, but dinner. Later!

SciFi would be better than cancellation, but that's all I'll say for them. These are the people who promoted Farscape to the hilt and then cancelled it. I'd trust them as far as I can throw a PK Command Carrier.

I'm back.

Derek, yes, Paramount has been officially approached about this, lawyers in tow. TrekUnited was told to come back later with a large check and they'll talk.

Those making pledges seem completely serious, but we won't know until the PayPal account is up tonight or tomorrow. I, for one, am most definitely in.

Valium, yes, it's been tried before. But never by Trekdom. Despite what the ratings say, we are still far stronger than the fan bases of Farscape (which also tried this, didn't they?) or Dr. Who. We can make this work. All that's really required is heavy word-of-mouth; I can't see it as a problem to get 3 Million Trekkies, who already pay vast amounts of money for DVD boxsets, to put down $12. Seriously, stripysox and Adm. Sab, you must pay $12 a week in lunch money...or do you? (Twilight Zone music)

Random extra bonus from pulling this off: we'll be paying production costs directly, avoiding UPN and thereby not needing to make a profit on airing the show. Translation: No commericials! :D :D

*gasp*

My opinion: this is insanity. But it could just be insanity that grabs enough attention to do something.

I don't believe it is possible to raise enough money to pay for the entire fifth series. Not a chance. 3 million people, in this context, is a giant number. 3 thousand is stretching the limits of what I could believe to be possible.

But it will certainly be interesting to see what happens.

And you've just summed up my feelings.

True, 3 million seems too big. But, if you think globally, and enough fanatics (and I do mean fanatics) blitz every major and minor media organization or ST site, it's not all that outrageous.

But it is still outrageous, I'll grant you that.

:roll: Fine. So, UPN is retarded, SciFi is evil, and the fan money plan is "unsettling." And you want... what, exactly?

And what's a PK Command Carrier, anywho? Ah, Google tells me it's "a kind of fish." No, wait.

Ah. Gratuitious Farscape reference.

You know what? I really need to get off this topic and be a bit more social.

I'm not sure what I think about this. I mean...I do want Enterprise back. Actually, beyond that, I pretty much need Enterprise back. But I don't even have money to but a chocolate bar from the vending machine at lunch. (not that I eat chocolate, but...)

I'd like to, and Space is a good network for those of us in Canada, but I just don't have the resources.

There's such a thing as situations without a perfect solution. You know I'll be thrilled if ENT is saved, no matter how it's done. If SciFi picks it up or the fan campaign succeeds, the good will far outweigh the bad. But I'm not going to pretend the bad isn't there.

With BSG renewed and SG-1 building an empire, maybe SciFi has learned its lesson. I'm just pointing out their record isn't promising. As for the fan campaign, I'm going to make a post explaining what bothers me about that in more detail. (Short answer: sense of entitlement.) But I still intend to support it however I can.

Realistically speaking, I think if ENT has any chance it would be on SCI-FI. However much TrekUnited raises -- and no, I don't think it will be the full amount for production costs -- it will be to prove the point that Trek in general and ENT specifically are not dead. There IS interest. We ARE watching. Raising a serious chunk of change is fighting the TV establishment. And anything which protests the takeover of schadenfreude TV gets a thumbs-up in my book.

Oo, I like that term for it. (The word schadenfreude has been in my head a lot lately, with all the "thank God ENT is cancelled" comments I've been seeing.)

Germany will yet conquer the world - memetically! Mwuahaha!

...why are you all looking at me like that? :)

I personally predict that critical mass on such a fund would be about a hundredthousand bucks. Gather that, and it'll atleast leave a serious impression.

Gatac

Bitte. :) It neatly separates the home-makeover shows (which range from interesting to annoying but are harmless) and PBS "House" series from the unscripted shit based on competition, elimination, humiliation, trepidation, and salivation (over some prize). (Couldn't end the -tion streak there, could I?)

I must remember that phrase......but the problem occurs when you get the crossover between home makeover and schadenfreuder........a la a programme over here called "How clean is your house"........ :roll:

Just an update: TrekUnited.com has announced that they are planning to have their donation system up on Monday, as they work out legal questions and try to get charitable NPO status.

Also, I have applied for and apparently received the position of TU liason to FMV. It makes me feel so warm.

And a shout out to Dexter74656, a fellow fiver-lover who seems to have found his way over to TU. *wave!*

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I don't know what this guy's talking about. Anyone else ever heard of a site called "FMV"?

Isn't it some sort of men's magazine?

Oh yeah, that one. Hmmm, sports fivers, otherwise known as highlights.

Sounds like a video/music store to me.........

I heard it was a site about new Radio Transmitting technologies. FMV, where V is for the 5th version.

I... I...!

No comment.