05-17-01 UPN President Introduces Enterprise Describing it as "TV history in the making," United Paramount Network entertainment president Tom Nunan introduced Enterprise, the fifth installment of the Star Trek franchise starring Scott Bakula, to the world at a presentation this morning in New York. The new one-hour drama will air in UPN's 2001-2002 primetime schedule on Wednesdays at 8:00. "You all are witness to a show that guarantees instant attention, recognition, anticipation and most importantly, success," Nunan told a gathering of advertisers and affiliate representatives. That is because "Star Trek is the most popular science fiction franchise in the world." "Set in the 22nd century, nearly 150 years before James T. Kirk and only 100 years from now, Enterprise introduces us to the pioneering days of space exploration, when interstellar travel is in its infancy, and a universe — and the unknown — portends both danger and awe," Nunan said. "Appropriately, the crew of Enterprise exhibits a sense of wonder as well as a little trepidation about the strange things and beings they will encounter. Being among the first to explore deep space, they will have to prove they are ready for life among the stars." "Leading the crew is Captain Jonathan Archer, to be played by Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap and 'American Beauty' fame," he continued. "Captain Archer is the prototype for Starfleet captains to come. He's bold, intensely curious and eager to venture where no man has gone before. He possesses all of the traits that any NASA astronaut today would need to lead a crew into heavens they had only read about or studied before." "The final frontier has a new beginning" Nunan then ran a promotional video recounting the history of Star Trek and introducing Enterprise with the tagline, "The final frontier has a new beginning." No footage from the new show — which started production on Monday — was shown, but the video did include an Enterprise title treatment (as now seen on STARTREK.COM). Portions of interviews with executive producer Rick Berman and other crew members were interspersed with clips from the previous TV shows and movies. "Star Trek has been sort of imbedded in people's minds. It's been around for 35 years now," Berman said in the video. "There's nobody out there who hasn't heard of a photon torpedo or a Klingon or 'Beam me up Scotty' or warp speed. It's part of our culture, and I think the familiarity of it is something that is very comfortable to people." "What's important about Enterprise is, it's a ship of exploration, and space travel — interplanetary space travel — is a fairly new thing in this era," said Marvin V. Rush, director of photography on the new show. "Warp drive has been around for a while, but not very long. Transporter technology is also fairly new, and while it's proven, not everybody in the world trusts it." Regarding the interior of the new 22nd-century starship, Rush said, "The controls are more tactile, mechanical. The buttons — you have to push them, I mean, they're not all touch-screens." He added, "Mankind is learning about other cultures, other spacefaring societies. It's a time of discovery, of who we really are, where we fit in, into the cosmos." Production Designer Herman Zimmerman reiterated, "This is a hundred years from now, and a hundred years before Kirk and Spock. The Enterprise that we're watching now is going to be much more hands-on for the crew." Of the show's premise, Zimmerman added, "Basically we're getting a lot of information about what's outside our [region of the] galaxy from the Vulcans." Berman concluded by saying, "Star Trek has always represented a very positive, hopeful outlook of the future, and a lot of science fiction doesn't. And I think that means a great deal to a lot of people." During the rest of his presentation, Nunan pointed out that each spin-off of Star Trek has launched with very impressive ratings. "Every version of the Star Trek franchise takes off the launching pad at warp speed, with thrusters on full, blasting away the competition, living long and prospering." He said that UPN's decision to run Enterprise at 8:00 on Wednesdays was based in large part on the competing lineups announced by the other networks. That time period "is the perfect spot to stake a claim to the young adult audience that is vastly underserved by the other networks." from startrek.com.