Star Trek: Enterprise cancelled

EnterpriseCiting declining ratings, UPN and Paramount announce that Star Trek: Enterprise‘s current season – its fourth – will be its last. The last episode will be shot in March. At 97 episodes (the network’s press release says 98, as Paramount typically counts the two-hour series premiere in 2001 as two shows), Enterprise is the shortest Star Trek spinoff since the original Star Trek was cancelled after three seasons in the 1960s. David Stapf, President of Paramount Network Television, says in a statement, “All of us at Paramount warmly bid goodbye to Enterprise, and we all look forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future,” though the cancellation marks the first time since 1987 that there is been no new Star Trek in production for TV; at least one spinoff has been in production continuously for 18 years, resulting in 619 episodes (seven of them two-hour TV movies) and four spinoff-based feature films. Another movie, the eleventh in the franchise’s history, is reportedly moved to the back burner by Paramount.

The Orchestra: No Rewind

No RewindArt Records releases The Orchestra’s album No Rewind. This is a new lineup for the band previously known as Electric Light Orchestra Part II, which – after the departure of founding ELO drummer Bev Bevan – is now legally required to avoid references to Electric Light Orchestra in any promotional material. This album saw limited release as a tour exclusive in 2001; this is its first retail release. Read more

Doctor Who returns… a bit too early

Doctor WhoWeeks before its intended premiere date, the first episode of the revived Doctor Who arrives early, via a rough edit leaked to internet filesharing services. Eventually traced to a real preview copy in the hands of a Canadian broadcaster, the episode is missing the new version of the theme music, but is otherwise mostly complete. The BBC tracks down the source of the leak, all while realizing that fandom is now capable of acquiring more than just advance episode titles and photos early.