STV: Why Doug Drexler backs that petition for a Netflix ENTERPRISE

Amid all the hoopla over that movie that came out May 17, or even our little Star Trek Continues ...

You might have choked on your gagh a few weeks back to read about a campaign to get Netflix to fund a "fifth season" of none other than... Star Trek: Enterprise?

It may have even popped up on your Facebook. That's how I first dropped my jaw over the topic. But I find out all about in this vidchat--just below. But first, consider this:

Netflix funding of original series and now the return of "old" series, of course, is a done deal already: new eps of cult classic Arrested Development are a movie lead-in, Kevin Spacey's original House of Cards aired there too—and now a Veronica Mars comeback movie, of all things, is green-lit after zillions of Kickstarter backers.

So look at where we are in 2013!

For the first time, a "dead" show could actually be brought back to life with non-network backing .... even an online streaming service. And the show's still-pissed-off fanbase would actually have a hand in resurrecting it by demand, and continued streaming.

And so that leads us to Jen DeSalle and Robert Bolivar, who decided to launch their own Facebook et al petition campaign to convince Netflix to do the same thing for Enterprise. After all, if zillions got a 20-something mystery drama back in production, surely many times more would stand up for the disrespected and increasingly missed final incarnation of TV Trek?

Then what to my wondering eye should appear than the respected name of Doug Drexler among the "backers" of the petition drive. No fan-flak he, make-up and CGI pro Doug went on to the Battlestar franchise of course and works all over now—but Trek is still his heart and soul. He wouldn't attach his name to this Facebook petition to Netflix lightly—so I had to track him down and ask, given all we know about Trek TV these days...



So the Facebook campaign HQ is here—and I wrote the founders to get more about it.

Jen told me that she was for the campaign to convince Netflix even with the Paramount/CBS "moratorium" on Trek TV. "Trek on TV has consistently done better than any of the movies by far. Now, CBS may not see this in the short term but over time, one of the things we hope to show them, is that the TV side is not only profitable, but, in the case of a series like Enterprise, also cost-effective." And, she adds, the "selfish" chance for a lifelong fan to create a page, CGI mockups and promo banners on such a campaign with Doug and other sites was "too much to pass up".

It was a comment by exec producer Brannon Braga, of all people, about using Netlfix to revive Enterprise as a renewed series or even TV movie that nudged Bolivar to jump ahead with the campaign for fans who feel "cheated" at the early departure of the NX-01. "Network interference, declining ratings and other studio red tape are something that every show has faced," Rob says. "Enterprise was just hitting its stride when it was cancelled. With our Facebook campaign, we are doing something that has never really been done with Trek before. We have gathered the fans, actors, production staff, etc.— all of them in basically the same place to support each other and the cause. Are there hurdles? Absolutely, but we have the ability of hindsight this time around. We know what works and what doesn’t. We know how to keep costs down and with the advances in digital sets; we can film just about anything. I think that Netflix is the perfect medium for this type of endeavor. Enterprise fans deserve this. We just want to see the series played out the way it was supposed to be.

" It's a worthwhile cause, and I hope, and pray that it is noticed, that we are heard, and we get our dream, at least one more season of Enterprise, to see some of what we can do now, and of course maybe the Romulan War wouldn't hurt.," Jen adds. As does Rob: "Streaming media is the future of television, and so is Star Trek."

What do YOU think? Does this really have a chance of appealing to Netlfix, much less persuading CBS to let it be done in the first place?

Or do we truly live in an "all bets are off" media world of change today, and who knows?

Birthdays en masse, and RIP William Windom: "He's gone"

It's been such a busy week post-Vegas that I haven't had time to mark the latest birthdays, for Jonathan Frakes and of course Gene Roddenberry ... And now comes this sad news: the death Saturday at age 88 of our own tragic Matt Decker, William Windom.

Gene and Jonathan, each in their own way, were remembered by fans all over on their day Sunday. But I have to stop and say this:

I envy Doug Drexler, Jack Marshall, James Cawley and the Phase II "fan film" crew who worked with Windom, incredibly, ca. 2004 on their episode "In Harm's Way." Doug and Dorothy relate on Facebook here how the retired actor drove eight hours down to L.A. from NorCal to reprise Decker in an older visage for that story. It was a great tale behind a sweet moment in all the fan-generated episodes we have today.

Now, I have no similar story; I saw him at cons and signing shows and really only had one real conversation—in fact, I'm pretty sure it was just about the last time I ever really bought an autograph. Reflecting on it here, I think it's a sign of how even now there are some lingering occasions where you just can't shake "fanboy mode," even after all these years working in Trekland.

Because I mainly saw William Windom where it really mattered: right there, unshaven and unsteady, wearing his gold shirt with the Constellation insignia. For you see, Windom's Matt Decker was the TOS guest star that easily made the greatest dramatic wallop on me back when the term "Star Trek" referred only to those 79 one-hour TV episodes you watched after school. So many great ones, but it was the gripping background of a wrecked sister ship, the Big Four all with screen time doing their jobs under stress, the biggest amount of custom FX shots in TOS, and that great Sol Kaplan score I swear John Williams ripped off for Jaws—in fact, I'm playing the suite as I write this. It all made "DMa" easily the most impactful for me, Windom's broken Decker being the icing on the cake.  

That's the show I recite the most lines from, the most entire scenes from. So much so that, even in recent years, Windom gave me a look that day at Bill Campbell's old Fantasticon charity cons of the late 90s when I asked him to sign his only Decker photo option a certain way.

Now, I admit I do recall, barely, seeing he and Inger Stevens in the sitcom The Farmer's Daughter (they had that cool stair-chair that went up and down the treads, along a wall track). And I recall enjoying the Thurber-based cult classic My World and Welcome To It that nabbed him an Emmy even though it was cancelled, even before I understood what that all meant and why that was karmic payback for the injustice of it being axed (as so many cool shows would come to be mourned when cut down too soon). Not so much with Windom as the doctor on Murder, She Wrote, personally not being a regular viewer—but it didn't matter: By the 1980s, Windom was simply one of those great fixture faces of TV you could always count on.

Yep ... he's a big reason—though hardly the only one—why "The Doomsday Machine" remains one of my two favorite Treks of TOS, and why I can still recite two entire scenes of his. One, Decker's usurping of the Enterprise conn from Spock, which inspires one of De Kelley's best scenes ever (and clearly the Best McCoy Go-To-Hell Look in the whole franchise). I had to be a little older before I realized Windom's one-handed fidgeting with the two microtapes as Decker under siege was an homage to the metal balls Bogie's Captain Queeg handled all through his hearing and breakdown in The Caine Mutiny.

And then, That Other Scene: perhaps the most difficult any early Trek guest was ever called upon to play: traumatic shock. Recite Decker along with me, won't you?: "Don't you know that? There was... but not any more!"

Either Windom had forgotten, or he got asked to sign that zillions of times....like the day *I* asked him. I suspect it was the latter ... but one way or the other, it was why I got The Look. And I wouldn't trade it—the autograph, or the memory—for all the quatloos in China.

(What? None of this conjures up the ghost, right out of hell? Then take a look at this legal demo clip; you need to see it—at least from 0:44 onward:)




So long, Mr. Windom. We really were stronger with you than without you.

Your thoughts? Please share with the crew, below— in comments:

For folks in SoCal, a memorial service for Windom will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 at Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles.

It's not just about me: Dug, Kev & Dayton...and...

While we still deal with that "compressed time" between Comic-Con and Vegas Trek...

... Here are a couple of shout-outs for some Treklander buds:


First off, amazing and funny Trek fanpro guy Doug Drexler of drexfiles.com fame (among OTHER things) is unearthing some of his video shot from work days around the Trek stages and such over the years, and sharing in a new blog at the slimmed-down and relaunched startrek.com ....a MUST-see.

(Hmmm... The new startrek.com: Must give that a closer look...)

And THEN: if you are in shoutin' distance of KC MO, check out bith this weekend's Saturday performances of Khaaaaan: The Musical with my fellow Comic-Con survivors and former Communicator  writers  (oh, and incredible Trek author team) Kevin Dilmore & Dayton Ward—who will be on hand with books and sigs for both shows. (Check out this video: The show cast lead was born after Wrath of Khan? Oh my... )

All of which brings to mind the fact that I've never had a blog roll for ongoing shout-outs to Trekland buds of various stripes, for some reason. I think that's about to change.....