#693 – An Open Letter to CBS

Dear CBS,

First of all I need to apologize to you. I haven’t always said the nicest things about you. In fact, the nicest thing I’ve said about you in a long time is that you broadcast the NFL. While more a statement of fact than an actual compliment, it’s far more complementary than what I normally say about you.

I’ve bemoaned the fact that your uninspired comedies like Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory are ratings juggernauts. While Better Off Ted got canceled after two seasons and shows like Parks and Rec are always on the bubble to get renewed.

Your unoriginal crime procedurals spawn even more unoriginal crime procedurals. While truly original shows like Pushing Daisies get canceled before they even have a chance to fully bloom.

I know you have the NFL but I don’t know why you continue trying to get me to care about Phil Simms’s All-Iron Team.

So, before I ask anything of you, I really need to ask your forgiveness. I can’t justify my behavior and I wanted to clear the air before I ask a big favor.

Please bring Star Trek back to television.

Please?

Pretty please with a jumja stick on top?

Paramount has found success updating Star Trek for the big screen and I think you would find even more success updating it for the small screen.

I know that the last Star Trek television series to air wasn’t that successful. Enterprise only lasted four seasons and didn’t find footing with most critics and fans. Brannon Braga and Rick Berman had been at the helm for a long time. They had a lot of success with The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and, to a lesser extent, Voyager. However, it seems like they spent their creativity and passion with those projects, leaving them little to give to Archer and the crew of the NX-01.

That same lack of creativity and passion had befallen the Star Trek movie universe as well. Other than First Contact, most of The Next Generation crew’s movies weren’t that great. Star Trek as a movie franchise needed a fresh infusion of creative energy, which J.J. Abrams brought in abundance. He made Star Trek cool and exciting again, as well as profitable.

For as great as all the Star Trek movies have been, including the two most recent installments, they’re missing something. Star Trek’s story isn’t meant to be told in two-hour installments every four years. Star Trek’s story is meant to be told 40 minutes at a time over the course of an entire television season.

Fans haven’t made Star Trek one of the most profitable franchises of all time because of flashy space battles and intense action sequences. As fans we fell in love with Star Trek because we got to know the crews of the Enterprise on a week-to-week basis. We invited the residents of Deep Space Nine into our home every week because we cared about their stories. Television provides a depth that movies cannot. And that depth, which so many fans have experienced throughout hundreds of Star Trek episodes, has led to an even deeper love and appreciation for the Star Trek franchise.

Star Trek fans aren’t the only ones looking for genre fiction on the small screen. Once Upon a Time and Arrow have found audiences. Even this season Sleepy Hollow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are breakout hits. A new Star Trek series would definitely find an audience and help keep CBS as America’s number one network.

I don’t love you CBS but I love Star Trek. And if you brought Star Trek back to television, like the Grinch, I’d see my heart grow as well as my love for you.

Sincerely,

Scott Higa
The Christian Nerd