Michael DeMerritt

Exclusive Interview

Assistant Director on Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise

This interview was conducted by our own Lt Maryanne Scutella

The venue was the Melbourne Star Trek Convention, Feb 6th

Michael was an assistant director for Enterprise and Voyager and had been involved with the show for 11 years. Enterprise has now been cancelled on UPN and Michael actually found that out while being here in Australia. He had not really spoken to anyone from the US about it at this stage and so some of his answers on this issue are purely speculation.

Maryanne: What are your thoughts and feelings about the recent cancellation of enterprise?

Michael: I have mixed feelings about the cancellation. For the whole year as a crew we were absolutely overjoyed that we got this season at all. We’ve been blessed that Manny Coto joined the team and I think made one of our best year yet because between Rick, Brannon and Manny the best came out and this has been our best year. He was the third element that really made it work so we’re glad we got the year to do these stories and we hoped that these good stories would have gotten us the next year but I think that the crew as a whole sort of became conscious that the very likely cancellation before Thanksgiving then it was after that that there was this general acceptance that it is what it is and that it has been a long run and we have all had this job for a long time and that we should do our best and go on from there and make the best show and to go out saying it’s a great show. That way people in the future will say why did they cancel it. Like they did with Firefly and the original series which should not have been cancelled it was very strong but they did. So that was the feeling about the cancellation. It is like losing family. I mean I have been with the show for eleven years in and many ways I spend more hours with the people of that crew than I do with my own family. Which is not good on the one hand but that’s the way it is and it is going to be a loss. I think the last show will be very emotional.

Maryanne: What do you think about the future of the Star Trek franchise?

Michael: I think they will try to develop a concept for a feature but I think that Paramount will really have to have faith in it and it will be after they get all the numbers. How the DVD sales do, is it safe to take the risk, is there a lot of support out there. They have been saying that they feel the franchise needs a rest and I don’t think they are going to test that theory in television, its smarter, its more dynamic, its better promoted to test it in the theatre. So, they are really going to give the franchise a rest. If Star Trek is going to come back I don’t think it will be in television, it will be on the big screen and it will be something totally different and there is no guarantee that that will actually occur. All the beads have to line up and I think that not knowing and not being there to talk to anyone because I found out here. I think that Rick Berman will continue to push forward the feature concept… (at this point he got distracted and went completely off topic. He eventually came back to the topic of Star Trek)

This is a personal thing, if it’s attached to anything from my work it will sound bad. In my opinion I think that if there is a new development it will be in the feature side and it will not be in the television side because the way television is going and the future is going with rapid access, people being able to download material very quickly, people being able to schedule it and watch anywhere and anytime they want. So, in terms of the longevity of star trek I think by they time they re-think a television concept, television won’t be the same. It could become a pay per view kind of thing, it could become something that no one has imagined yet. But television is changing and I would personally think some kind of feature and then from there they may risk some kind of television series but I don’t think its going to happen.

Maryanne: I heard a rumour that there is a feature in development…

Michael: Well, I don’t think it had been official said by Rick. When they say “development” they are talking about a concept that is the very beginning and if it works the way he wants it to work it would go over the time when Kirk meets Spock for the first time. I don’t want to say anymore now; I don’t want to get in trouble. That is the concept they are talking about now. When you here the words “development” ever attached to a project it means you never know, it still in a essence where people are sitting down and writing down ideas and coming up with it and going back to the people who make decisions and saying what do you think of this, I don’t know lets adjust this and by the time it all goes through the manifestations to the point where someone says lets write a script. It may be a completely different idea. You can’t cling to rumours even when they come from a great source like Rick. You can’t hold them because the process is built in chaos. It’s meant to shake it down to its best elements that everyone agrees is a good feature.

Maryanne: So for this idea to work they would go and get someone else to play the roles of Kirk and Spock, wouldn’t there be problems with this?

Michael: I think that that is exactly what they want to do. In my opinion I thought that it would be a great series to do. My idea, if I was in charge, would have been to redo the original trek with Kirk and Spock and hire new actors and I personally think that if you did that some people would go who do you think you are, who could possibly re-play these roles the publicity would be huge, and if they did it and it worked, they would have a huge audience that would stay with it the whole time, if it worked. I think it’s worth taking the chance. There are die hards, and there are die hards. I remember when next generation first came out there was a lot of people who said you can’t make a next generation series it’s just wrong and now its sorta revered, loved program. The truth of the matter is if you do something daring and it works, you’re rewarded. People will say what they say now that you can’t do that but if it actually works they’ll say god that was great. So I’m more for thinking you should go for it because technology is so advanced now that if we re-shoot the same scripts and sprinkle them in. There might be an episode and just redo it, the whole thing and also add new stories. Mix it all in together so you can do the whole narrative as it originally was plus the new stories, I think it would be fantastic. Will someone who wants to spend 44 million dollars or more a year thinks its fantastic is the ultimate question. Is it worth the risk?

We thank Michael for taking the time to participate in the interview and thank

Scott Liston, the convention promoter for allowing us to conduct the interview.

Visit Scott at www.firstcontactconventions.com.au