"True of False?"

An analysis of the "Series V" casting sheet

March 12th, 2001

Now, at least in this respect the issue with the series V casting sheet is a completely different story.

But first things first. On last Sunday, at 8 o'clock in the morning (CET), I checked news & mails quickly because I wouldn't spent the day in town... And as always when you don't have any time: this bomb! Naturally, I took the time, and glanced over it shortly. Well, I can tell you that I was already suspicious at that time... The gut feeling... it rang false... But, I was too excited to discover any of the (fairly obvious) prooves.

Yet in the evening I had the time to read through it more thoroughly. I think it was a even greater shock to discover all those little suspicious in-jokes, the inconsistencies, oddities and moments of déjà ju in it...

I still wanted to believe it, but after I dealt several ours with it, discussing it with other fans in the forums...

Hell, what was the person thinking that wrote this stuff???

Before I give somes examples... if you haven't "enjoyed" the writing, you can read it here.

So we have yet another white American male captain Jackson Archer...

Jackson Archer... what a silly name. It somehow reminded me of Valerie Archer from "In the Flesh" on the other hand. But who wants to assess a document in view of the silliness of a name?

Speaking of names... Here we have the most obvious oddities: "Subcommander T'Pau" seems to be a crossbreed between the Vulcan from "Amok Time" and a Romulan officer... Still, my favorites are the Admirals "Forest" (DeFOREST "Bones" Kelley), "Williams" (WILLIAM "Kirk" Shatner) and "Leonard" (LEONARD "Spock" Nimoy).
I think I would have laughed out loudly on this great insider-joke if the situation wouldn't have been so tense for me and the other fans ...

Who laughs on a day where he has spent three or four hours analyzing a fake? Merde.

More grave than the names are, of course, the similarities between this crew and the other Star Trek casts, most notably the TOS cast. The captain sounds like a imitatee of "the" Kirk himself, mixed with some "Bones" qualities (doesn't like Vulcans). The doctor is, of course, The Doctor from Voyager. He thinks humanity is faszinating. Oh well. The "human mirror" character would be again the medical officer. Who would believe it? And the "Southern", passionate engineer? That definitely is a rehashed "Bones"!

Personally, I always thought it was too much a coinincidence that exactly when we know for sure that pre-production and casting must have began or is about to begin, and everybody believes in the "Birth of the Federation" concept (referred to as "BotF" in fandom), we get this suspicious little paper...

Hey? Didn't they say that almost nobody knows the entire truth of series V except Rick Berman and Brannon Braga? And didn't they say they've taken the most strict security measures to ensure that *nobody* will know *anything* about it until they want it (and it has worked perfectly up to this moment, hasn't it?).  And the real concept should not have reached the internet, according to Berman's recent statement. So it can't be "BotF", as much as we want it now (OTOH, I remember some months ago when still all options were regarded as possible no one liked this concept! What a change of mind...).

Consequently, the situation now is the following: one fraction abandoned the cast sheet because of the obvious reasons (you will find much more in the various threads), having been written by a person who has a bad sense of humour, including all those little reference to test the fans, or a person from TPTB to misinform and mislead people (what a cruel joke!). The other fraction thinks it's at least partly true. And some even can't stop believing that it must be true. And these three groups are still arguing and discussing over it again and again ... Now this is what I call a causuality loop...

After all, even the secret sources of the various news sites are discordant. A few days after the publication of the casting sheet, some sources revealed that it's pure crap, some sources say the characters are true, but it's not a 22nd, but 29th century premise (which would be, after all, much less interesting IMHO, given what we've seen in "Future's End" and "Relativity"), and some sources confirmed it. And some sources... turned out to be a fake themselves! It's kinda crazy...

Well, this experience has taught me one thing: don't take anything for granted until it has been *officially* confirmed. We're still waiting for this confirmation, although "we might get an official announcement in a few days" (Paramount official a few days ago)...

And the whole matter showed how the curiosity and expectation of the fans is nearing the boiling point. We would believe everything that looks like some official series V information at this time. Ironically, the situation pretty much resembles the one described in "The Voyager Conspiracy", an episode that everybody branded as being highly unlikely and unbelievable. How could Janeway and Chakotay believe this hare-brained theory with its obvious weaknesses... I don't need to list the parallels?

A rumor is more dangerous than Trilithium explosives - travelling at warp 10 and causing incredible damage among an entire fandom...!

Up to the real Major Star Trek Event^TM, for me, series V won't be "Star Trek: Enterprise" (although the title is quite appropriate, nicely ambiguous), but "Series V", featuring Captain "X" and Commander "Y".

And in the improbable, but still possible case that the casting sheet or the other rumors on series V (including the "news" that the "Enterprise" will have no warp nacelles. Oh well...) are true, I think I will have to consult my psychotherapist more frequently ... ;-)

After all, the whole story had at least one positive side-effect: it inspired the fans to think over their (unrealistic) wishes and the real possibilities for series V. As many, I am - despite all unclarities - still a supporter of the "BotF" concept with its chances to "go back to the roots" of Trek both literally and symbolically, back to the sense of wonder, to the exploration of the final frontier of space and the human possibilities... Moreover, I would like to see a woman again in the big seat - since Janeway proved that women can be the better commanders, combining aptitude and experience with a somehow more human, more personal attitude towards their crew. And I would like to go back to the multi-culturalism of TOS and TNG... leaving the nationalistic, anthropocentric and america-centric view of the world behind and really venturing to the 21st century.

But in the end, it's like I said in the beginning: at the moment, we don't know (almost) anything for sure, and everything is possible. The sky is the limit.

Christian Rühl

Webmaster - Star Trek Dimension