Star Trek: Good TV Ratings? No Khan Do

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Star Trek
Good TV Ratings?: No Khan Do

By Indelibleink

"Cancellation...the Final Frontier.
These are the mishaps of the starship, Enterprise.
Its five, four, okay, three year mission: to explore strange, new time slots, to seek out good Nielsen numbers, to barely make the minimum three year "magic number" to allow us to go into syndication."


Back in the sixties, when life was merry,
And television was but a mere child...
Along came this guy named Roddenberry,
Soon all other TV rendered as mild.

Despite Gene having had quite a vision;
Far ahead in the special effects race...
Network CBS made the decision,
To go with another show: Lost In Space.

But Gene hung tough, for Trek was a winner,
He knew that all he needed was a chance.
Convinced Desilu one night over dinner,
Star Trek had been invited to the dance!

When Desilu ran it past NBC,
The execs liked what they saw in the mix...
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were the show's top three,
Star Trek debuted the fall of 'sixty-six.

The concept was new, and everyone knows,
You need good ratings to stay on the air.
A robot with arms made from old dryer hose,
Was even getting a bigger ratings share.

So Trek's return was by no means a given,
And the writers had no reason to smile...
Most programming was comedy-driven,
Star Trek was getting trounced by Gomer Pyle!

Thankfully, network bigwigs saw the light,
Trek was renewed for a second season.
Yet starship and crew remained in their plight,
For again, the ratings weren't too pleasin'.

Finally - Year three - the crew met their match,
The ratings did what the Klingons could not...
They toasted three years, and then "down the hatch,"
But dead? Hell, no - the Enterprise was hot!

To this day, almost fifty years later,
In reruns the Enterprise ever flies.
Thanks to five spin-offs, the legend's far greater,
Remaining forever in flight, in my eyes.

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Captain's Log:

For those of you who might enjoy a light-hearted parody of the Star Trek Original Series, do check out "Word Trek"  and/or "Far Trek: Too Young To Di-Lithium" ...

Ink out!