10. It Must Be Believable
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation bible there is a key paragraph, which states: "If you're in doubt about a scene, you can apply this simple test: "Would I believe this if it was occurring on the bridge of the battleship Missouri? If you wouldn't believe it in the twentieth century, then our audience probably won't believe it in the twenty-fourth." This is true, because science fiction and especially the term "Star Trek" scares the average viewer. So in order to draw them in and keep them, the show has to be realistic. The new Battlestar Galactica was a good example of this it showed characters reacting in a believable manner to a post 9/11 situation we could appreciate. The third season of Star Trek: Enterprise tried something similar the year before, and while this was a positive move for the series it still had some of the recurring issues from the earlier season. Enterprise is a good example of where believability can take an unexpected turn for no good reason. Everything was fine for four episodes and then Trip got pregnant. It was one step further than the series needed to go, after all if Hoshi got pregnant by an unknown alien species then it could have opened up a series of interesting arguments like the choice between family or career and dare I say it, the possibility for an abortion debate. This leads us into number nine...