Well, now I can say I have a pitch meeting under my belt. Which means that my second pitch meeting will be a more familiar thing to me, and I'll have less reason to be nervous which is good -- I'm sure that any future meeting I have will be more important than was pitching for Enterprise.

My meeting went very well. Not fantabulously well -- they didn't actually buy one of my ideas -- but very well indeed. Of the seven ideas I took to them, three were already in development. Which meant that I was thinking along the right lines for the show -- not bad, since all I have is the pilot episode to go by.

Our conversation about the other four ideas leaves me convinced that although they say they want the show to be different from the other Trek adventures, they don't really want to be different. They want to play it safe. I suspect that Enterprise won't really fly as a series because it'll be same-old, same-old. Here's why I think this:

One story I pitched invoved a duel with words. Think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, not "Darmak at Tanad" or whatever that Next Gen ep was. Once I clearly communicated that weapons weren't involved, only words, they couldn't see how a drama climaxing around a word game would play. It wouldn't work on the screen. Since their pattern is to buy and idea and write it in-house, they might be quite right about that. They probably can't do it. It wasn't that they didn't like the plot, really, it was that they couldn't see how it would be dramatic. I guess I come from a philosophy that anything can be dramatic if you write it correctly.

Another idea I had involved two members of the crew making a small wager on the outcome of a particular event. Here's a direct quote: "There's no gambling in Trek." At the time I didn't think anything of it. Later, the ridiculousness of that statement hit me. Leave aside the argument that humanity has gambled probably since before we had an alphabet, and I strongly doubt that gambling will die out. "Fizbin" came from classic Trek. One of the Next Gen eps where the Enterprise got stuck in a time rift revolved around a poker game with the command staff. Deep Space Nine had a casino. There's probably something in Voyager as well, but since I never watched the show, I can't really say.

"There's no gambling in Trek."

Hopefully, this doesn't come across as a bitter, "they didn't like my ideas" entry. I have no problem with them not liking ideas. I do have a problem with a lack of consistency, imagination and believability.

I'm really tempted to take that wordplay episode and write it on spec, just to prove that it could be done and done well. However, it would be a complete waste of my time. I'd be better off (and happier) writing a Farscape spec or writing the second episode of my fantasy series. Enterprise isn't going to be the hot spec to read this year, so it probably wouldn't get me read at other shows. Trek doesn't read spec scripts, so I wouldn't be able to say "so there" to anyone that mattered. No, as much as it temps me, that particular idea will have to sit on the back burner for another show, hopefully one with imagination.

Regardless, the experience was a great one. I'm glad I did it, if only for the practice. I won't bother trying to come up with more ideas -- their philosophy really doesn't seem to match with my more daring (and character-oriented) approach to drama. I will watch the next couple of episodes just to see what happens, but unless they really surprise me, I'll go spend my time playing poker.