According to the release, "TV Guide® magazine takes a look at what’s wrong with the struggling Star Trek franchise, which is suffering through declining ratings for Enterprise and a recent disappointing box office showing for 'Nemesis,' the most recent film."

Citing the statistic that ENTERPRISE's ratings are down 24% since last season, the mag quotes Braga as saying, "What can you say? We’re bummed." Braga says the show is headed for more more grand storytelling and "epic challenges…that better exploit the sense of awe and danger."

Berman says fans can expect a clear change in direction for ENTERPRISE in the future: "Let’s just say there will be a slight revision in our mission, and a slight revision in the part of space that Enterprise is heading into."

The exec is optimistic about the future of the feature film franchise post-NEMESIS, saying future films will happen eventually.

"I doubt because our box office fell off on ‘Nemesis’ that it’s going to be the end of Star Trek films,” he says. “I can’t imagine numerous other movies won’t occur."

As usual, Berman hints that future movies might involve a mixed cast from all the various STAR TREK series, but says no discussions are currently under way.

The issue will hit stands Monday and fans will be able to sound off on the magazine's web site with their own suggestions for STAR TREK's future at www.tvguide.com/trek beginning then.

In related news, Berman also speaks in the new issue of the UK's Star Trek Monthly about both the future of the features and the ENTERPRISE ratings.

"There's a possibility that the time has come to either bring in a new group, which could be totally new, or bring in a group that is from one of the other series," Berman says in excerpts available at Sci-Fi Pulse. "Or mix and match - we could do a film with some of the characters from Next Generation mixed in with the others - Enterprise would probably be difficult because it takes place 200 years before. If you were going to mix up the casts it would be difficult to get the continuity, but in Star Trek there's always time travel. I think one of the keys to the Star Trek movies is that every one of them has taken place on a ship called Enterprise. I'm not so sure we'll jump to another ship. But again, we really haven't put a moments' thought into the next film."

Berman also says it's important to take ratings fall offs in stride. After all, viewership of network television has eroded across the board in recent years.

"People talk about the ratings having dipped, but you have to remember that any television series in it's first season recieves a ridiculous amount of promotion - magazine covers, television stories, Entertainment Weekly covers, TV Guide covers. We had two TV Guide covers before the show even went on air. So, there's always a big spike of ratings in the beginning and then they always drop off. That's historical for every series we've done, including The Next Generation. When you get rid of the first dozen episodes of the first season the ratings have, in effect, stayed the same."

"The other thing is that you look at the numbers, the ratings in the States, of the six broadcast networks, including the three big ones, they've all had a huge ratings fall off. That's due to Cable and Satallite, which have taken over. There are hundreds of stations that are available to people now - there used to be only three."

You can read more from Berman's interview, in which he discusses ENTERPRISE stars Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock here.