The long-expected axe has swung: Enterprise network UPN yesterday cancelled the teen alien series Roswell.

Executive produced by Jason Katims with Trek veterans Ronald D. Moore and Jonathan Frakes, Roswell will take its last bow on May 14, Zap2it reported.

Roswell has lived under constant threat of cancellation since it premiered on the WB in 1999. However, the outpouring of fan support in the form of Tabasco bottles sent to executives has kept the series alive, even persuading UPN to pick the show up after it was axed by the WB.

No one is more grateful for this support than Katims, who developed the series from the 'Roswell High' books. "I would like to thank Twentieth Century Fox Television, UPN and especially our fans whose combined efforts helped get us a third season for Roswell," he said. "Ronald D. Moore and I had the fans very much on our minds when we were writing this final episode. We felt they deserved a great ending."

Currently in its third season, Roswell has suffered in the competitive Tuesday 9:00pm timeslot this year, which has seen it pitted against the WB's popular Superman series, Smallville. Although the network hoped the series would benefit from the strong lead-in of genre-favourite Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it has only managed an average of three million viewers per week.

Roswell follows in the footsteps of Enterprise lead-out series Special Unit 2, which was axed earlier this year after UPN came under the management of CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves (story). The network tested out the comedies As If and The Random Years in Roswell's timeslot while it was on reruns, but they were quickly dumped from the schedule after the ratings failed to materialise. A revival of the cult anthology series The Twilight Zone is being developed by UPN for a fall debut; if picked up it could serve as a lead-out for either Enterprise or Buffy.

Frakes and Moore aren't the only Trek personnel to have worked on Roswell during its run. Deep Space Nine guest star William Sadler (Luther Sloan) played Sheriff Jim Valenti, while Voyager scribe Lisa Klink served as co-producer in season two. Earlier in the season, John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox) appeared as himself in the episode 'Secrets and Lies,' which featured alien-in-disguise Max auditioning for a part in Enterprise.

The original report can be found here at Zap2it.

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