Insurrectio, at least, had a decent adventure going on. Most Star Trek today feels like work, not play.
Sigh…remember back when a solid 50% of Trek movies were at least watchable? Boy, those were the days.
There was a time when I thought the Pakleds were a silly idea. Then I realized they were supposed to represent Hollywood executives.
Could someone explain to me what Star Trek fans have against those two guys (Berman and Braga)? Are there particular sucky elements that these guys are blamed for injecting into Star Trek? Is there a moment in Star Trek history where things started to get really lame, after they took over? (I’ve watched more than my share of Star Trek over the years, and am dimly aware that certain fans have a beef with these guys, but don’t know what it amounts to, exactly.)
Basically, it’s that they relied on trite plots and not-so-good actors to get across a story line. I gave up on Enterprise when I was watching an episode and realized I kept glancing at the clock to see if it was over yet. I couldn’t care about the characters, so it was with bitter regret that I said farewell.
Oh, that plus the utter lack of attention to the history of the shows, the established backstory and that continuity does not exist in their dictionary.
Yeah, but… when has that not described Star Trek? The original series had bad actors (William Shatner?), trite plots (It’s a planet full of gangsters!), and paid no attention to continuity (Prime Directive? Say what now?). When did that change to this idealized, well acted, well written, internally consistent vision of Trek that Berman and Bragga went on to so badly deface?
True, but you can’t deny things hit a new low with Nemesis
It’s 2001. Greg and Dave, two movie executives, are discussing upcoming projects with Steve, a film-maker
Greg: Steve! Great of you to join us. Glad you could come in today. Dave, have you and Steve met?
Dave: Not in this lifetime!
Greg: Ha! Okay well Dave, meet Steve - he’s one of our rising stars here in hollywood, does those “Science Fiction” blockbusters that the kids and geeks love.
Dave: Sci-Fi? Oh you mean like Men In Black? Great to meet you!
Steve: Err… Hi. Yeah, well like Men In Black I suppose, but I like to think Sci Fi isn’t just blockbusters ya know, you can do some stuff with a bit of depth to it too…
Dave: Like Independence Day?
Steve: Well… erm… not really, you know stuff like The Day the Earth Stood Still, Soylent Green, Blade Runner…
Dave: Oh I get ya! Like Battlefield Earth? God I loved that Movie.
Steve: erm…
Greg: Hey kids! Great to see that you two are getting along, but i know we’ve all got places to be so shall we get down to business? Steve, how would you like to make the next Star Trek movie?
Steve: What?! Wow! Well… i mean sure… i mean that would certainly be an honour. I’m… I don’t know what to say.
Dave: Well say “yes” of course! You see, Steve, we know that the last couple of Star Trek films have, well, sucked and we here at the studio feel that maybe we’ve let things become too effects driven and that, if this next film is to work, we need a strong script to really pull us through. You’d have full creative freedom of course.
Steve: Wow! Well, great! Yeah sure in that case i accept, I mean, already i’ve got so many ideas about how this could work so i guess i’ll head off and get started!
Greg Great! Glad to have you onboard! Oh here, don’t forget this…
Steve: Erm, what’s this?
Greg: Oh just something me and Dave found whilst we were going through the archives, you know, just a guide to help you narrow down your thoughts, get some dialogue ideas etc.
Steve: This is a copy of the script for Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan.
Dave: Ha! No, i think you’re mistaken there Steve! Its certainly not! It’s just an old, ideas document from a while back we found on the computer, you know, covers some high level concepts…
Steve: Yes it is. Look - you haven’t even bothered to run a find/replace on it. You’ve just printed it off and whited out the names.
Dave: Err…
Steve: Look see, if i pick at it with my fingernail you can just about start to make out that this line was written for Spo…
Greg: …You know what Steve i’m thinking that maybe you aren’t right for this project after all. Great to see you here though and i’m looking forward to working with you in the future. Call Me Okay!
Hustles Steve out
Dave: Phew. That was close. So what are we going to do know?
Greg: Fuck it, let’s just call Berman like we normally do.
Dave: Sounds good to me!
Greg: Great! Okay then, moving onto the next piece of business, we’ve just bought the licence to the Hellblazer comics. Any thoughts…
I’m a big quitter–I gave up on STTNG about the fourth season, when I realized the preaching was actively annoying me and I didn’t care about any of these people (not any of the actors, and I’ll still go out of my way to catch Stewart whenever he’s acting in NY). Tried VOYAGER, DS9, and ENTERPRISE but what bugged me about them was the constant injection of popular people and themes all the time that I didn’t really care about. Klingons, the Borg, godlike beings, etc., had to be explored and expanded and popped up all the time, which got boring pretty fast if you couldn’t care less about them.
I mean, TOS had tribbles, they were popular, but it wasn’t like they had tribbles showing up every other show; we didn’t see them until TAS. That was restraint, that was originality, and frankly I saw the over-the-top acting as theatrical and loved it.
Or if Berman and Braga were be in some sort of unfortaunte accident where both were completely paralyzed like Captain Pike.
“Get the cheese to sickbay.” - B’Elanna Torres
Then there’s the seemingly incessant time travel plots, the technobabble, and how events of one episode have little bearing on future episodes (aka the reset button). At least “Enterprise” did away with the reset button for the most part.
Hey, the Gangster planet was at least fun and delightfully cheesy, part of it being Shatner trying to act like a gangster.
Let’s not forget the hippies…
…the planet of Nazis
…the planet of Yangs and Coms
OK, that’s the best I can do right now. 
The basis for the hatred of Berman and Bragga is multilevel.
Yes, Trek from the 60s looks lame. Now. But when it came out, it was cutting edge TV. Not all of it sure, but enough of it to capture a generation’s interest. Then came the movies of the 80s which continued the original series’ spirit rather well, even if the odd numbered ones weren’t as good as the evens. This stoked the flames of continued interest enough to cause the reopening of the franchis for TV. In the late 80s thru the 90s, we had a pretty good run, if looked at in an overview. And we had some truly spectaculr TV in that run, too. Seasons VI and VII of TNG and the War Arc of DS9 gave us some very good TV. In that same era, we continued with acceptable movies (V doesn’t exist for some reason).
But, the times they are a changin. What could be counted on to entertain and hold our interest in the 60s and 70s changed in the 80s and 90s and continues to change now. Trek under Berman did not keep up with the changes in fan expectation.
So, are the fans unreasonable in their expectations of better and better Sci-Fi TV and movies? No. Proof is in the shows and movies that HAVE met our raised expectations. Which unfortunately haven’t been any Trek. (OR Star Wars, for that matter.)
Paramount’s execs appear to hate any Sci-Fi. Berman is stuck in a formulaic rut that bores viewers. Bragga can’t write his way into a 3rd grade limerick contest. And these are the people holding control of the Trek franchise.
It’s frustrating to hard core Trekkers. Because it COULD be better. Manny Coto and Ron Moore have shown us that. But Bergama hates us, my precious.