Personally, I think Berman and Braga have pretty completely ruined the last few series’. Would fresh writing blood (like JMS, as discussed in the other thread) save it? Or is it time to let all the series and the canon stand as it is, without creating any new characters/plotlines/etc for a new series or movie. I’m afraid that if they try to keep it on life support, it will lose whatever original intent and purpose there was, outlive its ability to attract new fans, or be whored down into another mass-produced sci-fi francise.
Anything can be revived by a good writer.
Heck, even things that weren’t that good in conception can be made wonderful by the right writer. (I’m thinking Grant Morrison’s Animal Man for any comic book types).
The problem is, I’m not sure if the powers at Paramount can recognize what constitutes good writing.
I never relinquished my boyhood dream of Captain Kirk and his buddies returning to the small screen, so all Star Trek shows that have existed that didn’t have Shatner, Nimoy, et al, have gone down in my book as non-canonical fakery. Place holders, if you will.
Can’t see any point in letting the franchise continue, now that Bones is dead, and a return of the real thing is out of the question.
I don’t know about letting it die. It just needs a lot of rest. No more creating a new series after the last one gets cancelled. Maybe a couple of years off would do it some good.
Amen, Brother.
Ron Moore. And whats-his-name, the Other Guy.
^:dubious:^
Interesting name. Like Wagner?
Ain’t happening any time soon. There’ll continue to be Star Trek shows for as long as they’re profitable, and there are a lot of people out there who’ll watch any damn thing that says Star Trek.
The proper question is this: What needs to be done to make a good Star Trek series?
I really don’t care one way or the other. I am dissapointed that *Enterprise *is being cancelled but more out of the fact that it won’t be allowed to continue improving like it has the past two seasons and see where else it could have gone in the next three than out of any Trekkie partisanship.
Now that there’s no more Trek for the time being, I do hope for at least a lengthy break… it’s been 18 years since Trek redebuted and it needs to catch its wind if (and I mean if, not when) it comes back and it definitely needs new blood if it does. And preferably, to be cut from Paramount’s umbilical. As much as Berman and Braga are to blame for its failures, the studio that’s owned it for the past two decades are as well.
I’m not a Star Trek fan, so maybe I shouldn’t have a vote, but:
It seems like not only has the marrow has been sucked from the bones but the bones have been rendered of any scrap of tissue left, incenerated, crushed, ground, compressed, formed, sintered, forged, blown up, crushed beneath a steamroller, run through the digestive system of a diarrhetic yak, washed with aqua regia, and finally mounted in a scratched Plexiglass frame.
Never mind the implausibilities in science and technology, and the lack of social development stemming from such technologies; long ago the series gave up on trying to be original and creative and started popping up MadLibs plots with technobabble solutions. On TNG (the last series I watched with anything like regularity) there were occasional episodes that neared toward being great, but most were an interchangable mush of bumpy-headed humanoid aliens, sparkly-beamed weapons, superficial political intrigue, and patent reworkings of classic ideas in science fiction. (How many times can they strangle yet another episode out of Asimov’s Robot series?)
How about, instead of Yet Another Round of Phasers and Transporters, a series in which the best current Sci-Fi writers are all spec’d to write scripts around a central premise, like Saberhagen did with this Berserker stories a while back? (I won’t bring up the Man-Kzin wars books if you don’t.) You film the loosely connected stories (with an interfacing or rotating cast) as a limited run series, and then go on to another premise.
Stranger
Die? No. Take a long nap and clean out the political deadwood that interferes with making a good show? Yes.
Stranger, in one of the “omg the show is canx’d” threads a few days ago, I posted a long synopsis of the kind of thing I would do if given the reins of Trek. It’s not a reinvention; it builds on the existing world and stories, but it takes it off in a whole new direction. I got a couple of positive responses to it, too. The point is, it’s not a dead universe. In fact, that it’s become so rich and complicated over the years should be a strength, not a weakness; you have all kinds of different threads you can pick up.
But I agree, the technobabble has become a crutch and a handicap. The premise I offered puts the emphasis squarely back on the people and their immediate interpersonal dilemmas. It’s just one possible approach, but I think it absolutely can be done.
Just not in the current climate at the studio. Hence, I’m hoping for a break of at least a year, possibly more like three or four.
Yeah. let it rest. I thought the original was ground breaking. I thought TNG was OK. But for my money, they kept getting worse. Let it rest.
I’m curious, here… What sci-fi franchise has been more mass-produced than Star Trek? I’ve never heard of any other franchise which has gotten anywhere near six television series and ten movies, plus however many books. Even Star Wars has only had eight movies and two series, and you seem to be implying that there are many such franchises.
<counting on fingers>
I come up with five movies … what am I forgetting?
I saw this thread title and immediately thought:
YES, PLEASE GOD, JUST LET IT DIE.
No. It’ll never die.
If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. But let us who do enjoy it have our fun. How hard is that? :dubious:
Sorry, didn’t mean to sound like I hated Star Trek.
I grew up with Kirk, enjoyed two of the new series, and watched nearly all the movies.
It was such a wonderful thing that I think dragging it on any further on the laurels of the others will only hurt it. Why not let it die with some dignity?
BLAME BERGAMA!
Trek is good. Bergama bad. Before ENT and Nemesis the future for Trek looked good. Three modern series of different types, each with a 7 year run and a fanbase of their own. Then, all of a sudden, Ardra comes and demands we fuck it all up.
The two Ewok adventure movies. A grim prophecy of what was to come.
I mean individual series. Ones that are stamped out by the Hollywood machine, not ones that are continually re-invented or replayed. Not sure that makes it much clearer.
I loved the Original Series(and will still watch any episode that’s on if I stumble across it) and was rather fond of DS9. TNG…it had some good episodes but I never really got into it.
Voyager I held out until the very end hoping it would get better, but it never did. Enterprise I tried to watch, but I saw maybe half the episodes produced… When the Battlestar Galatica series started, I gave up on Enterprise altogether.
Let it die. Come up with some new ideas. Maybe in 5 years try for something new. There was a joke on MadTV when it first started, where UPN had become the “ALL Star Trek network” and asked the viewers to stay tuned for “Star Trek: Babies”.
I fear that Berman and what’s his name may actually end up driving the franchise to such a low point.
They should do a series in which it’s like Star Trek vs. Batman. That would be awesome.