Moore On 'Star Trek' Films

[TrekToday]

According to Ron Moore, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Yesterday's Enterprise would have been an excellent movie.

As reported by TrekMovie.com, Moore was not happy with Star Trek: Generations. "If you listen to the commentary track on the Generations DVD, Brannon [Braga] and I talk pretty openly about our dissatisfaction with 'Generations' and the reasons why it went south and the reasons we are not happy with it. I kind of feel it was a missed opportunity and a movie that just didn't come together."

Moore went on to say that, "'Yesterday’s Enterprise' would have been a great movie. You could certainly have done a fairly significant major motion picture out of it. It would have had a startling dark. I'm surprised Rick [Berman] cottoned to it, because the alternate Enterprise was so dark and so war-like and a completely different Federation and starship. It would have been a much edgier and rougher feeling on the big screen. You would have had to expand that idea of what it meant to be on the Enterprise at war for most, if not all of the movie would have been that idea. That would have been great. So sure, I could have seen 'Yesterday's Enterprise' as being the first feature."

Star Trek: First Contact, one of the more successful Star Trek movies, did well because it had some things in common with Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. "'Wrath of Khan' says 'here is how you do a 'Star Trek' movie," explained Moore. "It's action-adventure. You've got a big villain. You've got themes of aging and great little character moments, small moments of humor interspersed throughout. It embraces all the characters. You laugh with them, you cry with them. It ends on a bittersweet but hopeful note. It is just a great movie and it really stands up. 'First Contact' hits a lot of those chords too, but it was done on a restricted budget."

Moore visited the Star Trek XI set and had a positive opinion of it. "I saw it. I liked it. I liked the aesthetic. I liked the production design. I was very pleased with the visual of it." As for the movie story, had he been asked, he would have told them that "I would have been more concerned with trying to capture the spirit of the Original Series. I am more interested as a fan of that. Going back and capturing that feeling of being on the frontier and being on the edge of something that was something that was part and parcel to the Original Series."

To read more, head to the article located here.

[Broccoli]

Ron Moore, Rick Berman, and nearly everyone else believes that YE would have been a good movie.

Also, the Generations commentary is fantastic. Check it out.

[startrekwatcher]

I still say that "The Best of Both Worlds" would have made the best movie.

First Contact is decent but a bit overrated and even for a two hour tv episode BoBW was far more compelling and epic than a major feature film like FC. It didn't have some emotional Queen, didn't have a silly retconned attraction between the Queen and Locutus, didn't have time travel, didn't have forced humor. The only thing FC did better was the FX and it also had a great score although I think Ron Jones' BoBW work is better.

[Augustus]

First Contact has lost some of its appeal with repeated viewings...

[Sean Aaron]

Augustus wrote:

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First Contact has lost some of its appeal with repeated viewings...

No kidding. You want to come to dislike it (along with the rest of the TNG films) like I do make sure to watch in order:

Best of Both Worlds
Family
I, Borg
Decent

then watch First Contact and you'll notice a complete unravelling of Picard's having come to peace with what happened at Wolf 359 and have to think that he's gone completely insane or is not the same person.

[Augustus]

don't need to watch them. As you listed the episodes, I knew exactly what you are talking about....but hey it was a good movie for a little while...

[Sean Aaron]

Augustus wrote:

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don't need to watch them. As you listed the episodes, I knew exactly what you are talking about....but hey it was a good movie for a little while...

Yeah, I enjoyed it in the theatre; then I rewatched TNG and then watched Generations and First Contact with the show fresh in my mind and it was like the sweet milk of TNG memories curdled immediately when I saw those films...

[Pioneer]

I don't get it. If Moore and Braga were dissatisfied with Generations, then who do they say was responsible for the suckage? Berman?

Also, I agree with the comments about First Contact and the Borg elements. They should have "retconned" the producers and writers. But I don't want to get on another anti-B&B rant (yet again).

I liked the Zephram Cockrane elements in First Contact except for him being a drunk. Drunks don't design warp engines.

[The Old Mixer]

^In his BSG podcasts, Moore tends to be very candid about aspects of the show that he feels didn't work, and is always quick to take the blame because he's the showrunner. One can be dissatisfied with ones own work--all the more likely when one is forced to churn out work under deadline and budget limitations--and not seek to blame others.

[Sean Aaron]

Pioneer wrote:

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Also, I agree with the comments about First Contact and the Borg elements. They should have "retconned" the producers and writers. But I don't want to get on another anti-B&B rant (yet again).

I liked the Zephram Cockrane elements in First Contact except for him being a drunk. Drunks don't design warp engines.

I would have been happy with the whole story, but Picard != Ahab, and that's the part I hate about the movie is the complete disregard for his character's progression.

Killing off Picard's extended family in Generation (and the destruction of the Enterprise-D) was completely unnecessary and seemed to be to make the movie "impactful" or something. Terrible. After those two films, well, not much point is there?

[The Old Mixer]

^I suppose you could rationalize the two together...Picard had a lot of pent-up anger and frustration over the loss of his family and his ship...so he let his old demons out and vented on the Borg.

[Sean Aaron]

The Old Mixer wrote:

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^I suppose you could rationalize the two together...Picard had a lot of pent-up anger and frustration over the loss of his family and his ship...so he let his old demons out and vented on the Borg.

I could, but I won't. If the character's portrayal is to be believed, then I, Borg would have ended with him using Hugh as a weapon to attempt the destruction of the Collective as his superiors ordered him to. That is the fundamental problem I have with it. Clearly, it's a Star Trek geek moment for me that I cannot just take the film on its own and say "yes this is a decent yarn," but I think I'm allowed one once in a while ;-).

[Sci]

CaptainSpock wrote:

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I would have been happy with the whole story, but Picard != Ahab, and that's the part I hate about the movie is the complete disregard for his character's progression.

It's not a disregard for his progression. Human psychology is not a linear thing; it twists and it turns and people can be tempted into being less than they normally are. I love First Contact because it acknowledges that even a good man like Picard is not perfect and can slip and need help... and because Picard, at the end of the day, does come to his senses.

I think that that message -- we're not perfect, we slip, but we still get back on the horse and keep going the way we ought to at the end of the day -- is far more inspirational than a story where Picard is perfect and doesn't fall.

[smeos]

I didn't have a problem with it at all. Picard made peace with Hugh because he was an individual, not a drone. Ditto with 'Descent'. Once the Borg were once again back in his face and trying to destroy everything that he held dear, it would have been even more unbelievable if he had just sat back and said, "Oh, those silly Borg. Assimilate this and resistance-is-futile that . . ."