How much of early TNG was GR's?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Warped9, Aug 8, 2015.

  1. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Not my personal choice. But I think it is an eventuality.
     
  2. wulfio

    wulfio Captain Captain

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    I never insinuated there isn't a backlash...
     
  3. Nebusj

    Nebusj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And to be fair to the hostile portion of pre-season-3/4 Trek fandom, ``The Outrageous Okona''.
     
  4. Treadwell

    Treadwell Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Yup, that was the publication where Gerrold complained about the illogic of sending the most important officer out on dangerous landing parties. I thought of him immediately when I saw that addressed in the TNG bible (and I don't recall even knowing at the time Gerrold was involved).
     
  5. T'Girl

    T'Girl Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ If you're not going to send important and difficult to replace people on landing parties, then why is the first officer going?

    Sometimes sure, but the majority of the time wouldn't they be lead by a science or security officer?
     
  6. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    Ideally, yes.
     
  7. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Gerrold's original proposal was to have a set of characters who would be the "contact team," the frontline junior officers who were first into danger. But having them as regulars along with the bridge crew would've been too large and expensive a cast, probably, so having the first officer and the rest of the bridge crew constitute the away teams and just leaving the captain behind was the compromise they reached, I'd guess.

    Although I don't know why they didn't just make the contact team the main characters and have the captain and bridge crew be supporting characters -- pretty much what Stargate SG-1 did later on. I guess they were too attached to the established Trek formula where the commanding officer is the main character.
     
  8. Hartzilla2007

    Hartzilla2007 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I thought Roddenberry was the one who told them to scrap the idea.

    Agreed.

    I don't really see the point of spend all of your time on boring old future Earth when there is a whole galaxy to run around having adventures in.

    I figured it was becuase the captain is the main character and as such should be where the actual plot is taking place.

    That or the fact that they don't get to do space battle type plots if the cast is a bunch of low rankers who aren't on the bridge.
     
  9. Jedman67

    Jedman67 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And every time an uncredited extra goes on an away team, we know who's not coming back :D (granted, far less frequently on TNG than TOS....)
     
  10. Serveaux

    Serveaux Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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    In other words, not to be like living, real human beings.
     
  11. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    How much ?

    Too much.
     
  12. JesterFace

    JesterFace Fleet Captain Commodore

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    I think it's fine if the characters is a show or a movie don't have jealousy, resentment, dishonesty, stupid misunderstandings and all that, that happens enough in real life, no reason to watch it from TV.
     
  13. wulfio

    wulfio Captain Captain

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    I literally only know 1 person(who unfortunately is family that I can't just cut out) that acts with petty jealousy, resentment, dishonesty, or gets all bent over stupid misunderstandings, etc. From my experience, ambitious, mentally stable adults generally have better things to do with their life than act like high school kids.

    And that really goes hand in hand with GR's vision of the future.
     
  14. Christopher

    Christopher Writer Admiral

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    Yes. "Real human beings" are not all the same. Human nature encompasses everything from Hitler to Gandhi. We have the potential to be more than a bunch of petty, juvenile jerks; we just have to apply ourselves to becoming that. People who behave with decency, maturity, and self-control are no less human than people who are obnoxious, rude, petty, selfish, and mean. They're just more grown up.
     
  15. wulfio

    wulfio Captain Captain

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    I agree 100%. And in Star Trek, GR was obviously determined to depict a human civilization that exemplified those positive traits.
     
  16. Phantom

    Phantom Captain

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    No, in other words to be like mature human beings who don't let their personal foibles fester to the point of being self-destructive, and absolutely don't let them get in the way of their working together to get done what needs doing.

    I note in that in that version of the bible that they had already dropped the idea of the ship as a self-mobile starbase, as well as the idea of the "twenty-year mission" in deep space.