Season THREE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[davejames]

FrontierTrek wrote:

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We have the first part of a special interview with Robert Meyer Burnett who - along with Roger Lay - is responsible for the TNG Bonus features.

Great stuff about Season 2, hints on Season 3, stuff to come in further seasons and more!

http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/01092...rburnett1.html

Enjoy! In the second part tomorrow, lots more info on Season 3!

Interesting to hear about all the turmoil behind the scenes during Season 3. I always heard once Pillar came on board that things finally started to smooth out.

[mswood]

It was fairly well known that season three was a nightmare for the writers. Behr left due to it, and had to be really talked back into Trek. Piller gave interviews were he would talk of how his plate was full of just constantly rewriting, script after script after script.

Now the head writer usually takes the final pass and usually uncredited, but usually they make little to some cases no changes. Piller talked about the heavy amount of rewriting he had to do on almost every single episode. Thats why he was very seriously thinking of not coming back for season 4.

[Maxwell Everett]

mswood wrote:

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It was fairly well known that season three was a nightmare for the writers. Behr left due to it, and had to be really talked back into Trek. Piller gave interviews were he would talk of how his plate was full of just constantly rewriting, script after script after script.

Now the head writer usually takes the final pass and usually uncredited, but usually they make little to some cases no changes. Piller talked about the heavy amount of rewriting he had to do on almost every single episode. Thats why he was very seriously thinking of not coming back for season 4.

There's that funny story in Piller's Insurrection book where he had a meeting with Brent Spiner and Spiner told Piller that he wasn't sure that he was the right choice to write the script. He told him something like, "I looked at all your credits on the show and you never wrote any Data-centric episodes."

Then Piller chuckled and replied (again, I'm paraphrasing), "Brent... I was the showrunner. I rewrote everything!"

[BillJ]

Maxwell Everett wrote:

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There's that funny story in Piller's Insurrection book where he had a meeting with Brent Spiner and Spiner told Piller that he wasn't sure that he was the right choice to write the script. He told him something like, "I looked at all your credits on the show and you never wrote any Data-centric episodes."

Then Piller chuckled and replied (again, I'm paraphrasing), "Brent... I was the showrunner. I rewrote everything!"

This is why you pay actors to act and writers to write. You enter dangerous territory when you mix the two.

[FrontierTrek]

Cross posting this in the Season 3 thread: Part 3 of our Robert Meyer Burnett interview is up:

http://tng.trekcore.com/bluray/01122...rburnett3.html

In this part we touch on the differences between Season 1 and 2 VAM, the tremendous struggle interviewing Diana Muldaur and scheduling Whoopi Goldberg, the use of music in the documentaries and the fascinating origin of the Blooper Reel!

Some titbits about Season 3 here, including the confirmation of a newly cut Season 3 Blooper Reel.

The next part will have LOTS of new info about Season 3, so watch for that arriving on Monday!

[TrekAlliance92]

I'm stoked about another blooper reel for season 3. The season 2 reel was hilarious!

[TheSeeker]

Loving this interview. Thanks so much!

[Tosk]

Interesting to hear Patrick's concern about the blooper reel in regards to the cast n' crew ones getting meaner over the years...it puts the kibosh on the rumor that Berman nixed blooper reels after season 1.

I'm with Patrick anyway. There's no need to cut a 'nasty' gag reel. I like to see people having fun and enjoying each others mistakes.

[mswood]

Berman gets a lot of blame from the fans, when often cases Berman is either just passing down notes from the studios, or making decisions based on the people he works with. Be it actors or the department heads.

Berman in an interview talked about bloopers and he stated that due to concern from the cast about how they appeared, they wouldn't be released.

Ie someone in the cast didn't want them out. So Berman said no. It's been long assumed to have been Stewart, who never liked press to see the behind the scenes acting, who asked for privacy.

People blame Berman for the music style, but people behind the scenes point to it being more the opinion of the department head.

Writers have talked about being told they couldn't due this or couldn't do that by Rick, and we fans then blame Berman. And a good part of the time (and interviews later with various writers and producers seem to give it credence) is that it was Berman telling them it, but that many of those were studio notes. Notes that have to be listened to.

His not perfect or anything, but Berman gets little credit for the success of the shows, yet also takes far more blame for their faults then he actually deserves.

[throwback]

Berman is the captain of the ship. He may take orders from a higher source, but it his captaincy that sets the tone for the ship. Under his command, the ship foundered.

[jimbotron]

throwback wrote:

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Berman is the captain of the ship. He may take orders from a higher source, but it his captaincy that sets the tone for the ship. Under his command, the ship foundered.

And he went down with the ship.

From what it sounded like in an interview, Paramount went ahead with Star Trek 2009 without letting him know Trek was no longer his. What was going on with him between 2005 and 2007?

[davejames]

Well once he heard Abrams was involved, I'm sure he realized he wouldn't be needed.

And enough time had passed since Nemesis that it should have been obvious that the studio was interested in going in a different direction.

[Jeyl]

Since the documentaries use Ron Jones' music, I kept thinking to myself how funny it would be if there was no music duirng the Rick Berman segments. Just completely stop the music and resume it when we cut to someone else.

[Aatrek]

Well, his contract expired, and it was pretty obvious after 'Enterprise' was cancelled that it wasn't going to be renewed.

[jimbotron]

Jeyl wrote:

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Since the documentaries use Ron Jones' music, I kept thinking to myself how funny it would be if there was no music duirng the Rick Berman segments. Just completely stop the music and resume it when we cut to someone else.

Or elevator music.