Berman and Braga Talk Enterprise and its Legacy (Recorded in 2012)

I'm pretty sure at least some of you have seen this bonus material that was included on a disc in one of the DVD or Blu ray box sets but it was one I'd either forgotten watching over the past few years or completely overlooked when it was first released. This is probably the longest sit-down interview with both Rick and Brannon that I've ever seen and it's a fascinating peek into the minds of the guys who ran the series (as well as the franchise) for much of its modern history.

When they talk about reading the negative comments about ENT on the Internet it's hard not to get the imagery in your head of Braga clicking on The Trek BBS, seeing some of our posts and slowly backing away from the keyboard with a low rumble in his stomach. And yes...I'll admit I was responsible for at least some of those comments because I did not like Blalock or T'Pol (nor her makeup and costumes) at the beginning even though I really enjoyed the series itself.

I was a late convert to T'Pol. If you weren't here in 2001 and 2002 let's just leave it at that.

 

That's very interesting, to hear about the idea behind Enterprise. I have always thought that it went like this.
Berman (on the phone) : "I've just watched Star Wars. It's a Prequel. Can we do something like that?"

But it's very nice to watch those two assuring each other how great they are and it was the best show ever.

 

These two gave us TONS of great trek.

I completely agree Enterprise had earned a season 5 at least.

Thanks for sharing, it was fun to listen to them reminiscing.

I wish they could have had a meaningful episode with Shatner.

 

I watched for 10 minutes, and I just can't anymore. Those two stooges can barely remember the character's names -- it's like listening to my grandmother recall conversations with old friends from the 1930s. Worse, it seems pretty clear that these guys almost never respected what they were doing, referring to the difference in timeframes by measuring the size of phasers and the tightness of spandex. It's no wonder Trek tanked under their watch: they were creatively bankrupt almost the whole time -- and then derisively naming Coto as the so-called "savior" of Enterprise, as if fans unfairly criticize them.

 

Reading the last two comments and noting the complete opposite opinions, lol.

 

I don't get any of that from the first ten minutes.
You're kind of over-reacting.

You have to remember they produced/wrote 600+ episodes of the 730+ shows produced and they are also years removed from those. Berman was well known to have his hands in every single detail of production, I'm surprised he remembers anything. When I multi-task (and I'm pretty good at it) I inevitably don't remember everything within the period that I did it.

You're also mischaracterizing some of the things they said, so I'm assuming you watched the video with some sort of preconceived bias.

 

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/brannon-braga-not-a-diane-carey-fan.208597/

 

I suppose that may be the case. Certainly I'm no fan of B&B, and generally think the best Trek stories happened in spite of their involvement and not because of it. Nonetheless, I do find it disconcerting when Star Trek's creative professionals don't have the main characters' names in their mind. Most fans would run circles around these guys just in general knowledge about what's supposed to be B&B's craft.

An interesting thread... I have a lot of respect for Star Trek authors because they (rarely anyway) gripe about the world they're depicting. We hear so much from the Hollywood types that Star Trek's canon is so limiting and it's so hard to come up with stories without the ability to kill this one or that one. But the novelists, including Diane Carey, have come up with some really amazing stories over the years.

They understood what B&B couldn't: the whole galaxy is their stage, and it's filled with endless adventures to describe. If B&B had the chops, they could have told hundreds of stories in one era alone without bouncing around from from future to past in order to constantly start over. But they lacked imagination, which is why they scoffed at the notion of a 26th century show (calling it more of the same) and screwed up both Voyager and Enterprise by sticking too close to formula.

 

I almost made a post about their Diane Carey comments in the video.

 

Based on criticisms I've read, it seems fans do the same.

The same is true of most creatives. Fanatically memorising details is something only fans do. People working on a show (or writing a novel) can just look stuff up if they need to (and should have, at least for TATV).

EDIT: I checked out what they actually said about Diane Carey. Apparently in her novelisation of Broken Bow, she was making snarky comments about the script as part of the actual book, which is pretty unprofessional.

OTOH, the way they pitch it, Archer as Future Guy sounds like it might actually have been pretty cool.

Also, any description of Coto as the "saviour" of Enterprise has to be ironic to some degree, given that the show was cancelled after season 4.

 

Oh you were there? That's so cool, any behind the scenes stories or anecdotes?

 

..., this is the fundamental problem. Only in it for the money.

 

Marlon Brando in Generations against Kirk would have be amazing.

 

it's a BUSINESS. Everything is done "for the money".

 

I won't disagree completely. Mostly true....but Not always.

For instance, There is some work I do for passion....ok, it makes the company a lot of money which is why they allow it to continue.... But the inspiration was passion vs profit and as a result I think you can feel the difference In The final creative I make.

Either that or I just delude myself, at which point please don't burst my bubble. ;-)

 

I have the novelisation they're talking about (Broken Bow.) Trust me- they weren't exaggerating or being over sensitive.

I like meta humour/commentary, and I'm not a massive fan of Broken Bow. But the digs she was making weren't particularly insightful, and basically consisted of a character thinking 'that's wrong' over and over. Terry Pratchett, Carey is not.

 

Rick Berman is awesome! We all like to have a go at the Berman years, myself included, but it's never meant unkindly. I would've done -ENTERPRISE- very differently, however, but that's easy to say from the comfort and safety of Home. He knew how to play the game and at the same time, he knew what he wanted to do and he did it. ENT stands on its own and has legions of fans around the world. It's only gotten more appreciated, with time and newcomers are calling it "good stuff." So ... maybe ENT could have been made differently but Berman did it right. He's a great interview subject. Thanks for passing this along ...

 

Thanks for the insight. I hadn't read the novelization of Broken Bow, so I wasn't sure what to make of Berman and Bragga's assertion. Sounds like someone should have proofed her work before it went out. I'm surprised she wanted to write the subject matter if she detested it so much. Maybe her driver was to make her statement, which I guess she did but sounds like she was a dill-hole about it.

 

Exactly. I love how some people spout off and say they, in the case of ST:ENT, would have done this or done that and it woudl have been so much better. What they fail to take into account is that the shows don't get written / directed / produced in a vacuum. If these armchair quarterbacks actually had control the likely result would have been getting fired or have the show be a one season series.

I loved ENT and I'm glad we got to see 4 years worth of the series (even though I would have loved to have seen years 5-7)

 

Haha! >: )

Yes, had ENT been mine to control, who knows? I might've gone down in History as The Man Who Killed Star Trek. At the same time, there are many horror stories about what might've been, had Rick Berman not gotten himself involved with the show. The studio heads had some strange ideas that didn't really seem very STAR TREKKIAN to me, but Rick Berman came in and kept STAR TREK's course true ... and steady. One of STAR TREK's themes, of course, is to embrace change, and towards the end of ENT's run, that's what there was a need for in the franchise. Not because Berman did a bad job, ever, but simply because Berman wasn't new. That was all there was to it. Rick Berman ... he did alright.