Rick Berman - overstayed his time?

[dswynne1]

I think the problem was that Berman expanded into the film series, and lost focus, resulting in poor storytelling in both television and in films. I think that specific production teams should have been assigned per production.

 

[jaime]

From memory Broken Bow was broadcast 2 weeks after 9/11, so most of season 1, and all of season 2-4 would have been in a "post 9/11 world"

That's when it was shown not when it was scripted planned and made. It's only really after season one that the political climate makes itself felt. The MACO in particular feel like a reaction to either the real world or the popularity of Stargate at the time. Probably both. The 'soldier as blue collar hero' is thing that comes into popular consciousness around big conflicts, and the eighties Treks come from an ending Cold War and relatively peaceful time in terms of big conflicts in the developed world. Admittedly, even then, the hangover of WWII is causing conflicts. But for for the West and particularly America...the soldier is no longer the hero figure at this time, and that's because it's peacetime.

 

[The Wormhole]

I think the problem was that Berman expanded into the film series, and lost focus, resulting in poor storytelling in both television and in films. I think that specific production teams should have been assigned per production.

Berman might have been in charge of Trek overall, but each series did have its own production and writing staffs. Michael Piller was in charge of TNG seasons 3-5, and Jeri Taylor was in charge of seasons 6 and 7. Piller was in charge of seasons 1 and 2 of DS9, Ira Behr was in charge of the rest of the series. Piller was in charge of seasons 1 and 2 of Voyager, Taylor was in charge of seasons 3 and 4, Brannon Braga was in charge of seasons 5 and 6, Kenneth Biller was in charge of season 7. Braga was in charge of all four seasons of Enterprise, though most of the show running was delegated to Manny Coto in the fourth season.

Likewise the movies didn't really impact the TV shows that much. True, Generations did suffer as a result of being written by Ron Moore and Brannon Braga at the same time they had to write AGT for TNG, by the time First Contact was written Moore was a writer on DS9, Braga on Voyager, and to be honest, one writer from each show working on a movie didn't impact either show. Michael Piller was no longer involved with Trek on television when he wrote Insurrection, and John Logan never worked on televised Trek. In fact, Berman aside, I don't think Nemesis had anyone involved on the production side who worked on Trek TV shows.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Rick Berman, if you're reading this ... Thank you, for the STAR TREK! You done good.

 

[OtherGene]

I'm not sure. There was certainly a feel or aesthetic to Bermans Star Trek that was missing on Enterprise and I'm not just referring to ship designs or lighting etc etc. Maybe the way he did things, the way he saw things and the way he wanted things to be just didn't fit into Noughties television production, times were changing too fast.

 

[Arpy]

Yes, he definitely "overstayed his time." VOY was lackluster and ENT mostly unwatchable. INS and NEM are not good movies. Trek became increasingly mediocre and cartoonish under his watch, and lost much of its inspirational spirit in the process. The best period for his era was the goldilocks zone in the middle of TNG (Seasons 3-6) between Roddenberry's reintro and Trek's long diminishing assembly line to cash and cancellation.

Of course you'll find fans of every series and movie praising it (often because that was their intro to Trek), but artistic and ratings analyses I don't think support him as more than the exec that kept the cash cow going till it died. Kudos to him for keeping it going, but I quit being a fan long before his era ended.