News Fuller: Why I Left Star Trek: Discovery

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A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

For Bryan Fuller, stepping down as Star Trek: Discovery showrunner was “bittersweet.” “Ultimately, with my responsibilities [elsewhere], I could not do what...

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[Zonker]

It's a shame that he has no active involvement anymore but hopefully what he's done so far will help inform the direction of the show.

 

[Christopher]

Well, the people who are now the showrunners, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, have collaborated with Fuller on several earlier shows, so it shouldn't be too far from his sensibilities.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

So Fuller is completely out then:

“I’m not involved in production, or post-production, so I can only give them the material I’ve given them and hope that it is helpful for them,” he said. “I’m curious to see what they do with it. They have my number and if they need me I will absolutely be there for them.”

That's too bad…

 

[Tracer Bullet]

I saw this coming, and I think CBS wanted him out, because I find it really hard to believe that Fuller wouldn't have broken his American Gods contract to continue to showrun the new Star Trek.

 

[Four Lights]

Oh my. That doesn't sound good at all!

 

[Eric Cheung]

This is indeed bittersweet. Trek has brought in talented people to take charge recently, with JJ Abrams, Justin Lin, and Bryan Fuller. But that has also meant that their talent has drawn them away from Trek. I kind of think that if someone new takes over the franchise from a creative standpoint, it should be someone who is committed exclusively to Trek for the remainder of a career. Say what you will about Roddenberry and Berman's decisions over the years, but their commitment to Trek was full and total.

Hopefully, they can find someone that has both a powerful vision and the half-crazed tenacity to make it an obsession. It should be akin to Jon Stewart's philosophy to hiring a replacement for The Daily Show, where he said something similar.

 

[shapeshifter]

My money is on unsolicited fan input, (read: bitching & moaning) caused him to throw up his arms in defeat.

 

[BillJ]

...it should be someone who is committed exclusively to Trek for the remainder of a career.

That would be a special kind of Hell.

Say what you will about Roddenberry and Berman's decisions over the years, but their commitment to Trek was full and total.

Which isn't a good thing, in my opinion. I want people who still have a desire to do more in their career, not coat-tailing on past success.

 

[BillJ]

My money is on unsolicited fan input, (read: bitching & moaning) caused him to throw up his arms in defeat.

I tend to think it came down to some kind of creative differences. CBS isn't the most progressive content provider around.

 

[Four Lights]

[FONT=Helvetica]This is indeed bittersweet. Trek has brought in talented people to take charge recently, with JJ Abrams, Justin Lin, and Bryan Fuller. But that has also meant that their talent has drawn them away from Trek. I kind of think that if someone new takes over the franchise from a creative standpoint, it should be someone who is committed exclusively to Trek for the remainder of a career. Say what you will about Roddenberry and Berman's decisions over the years, but their commitment to Trek was full and total.

Hopefully, they can find someone that has both a powerful vision and the half-crazed tenacity to make it an obsession. It should be akin to Jon Stewart's philosophy to hiring a replacement for The Daily Show, where he said something similar.[/FONT]

You're right. I'm not a fan of Doctor Who, but from what I know of it since it came back on air they have always plumped for people who are really completely committed 100% fans to run it. It seems to of worked. It still as popular and high quality a show now as when it returned to TV.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

My money is on unsolicited fan input, (read: bitching & moaning) caused him to throw up his arms in defeat.

What bitching & moaning? This isn't J.J. Abrams we're talking about. Almost everyone was really positive about Fuller.

 

[Christopher]

I saw this coming, and I think CBS wanted him out, because I find it really hard to believe that Fuller wouldn't have broken his American Gods contract to continue to showrun the new Star Trek.

Is that really so hard to believe? I mean, sure, working on Trek is a big deal and all, but working on the adaptation of one of Neil Gaiman's most acclaimed novels is a big deal too. And he probably has more creative freedom on the latter, since he's coming in on the ground floor. I don't care how big a fan of a 50-year-old franchise you are -- if you're a writer, then the prospect of getting to define and shape an entirely new universe from the ground up is going to be more enticing than the prospect of continuing a universe that's already very well-defined. Because this is a career, not a hobby, so what you're a fan of is secondary to what can advance your career or challenge you as a creator.

 

[milo bloom]

I'm just not as pumped for this anymore. Fuller was after this project for years, and he's out before it's even aired one episode. It's feeling less like an exciting, new kind of Trek and more like just another Trek show.

I suppose it's better than no Trek, and I guess it won't hurt as bad if it's not good since my hopes aren't as high.

 

[Relayer1]

I saw this coming, and I think CBS wanted him out, because I find it really hard to believe that Fuller wouldn't have broken his American Gods contract to continue to showrun the new Star Trek.

Really ?

American Gods has 'Award Winning' and 'Classic' written all over it. A much more respected and higher status gig. Probably more anticipated too. Gaiman's a big name in fantasy...

 

[m.lp.ql.m]

Showrunner leaves? Let's just hope that new Magicam™ system pulls through!

 

[Shalashaska]

I'm just not as pumped for this anymore. Fuller was after this project for years, and he's out before it's even aired one episode. It's feeling less like an exciting, new kind of Trek and more like just another Trek show.

I suppose it's better than no Trek, and I guess it won't hurt as bad if it's not good since my hopes aren't as high.

This is how I feel about it.

I'm still sure it'll be good, but there was a real kind of attraction to a new Trek show helmed by Fuller, you just knew it was going to be creative and exciting and fresh before actually knowing anything about it. Now? I'm less confident in that.

 

[Mudd]

Producers coming and going early in the show? Sounds like Star Trek all right.

It'll also give some fans a chance to insist from day one that the show would have obviously been a lot better had one of the producers not left early on. Those kind of hypothetical arguments just make these forums sing.

 

[Seven of Five]

Oh and for that matter we'll also be able to know exactly which lines of dialogue Fuller wrote before he left, just by studying his past work. Dammit things could have been like this all the time!

I won't deny the loss of Fuller has tempered my enthusiasm a bit, as on the whole I've enjoyed his work. However, we can't judge the series until we actually see it, and the new showrunners have worked with Fuller before. We should give them a chance.

 

[Christopher]

I'm just not as pumped for this anymore. Fuller was after this project for years, and he's out before it's even aired one episode. It's feeling less like an exciting, new kind of Trek and more like just another Trek show.

But he's already plotted the story outline for the season and written the first two episodes, and the new showrunners are past collaborators of his, and most of the staffers are people he brought onboard. So his influence will still be felt.

The thing about TV production is that there's a lot of lead time and a lot of episodes are in the works simultaneously with each other. It can take maybe 10-12 weeks to get a show from initial outline to finished episode, and a bit more than a week to shoot each episode, so there might be somewhere around 10 different episodes in various stages of development at once. So when a showrunner leaves during a season, their influence is still felt for quite a while thereafter in the various episodes that were in different stages of production at the time. Case in point: On Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, creator-showrunner Robert Hewitt Wolfe was fired right after he finished shooting episode 12 of season 2, "Ouroboros." (The production company, Tribune, was horribly stingy and had a habit of firing showrunners and replacing them with cheaper, less talented ones; Wolfe actually lasted longer than most.) But of the remaining 10 episodes in the season, 8 had been in various stages of post-production, filming, or pre-production when he was let go, so there were only 2 episodes that season that were entirely devoid of his influence. Which was why the show didn't completely go to hell until season 3.