You're not wrong about that part, sad to say.
Star Trek Discovery Writing Staff
- Thread starter The Habs Fan
- Start date
So certain are you?
Aside from the notable names (who are there symbolically or already bailed to the Orville), 100%. The last thing on the mind of the people working on Discovery was making a good Star Trek show.
Alex Kurtzman and his merry band of hacks aren't brought onto Star Trek because of any love of Trek, they're brought on because suits see Transformers movies make lots of money.
Ah, yes, how dare they make money...
Hopefully that hack Nick Meyer sticks around. We all know he is a real Star Trek fan...oh wait.
Just because it doesn't appeal to you doesn't mean it's bad, nor does it ridiculously mean that someone on the creative team isn't trying their best to make it good. Give us a break with that shit, will ya?
God how fanboyish are you for this series?
Kurtzman is well known to be one of the worst writers and producers in Hollywood. He is known for absolutely atrocious adaptions and shallow cashgrabs. This is why he is the Executive producer for Discovery, because Kurtzman is who you bring in when you have an IP you don't care about but think you can squeeze from money from and that shows with Discovery along with the rest of Alex's career.
What did Meyers have to do with Discovery? His only involvement with the series was "consulting" for Episode 2 which were all rejected. His producer credit on the Discovery team is entirely symbolic.
It's bad because it's poorly written garbage on every level, the writers don't understand basic storytelling, pacing, characterisation, dialogue.
Again, Alex Kurtzman, Avika Goldsman. The show had no hope in hell in ever being anything above lowest common demonimator cynical cashgrab with both of them attached.
I can say right now, nobody on the creative team with any power cared about making Star Trek Discovery good. It was a cynical cashgrab first and foremost and I suspect everyone knew this. The fact the show couldn't even get the Prime Directive correct shows the little amount of care put into it.
Didn't you like it?
Some of the writers are fans
Donker is right. Everyone involved in it not only hates Star Trek but wants to intentionally make a bad show so to sully the brand name and insult fans. Anyone that actually enjoys the show is either a plant or has low standards.
[/sarcasm]
Donker, dislike the show all you want, but leave the conspiracy theories to Roberto Orci.
[/sarcasm]
Donker, dislike the show all you want, but leave the conspiracy theories to Roberto Orci.
Speaking of Kurtzman, I recently rewatched all of the Kelvin movies. Watching them after Discovery honestly makes me appreciate Discovery more.
While I think the Kelvin movies were better executed overall, they were also a lot less ambitious. They really weren't about anything other than what was seen on the screen - two hours of escapist entertainment. Even Star Trek Beyond, which did some decent character work with Spock and McCoy, didn't really have any message its greater plot was trying to get across.
Even if I don't think Discovery executed its vision well, I can at least appreciate it was trying to touch on some deeper themes than pure popcorn escapism on occasion. It's just that the execution turned out to be a horrendous muddle, as it repeatedly touched upon a theme, then backed away and dropped it, then touched on yet another one.
While I think the Kelvin movies were better executed overall, they were also a lot less ambitious. They really weren't about anything other than what was seen on the screen - two hours of escapist entertainment. Even Star Trek Beyond, which did some decent character work with Spock and McCoy, didn't really have any message its greater plot was trying to get across.
Even if I don't think Discovery executed its vision well, I can at least appreciate it was trying to touch on some deeper themes than pure popcorn escapism on occasion. It's just that the execution turned out to be a horrendous muddle, as it repeatedly touched upon a theme, then backed away and dropped it, then touched on yet another one.
I'm more interested in how you know so much about Kurtzman and his personality. I was not aware you had personal experience with him.
If not, then why the constant personal attacks on the man. This is one of personal pet peeves of the Internet. Individuals who we (generally speaking) don't know, attempting to do a job and rather than just criticize the product, it will come down to personal attacks against the production team. Yet, if Kurtzman were to come out and accuse fans of being "conspiracy theorist nutjobs" he would be treated with disdain and ridicule. But, audience members mocking him? Fair game.
It is very difficult to take such statements seriously when terms like "worst writer in Hollywood" get through out there."
As for money, GR wanted to make money as well, to the point that he alienated Leonard Nimoy. When do we start burning GR in effigy?
He also isn't a Star Trek fan, by his own admission. That's the point.
And now I know I watch different films than almost everyone else.
Last edited:
Seems to me like Donker was only attacking Kurtzman's talent as a writer, not the man himself. And while "worst" may be overstating things a bit, he's certainly down there. Just consider the list of things he's written or co-written. It includes...
The Island (a criminal waste of good actors)
The Legend of Zorro (that's the sequel, not the good one)
Mission: Impossible III (that's the one Abrams directed)
Transformers
Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen
Star Trek 2009
Star Trek Into Darkness
Cowboys and Aliens (I literally fell asleep during this one)
The Amazing Spider-Man II (aka the one that everybody panned)
The Mummy (2017 version)
...and that's just a small sample. The man is not a good writer. You'd be hard-pressed to find more formulaic, schlocky, half-assed screenplays on the track record of anyone in Hollywood (well, except perhaps Akiva Goldsman).
Then I'm just a terrible judge of writers.
And I'm ok with that. I liked Mission Impossible III (one of the few that I did), thoroughly enjoyed 09 and Into Darkness, think that Amazing Spider-Man II is grossly overlooked.
But, fair enough. He's among the worst.
You're probably right. But I have to believe some of the most idiotic elements of the season - like the ISS Charon threatening the destruction of life in every universe - were due to intervention by one of the executive producers, not the writing team per se. It's just much easier to presume someone in charge is a moron and can insist on rewrites by fiat then it is to imagine everyone in the writing room is as dumb as bag of hammers.
Last edited:
Here are all the writers on Discovery plus the episodes they wrote (according to Memory-Alpha)
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/DIS_writers
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/DIS_writers
I definitely get the impression that Kurtzman is in more of a producer role like Berman was, especially since he has so much to produce. So to blame him for the writing on Discovery is just way off.
Fortunately, television productions -- unlike films -- tend not to be overly dependent on the vision of a single person. There's just too much to do and too little time to do it and Kurtzman has to delegate a lot of that work to his creative team. The fact that nearly all of the writers, artists and prop makers have general "producer" credit makes it kind of obvious they're doing some kind of laterally structured teamwork where anyone can do anything within the range of their skill set. This is partially why even some cast members have been in the director's chair more than once and probably contribute a fair amount to the creative side behind the scenes as well.
Kurtzman's resume does indeed bear out that he is a TERRIBLE producer of films, but he's second to none from a production standpoint: his movies are consistently on time and under budget, and that's probably what CBS cares about more than anything else.
Unlikely, considering he still shows up in the credits in the latter part of the season as well. It's probably not a coincidence that he is credited most often in the very Klingon-centric episodes, yes?
If only they hired YOU as a writer. You'd straighten that whole mess out in like five minutes flat!