Good, I'm not the only one who immediately pictured everyone standing on the bridge spinning on one toe.
What If TNG Had a Rotating Cast
- Thread starter Emperor Norton
- Start date
Good, I'm not the only one who immediately pictured everyone standing on the bridge spinning on one toe.
I'm intrigued by the idea of having a rotating cast as it would draw attention to the Federation as a whole as opposed to being about individual characters. I'm not sure it would work as a series that needs good ratings to survive as you can't invest people in a show without investing them in the characters.
I find that whole rotating camera thing nauseating enough as it is - if each of the crew were rotating I wouldn't be able to watch at all. 
Edit: I see I have been beaten to this. That's what I get for commenting and *then* reading the other posts.
I may not have been first to comment about a crew set to full rotate - but I'm sure to be the first to reply to someone else's post *before you read that post*.
Edit: I see I have been beaten to this. That's what I get for commenting and *then* reading the other posts.
I'm picturing something like the video for "Lemon" by U2.
I may not have been first to comment about a crew set to full rotate - but I'm sure to be the first to reply to someone else's post *before you read that post*.
Last edited:
That might have been a good idea, if done much the way M*A*S*H did. For the replacements they knew they'd need to make --- Henry Blake and Frank Burns --- they didn't just replace the character, but replaced him with nearly the opposite character. It trashed the three-way balance that drove so much early comedy and drama, but it did mean that even when they had to repeat ideas, they came out substantially different. At least it would've sent the Everybody Discovers Their Family season off in different directions.
^ was just thinking that - if Stewart had left after BoBW, as was a possibility due to contract renegotiation, I believe I read here somewhere, then Starfleet would have just as likely replaced him with another captain rather than give it to Riker/Frakes. This kind of thing happens in reality a lot. Then of course, Riker would be hurt, embarrassed and out the door - soon to be replaced by a yes man at a lower pay grade who is grateful for the sudden promotion. That would have been a Captain like Jellico who was completely different from Picard, and would have wanted to build his own senior staff rather than just inherit Picard's unique team dynamic. It would have been a shakeup from the top down.
As for TV casting, as the saying goes, a poor engineer blames his tools. I see no reason why a group of committed actors who are given a decent, sincere benefit of seniority over 7 years of success making studios wealthy have to be degraded and kept at newbie scale. Or threatened with character-homocide if they have a career outside the series that chooses to treat them as temps or even livestock. If writers can't write for them - hire new writers who can do their job as writers. It ain't the character, it's the mundane corners they get written into.
No, it is all-too-often a game of suck up to the producers, who gladly not only wield their power but abuse it to take advantage of the talent that, again, are the ones making them rich. If I were a studio I would rotate the producers before rotating America's sweethearts from the series. It takes time to build loyalty and familiarity with an audience. Constantly keeping an audience guessing is undermining your own premise.
This is why shows like Outer Limits, with a completely new cast every episode, are typically so short-lived. This is also why people refuse to even start a series at a random point in the middle of its epic tale. By trying to build it into an addiction, they are actually over-estimating the brief entertainment value of an hour of television. They want general audiences to invest a whole year in a story arc you just know is never going to pay off until you've watched dozens of episodes - and that puts some of us right off from even starting the thing.
These studios are always submitting to the false economy of lowballing the talent. Then they wonder why they can't duplicate earlier successes after half the cast is tuned out, and audiences don't seem to be sticking around for the adventures of little cousin Oliver/Olivia.
As for TV casting, as the saying goes, a poor engineer blames his tools. I see no reason why a group of committed actors who are given a decent, sincere benefit of seniority over 7 years of success making studios wealthy have to be degraded and kept at newbie scale. Or threatened with character-homocide if they have a career outside the series that chooses to treat them as temps or even livestock. If writers can't write for them - hire new writers who can do their job as writers. It ain't the character, it's the mundane corners they get written into.
No, it is all-too-often a game of suck up to the producers, who gladly not only wield their power but abuse it to take advantage of the talent that, again, are the ones making them rich. If I were a studio I would rotate the producers before rotating America's sweethearts from the series. It takes time to build loyalty and familiarity with an audience. Constantly keeping an audience guessing is undermining your own premise.
This is why shows like Outer Limits, with a completely new cast every episode, are typically so short-lived. This is also why people refuse to even start a series at a random point in the middle of its epic tale. By trying to build it into an addiction, they are actually over-estimating the brief entertainment value of an hour of television. They want general audiences to invest a whole year in a story arc you just know is never going to pay off until you've watched dozens of episodes - and that puts some of us right off from even starting the thing.
These studios are always submitting to the false economy of lowballing the talent. Then they wonder why they can't duplicate earlier successes after half the cast is tuned out, and audiences don't seem to be sticking around for the adventures of little cousin Oliver/Olivia.
Definitely not:
Just the thought of seeing other actors portraying favorites like Picard, Riker, Kes, Chakotay, Quark and all of my favorites makes mee feel sick.
On the Enterprise, Picard, Worf, Crusher and LaForge; On DS9, O'Brien, Nog & Quark are 'regulars' (The Siskos, Odo and Kira are around, but aren't part of station operations), Ezri has her own ship, and Bashir is out of Starfleet and working to bring down S31; Riker and Troi are on USS Titan, as are Ogawa and Tuvok. Voyager is probably the least changed, Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, Kim and B'Elanna are all in different roles than during the series, but are still on Voyager (sporadictally in Janeway and B'Elanna's cases) and the Doctor and Seven are still around. Recurring characters Reg Barclay, Sam Wildmann and Icheb have also been getting some nice develop lately too.
I actually think it would work quite well if its done very gradually. Law&Order didn't suffer from turning over everyone on the staff because you got used to the characters, they told a story, and then they moved on. Some of the best character arcs were done for guest stars (Ro); it would also be interesting to see new people "moving up" Geordi starts off on the bridge and ends up Chief of Engineering. It's a good move, Bridge Geordi isn't a good character he's a better fit in Engineering.
Data & Worf to me were two immovable characters. IT may almost be sacrilege to say but Season 7 everything started to feel stale. DS9 somewhat by accident with personnel changes actually got much better over time and I would argue Seasons 6 and 7 were their best. You could "plot device" a few of them staying. Like giving Data a "promotion" to Commander and 2nd officer, promoting Worf to move him to Con and saying "Starfleet is trying out a new command structure for Galaxy class ships and above with 2 full time Commanders supporting the Captain."
I think "TV World" though its easier to do movies with the core cast. You can "create" a position or two in the story for cast regulars like if Riker had left with Geordi they could be coming to the rescue on another ship in a movie, but how many times can you disable the Defiant to get Worf aboard ina movie before the audience doesn't buy it?
In a future Star Trek Series I'd love to see some "planned change". I think it might be interesting to see a 1st Officer we've come to know and enjoy become Captain of the same ship. Or a drama filled actual "sacrifice" by a key crew member where they don't come back. Mostly I think new faces could create some interesting distinctions.
Believe what you want, but clearly it doesn't, not with ships called Enterprise, or on DS9, anyway.
I dont know. I watched the show to be entertained not to see anything reflect what might happen in reality, and it doesnt really bother me that in "the real world" a character probably would have moved on long before the show ended, so long as I enjoyed the show when they were there, and riker for example, I enjoyed his character throughout the entire series.
I think TNG with a rotating cast absolutely could've been a much better show (especially in regards to Riker). But I have to agree, it never would've worked under the 80s syndication model. It just wasn't possible.
Though I still think they should've just bit the bullet and promoted Riker to another ship after dangling that plot out there so often. Yar/Worf and Pulaski/Crusher didn't totally disorient the syndicated viewers, so they would've been fine with Riker disappearing too. Three changes in 7 years isn't too bad.
Though I still think they should've just bit the bullet and promoted Riker to another ship after dangling that plot out there so often. Yar/Worf and Pulaski/Crusher didn't totally disorient the syndicated viewers, so they would've been fine with Riker disappearing too. Three changes in 7 years isn't too bad.
There were half a dozen. We saw at least MacDougal, Argyle, Logan and Lynch.
One in universe excuse is they were cycling chief engineers of future galaxy ships through some practical engineering experience on a real ship
Similar threads
