He was afraid to take any chances or big swings.
Your honest opinion on the Berman era
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And unwilling to let his series live up to their premise. Voyager wasn't a ship of castsways, it was a pleasure cruise. And Enterprise was a prequel in name only.
Between the two I'd say Enterprise lived up to its premise much better than Voyager did. But yes the technology was still too good.
They should not have had a transporter, or at best as they hinted at the first episode, used only for nonliving transports.
The galaxy had far too many nearby neighbors. Where did all these species-of-the-week go by TOS when they were right on Earth's back porch? Why not deal more with human made threats still ongoing? It's a big solar system. They wanted to jump right into a Picardian "we've fixed all our problems and now it's time for a little well earned gunboat diplomacy"
The Universal Translator should have never worked very well, as it was new tech. The gave a reason for Hoshi Sato then almost got rid of same reason within an episode when communication issues could have factored into better plots. They generally took the easy route when they didn't have to.
I think on the whole it’s very good.
In short doses, but I think that of most things.
Have the likes of TNG and so on aged well?
Not really, but nothing does. Everything is of its time. That can’t be helped.
Watched the Apollo episode of TOS the other day. The sexist honk that comes out of Kirk/McCoy’s mouths is unbelievable.
But that was the 60s.
Berman era is the 80s/90s/early 00s with all the good and ill you might expect.
In short doses, but I think that of most things.
Have the likes of TNG and so on aged well?
Not really, but nothing does. Everything is of its time. That can’t be helped.
Watched the Apollo episode of TOS the other day. The sexist honk that comes out of Kirk/McCoy’s mouths is unbelievable.
But that was the 60s.
Berman era is the 80s/90s/early 00s with all the good and ill you might expect.
The Berman era was probably the era that defined Star Trek most.
Before that, we only had one show with one tone and one crew, but the Berman era proved Star Trek works not only as one show, but as a franchise based on world building, that can take many forms, different characters and settings ... and on the way defined what's "essential" for Star Trek, or its "core".
Imo, not only TOS defined Star Trek, but TNG and DS9 did not less so. In my view, these three shows are the gold standard, the true "classicism" of Star Trek all later productions are compared against.
Imo, VOY and ENT were rather mixed bags in comparison, and didn't quite meet the standard TNG and DS9 had set, but they were still decent enough not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, or bashing the Berman era in its entirety for their shortcomings.
Before that, we only had one show with one tone and one crew, but the Berman era proved Star Trek works not only as one show, but as a franchise based on world building, that can take many forms, different characters and settings ... and on the way defined what's "essential" for Star Trek, or its "core".
Imo, not only TOS defined Star Trek, but TNG and DS9 did not less so. In my view, these three shows are the gold standard, the true "classicism" of Star Trek all later productions are compared against.
Imo, VOY and ENT were rather mixed bags in comparison, and didn't quite meet the standard TNG and DS9 had set, but they were still decent enough not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, or bashing the Berman era in its entirety for their shortcomings.
In fairness can that all be laid at Berman's feet or is that also the fault of the network? Berman had people to answer to. People who had enough power to cross promote wrestling with Star Trek by having The Rock star in a VOY episode.
Berman only wrote two episodes himself, TNG's Brothers and A Matter of Time. All his other writing credits are either story development credit, or co-write. In the case of the scripts he co-wrote, I'm fairly certain the other writer (usually Braga) did the heavy lifting on those scripts.
And Braga was only ever as strong a writer as whoever his writing partner was. He had a few gems to his solo credit, but largely I was not a fan of his work from the start.
Braga is a good idea man, IMHO. He came up with some truly interesting, weird plot ideas that made for interesting sci-fi. I like some of his "stranger" contributions to TNG. However, he was more mixed in his ability to deliver a final screenplay, which is a different skillset. As you say, it often depended on whom he was paired with.
His cooperations with Ronald D. Moore were pretty good, iirc.
Soon will be making another run...
Except Voyager was the Anti-Love Boat. Despite them expecting a decades-long journey, which would make sense for the ship to go generational, only one couple is married and only two children are born (one from a pre-existing pregnancy). I wonder if Neelix was putting some kind of sexual inhibitor in the leola root stew.
What about Kathryn Janeway & Tom Paris Salamander 3x OffSpring that got abandoned on that planet?
They were spawned off of Voyager. The four Borg kids would be more relevant, since they were actually on the ship for a time.
TNG is maybe the best of all the Star Trek series. Full stop. If you get it, you get it. DS9 is fantastic but, for all its advancements for the franchise, most of which dominate Trek today, it had an adolescent pullback from the aspirational daring of TNG. "Look, dad, I just get the world more than you do." Looking at said world today, that daring, that dreaming, is something we need now more than ever.
Voyager was a milquetoast copy and waste of potential. Filled with gimmicks and subtle and not so subtle sexism, it was a prime example of why executives should not be in charge of television, and of the problems of being a network's flagship series. Still lots to enjoy (look at my profile pic), but, man, I had to put my rewatch on an indefinite hiatus. Will eventually return to it.
ENT (one of my least favorite Treks) was a retreat, a massive step backward of a franchise, an industry, bowing to changing cultural winds and terrified of declining ratings in the changing media landscape at the turn of the Millennium. Captain Bakula, Trip W. Bush, Tits McEars, and the War on Terrible Sphere Builders, among other things, sent the franchise into a 12-year hiatus from television.
Berman though TOS was about Kirk with a phaser in his pocket and an alien babe on every planet. He said it wasn't his vision of the future, and it showed. As the series progressed they became more formulaic and less watchable. His adherences to Roddenberry's ideals (no conflict among the main characters, etc) felt like what today we might describe as the uncanny valley of AI attempting to write something in the style of a writer. It drove mad both Roddenberry lovers and haters. His protege Braga feels at once like a mini-me of with lewder stories, and an almost Vader-like apprentice who traded early creativity for the chance to be the boss.
That era of Trek worked because of an alchemy of many things, many names, and also Berman too, not because Berman was a through-line during or now a shorthand for it. VOY and ENT were his babies; fans may have found the franchise at the time those series were airing but they're the weakest of the era.
Woe to us that we look on this era as the Golden Age. The thing about it was we/they always believed that that was ever ahead.
Here's to Academy and to whatever comes after it.
Voyager was a milquetoast copy and waste of potential. Filled with gimmicks and subtle and not so subtle sexism, it was a prime example of why executives should not be in charge of television, and of the problems of being a network's flagship series. Still lots to enjoy (look at my profile pic), but, man, I had to put my rewatch on an indefinite hiatus. Will eventually return to it.
ENT (one of my least favorite Treks) was a retreat, a massive step backward of a franchise, an industry, bowing to changing cultural winds and terrified of declining ratings in the changing media landscape at the turn of the Millennium. Captain Bakula, Trip W. Bush, Tits McEars, and the War on Terrible Sphere Builders, among other things, sent the franchise into a 12-year hiatus from television.
Berman though TOS was about Kirk with a phaser in his pocket and an alien babe on every planet. He said it wasn't his vision of the future, and it showed. As the series progressed they became more formulaic and less watchable. His adherences to Roddenberry's ideals (no conflict among the main characters, etc) felt like what today we might describe as the uncanny valley of AI attempting to write something in the style of a writer. It drove mad both Roddenberry lovers and haters. His protege Braga feels at once like a mini-me of with lewder stories, and an almost Vader-like apprentice who traded early creativity for the chance to be the boss.
That era of Trek worked because of an alchemy of many things, many names, and also Berman too, not because Berman was a through-line during or now a shorthand for it. VOY and ENT were his babies; fans may have found the franchise at the time those series were airing but they're the weakest of the era.
Woe to us that we look on this era as the Golden Age. The thing about it was we/they always believed that that was ever ahead.
Here's to Academy and to whatever comes after it.
Interested in hearing more about this, because I'd peg Voyager as probably the Star Trek series that suffers least from this. The only things I can think of that you could mean are Neelix's treatment of Kes very early on (definitely a blackmark on the show, albeit one the show itself tries to address later) and the treatment of Seven in the earliest part of season four, which is very clearly a network-imposed thing that the writers manage to push through by the mid-point of the season.
Seven is always the sexbot. She’s given more to do as they realize how well Ryan did with anything they gave her, but she’s never out of a skintight outfit, telling Harry to get out of his clothes, having her body violated in one form or another, needing someone to tell her how to date, falling in love with Chakotay for reasons, wrestling the Rock and somehow not getting liquified… She was brought on for one reason, serendipity notwithstanding.
Kes I barely considered and if anything think the writers were too juvenile to know how to make more of the possibilities for love triangles on the tiny ship. Kes, Neelix, Tom, the Doctor, others….hell, Harry and B’Elanna and B’Elanna and Chakotay seemed to be possibilities earlier on as well. Also just the boys and the Delaney Sisters, various aliens of the week, situations they find themselves in. It’s subtle but prevalent throughout the series. Every gimmick is one a male writer for a scifi series geared toward adolescent boys would come up with. You notice it more on the rewatch.
Hell, the concept of a Borg Queen is fear of mother. “No, no, that’s because they needed someone to personify the Borg,” you say? The apex of the Borg were BoBW, no Queen in sight. Certainly not one who blinks Data and has a very special relationship with Seven because reasons. And they repeated it with the Sphere Builders being all women. Not, say, the Malon or the Sulibon or whomever, but the Big Bada. …Mommy issues.
Kes I barely considered and if anything think the writers were too juvenile to know how to make more of the possibilities for love triangles on the tiny ship. Kes, Neelix, Tom, the Doctor, others….hell, Harry and B’Elanna and B’Elanna and Chakotay seemed to be possibilities earlier on as well. Also just the boys and the Delaney Sisters, various aliens of the week, situations they find themselves in. It’s subtle but prevalent throughout the series. Every gimmick is one a male writer for a scifi series geared toward adolescent boys would come up with. You notice it more on the rewatch.
Hell, the concept of a Borg Queen is fear of mother. “No, no, that’s because they needed someone to personify the Borg,” you say? The apex of the Borg were BoBW, no Queen in sight. Certainly not one who blinks Data and has a very special relationship with Seven because reasons. And they repeated it with the Sphere Builders being all women. Not, say, the Malon or the Sulibon or whomever, but the Big Bada. …Mommy issues.
And even then, most of his writing credits are for ENT. He barely wrote anything for TNG, DS9, or VOY.
I'm pretty sure that all he had on DS9 were story credits, rather than writing credits.
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