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Murder of TNG?

nnnnnnn

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Red Shirt
TNG was cancelled in 1994. At the time it was pretty clearly among the best series on TV, with excellent ratings.

I have heard three theories as to why it was cancelled:

  1. To be able to make movies.
  2. To let the cast do other things.
  3. Because the creators ran out of new plot ideas.

I don't believe any of these pretexts. I've never heard of a TV series being cancelled to make a movie, and the movies artistically were pathetic compared to the TV show, mostly involving long, boring special effects shots, nonsensical plots, and clunky, incompetent direction. None of the cast has done anything else a tenth as interesting as TNG, and even if they wanted to leave, they should have just gotten more money first. And there are plenty of plot ideas left in TNG.

In the nearly two decades since the death of TNG, few TV shows have approached it for logic, acting and writing. There has probably never been a duo with such an interesting dynamic as that between Picard and Data, portrayed by actors as skilled as Stewart and Spiner.

For some reason, networks seems to ST. They tried to kill TOS, it barely got made and was soon canceled, and then TNG is cancelled. But there is nothing to replace it with. You look at current TV shows: police running around chasing serial killers (who always, of course, target the detective's family), cookie cutter doctor-shows, and shows where roommates whine for years about their tedious love relationships. They are all acted by stars who are about as convincing as the red shirts in TOS. They are nearly all all alike and nearly all painfully boring. It's a desert.

In TNG they had a wildly popular, very commercially successful product with extraordinary acting and a rich plot. They cancel it for drek (TV for the past 25 years, including the ST spinoffs).

I cannot believe the real stars of TNG, Stewart and Spiner, could not recognize what a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this was. Everyone threw away this amazing thing, for NOTHING. A bunch of second-rate movies and unwatchable spinoffs.

First TOS and then TNG. Why is TV determined to kill ST?

BTW, remember the pretext for killing TOS was "poor ratings", but TNG had great ratings. They just want to kill real ST (no, the spinoffs are not ST, give me a break).
 
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Have ya watched the seventh season? Puttin' an end to televised TNG was a mercy killin'!

:devil:

Yeah, gotta agree with this. There are still some great episodes in S7, but it was pretty clear they were running out of ideas. ...and somehow despite this, the *first* two TNG movies are the decent ones (in my opinion, anyway).
 
The law of diminishing returns. TNG cost more and more to make yet the revenue generated wasn't keeping up.
 
The law of diminishing returns. TNG cost more and more to make yet the revenue generated wasn't keeping up.

Exactly. It was originally costed over five years, coinciding with the main cast's contracts expiring. Everyone's salaries were renegotiated for Season Six and again in Season Seven. It was considered an eighth season would be impossible, with actor salaries infringing on SPFX budget. Moving to movies enabled the cast to be pacified by reduced working hours and increased salaries.

Consider long-running shows like "Friends", "Cheers" and "Frasier". Half-hour comedies with no special effects, no latex makeups, off-the rack clothing (no original costuming), no unusual set furnishings. They were able to stay afloat those extra years paying gigantic actor salaries.
 
They just want to kill real ST (no, the spinoffs are not ST, give me a break).

Whether you want to believe it or not, TNG ended because the powers that be at the time felt that the transition to a movie franchise was a better revenue-inducing idea than to continue it as a series, especially since they already were producing another Trek series concurrently with the films, and a third one on the way. It's as simple as that.

And I don't think you're going to find much sympathy here for your view that the other spinoffs are "not" Star Trek.:rolleyes:
 
Gah can you imagine if they were still making TNG after all these years? Coronation street in Space.

I know you were joking but it's kind of a neat idea if you think about it.

A continuously running Trek series set on the same ship but with the crew rotating in and out like a real military vessel might have been interesting.
 
Other shows went out when they were on top, too, and they didn't necessarily have movies coming. Not all TV shows are cancelled for low ratings.
 
I don't believe any of these pretexts. I've never heard of a TV series being cancelled to make a movie, and the movies artistically were pathetic compared to the TV show, mostly involving long, boring special effects shots, nonsensical plots, and clunky, incompetent direction. None of the cast has done anything else a tenth as interesting as TNG, and even if they wanted to leave, they should have just gotten more money first. And there are plenty of plot ideas left in TNG.


you do realise they didn't actually plan to make rubbish movies?

Though maybe they did.

"Right, lets end the show to make films".
"Good films?"
"No, pathetic ones. And make sure the cast don't go on to do anything else of note".

To be honest, to fully see how out of ideas for TNG the show makers were you only have to look at poor old Voyager, which, despite the added LOST IN SPACE factor is pretty much Next Gen seasons 7-14 style wise.
 
1. They were running out of gas in terms of writing
2. the cast was getting expensive
3. Movies made more sense from a business perspective, and the first two were solid successes

a season 8 of TNG would have sucked. Season 7 was already the second worst season of the show's run.
 
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