Brannon Braga Interview in IF Magazine

[Dukhat]

Wow. Another Braga-hating thread. Four years after the last time he ever had anything to do with Star Trek. It didn't take me that long to get over the ex-girlfriend who totally screwed me over.

What so many people don't seem to understand is that UPN had way, way more to do with the failure of ENTERPRISE than Braga ever did. It was the UPN suits who were responsible for creating a dumbed-down, safe, "sexy" show that never took any risks, and Braga was unfortunately placed in a position he never should have been put in in the first place (think Sarah Palin).

I'm not trying to be an apologist for Braga, especially since he's already admitted he'd made his mistakes. However, when was the last time you ever heard a former UPN exec admitting to a mistake? Like, never?

 

[Broccoli]

^ What's UPN?

 

[PKTrekGirl]

What's that old saying about you sometimes hurt the ones you love the most...

He should have treated "his ex-wife" with a little more care and kindness and a lot less arrogance.

Glad he thinks XI is in good hands. Could just be a little butt kissing though.

The way this guy ran Star Trek into the ground, I have no idea why anyone would be remotely interested in anything he had to say about it.

My expectations on Trek XI have to do with the success of other things that JJ Abrams has done.

Agreed, 100%.

I don't care what Braga says. He and Berman got lazy around season 5 of VOY, and didn't wake up and realize the fan base wasn't gonna watch just ANYTHING with 'Star Trek' in the name (like they had wrongfully assumed) until ENT was almost canceled after season 3.

Then they got busy. But it was too little, too late.

No sympathy whatever for him.

 

[Broccoli]

I don't care what Braga says.

Yet, you cared enough to click on the thread to see what he had to say in the interview. Interesting...

 

[Akiraprise]

I clicked on it to see how many people were jumping on the Braga Bashing Bandwagon.
The amount of hate piled on the guy never ceases to amaze.

 

[btflash]

So if he goes to see the new movie will it be like peeping on his ex and the new guy through the bedroom window?

You saw me DO THAT?

yeah! i was the guy in the bedroom!

 

[Trek Survivor]

I think the Braga bashing is petty and people need to grow up and let it go.

Couldn't agree more. There are some people posting here who are obviously obsessed with jumping on bandwagons and bashing people like Braga and Berman because "ooh, that's what everyone else is doing, I wanna be trendy!!"

The man wrote some great Trek episodes for TNG. I've written elsewhere about why Berman wasn't the "evil force" everyone seems to think, and my reasoning can be applied to Braga as well. I can't be bothered to repost it all here.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I don't care what Braga says. He and Berman got lazy around season 5 of VOY, and didn't wake up and realize the fan base wasn't gonna watch just ANYTHING with 'Star Trek' in the name ...

Berman, for one, could have figured that out when DS9's ratings started to tank in the first year.

 

[shapeshifter]

I only regret he, (& Berman) let Paramount pressure them into another project, (ENT) before they were organized enough to do it right. Maybe they were too tired, or scared of unemployment, to speak up to Paramount of the importance of a break or hiring fresh minds before another new ship was launched.

I've heard a lot of people over the past few years talking about how in the shitter VOY ratings were but I never hear an explanation of why, if things were so bad, did ENT get green lit?

Seems to me Paramount has responsibility for the decline of Trek more than B&B did. Paramount couldn't read the writing on the wall or, the writing on the wall was suggesting everything was well off enough to continue?

IMO the ultimate blame for the decline of Trek lies with the studio. B&B were just doing what they were told to do.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I don't care what Braga says. He and Berman got lazy around season 5 of VOY, and didn't wake up and realize the fan base wasn't gonna watch just ANYTHING with 'Star Trek' in the name ...

They could have figured that out when DS9's ratings started to tank in the first year.

DS9 isn't a Brannon Braga project so is completely irrelevant to any comment I made about Brannon Braga, who is the subject of this thread.

But then, you KNEW that, didn't you? And posted this purely to try and pick a fight.

*sigh*

Just when I start to think you are starting to change your stripes with the borderline trolling...

Oh well, I guess some people will never change.

 

[number6]

I don't care what Braga says. He and Berman got lazy around season 5 of VOY, and didn't wake up and realize the fan base wasn't gonna watch just ANYTHING with 'Star Trek' in the name ...

They could have figured that out when DS9's ratings started to tank in the first year.

DS9 isn't a Brannon Braga project so is completely irrelevant to any comment I made about Brannon Braga, who is the subject of this thread.

But then, you KNEW that, didn't you? And posted this purely to try and pick a fight.

*sigh*

Just when I start to think you are starting to change your stripes with the borderline trolling...

Oh well, I guess some people will never change.

The problem is, Dennis is absolutely right. A lot of hardcore TNG fans hated DS9 and it's darker approach. They didn't like that the space station didn't boldly go anywhere. That's why they brought in Worf. That's why they brought in the Defiant (both Berman's idea). People want to blame Braga and Berman for a rainy day. If you really want to be pissed at someone for "killing" Star Trek, you can look to Paramount for going to the well too many times and you can look to Les Moonves for cancelling Enterprise because it couldn't pull in the same ratings as America's Top Model at several times the cost.

As I said in the ENT forum on the same subject, I have yet to see a Les Moonves Suxxxxx thread, yet he had infiniely more to do with the demise of televised Star Trek than anyone else involved with the production of the show.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I don't care what Braga says. He and Berman got lazy around season 5 of VOY, and didn't wake up and realize the fan base wasn't gonna watch just ANYTHING with 'Star Trek' in the name ...

They could have figured that out when DS9's ratings started to tank in the first year.

DS9 isn't a Brannon Braga project so is completely irrelevant to any comment I made about Brannon Braga...

Except for the "he and Berman got lazy" phrase, there.

I re-edited my post to clarify the reference.

Pointing out that Trek's declining success in holding an audience started with DS9, well before Braga was involved, is not trolling - borderline or otherwise. No one accuses the DS9 folks of laziness, but the audience didn't hang around through the years for them either.

In the main, the big audience created by TNG didn't faithfully the Franchise from that show to DS9 or "Voyager" or "Enterprise."

Oh well, I guess some people will never change.

I've no reason or desire to; I'm doing nothing wrong by holding and stating opinions that you don't like.

If you really want to be pissed at someone for "killing" Star Trek, you can look to Paramount for going to the well too many times...

Paramount confused the Star Trek trademark with a brand. Not only can't you "slap it on anything" but just because something may be of high quality in the opinions of some folks doesn't mean that people who liked one Star Trek series will be drawn to something very different just because the name is there.

People like or dislike a Trek TV project for the same reason they like or dislike any other show - and for the largest group of TV viewers the most important element in drawing and holding a audience is the cast and the characters they play. Viewers won't follow a writer, a producer, a concept or a "universe" from one show to another simply because there are surrogate or similar characters on the new series. The Stargate people have been finding out the same thing, it seems.

 

[cooleddie74]

So if he goes to see the new movie will it be like peeping on his ex and the new guy through the bedroom window?

You saw me DO THAT?

yeah! i was the guy in the bedroom!

The cop with the taser?

No. Wait.

Wrong night.

 

[I am not Spock]

Viewers won't follow a writer, a producer, a concept or a "universe" from one show to another simply because there are surrogate or similar characters on the new series. The Stargate people have been finding out the same thing, it seems.

Some fans will follow a show head, writer, director, etc, from one show to another. Look at Abrams fans or Ronald D Moore fans, or Joss Whedon fans. The guys themselves have become brand names.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Some fans will follow a show head, writer, director, etc, from one show to another.

Yes, you're right.

I will, for one.

I should have said "most viewers will not."

Most viewers have no idea who writes TV, what a producer does or much about how a show or movie is made. It's just not an important or particularly interesting thing to know, since most people don't live or work in areas where this kind of thing is done.

The problem for shows like DS9 or "Voyager," obviously, is not that no one who likes the previous show sticks with them. It's that not enough folks do. With every Trek series, promotion and curiosity caused the premiere episode to get very high ratings - DS9's opener was watched by more people than had ever watched TNG. That's "sampling," and in every case large numbers of the folks who'd followed from the previous Trek series lost interest quickly and the numbers would slide inexorably downward.

 

[Saul]

DS9 was the highest rating Star Trek show after TNG. DS9 got sandwiched between two Starship shows and was never given the chance by the ex powers to stand on it's own. Nobody complains about DS9 been lazy because when you watch it you can see it's actually different to what came before and after it. Not just another starship in space.

Yes Les Moonves cancelled Star Trek because the show had low ratings. He wasn't creatively responsible for the shows failure. If something isn't working you cut your losses and move on.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

DS9 was the highest rating Star Trek show after TNG.

So what? It lost more than half of its initial viewership by the end of the first season and continued to decline steadily for seven years. The studio knew that the ratings were a big problem - they didn't add on a major character from TNG and tart Kira up in the fourth year because of some sudden change in creative vision, you know.

"Voyager" was the same - lost more than half of its beginning viewership during the first year. So did "Enterprise." All three of these shows had the chance to succeed - people were curious about them at first - but none could close the deal.

Every fan has an explanation, usually multiple explanations, for why their show or sports team or favorite politician during a primary doesn't perform up to expectations. It's almost always someone or something else's fault...but such rationalizations are differences that make no difference.

 

[I am not Spock]

I guess outside of SF and fantasy genre circles, no casual TV viewer knows, or cares, who writes the episodes. That's what makes Trekkies, or Galactica fans, or Browncoats, or whatever, different from ER or CSI fans.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

So if he goes to see the new movie will it be like peeping on his ex and the new guy through the bedroom window?

Well if he's like me he's still fucking his ex at least twice a week.

 

[Lashmore]

Some fans will follow a show head, writer, director, etc, from one show to another. Look at Abrams fans or Ronald D Moore fans, or Joss Whedon fans. The guys themselves have become brand names.

Incorrect, at least in regards to me anyway.

Alias - Abrams project, I saw a few eps, it was good, but not enough for me to keep watching, so I stopped watching. His other projects I haven't even tried to watch, as well I got faith in him as a good writer and director above most from trek, I just don't follow names religiously.

His only project I watch religiously is LOST.

Whedon- Buffy, to me, ruined the suernatural world of fiction for me, Angel was a touch better in touching the dark side with less silly humour but still failed.

Both series I absolutely find boring and unimagiantive, at least in my tastes.

However Firefly I did enjoy. So he's succeeded what, once out of three attempts with me? Not exactly a good run to my liking.

of course others like his other stuff, good for them, thats their taste, just not mine.

Ronald D Moore- I love the new series of BSG, but, whoops, i didn;t even notice it was a Ronald D Moore show until well after into the second season.

Lazy me.

I folow shows that grab me, not who makes them.