Chain of Command pt II

[T'Girl]

I think for the Best Of Both Worlds II, they should have made Riker say the monologue. People would have wondered what the hell was going on...

No, Denise Crosby. REALLY screw with people's minds.

 

[kirkfan]

I think that Picard wanted out, or said he did.

Hunh. I am unsuccessfully looking for something to corroborate Stewart might have wanted out at that time. Do you have information you can point me to?

But I think it was a tactic to increase his salary, they all do that when they get the occasion.

So far I am unsuccessful at finding anything to corroborate this too. Any suggestions?

No, it's just something I heard on a board like this.

 

[ThankYouGeneR]

Got it. Thx.

 

[Darren Mooney]

Got it. Thx.

Michael Piller's unpublished book on Insurrection (Fade In, I think?) says that he drafted it as a contract negotiation ploy, because Stewart was renegotiating his contract.

However, either Mark Altman or Larry Nemecek suggest on the recent blu releases that Stewart had been unhappy at the start of the third season - but Piller had largely fixed that by the time Best of Both Worlds came out.

Frakes suggests on the blu rays that even he doesn't know the truth of the matter.

Edited to add:

I dug out my notes on the episode from my review of it. Here's Piller's quote from Fade In:

The idea of a cliff-hanger was actually a pure business decision. In fact, you could even call it a negotiating ploy. John Pike called Rick and said the studio was having a contract dispute with Patrick. “Come up with a cliff-hanger,” he said. “We may have to kill him.”

At the end of the last episode of the season, when Riker fires weapons apparently killing Picard aboard the Borg ship, I had no idea if Picard lived or died.

Source, with other quotes, here: the m0vie blog

 

[kirkfan]

Got it. Thx.

Michael Piller's unpublished book on Insurrection (Fade In, I think?) says that he drafted it as a contract negotiation ploy, because Stewart was renegotiating his contract.

However, either Mark Altman or Larry Nemecek suggest on the recent blu releases that Stewart had been unhappy at the start of the third season - but Piller had largely fixed that by the time Best of Both Worlds came out.

Frakes suggests on the blu rays that even he doesn't know the truth of the matter.

Edited to add:

I dug out my notes on the episode from my review of it. Here's Piller's quote from Fade In:

The idea of a cliff-hanger was actually a pure business decision. In fact, you could even call it a negotiating ploy. John Pike called Rick and said the studio was having a contract dispute with Patrick. “Come up with a cliff-hanger,” he said. “We may have to kill him.”

At the end of the last episode of the season, when Riker fires weapons apparently killing Picard aboard the Borg ship, I had no idea if Picard lived or died.

Source, with other quotes, here: the m0vie blog

That sounds about right.

 

[James T Kirk]

Horrific and unnecessary idea.

 

[kirkfan]

Horrific and unnecessary idea.

Some people live for the horrific and the unnecessary.

 

[Darren Mooney]

Horrific and unnecessary idea.

Some people live for the horrific and the unnecessary.

Yep.

And to be fair, very few choices in fictional storytelling are truly "necessary", rhetorical devices aside.

 

[kirkfan]

Horrific and unnecessary idea.

Some people live for the horrific and the unnecessary.

Yep.

And to be fair, very few choices in fictional storytelling are truly "necessary", rhetorical devices aside.

Unless the "necessary" has been setup earlier in the story.

 

[Darren Mooney]

Some people live for the horrific and the unnecessary.

Yep.

And to be fair, very few choices in fictional storytelling are truly "necessary", rhetorical devices aside.

Unless the "necessary" has been setup earlier in the story.

And I mean, even then, writers CAN just throw all that out. It might not be good storytelling (and I can think of a rare few examples where it worked), but it's still storytelling.

 

[kirkfan]

Yep.

And to be fair, very few choices in fictional storytelling are truly "necessary", rhetorical devices aside.

Unless the "necessary" has been setup earlier in the story.

And I mean, even then, writers CAN just throw all that out. It might not be good storytelling (and I can think of a rare few examples where it worked), but it's still storytelling.

You mean like the horrific Threshold, don't you?

 

[Darren Mooney]

Unless the "necessary" has been setup earlier in the story.

And I mean, even then, writers CAN just throw all that out. It might not be good storytelling (and I can think of a rare few examples where it worked), but it's still storytelling.

You mean like the horrific Threshold, don't you?

Actually, I was thinking the transition across the cliffhanger from the first season of Millennium into the second. Which really should not have worked, but did.

 

[kirkfan]

And I mean, even then, writers CAN just throw all that out. It might not be good storytelling (and I can think of a rare few examples where it worked), but it's still storytelling.

You mean like the horrific Threshold, don't you?

Actually, I was thinking the transition across the cliffhanger from the first season of Millennium into the second. Which really should not have worked, but did.

Millenium? I never saw one.

 

[Darren Mooney]

You mean like the horrific Threshold, don't you?

Actually, I was thinking the transition across the cliffhanger from the first season of Millennium into the second. Which really should not have worked, but did.

Millenium? I never saw one.

Sorry, context: Chris Carter produced the first season, built to a great cliffhanger. Then James Wong and Glen Morgan took over, and veered the second part away from the first. They recast a pivotal role, rewrote the show's internal continuity, ignored obvious hints about where the story was intended to go.

It shouldn't have worked, but it did.

 

[kirkfan]

Actually, I was thinking the transition across the cliffhanger from the first season of Millennium into the second. Which really should not have worked, but did.

Millenium? I never saw one.

Sorry, context: Chris Carter produced the first season, built to a great cliffhanger. Then James Wong and Glen Morgan took over, and veered the second part away from the first. They recast a pivotal role, rewrote the show's internal continuity, ignored obvious hints about where the story was intended to go.

It shouldn't have worked, but it did.

That sounds bad, indeed.