"Chaos on the Bridge" Now on Netflix streaming in the US

[Treadwell]

What you see in any documentary is what what the editors let you see. It may not have been everything she had to say on the subject.

I thought I said that.

Could be editing.

 

[plynch]

The Q material is awful. I'd prefer the jellyfish show, as a 45 min. ep. I actually used to think the pilot was like two episodes edited into one. Now I know the writing was actually like that.

 

[Karzak]

What you see in any documentary is what what the editors let you see. It may not have been everything she had to say on the subject.

I thought I said that.

Could be editing.

All due respect, your comment could have been interpreted any number of ways. I certainly didn't glean "What you see is what the editors let you see" from it the way you stated it initially.

 

[JRoss]

Maurice Hurley was really a horrible person. Seems like he was trying to aggrandize himself at the expense of others. Never knew how awful he was until a month ago when I heard about him and Gates.

 

[Treadwell]

All due respect, your comment could have been interpreted any number of ways. I certainly didn't glean "What you see is what the editors let you see" from it the way you stated it initially.

That IS editing. I needed to redundantly define the word after using it?

 

[Gaith]

Just watched this at last! Such a hodgepodge of anecdotes and writers' contests, and not a very coherent doc overall. I wish more attention had been paid to the question of "what is the show, at heart?" Is it an anthology of weirdness-of-the-week shows? A serialized Starfleet vs. Borg war story, as Hurley said he wanted for the second season? A show about professionals, or a show about a senior-staff family? As I understand it, the answer eventually became "a bit of everything", with a growing emphasis on the constructed family, which must have been partly a choice, but partly an inevitable result of all the characters have been through together, and the actors' camaraderie.

Were the producers and writers frustrated by having to be so episodic, or was it the only way such a diverse show could effectively function, and thus a necessity? Or did they enjoy starting with a comparatively blank canvas each time around, and the exploration that afforded? Did anyone have a narrative goal in mind for the end of the series, or would it just be "star trekking across the universe" forever? We get hints and pieces to answers to all these questions, but I would have liked more of a big-picture approach.

 

[Christopher]

Were the producers and writers frustrated by having to be so episodic, or was it the only way such a diverse show could effectively function, and thus a necessity? Or did they enjoy starting with a comparatively blank canvas each time around, and the exploration that afforded?

At the time, episodic storytelling was still the norm for most primetime TV, except for the nighttime soaps. It wasn't until the '90s that serialization started to become the preferred approach. TNG's approach of an episodic series with continuity between episodes and occasional recurring plot and character threads was pretty standard for the time.

Did anyone have a narrative goal in mind for the end of the series, or would it just be "star trekking across the universe" forever?

Surely the latter. The idea of a TV series as a finite "novel" building toward a specific resolution was pretty much pioneered by Babylon 5. Before then, there were various series that had specific "quest" goals in mind that would end the series if they were ever achieved -- Dr. Kimble finds the one-armed man, David Banner cures the Hulk, Sam Beckett makes the leap home -- but could easily defer that outcome as long as the show kept getting renewed. But most other series were just open-ended and designed to run as long as they could. There would always be another planet for the Enterprise to visit, another problem for MacGyver or Michael Knight to solve, etc.

 

[iMike]

To be honest I didn't get much out of this documentary. Not because it isn't well made, it certainly is. If you watch all of the new docs on the Blu-Rays most of this information has already been presented in some fashion. Yes, it's nice to get a different perspective, especially about the relationship between Gene and Maizlish (to me this was the most interesting part). I am happy the doc is available to stream though, especially for those fans who do not have the BRs and access to the newer featurettes.

 

[urbandefault]

I got a kick out of it.

Historically accurate? Who knows? Who cares? It's been 30 years since that adventure started, and memories differ. Stories change with age. Still, the interviewees looked like they had a good time telling the stories, and Shatner enjoyed hearing them. So did I.

Shatner (laughing): "Say that again."