Discovery Showrunners fired; Kurtzman takes over

[SJA]

If the end of the first season had anything to do with this change, wouldn't it have happened between seasons and not after5 episodes of season 2 had already been produced?

I didn't mean to suggest that the end of the first season had to do with this 'specific' change - More that I thought a few writers and producers would have been let go to freshen up the writing staff....Surprised -as I said - that it was due to the show-runners acting like utter bellends in the writers room...

 

[eschaton]

I wonder how different Season 2 will be. Jayne Brook (a.k.a. Admiral Cornwell) has said in interviews that Aaron and Gretchen personally invited her to play Cornwell on Discovery. I hope that Admiral Cornwell still appears on the show in the future!

I don't.

Even setting aside her acting (which I know other people liked, but I generally found weak) one of the things I liked the least about her character was the decision to shoehorn her in at the end of the second act. Starfleet is big - we never learn exactly how big, but there must be hundreds of billions of civilized beings in the Federation, hence it stands to reason there are probably at minimum hundreds of admirals - possibly even more, since it seems like any captain who doesn't get blown up is offered an admiralty in late middle age. The way the earlier series did it - with a new admiral every week - was honestly more realistic, and helped to make the Federation seem vast in scope.

Now, if there's a story reason for her to return - like a search for Prime Lorca or something - I'm 100% okay with her returning, because that is wrapped up with who she is as a character, rather than her rank. But if it's a random arc where any admiral will do it's better to introduce a new character.

 

[Terok Nor]

What horrible assholes. I'm glad the bullies have been fired. Season 1 was a mess anyway. Hopefully things will improve now. Harberts and Berg came across as pretentious and delusional. It's not that surprising they were awful to work for. I won't get my hopes up for Season 2 yet. It's still their vision. Season 3 might be the one to look towards.

 

[Philip Guyott]

I won't get my hopes up for Season 2 yet... ...Season 3 might be the one to look towards.

The same is also true of TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT

 

[Lord Garth]

Meanwhile, I'll end up stuck being the hipster. "I liked Disco before it was cool!"

 

[SITZKRIEG!]

It was not so much an arc as it was...

What... mutineering and unnecessarily causing a battle that killed thousands and then led to a war that likely killed millions resulting in a 6 month sentence before being not only pardoned but awarded the highest honor in Starfleet less than two years later isn't a great arc? How does a 6 month off screen jail sentence for reckless actions resulting in the death of millions not amount to a *insert Tony the Tiger* grrrreaat! redemption arc just so they could prematurely wrap up their hastily conceived war arc in the first disjointed season? I haven't seen a story arc of that quality and gravitas since Homer Simpson joined the navy and almost started a war...but was let off because it was his first day.

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[Jadeb]

I don't.

Even setting aside her acting (which I know other people liked, but I generally found weak) one of the things I liked the least about her character was the decision to shoehorn her in at the end of the second act.

I agree about shoehorning her in -- and I *hate* what they did to the character -- but what didn't you like about her before that? I thought she brought a nice weariness to the part. Her turn, along with Isaacs' Lorca portrayal, made me hope they were bringing humanity to the authority figures. (They weren't, of course, and then threw both characters under the bus, along with Sarek to boot.)

 

[Long Syntax]

Well, they made a mess of things in DSC:S1, so one can only hope for better in S2 with Berg and Harberts out. One can only hope that Matt Mira is out at After Trek too - between Mira's crap hosting and Berg / Harberts general smugness I found After Trek impossible to watch.

 

[eschaton]

I agree about shoehorning her in -- and I *hate* what they did to the character -- but what didn't you like about her before that? I thought she brought a nice weariness to the part. Her turn, along with Isaacs' Lorca portrayal, made me hope they were bringing humanity to the authority figures. (They weren't, of course, and then threw both characters under the bus, along with Sarek to boot.)

I found Jayne Brook to be a little wooden honestly. On a different show it likely wouldn't have stood out, but she was surrounded by actors who were much, much better than she was, which made it glaring.

 

[BillJ]

I haven't seen a story arc of that quality and gravitas since Homer Simpson joined the navy and almost started a war...but was let off because it was his first day.

I think Homer's arc was deeper and more satisfying.

 

[Dukhat]

Read on another site, found this hillarious, and honestly might work. "Take 10 random Star Trek Forum members, and make them executive producers, you would get a better Trek.. "

That would be worse. Then you’d have ten people with ten individual opinions about what Star Trek “should be” and none of their opinions would match.

 

[BillJ]

That would be worse. Now you’d have ten people with ten individual opinions about what Star Trek “should be” and none of their opinions would match.

That already sounds like the Discovery writer's room.

 

[Jayson1]

And it's a fanwank story about how all of Diana Muldaur's characters are the same person!

Makes sense. She went blin

True, but Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman were the showrunners. Kurtzman and Orci had little-to-nothing to do with it after the pilot. Similar to how Joss Whedon developed Agents of SHIELD, but then left it in the capable hands of Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon and Jeffrey Bell with no further involvement on his part.

In terms of Akiva Goldsman, though, his best work by far was on Fringe. The guy wrote or co-wrote a ton of classic episodes. He seems to work best when he's a member of a writing staff rather than a writer/director or showrunner.

Wasn't Goldsman who wrote "A Beautiful Mind" that won a Oscar? Also though he wrote at least one of the terrible 90's Batman movies as well.

Jason

 

[Long Syntax]

Read on another site, found this hillarious, and honestly might work. "Take 10 random Star Trek Forum members, and make them executive producers, you would get a better Trek.. "

That would be worse. Then you’d have ten people with ten individual opinions about what Star Trek “should be” and none of their opinions would match.

After reading that little gem I won't feel so bad about saying that I'd nominate Manny Coto as showrunner - that is if nominations is how it works (obviously it doesn't).

 

[Jadeb]

I found Jayne Brook to be a little wooden honestly. On a different show it likely wouldn't have stood out, but she was surrounded by actors who were much, much better than she was, which made it glaring.

TBH, Jason Isaacs was the only cast member who really stood out for me. Other folks did yeoman's work with what they were given -- I'm looking at you, Doug Jones -- but only Isaacs made a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

 

[Vger23]

Well, my 2 cents started in the first episode, during the initial credits when the theme is 1 minute long, and 45 seconds of it is listing executive producers.. As the saying goes, to many chiefs in the kitchen.
Being a writing room, I would expect "some" language, and abit of yelling to occur, but in anything, there are limits that shouldn't be crossed. Excessive bullying, getting yelled down and belittled, and especially being told not to go to HR. So I for 1 am glad that they have been let go. I hope this leads to better idea sharing because they won't get yelled down.

Now, I have enjoyed the show alot, but also yelled way to many times at the TV ( Klingons ships design, I'm looking at you). I've almost always called it "Battlestar Discovery" when I tell my friends I'm watching it. And as a person who has watched Star Trek at 5 years old, I can't let little kids watch this, this is 12 and over.. and I have fond memeorys of TNG of me at 8 years old. So, hope this shift tones down the language, sex and violence, Star Trek doesn't need that to make a good show. So, I'll 2nd the calls for Manny Coto (I done a quick check, doesn't seem to be busy atm.) and I have high hopes that all the behind the scenes FUBAR will get sorted out and the series can find its legs and give us great TV

EDIT:
Read on another site, found this hillarious, and honestly might work. "Take 10 random Star Trek Forum members, and make them executive producers, you would get a better Trek.. "

There is no greater arrogance or fallacy within fandom that random fans on the internet understand how to create good Star Trek stories compared to pro writers. Most of the story ideas I read on message boards like this make my bowels overactive they are so craptastic.

 

[The Wormhole]

This news really has me wondering about the whole John Eaves situation a couple months back. Eaves, for those who don't remember was the one who made the comment on Facebook that they were required for undisclosed legal reasons to redesign the Enterprise a minimum of 25%. Within a day, CBS issued a counterclaim that the redesign was done purely for artistic interests, and Eaves's Facebook was shut down, a move which already stunk of gag orders and heavy-handed overreactions by those in authority. Now we know the showrunners are confirmed to be abusive douches, this sheds new light on the situation with John Eaves indeed.

 

[AutoAdmin]

A new news article has been published at TrekToday:

Once again, there is a showrunner change at Star Trek: Discovery as Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts are departing the show. The...

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[Tuskin38]

This news really has me wondering about the whole John Eaves situation a couple months back. Eaves, for those who don't remember was the one who made the comment on Facebook that they were required for undisclosed legal reasons to redesign the Enterprise a minimum of 25%. Within a day, CBS issued a counterclaim that the redesign was done purely for artistic interests, and Eaves's Facebook was shut down, a move which already stunk of gag orders and heavy-handed overreactions by those in authority. Now we know the showrunners are confirmed to be abusive douches, this sheds new light on the situation with John Eaves indeed.

Or they're completely unrelated.

I feel like it was more likely CBS who talked to him, not anyone from the show.

 

[gottacook]

Please note that the Hollywood Reporter article may be far from the whole story. The article doesn't include even one quote from a named person, only the unsigned official statement from CBS. There's not even any information attributed to "person with X responsibilities whose name is withheld for Y reason" that you might see in a hard-news article. Just "sources" and "insiders." I'm kind of embarrassed for the reporter and/or her editor.

Before drawing any conclusions about what really led to this staffing change, I would want to read a better-sourced story - which presumably would include conflicting views of what happened and why.