Extremely Detailed Berman Interview

[StarTrekker]

What made me a little angry was Berman saying he wished that there had been a way of talking with fans and getting feedback straight from them. I don't know what century he is living in but if Ron Moore could do it for DS9, he could do it!

 

[Anwar]

And Star Trek is hardly the only guilty party in the "add a babe" department.

How is this relevant?
Star Trek is its own show and I would expect any good showrunner to be above thinking that the "add a babe" strategy is the way to improve a show.

Problem is, they were right.

 

[StarTrekker]

And Star Trek is hardly the only guilty party in the "add a babe" department.

How is this relevant?
Star Trek is its own show and I would expect any good showrunner to be above thinking that the "add a babe" strategy is the way to improve a show.

Problem is, they were right.

They didn't say "lets add a new interesting character to the show", in the interview the first stepping stone to adding a character was "add a babe". It just shows how one dimensionally their minds worked.

 

[Anwar]

They took a one-dimensional concept and then the writers and Jeri Ryan were able to make her more than just a babe. The process may not have been to your liking but the final product is the final product.

 

[Shazam!]

Hmmm, Berman just said that Nana Visitor played Ensign Ro

: |

 

[Navaros]

I happened to find and watch that interview a few months ago. Here's my thoughts about it:

- I respect his honesty about a lot of things, ie: that the TNG doctor woman was fired due to a spat another guy had with her, that TNG had no conflict because he was trying to follow Gene's rules and then they tried to fix it on DS9. Although it is most curious as to why he then devolved Trek back into no-conflict snorefests for VOY and ENT...real shame the interviewer didn't ask him that.

- It's hilarious and very telling how he on several occasions in the interview gets the names of DS9 characters & situations wrong.

-The vast majority of the interview is just rehashing common knowledge that every Trekker already knows, especially if they read Trek boards. It would would have been way better if she asked him some more interesting questions that Trekkers didn't already know the answer to for several years. I guess she kept the questions dumb and basic because her audience was non-hardcore-Trek-fans. For that reason though, the interview is largely a waste of time to watch IMO.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Although it is most curious as to why he then devolved Trek back into no-conflict snorefests for VOY and ENT...real shame the interviewer didn't ask him that.

Not really an argument I can buy about ENT frankly. In any given story a character will become a spokesperson for a particular point of view and face opposition from others. They don't all need to war criminals or religious zealots as they were on DS9 for it be classified as conflict. It all depends on a given fan's perspective and whether they really, really liked what they were watching. Not always in the case of Voyager for me. But quite often during Enterprise for sure.

 

[Anwar]

Navaros thinks the only way to have conflict on a show is is one character is a racist, another a hypocrite, and another a plain jerk. Then spread that out to the entire cast. That sort of "conflict" isn't the universal appeal people think it is.

 

[HaplessCrewman]

What made me a little angry was Berman saying he wished that there had been a way of talking with fans and getting feedback straight from them. I don't know what century he is living in but if Ron Moore could do it for DS9, he could do it!

Would you say that qualifies him as a batardo?

 

[KingstonTrekker]

Those who make the really tough decisions often need to be.

Doesn't mean the guy deserves any less respect.

He deserves plenty of disrespect for inflicting his aesthetic on TREK to its detriment from day one. Just for music notions alone, Berman is almost the antichrist of trek.

Wow...pretty hostile comment. While Berman made some mistakes, he did oversee close to 18 years of Trek productions (including the wildly successful TNG years of the '90s.) So many people on here focus on his mistakes, instead of also considering his successes.

Sorry, but the world is not as black and white as you seem to view it.

 

[plynch]

And Star Trek is hardly the only guilty party in the "add a babe" department.

How is this relevant?
Star Trek is its own show and I would expect any good showrunner to be above thinking that the "add a babe" strategy is the way to improve a show.

Luckily TOS never used scantily-clad women gratuitously! (They would have been too en-Theissing!! Bada-bing -- good night, ladies and germs.)

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Luckily TOS never used scantily-clad women gratuitously! (They would have been too en-Theissing!! Bada-bing -- good night, ladies and germs.)

Now THAT was good!

 

[Anwar]

Yes, I suppose the double standard would allow for several one-episoders to be the eyecandy rather than a regular.

 

[Brolan]

Those who make the really tough decisions often need to be.

Doesn't mean the guy deserves any less respect.

He deserves plenty of disrespect for inflicting his aesthetic on TREK to its detriment from day one. Just for music notions alone, Berman is almost the antichrist of trek.

Damn! I wanted to be the first in this thread to call Berman the Devil!

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Say what you will about the man, Berman did preside over the creation of a lot of good TV. I do think Star Trek declined towards the end of his tenure, but I've still got respect for him.

 

[xortex]

Braga and Berman - Brutus and Barrabas.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

So, I just watched the entire video.....Wow, he looks tired. I give Rick a fair amount of credit for putting in place an excellent Trek factory. A factory that did on several occasions put out a quality product. I will also give a little deference because there were always people making decision above that directly affected Trek and forced him to make certain choices. I will not however back down from what I have said concerning his alliance with Braga, the forcing out or Ron Moore, and the general malaise that beset Trek under the last few years of his term as mayor. The fact that he does not agree with how ENT and NEM were recieved is precisely the problem. Oversaturation of Trek was certainly a problem, but not as much as he'd have us believe. ENT failed because it did screw things up and a huge segement of the fans stopped watching. NEM failed because it was dull and I'd go so far as to say offensive to the fans of TNG. He may have been lurking amoung the boards, but he refused to hear what was being said. I know Braga didn't want to listen, because he shut me down personally on AOL on the VOY board one day. Say what you will about the hard-core fans, but if you abandon them you are risking disaster. The very reason the re-boot is working is because they have tried to reach out to them, even if it's a thinly veiled attempt. JJ may be alot of things, but he's not stupid. And were walkin....

 

[JarodRussell]

I love the part where he forgots the name of the Troi character. But then again, ask one of the writers here about details of their past works. You simply forget it, because you don't religiously follow your own WORK. And that's what it is. It's work. They don't need to get a life, because they have a life.

All of you complaining about the stuff he gets wrong in this interview clearly should think about getting a life.

I know Braga didn't want to listen, because he shut me down personally on AOL on the VOY board one day.

Hardly anyone "wants" to listen. I read most of the talkbacks on Trekmovie.com, where people tried to discuss errors and screw ups in the new movie with writer Bob Orci... and that guy just doesn't want to learn. I don't know why, maybe you get caught up into your work so much, or you are surrounded by so many other "professionals" who tell you how good your stuff is that you don't care about the opinions of a fan.

His best reply over there was something along "maybe this is why I do what I do and you do what you do."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, bitch and write fanzine articles criticizing people who can.

His best reply over there was something along "maybe this is why I do what I do and you do what you do."

That was hardly his best reply over there, but it was certainly appropriate to the kind of shit he was dealing with.

"That guy doesn't want to learn?" Most of the would-be critics of the "errors" in the movie over at Trekmovie had nothing of value to impart.

It's interesting that Berman has done both the kinds of work Roddenberry did and that Solow did for DesiLu.

The general opinion was that Roddenberry was a cranky old bastard and no one wanted to have anything to do with him.

Well, that's the polite version.

The story about Hurley/McFadden/Muldaur is the really polite version.

 

[DestinyCaptain]

Braga is arrogant and the moment he started calling us "continuity whores" he lost the argument.