Wow, what a polarizing figure. I thought Trump was bad but Gene has his merry band of haters to this day. It's amazing. It only took fifty years for people to figure out what a great work of art Trek was and what a contribution to Humanity it was. I realize that the achievement wasn't only his but who else believes Gene when he says 'I am Star Trek'? Who would like to see it go back to what it was - exploration and metaphorical and metaphysical expressionism in it's highest sense and form. The blueprints seem to be shredded and shattered and substituted with glory seeking and mediocrity.
Gene Roddenberry.
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Not to mention THE SOURCEBOOK! Andorians don't even have ICE POWERS these days! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM ALL TO HELLLLLL!!!!!!
In all seriousness, though...
INTERVIEWER: What about Star Trek after Gene Roddenberry?
GENE RODDENBERRY: I would hope there are bright young people, growing up all the time, who will bring to it levels and areas that were beyond me, and I don't feel jealous about that at all...it'll go on without any of us, and get better and better and better...
GENE RODDENBERRY: I would hope there are bright young people, growing up all the time, who will bring to it levels and areas that were beyond me, and I don't feel jealous about that at all...it'll go on without any of us, and get better and better and better...
-MMoM
Not to mention THE SOURCEBOOK! Andorians don't even have ICE POWERS these days! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM ALL TO HELLLLLL!!!!!!
In all seriousness, though...
INTERVIEWER: What about Star Trek after Gene Roddenberry?
GENE RODDENBERRY: I would hope there are bright young people, growing up all the time, who will bring to it levels and areas that were beyond me, and I don't feel jealous about that at all...it'll go on without any of us, and get better and better and better...
-MMoM
Yep. Roddenberry was only human, and had human weaknesses (like bristling when faced with his franchise actually being taken out from beneath him and handed to others in front of his face), but in all honesty I do believe the sincerity of his words there. He was a pragmatist and, ultimately would've known especially in his last years on Earth that Star Trek was going to survive him, so its better to let others explore their own take on the franchise with good grace rather than argue about it or try to impose his own will as the series' creator.
I wonder if Roddenberry would bristle whenever someone would remind him that it was never his franchise?
Well exactly. Star Trek is owned by Paramount and even during his lifetime they explored various ways of doing it without his involvement. I do have a theory that Roddenberry's presence in the making of TMP was largely a result of his stewardship over a proposed television revival, attempts to get a movie off the ground before this were done without his creative input, and even TNG was originally a Roddenberry-free zone until someone apparently clocked on that it would be great publicity to be able to say in the press releases, "the man who started it all twenty years ago is back to do it again..."I do believe Roddenberry was smart to have so enveloped himself into the mythology of Trek (or, to have created the mythology of Roddenberry?), that Paramount felt the need to keep him around. One doubts if he'd still been alive if they'd have asked Bruce Geller for his input into the 1990s Mission Impossible movie, but through his own ability to big note himself Roddenberry had made himself sound indispensible. They had no obligation to retain him as creative consultant on the films except that they feared a fan backlash if they didn't (no doubt, like all those letter writing campains in the 60s, such a backlash wouls have been orchestrated by Gene himself
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Recognizing the flaws in Roddenberry doesn't make one a hater.
This is to play enthusiastically with understatement. There were many contributors to Star Trek in its early days and ever since who had at least as big an impact on what Star Trek became as Gene did. It is certainly wrong to write him off, but it is equally wrong to treat him as a sort of deity from whose mouth sprung the sacred texts.
I think it lost something when Roddenberry moved on. It lost its sense of wonder for the universe.
Oh, joy. Another "You kids get off my lawn!" thread.
Gene Roddenberry was a man, same as anyone else. He had a good idea, and evolved a "vision" around it to sell product.
I see no need to deify him or to dismiss what has come after as somehow "less than".
I think Discovery is fantastic. I can't wait to see the new movies and the Picard show.
The future is brighter than the past.
YMMV
I can agree with everything but this. Upon rewatching the show, so far, I can see potential. But it is mostly missed potential. We'll see where we go in season two.
'In the beginning Roddenbery created the Federation and the aliens within' GenesisTrek1:1
I thought that was planet forbidden?
Right bro, we get it. You like Gene Roddenberry. Glory be the Goddenberry.
Quite. Among them, let's not forget good old D.C.!
"I objected to Troi having three breasts. I felt women have enough trouble with two. And how are you going to line them up? Vertically, horizontally, or what? I was like, please, don't go there. And they didn't, fortunately."
-Fontana to Entertainment Weekly
-Fontana to Entertainment Weekly
(And by "they" I'm pretty sure she means...well, take a wild guess.
)And not Roddenberry's idea, either! HERESY!
-MMoM
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Gene Roddenberry: he was a great Idea Man. You can't take that away from him. But underneath his regime, Star Trek was usually better when other writers wrote it.
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