Depends on the fan at the other end.
Spoilers General Disco Chat Thread
- Thread starter Lord Garth
- Start date
I’ve yet to see fantastic results when they’re on the writing team when they think as a fan first and a writer second.
Writing a good story should come before fan wank. That’s why Picard s3 sucked
Art team sure.
Writing's also an art and you get better at art when you build an awareness of what it is you're representing and how other people will respond to it.
Obviously being a good writer also requires being a good writer and having good instincts for how far to go with things. Just because someone's a fan, doesn't mean they're going to do nothing but throw in references. That's been a trend lately, but's not an inevitable outcome of hiring fans. Though it should mean that when they do include references, they get them right, and that's what fans really respond to.
Obviously being a good writer also requires being a good writer and having good instincts for how far to go with things. Just because someone's a fan, doesn't mean they're going to do nothing but throw in references. That's been a trend lately, but's not an inevitable outcome of hiring fans. Though it should mean that when they do include references, they get them right, and that's what fans really respond to.
You shouldn't be worried at all.
Writing is not about fans.
ETA: spelling correction
Last edited:
And a reminder to everyone who ever trots out the "they should listen to the fans/why would they ignore the fans" line that this comes from the man who delivered what many consider to be the best Star Trek, and which has been emulated constantly ever since it's release.
Yeah John Logan was a HUGE TNG fan, and he did such a fantastic job with Star Trek: Nemesis...
I mean all TNG fans hold that up as the pinnacle on TNG films...
Oh, wait...
So your point is?
1. All fans are bad at writing Star Trek?
2. Some fans are bad at writing Star Trek?
3. John Logan might be accidentally be hired again if they keep hiring fans?
It doesn't matter if it's a fan writing it or not. A bad story is a bad story and they happen from time to time.
Last edited:
Sure, but hiring people who understand what they're writing for and who they're writing for seems like a good way to stack the deck in favour of a quality product. Also they should be really good writers, but that goes without saying.
I don't know much about John Logan, but I know Nemesis isn't even his worst film.
I don't know much about John Logan, but I know Nemesis isn't even his worst film.
Some fans are bad at writing. Being a fan is not a requirement for good writing.
Sure. But they don't need to be fans. Please stop hiring fans.
The only reason to want them to stop hiring fans if you WANT the product to stop resembling anything we've seen so far, if you want writers to retread tired tropes and worn out subjects we've all seen before, to reimagine things we all like just fine, and in that case just watch something else!
If you don't know history you're doomed to repeat it.
If you don't know Star Trek then how the hell do you make it?
If you don't know history you're doomed to repeat it.
If you don't know Star Trek then how the hell do you make it?
Just hire good writers who can adapt to the needs of the franchise, Most of TOS was shaped into being Star Trek by Roddenberry, Coon, Fontana and others. Even the stuff written by big name SF writers (Sorry Harlan) I'm sure that might be true of TNG as well
Last edited:
Yeah getting people to pitch stories, hiring the ones with good ideas and then rewriting their work to fit has worked out great in the past.
No one was a fan of Star Trek when the first season was written, it hadn't even aired yet, so it was up to writers like Dorothy Fontana to make the dialogue, terminology, and how things work feel right and match what they'd already established. That's what a series needs on the writing staff, people with that kind of understanding of what the show is and what's come before.
No one was a fan of Star Trek when the first season was written, it hadn't even aired yet, so it was up to writers like Dorothy Fontana to make the dialogue, terminology, and how things work feel right and match what they'd already established. That's what a series needs on the writing staff, people with that kind of understanding of what the show is and what's come before.
They just need a person.
Last edited:
You don't need to be a fan to know Star Trek. You can study it and not be a fan.
In might even be...creative!
Ok. That doesn't need a fan.
A fan is too close, too personally involved, too likely to protect their favorite things. We wouldn't have gotten TNG or DS9 if things were too protected.
I dunno man, someone who studies Star Trek enough to get it without becoming a fan of it in the process... that sounds like Maurice Hurley, and he didn't seem to have a fun time. Who wants to work on a franchise they don't like?
And I wish fans protected things! As much as I say we need fans in the writers' room to help them avoid treading on rakes, they did nothing to save Icheb's eye, or Hugh, or all of that grim darkness. Fans know all the obscure characters to bring back and kill. But fans also gave us Lower Decks and Prodigy, which understood how much emotional attachment we have to this stuff, and how it should be protected.
And I wish fans protected things! As much as I say we need fans in the writers' room to help them avoid treading on rakes, they did nothing to save Icheb's eye, or Hugh, or all of that grim darkness. Fans know all the obscure characters to bring back and kill. But fans also gave us Lower Decks and Prodigy, which understood how much emotional attachment we have to this stuff, and how it should be protected.
Historically, fans have been the worst choice to have authority over any franchise. Just look at Bryan Singer with Superman Returns, and Abrams with Star Wars for non-Trek examples. Successful TV or movies need a certain objectivity which is not possible for a fan to normally have, unless they are someone who are brutally honest about their own work, like Russell T Davies with Doctor Who, one of the few examples of a fan having power over a franchise and it actually working.
And I remind everyone that one of Trek's most popular movies, which has since been emulated by everyone was done by people who had people with no prior experience with Star Trek in every creative related job. Indeed, the director of that movie very recently said he doesn't care what fans think.
And I remind everyone that one of Trek's most popular movies, which has since been emulated by everyone was done by people who had people with no prior experience with Star Trek in every creative related job. Indeed, the director of that movie very recently said he doesn't care what fans think.
People who want to do a good job.
Not everything needs protection. That's the problem is that many fans don't want risk. There is a preference for safe and familiar.
Some times there are things that happen in stories because that's the type of story they wanted to tell.
Similar threads
