Murder of TNG?
- Thread starter nnnnnnn
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Him in Hamlet opposite Derek Jacoby in 1980 was also nothing to sneeze at. Not to mention I, Claudius. Okay, he was a bit out of sorts in Excalibur and Lifeforce...
Ha! Me too! High five.
I think it was about right, but that it's probably a good thing it didn't go any longer.
Sure, Season 7 had moments where it veered off into the realm of the just plain bizarre ("Dark Page," "Force of Nature," "Sub Rosa," "Emergence" and "Genesis" among them). But in the last two seasons, we also got "Relics," "Chain of Command," "Face of the Enemy," "Suspicions," "Second Chances," "Parallels," "The Pegasus" and "Lower Decks," so I'll take 'em.
Knight Templar
Commodore
Don't know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but DS9 was far more profitable that ST:TNG in 1994. Why? The ST:TNG cast were only signed to one year contracts so each season ended with contract negotiations and ever higher pay for the actors. Majel Barrett was on record in Starlog during the 4th season of ST:TNG that Paramount was threatening to pull the plug on TNG after the 5th season because of escalating salaries.
On the other hand, the DS9 cast were all signed to six or seven year contracts, meaning Paramount controlled their costs far better.
Finally, ST:TNG was virtually given away to the television stations in the syndication deal when it came on because no one knew if a new Trek series was workable.
But after TNG proved that new Star Trek was a ratings winner, stations had to pay a lot more for DS9.
So although DS9 never had the ratings of TNG, it was far, far more profitable a series.
On the other hand, the DS9 cast were all signed to six or seven year contracts, meaning Paramount controlled their costs far better.
Finally, ST:TNG was virtually given away to the television stations in the syndication deal when it came on because no one knew if a new Trek series was workable.
But after TNG proved that new Star Trek was a ratings winner, stations had to pay a lot more for DS9.
So although DS9 never had the ratings of TNG, it was far, far more profitable a series.
Not true at all. The cast signed the standard five-year contract. Paramount agreed to release Crosby and Wheaton early - they could have forced them to stay, unhappily if necessary (Paramount contracts can be strictly adhered to: witness Farrah Fawcett-Majors leaving "Charlie's Angels") - and McFadden's contract option was "not renewed" at the end of Season One. Patrick Stewart's agent fought for an additional merchandising royalties increase between the two "Best of Both World" episodes, which is why he is turned into Locutus in the cliffhanger. As the star no one wanted to lose, he won that battle.
Correct, because this was the first chance that Spiner, Frakes, Sirtis and Dorn had to fight for a pay rise beyond contractual increases. At the end of their five-year contracts. And again, they fought for more at the end of Season Six. Presumably, McFadden signed a new five-year contract when returning in Season Three. Goldberg and Muldaur refused to sign five-year contracts and were "special guest stars".
No, again, it was the standard five-year contracts. At the end of their five-year contracts, the DS9 cast fought for increases. And again, they fought for more at the end of Season Six, with Terry Farrell campaigning for everyone to hold out for even more. The rest of the main cast were offered lucrative trailer upgrades, etc, and Farrell was essentially forced out when Paramount refused to increase her salary by similar amounts.
Finally, ST:TNG was virtually given away to the television stations in the syndication deal when it came on because no one knew if a new Trek series was workable.
Where are you getting this?
Knight Templar
Commodore
Aside from the Majel Barrett comment, TV Guide for the most part. But I assume you are correct as I personally know very little about how the television industry works.
IIRC, Crosby was let out of her contract early -the character death being the standard "don't come back!" nose-thumbing, and Wheaton was released from his contract because Berman was butt-hurt over Wheaton wanting some additional time off during the Summer hiatus in order to do a movie, Wheaton was denied this, kept out of several of the opening episodes, and then bought out of his contract and released. (Not killing him suggests that him being let go wasn't an action by Wheaton. His contract may also have already been sort-of up anyway so they only lost a little time with him.)
Hmm. My understanding is the initial contract was for six years, not five. Sir Patrick Stewart has stated this to be the case on numerous occasions when talking about how he became involved with The Next Generation. The original plan once ths sxith season arrived, was to end it with something very much like the Descent storyline and then have the crew disbanded once that mission was over.
Ian Keldon
Fleet Captain
He also did a great deal of harm ("sonic wallpaper" scoring, etc), and would have done more if he hadn't been either talked out of it or worked around (4-episode Dominion War).
On another matter: at the risk of being accused of pedantry, all tv series end in cancellation. The argument is whether or not they are cancelled at the right time, too early, or too soon.
Some shows are meant to end after a certain number of seasons (B5), others are open-ended enough to keep going until they run out of steam (Trek, Stargates, etc).
Ian Keldon
Fleet Captain
Gene was involved in the creative process only nominally at that point. He darn near killed TNG with his shennanigans in S1 & 2, driving away good people like David Gerrald and DC Fontana. He instituted "rules" that made it much more difficult to tell good, character based dramatic stories and made them stick so hard that it wasn't until DS9 and the tail end of TNG (S7) that we saw them start to be broken down. Even then, they never completely went away (for good or for ill).
Ian Keldon
Fleet Captain
Sticking just with Sci-Fi, and naming just a few:
- Andreas Katsulas as G'kar
- Peter Jurasik as Londo
- Andrew J Robinson as Garrick
- JG Hertzler as Martok
- Marc Alaimo as Dukat
- Armin Shimmerman as Quark
- Robert Picardo as The Doctor (not Dr Who, obviously)
- Michael Shanks as Daniel Jackson
- Christopher Judge as Teal'c
Honorable mentions to:
- Jeffrey Coombs as Shran
- Conner Trinner as "Trip" Tucker
- Amanda Tapping as Samantha Carter
- Michael Dorn as Worf (post TNG)
- Tim Russ as Tuvok
- Cliff Simon as Baal
At least as good as P/D:
- Londo/G'kar
- Garrick/Bashir
- Kira/Dukat (in a creepy way)
- Quark/Odo
- Jack O'Neil/Samantha Carter
- Daniel Jackson/Vala Maldoran
First off, C&E is a pretty bog standard sci-fi time travel story...not all that clever.
Superior plots:
- In the Pale Moonlight
- Nor the Battle To the Strong
- For the Uniform
- Sound of Her Voice
- Seige of AR-558
- just about every ep involving Section 31
- the majority of Babylon 5 episodes
There was a huge fear that Stewart wouldn't return for S4. Hence the "Locutus" storyline.
That is true as far as it goes
TVTrek, yes. Movie Trek remained in Paramount's hands, hence the JJ reboot. If CBS still owned the movie part of the franchise, there wouldn't have been one, given Moonives' hatred of sci-fi, esp Trek.
This was actually quite a good ep. Good sci-fi story and some amusing B-plot (Geordi's cat fiasco).
Very true. I'd add Preemptive Strike to that list.
That's certainly a view you don't hear expressed often.
Introducing the new Captain of the USS Enterprise, Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway! *cue theme music*
If Picard wasn't there then Riker would be in his place which would add a great big dollop of generic-ness to TNG.
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