James has already said all future releases will be streaming only, for exactly the reasons stated.
This is an interesting point...
We have fans taking something that is not theirs and making something of it now worried about other fans taking something that is not theirs and making something of it.
I may only be dealing with Trek Tech stuff in my endeavors, but it occurred to me early on that without an actual CBS license to distribute derivative works of Trek I couldn't rightfully claim any great amount of copyright privilege. Nor (I realized) should I want to.
To that end, I have shared my works under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license.
This action by Cawley would be like George Lucas refusing to release Star Wars Episodes II & III anywhere else other than theaters because of
Episode I: The Phantom Edit. But it is his choice.
Mr. Gerrold had this to say about the scene. He has authorized me to reprint it here:
After 40 some-odd years of Trek portraying heterosexual relationships at length, in all possible situations, and in a variety of positions and couplings, across more species and races and sentient beings than I can possibly list here, I think that it is not overdoing it to spend four minutes with a couple of men in love.
--R
My answer is pretty much the same as before (and you have my authorization to reprint it):
In the 79 TOS episodes we didn't see this much time spent on a coupling of any species or race or sentient beings. But if you would like to prove the point, please provide references to such encounters throughout all of Trek that were given that length of screen time. This has nothing to do with the coupling of men, it has to do with the director/writer moving too long in the same place.
And please take the time to post your response yourself rather than having a minion do it for you.
Look, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Star Trek and even your impatience with anything that doesn't live up to the standard. I'm the same way.
I don't have minions. What I have is a very full writing schedule.
Because I directed the Phase II episode, "Blood And Fire," I've participated in the discussions on the Phase II forums. But I know that there are at least a dozen other online forums where discussions of the episode are going on. I don't have itme to participate in them all.
Rich is a good friend and one of the hard-working folks who helped make BaF. He asked if he could quote me in response to some of the discussions here. I said yes. I thought it would be useful for folks here to have access to accurate information.
Here's what I've said elsewhere:
All of us worked for over a year on this two-part episode. Despite the limitations of budget, equipment, time, money, and whatever, we approached it with the same seriousness as if it were a genuine film production. That’s why so many of the aspects of this work so well — the 200 people who worked so hard on this approached it with enormous dedication and commitment and passion and enthusiasm. Most of them worked much harder and much longer hours than I’ve seen many professional crews work.
All of us involved with BAF have been following the comments on this and other boards. I personally have read hundreds of comments from fans. Many have been thoughtful and insightful. I’m grateful for that. I’ve also been amused at the few comments that make inaccurate assumptions.
I’ll give you an example. The dark lighting, that many have written about, was a deliberate decision to create a different mood, as well as to demonstrate that the Enterprise was functioning on reduced power because it had been seriously injured in battle. The dark lighting wasn’t a failure, it was a major effort on behalf of Dave Berry, the DP. Another example is a fan who complained about colored gels over the lights, saying that wasn’t good lighting — but that was EXACTLY the kind of lighting that Gerry Finnerman and Bob Justman designed for the original series and Dave Berry worked very hard to duplicate it.
That’s just one example of the kind of care that each and every crew member put into this production. Now multiply that by at least 200. We had a 96 page script. We shot the bulk of it in 14 days. We couldn’t have done that without a very detailed battle-plan. We didn’t just run in, point the camera, and shoot stuff that we thought was a good idea at the time. We spent long weeks and months ahead of time debating every scene and every line of dialog, asking ourselves if it was the best we could do and if it truly represented the SPIRIT of Star Trek. (While I assumed that I might personally have a pretty good knowledge of Gene Roddenberry’s original intentions, I also took the precaution of running the script past DC Fontana before proceeding.)
Does this mean the final product is perfect? Of course not. James Cawley and I have already had discussions about a director’s version that will be cut together as a feature film, not as two separate episodes. We’ve also talked about tweaking the pacing of one scene, cutting one line in another, restoring a couple lines in a third place, and reshooting one smal piece with Uhura that both of us think could be more dramatic.
But even if we stopped right here today, I can tell you that the entire team is very proud of what we have accomplished so far. All of us are very grateful for the enthusiasm of the audience. We love the feedback, we love the passion — because after everything is said and done, we are YOU. We are Star Trek fans too, just like you — and this episode is our way of showing it.
The single most important point I would make today is that you have only seen the first half of the story. This isn't just a horror story, it's a relationship story, and Part I has set up some very big payoffs in Part II.
). It just looked like someone with an agenda cramming the bedroom scene down peoples throats, and it now looks like it was NOT DG's idea. TNG should have done this episode, the way David wrote it, showing that it is one of infinite combinations of the many possible "couplings" of the crew on the Enterprise. The way the scene was (re-)written screams, "Look at us, we're gay, we love each other, watch us kiss and act like a heterosexual couple!" just for the sake of it (or titilation of a section of the audience). You're gay, fine, report for duty, man your station, go on a landing party, then go off duty and live your life, just like the non-gay crew members do. That's equality.
