Roads not traveled....

[Allyn Gibson]

Were I were in Berman's shoes in '93 and '94...

The TNG cast was under contract for an eighth season. I'd have gone ahead and made that, and done another original cast movie for release in November '94.

Then, do the crossover/passing-the-torch film in '96 for the thirtieth anniversary. TNG will have been off the air eighteen months, so there would be some anticipation for seeing the cast again.

The main reason this didn't happen is Paramount's desire to get Voyager on television in January '95. They didn't want three television series going at once -- TNG season 8, DS9 season 3, Voyager season 1.

 

[DGCatAniSiri]

Instead of Insurrection, I would have had the ninth movie be about the Enterprise during the Dominion War. Specifically, I'd have them liberating Betazed. I'm a fan of the novel about that very thing, but it would have been a better fit for the time frame than the movie we got - Starfleet's in the middle of the war and the Enterprise is off saving the lives of six hundred people in an isolated pocket of space, half a quadrant away from the front lines? I know DS9 was often treated as the forgotten child of the franchise, but even Voyager managed to acknowledge the Dominion War.

 

[Broccoli]

I'd also like to read Michael Piller's "Stardust" script, which Patrick Stewart balked at because it was too dark.

Not only Stewart, but Piller gave the script to Ira Steven Behr to get some feedback and Behr pretty much said the original draft wasn't working the way it probably should have been.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I'd also like to read Michael Piller's "Stardust" script, which Patrick Stewart balked at because it was too dark.

Not only Stewart, but Piller gave the script to Ira Steven Behr to get some feedback and Behr pretty much said the original draft wasn't working the way it probably should have been.

I'm still interested in reading that draft because of it's darker, Heart of Darkness tone.

 

[Praetor]

I still think TNG could have kept going past season seven, either as a set of miniseries or with a revolving cast as an ongoing series. I don't think taking it to films immediately was a good idea, at all. The studio and Berman wanted to offer "more" and what they ended up offering wasn't TNG. It was the TNG cast trying to be the TOS cast.

And I still hate the TVH ending. It's fine to reward/punish Kirk and give him a new ship, but keeping the whole together? Bleah. They could have been split up to different ships/assignments and still made TFF and TUC and made them with only minimal changes to make the same movies.