The Life And Scandalous Times Of John Nathan-Turner

[Tom]

Sometime after his relationship was with Jeri, He went after Jolene while Season 3 of Enterprise was in production. Jolene was with someone, and was incensed by this and went to Berman and some others and treatened to quit. Braga was then forced to mostly work from home and stay off the set most of the time. This acually help allowed for Manny Coto to move up to Executive Producer during season 4. Berman was able to keep this out of the media but many of the production crew knew what happened.

 

[diankra]

Didn't Braga marry Seven of Nine?

No, because she's a fictional character. He did, however, date Jeri Ryan for a while.

And the breakup of her actual marriage does have a footnote place in history, as the dirt in the divorce papers destroyed the Senate campaign of her ex-husband, and by default his replacement as the Republican candidate. All of which helped the campaign of the Democrat candidate, a young chap called Barack Obama, who didn't complete his first senate term because he won a better job...

 

[DWF]

Doctor Who apparently has many stories of making Female companions feel uncomfortable at the very least, getting grabbed, leered at and who knows what else.

Yeah... what we define today as sexual harrassment was treated by an earlier generation (or at least by the men in that generation) as normative, playful behavior. There are stories of Patrick Troughton pulling Deborah Watling's or Wendy Padbury's skirt down before a take, that sort of thing, and it was seen as just a silly prank. (Not saying that was right, just that things were seen differently then.)

Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines pulled that prank in rehearsal at a church after she had fallen asleep not before an actual take of the series.

 

[Sindatur]

Eh, As stated Previously, Gene Roddenberry is famous for his casting couch escapades. (And Berman or Braga apparently continued the tradition)

JNT didn't mess with the kiddies.

Doctor Who apparently has many stories of making Female companions feel uncomfortable at the very least, getting grabbed, leered at and who knows what else.

The only thing that makes JNT stand out is being Gay.

I think you'll find what made him stand out was the shirts...

Oh...Did he have Six's Fashion Sense?

 

[DWF]

Eh, As stated Previously, Gene Roddenberry is famous for his casting couch escapades. (And Berman or Braga apparently continued the tradition)

JNT didn't mess with the kiddies.

Doctor Who apparently has many stories of making Female companions feel uncomfortable at the very least, getting grabbed, leered at and who knows what else.

The only thing that makes JNT stand out is being Gay.

I think you'll find what made him stand out was the shirts...

Oh...Did he have Six's Fashion Sense?

Not quite, but he did like to wear loud Hawaiian shirts though.

 

[Anachronus]

Not quite, but he did like to wear loud Hawaiian shirts though.

There is another kind?

 

[Mr Light]

So... Brannon Braga got Barack Obama elected President of the United States?!?!

 

[Christopher]

So... Brannon Braga got Barack Obama elected President of the United States?!?!

No; as far as I can tell, Ryan didn't begin seeing Braga until after her marriage fell apart. So he was peripheral to the matter.

 

[Australis]

So, Jonathan Powell didn't like Who and didn't like JNT, and thought they deserved one another?

If anyone is the arsehole in all this, it's him.

 

[diankra]

So, Jonathan Powell didn't like Who and didn't like JNT, and thought they deserved one another?

If anyone is the arsehole in all this, it's him.

That is what a lot of us have thought for a long time: that Powell is the real villain in setting the 85 cancellation in motion, and in the failure to make any real attempts to turn the series around afterwards (beyond those that resulted from the new creative energy Andrew Cartmel eventually brought in), and that we've been a bit unfair in blaming Michael Grade just because his showman instincts made him put himself in plain sight and take the blame.

The problem with Powell, IMHO, is that he was an excellent producer of 'prestige' drama, but his time as head of drama and BBC1 Controller was a disaster, as - aside from a few occasions when a prestigious production also became a mainstream hit, like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or some Austen adaptations - he had no instinct at all for popular programming, and his attempts to come up with it went too much for the lowest common denominator. His time saw a string of disasters like Eldorado, or flops from previously sure-fire production teams (Virtual Murder, Trainer, Moon and Son, Call Me Mister...).

Still, on the strength of the review, his comments seem astonishing, as it sounds as if he's coming close to admitting he was trying to force JNT to resign, which is constructive dismissal. But then JNT is gone, and dead men can't sue.

 

[DalekJim]

Don't give a shit about where Brannon Braga's penis has been, but Season 24 is the only JNT season I'm not highly fond of. I'd take all the others over Seasons 8-11 really.

I think Seasons 18, 19, 22, 25 and 26 are pretty fucking great.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Totally unrelated here...

The Paradox Machine - My blog

Did/do you post on Outpost Gallifrey/Gallifrey Base as "Paradox Machine"? If so, long ago you posted a playlist for combining Coldplay's Viva La Vida and Prospekt's March into a single "album," and I still use that playlist. (The file's actually called "Coldplay - Paradox Machine" in my playlists folder.) I just wanted to say thanks.

 

[The Badger]

I think you'll find what made him stand out was the shirts...

Oh...Did he have Six's Fashion Sense?

It might be the other way round. There's a fan theory that Six's extravagance and somewhat 'bold' fashions were JNT's attempts to recreate the Doctor in his own image. So Six had JNT's fashion sense!

 

[Christopher]

^I don't buy that. I remember reading about how the costume designer was instructed to come up with a look for the Sixth Doctor that was as tasteless as possible, in order to reflect the new Doctor's erratic state of mind. In an interview, the designer talked about how hard it was to deliberately design something that looked awful. So JNT didn't choose the costume we got because he liked it, but because he thought it was the worst-looking one the designer had to offer.

 

[Australis]

So, Jonathan Powell didn't like Who and didn't like JNT, and thought they deserved one another?

If anyone is the arsehole in all this, it's him.

That is what a lot of us have thought for a long time: that Powell is the real villain in setting the 85 cancellation in motion, and in the failure to make any real attempts to turn the series around afterwards (beyond those that resulted from the new creative energy Andrew Cartmel eventually brought in), and that we've been a bit unfair in blaming Michael Grade just because his showman instincts made him put himself in plain sight and take the blame.

The problem with Powell, IMHO, is that he was an excellent producer of 'prestige' drama, but his time as head of drama and BBC1 Controller was a disaster, as - aside from a few occasions when a prestigious production also became a mainstream hit, like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or some Austen adaptations - he had no instinct at all for popular programming, and his attempts to come up with it went too much for the lowest common denominator. His time saw a string of disasters like Eldorado, or flops from previously sure-fire production teams (Virtual Murder, Trainer, Moon and Son, Call Me Mister...).

Still, on the strength of the review, his comments seem astonishing, as it sounds as if he's coming close to admitting he was trying to force JNT to resign, which is constructive dismissal. But then JNT is gone, and dead men can't sue.

What makes me smile and keeps me warm at night is that Jonathon Powell is still alive... and Dr Who is the BBC's flagship programme.

 

[diankra]

What makes me smile and keeps me warm at night is that Jonathon Powell is still alive... and Dr Who is the BBC's flagship programme.

Odd coincidence I found, on looking him up on Wiki to see what he's been doing since his equally disastrous stint at Carlton TV, is that he went to the same university as myself and Matt Smith...

 

[sidious618]

I've always admired JNT's loud Hawaiian shirts. Wish I had the balls to wear such things.

 

[Starkers]

I like them, just not all the time!

 

[Sindatur]

I like them, just not all the time!

And the rest of your outfit needs to coordinate with them, not make them clash and look louder, which is the mistake many make when wearing Hawaiian Shorts.

 

[The Badger]

^I don't buy that. I remember reading about how the costume designer was instructed to come up with a look for the Sixth Doctor that was as tasteless as possible, in order to reflect the new Doctor's erratic state of mind. In an interview, the designer talked about how hard it was to deliberately design something that looked awful. So JNT didn't choose the costume we got because he liked it, but because he thought it was the worst-looking one the designer had to offer.

Well yes, that's the official explanation. JNT never walked into the costume designer and said 'I want the Doctor to dress like me'. If the fan theory is true, he used the Doctor's instability as a justification, an excuse, for the bizarre dress sense, in much the same way he---allegedly---decided he wanted Bonnie Langford as a companion, and then told the production team that the next companion should have bright red hair for no reason other than the fact he wanted it. He then added 'And I can think of only one actress with bright red hair, Bonnie Langford'.