TNG as three seasons

[Doc Mugatu]

Michael Piller said he felt having Wesley quit starfleet academy was a slap in the face to Gene Rodenberry and I think it was a misstep for the character to jettison everything that defined him.

Not 100% of the timeline, but I recall thinking it was motivated by TPTB at Paramount deciding they did not want Wesley Crusher in the movies so had him phased out of the series. I do recall the Wesley-Haters were very loud and seemingly omnipresent.

Just three years would have been too brief, so much so the show would widely be regarded as failure and not very remembered even though the third season was considered the best; audiences expect successful shows to go on for a while and continue to be good while doing so. Six or seven years, though, and then not doing another spinoff until '96 or '01 would have been both a good run and a good break.

No, three seasons is enough to, if the fans loved it, to be viewed as a success (at least creatively and critically). I mean TOS only lasted 3. Paramount would still see it as a property with value.

I wholeheartedly agree that there should have been a rest period of at least three seasons between each Trek series. It used to be there'd be mindful, even fearful, of overexposure. Nowadays they just run their horses until they drop dead of fatigue.

 

[Armus]

^Rick Berman has said, in retrospect his biggest regret was not pushing for a bigger gap between each new series after TNG. Voyager started too early in DS9's run while Enterprise shouldn't have started so soon after Voyager wrapped.

 

[Doc Mugatu]

^Rick Berman has said, in retrospect his biggest regret was not pushing for a bigger gap between each new series after TNG. Voyager started too early in DS9's run while Enterprise shouldn't have started so soon after Voyager wrapped.

I have to be honest here. I loath Rick Berman and Brannon Bragga. As far as I am concerned they are the ones who drove Star Trek into the ground. My beloved "franchise" still has not recovered from the damage they've done nor do I expect it to anytime soon. So I wouldn't trust anything Berman says. I doubt he regrets it. More like looking to influence how history gets interpreted.

Sorry, mention of Berman or Bragga triggers my Tourettes syndrome.

 

[MakeshiftPython]

I have to be honest here. I loath Rick Berman and Brannon Bragga. As far as I am concerned they are the ones who drove Star Trek into the ground. My beloved "franchise" still has not recovered from the damage they've done nor do I expect it to anytime soon. So I wouldn't trust anything Berman says. I doubt he regrets it. More like looking to influence how history gets interpreted.

Sorry, mention of Berman or Bragga triggers my Tourettes syndrome.

DS9 was originally set up to take TNG's place for once the latter became a film series. He didn't think doing a fourth show with VOY was a good idea, but Paramount's deal was he either produce it or they hire someone else. Back then, Berman saw himself as a guardian of Gene's creation that he became protective. Despite not wanting to do VOY and ENT, he worked on them anyway because he was fearful someone may step in and hurt its legacy. The irony being that the decisions he made ultimately made the Trek brand sterile.

He may have drove Trek into the ground, but I never had the viewpoint angry fans had that he was setting off to ruin Trek intentionally. That's a really stupid and petty viewpoint. I don't agree with a lot of creative choices he made, but those were his and that was that. So your idea that he only claims Trek needed a break to influence how history interprets him is very silly. Many folks back then in Trek production besides Berman agreed with the sentiment that Trek needed a break. Paramount did not agree, as they're in the business to make money in the present, not set a hiatus for a hypothetical future series to be wanted.