TNG Season 8
- Thread starter JB2005
- Start date
No, the main actors for TNG (except Diana Muldaur), DS9, VOY and ENT all signed the "standard Hollywood contracts" for five years. These had to be renegotiated for Season Six (ie. big pay rise), and again for Season Seven. Michael Dorn's DS9 contract probably would have taken him to the end of DS9, but I seem to recall he got a pretty good deal to jump into that show.
Any Season Eight (on any of the ST series) would have needed more negotiation and probably would have priced the actors out of the realms of budget for a SF show requiring SPFX. It certainly couldn't support the huge post-Season Seven rises the casts of "Cheers", "Frasier" and "Friends" were able to wrangle.
Terry Farrell tried to rally the DS9 cast to support her fight for big Season Seven increases for everyone, but the producers realised what was planned (ie. everyone holding out together and negotiating as one) and they decided to "divide and conquer", approaching each actor separately, offering very lucrative extras, then they offered Farrell the same pay as Season Six, reminding her that her character was a Trill and easily replaced. She warned them she'd walk if that happened and... she walked. Luckily for her, essentially straight onto the set of "Becker".
The skin on his temples is permanently damaged from having his Klingon appliance glued on every day. His DS9 contract specified a guarantee of reduced time in the makeup chair, IIRC.
ReadyAndWilling
Fleet Captain
Is this a serious post?
What about people like the guy that played Neelix on Voy?
Anyway, Paris Hilton puts on lots of make up, gone through large amounts of surgery and wears blue contact lenses to have that 'All American look'.
While it's true that TNG's move to the big screen wasn't dependent on DS9's success, per se, DS9 was planned as the successor series to TNG at the same time the decision was made to quit after seven seasons. That was Brandon Tartikoff's decision, when he was briefly running Paramount. It was a coordinated plan that included winding down TNG and bring out DS9, all as part of the same plan. It wasn't that they started DS9 and then later decided to end TNG.
Now, Voyager was a different matter. Originally, DS9 was supposed to be the successor series to TNG. But when they saw how well the ratings were in the first year with two series on the air at the same time, they told Rick Berman they wanted yet another show prepped so that they could continue with two shows after TNG left the air. And, thus, Voyager.
And unfortunately IMHO, DS9's final season suffered because of it, since they had to waste time by both introducing a new character and sacrificing at least four episodes with giving her a backstory, while also realizing that after the season was over, she'd never be seen again.
I agree with this. I know Ezri has a lot of fans on this board, and it's a good performance and cute character, but I also wish that Farrell has been able to stay the full course, and believe Season Seven would have been stronger had she done so.
I've worked in the TV industry so just want clarify one thing, yes the casts original contracts were for five years (that used to be the Hollywood standard, though now most networks sign actors up for longer generally seven years or more). When the TNG actors' contracts were up, they all signed a three year deal (this comes directly for several of the TNG actors themselves). Studios and Networks rarely do one year contracts with actors because locking them in for multiple years means less salary increases. The DS9 cast signed six year deals and then signed a one year deal after that only because it was known season 7 would be the last. The Voyager and Enterprise casts all signed seven year deals (except for Kate Mulgrew who I believe only signed a 5 year deal).
The actors were contractually obligated to do an eighth season, but it was Paramount that decided season 7 would be the last. It actually shocked most of the cast and crew because the show was still a hit that point, but it's pretty clear Paramount wanted to push TNG onto the big screen while the show was still a hit.
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