Post TOS I feel like a lot of Star Trek started as this and grew beyond that. Even GR was willing to drop TOS for a new gimmick in Season 2.
To Mildly Go Hither And Yawn. ;)
- Thread starter Doc Mugatu
- Start date
This was a concern of mine as well when I first heard about the new show.
My hope still is that the Sir Pat Show will be so good that we will forget that it may have started out as a "gimmick". But, in all fairness we should keep in mind that most shows that have been on TV have been there for the purpose of holding viewers.
"Assignment: Earth"? I'm not sure if Gene Roddenberry knew if there was going to be a third season yet, at the time the script was being written, so maybe he wanted to hedge his bets with a stealth pilot.
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Yes, that was it. When he thought TOS wasn't goint to survive he moved to the next money making idea, like many Hollywood writers of the day.
I disagree.
Case in point: Pretty Maids All In a Row.
A movie I thought I probably would've rented at Blockbuster 20 years ago, but then I just remembered I didn't. I only saw the video cover and thought, "That might be interesting", then rented something else. I'll have to fix that sometime and rent it online just for the heck of it.
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Don't bother, the book is way beyond being better than the movie.
The movie butchered the story for the S E X factor (tits & ass) to sell more tickets.
It's a very odd movie that shows up on TCM sometimes. It's by no means good, and thematically and tonally all over the place, but is probably worth seeing once. Its main problem is that it can't decide if it's a murder mystery about a serial killer, a black comedy, a raunchy sex comedy (with a bouncy love song by the Osmonds?), or even whether high school teachers sleeping with their students is a good thing or not.
The origin of the "love instructors" notion from Roddenberry's TMP novelization?
I imagine it is like every person in Hollywood, of every era.
True.
Even with the third season confirmed, Roddenberry ended up ditching it.
Because, wait for it...he was positive the show was going to get canned. It’s time slot has been moved, and actors salaries started eating into the budget.
So rather than sticking around and attempting to make the best of things, he threw a fit and ran off as quickly as he could. He had some degree of input into the first few scripts (and kept his Exec Prod credit), but had apparently completely left for MGM before the half-way point.
Which would be fine. That’s just the self-serving side of showbiz. Except somehow, the idolised version of that dude has become the yardstick for all his successors talent and commitment.
I mean, during pre-release he outright tried to sabotage TWOK’s box-office. Which, if successful, would have completely sunk the series over nothing more than spite, power tripping, and ego. But that Freiberger guy sure is a money-grubbing, franchise-destroying hack, eh?
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His self-serving behavior - that is, making a living by talking to fans when he was having trouble getting work in Hollywood - along with the similar self-serving storytelling of the TOS actors, most of whom were also without show biz work most of the time, were what fueled the Trek fan movement through the early to mid-70s and led Paramount to consider reviving the show in some form.
That is how they all came to represent Star Trek to the fans, and to the public at large, to a degree and in ways that no one associated with the franchise since then really ever has. Including Patrick Stewart.
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Psst. Paramount bought Desilu Studios in 1967 (Desilu produced Season 1 and about half of Season 2 before Paramount took over); so to say Paramont revived it is a bit misleading as without Paramount putting Star Trek into daily syndication with LESS then the minimum 100 episode standard (which was a risk); Star Trek would probably have been another 1960ies era footnote; but it paid off in spades over the long run.
I think he also wanted an out. He just didn't want to do it anymore. Gene Roddenberry, like Bryan Fuller, couldn't seem to hold on to a series for long. The only two series of his that took off were TOS and TNG. In TOS, he bailed after two seasons. In TNG, he let his lawyer become too powerful and alienated everyone he brought on before the first season was over. After that, Gene Roddenberry's involvement decreased sharply, becoming a Figure Head by the end of the third season. Then there are the movies, where control was taken away from him after the first one. So, basically, Gene Roddenberry's real involvement with and control of Star Trek was two seasons of TOS, arguably two seasons of TNG, and one movie.
Alex Kurtzman, like others have said before, is like Rick Berman. He's the person who can mass-produce Star Trek for seasons on end. So, he's good now, at this stage... but eventually he'll wear out his welcome. It's just a question of when. Hopefully he quits while he's ahead, whenever that is. Something Rick Berman never did.
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His contract is for 5 years (and $25m
). It's about whether the people above him choose to renew it at that time or not. With Rick Berman, Paramount (at the time) waited out his contract and kept cancelling his projects (like Romulan War movie The Beginning) before handing the reigns over to JJ Abrams.Personally, if someone offered me $25m I'd take it over and over, and eventually I'd be developing concepts that make Space Hitler Georgiou the Section 31 Cannibal's Adventures seem amazing.
I have an idea for a Trek version of family feud, but with Klingons if you're interested.
Gorn sitcom when? 
His contract is for 5 years (and $25m
Personally, if someone offered me $25m I'd take it over and over, and eventually I'd be developing concepts that make Space Hitler Georgiou the Section 31 Cannibal's Adventures seem amazing.
The fascinating thing about Alex Kurtzman is, that he is by all accunts not a "creator" like Roddenberry or Rick Berman were. He's a craftsmen for hire. And pretty successfull at that. He never got any accolades as a writer or director - Transformers anyone? Amazing Spider-Man? But what he does - he follows orders, delivers on time, and under budget, and looking polished!
His only real personal big failure was "The Mummy" reboot, the supposed launch of the Universal Monster Universe. And in my personal opinion, it was because he was too nice. Tom Cruise wanted to do a Tom Cruise movie. The higher-ups wanted set-ups for a shared universe. And both were higher in the food-chain, so Kurtzman delivered, instead of fighting for his own vision of the actual movie.
We can see this with Discovery as well: Lots of fans were unhappy with certain things about season 1 (the klingon look, the focus on war instead of exploration), probably the higher ups too - and the show immediately course-corrected for season 2. We don't know if S2 will be any good. But for whatever it's worth - the notes were implemented entirely.
I guess Kurtzman is going to allow the writers A LOT more leeway than we ever saw before on Star Trek. Just look at "Calypso". Under the reign of Rick Berman, that story would have been bent to fit canon. Under Roddenberry, we probably wouldn't have humans fighting humans in the far future at all.
In the long run, this can turn out extremely well, or pretty poor for Star Trek: I think working on television - a more collaborative medium - is suiting Kurtzman WAY better than on movies. If he hires the right people, I trust him to let these peple creatively loose, while making sure everything is finished on time, under budget, and looks great. This guy delivers polished looking products. I just hope his superiours don't fuck it up - if they give him useless and stupid notes, he will implement exactly that.
Isn't that more of them trying to correct for Fuller leaving?
They'd also been saying for a while during the airing that the war wouldn't end for more than that season.
