Opps. Try: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield
Wonder what the hissy fit was specifically about with that episode. On another note, and forgive me if it's been told before, but how did that pitch go with Jeri Taylor?
Trying to find more examples of Roddenberry's thinking
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Opps. Try: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Short version: "picard wouldn't do that." (repeat as needed for next 45 minutes.)
If I have a copy of the longer version, I'll PM it to you. Parts of it are funny, especially once you have some distance to the events.
Awesome. Thanks.
Seems Jeri Taylor was afflicted with a common television producer syndrome -- Characterwouldntdothatits.
But now that you mention it, and I expect you didn't mean it in this way, Ford, it does capture that slightly cheesy feeling of some of the weaker TOS episodes.
To borrow the phrase from Jammer's reviews, that first year, bad TNG was bad TOS.
During production of the episode "Hero Worship."
No, much more simplistic than that. More like, "Drugs are bad, kids! Just say no, Wesley!" In case we didn't get the message, we have the scene between Tasha and Wesley. "I don't ever want you to do drugs, Wes." "No, ma'am!" "Stay in school and be a good kid." "Yes, ma'am!" Godawful episode.
However, thanks in no small part to the 'Just Say No' campaign, it was a very popular TV subject for 'very special episodes' in the 80s. 'The Facts of Life' had two that I can think of, 'Diff'rent Strokes' had an infamous one with Nancy Reagan herself, and I remember one on 'Punky Brewster' too.
The fact that the episode was not a frank discussion of drug abuse, and repeated the official 'Just Say No' line was the problem, not the subject itself. That Wesley/Yar scene was what makes it so 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield' over-the-head with its message. Had it been just about the Ornarans tricking the Brekkarans with their 'medicine' it would have been more effective, IMO.
I believe GR is rumored to have had a somewhat serious substance addiction problem himself - specifically, cocaine.
You know what might have made that 'Just Say No' speech better? If Tasha admitted outright that she'd turned to drugs as an escape of the hellhole of a world she grew up on (even if our view of Turkana IV wasn't very hellhole-ish, that's Legacy's problem more than anything else). I think it's kinda implied that she had tried them, but maybe if there'd been more of an idea that she had been addicted at one time, it would have made the speech seem more natural.
It's just another example of how little they knew how to actually use her character - Symbiosis could have been an episode with a big role for Tasha, facing echoes of her own past, but instead, they just use her for the 'Just Say No' campaign speech.
It's just another example of how little they knew how to actually use her character - Symbiosis could have been an episode with a big role for Tasha, facing echoes of her own past, but instead, they just use her for the 'Just Say No' campaign speech.
I quite agree. The writers may have wanted to do it, but been stopped by the invocation of an 'Our Heroes Wouldn't Do That' clause.
Come to think of it, the 'Our Heroes Wouldn't Do That' mentality seems to have been a cornerstone of latter-day Roddenberrythink, based on accounts from some of the writers who pitched stories only to be met with that response.
Come to think of it, the 'Our Heroes Wouldn't Do That' mentality seems to have been a cornerstone of latter-day Roddenberrythink, based on accounts from some of the writers who pitched stories only to be met with that response.
And that of course creates a basic contradiction with Tasha's background - doesn't the Writer's Bible say that she's from a failed colony, one that has descended into anarchy? Basically, with that backstory, Tasha would have HAD to have involved herself in things that are less-than-savory just to survive. Weren't there supposed to be rape gangs on her homeworld? Seems like a situation where the term 'kill or be killed' would have applied if she'd been caught in that situtation.
Really, by the time of TNG, GR had bought way too much into his own ideas. I understand the idea of creating limitations for the characters to challenge the writers to come up with something original and different, but there's a reason that a lot of people find the TNG cast somewhat bland.
Really, by the time of TNG, GR had bought way too much into his own ideas. I understand the idea of creating limitations for the characters to challenge the writers to come up with something original and different, but there's a reason that a lot of people find the TNG cast somewhat bland.
I tend to agree, DG. Tasha by definition was a character about redemption, which is why I think it's a shame they couldn't figure out to do with her. OTOH, the reason they may not have been able to figure out what to do with her might have been the famous 'Our Heroes Don't Clause.'
I think that the self-delusion factor is an important one when studying GR, or for that matter any idealist. He was by all accounts a very good pitchman and spin doctor, perhaps so good that he finally sold himself.
I think that the self-delusion factor is an important one when studying GR, or for that matter any idealist. He was by all accounts a very good pitchman and spin doctor, perhaps so good that he finally sold himself.
''Born at a 'failed' Earth colony of renegades and other violent undesirables, she escaped to Earth in her teens and discovered Starfleet, which she still 'worships' today as the complete opposite of all the ugliness she once knew.''
Yes, though it was mentioned a little too often in my opinion (to the point where it lost its impact and was in danger of becoming self-parody).
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Boy, you got that right. Somebody asked me to write a review of TNG for a fanzine in early 88 and I really went off on how they trivialized this Tasha history with repeated throwaway mentions ('why not have Picard yell at Tasha instead of Wesley with "shut up tasha or we'll sic another rape-gang on you"'), but I did it in such a vitriolic way the guy ultimately rewrote or discarded the whole review.
trevanian
Rear Admiral
I think you've got the title for when E! does a history of TNG the early years:
"The Self Delusion Factor" (either that or an unseen Quinn Martin series)
One small change to "Symbiosis" which would have made it much more interesting to me would be if the drug addicted culture found out they'd been addicted and exploited... and still requested their drug shipment. Picard could have made the same decision, but it would have been a little more illustrative of the reality of drugs than any "Just say no, Wes," scene.
Regarding the rape gangs thing, it was overused. And it was mentioned so 'matter of fact' that it was like it had no emotion significance to her, which to me leads it into parody.
Agreed.
Agreed.
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