Was a Rick Berman a bad choice to run the Star Trek Franchise after Gene Roddenberry died?
- Thread starter The Overlord
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I think he was probably a halfway decent producer, but he was a TERRIBLE writer. He should have never been allowed to write, well, ANYthing.
Well to be fair he did write two decent TNG episodes, Brothers and A Matter of Time.
Initially, no. In fact, early on, I think he was a great choice. By the end of his tenure I came to loathe his association with Star Trek because he simply stayed too long. He should have been kept away from the feature films all together and he should have been removed from the franchise TV side at the end of DS9's third season (1996-ish). Rick Berman was the cause of Star Trek stagnating.
Actually, I would argue that UPN was the cause of Star Trek stagnating, not just Berman individually. People like Les Moonves and Dawn Ostroff were far more destructive for Trek than Berman ever was.
Berman's tenure on Star Trek was in many ways similar to Jim Shooter's tenure as Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics. Early on, he came in and fixed many things that were in one way or another broken, either from lack of use or overuse, to writers and/or producers not understanding what they were working with. As time went on, everything began to run smoothly, and a satisfaction came on that allowed for exploring ideas while maintaining the overall status. As his tenure came nearer to the end, he felt he needed to fix things again, and this not only made waves with fans, but paved the way for studio/network interference that made it difficult to keep Star Trek "Star Trek". He probably stayed on too long, but when a good point for bringing in someone else is anybody's guess.
And it would be a good argument, however, Berman was the admiral of Star Trek. The buck stopped with him meaning he gets credit for TNG and DS9 (ironically) and has too take the blame for Star Trek's demise will on his watch (though Brannon Braga is also to blame). Now if Berman had fought the good fight on Star Trek's behalf that would have been one thing but he didn't. He and Braga were willing accomplices and de facto architects of Trek's crash. Braga even bragged about how little effort he put into the creation of Voyager in terms of backstory (there was none).
In all of this - I really wonder how much of what went wrong was really Berman's fault at all. Remember "the suits" always like to meddle. That a particular issue with Hollyweird in general (and no, I didn't misspell that).
Indeed, and those two episodes are his only scriptwriting credits in the Trek franchise before Enterprise came along. He has plenty of story developing credits on TNG and Voyager, and a story credit on all four TNG movies, but for scriptwriting, those two are his only solo credits. He is a credited co-writer on several Enterprise episodes with Braga. Though it wouldn't surprise me to learn it was Braga who did most of the heavy lifting on those scripts.
I tend to think Pillar,Behr,Moore and few other writers were the best thing to happen to Berman era Trek. Berman does deserve credit but I think nobody can deny he stayed way to long.
Jason
Suits I think were a big issue with Voyager and Enterprise seeing as how they were now working for a network. It seems many great idea's were shot down like a "Year of Hell" season arc or starting Enterprise on earth for the first several episodes. temporal cold war idea though was a good one but they just didn't full maximize it. You could have gotten lots more interesting stuff from exploring a temporal cold war, especially if you liked did even so much as a smidgen of pre-planning into it.
Jason
Heck, Enterprise was even forced on the air by the network despite their calls for a break in between Voyager ending and the next show starting. (From memory, didn't that happen with VOY too?) The attitude was, there will be new Trek and you can be a part of it or not. I can't fault them for wanting to stay.
It's nice to see Berman get some love (even if some felt he stayed on too long--it seems most feel he started off fine). When I used to go on trekmovie.com anytime Berman's name came up the hate just came out (I guess at the time everyone there was all into the Abrams movies which, like them or not, were like the anti-Berman Trek). I'd generally try to comment about how he at one time did guide Star Trek through another incredibly popular period in the mid 90s when DS9 was riding high and First Contact was a blockbuster film. But no one there wanted to hear that. It was all he almost ruined Star Trek, he sucked, they wish he was never born (ok, maybe not that extreme), etc.
I'm a continuity junkie. Berman era Trek generally did a good job with overall continuity, set design continuity, that sort of thing. Now, that's not to say there were never inconsistencies. But overall, in general, they did a good job staying consistent with prior shows.
Also, let's be honest, TNG really didn't take off until Berman started taking more control over things and bringing new people in. And when DS9 came out I didn't think I was going to like it. And it ended up becoming one of my favorite Star Trek shows. That's when he peaked I think. Voyager had a great concept--and I have come to enjoy Voyager for the most part. But I find it the most flawed show of his tenure and full of missed opportunities. I liked that we got to see never before seen aliens, and the overall idea of getting home. But it was a bit TNG-lite. It should have charted its own course. The Maquis should have taken longer to assimilate. There should have been more conflict with a gradual giving way to mutual respect.
I liked Enterprise more. But it too started a bit too much like a TNG prequel, at least at times. But I give Berman credit for trying to shake things up in season 3 and 4. He could have just rode it out until it was cancelled. But he fought until the end. He brought in new blood with Manny Coto to shake things up. And while Discovery perfected the idea of season long story arcs, it really had its beginnings in Enterprise.
Did Berman stay on too long? I think you could say yes. At the very least maybe he should have handed the reigns on to someone else and perhaps stay on as some sort of executive consultant like Roddenberry was later on. A guy you could turn to with questions but was no longer running things day to day. Or if he was worried UPN was going to do crazy things with the franchise he could have stayed on as the overall boss but handed day to day duties to other producers (and just stay on to make sure the franchise didn't go off the rails and run defense against the suits).
Could he be an ass and not always be the nicest guy in the room? That one never bothered me. He was the boss. That means sometimes you have to be the jerk and say no.
But I enjoyed Berman era Trek. I've liked it all thus far in fact, Roddenberry era, movie era, Berman era, Abrams era and so far Kurtzman era (and anyone in between). If I were ever to meet Berman I'd thank him for many great years of Star Trek under his watch.
I'm a continuity junkie. Berman era Trek generally did a good job with overall continuity, set design continuity, that sort of thing. Now, that's not to say there were never inconsistencies. But overall, in general, they did a good job staying consistent with prior shows.
Also, let's be honest, TNG really didn't take off until Berman started taking more control over things and bringing new people in. And when DS9 came out I didn't think I was going to like it. And it ended up becoming one of my favorite Star Trek shows. That's when he peaked I think. Voyager had a great concept--and I have come to enjoy Voyager for the most part. But I find it the most flawed show of his tenure and full of missed opportunities. I liked that we got to see never before seen aliens, and the overall idea of getting home. But it was a bit TNG-lite. It should have charted its own course. The Maquis should have taken longer to assimilate. There should have been more conflict with a gradual giving way to mutual respect.
I liked Enterprise more. But it too started a bit too much like a TNG prequel, at least at times. But I give Berman credit for trying to shake things up in season 3 and 4. He could have just rode it out until it was cancelled. But he fought until the end. He brought in new blood with Manny Coto to shake things up. And while Discovery perfected the idea of season long story arcs, it really had its beginnings in Enterprise.
Did Berman stay on too long? I think you could say yes. At the very least maybe he should have handed the reigns on to someone else and perhaps stay on as some sort of executive consultant like Roddenberry was later on. A guy you could turn to with questions but was no longer running things day to day. Or if he was worried UPN was going to do crazy things with the franchise he could have stayed on as the overall boss but handed day to day duties to other producers (and just stay on to make sure the franchise didn't go off the rails and run defense against the suits).
Could he be an ass and not always be the nicest guy in the room? That one never bothered me. He was the boss. That means sometimes you have to be the jerk and say no.
But I enjoyed Berman era Trek. I've liked it all thus far in fact, Roddenberry era, movie era, Berman era, Abrams era and so far Kurtzman era (and anyone in between). If I were ever to meet Berman I'd thank him for many great years of Star Trek under his watch.
He gave us Ezri in S7, at the point where he should have been resolving all the character arcs instead of throwing a new character in to take up precious last season episodes. I'll leave aside the rumors of why exactly that cast change came to be.
Don't get me wrong, killing Jadzia and bringing Dax back in a new actor is not a bad idea. It is, in fact, the one great idea baked right into the concept. It is the original idea from the TNG Trill episode: how to deal with relationships when a host dies.
It just should've happened earlier, no disrespect to either actress. They were both great.
Who, Berman? Not really, unless you take into account the rumours Jadzia was written off because of bad blood between Berman and Terry Farrell. Regardless, the creation of Ezri and casting of Nicole de Boer was entirely Ira Steven Behr as Berman had very minimal involvement with DS9. Indeed, he had so little involvement with the show there's a rumoured story about when Stephen Hawking was in studio to film his cameo on TNG, Berman took him on a tour of the studio which included a visit to DS9's promenade set. While there, they were spotted by two behind the scenes guys doing work. One commented "now there's someone I never expected to see on this set." The other responded "yeah, and he brought Professor Hawking with him."
I've heard many nasty rumours and accusations against Berman from fans and former Trek stars (some openly on Twitter), including sexism, bullying and homophobia.
There's no denying he produced a metric fuckton of Trek that I grew up watching and enjoyed, but it's a muddy thing to look back at.
There's no denying he produced a metric fuckton of Trek that I grew up watching and enjoyed, but it's a muddy thing to look back at.
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