What are people's thoughts on David Carson as a director?

[tim0122]

Having watched a few Q/As with Next Gen cast members, I always hear a lot about Frakes (good things) and Baird (not so good things), but I have never heard anyone talk about David Carson and his direction for Generations. Carson directed some Next Gen episodes and a few DS9 episodes, too. So he would've been at least a little familiar with the cast and them with him. So, two questions:

1. Does anyone know what the cast thought of Carson as director?
2. How do you think Carson did as a director? The film isn't considered one of the best, but that may have been more scripting than directing.

 

[CorporalClegg]

He should stick to TV.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Those TNG films were so heavily influenced by Rick Berman; it's hard to identify Carson's style from his film. I'm sure the cast were quite welcoming and comfortable with Carson; he was an alumni of the series and the cast were in good hands throughout the entire production. As if... it was on TV again but with a bigger budget.

I would love to see him credited for a Doctor Who episode... if he hadn't done one yet?

 

[dub]

I guess I'm a weirdo, but I really liked Generations, except for the forced and cheap-feeling death of Kirk. I liked the look and feel. It really felt like TNG on the big screen. The characters were still pretty much themselves, except for Data when his chip was in overdrive (which I actually found enjoyable, and I know most people didn't). I liked the saucer crash, but I sure do wish they kept the D for a few movies. I loved seeing it on the big screen. So having said that, I certainly prefer Carson over Baird (at least for TNG films). I didn't hate insurrection, but it didn't really feel like TNG to me. The cast appeared tired and had this look about them as if they saw the writing on the wall. Maybe I was imagining it, but it felt like an ending - just not a happy ending.

 

[Greg Cox]

GENERATIONS looks gorgeous and is well-acted as well. Some of the visuals--the champagne bottle tumbling through space, Soran greeting the Nexus from atop the gantry--are terrific.

The problems are mostly in the script.

 

[Vger23]

I think Generations is one of the best-looking and slickest Star Trek productions ever. Carson did a very good job in just about every facet of bringing the story to life.

Unfortunately, the story was pretty average. I don't hate it...but it's not a classic by any stretch.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Carson, imho, did quite well behind the camera. He surrounded himself with good people, like cinematographer John Alonzo. As a director, I'd rank him above Frakes and Nimoy.

 

[CorporalClegg]

GENERATIONS looks gorgeous and is well-acted as well. Some of the visuals--the champagne bottle tumbling through space, Soran greeting the Nexus from atop the gantry--are terrific.

The problems are mostly in the script.

Well it did have an Oscar-winning and other wise critically-claimed cinematographer.

 

[Khan 2.0]

Didn't he direct Yesterdays Enterprise? That must've been what got him the job. Pity Generations wasn't somehow more like that

 

[Trek Survivor]

I also thought Generations looked terrific, and "felt" - for better and worse - like a true TNG movie.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Didn't he direct Yesterdays Enterprise? That must've been what got him the job. Pity Generations wasn't somehow more like that

He also directed "Emissary," the Deep Space Nine pilot.

 

[Leto_II]

^ Yup -- and we've learned that high-profile gigs like "Emissary" frequently lead to feature work for some people in the Berman regime, including Winrich Kolbe up to a particular point. After helming both TNG's finale "All Good Things..." and VOY "Caretaker" literally back-to-back, he was Berman and the studio's first choice to direct Star Trek: First Contact.

Of course, as we know, that didn't quite work out exactly how Kolbe probably hoped it would...

 

[arch101]

Carson's best work is "Emissary". Such a complex production. Generations seems a little bland in comparison. It always feels like a big 2-parter tv ep instead of a film. First Contact feels like a much larger production.
I remember having this "big tv ep" gripe when the film came out. Especially after I went in to see Stargate, which I knew almost nothing about in advance. WOW- now THAT felt like an epic film in comparison. I'm sure it isn't all Carson's fault but there is a world of difference between the two films. I think Roger Ebert even wrote something similar at the time.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I agree, Deep Space Nine had the best pilot from all of the TNG era productions. The story of Benjamin Sisko is a heartfelt, intriguing story and well directed episode to start a series. It's too bad stories like that didn't last on DS9. Carson did an exceptional job.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

^ Yup -- and we've learned that high-profile gigs like "Emissary" frequently lead to feature work for some people in the Berman regime, including Winrich Kolbe up to a particular point. After helming both TNG's finale "All Good Things..." and VOY "Caretaker" literally back-to-back, he was Berman and the studio's first choice to direct Star Trek: First Contact.

Of course, as we know, that didn't quite work out exactly how Kolbe probably hoped it would...

Frankly, I probably would have preferred a Kolbe First Contact. I'm not a big fan of the movie, and a lot of that it down to Frakes' direction, which I find uninspired. (He does better of Insurrection, though the extensive location shooting really helps.) I think Kolbe would have handled the tonal issues in the film better than Frakes did; I feel that Frakes let the comedy bits go a little too broad by allowing the actors to do what they wanted.

 

[suarezguy]

Competent, even good but not compelling or exceptional. The big problems in the film (that Geordi gets captured just so that the ship can later easily be destroyed, that Picard and then Kirk abandon the Nexus fantasy easily) are pretty much all from the script but Carson could have had Spiner and McDowell tone their performances down a little and also maybe reduced the technobabble early on. The cast has fine chemistry but the plotting doesn't really have enough energy (like how easily and quickly the Enterprise-D finds and follows Soran to Veridian III, it's almost interesting to have that sort of quicker TV pacing but too much of it makes the story seem less significant).

 

[eyeresist]

Carson did a great job on GEN. Any problems were with the script, not the directing.