What if Gene had lived?

[Arpy]

You know, a lot of this has been said time and again. He was one man, he wasn't perfect, others did as much. I agree, but the question was what if he had lived, and for me the interesting part of the answer is the stuff people would have *liked*. ...I think there's already plenty in the canon and on these boards about what we don't.

 

[Trekker4747]

I really don't want to get into a "Bermaga" thing here but here's by views on them.

Berman. A good book keeper and overall producer. Utterly worthless when it comes to creative ends of things. He handicapped many things (music, story arcs, "controversal" subjectmatter) Trek writers and directors wanted to do. His "limited" role in DS9 is probably what helped that series more than anything else. (Though I've many issues with DS9's direction.

Braga. An "okay" writer. A shitty and poor head writer. His juvenile take on women and sex and his piss-poor understanding of simple logic and scinece was a bane to every script he wrote. He had good ideas but it took much more talented writers OVER him to rope those ideas in and develop them.

Braga working under better writers? We get episodes like Cause and Effect.

Braga working on his own or as head writer? We get Genesis, Threshold and A Night in Sickbay.

 

[Squiggy]

Here's my $0.02.

As great a "Show Starter" as the Bird was, he was nonetheless stuck on "No real conflict between the human crewmembers", and "No prejudice on the main characters' part".

He was royally pissed when he learned that Kirk was initially not going to be Mr. Peace in TUC, or that the captain wasn't sure that he would be able to see beyond David's death.

Therfore... he probably would not have Sisko so internally crushed about the death of his wife, because "In the 24th century, humans just see death as a part of life." He wouldn't have Sisko treat Picard with that angry manner. And I can tell you right now, that he wouldn't let Sisko lie to Vreenak.

Come to think of it, if he had the Bajorans and the wormhole, he would've had the "Prophets" turn out to be a group of con artists, rogue Q, or... a machine!

Jake woudn't get into trouble with Nog so often... Keiko and Miles woudn't argue so much... and Bashir woudn't have lied about his enhancements.

There would be no Coup by Admiral Leyton, and no martial law on Earth... unless it turned out that Leyton "conveniently" was a changeling.

There would be no Maquis... and there certainly would be no Section 31.

In other words... most of what made DS9 so interesting would not have been....

Sorry. I actually liked it when Rick took Trek in a new direction. It's whenever he strained to "return" to the Bird's vision, that his products get less-than-ideal.

The whole "no conflict" thing just wouldn't fly. People like conflict. Having "noble space men stumble upon savage Planet X and fix everything in 42 minutes" is boring.

Doing it all in spandex is just offensive.

 

[Balthier the Great]

My best guess is that most things would be similar, but I think you'd get much more of a sci-fi feel to the whole thing. The later stuff did get kinda talky -- soapy even. It just didn't work for me. I don't think all the Voyager aliens would be californians with forhead deformities. There may have been more energy beings and creatures from another galaxy.

 

[Tan Ru]

August 19th.

Happy Birthday Gene!!

 

[CashCrowe]

I bet "First Contact" would have been about the crew of the Enterprise having to go back in time to save Kennedy only to witness the damage to the space time continuum and then having to kill Kennedy! He really clung to that plot line, didn't he?

 

[Elder Knight]

Roddenberry would have eventually written crappy lyrics for the TMP theme thus stealing half of Jerry Goldsmith's royalties, and driven that man away from Trek composing.

 

[number6]

Roddenberry would have eventually written crappy lyrics for the TMP theme thus stealing half of Jerry Goldsmith's royalties, and driven that man away from Trek composing.

QFT!!

 

[trevanian]

Roddenberry would have eventually written crappy lyrics for the TMP theme thus stealing half of Jerry Goldsmith's royalties, and driven that man away from Trek composing.

I can never rewatch those old Bill Murray bits on SNL where he is the lounge singer putting vocals to instrumental tunes (themes to STAR WARS and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS) without thinking about the GR lyric thing.

I was really disappointed when Shatner just did the speech and not the lyrics at that show a few years back .... I thought it would have been great to see Denny Crane karayoke singing GR lyrics (my love is wanderin' in starflight.)

Do you think any of Crane's libido stuff is GR-inspired? Wow, a ham like Shat playing GR in later years, the mind boggles.

 

[TGTheodore]

Any creator/producer of any series (as long as he or she maintains ownership and creative control of the show or franchise) has the right to do whatever he or she wishes.

That may mean either catapulting the show to fanboy/critic/public orgasmic heights, or running it into the ground.

That right lies solely with the creator/producer (or whomever the creator/producer sells the rights to or willingly hands over the rights to).

So the Roddenberrys and Lucases of the world have earned that right. It's their creative sandbox.

If fans don't like some of it, tough.

--Ted

 

[SFRabid]

I agree with those here that mention that season 1-2 of TNG were the worst and things actually got better after he left. Sure ST eventually faded but I think that was mostly due to the studio putting out too much too fast. Between that and mishandling by the network people got burned out on ST. Oddly, Enterprise was closer to GR's version of ST than DS9 or Voyager.

If GR had stayed with us I would guess that the third series would have a female captain played by a love interest and his wife still doing the computer voice.

 

[tupacpalaman]

Roddenberry's loosening control of TNG is what made the improvements in TNG after the first two seasons possible.

 

[TEH BABA]

Roddenbery would have slept with Teri Farell.

 

[RandyS]

Roddenbery would have slept with Teri Farell.

He would've had to wait his turn. That's my job.

Oh, and it's "Terry".

 

[TEH BABA]

Was Berman the reason we never had a gay lesbian or bi character on trek. Now imagine what Bermaga would ahve down with Pegasus the horror.

 

[number6]

Was Berman the reason we never had a gay lesbian or bi character on trek.

No. David Gerrold had written a script for TNG about AIDS and a gay crewmember and it was flatly rejected by GR. Berman would have basically done what he felt Gene would do and GR and RJ had complete faith in his decisions. BTW, David Gerrold left TNG soon after in part because of his disagreement over Blood and Fire and that GR gave Gerrold no credit whatsoever in the development of TNG, which he had a major hand in.

Now imagine what Bermaga would ahve down with Pegasus the horror.

That's not even a sentence.