Why TOS started so good?

[BlueshirtGuard]

TOS season 1 is some of the most amazing sci fi especially for its time. Anyone want to guess why that quality did not continue? Season 2 was pretty strong but not quite as good and season 3 im watching now for the first time and its really weak. Every episode is like a poor rehash of older episodes. Kirk is captured and screwing a different woman every episode.

What happened? How did Season 3 fall so far? Also other trek shows after this like TNG and DS9 got better and better as they went on whereas TOS started out perfectly in place.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Just my opinion, but by the 3rd season it seems like GR's ideal Starfleet universe had been diluted by a new producer and new writers. Even Justman said that it wasn't the same Star Trek environment.

 

[johnnybear]

A little Freibergering will do that to any series, Lord Beard! Look at Space 1999 series 2 and The Six Million Dollar Man series 5! Fred was brought in to handle a show that was in trouble but usually ended up taking the role of a vet and putting it out of it's misery!
JB

 

[Kor]

What happened? How did Season 3 fall so far?

Different production staff who didn't have the same approach to making the show.

Kor

 

[Spock's Barber]

A little Freibergering will do that to any series, Lord Beard! Look at Space 1999 series 2 and The Six Million Dollar Man series 5! Fred was brought in to handle a show that was in trouble but usually ended up taking the role of a vet and putting it out of it's misery!
JB

Cool. You created a new verb that we can use......Freibergering.

 

[Kor]

I would prefer the phrase "pull a Freiberger," meaning that you come in to take charge of something that was previously someone else's project, and you subsequently turn it into a laughingstock.

Kor

 

[Spock's Barber]

....or FUBAR. Freibergered Up Beyond All Recognition.

 

[KeepOnTrekking]

Gene Roddenberry had some good science fiction authors contributing scripts in the beginning. Gene also had the wisdom to rewrite the scripts so that they all had consistency and conformed to his idea of story and characterization. Fortunately, this was still before his later idea of idealized humans getting along to the point of no conflict in TNG. Unfortunately, all of his rewriting started to alienate good writers who didn't want to come back to write more scripts as the series continued on. By the third season, Coon, Fontana, and Roddenberry had all stepped away from the day-to-day hands-on jobs they previously did and just contributed the occasional script. The overall quality of the scripts suffered from lack of attention and continuity with the earlier seasons' scripts. It was said that the new story editor asked someone on the set one time "Remind me again what this transporter thing does again?" If it weren't for Shatner and Nimoy stepping up to protect their characters (and helping the show by doing so), it would have probably been worse than it was. Freiberger said once that he honored most of the writing assignments that Roddenberry had assigned for the third season before he came aboard, but they still lacked the polishing the scripts needed before they were filmed. Personally, I don't believe that all the blame can be laid at Frieberger's feet. It was a gradual decline that started since the first season as key people (sf authors, Coon, Fontana, Roddenberry, Justman, etc.) started checking out.

 

[diankra]

As David Gerrold says in one of his pre-TNG books, format tends to become formula as a series goes on unless the production team actively guard against it.
On a series thst's borderline surviving, the temptation to flog a winning formula to death becomes irresistible. It might get boring in the long-term, but if there isn't a long term...

 

[Vger23]

I absolutely reject the idea that the series had a substantial decline. And, based on your summary of "Kirk gets captured and screws a girl every week," I question whether you're even watching the series.

 

[TLOZ Lover]

Every season has both good and not so good stories. Season one has a few I don't care for, while most of season two is great!

Season three gets dumped on pretty universally which is unfortunate because while there are some infamous clunkers (and we know which ones come to mind), there are a number of really good episodes too (The Paradise Syndrome, The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web, Wink of an Eye, Elaan of Troyius, That Which Survives, The Lights of Zetar (my personal favorite), and some others. What is more unusual about S3 are the number of love stories, both major and minor. Kirk and McCoy each get married, and Scotty finally finds the love of his life. Even Spock and Chekov have some interests this season.

Writing in TOS, like most artistic endeavors, had its peak period of creativity which was found in S2, but good episodes can still be found in S1 and S3.

 

[UnknownSample]

It's HARD to make the best season of science fiction television ever. These episodes were made like 51 minute films, with startling and challenging ideas week after week. Thjey pushed themselves so hard that they were usually on the verge of missing their deadlines to get a new episode out that week, which would have been a disaster professionally.
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Plus, even considering the above, you have a lot more time to get your first season the way you want it. For a second season, you just have summer or else you're using time during season 1 to work on s2 that you need for s1....
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[Harvey]

Plus, even considering the above, you have a lot more time to get your first season the way you want it. For a second season, you just have summer or else you're using time during season 1 to work on s2 that you need for s1....

Beyond all the extra time to work on your pilot(s), not really. Writing on the first season began in earnest in early March, 1966, and filming commenced in late May of that year. Writing on the second season began in earnest in March of 1967 and filming commenced in early May of that year.

 

[johnnybear]

For all of our contempt towards Freddie F. We must remember the good that he also did to both Trek and 1999! He gave us Enterprise Incident, Paradise Syndrome, Day of The Dove, Tholian Web, Elaan of Troyius, All Our Yesterdays, while Bringers of Wonder and Séance Spectre were two excellent Space 99s (as my kids call it)
JB

 

[UnknownSample]

Beyond all the extra time to work on your pilot(s), not really. Writing on the first season began in earnest in early March, 1966, and filming commenced in late May of that year. Writing on the second season began in earnest in March of 1967 and filming commenced in early May of that year.

I don't mean production time. Before you actually get hired, ideas gradually accumulate, name of writers you want to use etc can be formed... the show can gradually form in your head. You have more of a luxury of time, before they point a finger at you and say to start work, and give you a deadline. I figured.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Star Trek's budget was cut for the second season, and then cut again for the third. Year 3 had a lot less money per week than Year 1.

Add to that: when Gulf & Western acquired Desilu and Paramount, and dissolved the former into the latter, Paramount shortened Star Trek's per-episode shooting schedule, so there was less time to get anything done.

 

[Harvey]

I don't mean production time. Before you actually get hired, ideas gradually accumulate, name of writers you want to use etc can be formed... the show can gradually form in your head. You have more of a luxury of time, before they point a finger at you and say to start work, and give you a deadline. I figured.

For a series creator, certainly. But for all the directors and freelance writers who did a lot of the work, not so much.

 

[Noname Given]

I always saw it this way.
- In the first season they were really interested in just doing a good science fiction show about exploration on a space ship.

- By the second season they'd done enough 'world building' to start doing a 'Star Trek'™ show based on what they built.

- Because of NBC changing Star trek's timeslot to the Fri. 10 PM 'death slot' (IE moving o a night and time when most of Star Trek's core audience built up over Season 1 and 2 would be out on dates/at the movies); GR lost all interest and pretty much didn't care what happened as he knew it would be the last season; and it's why he sold the IP lock stock and barrel to Paramount for a sum of cash because it was 22 episodes short of the 'magic 100' episodes needed for a longer term return via syndication.

That said, if GR hadn't sold the rights, he probably wouldn't have had the funds/backing to push Star Trek into TV syndication for long and it might not have gotten a following from years of TV syndication. Paramount pushed and marketed Star trek for syndication because they wanted some return on their investment of buying the rights.

 

[m.lp.ql.m]

Cool. You created a new verb that we can use......Freibergering.

Considering how Freiberger took a good series and made it cheesy, shouldn't it be called Cheesebergering?

 

[Greg Cox]

Star Trek's budget was cut for the second season, and then cut again for the third. Year 3 had a lot less money per week than Year 1.

Add to that: when Gulf & Western acquired Desilu and Paramount, and dissolved the former into the latter, Paramount shortened Star Trek's per-episode shooting schedule, so there was less time to get anything done.

Exactly. The situation behind the scenes was not static. By Season 3, the handwriting was on the wall, cancellation-wise, so budgets were being cut, creative personnel were bailing, new people were trying to hold things together, etc. As with any business that is on the rocks, people were probably already updating their resumes and looking ahead to their next gigs . . ...

I'm sure the folks were doing their best under the circumstances, but the circumstances were less than ideal compared to the first two seasons.