Chaos on the Bridge: TNG Documentary

[Earth 2 Chris]

Watched this on Netflix this past weekend. William Shatner directs a fun, irreverent look at the first few seasons of TNG. No punches are pulled, and I'm sure some egos were bruised by this. The opening quotes about Gene Roddenberry sum up all the contradictory anecdotes I've read about the man.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2880448/

Chris

[palitoy]

Yeah, this was really compelling, i caught it a few weeks back. Roddenberry hasn't been painted with a good brush lately.

What really stuck with me is I don't like TNG and the reasons why are all from Roddenberry. I plan to watch it again.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I've been reading Marc Cushman's EXCELLENT These Are The Voyages book series, covering the production of TOS in painstaking detail. It paints a pretty fair picture of Roddenberry, but his vision of Star Trek clearly changed DURING the production of TOS. He had gotten much more pacifistic and humanistic by the beginning of season 3, and his notes to Fred Freiberger as he left the building (more or less) resulted in a Trek with a lot less bite. You see that humanist take in spades in TMP and early TNG, as detailed in this doc. The two projects together helped me understand why MY idea of Star Trek doesn't often jibe with the Great Bird himself.

Chris

[Werewolf]

I think there's some parallels between Lucas and Roddenberry. They both hate the things that their fans love about their creations.

There's some really good clips from this on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vpGR3V9lnQ

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I definitely think there are some interesting parallels, especially now, since Lucas is essentially out of the picture, after producing a follow-up project that many fans rejected as cold and lifeless.

Chris

[Hedji]

I'm probably in the minority, but I felt that the first Season of TNG still maintained a sense of fun and adventure that was somewhat lost in later seasons. Season One is criticized as "cheesy", but at least they seemed to beam down to different planets rather than confine the action to the ship with a plot usually revolving around an obstinate delegate with an alien bump on their nose.

Was Roddenberry's influence more heavily felt in the beginning? If so, then I guess I'm Team Roddenberry(?)

Chris mentioned Lucas' films being cold and lifeless, and I could use that to describe a lot of later seasons of TNG. Everything from the monotone hum of the ship, the whispered dialogue, and the wallpaper musical scoring... all intensified post Roddenberry's Death.

I will definitely check this doc out. Sounds interesting.

[hedrap]

I'm glad the Roddenberry mystique is going away.

Wolfie's dead-on to talk about the Lucas parallels as they both had a co-producer that was as important to the quality and success as the creator. For Lucas, it was Gary Kurtz and for Roddenberry it was Gene L Coon. I've been wanting to read These Are The Voyages just to get a better feel for Coon.

I see Herv Bennet and Michael Pillar as the heirs to Coon. Both guys had to force Roddenberry to accept the combat coda Coon seems responsible for creating, and made TOS best episodes. With TNG, it didn't have to be as hardset due to the opportunity to change the Trek playing field, so science and diplomacy had equal weight by expanding the crew.

[Mr.Marion]

Yeah, this was really compelling, i caught it a few weeks back. Roddenberry hasn't been painted with a good brush lately.

What really stuck with me is I don't like TNG and the reasons why are all from Roddenberry. I plan to watch it again.

Yeah Herbert Solow buries Gene by staying he was only good at taking other people's ideas. http://comicbookcentral.net

[Earth 2 Chris]

^I've been meaning to listen to that Comic Book Central episode, but haven't got around to it. Looking forward to hearing it soon.

Chris

[MIB41]

When TNG originally aired I enjoyed it for a period of time, but it increasing become a very formulated piece of PC that got so fine tuned to this naïve idealistic messaging that it virtually became a parody of itself, especially as all of the female outfits became more and more provocative, yet none of the male co-stars acted like they noticed. I think that's why I have enjoyed the new Star Trek movies because they've dropped allot of that top heavy preaching about everyone holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

I can definitely see parallels between Roddenberry and Lucas, but I don't believe a visionary like Lucas would have ever made a film like Awakens because that did not advance the process so much as take a trip down nostalgia lane. That is not Lucas. But just like Roddenberry, people who introduce a vision are not going to be someone who automatically stay in sync with society simply because they hit a note early in their career. Those are the pitfalls of placing people on a pedestal with expectations they can never fail. Lucas and Roddenberry are human beings , hence they are fallible. As Harvey Dent said in the Dark Knight, "You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain." That seems to be true of most people society holds to enormous standards that must constantly impress or they are rebuked for being like the rest of us.