What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[Forbin]

My simple ( ) description of the Enterprise finale is:

It was an insult to:
Fans of Enterprise
Fans of TNG
Fans of Star Trek in general
Fans of the actors
Fans of the characters
Fans of "The Pegasus"
Fans of television
Fans of well-written fiction
Fans of valentines
Fans of fans
Fans of brain cells
...

I loved Jolene's wonderfully rude response to the "valentine to the fans" statement, which I'm sure we've all heard by now.

 

[BillJ]

My simple ( ) description of the Enterprise finale is:

It was an insult to:
Fans of Enterprise
Fans of TNG
Fans of Star Trek in general
Fans of the actors
Fans of the characters
Fans of "The Pegasus"
Fans of television
Fans of well-written fiction
Fans of valentines
Fans of fans
Fans of brain cells
...

I loved Jolene's wonderfully rude response to the "valentine to the fans" statement, which I'm sure we've all heard by now.

Spoiler: Valentine…

Like getting ass ****** on Valentine’s Day.

No judgement on folks that do enjoy that stuff!

 

[Forbin]

Spoiler: Valentine…

Like getting ass ****** on Valentine’s Day.

No judgement on folks that do enjoy that stuff!

Spoiler: the quote

The quote I heard was "Like saying I love you with an ass****."

 

[kkt]

No, but I think he'd learn pretty quickly how important it is in our society.

If he did come back to life and needed money he could make a mint writing his autobiography.

 

[kkt]

I can't see "ISB" without thinking of the white uniforms of the Imperial Security Bureau in Star Wars.

May the fourth be with you

 

[Nerys Myk]

Do you have evidence that Shakespeare never cared for anything but making money?

We talking Stratfordian or Oxfordian?

 

[cooleddie74]

The Earl of Oxford cared about money.

 

[Tallguy]

No, but I think he'd learn pretty quickly how important it is in our society.

Arrrre you suggesting this is a recent development?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Then how do you explain Nu BSG's success? It did not have the support of the original BSG's fandom, yet went on to be wildly popular.

It had Ronald D. Moore as part of the writing staff.

If that were true, Disney would have fired him like they did Lord Miller on Solo.

Rian Johnson Ignored Story Draft For The Last Jedi Written By J.J. Abrams

“Here’s what I think I know. J. J. wrote Episode VII, as well as drafts for VIII & IX. Then Rian Johnson arrived and wrote TLJ entirely. I believe there was some sort of general consensus on the main lines of the trilogy, but apart from that, every director writes and realizes his film in his own way. Rian Johnson and J. J. Abrams met to discuss all of this, although Episode VIII is still his very own work. I believe Rian didn’t keep anything from the first draft of Episode VIII.”

Yet Disney kept him in the Directors seat.

They are to blame.

How convenient, passing the blame to the Network.

Garret Wang was habitually late to set and even when he was on set would often disappear when needed to film a particular scene. This is public record.

He owned up to the tardiness issue and fixed it.

This combined with his refusal to partake in director's training is why he never directed any episodes. Also public record.

Rick Berman declined to give him the opportunity out of spite.
Berman told Garrett Wang that "he was not running a directing school here", despite all the other Trek Actors being given opportunities.
He specifically targeted Garret Wang.

You wonder why all the minority characters were given lesser roles on Trek and were barely allowed any character development, much less lines.
That's Rick Berman's doing.
Look at what happened to Travis Mayweather, he wasn't allowed to develop much either.
Hoshi Sato wasn't allowed to develop that much either.

UPN's misogynism is also public record and was present in all the shows they aired at the time.

Rick Berman's misogynism is also public record confirmed by many of the female leads in Trek.

Berman was still in charge during Enterprise's third season to the same extent he was in the first two. The fourth was the only one he stepped back on, and even then, he still had veto authority which he exercised throughout that year.

Berman was involved in writing 31/52 of S1 & S2 eps. That's how involved he was in S1 & S2.

But his participation on Writing ENT S3 dwindled down to 5 out of 24 eps.
Branon Braga did the heavy lifting for S3.

But Manny Cotto got most of what he wanted out of S4 of ENT.

The key point being much less Rick Berman starting with S3, moving into S4.

 

[kkt]

We talking Stratfordian or Oxfordian?

Whichever is true the autobiography would sell well.

Rick Berman's supposed remarks about Farrell's bust size, even if they really happened, would reflect poorly on the producers not Farrell. There's nothing at all wrong with her looks. And they knew what she looked like when they cast her. If they'd wanted a larger breasted actress, it's on them for not casting one.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Rick Berman's supposed remarks about Farrell's bust size, even if they really happened, would reflect poorly on the producers not Farrell.

The Producers who casted Terry Farrell had no issue with her bust size or even cared.

Only Rick Berman had issues with it.

There's nothing at all wrong with her looks. And they knew what she looked like when they cast her. If they'd wanted a larger breasted actress, it's on them for not casting one.

Nobody else other than Rick cared that much about her looks. It was Rick that pushed for her to wear a padded bra all the time to meet his "Aesthetic Requirements".

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Producers who casted Terry Farrell had no issue with her bust size or even cared.

Do you think the EP and creator of DS9 wasn't in the room during the casting process?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Do you think the EP and creator of DS9 wasn't in the room during the casting process?

I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't.

They hired Terry Farrell for the role, then Rick complained after the fact.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't.

They hired Terry Farrell for the role, then Rick complained after the fact.

So you don't know.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Berman was hugely problematic for a host of reasons. But it was the 1990s. An era were even Star Trek tokenism was the exception. And they were working for a network whose lineup consisted of mostly shows aimed at middle American giving it permission to laugh AT black people.

And seeing as how 30 years later and we're still fighting the same representation battles (in an arguably much must sinister fashion), maybe it's time to consider the situation was a lot more difficult to navigate than the decades-late armchair quarterbacking tends to portray and Berman did the best he could.

 

[Airin]

Gene Roddenberry Himself did say "Star Trek would be shit if we listened to the fans."

Heh, I don't know... In the much-maligned season 3 of TOS, I find the episodes written by people with a fandom background better than the average ("The Empath", The Tholian Web", "All Our Yesterdays", "Is There in Truth..."). Certainly better than some episodes written by established sci-fi writers, like "Catspaw". Though granted, there's a difference between writing for a show and running the entire show.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

So you don't know.

Farrell was uncomfortable with Rick Berman

It seems Berman — who served as executive producer and co-creator and wasn't the "Deep Space Nine" showrunner — felt that Dax should do little more on the show than to provide a Gene Roddenberry-like cheesecake factor. Farrell is tall and beautiful, and Berman would visit the set where he would, according to the actress, comment constantly on her breasts. It seems that fatigue wasn't the only reason to walk away from "Star Trek." She said:

"The problems with my leaving were with Rick Berman. In my opinion, he's just very misogynistic. He'd comment on your bra size not being voluptuous. His secretary had a 36C or something like that, and he would say something about, 'Well, you're just, like, flat. Look at Christine over there. She has the perfect breasts right there.'"

Gross. And, quite sadly, the show's other co-creator Michael Piller didn't see or merely didn't acknowledge the sexist comments. For Berman, it was all about how she looked, and Farrell didn't like that. Luckily for Farrell, such lascivious behavior began to diminish in later years. She continued:

"Michael Piller didn't care about those things, so he wasn't there when you were having all of these crazy fittings with Rick Berman criticizing your hair or how big your breasts were or weren't. That stuff was so intense, especially the first couple of years."

Berman never harassed or abused actors, but he was kind of slimy toward Farrell, it seems. One can understand that the shadow of those early comments cast a pall on her entire "Deep Space Nine" experience.

‘Star Trek’ Insider Dishes About Working With Rick Berman

One of those production staff members, Eric Stillwell, spoke to Heavy in February and gave us his perspective of what it was like to work with one of the most controversial figures in the Trek universe.

He described a rigid and unforgiving work environment where Berman was the law. Everything had to be done precisely his way, without any deviations. When things were the least bit off, Berman wasn’t afraid to let people know how upset he was.
In Stillwell’s own words, "Berman Sometimes Could be an Ass"

“Apparently someone had told Whoopi that we had written the episode, so she came over and started asking us if she could change one of her lines. And we were like ‘Oh you have to talk to Rick Berman. That’s Rick Berman’s domain. Only Rick Berman can go through and change the dialogue.’ There are some shows where actors just ad lib their lines, then there’s Star Trek where you have to say exactly what’s on the paper. So, I as a courtesy said I would let the production office know that she had a question about the script… Rick’s response was ‘Why the hell was Whoopi Goldberg talking to Eric Stillwell? What was he doing on the set?’ The next thing I know, I’m banned from the set. Just for passing on a message… and it was humiliating, on my episode, that I’m banned from the set.”

Stillwell shared yet another story about how Berman was “furious” that he had taken on an after-hours, volunteer gig editing a Star Trek newsletter. Even though Stillwell had been asked to take on the job by Majel Barrett, Roddenberry’s widow and the “First Lady of Trek,” Berman forced him to give it up.

Jolene Blalock, who played T’Pol on Enterprise, called out the sexist writing on the show, for which Berman was largely responsible as the showrunner.

“You can’t substitute t**s and a** for good storytelling,” Blalock told SFX Magazine in 2004, quoted via TrekToday. “You can have both, but you can’t substitute one for the other, because the audience is not stupid. You can’t just throw in frivolous, uncharacteristic … well, bull, and think it’s going to help the ratings.”

 

[cooleddie74]

Sigh.

 

[BillJ]

Farrell was uncomfortable with Rick Berman

I’m not exactly sure what you’re trying to accomplish in regards to Rick Berman? Everyone has acknowledged that he was, to put it nicely, problematic.

 

[Firebird]

Berman told Garrett Wang that "he was not running a directing school here", despite all the other Trek Actors being given opportunities.
He specifically targeted Garret Wang.

As has been mentioned, Wang had several problems with not showing up to set on time, and other unprofessional behavior in that vein.

If I’m running a business, and I’ve got an employee who’s continually late and being an unproductive drag on resources coming up to me demanding a raise or a promotion, the last thing I’m gonna do is just give it to them because everyone else is getting them.