From: "Reggie Bautista" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
But I've heard people say that Roddenberry would have never allowed >DS9 to go in the directions it did. This would have been tragic. >Some of the things that Roddenberry allegedly would not have liked, >especially the darker tone, are the things I liked best.
I am a strong admirer of the works of Gene Rodenberry. I admire his vision and the guts and determination it took to get his vision to life. All this has been extensively chronicled in several Trek books.
I am not blinded by my admiration for the man, though. I am well aware of his flaws. I disagree for example, of his habit of taking so much credit for things others in his production staff were responsible for. I guess books like "Inside Star Trek" by Bob Justman and Herb Solow(including the equally enlightening video version of the same name) and to a lesser degree, "Star Trek Memories" by Shatner, bring to light this and make justice to give credit where credit is due.
To establish some historical perspective, it's worth mentioning that after regaining his clout with Paramount shortly after the second season of TNG, Rodenberry defined his views of Star Trek in two ways: what he considered "good Star Trek" and "bad Star Trek". This was first explained to me in a series of emails I was lucky enough to correspond with Trek and Scifi author David Gerrold.
This annoyed the hell out of many of the writers that worked with him on TNG, as well as to the people who dealt with licensing and Paramount for the Pocketbooks and comic incarnations of Trek. Many of the good ideas writers had were labeled as "bad Star Trek" by Gene and his associates, and therefore, were shot down. According to Gerrold, Rodenberry became utterly impossible to deal with after he started taking seriously the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" monicker. Age, combined with drink and other illnesses, only made the situation worse.
Would Gene consider DS9 "bad Trek"? Most likely, and I agree with your view. His associates claim that he totally despised the premise for the show, like I mentioned a couple of weeks back. He was very protective of his property. If I remember correctly, his opinion was: if he didn't cast it, it wasn't Star Trek.
What is your opinion of DS9?
Thanks for asking. Getting off the Rodenberry-opinion mode, I'll give you my own: I think DS9 had a great beginning and a great premise. I enjoyed the show. Some of my favorite episodes include the ones where Sisko is trapped in a time-flux, and his son ages eons before he does until he is rescued. Major drama there!! (Sorry, I don't know the names of the episodes). My other favorites include the visits to the parallel universe, and the "Trials" episode.
However, and someone out there must agree with me, *something* happened with the Trek franchise after the end of TNG and shortly after "Generations" was released. If I must find hard evidence of this claim, I can mention that the popularity of Trek merchandising (Paramount's hottest ever!!) started to decay in rapid numbers. Compared to what it used to be during the heydey of TNG and the Trek films, it's basically nonexistent.
The popularity of Trek, which had gone on a crescendo between ST2 and ST6, suddenly started to decline among fans. I noticed it on the Internet, and I noticed it talking to fans I used to know at the time. I used to run a Trek fanclub in the early 90's. People just didn't talk about Trek with the same candor or enthusiasm. And I think the ratings or market research by Paramount noticed that there was something going on. That may have well been one of the reasons why Worf was written into DS9, and why the war story arc was introduced.
I hate to end up sounding like I'm agreeing with Rodenberry's dictatorial opinions, but to me DS9 wasn't "Star Trek". Trek was about going out there into the unknown, and coming face to face with the wonders of the universe. I like to define DS9 as a really cool scifi show that takes place in the "Star Trek" universe. But it wasn't.. "Star Trek". MHO, of course.
Voyager, at least, takes us "out there". The producers must've realized that this is a value which appeals to Trek fans; otherwise, the next shows coming from the franchise may have taken place in, say, Rigel 7 or the Norpin Colony. Instead, both the Trek products that came after DS9, Voyager and Enterprise, are spaceship-based shows.
(On an aside, one thing that I found interesting was the color-scheme of the sets designed for the Voyager ship. I always thought of this as a "subliminal" message to Trek fans. These sets, if memory serves, were designed with the assistance of technicians who went all the way back to the TOS. And if you notice, they follow the same color patterns as TOS did. I wonder...)
True, Voyager did start being a lot like "Lost In Space". But, according to legend, "Lost In Space" was inspired by Gene's pitch to CBS, so in a way it came full-circle after all, right? :)
And re: Star Trek V:
I believe in dropping hints about what you are going to do, but >when you telegraph something that is supposed to be a big surprise or >a major character moment, it just deflates that moment.
That "dropping hints" makes for one of my favorite Trek moments. I'll explain: have you noticed how many times we see the viridian on Kirk's shoulder on ST6? It's never in the middle of the frame, but it's *there*. At no point we are told what it is, or what's it supposed to do, until Kirk explains Bones about it. But the director kept "hinting" at something important being there. Replay the movie, and see what I mean.
Maybe I should give it (Trek5) a second chance.
Maybe! It's not the most intelligent of Trek films, but even if the plot sounds like it needs some ironing in places, I find it fun to watch. It's more in the spirit of an episode of TOS. Maybe, when the "Director's Collection" DVD is released, Shatner will get his wish and be able to finish the sfx shots which he claimed would've made the film a lot better.
But it's still.. "Star Trek".
JJ
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