posted
I think he summed things up quite nicely!!! *sigh* Why won't Berman just go away.......
“Frankly, I don’t think [the writers] really cared what happened at the end. Voyager has been the ugly step-child of the Star Trek family, and that’s the way we’ve been treated. We’re also the only show that’s had to carry a whole network [UPN] ....the ratings are down because it’s not being seen by as many people in the who could see ER….and then they took it out on us by saying 'This show’s no good. Let’s get it over with as quickly as possible so we can fix it for the next one.'“
“I was very disappointed [with 'Endgame'] ...from mid season onwards I kept waiting for them to start making a move towards wrapping up some of these story arcs, but they didn’t. They finally paste these things together in the last two episodes; stuff that was never set-up correctly to get the full dramatic effect. [Voyager] was meant to be about nine people on the ship, trying to get through some really extraordinary circumstances. Frankly, I’m not sure what it ended up being about.“
“[The writers] has a whole year to prepare, but they waited until the final two episodes to fix things. To me, that’s just a symptom of their uncaring cavalier attitude towards the show.“
“[In the final season] Janeway slowly became an even more obnoxious, domineering, self-righteous know-it-all. And really, that does not equate to any kind of character development. I also don’t like the way they treated [the characters of Tuvok, Kim and Neelix].“
“It was a wistful kind of sadness for me because that time was filled with unnecessary tension. They were manufacturing this huge ‘The end of Voyager’ thing. Sadly, Kate [Mulgrew] got caught up in it and decided she wasn’t going to have any fun. She made it way too difficult to work with her in the last couple of months of the show. She really felt that by doing it a certain way maybe she could have cured cancer, and totally forgot it’s just a TV show. Some people just have to build castles in the sky.“
“Most people seem to find my approach different and refreshing, and that’s why I get invited to conventions. I realize that there are some poor souls who really think that Gene Roddenberry is up there next to God, and take it as a personal affront if I say anything negative about Star Trek. But who in their right mind would ever get offended by an actor saying something critical about a TV show? I think most sane people can keep things in perspective.“
Advice to Jolene Blalock, Enterprise’s First Officer : “I don’t think it has anything to do with [your position on the ship]…you’re going to be in trouble if the writers don’t care about your character. Say what you feel, and let them know that you expect a certain quality. As long as you offer that quality yourself, you have every right to expect it from someone else.“
The full interview can be located in Issue #276 of Starburst Magazine
posted
What I don't understand is, that we never hear about the time Beltran gave input to the show or confronted the staff with his feelings. Thats his mistake. Mabye he could of changed things.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I'm glad he realizes what a waste Voyager was, and how much of a waste it didn't have to be.
I agree, why can't Berman and Bragga just go away...
Wes: It's not up to one actor to 'save the show.' He did his job as best as he could under the circumstances. It's TPTB's fault that Voyager was as bad as it was. Things got to a point rather quickly where there was nothing that was gonna change the fact that it was a lousy Trek series.
[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: The Mighty Monkey of Mim ]
-------------------- The flaws we find most objectionable in others are often those we recognize in ourselves.
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Thing is, writers and producers go out of their way to avoid having to pay attention to actors' ideas. You need an extraordinary set of circumstances in order to affect any change. Shatner and Nimoy were often able to do it, but only by pretending to play off each other. This time the situation is different: you have one central character who has received a lot of publicity (first female Captain and all that guff), joined in the later season by cute babe in tight suit who's fucking Exec Producer; compared to that, the three Roberts - Beltran, Duncan MacNeill and Picardo, the most vocal about their dissatisfaction - didn't really get a look in.
One wonders if this Ensign Hoshi Sato character on Enterprise will get to do any more than Uhura ever did, and whether she'll be able to do anything about it. . .
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Gone to Voyager.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I agree wholeheartedly with what Beltran is saying. Out of all the characters, I think Chakotay was the most underused and the most wasted.
When Voyager premiered, Chakotay wasn't exactly my favorite character by any means, but I could recognize his potential: Here you are lost in space, surrounded by all this advanced technology, but in the end it's actually the spirituality that becomes more important. I thought that Chakotay would teach the others to extend themselves beyond the physical world to find the answers. He even did this with Janeway at the beginning when he showed her the vision quest. I originally thought that this was how Voyager would be set apart from the previous Trek series.
But then not long after, all of this was forgotten, and Chakotay became nothing more than a Riker-clone and a metaphorical punching bag for Janeway's decisions. And the spiritual tone was deleted in favor of returning to that technobabble crap which may again be prevalent in Enterprise. Haven't TPTB yet realized that the viewing audience doesn't need lenghty bullshit explanations for how things work? (Sorry, that's an argument for another day)
I do have one question, however. If Beltran was so dissatisfied, why didn't he just leave? (besides the fact that he'd no longer have a steady paycheck and other producers might not be forming a line at his front door...maybe I just answered my own question) But seriously though, threatening to leave unless the character was written better is not an unheard of thing.
[ July 16, 2001: Message edited by: Dukhat ]
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Re: Lee's comments on the Roberts: McNeil's always been fairly positive about things, and Picardo is on record as saying how much better Braga was than Biller. To be honest, Beltran is pretty alone in his feelings, or at least the rest of the cast don't have the guts to pipe up and echo them.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Biller, as in Kenneth, as in Braga's season 7 fill-in who served as Voyager's Executive Producer while Braga developed Enterprise.
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Well, I just read Garrett Wang's interview in ST: The Magazine. He said he had to nag the producers for episodes like Timeless.
[ July 17, 2001: Message edited by: Michael_T ]
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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MIB
Ex-Member
posted
quote:Originally posted by Wes1701E: I just cant see where they are coming from. I enjoyed Voyager.
Voyager did have a few good episodes, but, IMHO, Voyager as a whole sucked major ass. Part of the problem, besides for dumbass writers, was that it was on UPN. If the producers honestly thought that one show would keep up a network that runs on crap like Sabrina the Teenage Which, Girlfrends, and The Parkers should be checked out for delusions of grandure. UPN can not be saved. If it simply stayed on Fox, I think things would have been at least slightly better for Voyager.
posted
If Voyager were on Fox, we'd see the characters wearing less clothing and more sexual tension with bitch-fighting in between every season. Kim would be out of the closet, Seven & Chakotay would have those bedroom scenes, Neelix would actually be a good cook, and Janeway will be the redhead version of the bitch from hell.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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