I was noodling to myself about why it seems Trek has been getting increasingly bland as time has gone on, and I think I may have hit on it...
Much of the Original Series, and most of The Animated Series were television episodes written by science-fiction authors -- of varying degrees of noteriety, from David Gerrold to Larry Niven. So what we got was hardcore SF tweaked to fit the contemporary '60s and '70s television "allowances"...
But by the time of Star Trek II, and from that point on, Trek was being written by professional Hollywood screen- and television writers, so what we got was the same fare that could be found many other places, just in a different setting... And it's only gotten worse as time has progressed. Far too many of the people working on the shows and movies now just don't "get it". Even the extreme Trek fans who grew up loving TOS -- like Mike Okuda and Greg Jein -- have never done enough research into why things were the way they were, or stopped to try and get inside the head of whoever (be it Gene or Matt Jeffries) to actually see what they were trying to convey rather than just the appearance of the finished result.
That's it in a nutshell. I could continue ranting at length, but I won't until y'all have had a chance to reply.
--Jonah
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
The only problem with that is that if you ask most people what their favourite series was, I bet the most popular answer isn't TOS. Including the non-hard core fans, it'll be TNG. And TNG is the basis for modern Trek far more than TOS is.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Theodore Sturgeon was a great author. But he wrote "Shore Leave". Hardly a shining example of cutting edge science fiction, I think.
Gerrold did write "The Trouble With Tribbles," which remains the favorite of many. (My father, on the other hand, despises that one. I could go either way.)
So I think that you can argue that the overall contribution of written SF authors to Trek is not quite so important. To go with what Liam has said, I would be willing to bet small amounts of money that "The Best of Both Worlds" tops the lists of many fans, even those, such as myself, who fondly remember TOS. (In my case, TOS repeats.) And Pillar, to the best of my knowledge, has never written a novel, science fiction or otherwise.
Having said that, I'd trade my right arm for a Borg episode written by Vernor Vinge.
Posted by The Red Admiral (Member # 602) on :
I do see your point, and concur in some degree. But I think the majority of Trekkers today would point to TNG as their favourite. Some of that show's best episodes were written by quality writers, one of the best being Ronald Moore, in my opinion. Many of his weren't just standard fair Star Trek stories, but great scieince fiction. I cite the following examples as coming from pen of Moore: (in some cases co-written with others)
The Defector Family Reuunion Data's Day First Contact In Theory Redemption 1 & 2 Darmok Disaster The Next Phase Relics Chain of Command Tapestry Gambit The Pegasus Thine Own Self Journey's End All Good Things
Many would agree that a lot of these are top episodes written by a very talented writer. But I agree in most recent years Voyager has lacked a cutting edge of writing quality.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Also, Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry. Now, you can say many things about Gene, but he wasn's a sci-fi author. He was, yup, a Hollywood screenwriter.
And you did kind of shoot yourself in the foot by using the Animated Series in your "good sci-fi writers" list. TAS is hardly a shining example of, well, anything good.
Posted by Jeff Kardde (Member # 411) on :
"First Contact" (the episode) was written by six or eight people. Hardly fair to credit to just one person.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
Then you should be at least happy that ST:X is being written by a long time Star Trek fan as oppose to someone who's probably never watched an episode before getting the job.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
Do you suppose there's some sort of Cliff's Notes for writers who haven't followed the series? I mean, like a kind of kit that says, you can do A, you can do B, but you can't do C. I mean if a writer hasn't seen a single episode there must be some way the producers can clue the in to the series without strapping them down Clockwork Orange style and making them watch all of the episodes.
I would personally love to see a Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe episode.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Yes. It's called a writer's bible. All TV shows have them.
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
However, even ignoring that, when would a situation like you describe come up? If someone is trying to sell a script, then of course they'd watch the show before hand, because otherwise they'd have no idea who any of the characters are, or anything. If they're on the writing team, then they'd (presumably) know about the show. If the production people have approached a writer especially to write something, then even though they'd give them a copy of the writers bible, they'd still expect them to watch a couple of episodes, to get a "feel" for the show.
You might be able to find the TNG, DS9 or VOy bible on-line. I found the original Transformers one once, which was fairly cool. I lost the URl though, damnit.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
The Making of Deep Space Nine has quite a few excerpts from the DS9 bible, but other than that I'm nearly positive that the three bibles aren't publicly available.
(BTW, this is General Trek's 10000th post. Wahooey!)
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Liam: You mean this "Transformers" bible?
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
"In the beginning, Unicron created the heavens and the Earth..."
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
Yes! That one!
And silly Tom. Primus created the heavens and the, er, Cybertron. Unicron is the devil. Silly monkey.