I'm not saying I disliked the Next Gen movies, quite the contrary. I was very exited when I saw "Generations" in the Theatre. My first viewing of it was an amazing experience. But there was one major flaw with that "episode" of ST:TNG.
Most Trek fans have always agreed, even the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry, has always stated that the main star of these franchises is THE SHIP. Many times, in TOS, "The Ship" got our crew out of danger, "The Ship" was what had saved them from dire aliens. It was the technology of The Ship mixed with the Ingenuity of it's crew. And as much as The Original Series was that way, even more so was The Next Generation. The USS Enterprise D was an Enterprise on Steroids, a massively powerful ship that dwarfed the original in size, and crewed a whole city in space- !,000 people spread across 36 decks. I think it was 36, the Enterprise E only has 16- But let's not get to that yet.
In 1995, the original run of STTNG had finished with the very positive "All Good Things", and the cast and crew stepped right into a new role: Making Feature Films. This was an amazing opportunity for Rick Berman, Gene's hand-picked successor. He had two very good writers, well, one VERY good writer and one semi-good writer, Ron D Moore and Brannon Braga, Ron who never turned in a bad script, and Brannon, who at times did write some very good episodes but I think he was simply overwhelmed with the responsibility of writing a good feature film. Especially since Braga is the "King of Time stories", sometimes good ones, but many times not so good. "Generations" was a "time story", and told just wrong. It tried to bridge TOS characters to TNG, by use of a "Magic Ribbon" in space, which inexplicably allowed people swallowed up in it to imagine anything they wanted and then live it. And for guys like James T Kirk, who is never satisfied with anything, always trying new things, this doesn't work, cos it's not real. But Madman Malcolm McDowell doesn't care, he just wants to get back in, even though it will cause planets to be blown up.
Not really the best of stories, you see? Not for an ensemble cast which just finished a 7 year run of Multi-Person stories. But right from the start, this 16:9 Feature Film seemed to SHY AWAY from shots of The Enterprise in Space. In Fact, they show more footage of 1701 Enterprise B than they do of the D in the whole of the film! But fans of the show remember that shots of the Enterprise D, floating in space, In Orbit, Warping out, and Separating the Saucer were common in EVERY episode. They even show more shots of Lursa and Be'Tors' Klingon Bird of Prey! One thing I loved about that bird of Prey is that you may recognize it as the SAME SHIP the Klingon Captain Klaa (The guy with the great hair) had in "Star Trek V: Final Frontier" - With the spacial made-for-Klaa Photon Torpedo turret, Which Lursa uses to blow holes into the D. Whoops, spoilers. Hey, I LIKED Star Trek V, it has some good things in it. Especially "Excuse me, why does God need a Starship!?"
But the 1701-D? we only get to see parts of the Saucer Section, but NEVER the whole ship except for one scene when warping away from the Armagosa Station, and it is Strrrreeettttchheeedd Ouuuuut very Looonnngg.
The reason why they did this is because Brannon Braga said "The Enterprise D looks like Shit in 16:9". Which is not true at all, if any of us have watched the final "TNG" episode of "Enterprise" which was during "The Pegasus" time and shows many shots of the D floating through that asteroid field, and it LOOKS GREAT in 16:9.
But because of Braga saying "It Sucks" they used it as an excuse to BLOW IT UP. The Best Ship ever designed by people working on Trek and the very LAST real Model ever used in Filming. Oh, it was amazing to watch the Saucer Section crash on a planet, that was just how I imagined it. But it never should have happened. And the Enterprise E is not even close to being as cool.
It is very hard to take a series that depoends on weekly stories about a large group of people, and make feature films. Even with the smaller TOS cast, sometimes Uhuru would be left out (of most of ST: III, even though she had a great part in it). It's even worse with the much larger TNG cast, and then Guinan only appeared in two of these. Make that 1 and 1/2, because her role in 'Star Trek: Nemesis" was drubbed down to Cameo Status (Along with Wil Wheaton's)
As much as I liked first Contact, I enjoyed Insurrection much more, because it included all of the cast, all acting and interacting in one place, instead of from two locations. Insurrection was more like a TNG episode, and if you watch it closely, the whole thing is a Star Trek version of "The Battle of Helms Deep" from Lord of The Rings, even some of the dialogue where they are emptying the village, is the same as when Hama is telling people "Take only what you need...", and they go to Caves in the Mountains, very much like The Two Towers.
But that was my main gripe - People tuned in week after week, mostly because the USS Enterprise D was COOL. And The E is not as cool, especially when it is CGI. I think we Trekkers just love the old style of filming a ship and making it look like it's in Space.
I could never get excited about the NCC 1701 E. It's smaller, and it does not look real. In the beginning of "First Contact" Worf is manning The Defiant, which was another all-CGI ship, but it looks like a federation Ship. The E does not.
And this brings us to my final gripe - paramount SHOULD HAVE and COULD HAVE made at least one DS9 film. Deep Space 9 was in a lot of ways, a much better show than TNG - The effects were better, the action was better, the drama, it had a continuing story that was resolved after 7 years. I didn't like it af first, ya know? I had been writing Majel Barret-Roddenberry about her show "Earth: Final Conflict" which she made for a couple of years, and I spoke to her about DS9, asking her why so much WAR and conflict? She agreed but really could not do much about it except be Mrs/Ambassador Troi and the Computer Voice. But I could tell she was proud of the series, maybe upset with my disregard of it. Eventually I started liking it and I told her so, it came on me gradually, especially in the last 4 seasons, Worf added so much to the show. But if you watch DS9 from start to finish, it starts out much like Next Gen, or maybe even TOS, but then rapidly it started with little stories that became part of the fabric of the thing, eventually every small detail was tied together - Dr Bashir's love of playing Spy Holonovels, he becomes a real Agent for Section 31. Just all of those little things made it so good, and it's very disappointing that it was never considered for Feature Films.
And today, it's too late? One thing that happened in the early 2000's was after the cancellation of Enterprise, paramount gathered up all of their Trek Props and materials and SOLD them all to the highest bidders. This disappointed me greatly, but we see today, a lot of those props were bought by people willing to use them in Fan productions, including Star Trek Continues. So I'm glad some true fans were able to get some of the best props. But with the sale of the entire stock of show props, it meant that never again will there be any Trek shows from the TOS Universe. Not unless they start building from scratch. and this new Discovery show, well, I can't see it, I can't afford either the Cable fees or the fees to get the channel. So I'll have to wait until it comes out in Torrents.
After the last TNG film Nemesis, which was a lot better than people give it credit for being, I felt this was the end for our TNG universe. The only thing that was left was Mr Spock, he acted as Bridge between The Kelvin Universe and the TOS/TNG universe. We know in TNG Spock had remained on Romulus to help with the Unification of "Vulcanians" and Romulans, and the 2009 Star Trek film actually includes this in it's main story. But Spock finally left the Kelvin Universe and Our Universe in Star Trek Beyond. RIP Spock.
That film was very different for Trek, it was Trek against itself. There were things I loved about it, things I hated. Especially Anton Yelchin passing away in the sad way he did. So no more Chekov either.
The TNG films could have been much better, if 1) they had kept the D, 2) Had more films like Insurrection which involved every member of the crew. and possibly 3) Kept Brannon Braga out of it.
Braga did well for Voyager, you will note they kept him out of Deep Space 9. Braga's strength as an episodic writer is his weakness as a feature film writer. His decisions were bad, which was why Enterprise had some problems. Oh, he always eventually got it going, but for Enterprise, the 2nd and 3rd seasons got bogged down in another time story. And too many time stories kill a show, unless they are very good times stories. TOS had City on the Edge, Tomorrow is Yesterday, Assignment Earth, All our Yesterdays, and Star Trek IV. All amazing stories. Enterprise got bogged down too quickly, too many anachronisms, this was suppose to be 100 years before Kirk, and they had stuff that was too advanced even for TNG! Dr Phlox was from a culture much more advanced than Starfleet. Suliban showing up with gadgets and gizmos from the future. And the Vulcanian stories form S4 ("The Awakening" etc) had Vulcans acting like Puerile Teenagers with too much of whatever Vulcans use for Testosterone.
Braga does well with Horror and Suspense, his new show is great. But as far as Trek went, too many trips to the time travel cookie jar.
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| The MASSIVE 1701-D leaving Spacedock |
Most Trek fans have always agreed, even the Great Bird of the Galaxy, Gene Roddenberry, has always stated that the main star of these franchises is THE SHIP. Many times, in TOS, "The Ship" got our crew out of danger, "The Ship" was what had saved them from dire aliens. It was the technology of The Ship mixed with the Ingenuity of it's crew. And as much as The Original Series was that way, even more so was The Next Generation. The USS Enterprise D was an Enterprise on Steroids, a massively powerful ship that dwarfed the original in size, and crewed a whole city in space- !,000 people spread across 36 decks. I think it was 36, the Enterprise E only has 16- But let's not get to that yet.
In 1995, the original run of STTNG had finished with the very positive "All Good Things", and the cast and crew stepped right into a new role: Making Feature Films. This was an amazing opportunity for Rick Berman, Gene's hand-picked successor. He had two very good writers, well, one VERY good writer and one semi-good writer, Ron D Moore and Brannon Braga, Ron who never turned in a bad script, and Brannon, who at times did write some very good episodes but I think he was simply overwhelmed with the responsibility of writing a good feature film. Especially since Braga is the "King of Time stories", sometimes good ones, but many times not so good. "Generations" was a "time story", and told just wrong. It tried to bridge TOS characters to TNG, by use of a "Magic Ribbon" in space, which inexplicably allowed people swallowed up in it to imagine anything they wanted and then live it. And for guys like James T Kirk, who is never satisfied with anything, always trying new things, this doesn't work, cos it's not real. But Madman Malcolm McDowell doesn't care, he just wants to get back in, even though it will cause planets to be blown up.
Not really the best of stories, you see? Not for an ensemble cast which just finished a 7 year run of Multi-Person stories. But right from the start, this 16:9 Feature Film seemed to SHY AWAY from shots of The Enterprise in Space. In Fact, they show more footage of 1701 Enterprise B than they do of the D in the whole of the film! But fans of the show remember that shots of the Enterprise D, floating in space, In Orbit, Warping out, and Separating the Saucer were common in EVERY episode. They even show more shots of Lursa and Be'Tors' Klingon Bird of Prey! One thing I loved about that bird of Prey is that you may recognize it as the SAME SHIP the Klingon Captain Klaa (The guy with the great hair) had in "Star Trek V: Final Frontier" - With the spacial made-for-Klaa Photon Torpedo turret, Which Lursa uses to blow holes into the D. Whoops, spoilers. Hey, I LIKED Star Trek V, it has some good things in it. Especially "Excuse me, why does God need a Starship!?"
But the 1701-D? we only get to see parts of the Saucer Section, but NEVER the whole ship except for one scene when warping away from the Armagosa Station, and it is Strrrreeettttchheeedd Ouuuuut very Looonnngg.
The reason why they did this is because Brannon Braga said "The Enterprise D looks like Shit in 16:9". Which is not true at all, if any of us have watched the final "TNG" episode of "Enterprise" which was during "The Pegasus" time and shows many shots of the D floating through that asteroid field, and it LOOKS GREAT in 16:9.
But because of Braga saying "It Sucks" they used it as an excuse to BLOW IT UP. The Best Ship ever designed by people working on Trek and the very LAST real Model ever used in Filming. Oh, it was amazing to watch the Saucer Section crash on a planet, that was just how I imagined it. But it never should have happened. And the Enterprise E is not even close to being as cool.
It is very hard to take a series that depoends on weekly stories about a large group of people, and make feature films. Even with the smaller TOS cast, sometimes Uhuru would be left out (of most of ST: III, even though she had a great part in it). It's even worse with the much larger TNG cast, and then Guinan only appeared in two of these. Make that 1 and 1/2, because her role in 'Star Trek: Nemesis" was drubbed down to Cameo Status (Along with Wil Wheaton's)
As much as I liked first Contact, I enjoyed Insurrection much more, because it included all of the cast, all acting and interacting in one place, instead of from two locations. Insurrection was more like a TNG episode, and if you watch it closely, the whole thing is a Star Trek version of "The Battle of Helms Deep" from Lord of The Rings, even some of the dialogue where they are emptying the village, is the same as when Hama is telling people "Take only what you need...", and they go to Caves in the Mountains, very much like The Two Towers.
But that was my main gripe - People tuned in week after week, mostly because the USS Enterprise D was COOL. And The E is not as cool, especially when it is CGI. I think we Trekkers just love the old style of filming a ship and making it look like it's in Space.
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| The USS DEFIANT: One "Tough Little Ship. "Little?" |
I could never get excited about the NCC 1701 E. It's smaller, and it does not look real. In the beginning of "First Contact" Worf is manning The Defiant, which was another all-CGI ship, but it looks like a federation Ship. The E does not.
And this brings us to my final gripe - paramount SHOULD HAVE and COULD HAVE made at least one DS9 film. Deep Space 9 was in a lot of ways, a much better show than TNG - The effects were better, the action was better, the drama, it had a continuing story that was resolved after 7 years. I didn't like it af first, ya know? I had been writing Majel Barret-Roddenberry about her show "Earth: Final Conflict" which she made for a couple of years, and I spoke to her about DS9, asking her why so much WAR and conflict? She agreed but really could not do much about it except be Mrs/Ambassador Troi and the Computer Voice. But I could tell she was proud of the series, maybe upset with my disregard of it. Eventually I started liking it and I told her so, it came on me gradually, especially in the last 4 seasons, Worf added so much to the show. But if you watch DS9 from start to finish, it starts out much like Next Gen, or maybe even TOS, but then rapidly it started with little stories that became part of the fabric of the thing, eventually every small detail was tied together - Dr Bashir's love of playing Spy Holonovels, he becomes a real Agent for Section 31. Just all of those little things made it so good, and it's very disappointing that it was never considered for Feature Films.
And today, it's too late? One thing that happened in the early 2000's was after the cancellation of Enterprise, paramount gathered up all of their Trek Props and materials and SOLD them all to the highest bidders. This disappointed me greatly, but we see today, a lot of those props were bought by people willing to use them in Fan productions, including Star Trek Continues. So I'm glad some true fans were able to get some of the best props. But with the sale of the entire stock of show props, it meant that never again will there be any Trek shows from the TOS Universe. Not unless they start building from scratch. and this new Discovery show, well, I can't see it, I can't afford either the Cable fees or the fees to get the channel. So I'll have to wait until it comes out in Torrents.
After the last TNG film Nemesis, which was a lot better than people give it credit for being, I felt this was the end for our TNG universe. The only thing that was left was Mr Spock, he acted as Bridge between The Kelvin Universe and the TOS/TNG universe. We know in TNG Spock had remained on Romulus to help with the Unification of "Vulcanians" and Romulans, and the 2009 Star Trek film actually includes this in it's main story. But Spock finally left the Kelvin Universe and Our Universe in Star Trek Beyond. RIP Spock.
That film was very different for Trek, it was Trek against itself. There were things I loved about it, things I hated. Especially Anton Yelchin passing away in the sad way he did. So no more Chekov either.
The TNG films could have been much better, if 1) they had kept the D, 2) Had more films like Insurrection which involved every member of the crew. and possibly 3) Kept Brannon Braga out of it.
Braga did well for Voyager, you will note they kept him out of Deep Space 9. Braga's strength as an episodic writer is his weakness as a feature film writer. His decisions were bad, which was why Enterprise had some problems. Oh, he always eventually got it going, but for Enterprise, the 2nd and 3rd seasons got bogged down in another time story. And too many time stories kill a show, unless they are very good times stories. TOS had City on the Edge, Tomorrow is Yesterday, Assignment Earth, All our Yesterdays, and Star Trek IV. All amazing stories. Enterprise got bogged down too quickly, too many anachronisms, this was suppose to be 100 years before Kirk, and they had stuff that was too advanced even for TNG! Dr Phlox was from a culture much more advanced than Starfleet. Suliban showing up with gadgets and gizmos from the future. And the Vulcanian stories form S4 ("The Awakening" etc) had Vulcans acting like Puerile Teenagers with too much of whatever Vulcans use for Testosterone.
Braga does well with Horror and Suspense, his new show is great. But as far as Trek went, too many trips to the time travel cookie jar.
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