For the first time in a long time Berman speaks with some sincerity and he gets completely ripped for it.
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
Luckily the small vocal minority on these Trek websites do not represent the majority of Trek fans around the world.
Berman and Braga have made numerous mistakes in the past 5 years, but I give them great credit for bringing some of the best Trek to us over the years. The "gems" of Trek they have overseen surely outweigh their mistakes. Let's face it - the worst Trek is still better than most other television out there because it's part of Gene's legacy and vision. And that can only be a good thing.
"There are a lot of people who criticize us for saying what I'm about to say but I do believe that there was some degree of fatigue with the franchise. I think that we found ourselves in competition with ourselves. I think that after eighteen years and 624 hours of STAR TREK the audience began to have a little bit of overkill with STAR TREK and I think that had a lot to do with it."
Rationalization is defined as the act, process, or practice of devising self-satisfying but incorrect reasons for one's behavior. It's a basic psychological defense mechanism. We make "socially acceptable" excuses for our mistakes in an efort to "save face."
If I had a lover who consistently told me the way she liked to be "loved," yet I insisted that my way was best and ignored her requests for that which she craved, eventually I would find myself alone with no one to "love" but my friend Rosey Palm and her five friends. If I was a car salesman and a couple were to come in wanting to buy a sportscar, yet I offer them the best damned station wagon on the lot because "I" think its a great car, they will leave to go somewhere else and I will have accomplished nothing. Face the facts, Freddy. Just because "YOU" think your way is best doesn't mean your audience will. Basic principle of business: Get something others want, and let them have it... for a price. RATHER than bad business practice such as this: Get something YOU like and offer it to others... for a price... not selling it because you are not understanding the basic concept of supply and demand.
Do you remember, early in the book, when the diplomat came to the planet and stayed for three days, and they typed up everything that he said, and by the time they crossed out all of the meaningless double-talk, he hadn't said a word by the time he had left?
Need I say more?
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"You know what six movies average out to be really good? The first six Star Trek movies!" -- Fry, Futurama
Hello, this will be my first ever posting on this site or any other for that matter. As a fan of Star Trek since the beginning of TNG, I have been reading this site since I found it back in college. Like all of you fans, I too am very disappointed with the cancellation of Trek. But, there are some things to consider. For starters, many of you blame "B&B" for ruining Star Trek? If this is so, how do you explain TNG which was run by Berman from season 3 to the end, DS-9, and Voyager and did you hate this "Enterprise" which you fought so hard to save? Maybe you should re-direct your anger and frustration at the network which deciided that garbage like "America's Top Model", and "WWF Smackdown" are better. Of courese, those programs get higher ratings than Enterprise. We must all remember that Star Trek in any form ie TOS or Enterprise is a business and when put on network television cannot survive. How many sci-fi shows have been raoring successes on network television? I can think of "X-Files", maybe Lois and Clark, but not Trek. Remember that the origional Roddenberry show failed after 79 episodes with only competition betweem 3 television networks; a shorter run than Enterprise which has competed with 4 other networks and God knows how many cable stations. The problem isn't with "B and B" or with Paramount or the quality of the show. It is with the fact that people are not watching Star Trek. We see new crews, ships, sets but there are only so many stories to be told over 40 years, and maybe it's time to except that people are bored. Are we sick of the TNG cast? I love them and I loved "Nemisis", but no one went to that as good as it was. So let us say good-bye to this wonderful series, hope a new one comes up someday and then...hope that someone watches it, so it may survive. Remember, all good things must come to an end and...live long and prosper.
Quote:
"We needed 'Jonathan Archer' to segue into being an epic STAR TREK hero and we felt the best way to do it was to find a perspective to look back.
What...the...hell? This whiny, stupid, man-child is an "epic Star Trek hero"?!
Holy shit. I cannot believe I just...Oh, wait, that was Berman talking. Okay, yeah, I can buy that. Berman needs-desperately needs-to believe his creation, Jonathan Archer, is some sort of super heroic being, somehow superior to all who have come before him. Superior to Kirk, superior to Riker and Picard (since Riker is going to participate in one of his adventures to "get perspective").
I hope this man never works another day in his life in Hollywood. I hope Star Trek XI is taken from him and he is banned from tinsel town forever.
... and we should be content with that.
Oops: again I push "new post" instead of "reply to post." Anyway, this is a reply to Steve's post down below. Sorry.
Hi Steve
I actually don't know you at all really, other than you run the site. But what I've read and so on in the past about you on here says that you know Brannon on a somewhat personal level. Acquaintances or something. Anyway, my complete dislike of both of them (although, in all fairness, Berman is the one I think is the big problem, Braga was just not exec material, but a staff writer yes) maybe colors my judgement, but maybe your acquaintence with Brannon colors yours?
Brannon said "Terra Nova" and "Demons" "tap into very ENTERPRISE-oriented themes and character arcs." Direct quote. To me, a characters arc should necessitate some sort of character moments, a character development, or in this case, a resolution of some sort (being the finale). Basically, it has some sort of character portions to it. Then, in reference to "These Are The Voyages" he says: "we knew we wanted to get out of a totally plot-driven story and do something that was really character-oriented and centered on the internal dynamics of Enterprise and the people onboard." To me, that's a contradiction. How you can have a 2-part episode that deals with character arcs and call it purely plot-driven does not make any sort of sense. Then, how you can say the finale deals with the internal dynamics of Enterprise and the people on board when it's about Riker and Troi *watching* the crew on a holodeck (which would not give us character moments other than ones Riker or Troi are involved in which obviously didn't happen when these events originally took place) also makes no sense.
Yes, I generalized the holodeck usage in the finale. However, Generations used a sci-fi method to link 2 different series together. There it was just 2 captains, but the thing is it was a sci-fi method to link the past and the present Star Trek's together. And we've seen about a billion holodeck episodes, did we really need one more to send off Enterprise?
My speculation as to why Jolene did not attend the wrap party is that... speculation. However an article on Cinescape.com which has no real preference to Star Trek one way or the other had an article on the wrap party. They mentioned Trineer was absent because he was at a convention, and they said Jolene was absent, but didn't say why. Seems odd to me, considering she called the finale "appalling" and regularly spoke out about Berman's way of producing the series that she's not at the wrap party. No reason is given as to where she was, and it's just kind of "well, she just wasn't there." She was on the show for 4 years, and one of the main 3 cast members. Some mention of where she was would've made sense. Instead, it's hush hush and the spindoctors took over.
There's a saying, go with your first instinct. Had I sat back, thought about what was said in the interview, and maybe later written a post, it probably would've been a little tamer. However, Berman & Braga (and especially Berman) have given me very little reason to hand them any slack. So I typed. The post may have been harsh, but I stand by what I posted. They mishandled this series, the finale, and most of the franchise for the past 10 years or so. Braga should go off and prove to people that he's actually capable at production with Threshold, if he is. And Berman needs to say, "I'm done, it's someone else's turn" and leave the franchise. I'm not saying leave Paramount, but find work doing something else. Leave Trek alone because it's painfully obvious to me he's burnt out and done.
As usual, I see nothing worth criticising in this interview. B&B did the best they could. I love ENT.
I should not be surprised at these two dolts anymore, but here again, they demonstrate their total and utter hatred of TOS.
To wit:
Quote:
Both producers offered appreciation to fans for their years of support and said they hoped that "These Are The Voyages..." will pay homage not only to ENTERPRISE but the last eighteen years of the STAR TREK franchise
Last eighteen years?? Um, excuse me, but didn't Star Trek begin 39 years ago, with Star Trek (TOS) in 1966? Wasn't Enterprise supposed to be a "prequel" to TOS, since TOS IS the beginning of Star Trek? Shouldn't the finale been about really bridging the ENT era with TOS?
No, guess not. As far as B & B are concerned, Star Trek began with their involvment. Forget that stupid Roddenberry guy and his cheesy, cheap little '60s show.
Quote:
The idea of 'Commander Riker' having a big decision to make in his life and deciding to go onto the holodeck of the 24th century Enterprise-D and study certain events that happened at a very crucial time near the end of the mission of Jonathan Archer would be a good way to pay the homage to these characters that we wanted to.
What is this "pay homage" crap? Why are they paying homage to characters they themselves created? If any "homage" was to be paid, it should have been to series that started the "franchise." I'm astounded that these two fit in the same room, given the overinflated size of their egos and their arrogance.
Quote:
"We also wanted to come up with a concept that was different and special and was able to straddle two generations of STAR TREK; something interesting and not just do a straight-ahead episode," offered Braga.
"Different and special" are hardly words Braga should be using, since neither he nor Berman seem to know what those words mean, as evidenced by the first 2 seasons of ENT. And the "two generations of STAR TREK" they are straddling should have been ENT and TOS, not TNG.
Quote:
"We did feel we were utilizing continuity from TOS, we were doing it in smaller doses," Braga says. "But we were definitely doing it beginning with the pilot with references to Captain Kirk's original log and Zephram Cochran and many others. But it definitely was in smaller doses and it wasn't until season four when we consciously decided to go deeper and stronger with that.
"We consciously decided"??? LOL!! I believe this is called "self-delusion". Considering that the only writing credit Braga has this season is the finale, and that Manny Coto, Mike Sussman, and the Reeve-Stevens wrote the bulk of 4th season episodes, I hardly think Braga is in a position to talk about "we" in this context.
Small doses, huh? They must have been so small as to be almost invisible. Changing the names of things, like "phase pistols" instead of phasers, or "captain's starlog" for the simpler "captain's log" is hardly what I call paying attention to continuity.
I could go on, but I'm tired and it doesn't really make any difference anymore. It's clear these two fools don't have clue one, and don't care. It's obvious they hate TOS and tried as best as they could to distance "Enterprise" as far from TOS as they could.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, cigar in one hand, favorite beverage in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming WOO HOO - What a Ride!"
Has there ever been an interview where B&B actually admitted that part of the ratings decline was their own fault? In all the interviews they've done, whether it was for Nemesis, Voyager or Enterprise, they've always blamed external factors, the network, the studio, the competition, even the fans. When Nemesis tanked, they blamed it on the fact that it opened 5 days before LOTR. When Voyager's ratings fell, they blamed it on the fact that are so many other sci-fi shows. And now Enterprise bombs and they blame UPN. I'm not saying these other things weren't factors, but you would think they would share some of the responsibility. On other hit shows, if the ratings dropped for a season or two, I'd always hear the producers admit that certain creative choices of theirs were to blame. These people had no trouble admitting that they tried something and didn't work, but I've never seen B&B do that. Braga has repeatedly said that the premise of Enterprise was why fans didn't embrace it. That's crap. The premise, like that of Voyager, had lots of potential. The problem has always been execution. And they wonder why fans hate them so much. Maybe if they showed a little humility, people wouldn't bash them as much.
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"Maybe in another thousand years, we'll have teleportation and all that other Star Trek stuff. But with our current technology, we can't even make William Shatner's hair look real." --- Bill Maher
"...I remember the first season of TNG, we got 200 letters because by mistake there was an optical where a photon torpedo came out of a phaser port."
Jackass! It was Season Five! "Darmok"!
Tool.
It sounds like they are taking credit for season 4. THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! Man I hate these guys.
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"You played Macgyver for 7 years and you can't get us out of this mess? We've got a beltbuckle, shoe lases and a stick of gum! Make a nuclear reactor!"-Amanda Tapping Blooper from Stargate SG-1
C'mon folks. Maybe B&B are strung out here, but the *real* problem is UPN. UPN is a pathetic, FOX wannabe and can't produce anything worth watching anymore. You watch; UPN's ratings will fall and gradually die over the next couple of seasons unless something really new comes along.
Enterprise overall may not have been the bees knees but compared to anything else UPN offers it's stellar entertainment.
Thank goodness for Netflix and their like, eh?
The more they talk, the more obvious it is they are incredibly stupid.
"We needed 'Jonathan Archer' to segue into being an epic STAR TREK hero and we felt the best way to do it was to find a perspective to look back."
If he hasn't been portrayed as an epic Star Trek hero by the end of the 4th season, do you morons really think that having Riker just tell us he is an epic hero is going to make it all better?
"We also wanted to come up with a concept that was different and special"
Because we've never seen a holodeck story, or having our characters interact with hologram characters. That plot is as old as "The Big Goodbye" in TNG's first season, idiots.
"the two prior to the final episode are a two-part story and do tap into very ENTERPRISE-oriented themes and character arcs and if these episodes had aired as the final episode we would've been very happy and it would've felt very good and epic to us."
In other words, fans, "Demons" and "Terra Nova" are Enterprise's 2-hour series finale. "These Are The Voyages" is just Berman and Braga patting themselves on the back for all the money they made the past 18 years, but promoting it as a "valentine" to the fans. It's really "f*ck you all we made more money off this sh*t than any of you will see in your entire lives!"
Oh, and this is good. They contradict themselves IN THE SAME INTERVIEW.
Referring to "Demons" & "Terra Nova":
"the two prior to the final episode are a two-part story and do tap into very ENTERPRISE-oriented themes and character arcs"
Then, referring to "These Are The Voyages":
"But then when it came to the very last episode we knew we wanted to get out of a totally plot-driven story and do something that was really character-oriented and centered on the internal dynamics of Enterprise and the people onboard."
So are "Demons" & "Terra Nova" character arc oriented or not Brannon? You idiot. Apparently in one sentence they are, and then in another they're actually plot-driven and the finale is character oriented on the people onboard Enterprise. Yet the finale stars 2 people from TNG who apparently get a lot of screen time... so obviously they are lying about one thing or the other. Berman & Braga: chief spindoctors for the Star Trek franchise for the past 18 years. Idiots.
"There were a couple of people who were slightly uncomfortable with the fact that we have NEXT GENERATION characters in the show and it is a different kind of episode, but there were no serious complaints."
I don't know... Blalock calling it "apalling" sounds pretty serious to me. Trineer said something to the effect of "they did what they felt was right" and then added "I know that's not a positive reaction" or something close like that. Blalock didn't even attend the wrap party, presumebly because she was so disgusted with the way the series ended. Keep spindoctoring you idiots.
"None of the actors have seen the episode so they can't be dissatisfied with how it came out [yet]."
They were in the f*cking episode you idiot! I think they know their scenes, and their co-stars scenes, and they know that some guest stars who weren't even on their show got 1/3rd of the screen time! Whether they saw the f*cking thing all in order or in the way their scenes were filmed, they have a pretty good idea of how it serviced their characters, and obviously a few outspoken ones felt it was done poorly. Dimwit.
"Braga says the episode is a "thank you" to the fans of not just ENTERPRISE but STAR TREK as a whole."
Yeah, thanks for making us millions of dollars while we shoveled this sh*t on TV and slapped the words Star Trek on it.
"We did feel we were utilizing continuity from TOS, we were doing it in smaller doses,"
I call bullsh*t! Where the f*ck were the Ferengi in TOS? Or the freaking Borg? The tricorder T'Pol used was handheld, but Spock's was the size of a VCR! The phasers were compact, and TOS ones looked like big ray guns you'd see in "Mars Attacks." The NX-01 looks like it could give DS9's Defiant a run for it's money, and the NCC-1701 was a big hulking starship. Were the Suliban ever mentioned on TOS? No. Were the Xindi ever mentioned on TOS? No. How about those transporters, that holodeck, and photonic torpedoes, and of course a cloaking device? Idiots. They violated continuity whenever they could because they wanted to show the old-school fans they could do it better. Morons.
"We live and breathe this continuity and we're dealing with every element to try and get this continuity going but at the same time [we're] on a weekly basis trying to create an entertaining television series."
Why create the Suliban? Why not use an ESTABLISHED race we saw little of, like Rigellians, Andorians, etc. Why create the Xindi? Why not use the Romulans, the Klingons, etc. You idiots violated as much continuity as you could and the sad part is you don't even acknowledge that you did it. That's how stupid you are.
"there are rules within the continuity of STAR TREK that contradict themselves."
Yes, like how Archer could meet the Ferengi, and Picard would have no prior knowledge of them. How Archer can meet the Borg, and Q (an omnipotent being no less) sends the Enterprise-D a lot of light years out there to meet them for the first time. I think Q would know they'd met before. There's a lot of continuity that contradicts itself, and since you've been running it for the past 18 years, you're freely admitting that you had a lot to do with that. You are a moron, Rick Berman.
"we tried to do the best that we could."
Your best wouldn't be good enough for a Saturday morning cartoon, let alone a primetime TV show.
"We felt there was more potential to come, the series could've continued and we had a lot more that we would've liked to do.,"
Who's this f*cking "we"? Manny Coto has come forward saying HE had ideas for the 5th season, but he never mentioned "we" had ideas. Braga, you were getting your soon-to-be-cancelled (before it even airs) Threshold pilot done, and Berman you were beating the drums trying to get a Star Trek XI going. You handed Coto the reigns, told him, "This is the last season, have fun. We get to write the finale. Bye" and f*cked off. Jerks.
"We set out to do a different kind of show that was more character-oriented and that's what we did and we're very proud of the first couple of seasons of the show."
Well, at least there's 2 people on the planet who liked the first 2 seasons of Enterprise. Too bad 10 MILLION other people didn't, eh guys?
"it was a great group of actors playing a great group of fully realized characters."
That group being Scott Bakula, Connor Trineer, and Jolene Blalock. Those other 4 people in the opening credits? They were set dressing.
"I think that we found ourselves in competition with ourselves. I think that after eighteen years and 624 hours of STAR TREK the audience began to have a little bit of overkill with STAR TREK and I think that had a lot to do with it. If you take a look at the last feature film we did, NEMESIS, which I still think was a fine movie, it did two-thirds the business of the previous movie."
If you say it enough, to enough people, maybe, JUST MAYBE, someone out there will believe you, Rick. I find it fascinating that he's got the line memorized now, right down to the number of hours of Star Trek. And yet, in the same breath... "by the way we're making Star Trek XI." You're full of sh*t Berman, and you know it.
"we never set out to do ENTERPRISE in any kind of 'rest on your laurels' fashion."
No, that was Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek: Nemesis. Enterprise was your attempt to one up TOS, and when you hacks ran out of ideas, it became Voyager version 2.0.
Braga, I thought you were leaving. You're like the uninvited guest who just won't leave. Go play with Threshold for the week or so until it gets canned.
Berman, go work on your next big flop, Star Trek XI: Starship Troopers.
The fans aren't tired of Star Trek, they're tired of the both of you morons spindoctoring everything to sound like it's the fans fault Enterprise, and Star Trek hasn't been popular. Not once, let me say it again, NOT ONCE have either of you admitted that you can't write a character oriented series to save your asses, and you fell back on action oriented, plot driven crap because that's all you know how to do. Don't say that's what the fans wanted. That's all you knew how to deliver. You morons calling the first two seasons of Enterprise character oriented is a joke, and what makes it even more funnier is that you both believe it!
Notice how they're all executive producers, yet Berman & Braga do their interviews, and Coto does his own separate from them? Coto knows to distance himself from these two idiots because when Berman's contract is up he wants to pitch a new Star Trek idea to Paramount and doesn't want Berman following behind him like a puppy going, "Can I help, Manny? Hmm, can I? Can I?"
Wow that was one heck of a rant. I feel better now. All you ENT gushers, go ahead and flame me. I don't really care. I know this season has been remarkably better, and that's all the proof I need that these two nimrods have been the problem all along.
These two idiots couldn't produce their way out of a wet paper bag.
"The fanbase erosion started long before ENT"
Yeah, it started right after Gene died and you two screwheads started fucking with the show. There's a reason TNG season 7 had a ratings downer: you took over. There's a reason DS9 had only half the ratings of TNG: you were half involved. There's a reason VOY's ratings were smaller than that damn ugly little ship: you two were in charge.
And there's a reason ENT is getting cancelled: you two are in charge.
There is no Star Trek franchise fatigue. The fans are @(@#(!& fed-up with the B&B era. Please make it die.
STFU.
And no, that's not "Star Trek Fans Unite!"
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