A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga | Report this post to moderator
By: SinNombre333 (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 00:00:25 on Jul 17, 2003

The Star Trek franchise is really in some dark times right now. What promised to be a blockbuster Star Trek feature film turned out to be a true disappointment. The latest series incarnation, "Enterprise", is suffering a ratings drop. And fans seem to be...quite frankly, pissed.

It is far too easy to point the finger of blame to Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Yes, they are the ones in charge, but they also answer to the "powers that be" at Paramount. They have not always produced "garbage"....in fact, several of the episodes they are directly responsible for, have been excellent.

The downward spiral began with Star Trek: Voyager. It was truly gut wrenching to see a series with such promise, crash and burn. I think this is really the starting point of when fans began to lose faith in the future of the franchise. TNG and DS9 succeeded...everyone expected Voyager to, but it didn't, and it didn't in a really bad way.

"Enterprise" was going to be a fresh new look at the origins of the Star Trek saga. A truly great premise...do a prequel to the original series, when meeting aliens was not a mundane experience. Sounded great! I knew that there would be occasional continuity errors, but there have been continuity errors throughout all the series...so I can forgive that.

The problem with "Enterprise" is the same with the last couple of years of "Voyager"....the stories just are NOT that interesting. And I cannot accept that it is saturation of the franchise. This is a truly lame excuse. "Voyager" and "Enterprise" probably have the richest core plots of all the Star Trek incarnations...there are infinite possibilities. Episodes like "The Dawn" do not rouse interest...Trip and an alien are trapped on a moon together...we know that they have to work together to escape, we know that they're not going to die (well, certainly not Trip)...so there's no real peril, nothing to keep me on the edge of my seat. Show me something that I completely DID NOT EXPECT!!!

So, here comes season three...I liked Berman and Braga's pitch for the Xindi. Honestly, I found it to be a potentially rich storyline. What makes me lose faith is that all we hear about in the press releases is that T'Pol is getting a new haircut and a new uniform...that one of the new marines on board is a sexy blonde named McKenzie. Yes, sex sells, but that is not the problem with Star Trek...THE PROBLEM IS WE ARE NOT TELLING INTERESTING STORIES ANYMORE. For a moment, consider The X-Files...Chris Carter is a pretty smart guy...he originally cast Gillian Anderson as Scully because he didn't feel she was a knockout gorgeous actress...he didn't want that to be the selling point for the series...he wanted the stories to be what kept people coming back for more...and they did! LET'S STOP USING SEVEN OF NINE, T'POL, AND MCKENZIE AS THE SOLUTION TO STAR TREK'S FAN DECLINE...LET'S START TELLING GOOD STORIES AGAIN. I can think of tons of truly intriguing stories (and I know I'm not the only one capable)...Hell, I'd drop out of my PhD program to write them for the franchise.

Star Trek: Nemesis was NOT the fault of Berman and Braga. This was clearly the director's fault. He cut so much out of the film, that several key elements were lost. This was supposed to be the farewell movie for our beloved TNG characters...each had a special farewell piece. They were all cut except for Picard, Data, Riker, and Troi. The director had no clue how much fans have invested in ALL the characters...we were jipped. Rick Berman knows what is wrong with the film...he cannot publicly admit it because he has the "powers that be" telling him to keep his mouth shut so that negative publicity doesn't affect DVD sales and rentals.

We, as avid Star Trek fans, need to hold onto faith that Star Trek will re-emerge from the ashes like a phoenix. Berman and Braga are NOT evil people purposely trying to flush Trek down the proverbial toilet. Paramount wants to sell "sexy" tidbits of publicity to the supposed core audience of young horny males. I just hope that both Berman and Braga can push for greater integrity and depth to the storytelling. Maybe I am hoping for far too much.

I know that Brannon Braga checks out this site from time-to-time. Mr. Braga, if you happen to read this...I truly hope that you take to heart what the fanbase is saying. I am very much interested in seeing what surprises will come with the new season of "Enterprise". But please consider pushing for stories that are RISKY...no one is interested in plots that are "playing it safe". Please, justify my faith in you and Rick.

Sorry this is so long...just had to get it all out.

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"Kidney dialysis??? What is this? The Dark Ages???"

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RE: A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga by blue glass @ 17:24:34 on Jul 18
RE: A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga by Oliver-Daniel @ 06:05:55 on Jul 18
Safe risks by Hbasm @ 16:42:18 on Jul 17
    RE: Safe risks by Manicmarv @ 18:00:36 on Jul 17
       RE: Safe risks by Hbasm @ 04:16:46 on Jul 21
This is exactly the problem by Cap'n Calhoun @ 15:48:29 on Jul 17
    RE: This is exactly the problem by Trekker121 @ 20:32:08 on Jul 17
RE: A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga by BWilliams @ 14:02:25 on Jul 17
RE: A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga by Janeway's Boy @ 13:25:55 on Jul 17
RE: A Lenghty Plea to Berman and Braga by litexfans @ 13:05:08 on Jul 17
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