March 27, 2006
[the great big Trek to Galactica] 11:49 PM
So, being the nerd that I am, I'm painting away in my studio with the special edition of Star Trek Generations playing on Mr. iMac with the commentary on. Generations being written of course by Brannon Braga and Ron D. Moore. Moore went on to write and run the amazing revamp of Battlestar Galactica, while Braga went on to co-create and run the Lost in Space bore-fest Star Trek Voyager.
Two things become very evident with this commentary:
1. Branna Braga was probably the biggest proponet of the Voyager "reset" button, claiming that you can't shake up the status quo on a television show or else the audience will be lost. Moore, who would later make the term "status quo" forbidden on BSG is pretty quiet after this statement, which is probably the most polite thing he could think of doing.
2. The key plot points of BSG were in Moore's head for years, and if he couldn't make them work while Berman and Piller were in charge of TNG, he would get to them eventually.
It seems that Moore and Braga were approached in the 6th season of The Next Generation to begin working the 7th Trek feature. Standard logic dictates: new movie, new uniforms, new Enterprise, and it seems Moore wanted to set those gears in motion with a proposed 6th season finale involving the decommissiong of the Enterprise-D. He wanted the ship to be en route to Starfleet where it would be decommissioned and turned into a museum, with the crew scattered (BSG pilot mini-series anyone?). Moore's pitch for the season six cliffhanger also included plans to crash the saucer section of the Enterprise D on an alien world and strand the crew, perhaps accompanied with an enemy.
Michael Piller didn't buy the idea (and the television effects of 1993 would be hard-pressed to make it a reality), and the series went with the somewhat weak Hugh/Lore/Borg opus "Descent."
During rewrites of Generations, when the Enterprise-D saucer does indeed crash, Moore revisited his idea of stranded Starfleet officers, this time trapping them with a renegade Klingon crew lead by the Duras sisters. Since the death or Kirk was trying to defy expectations (i.e. becoming lame with him falling off a bridge), it became clear that the crash would need to become the big bang finale set-piece, and not a set-up for planetary strife.
Interesting how now we have a decommissioned museum ship flying around space and few thousand of humanity's survivors existing on New Caprica with their enemy keeping them reluctant company. Damn interesting.
Verrrrry interesting stuff, laddie buck. I don't pay enough attention to the fine print. Me loves some BSG though. I am completely at a loss over the Season 2 hanger. Just... agog.
Posted by: mischiff at March 28, 2006 9:31 PMFYI, as much as I loathed (LOATHED) the lameness of Kirk's death in Generations, the novelization version is much tighter and less cheesy. They didn't cut the Kirk death speech and it has more impact. The book has a couple of of really fun additions - Kirk's funeral in the past is a treat as are paragraphs dedicated to some of the series supporting characters (ie. Wesley and the Traveler discussing the Nexus' effects, etc.) As book adaptations of Star Trek movies go, this was one of my favorites.
Who's the nerd now?
Posted by: Kyle Curry at March 29, 2006 7:42 PMI love your blog. KarlaX
Posted by: KarlaX at April 26, 2006 12:22 AMLove cannot be forced... Polidore
Posted by: Polidore at November 21, 2006 6:13 AMLove cannot be forced... Polidore
Posted by: Polidore at November 21, 2006 6:14 AMThe cobbler should stick to his last... Zachary
Posted by: Zachary at November 21, 2006 6:16 AMBeauty lies in lover's eyes... Owen
Posted by: Owen at November 21, 2006 6:24 AM
