Superb news that Brannon Braga, one of the names tied with the downfall of Star Trek, has announced he’s leaving the entire franchise! From the conversations about the possible prequel and the death of the promising Enterprise, we know that the fans out there wanted him gone. Well there you go, he will be!
According to Cinematical have the news that he’s also been dismissing the rumours we’ve been hearing about another prequel series that they had slated to destroy. He’s said that he’ll have nothing to do with a prequel and if asked he’ll turn it down.
Trek kingpin William Shatner, however, has no such reservations. On a recent appearance on the Tony Danza Show Shatner announced that he was writing some novels about Kirk and Spock in their younger years, and he intends to pitch them to Paramount as the basis for a new series.
Okay, let’s slow down a little here. Braga is out, I think from the reaction of fans we’ve had before you want Berman to go next, then perhaps all the fans could get together and try and bring Enterprise back to life?
That’s cool, but the prospect of the original cast as youngsters? That sounds really cheap to me…I think the fans would prefer to leave that aspect of the franchise alone now (I know I would) and move on…although not too far as I’d really love to see them get back to the Enterprise series, I really loved that.
Star Trek fans out there, how good is this really?
Okay, guys, I think you missed the boat. You all seem to want to go backwards instead of forwards. At least Braga (who, if anything, should have been freed from Berman’s constraints long ago) had a vision, which by the way, most of you apparently didn’t get. Coto is excellent at retreading the typical old Trek formula, it’s true (blah, blah, blah). But forty years of merely the same Trek simply doesn’t cut it. The SF world moved on long ago and it’s difficult to believe that Trek fans wouldn’t want something new, even if the “new” had to stay within the realm of the franchise.
I wonder how much Trek fans know about SF, the history of SF in film and television (and literature, for that matter), and the history of film and televsision itself. Braga was saddled with an aging, domineering, conservative fan base, a big-budget mentality he had to live up to, and a mandate to increase ratings. He also had eleven years of Trek background and was probably itching to try something new. It’s evident from the rift between the show’s fans and the show’s enemies that the more conservative, backward-looking fans were the most disappointed. DSN may have been the best show but Enterprise was, hands down, the most original and creative. Possibly, like with TOS, this will only become evident in the future.
Personally I think a new series in star stek would be great but instead of going out into space and exploring have a series that is based around a grooup of people at the acadamy for a year or so. Then have them go out in to space. At least with this idea you could focus on the devloment of characters while they are young and watch them as they grow. This could be benifical becasue at least they could have guest appearances by Will or Picard coming and seeing the students of the future and perhaps being instructors in there later years.
I’m glad Braga is gone. He did good work in the past, so I don’t want to slight him but its time to give the writing to new blood.
I don’t think that Shatner’s idea is a bad idea. Oh I can see it easily go horribly wrong but really, the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and Bones is the core of Trek. Even the later treks were emulating it. I could go with the idea of them being recasted. Especially if Shatner and Nimoy are cool with it and Paramont gets some good writers behind it.
“William Shatner’s Trekkie Babies”
As usual, I am on the contrary of the majority. Brannon Braga was one of the most gifted screenwriters of the Star Trek saga. ST Voyager owes him most of his value, for instance. With Michael Piller deceased, this departure adds to the franchise crisis.
Anyway, I like Shatner√Ǭ¥s idea, though it√Ǭ¥s not his. Harve Bennett imagined “Starfleet Academy” in 1991. I would be glad to see it be true. It would link nicely with Enterprise.
I’m not so sure about the early days of Kirk and Spock with new actors, I’d much rather the series/ new movie series picks up after Nemesis and with a “new” Enterprise crew with no baggage- such as the series of “New Frontier” books have done. New crew on another Starship and anything goes. (They are also better written)
Now, it’s a wonderful thing to see Brannon Braga has left the Trek world. Good riddance.
Berman should follow in Brannon’s footsteps. They should give the mantle over to Fred Dekker and Manny Coto… especially Coto. Up until the final idiot’s episode of “Star Trek Enterprise”, the last season of ST:E was not only the best of that show…not only did it tie in to TOS… but it was the best ST eps made since the lights of DS9 went out.
At least we won’t see that idiot’s movie of the Romulan Wars that Braga and Berman were considering.