Briefly

[selenak]

Due to Darth Real Life, in all brevity, some fannish news:

1.) New Star Trek tv series: a cautious yay! ST always works better on tv, that's the format it was invented for, and a tv series won't have to come up with a save the world/universe - defea the supervillain plot every time. Plus it can develop an ensemble of characters. Also, Alex Kurtzmann has plenty of tv experience between Alias, Lost and Fringe. On the downside: if the cinema rebootverse is any indication, Kurtzmann (and not writing the tv series ex pal Orci) aren't good with alien races, which is an absolut must for any ST. (One word: Romulans. Oh, the indignity!) Then again, that could be because of the cinema format.

2.) BBC series based on His Dark Materias: also looking forward to it. I'm not in love with the Pullmann novels, but they, too, are far more suited for a tv adaption than for a cinematic one, hence failure of Golden Compass movie some years back.

3.) Yuletide: haven't started canon review for my assignment yet, but I've been possessed by the urge to write one particular prompt ever since spotting it, and this morning I got up early and finished a rough draft for a Yuletide treat.

And now: back to work.

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

A very cautiously optimistic HMMM from me re: the new Star Trek series as well! Have wanted another TV show for that canon for ages. But then again of course, reboot 'verse, about which I have reservations. But, new Star Trek TV canon!

So, wait and see, is my approach, I guess.

(Also can we haz Trills and Bajorans and interesting new aliens and maybe not so much with the Klingon focus unless it's B'Elanna Torres? But I realize my id is not the id of the producers, mostly likely, alas.)

[wee_warrior]

Very cautious "yay" from me, too. And fingers crossed Bermaga are unavailable to exec produce.

[selenak]

I think they're out of the franchise anyway. Google tells me Brannon Braga is currently exec producing Salem, which I won't watch not because of him, but because the premise is one that pushes one of my bad buttons. (I had problems when Penny Dreadful made the witches the antagonists in s2 for that reason, but at least that was the late 19th century, not the era in which people were actually getting murdered.)

Anyway, while I'm the first to say Berman & Braga loused up with Enterprise, especially the finale, and that it showed how they were worn out as writers/exec producers with some of Voyager before that, I also think they were overmuch demonized by the ST fandom, the way (different parts of) DW fandom did it with RTD and Moffat more recently. Braga, in his TNG days, wrote and co-wrote a lot of episodes I enjoyed, including the TNG finale which he co-wrote with Ron Moore, and it still is my all time favourite ST finale, of all shows. That his later writing declined isn't really surprising if you consider he wrote over 100 ST episodes (looked that up just now, he truly did).

None of which goes to say I would want B & B to produce the new show! I truly don't, precisely because they've demonstrated they're so worn out on things ST that they keep recycling clichés at best. But that's why I can never agree if someone goes "Worst Ever" about them, because they weren't.

(BTW, if someone wants to tackle ST Writers/Producers RPF, there's a Ron Moore interview somewhere in which he bitterly complains about how Brannon Braga used to be his best beloved partner on TNG and then Evil Overlord Berman lured him away and made him megalomaniac by making him co producer on Voyager, and when RDM very briefly after DS9 ended went to Voyager and imagined fond writerly reunions with BB, they ended up with a friendship-ending argument instead, and Moore wandered off to do Roswell instead, I think, but his one and a half Voy episodes - Survival Instinct and Barge of the Dead - are great. Anyway, this sounds like a torrid triangle made for over the top fanfiction. Not to mention that of course Ron Moore went on to create BSG and gather his own fandom and hatedom in his own right later on, so does this triangle drama qualify as his Traumatic Backstory (tm) which turned him, according to one's pov, into a superhero/supervillain?)

[wee_warrior]

Demonizing Producers: Yeah, I know. I've become rather neutral over producers and their potential for supervillainy over the last, oh, decade or so, and I think the tendency to blame them for everything that one dislikes about a show is often pretty tedious (not to mention that it can get inappropriately personal). Back then, Braga did some interviews that I can't really unread, so he's definitely on my eyeroll list though. I'm glad he's doing shows I don't watch now.
But as you say, Enterprise showed that these guys were worn out, and if the franchise is to be properly revived, they need new writers - and maybe someone who'd not rather do Star Wars, either, but someone who sees potential in Star Trek itself that goes beyond a nostalgia trip.

Ron Moore triangle drama: Ohhh, definitely sounds like the perfect Traumatic Origin Story. Though wasn't Berman producer on DS9, too? I recall that he was famously hands-off on that one. Probably all a devious trick to ensnare Braga while Moore and gang were distracted.