All Star Trek

[Local Trouble]

I'm waiting...

[skhellter]

last weeks episode was a bit iffy.

This one was good, again.

Ending seemed like a big hint at the mirror universe... 

[Corporal Hicks]

Ending seemed like a big hint at the mirror universe... 

Hadn't thought about that. Seems obvious now. Maybe too obvious now it's pointed out? We do know that

Spoiler

there is going to be an MU episode.

[close]

[KiramidHead]

They're releasing one episode a week... on a streaming service. Wut.

[SM]

Same with Electric Dreams and Preacher.  So what?

[Sabby]

Finally watched episode 3. The camera crew sobered up, so that's something, but the writing and characters are still atrocious. Michael was fairly sedate though.

Hmmm. Episode 4 was actually pretty decent.

[Local Trouble]

Michael was fairly sedate though.

Is she no longer seething?

[Vermillion]

The F word in Trek.
Not needed. 

Entertaining though

[SM]

Off topic-ish but I watched Chaos On The Bridge the other after reading some Facebook posts by David Gerrold.  Never had any idea about the mess surrounding the creation of The Next Generation.  It sounded as if Roddenberry is his quest to maintain control of his baby forgot about the need to make an entertaining show.  It also explained why Next Gen was often so bland in terms of the main characters and their relationships.

[Sabby]

Off topic-ish but I watched Chaos On The Bridge the other after reading some Facebook posts by David Gerrold.  Never had any idea about the mess surrounding the creation of The Next Generation.  It sounded as if Roddenberry is his quest to maintain control of his baby forgot about the need to make an entertaining show.  It also explained why Next Gen was often so bland in terms of the main characters and their relationships.

The whole 'people in the future aren't petty and full of problems and don't do dumb things or fight over nothing' rule makes it hard to write conflict. I remember that rule being broken pretty regularly outside of the main cast, though.

[Corporal Hicks]

Off topic-ish but I watched Chaos On The Bridge the other after reading some Facebook posts by David Gerrold.  Never had any idea about the mess surrounding the creation of The Next Generation.  It sounded as if Roddenberry is his quest to maintain control of his baby forgot about the need to make an entertaining show.  It also explained why Next Gen was often so bland in terms of the main characters and their relationships.

Is that one of the docos? But yeah, I've seen that mentioned pretty often in some behind-the-scenes books and etc. The writers just didn't enjoy it and you can completely understand why.

http://trekcore.com/blog/2017/10/star-trek-discoverys-canon-connections-episode-105/2/

I'm still playing catch-up with Continues. Halfway through episode 9 atm.

[SM]

Is that one of the docos?

Yeah, with all the interviews done by The Shat.  I got wind of it 'cos I follow Gerrold on Facebook and he was talking about 'the Ferengi memo'.  Plus there was a story about Troi having six breasts.

It seems like Gerrold and DC Fontana were brought as writers because they new Trek inside out, then other writers were brought in over them, Roddenberry and Roddenberry's lawyer rooted them all around.  Then the writers who were brought in over Gerrold and Fontana got shafted too.  Gerrold had people spreading malicious rumours about him due to his homosexuality which meant he never got another writing job in Hollywood (and went off to write novels instead).

Denise Crosby says they could've just  had a fake pair of legs standing behind Stewart most of the time as she was barely on screen.  Gates McFadden got sacked at the end of season one due to personality clashes with one of the showrunners.  Then Diana Muldaur didn't gel with the others.  Plus many fans were rejecting a Trek without Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

It's amazing it lasted 7 seasons and was actually allowed to properly conclude rather than be axed.

[Corporal Hicks]

It's amazing it lasted 7 seasons and was actually allowed to properly conclude rather than be axed.

You really wouldn't get that now-a-days. Do you remember if they had a multi-season order to start with?

[SM]

There was some new and unusual syndication deal but I don't remember the details.

[Corporal Hicks]

From Wikipedia -

Despite Star Trek's proven success, NBC and ABC only offered to consider pilot scripts for the new series, and CBS offered to air a miniseries that could become a series if it did well. That the Big Three television networks treated Paramount's most appealing and valuable property as they would any other series offended the studio. Fox wanted the show to help launch the new network, but wanted it by March 1987, and would only commit to 13 episodes instead of a full season. The unsuccessful negotiations convinced the studio that it could only protect Star Trek with full control.[6][11]

Paramount increased and accelerated the show's profitability by choosing to instead broadcast it in first-run syndication[14][8][15]:123–124 on independent stations (whose numbers had more than tripled since 1980) and Big Three network affiliates.[6] The studio offered the show to local stations for free as barter syndication. The stations sold five minutes of commercial time to local advertisers and Paramount sold the remaining seven minutes to national advertisers. Stations had to commit to purchasing reruns in the future,[14] and only those that aired the new show could purchase the popular reruns of the original series.[16]:222[17]

We chose that time deliberately after we saw Once a Hero last June. It's kind of bad for ABC, but we all have to survive somehow, and ABC isn't helping us in that time period.
WZZM (Grand Rapids, Michigan), on its decision to preempt a network show with The Next Generation[18]
The studio's strategy succeeded. Most of the 150 stations airing reruns of the original Star Trek wanted to prevent a competitor from airing the new show; ultimately, 210 stations covering 90% of the United States became part of Paramount's informal nationwide network for TNG.[14][18] In early October 1987, more than 50 network affiliates pre-empted their own shows for the series pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint". One station predicted that "'Star Trek' promises to be one of the most successful programs of the season, network or syndicated."[18]

The new show indeed performed well; the pilot's ratings were higher than those of many network programs,[18] and ratings remained comparable to network shows by the end of the first season despite the handicap of each station airing the show on a different day and time, often outside prime time. By the end of the first season, Paramount reportedly received $1 million for advertising per episode, more than the roughly $800,000 fee that networks typically paid for a one-hour show;[14] by 1992, when the budget for each episode had risen to almost $2 million,[19] the studio earned $90 million from advertising annually from first-run episodes, with each 30-second commercial selling for $115,000 to $150,000.[20][21] The show had a 40% return on investment for Paramount, with $30 to $60 million in annual upfront net profit for first-run episodes and another $70 million for stripping rights for each of the about 100 episodes then available, so did not need overseas sales to be successful.[20]