Wednesday, November 27, 2013

10 Very Questionable Production Decisions In Star Trek History....



Not too far removed from the summer blockbuster that was Star Trek Into Darkness, and with more recent chirping a new director is about to be chosen by Paramount Pictures for what will be Star Trek 3, I felt it was as good a time as any to dissect what the Star Trek franchise could have done a better job with in the production decisions department over roughly 50 years of TV shows and feature films.



Let's face it, Star Trek has had the best of times, and the worst of times. Most people will look back on the franchise as being primarily more good than bad, but has anyone really picked out some of the missed opportunities it had along the way?

Whether it was miscasting, bad story lines, or absurdly bad special effects, Trek has dropped the ball on many occasions.

So with that, let's take a look at some examples of Star Trek, that due to poor decision making, could have been executed infinitely better than what Trekkies received in the end...

10. Stuart Baird Directing Star Trek Nemesis



There are many things wrong with Star Trek Nemesis, but I'm here to tell you the first mistake was without question Paramount Pictures deciding Stuart Baird would be best to helm the final Next Generation film.

He had not only had zero familiarity with Star Trek (although that' not necessarily a dis-qualifier), but he also wasn't a great storyteller, he was an editor, plain and simple. Additionally, he had no real credible success as a director going into this film. Sure, he'd directed Executive Decision and US Marshals, but for the studio, along with Rick Berman to think that made him the right choice for a film that needed to be a hit, they were dead wrong. To add insult to injury, Levar Burton even mentioned how Baird had kept mispronouncing his name during shooting!

How It Should Have Played Out: Nicholas Meyer, Jonathan Frakes, Leonard Nimoy, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, to name a few, all would have been significantly more inspired choices for the directors chair, here. That may not have saved the letdown that was Nemesis, however, a good to great director in most cases will elevate the story at hand.

9. Tom Hardy As Shinzon












 Not to insult any Tom Hardy fans here, but he looks nothing like a Captain Picard/Patrick Stewart clone. This is the kind of example in film-making where a movie HAD to get the casting just right, and the powers that be failed miserably with Star Trek Nemesis.

Perhaps the idea of casting a younger, up and coming actor made the studio see dollar signs with this move, but in the end Hardy's Shinzon made for a very forgettable villain in Star Trek history. Flat and bland is more like it.

How It Should Have Played Out: At the end of the day, I think the production team would have been better off letting Stewart play opposite himself as Picard's clone. Imagine how epic that would have been, getting to see Stewart once again play a villain (like he did in Best of Both Worlds), but in a big screen format? There's no question that would have made this a better film soup to nuts.

8. No Kirk And Khan Fight Scene In Wrath Of Khan



For all the lauding and praise Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has received over the years, it blows my mind the film was missing one critical ingredient: A proper fight scene for Kirk and Khan.

Now I'm sure some of you have also read that "lack of budget" was attributed to not getting to see a good round of fisticuffs between William Shatner and Ricardo Montalban, but I'm not buying it. Fans would have taken whatever they could have gotten with such a scene, even if it was on a similar scale to that of the original series episode, Space Seed. It was utter blasphemy the two iconic characters only got to stare at each other through a screen in a feature film.

How It Should Have Played Out: So many possibilities, but having Kirk and Khan fight inside the Genesis Cave would have made an already great film a better one. The set was built, all that needed to be done was some rewrites in the form of having Khan want to come down to examine the Genesis device for himself, before beaming back to Reliant.

 7. The Distinct Lack Of Q In The Next Generation Films



I've never quite understood why the production team and writers associated with the Next Generation films never bothered to find a way to include their most famous villain (next to the Borg of course) into one of their four films. Perhaps if they had, we'd have seen more than just four feature films from the Next Generation crew.

Having Q, played to perfection by John De Lancie, could have allowed the writers cart blanche in terms of crafting a story with little to no rules, and infinite possibilities. It could have put the crew into some serious trouble, but on a much more grandiose scale compared to that of the TV series.

How It Should Have Played Out: Q should have been included in at least one of the final two Next Generation films, Insurrection or Nemesis. He would have been the perfect character to use his powers in order to bring in other characters from separate Trek series, as well as the possibility of mixing in some original series characters as well. The challenges Q would have created only would have served to make the Next Gen films far more intriguing than what we got.

 6. Lack Of Classic Trek Aura In The Motion Picture



This film failed miserably to deliver a Star Trek feature film that had the classic Trek essence. Many of the original series cast members, specifically Leonard Nimoy, haven't been shy over the years with his displeasure for how The Motion Picture turned out. It was flat, dull, and the only bright spots were the outstanding special effects, and epic Jerry Goldsmith score.

For those that dislike my lack of love for the way this film turned out, look no further than the way Jon Povill, the film's main production assistant to Gene Roddenberry, described Roddenberry's reaction to the finished product. He essentially said he asked Gene what he thought of the film, and Gene hesitated and then quickly suggested they go and drink the night away. So even the great bird of the galaxy needed to numb himself from the end product here.

How it should have played out: More original series style action scenes. Case and point, have some hand to hand combat, phaser rifle battles, and for gosh sakes, it should have used the Klingons for longer than just the film's opening sequence. The chance to have added in some fun, 60's Trek style moments would have elevated the more 2001: A Space Odyssey aura of this movie. Lastly, not allowing the cast members to essentially stand around for an entire film looking at a view screen would have paved the way for a far more entertaining big screen Star Trek film!

5. Ruining The Borg



From the episodes Q-who and Best of Both Worlds parts 1 and 2, the Borg were cemented as arguably the scariest, and most intimidating of Star Trek villains. And then came "The Descent", where the production team decided to turn the Borg into the definition of a joke. Allowing the Borg to act as individuals in this episode was the first, and worst mistake of all involved.

I mean really, what was the motivation behind tainting such iconic villains? It was bizarre, it was unwarranted, and I'm certain blame can be laid partially at Rick Berman, but I'm also certain the writers shouldn't be immune from criticism as well.

How it should have played out: A proper follow-up to The Best of Both Worlds should have been written for this season 6 cliffhanger. This would have included the version of the Borg we all knew and loved up until that point: Ruthless, cold, and relentless. If nothing else, a story revolving around how the Borg were beginning to regroup after their setback in The Best of Both Worlds would have been more than adequate here.

4. Star Trek Voyager



Alright, let's go for broke here and admit that creating the Star Trek Voyager series made no sense for Star Trek. I apologize in advance for those few and far between Star Trek Voyager purists out there, but a unique opportunity was missed when this series was green lit.

With exception to Robert Picardo's holographic doctor, everything about this show was flat. The characters weren't even mildly interesting, and the conflict and drama needed to make the audience really feel for a crew that goes missing into the far reaches of space, wasn't present.

How it should have played out: A Captain Sulu series, set just after the events in Star Trek VI. This time period in Trek history would have been the PERFECT opportunity to roll back to the good old days of classic Trek characters, along with the chance to bring back other original series favorites like Kirk, Spock, Scotty, etc. There is no way this alternative wouldn't have been exponentially more interesting, and exciting than the hand that was dealt.

3. Enterprise's Finale



These Are The Voyages was not well received by fans of Enterprise, or even regular cast members of the series. There was even some supposed phone call from Scott Bakula to Brannon Braga, who wrote the episode, essentially asking him what the hell he was thinking writing such a crappy and half-assed finale to their show.

This was one of those head-scratching decisions that should have never happened to begin with. Allowing the inclusion of a couple of Next Generation cast members into what should have been the Enterprise cast members moment in the sun was as stupid as it was bizarre, reducing what could've been a big, dramatic finale into something more akin to a cheap holodeck simulation.

How It Should Have Played Out: Why not a lead-in to the always talked about Romulan war between the Federation and the Romulan Empire? Imagine seeing the heroes of the first Enterprise warping off into what we're teased enough is a imminent prelude to outright war, and then a fade to black? As long as the central focus was going to be the cast of characters of Enterprise only, it would have salvaged such a missed opportunity before Trek faded into non-relevancy until JJ Abrams and co. arrived.

2. Following Up First Contact With Insurrection












There's certainly a nice allegorical Star Trek theme embedded within Insurrection's DNA. However, there's just not a good film in there to make the most of the theme. There were some distinct yawns around me when I saw this film opening weekend in 1998, and looking back, those were not accidental. This film lacked the edge that First Contact had finally established for the Next Generation cast on the big screen, and yet ruined just one film later.

Now why Rick Berman felt that lightening the mood up for this movie was going to equal the same success as First Contact is a head-scratcher at best. After all, the 1990s was a period of some very dark films and going all moody was a popular style for many of the successes in that era. So, on that merit alone there was no good reason to brighten up the mood of Trek for this entry, and in the end, the box office suffered because of this miscalculation from the production team.

How it Should Have Played Out: Going with Micheal Piller's much-darker original script (Stardust) and including the Romulans as the bad guys could have been a nice alternative, or bringing in Deep Space Nine's villains, the Dominion, and teaming up DS9's crew with the Next Generation's also would have proved more exciting for a big screen feature film.

 1. Star Trek V: Rancid Special Effects



Maybe Star Trek V's special effects should be looked at as more akin to that of an original series episode. Perhaps that would ease the huge stain that was a glaring weakness in the film overall. Regardless, the special effects in this film were unforgivable.

This is the kind of Star Trek story that NEEDED to have epic visuals to go along with such a ballsy story from William Shatner. If the crew of the Enterprise is going to go on a wild goose chase to find God at the ass end of space, then the effects must be near perfect to hold that kind of divisive plot line together.

Shatner has gone on record – specifically in his book Star Trek: Movie Memories – stating that Industrial Light and Magics A and B teams were too busy working on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Ghostbusters II that summer. He lamented that the remaining team available through ILM just wasn't their best. OK, but you mean to tell me that the C team for ILM still wouldn't have looked light years ahead of the absolute rancid special effects Bran Ferren delivered? I highly doubt that. I'm almost certain the look on Captain Kirk's face in the photo above is pretty much how everyone felt after their first viewing of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, due to such lackluster visual effects.

How It Should Have Played Out: Production should have been delayed for a Christmas release in 1989 when it was becoming crystal clear that Bran Ferren wasn't getting it done with the special effects. If that meant going back to ILM to utilize the supposed "C" team as Shatner dubbed them, so be it, but ensuring the central problem with this film got rectified before release should have happened. That alone would have helped improve Star Trek V to a level of respectability.

As always. please feel free to include any bizarre production decisions you deem top notch in the comments section below. And most of all, thanks for reading!