MSNBC’s Brian Bellmont Has Some Ideas for Trek

Anonymous Coward writes, Unfortunately his ideas include
boldly
going where everyone else has gone before
. He suggests
more steamy Vulcan massage scenes, more action, more
humor, turning the genre on its ear … Isn’t this basically what
Berman’s already doing?
He is calling for change, but
asking them to turn away from social commentary and towards
more action isn’t a request I’d agree with. It seems like he wants
it to turn into a stock summer blockbuster rather than the type of
series Treks have been at their best.

15 replies on “MSNBC’s Brian Bellmont Has Some Ideas for Trek”

  1. Doesn’t this suck? :/
    I suspect the last thing Berman needs is encouragement to up the T&A, up the action, and turn the franchise on its ear. I think he pretty much did enough of that the first two seasons. On the other hand I found myself tuning in tonight for the third Wednesday in a row. I haven’t done that since the first season. So far this season ain’t perfect, but it’s a bit better? Or I have taken leave of my senses and the only hope is heavy psychotropics?

    • Re: Doesn’t this suck? :/

      On the other hand I found myself tuning in tonight for the third Wednesday in a row. I haven’t done that since the first season. So far this season ain’t perfect, but it’s a bit better? Or I have taken leave of my senses and the only hope is heavy psychotropics?

      If you’re anything like a lot of us, you’re just in withdrawal waiting for Smallville to start again. :)

      I thought the first two episodes were “okay” but I’ll quit watching the second anything else (again, Smallville) is on in the same time slot. While I’m technically able to record two shows (I work Wednesday nights) at the same time, I don’t do it unless it’s a case of two shows that have captured my rapt attention, i.e., The West Wing/Angel. Smallville versus Enterprise is a no-brainer unless something REALLY big happens like Paramount hiring David Greenwalt and/or Marti Noxon to replace Rick Berman. ;)

      • Re: Doesn’t this suck? :/

        If you’re anything like a lot of us, you’re just in withdrawal waiting for Smallville to start again. :)

        Yup. The day that comes back on is the day I stop watching Enterprise unless it’s on another night and TiVo snags it.

        That being said, Anyone know where I can get the last episode of season 2? We were moving and I missed part two both times it was one (real time, and rerun time – TiVo season pass preference was set to low and got part 1 but not part 2)

  2. Geez…

    This guy will probably love next week’s episode, which looks like it
    will have plenty of steamy Vulcan massaging, not to mention girl-on-
    Vulcan and girl-on-Captain action!

    After a sorta promising season premiere (well, the opening and
    closing scenes were promising, at least), B&B have totally squandered it.
    Tonight’s episode, which admittedly I only half paid attention to, was
    very, very bad. I could tell that just from Archer & Co.’s grunting and
    caveman talk. Ugh. Me no like.

    What will it take to get some quality scripts for Enterprise?
    Is it that hard? Do the writers actually sit back after finishing a script like
    tonight’s and think “Damn, that’s some good writin’!”

    • Re: Geez…

      Do the writers actually sit back after finishing a script like tonight’s and think “Damn, that’s some good writin’!”

      I heard the writers were a thousand monkeys at a thousand type-writers, locked away from the world in a darkened sweatshop where they must type 24/7 only being fed banana mush once they completed a page.
      … or are they Tony Blair’s speech writers… … ;-)

      • Re: Geez…

        Some of his advice, as previously noted, is bad; B&B don’t need to give us more Vulcan softcore, nor do they need to blow up more stuff. Some of the advice is just late; Trek needed to start hiring more and better genre writers a looooong time ago.

        But I accept his central concept. Trek blazed a course for SF tv. But it’s burdened by too much history and too many dated concepts. Enterprise, with its pre-Federation premise, was the last chance to do something interesting with the “franchise” (sorry, Technogirl). B&B blew it.

        It’s been a fun ride. Other shows will boldly go. It’s time to put Star Trek to rest.

  3. Some good points

    By and large, he missed the target, but he did have a gem with the idea of handing over the keys to notable authors and directors for episodes and movies (Chris Nolan directing Trek [drool…]).

    Even though he’d rather cut his own tongue out than admit it, Harlon Ellison wrote one of the best (if not THE best) Star Trek episode to date. I’m sure there are plenty of talented fans in the industry that would love to chip in. Just don’t let that hack John Logan anywhere near the script.

    • Re: Some good points

      Even though he’d rather cut his own tongue out than admit it, Harlon Ellison wrote one of the best (if not THE best) Star Trek episode to date. I’m sure there are plenty of talented fans in the industry that would love to chip in. Just don’t let that hack John Logan anywhere near the script.

      From what I remember of Mr. Ellison, if you are sufficiently obsequious and ply him with food and beverage in the presence of a pretty girl (this was before he married his current wife, although I’d bet old habits die hard) he’ll admit it. :)

      I’d love to see different sci-fi writers’ take on Trek, if any of them would be interested in picking it up now that it has languished for several years. Hell, snare a celebrity director during ratings sweeps periods, or have a well-known sci fi writer pen an end of season cliffhanger. Hire a well-known writer as a creative consultant (à la Ellison with B5.) Agreed, this could be great fun, and could breathe some new life into the franchise.

      -Joe G.

      • Re: Some good points

        From what I remember of Mr. Ellison, if you are sufficiently obsequious and ply him with food and beverage in the presence of a pretty girl (this was before he married his current wife, although I’d bet old habits die hard) he’ll admit it. :)

        Shortly after Mr. Ellison married his current wife I was the pretty girl used by another science fiction writer at a Westercon to gather a few bits of interesting info…which I’ve forever sworn to secrecy….so I can confirm this ;)

        Oh! Almost forgot the gratuitous “Enterprise still sucks” comment….

        • Re: Some good points

          Shortly after Mr. Ellison married his current wife I was the pretty girl used by another science fiction writer at a Westercon to gather a few bits of interesting info…which I’ve forever sworn to secrecy….so I can confirm this ;)

          Not that Mr. Ellison is a lech or anything … Let’s just say he appears to be highly appreciative of the female gender. I know I wouldn’t have gotten away with the questions I asked had he not had his eyes full of my two friends, Cindy, a lovely buxom redhead, and Elizabeth, a statuesque blonde.

          A little inspiration goes a long way. Not only did he answer my questions and sign my copy of “I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream”, he taught me how to cure a headache without aspirin, for which I’m forever grateful. :)

          -Joe G.

  4. Trek Always Mostly Ham, With A Few Nuggets
    The castigation of Enterprise is more than a bit unwarranted.
    Every Trek series, expecially the first, can be characterized as
    cheap and hammy. On occasion, the writers would conjure a story
    that rose above their usual efforts to produce one of those Trek
    moments: Done right, Trek assures us the human social and
    political progress will eventually keep pace with human
    technological progress and that our future looks pretty bright. In
    other words, Trek asserts that we humans are creatures worth
    being proud of.

    But, alas, most of the time the writers don’t evoke those
    emotions and resort to Prosthetic Bad Guys. Enterprise isn’t
    unique in this. The original series did this with abandon, as have all
    the others. Deep Space 9 managed to avoid some of this by
    giving itself a large, structured universe to build plots in. Shows
    that lock themselves into on 6 or 7 characters inside a spacecraft
    don’t have much to work with.

    • Re: Trek Always Mostly Ham, With A Few Nuggets

      The castigation of Enterprise is more than a bit unwarranted.

      No, it’s completely warranted.

      The others shows had their bad episodes, and Voyager, in particular, went off course. But Enterprise routinely turns in poor scripts, utterly ignores established continuity, goes out of its way to misuse science (Rogue Planet, anyone? The frequent errors of the other shows usually served some plot purpose) and resorts to blatant and badly-done fanboy masturbatory fantasies to bring in viewers. Rarely has a show treated so large a fanbase with such utter contempt.

      Classic Trek‘s cheesiness had the context of the time and the limits to its budget as excuses. NextGen and DS9 overcame some early-season growing pains and gave us some memorable characters and episodes. I stopped watching Enterprise after last season, but I haven’t heard anything to suggest things have changed much.

      • Re: Trek Always Mostly Ham, With A Few Nuggets
        Occasional memorable episodes don’t make a series, but they do make it seem better than it was, in retrospect. I’ll trade you every lame Enterprise episode for every NextGen episode centered on Q.

        The essential problem with Enterprise, as it has been with most Trek shows most of the time, is bad writing. If the writers produced consistently good stories, other quibles would e pointless.

        • Oh ouch, hit us with Q when we’re down and bleeding. :)

          Occasional memorable episodes don’t make a series, but they do make it seem better than it was, in retrospect. I’ll trade you every lame Enterprise episode for every NextGen episode centered on Q.

          I was never fond of Q. I always felt he spent far too much irrational time and energy on TNG crew. My idea of hyperadvanced alien species is more along the line of the three-faced firstborn aliens Susan Ivanova confronts in the episode of B5 where she’s sent by Sheridan to invite all the straggler races to the Shadows vs. Vorlon party.

          Susan: Will you help us?

          Three faced projection, in an incredibly deep voice: ZOG!

          Susan: Zog? Is that zog yes? Zog no?

          At best, they’ll ignore us. If we manage to get their attention chances are we’ll have difficulty understanding eachother, and we might likely regret interacting with them. At worst, they’ll swat us like flies. I doubt if they’ll ever assault us with cigars and mariachis …

          On the other hand, Q did introduce the Federation to the Borg, from which was born many an interesting story.

          -Joe G.

          • Re: Oh ouch, hit us with Q when we’re down and bleeding. :)
            Introducing omnipotent beings into a story takes it away from science fiction into fantasy land. Since we know an omnipotent character can control anything and anyone, and make anything happen at his or her pleasure, the rest of the story has to to revolve around answering the question: What Will This Guy Do Next? That’s limiting.

            (And how come it never occured to the Federation to do a deal with Q and his friends? Having an alliance with a race of omnipotent beings sounds like a Good Thing, if nothing else but to keep them from allying with your enemies.)

            Q was cute, but, in essence, he was nothing more than a glorified Prosthetic Bad Guy of the Week.

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