Brannon Braga Speaks at Claremont College

shayward
writes, Read the transcription here.

Among other things, Braga feels that Star Trek is
still about examining the human condition, that
Enterprise is a character-driven show that maybe
didn’t click with audiences, and is generally
uncertain about why Enterprise failed.

Braga also claims to have a photographic memory when
it comes to continuity and knows all of the
episodes.
I suppose the latter may be possible.
There is a subtle but important difference between
ignorance of continuity and blatant disregard for
continuity.

19 replies on “Brannon Braga Speaks at Claremont College”

  1. Holding True to Form

    As I talk here, do people have questions? People do have questions? You all have questions? Thank god. Obviously you know this was called the “The Philosophy of Star Trek” I have nothing prepared on ‘Philosophy of Star Trek’. If you have any questions I would be more than happy to answer them.

    Guy shows up to a “Philosophy of Star Trek” Lecture, and doesn’t prepare any notes on the actual philosophy.

    Hey, thanks for coming out Mr. Braga. Hope your pitch to CBS for a show goes well, ’cause I’m sure showing up without any notes and saying “Hey, I know I’m here to pitch a show, but I thought I’d just answer questions instead” is a great way to do things.

    Brannon Braga’s Philosophy of Life: T&A and Q&A.

    The only highlight of this are his comments on DS9 – he admired it because it “had more intricate storylines and more intricate characters I think than any of the other Star Trek shows.” – and his praise for Battlestar Galactica, which translates to ‘Ron Moore does damn fine SF’

    • Re: Holding True to Form

      Guy shows up to a “Philosophy of Star Trek” Lecture, and doesn’t prepare any notes on the actual philosophy.

      Just like another day on the job, then…

  2. Surprised
    I’m surprised nobody was in line with a custard pie, or at least to ask why he hadn’t resigned ten years ago rather than continue to destroy what could have been a good franchise.

    Damien

    • Re: Surprised

      I’m surprised nobody was in line with a custard pie, or at least to ask why he hadn’t resigned ten years ago rather than continue to destroy what could have been a good franchise.

      Damien

      I see Star Trek as being like IBM, after the intoduction of generic PC’s. It will still be around, but it will never be the big dog it once was.

      • Re: Surprised

        I see Star Trek as being like IBM, after the intoduction of generic PC’s. It will still be around, but it will never be the big dog it once was.

        I see it more like Microsoft. It started with a really simple product (DOS vs. low budget TOS), got really popular because there wasn’t much else, came out with lots of products, many of which sucked (Windows vs. Voyager, pre-Coto Enterprise), and currently, people are switching over to alternatives (Linux, Mac, *BSD vs. Stargate, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and others).

        (You should really watch the Stargate series sometime, it’s full of jokes about Star Trek and science, subjects that likely interest the audience here.)

        • Re: Surprised

          I see Star Trek as being like IBM, after the intoduction of generic PC’s. It will still be around, but it will never be the big dog it once was.

          I see it more like Microsoft. It started with a really simple product (DOS vs. low budget TOS), got really popular because there wasn’t much else, came out with lots of products, many of which sucked (Windows vs. Voyager, pre-Coto Enterprise), and currently, people are switching over to alternatives (Linux, Mac, *BSD vs. Stargate, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and others).

          (You should really watch the Stargate series sometime, it’s full of jokes about Star Trek and science, subjects that likely interest the audience here.)

          I watch all the alternates you mentioned, except Firefly. I’m too cheap to spring for the DVD set

  3. One Word: Duh!
    In this interview, Braga comes across like an idiot. First, he "just doesn’t know" very much about anything. Second, he says so many things that just aren’t true.

    Enterprise is a character-driven show? Well, that clears up why a couple of potentially good characters are ignored and some of the characters (especially T’Pol seasons 1-3) make no sense at all.

    The audience just wasn’t looking to receive a prequel? Well, that explains why so many of us were so excited about it and so very harsh when it failed to live up to continuity.

    7-of-9 wasn’t there for T&A? Whatever.

    Enterprise could have been successful. B&B just couldn’t pull it off. They’d already lost too many fans for Manny to save it but if it’d been run like Manny ran it from day 1 then we’d see 7 seasons, I think.

    • Re: One Word: Duh!

      7-of-9 wasn’t there for T&A? Whatever.

      Yeah, what an odd thing to say. Then again, HE got in her pants, so he’s not very objective about it.

      I mean, “not ‘just’ T&A” I could agree with, they did a lot of stuff with the character, but come on!

      • Re: One Word: Duh!

        I mean, “not ‘just’ T&A” I could agree with, they did a lot of stuff with the character, but come on!

        Yeah, she was clearly added for T&A, but I was impressed with the way they developed her character and she actually ended up being one of the only interesting characters on Voyager (the doctor being the other one).

  4. Choice quotes

    There is a subtle but important difference between ignorance of continuity and blatant disregard for continuity.

    Well, they went back in time, and so they figure they can do whatever they want, since it’s a time-travel paradox, continuity sort of, still exists, in a parallel universe, or something.
    The bastards.


    “The most common question I would always get, at least over the past 15 years, was ‘Why is Star Trek so popular?’ Now I’m having to answer, ‘Why is Star Trek coming to an end?’ It’s kind of depressing. […] I’m not going to stand here and say the quality of the show declined.”

    He seems in denial a bit…


    “because the show took place about 100 years from our time, we could deal with people whose reactions to things were more contemporary. ”

    How could someone say that with a straight face? You really think someone from 1905 would be more contemporary? He’s had no world wars, he’s had no Nazis, women don’t even have a soul in his time! The fun of Star Trek is that it’s so far in the future that the world is completely changed! You took that away and you wonder why it’s not as popular as it was???


    “Question: Do you have a favorite character or one that you are particularly fond of or maybe one that you felt reflected a little of yourself a little bit?

    Braga: I like the Darth Vader character.”

    Well. That explains a lot. He’s Darth and Berman is the Emperor. Sigh.


    “And we used the mind-meld as a metaphor for sexuality, intimacy lets say. And there is a disease being transmitted through mind-melds.”

    They decided to bypass the “Vulcans do it once every 7 years” by making the mind-meld a sexualised act. Great, the fanfic writers are gonna be happy about that one, I think they were running out of ways to have Kirk and Spock be gay lovers. Sigh.

    This is the kind of “continuity” they kept. They bypassed, they cheat!


    “My photographic memory is failing me now. (audience laughter) You know, to some degree I wish I could go back to all of the episodes that I wrote, because there is stinkiness in them all. I mean there is always some cringing moment you know that you look at… I have written some real stinkers.”

    Yup.

    • Re: Choice quotes


      You know, to some degree I wish I could go back to all of the episodes that I wrote, because there is stinkiness in them all. I mean there is always some cringing moment you know that you look at… I have written some real stinkers.”

      Yup.

      Yeah! More Time Travel! That’s a great idea!

  5. “Character driven show”….HA!
    “Character driven show”, what a load of BS. Like all the other TV execs are out there in interviews talking about how their characters are paper thin shadows of personality, and they like to rely on big explosions and catchy theme music.

    Granted this is the way it is for 75% of television, but nobody admits it. Everyone says their shows are “character driven”. The guys writing Baywatch would have probably told you how their show was “all about the great characters”. Come on, this is about the biggest load of Hollywood BS you could shovel. Really shows what Braga thinks of his fans I think.

    • Re: “Character driven show”….HA!

      they like to rely on big explosions and catchy theme music.

      One out of two ain’t bad! ;-)

  6. Hidden Truths

    He really says it all with two statements (out of order and concatenated for readability)

    “…I was with [the Star Trek franchise] when it was rising to the apex. When Kirk and Picard were on the cover of Time Magazine. And we kind of hit this apex, and then it started to slowly go down…”

    Why did it go down, we think to ourselves?

    “…I worked my way up through the ranks [on The Next Generation] and became a producer and a supervising producer and a co-executive producer and eventually on Voyager I was given the title of executive producer…I was running the writing staff and the production. And I did Voyager for seven years. I wrote two Star Trek feature films. Then rose to the ultimate; I was asked along with Rick Berman to create the new Star Trek show, which is the one that just got canceled…”

    Whew – we finally have the answer from the horses mouth :o)

  7. Enterprise Saved !! (Sort of)
    Whoa! Just saw this on Ain’t It Cool News… (URL Below)

    UPN just announced that it WOULD be renewing Enterprise next season. Apparently that “anon” 3 mill was put up by Paul Allen who purchased a huge block of sponser time for the program. Anyone want to guess which company the ads wil be promoting?? .

    The Bad news: is that Coto is no longer associated with the show and the B&B (Berman and mini-Berman) will resume production. There’s a neat quote by Braga saying that he “knew the fans would come through for him”. {sigh}

    • No URL
      I don’t see an URL below but that it interesting news. I was all ready to be excited until you mentioned about Coto being gone.

      The thing that these absolute IDIOTS haven’t figured out is that Coto is the only reason fans watched this season. B&B are loathed.

      • Re: No URL

        I don’t see an URL below but that it interesting news.

        The most interesting thing about that news ws the date of my post.

        Gotcha :)

        • Re: No URL

          I don’t see an URL below but that it interesting news.

          The most interesting thing about that news ws the date of my post.

          Gotcha :)

          dude you’re a jackass.
          but good one.
          I hate to se all taht potential go to waste with enterprise, you KNOW they can’t do it again, there’s no way we’ll ever be able to see all the momentous events, because they credited them to archer and now will never show them.
          eh screw it I still have stargate

          • Re: No URL
            Major good jackass. Good one :-)

            Yeah, Stargate has become my favorite SCI-FI of all times.

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