7 replies to this topic

[admiralsands]

I wonder what Star Trek would look like if Gene were still alive.

[slayerone76]

I think it would still look like what it does today. He had really removed himself from Trek during TNG. At least that's the way it felt to me.

[Jedigreedo]

The only thing I'm certain would be different is that Enterprise would have probably featured Captain April.

[FHC]

I think he had little control after about the 3rd season of TNG. Also, after the success of The Wrath of Khan at the hands of someone that the studio felt had a better grasp of what fans wanted from Star Trek then Gene did, he was pushed more and more to the side.

[FHC]

Rick was Roddenberry's hand picked guy.

[Jedigreedo]

I think Gene Roddenberry would have really admired JJ Abrams Star Trek as it answered the call for Star Trek to have more relevancy to a younger generation in today's world

I don't know, that's a bit hard to see considering how much dedication and passion Gene had to put into Star Trek to make it as relevant as it was, whereas Abrams really just made it into a scifi action flick. I enjoy watching the movie, but haven't gotten much sign of relevancy from it.

and been less impressed that Rick Berman stayed as long as he did through DS9, VOY and ENT perhaps suggesting to Berman that he needs to let it go for it to evolve with a fresh pair of eyes.

I mostly agree that Berman stuck around for too long and should have been replaced with new blood sooner rather than later, but the majority of the problem seems as though it was more likely Brannon Braga. I feel a bit more confident in saying that as of late due to how disappointing his recent show FlashForward turned out. It was such a great concept, but suffered from extremely bad execution.

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

Personally, I think that if Gene had lived longer then Ron D. Moore would not have had the free hand to have tried much of what worked so well on DS9. For example, atheist Gene would not have welcomed the discourse on religion that played such a strong part in DS9 and I really doubt that Gene would have sanctioned such concepts as The Maquis and Sector 31 where Starfleet is portrayed as less than the virtuous galactic policeforce and arbiters we had come to expect. I doubt if we'd have seen episodes such as In the Pale Moonlight where a captain resorts to skullduggery in order to alter the course of a war - would Starfleet ever have gone to war under Gene come to that? It very much became that Gene's vision was too restrictive for ambitious writers in the 1990s, and there is a story that the writers and producers working on DS9 episodes would place a cover over Gene's bust whenever they were about to stray into areas that had previously been considered verboten by Gene.

I have no doubt that Gene would have approved of J J Abrams' Star trek movie because it brought the whole franchise back to what it had been in the 1960s - in content if not aspiration.