I'm still slowly rewatching Star Trek the Next Generation and loving it very much.

Just recently I was thinking of a specific episode that ended up being one of my favorites from the series. And knowing a little bit of behind the scenes trivia about the making of this show, this was one of the episodes that the creator, Gene Roddenberry, absolutely hated (or so the story goes).

Famously (or famously to Star Trek fans, at least), Roddenberry created the Next Generation with firm ideas that in the future, humans would have outgrown their petty differences and would be too evolved to argue with each other, have conflicts, and be immune, I guess, to disliking each other. So when the episode scripts came in with…conflict, Gene would mark them up with his red pen and, in the early days, even rewrite scripts from other writers.

By the time this episode rolled around, Gene had lost some of his power over the show (maybe mostly due to failing health), and the episode went forward without his blessing.

This had happened with the original Star Trek movies as well, with Roddenberry railing against several of the story ideas and scripts, much to the frustration of some of the creatives.

The real dirt about what was going on and the fights behind the scenes - I don't really know about that stuff. Probably no fans really know the nitty gritty of what really happened over those years.

But a show where the characters have no conflicts? That's a bit of a tough go when writing a drama! I will say that I have much love for that show, though, and the degree to which the characters are on the same side most of the time, and reflect a nobility to future humans that truly is aspirational.

Maybe bending those rules a bit would have made for an easier road during the making of those early seasons.

It reminds me of another beloved franchise for me, the Friday the 13th series. Original movie producer and director, Sean Cunningham, has authority over the franchise (still, I think). For some reason, deep into the franchise, he instructed (allegedly) the writer director of Jason Goes to Hell to “get Jason out of that camp, and get rid of that stupid hockey mask!”

This resulted in the most unusual Friday the 13th chapter, to be sure, and an interesting movie according to some fans…but it just wasn't in the realm of what most people were looking for in a Jason movie!


…


No matter what chapters of Star Wars someone might love or not, I think it's a valid argument to say that Star Wars not run by George Lucas is not completely authentic Star Wars. So this applies to non-Roddenberry Star Trek, and maybe to some degree, Friday the 13th without Cunningham influence.

The creator is the creator - but sometimes a thing becomes much bigger, and maybe something quite different, than the almighty one themselves.

Have a good one!



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