Every time I try to rewatch TNG, and I get to the episode with the claymation ‘spider’ things crawling over Picard, it reminds me to question why precisely I’m trying to rewatch the early stuff.

Seriously. It starts with a 3 minute shot of a starfield, then about 2 minutes worth of credits, and then over 4 minutes of a near-wordless flyby of the Enterprise. Luxuriating over pretty shots is one thing, but the beginning of TMP is a fundamental test of patience.

Michael Piller talked about this in his unpublished book, Fade In.
He called it “Roddenberry’s Box”. Basically, Gene didn’t want conflict between the characters. “Earth is a paradise. Now go write drama.”

Piller saw it as a challenge, but most other writers got fed up and ran out their contracts. I kinda don’t blame…

Roddenberry’s diminishing influence was a big factor, but there were other behind-the-scenes changes that really shaped TNG at that point. The big changes from seasons 2-3 included showrunner Maurice Hurley’s departure (he was, by all accounts, a super toxic influence on the early seasons and the reason for Gates…

Kind of off topic, but I’ve often wondered how much better X-Files would have been in the end if they got rid of Chris Carter.

Gene would’ve hated DS9. I think it’s among the best of all Star Trek.

Your use of “entertaining” is a good choice there. I’m a fan of TMP and I think STV is genuinely horrendous on several levels and the worst of the original six films.

Forever twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom!

I will not stand by and have you besmirch the series that gave us “travelling faster than Warp 10 turns you into a horny space lizard”!

His vision also evolved quite a bit, even if nobody wants to admit it. The original idea of an interracial, multi-national crew was legitimately progressive for the time, but Kirk, Spock, and Bones are the only ones with personalities for a while, and they were constantly bickering. But my guess is that fans told him f…

Which, just—-UGHHHH. How can you write stories with no interpersonal conflict?! I loved Roddenberry’s optimism but some of his ideas are so cheesy.

...yikes

You immediately lost all credibility when you put Voyager ahead of DS9.

Sure, Gene.

You can make an argument for TNG but Voyager, really? 

Defying orders from immoral, corrupt, compromised, incompetent, or inept superiors was not only fertile ground for some of the best Star Trek material, but it also happened under Roddenberry’s watch. In TOS, Kirk retook command of the Enterprise in The Deadly Years after he was relieved of duty because the acting…

Roddenberry went over budget for TMP, and everybody involved had a miserable experience making it (that’s one of the main reasons why Nimoy wanted to get Spock killed in a sequel), partly due to Roddenberry developing a massive coke habit (once he started to work with the film guys) and failing to rework a so-so script…

I’ve been rewatching all the Star Trek shows in chronological order, i.e. starting with Enterprise and going on from there.  I’m up to TNG, and Season 1 was ROUGH!!!!  It was way worse than I remembered.  Season 2 was better, but it had some clunky moments.  It really improved in Season 3, which is when I’m assuming…

And yet, Shatner’s fever dream is a lot more entertaining that Roddenberry’s snoozefest/2001 rip-off.

I treat Roddenberry Rules as the Star Trek version of What Would Walt Do at Disney. Who cares? Walt has been dead and gone for 50 years. And Gene was kind of a hack. If it didn’t grow beyond him it would, and maybe should...die.