Did Rick Berman Contribute Anything Good To Star Trek?

[Timothy Hunter]

This man seems to be the most hated creative in the Star Trek fandom.

People blame him for the shortcomings of Votager, Enterprise, and the later movies and his treatment of female cast members.

But could any of Stark Trek's success in the 90s be attributed to him in any way?

[Jokerz79]

This man seems to be the most hated creative in the Star Trek fandom.

People blame him for the shortcomings of Votager, Enterprise, and the later movies and his treatment of female cast members.

But could any of Stark Trek's success in the 90s be attributed to him in any way?

He was involved with the development of TNG and from 91 to 05 he was the guy in charge of Trek so yeah issues aside under his stewardship Trek had 4 Series with 3 lasting 7 Seasons and the last 1 lasting 4 we also got 4 TNG movies and that time was the best era of Trek IMO.

[Anthony W]

This man seems to be the most hated creative in the Star Trek fandom.

I take it you've missed Alex Kurtzman's (killer of franchises such as Garfield Spider-Man and The Dark Universe) current run on Trek LOL.

[ChrisIII]

He was involved with the development of TNG and from 91 to 05 he was the guy in charge of Trek so yeah issues aside under his stewardship Trek had 4 Series with 3 lasting 7 Seasons and the last 1 lasting 4 we also got 4 TNG movies and that time was the best era of Trek IMO.

Think he was mostly hands off with DS9, it was more Behr, Piller and Moore.


I think part of the problem was that he brought Brannon Braga in to do a lot of the work (Braga did some of the goofier TNG scripts such as Genesis).

[Timothy Hunter]

Think he was mostly hands off with DS9, it was more Behr, Piller and Moore.


I think part of the problem was that he brought Brannon Braga in to do a lot of the work (Braga did some of the goofier TNG scripts such as Genesis).

How much credit should be given to Berman with the creation of Deep Space Nine? I have an inkling that Michael Piller probably had more to do with the development of the show, despite both of them sharing creator credits.

[Nate Grey]

I always heard Berman didn't like the idea of Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko, and in fact wanted the guy who wound up playing Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) to play him.

On the other end of the spectrum, he fought to have Patrick Stewart in the role of Jean-Luc Picard, since Gene didn't like the idea of, and I quote, "a bald English guy" playing him.

Back to DS9, he revealed something back in 2014. A lot of fans, and even cast members such as Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi) asserts Gene would have hated DS9. Well, according to Berman himself, he and Michael Piller pitched the concept, story idea, and characters for DS9 and Gene gave them his "enthusiastic approval."

Those tweets are still up to this day by the way.

That's fascinating. Now I'm wondering if Gene would have liked Voyager and Enterprise.

[WebLurker]

While Berman may have been responsible for some of the bad stuff that happened on the franchise, he had a hand in things when the shows were good. Heck, we now know that he and Branon Braga were the ones to worked to protect ENT from the meddling executives and were the main reason that it was as good as it was in the first place.

[inisideguy]

I always to this day thought that Voyager was a great concept that was poorly executed.

[AnakinFlair]

I always heard Berman didn't like the idea of Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko, and in fact wanted the guy who wound up playing Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) to play him.

On the other end of the spectrum, he fought to have Patrick Stewart in the role of Jean-Luc Picard, since Gene didn't like the idea of, and I quote, "a bald English guy" playing him.

Back to DS9, he revealed something back in 2014. A lot of fans, and even cast members such as Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi) asserts Gene would have hated DS9. Well, according to Berman himself, he and Michael Piller pitched the concept, story idea, and characters for DS9 and Gene gave them his "enthusiastic approval."

Those tweets are still up to this day by the way.

That's fascinating. Now I'm wondering if Gene would have liked Voyager and Enterprise.

Gene may have given his approval of the initial concept of DS9, but it's highly doubtful he would have liked were it ended up- with serialized story arcs and the Dominion War. He hated thinking of Starfleet as a military force.

I liked Voyager. To this day I don't understand most of the hate it got. My only real beef was the fact that Voyager looked pristine each and every week, when there was no spacedock to put in for repairs or resupply the ship. That ship should have looked one step up from the second half of 'Year of Hell' by the time it got back to the Alpha Quadrant.

[Gray Lensman]

Gene may have given his approval of the initial concept of DS9, but it's highly doubtful he would have liked were it ended up- with serialized story arcs and the Dominion War. He hated thinking of Starfleet as a military force.

I liked Voyager. To this day I don't understand most of the hate it got. My only real beef was the fact that Voyager looked pristine each and every week, when there was no spacedock to put in for repairs or resupply the ship. That ship should have looked one step up from the second half of 'Year of Hell' by the time it got back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Many fans think of Voyager as a lot of wasted potential more than anything else.

[WebLurker]

I liked Voyager. To this day I don't understand most of the hate it got. My only real beef was the fact that Voyager looked pristine each and every week, when there was no spacedock to put in for repairs or resupply the ship. That ship should have looked one step up from the second half of 'Year of Hell' by the time it got back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Remember a Star Trek novelist offering the opinion online somewhere that replicators were a reasonable explanation for how the ship stayed pristine. I agree that giving the ship superficial scarring and obvious replacement tech over the course of the series would've been cool, though.

While I will concede that it lacked some of the strengths of the better shows, I agree that I like Voyager and think it deserves a reassessment.