Was Star Trek: TNG Successful In Spite Of Gene Roddenberry?

Gene Roddenberry is well known as the creator of the original Star Trek TV show. With four spin-offs and a slew of movies, it’s understandable why anyone would credit that success to his vision. But William Shatner, who’s already done documentaries on Trekkies and Trek’s captains, is releasing a film on The Next Generation’s rocky first couple of seasons, “Chaos On The Bridge.” And according to executives and writers, the success of TNG, which launched a resurgence of the franchise in the 90’s, almost didn’t happen because of Gene.

While bringing some good ideas like Q and a more mature captain (even though he reportedly didn’t want Sir Patrick Stewart), many claim Roddenberry took the praise over Star Trek’s original positive outlook a little too far. Seeing himself as a visionary, Roddenberry insisted that TNG be based in a complete utopia, where no one had any arguments or disagreements. That was a major problem for the writers, since conflict is one of the basic elements of storytelling and character development. Things were made worse thanks to showrunner Maurice Hurley, hand-picked by Gene’s attorney, who pushed that edict so hard even Roddenberry thought he was being too strict. The only popular contribution Hurley made was the Borg, and that’s been controversial since Doctor Who fans claim they’re a ripoff of their own Cybermen.

Read a full review of Shatner’s “Chaos On The Bridge” at io9.com.

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