Edward Gross (1)

It took me a while to get into the rotational style of the various speakers in this book (I only expected it to be for the first little bit, then the book would settle into a standard narrative, which it did not).

Once I got used to it, it was often interesting to read a view, then an opposing or contradictory view immediately follow it (Roddenberry was a visionary genius/Roddenberry was a hamfisted hack who didn't play well with others).

After getting through the first 25 years, my immediate show more thought is, how the hell did Star Trek even get made? There's so much infighting, so many egos, so many opposing "let's do it my way" personalities, that it seems rather shocking that anything got past a planning stage without falling apart.

My biggest takeaway from this entire thing was that Roddenberry was extremely good at preaching the Great Bird of the Galaxy (and lord, how I hate that honorific) gospel, but behind the scenes, he was a skirt-chasing, antagonistic asshole that couldn't see that television and movie making is a collaborative effort, nor the wisdom of surrounding himself with people smarter and more talented than himself. And that he was actually willing to undercut and sabotage those he disagreed with--which was everyone--and harm the Star Trek brand rather than seeing something other than his own vision on the screen.

Oh, and that Gene Coon was the guy we can thank for saving Star Trek.

It'll be interesting to read about the next 25 years. show less

In The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman detail the efforts to bring Star Trek back to television, ultimately culminating in the direct-to-syndication Next Generation, its spin-offs, and the Kelvin films that rebooted the franchise. What comes through clearly in this retelling is how fraught these years were between those seeking to control the direction of Star Trek and those hoping to take the concept forward show more with truly innovative storytelling.

Roddenberry may have succeeded in launching TNG, but the various accounts from actors, producers, writers, and more detail how, at this stage in his life, his demons often had the advantages over the better angels of his nature, enabling his personal attorney to destroy relationships with creatives who could have helped Roddenberry. Following Roddenberry’s death, Rick Berman became the franchise showrunner and similarly exerted control over what types of stories writers could pitch. He managed to stick the landing with the finale of TNG and the first two TNG films, but subsequently floundered on the last two TNG films and on Voyager. Deep Space Nine, which escaped some of this control as it was not seen as the flagship series, was the one show during this run that was able to consistently take massive creative leaps and ended up predicting many of the techniques currently used in serialized television.

Unfortunately, Berman’s unwillingness to break some of Roddenberry’s rules regarding conflict and changing priorities from the network took a toll on Voyager, its writers, and its cast, though they still managed to tell good stories. Enterprise was another example of trying to please too many masters without being willing to boldly break from tradition. There were some standout episodes in the first couple seasons, but it really improved once the showrunners and writers were freed up to do what they wanted in the third and fourth season, by which point it was too late for the franchise. As Gross and Altman discuss, the J.J. Abrams films managed to revitalize the franchise, but experienced a notable dip in viewer reception to Into Darkness. Beyond marked the franchise’s 50th anniversary and recommitted to the characters.

This no-holds-barred retelling chronicles how Star Trek dominated television from 1987-2005 and continues to inspire storytellers. Ten years have passed and a whole swath of new series have come and gone, which would make great fodder for a third volume as Trek again enters a period with no current or new shows in active production. Readers Alex Hyde-White, Jason Olazabal, Susan Hanfield, Nate Aldrich, Steve Marvel, James Cronin, Aaron Landon, Martin Hillier, David Stifel, John Rocha, Eric Martin, and Julie McKay ably narrate the words of the various interview subjects, capture accents and intensity from the quotes, though they frequently mispronounce names and terms that any Trekker would know how to say. show less

This one was just as fun as the first one. Roddenberry was, it seems, even more of an ass toward the end of his life, and, for a brief period of time after he passed, much of the conflict seemed to pass with him.

But it's Star Trek, and, interestingly, for a show about a future where there is no greed or conflict amongst those in the Federation, there sure as hell was behind the scenes, and I wonder, had some of that been smoothed over, would the shows have been better? Or worse?

Hard to say, show more but listening to the actors, the writers, the directors, the producers, and all the others involved in the day-to-day of the creation of the various series and movies, this is a nasty, fun ride through all of the last 25 years of this crazy, wonderful thing that is Star Trek. show less

Really engaging, especially if you're a big fan of TNG. It's interesting to see how the creative staff saw the subsequent sequels and films become more erratic in quality too.

The only bad thing to say is that the new Kelvin-timeline movies are basically given a pass compared to the in-depth autopsies on the TNG films.