I’m going to watch Chaos on the Bridge.

Comments

3 responses to “I’m going to watch Chaos on the Bridge.”

1. 

   Randi Cohen

   September 2, 2015

   Sounds good

   Reply
2. 

   Kevin Black

   September 2, 2015

   Pretty good! A little overproduced. I like all the drawings, but the score was a bit much.

   This tells the story of the tumultuous first two years of the show (more tumultuous than we knew!) and its transition into a much more successful show starting in the third year. They get almost all the key players who are still living on camera, even Maurice Hurley, who didn’t give a lot of interviews when he was alive and died in February 2015. I had never heard him talk before. Things get pretty candid, and there is a lot of blame laid at the footsteps of Gene Roddenberry. This also happens in Volume 3 of Marc Cushman’s book series about TOS, which I should get around to writing my thoughts up about. Why did TOS only get three seasons? Why was NBC/Paramount eager to kill the show, despite ratings that, it turns out, were much better than folklore has it, or than the network was willing to admit? Well, says Cushman, because Roddenberry was a problematic character, his own worst enemy, who could not stop himself from alienating those who should have been his closest allies. All this and more happened during the early days of TNG, when to top things off his faculties were truly declining, and he allowed unscrupulous people to interfere with the production.

   All this can all be true, and it can also be true that GR is a genius without whom the greatness of TOS and even TNG as it became would have been impossible. My takeaway is that GR was an infuriating figure who enabled wonderful things, who is fascinating not just in spite of his dark side, but also because of it.

   Roddenberry isn’t the only one burned. Patrick Stewart tells stories on himself for being a temperamental prima donna. Maurice Hurley and one of the producers I had not heard much about whose name I now forget emerge as fascinating characters. A good documentary if you’re interested in how the creative soup gets made. Not so much for people who don’t want to see the dirt under their heroes’ fingernails!

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3. 

   Randi Cohen

   September 2, 2015

   Hmmm… I like hearing that P Stewart is aware of himself enough to be willing to share his foibles with the world!

   Reply