@MLClark Hi, just watched your podcast on Voyager ... Lots of observations (which I will spare you), but as someone who was working in Trek world at the time I do have one insight.
VOY was a different animal for the studio because, unlike TNG/DS9, it was a network show. It was the first show for UPN, the anchor show.
Mulgrew has talked about the suits who would come on the sets, constantly fretting about her hair, her "femininity," etc ... (1/x)
@MLClark TNG certainly had its problems in the early years, because Gene was past his prime. The show churned through a *lot* of writers in the first two seasons. Michael Piller came in for Season 3, Gene stepped back, and that's when the writing improved.
Another issue with VOY was Brannon Braga. He came onto TNG as a writing intern at age 25. He eventually became showrunner on VOY. At the time, as a writer, he was "immature," to be diplomatic... (3/x)
@MLClark So if you see Braga's name on an episode, that often explains it.
He's a much better writer now. He did a great job with the new "Cosmos" and with "Orville." But that's because he has Seth MacFarlane looking over his shoulder, and he has experience.
I could add more, but I'll leave it there. (4/4)
@WordsmithFL @MLClark I mean, COULD you add more? Please?
One more bit of insight ...
The sound stages were at a different location on the lot than the writers and producers. That was to keep the actors from dropping in to complain about scripts.
Contrast with B5, where the entire operation was largely in a converted hot tub warehouse. JMS's office was the last door before you walked into the stages. The actors could always access him with questions or concerns.
It reminds me of the fact that Braga claims a UPN exec wanted a different boy band on Enterprise every week to guest star and perform.
@nblumengarten I would not be the least bit surprised. 🙄
Let's not forget the WWE crossover with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a space wrestler. Sounds like a typical network idea.
Certainly not a coincidence UPN was airing WWE Smackdown at the time.
@nblumengarten I had forgotten that ... "Young Rock" did an episode about that.
@nblumengarten "Billingsly says knowing the fourth season was the last reduced studio input and gave the writers a greater freedom that improved the series."
Pretty much all you need to know ... although to be honest writers with free rein might focus on the art at the expense of the budget. Harlan Ellison's battle with Gene on the "City on the Edge of Forever" script is a famous example. They couldn't get him to finish it, or cut some scenes that were too expensive to film.
@nblumengarten "Bakula says he was not permitted to take his uniform with him at series end, then years later found himself autographing that very uniform (now somehow owned by a fan)."
Paramount sold off sets, props, costumes etc. sometime around the end of the 2000s, if memory serves. One promoter bought a lot of it and took it on tour. All that was on display at the #KSC Visitor Complex in 2011. I'd just started working there; the props made me feel like I was home. 😍
Babylon 5, as you mentioned, reportedly operated at half the budget per episode as DS9. Granted the CGI may show it (it never bothered me, but I know others are turned off by it.
BSG famously had a tight budget, leading them to "cut the corners" of papers seem in the miniseries as an injoke.
As with all things, a balance is needed, but there is something to be said for the creativity needed with a tight budget.
@nblumengarten Budgets are secret, so can't say if that's true, but JMS found efficiencies such as the entire operation in one building, writing almost the entire series himself, etc.
As for the CGI, it was the first show to attempt it. That advanced the state of the art.
When the show went to TNT, Joe got money from them to re-edit the pilot with all-new CGI.
Eventually the show brought CGI in-house, another cost-saving move.
@nblumengarten I'll also note that Hollywood accounting is very much a dark art. Back in the 1990s, Trek was Paramount's cash cow, so lots of other projects got charged to Trek's ledger even though it wasn't involved. The show even had to pay rent on its sound stage.
With B5, it was in a converted hot tub warehouse in Sun Valley, not on the lot, so no accounting games with the studio.
I've often seen references to the budget, often as fact (the B5 vs DS9 bit came from The Lurker's Guide, a highly respected site):
"Babylon 5 is produced on a per-episode budget of roughly $800,000, quite low for a science-fiction series; "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," by comparison, has a budget of roughly $1.6 million per episode, and Fox's "Space: Above and Beyond" is rumored to cost $2 million."
Interesting only SAaB got a "rumored" budget amount. No citations, sadly.
@fugitive247 Thank you ... @MLClark deserves much of the credit because her podcast (at the below link) brought back lots of memories. I was responding to that, primarily the observation that it was the first UPN show and therefore had a lot more scrutiny and interference than did TNG/DS9.
Stephen, thank you so much for spending time with my little YouTube channel, and then offering such a lovely thread touching on so many pressure-points behind the slings and arrows of ST #Voyager as a series.
We have so many #Trekkies / #StarTrek fans here that I don't doubt these and other stories from the creative trenches will be happily received by #SFF writers and viewers here in general. I just hope I included enough hashtags to reach them all. :)
@MLClark Thank you ... If you haven't seen it, "Chaos on the Bridge" is a good documentary about TNG's growing pains. It's on YouTube, "free with ads."
It's accurate, based on my personal experience.
Here's an anecdote ... As you know, Gates was let go after Season 1. At a con in L.A., a "Save Gates!" petition was circulated. It was given to Gene, who said on stage, "If I listened to the fans, #StarTrek would be sh*t!" I heard the proverbial pin drop.
@MLClark TNG/DS9 didn't have those pressures, so they could be a little more free with story ideas. VOY got forced into a network formula -- "This show is targeting a young adult male demographic, therefore we must do this and this and this ..."
David Gerrold has a phrase, "pissing in the bottle," for network suits who feel they have to interfere to put their imprint on a show and take credit ... (2/x)