The real problem is that, as much as we may like it, Star Trek is a show that’s been on forever with an ever changing team or writers and guest writers, and unlike more thought out episodic speculative fiction there’s no central Bible for everyone work off of to maintain internal consistency.
To my knowledge no Star Trek writer has actually ever written exactly what the Prime Directive says so it remain a vague “non-interference” policy that some writer regard as absolute law to be enforced militantly to the letter and others treat as more interpretive. It’s been a weak point in the world building of the series for a while with some episodes handling it well (Who Watches the Watchers) and others handling awfully (Symbiosis).
A pity in cases like these, but I would say I think it’s overall helpful since it provides less resistance to world building and creativity. Just so long as it’s kept out of the hands of greedy executives. Womp womp.
Ehhhh, not to go all Auteur Theory, but I think having some centralizing vision would have been majorly helpful, at least series to series. The problem is just how fucking much Star Trek they made back in the day, most seasons of Next Gen had 26 episodes, shows today are lucky to have fucking 10. This is part of the reason why it's a show that gets talked about in individual episodes, not seasons or much less the overarching series as a whole. There's so much bad and "meh" in between the truly stellar stuff that gets you hooked on the world.
Roddenberry was that centralizing vision between TOS and the first season of TNG. From what I've read, he's the one responsible for TNG's first season being so fucking weird with characters that seem alien even though they're human.
I mean, yeah the flip side is if you’re centralizing vision is some coked up 70s weirdo with vague utopian ideas you get... 1st season of TNG.
I think maybe everyone just getting together and writing a “Bible” and maybe a vague outline of how they wanted the show progress would have been enough.
The real problem is that, as much as we may like it, Star Trek is a show that’s been on forever with an ever changing team or writers and guest writers, and unlike more thought out episodic speculative fiction there’s no central Bible for everyone work off of to maintain internal consistency.
To my knowledge no Star Trek writer has actually ever written exactly what the Prime Directive says so it remain a vague “non-interference” policy that some writer regard as absolute law to be enforced militantly to the letter and others treat as more interpretive. It’s been a weak point in the world building of the series for a while with some episodes handling it well (Who Watches the Watchers) and others handling awfully (Symbiosis).
A pity in cases like these, but I would say I think it’s overall helpful since it provides less resistance to world building and creativity. Just so long as it’s kept out of the hands of greedy executives. Womp womp.
Ehhhh, not to go all Auteur Theory, but I think having some centralizing vision would have been majorly helpful, at least series to series. The problem is just how fucking much Star Trek they made back in the day, most seasons of Next Gen had 26 episodes, shows today are lucky to have fucking 10. This is part of the reason why it's a show that gets talked about in individual episodes, not seasons or much less the overarching series as a whole. There's so much bad and "meh" in between the truly stellar stuff that gets you hooked on the world.
Roddenberry was that centralizing vision between TOS and the first season of TNG. From what I've read, he's the one responsible for TNG's first season being so fucking weird with characters that seem alien even though they're human.
It kinda cuts both ways.
I mean, yeah the flip side is if you’re centralizing vision is some coked up 70s weirdo with vague utopian ideas you get... 1st season of TNG.
I think maybe everyone just getting together and writing a “Bible” and maybe a vague outline of how they wanted the show progress would have been enough.
This is why I watch Babylon 5.