Part II, Chapter LI: "All Good Things..."
“Our last season really was tarnished by the whole Rick [Berman] fiasco. On the whole, I think that almost everyone agrees that the franchise was better for what happened, but it really was uncertain back then. The amount of conflict behind the scenes, I’m surprised that the season got made at all. I’m just glad there there were people like David [Gerrold] there to stand with us.”
- Marina Sirtis speaking about the production of
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s eighth and final season. [1]
Season Eight of
Star Trek: The Next Generation was to be its last. Despite this, the franchise would go on, as 1995 would see the cast of the show taking over the films, while
Deep Space Nine would continue to air, with
Odyssey soon to follow. Compared to the previous season, Season Eight would “play it safe”, as the crew and ship remained the same. If anything, it would be more of a return to the old, with a smattering of an exploration of the new.
Some of the “old” that would be returning was writer David Gerrold, who was to involved heavily with the production of
Odyssey. As some of the stories in this season would be laying the groundwork for that show, Gerrold was brought in to write those episodes. Gerrold had written for the franchise in the past, having written the
Original Series episode “The Trouble With Tribbles”. Gerrold had been part of the initial writing team on
The Next Generation, but had left in protest after his script “Blood and Fire” was not produced. Since then, he had found success with the script and other story ideas on
Doctor Who. [2]
To say that there was little love lost between David Gerrold and current franchise head Rick Berman would have been an understatement. Gerrold blamed the fact that his script was not produced on Berman, and his interference. In fact, much of the cast and crew did not care for Berman, seeing him as a limiting influence on the franchise as a whole. While under Roddenberry, despite his flaws, when executives had an issue with a story, Roddenberry would generally support the writer, under Berman the situation seemed reversed. [3]
Of course, the writers had started to get their way after the arrival of
Doctor Who on the scene, and it capitalised on the many opportunities for progressive stories that
Star Trek had passed up in its early seasons. Since then, Paramount had been more happy to give the writers more breathing room, though Berman often shot down ideas that he feared could cause complaints from more conservative fans. [4]
The situation would come to a head during 1994. As preparations were being made for
The Next Generation’s eighth season and
Deep Space Nine’s second, it was clear that the end of an era was being reached. For the coming films and TV shows, contracts would need to be renegotiated, and there was a chance for the franchise to explore a new direction, while staying true to Roddenberry’s vision. Much of this, however, was being actively resisted by Berman.
During the salary negotiations for the upcoming film
Star Trek VI: Generations, there was a dispute over Marina Sirtis’ pay. When it became clear that she would not accept the amount offered to her, and would instead walk, Berman asked the writing staff to write Troi out of the film. When news of Sirtis’ departure from the franchise reached the cast and crew, for many it was the last straw. Many of the cast and crew, most notably Ira Steven Behr (
DS9 co-executive producer), Famke Janssen (Jadzia Dax actress) and David Gerrold (
Odyssey producer) raised complaints with Paramount executives, threatening to leave if Berman was not replaced. [5]
As the situation escalated, and production slowed to a halt, Paramount realised what it faced. It either had to remove Berman, or have a large portion of the cast and crew of the franchise leave. They did not relish the thought of either, but it was clear that one would be less damaging. A deal was reached. Berman would retain creative control over the material to be released until the end of 1995, but would step away from the franchise afterwards, and someone else would take over. [6]
The announcement of this would divide the fandom. Many believed that Berman was integral to the franchise, and without him, it would fail. Others were of the opinion that he was causing the franchise to suffer from fatigue, and that it was not “boldly going” as it had before. Berman himself would remain critical of his removal for many years afterwards, becoming an open critic of the franchise’s direction after his removal.
As for who would take Berman’s place, there was a great deal of discussion. Paramount knew that they needed someone that the writing staff and cast would be happy with, and could not be someone that was seen as overly similar to Berman. Eventually, they asked David Gerrold, who had worked with the franchise since the start of his career. One thing was clear, this new era of
Trek would be different to Berman’s. [7]
But the era was not quite over yet. The eighth season of
The Next Generation would continue from where the seventh had left off, concluding the story “Forgiveness”, which saw the return of Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov.
The season would also see the return of Hugh and Lore in the two part story
Descent, while other stories would introduce characters and concepts that would be making an appearance on the upcoming show
Star Trek: Odyssey. In particular, “Medical Emergency” would see Lt. Barclay assisting in the creation of the Emergency Medical Hologram, which was to be a major part of
Odyssey; “The First Duty” would see a return to Starfleet Academy as Picard is asked to investigate a flight accident, which would involve Nick Locarno, another character that would appear in that show. In addition, multiple stories in this season, and
DS9’s second, would involve the Maquis, a terrorist group made up of former Federation colonists, and Gul Evek, played by Nigel Havers, who would also be a major character in
Odyssey. [8]
But easily the story that would build the most hype would be the finale, which was to be aired as a two-hour long story on first run. “Past Perfect” would see the return of many actors who had left the show, including Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden, and would also feature Q, as he continues “the trial of humanity”, which has been set up in the show’s opening two-part story “Encounter at Farpoint”. [9]
Star Trek: The Next Generation would air as 1995 came, and Star Trek faced the end of a era, and the start of an exciting new one. [10]
[1] As we've seen, 1994 and 1995 are years of big instability for the franchises mentioned so far, and Star Trek is no excpetion.
[2] I really like Gerrold's writing, and I think he would be a good creative voice on Odyssey.
[3] Two things. One, you can tell my opinion of Rick Berman from this update. Generally, I try not to make my opinions on certain people (well, when they're negative) obvious, but I made an exception here. I am firmly in the camp that Berman was why Star Trek suffered the issues it did in the late 90s/early 00s. Two, I'm realising that I have the unfortunate habit of making big changes I had planned for a while be released in updates around the same time as a video about how it went in OTL. (Renegade Cut's video on Berman yesterday)
[4] A little explanation for why things are a bit better ITTL even with Berman. But still, there are only two major LGBT characters (that are out at least) right now in the franchise (Dr. Henderson and Riker), and in these cases they've been "one-shots" that don't really get mentioned again.
[5] I was going to get rid of him sooner or later, so I had Sirtis' pay dispute happen at the start of the films, not the end. As to how realistic something like that is, I honestly can't say, but if something like that could happen anywhere, it could happen on Trek.
[6] Fun isn't something one considers when removing a producer from a franchise in a fictional universe, but this does put a smile on my face.
[7] It was honestly a toss-up for me as to whether it would be him or Behr, but I decided that since he had worked on the franchise for longer, and had been offered the showrunner role on Doctor Who, he was the more obvious choice from the in-universe perspective.
[8] A few things here, and they'll be a bit more fleshed out in later updates. I've been waiting to use Havers for a while though. A lot of stuff for Odyssey is getting brought up now.
[9] Yeah, this is basically the "All Good Things..." of OTL, but I honestly couldn't think of a better end to TNG. It will, however, be the only show to end in the exact same way as OTL.
[10] When I've mentioned that I've been really looking forward to writing this bit of the timeline, this is why. This is the first of eight Trek related updates to come before the end of Part II, which is soon. Two more TNG, three DS9, one film and one on Odyssey. Exciting times. This really will be the end of an era in the timeline too.