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Canadian acting legend William Shatner takes viewers inside the creation of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” the bold attempt in 1986 to recreate the success of the original television series, in which Shatner played Captain James T. Kirk.
I have always loved “Star Trek.” I remember watching it on TV when I was a kid and being transported to all the various planets and galaxies that the USS Enterprise encountered on their five-year mission. By the time “Star Trek: The Next Generation” came around in 1987, watching TV had sort of lost its appeal for me as I was in the early years of starting out as a filmmaker so all my spare time was spent buying film stock for my camera and blowing things up. However, years later, I found myself watching “The Next Generation” on TV and really enjoyed it. I liked the fact that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry presented to us, another crew at the helm of the Enterprise who were, in many ways, very similar to the original crew but at the same time, incomparable.
This element presented Roddenberry and co. with a huge challenge. On the one hand, many of the Star Trek fans, or ‘Trekkies’ as they’re otherwise known, were loyal and ardent supporters of the original show and the thought of creating a new Star Trek without Kirk, Spock and McCoy, was considered blasphemy. On the other hand, had they gone ahead with a show that introduced characters so similar to the earlier show, people would have claimed that Roddenberry had lost his creative touch and was just rehashing what he produced years earlier. In the end, Roddenberry and Paramount Television decided to create an all-new crew and throughout its seven season run, cast members from the original series were able to cameo, thanks to the time travel element that has infused the Star Trek universe.
But getting “The Next Generation” onto TV screens was no easy feat. William Shatner talks with cast and crew of TNG and we are presented with a thought-provoking slice of sci-fi reality, from the actors who felt that they were not given the respect they deserved to the writers of the show who battled with Roddenberry on a daily basis if they didn’t conform to his ‘code,’ in other words, they were not allowed to write as themselves but as Roddenberry would write. You can’t help but wonder where the idea for the Borg may have originated from. Initially hesitant to revive Star Trek as he felt he and the original show had been disrespected by Paramount, through his attorney, Leonard Maizlish, he negotiated a deal where he was given a bonus of $1 million in addition to an ongoing salary to produce the series.
Naturally, with any movie or TV show, there is bound to be a lot of bickering behind the scenes but as the series moved forward, Roddenberry all but stopped writing and rewriting episodes of the show and moved further and further away from his legendary creation. With his health deteriorating rapidly, he was succeeded by producer Rick Berman and as season three began production, the writers, for the first time since the show’s inception, were given a wider berth of control and were allowed to and indeed, were encouraged, to write stories that they believed in. One entertaining aspect of the documentary that I really found fascinating, was in listening to Patrick Stewart and his recollection as to how his American counterparts, would often joke around on the set.
With Shakespearean training and a theatrical background, he would often get frustrated with the other actors during their downtime when they would laugh and joke with each other instead of doing what Stewart thought they should be, rehearsing, rehearsing and rehearsing. Working on a movie or TV show can be very strenuous and every actor deals with boredom and frustration differently and considering that it was Stewart’s first major acting job in the U.S., he was still adapting to their methods and approach to filmmaking in general. “William Shatner Presents: Chaos On The Bridge” is only an hour long but I wished it had been longer because as it was coming to a close, I found myself wanting more.
Available to watch on VIMEO
