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Star Trek: 10 More Behind The Scenes Decisions We Can't Forgive
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00:00Hello my friends, Sean Ferrick here for Trek Culture, and today's video is brought to you by
00:04Star Trek Fleet Command. Hooray! More on that now in a second.
00:07With Star Trek Prodigy and Star Trek Strange New Worlds joining Star Trek's Discovery, Picard,
00:13Lower Decks and Short Treks in the streaming realm, the Star Trek franchise definitely seems
00:17like it's feeling itself lately. Despite that current success though, the Star Trek universe
00:21has had a dramatic history of ups and downs, particularly when it comes to decisions made
00:26by the producers, studios and powers that be that have occasionally been questionable.
00:31From kneecapping the Kelvin timeline movies before they could become box office gold,
00:35to the baffling decisions made in the Star Trek Voyager writer's room, choices have definitely
00:40been made. In fact, we have covered 10 of these choices before, so be sure to check that video
00:45out too. Things are looking up in the 23rd, 24th and 32nd centuries, but there's always going to be
00:51something. So let's get back into it and talk about Star Trek's nemesis for the millionth time,
00:56rehash our feelings about the way Jadzia went out, and trash talk a few recent decisions the
01:01producers have made. You know, like fans do. So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek
01:05Culture here with 10 more behind the scenes decisions we can't forgive.
01:10Hello my friends, I want to take a second to say a really big thank you to our sponsors for this
01:13video, Star Trek Fleet Command. They have made an expansion that means I am now out of uniform.
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01:43you can play aboard the USS Cerritos by using either Boimler, or Mariner, or even Badgie.
01:51It makes me afraid and I like that. So Star Trek Fleet Command, thank you so much for sponsoring this
01:57video. Wonderful free-to-play game, available via the link in the description to this video.
02:02You're awesome, live long and prosper.
02:04Number 10. Trimming Nemesis. It's been almost 20 years and we're still asking ourselves what
02:16happened with Star Trek Nemesis. You've heard it all before, why is there a dune buggy aboard
02:20the Enterprise? Why is Captain Picard suddenly a dune buggy aficionado? How did the crew just
02:25happen to bring their dune buggy down to a planet that was populated by aliens who also drive dune
02:30buggies? The list goes on, so here's a new take on Star Trek Nemesis. We needed more.
02:35Soon after the release of Nemesis in December of 2002, producer Rick Berman stated in several
02:40interviews that almost an hour of footage was trimmed from the final cut, calling the editing
02:45process really painful. Despite being known primarily as a film editor, director Stuart Baird,
02:51who has been blamed for many of Nemesis' shortcomings, handed editorial duties off to Dallas
02:56Pewitt, who had the unenviable task of keeping the film under two hours in length. Since Nemesis
03:02was the franchise's first stab at a CGI-heavy action flick to rival the other big-budget franchises
03:07of the early 2000s, it makes sense Pewitt favoured noisy spectacle and left the quieter character-based
03:13moments on the cutting room floor. Deleted material includes a brief moment to catch up with
03:18now-lieutenant Wesley Crusher, a sweet scene of Data and Picard enjoying a glass of Chateau Picard,
03:23a dinner scene in Ten Forward, a couple of moments showing Geordi mourning Data's death
03:27and Worf adopting Spot, a scene showing Doctor Crusher's departure from the Enterprise, and
03:32an alternate ending featuring the ship's new XO. Nothing earth-shattering there, but Nemesis
03:37was specifically billed as a generation's final journey, as in the last time we'd see these
03:42characters on the big screen. It was a strange choice then to omit much of the character development
03:46and almost all of the actual farewells from that final journey. There are a few tender moments
03:51still left in the final cut of Star Trek Nemesis. Picard and Riker's goodbye feels particularly
03:56poignant, but Data's death and subsequent wake are abrupt, and characters systematically
04:01disappear from the film as the story clumsily wraps itself up. It's like Pewitt, Baird and
04:05Berman cut the heart out of Star Trek Nemesis with those 50 minutes. They removed the chemistry
04:10of the next-generation cast playing off one another, and left only repetitive action and
04:14a boilerplate revenge story. Star Trek Nemesis was only ever a mediocre, if not outright bad,
04:20but if the producers had managed to retain the character connections and ultimate goodbyes,
04:24then maybe Nemesis would have at least been able to succeed at being that final journey
04:28it was billed as, if nothing else.
04:31Number 9. Synth Sense
04:32You have to commend Star Trek Picard for trying and mostly succeeding at doing something different.
04:38By telling the story of a retired John Luke Picard and a motley crew of civilian characters
04:42aboard a civilian ship, Star Trek Picard opened the Star Trek universe to a new ground-level
04:47perspective. While a lot of us might have hoped for a Star Trek The Next Generation revival,
04:51the producers opted to take the more realistic and ultimately more satisfying path, telling
04:56us Picard, Riker, Troi and the rest of the crew were real people who wouldn't be doing
05:00the same thing they did 35 years ago, no matter how iconic they might have been.
05:04Unfortunately, despite opening the Star Trek universe to different types of stories,
05:08Star Trek Picard's first season was still produced in the CBS All Access era of higher and
05:14higher stakes. So while the show was advertised as a character study of an aged John Luke Picard,
05:19the producers were obliged to give us an extinction-level threat and end the season
05:22with a CGI-cluttered bang. Worse, the realism of the show itself was undercut by linking nearly
05:28every character to the overarching storyline revolving around the Romulan plot to get synthetic
05:33lifeforms banned in the Federation. Somehow, in the stretch of just a few episodes, John Luke
05:38just happened to run into Dr. Agnes Jurati, whose lover, Bruce Maddox, was at the centre
05:43of the conspiracy. It also turns out that John Luke's former First Officer, Raffi, was a synth
05:48band truther whose life was destroyed by her quest for answers. Raffi herself directed Picard
05:53to a pilot, Chris Rios, who, it turns out, had a chance encounter with synths that ended
05:57in the suicide of his father figure. Oh, and Riker and Troi's young son, Thad, died because
06:02the synth band also prevented the use of a positronic matrix to cure life-threatening medical conditions.
06:08The reason the writers connected the main characters of Star Trek Picard to the ongoing storyline
06:13is clear. If there's a personal connection to the plot, it makes it matter. Unfortunately,
06:17these connections rested on coincidence and flimsy plot contrivances. And while the show's
06:21new perspective widened the world of Star Trek, these coincidences served to condense the universe,
06:26making everyone's life revolve around plot more than character, a weird thing for a show
06:30advertised as a character study. Number 8, Unshared Universe. Speaking of Star Trek Picard,
06:36it's not a secret the show went through some growing pains in its first season.
06:40In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Akiva Goldsman revealed that he regretted
06:45not planning out the arc of season one before production began, stating,
06:49if you're going to do a serialized show, you have to have the whole story before you start shooting.
06:54It's more like a movie in that way. You better know the end of your third act before you start
06:58filming your first scene. Star Trek Picard famously underwent additional photography to expand the pilot
07:03into three installments and to insert story beats into already produced episodes.
07:08Among the late additions were the numerous flashback sequences to Immediately After the
07:13Destruction of Mars and the grisly apocalyptic visions of the Admonition. Seen in the episodes
07:18Broken Pieces and A in Arcadia Ego Part 1, the Admonition featured images of war and planetary
07:24destruction with several pieces of footage pulled directly from Star Trek Discovery's second season,
07:29itself centering on the impending robo-apocalypse. The inclusion of reused footage immediately raised
07:35questions. Was Star Trek Picard linking its story of synths to Star Trek Discovery's similar second
07:40season plotline? The idea made sense and was bolstered by the appearance of squid-like robots in
07:45Star Trek Picard's finale after similar creatures appeared in the Discovery episode Light and Shadow.
07:50No stranger to crossover events like the Marquee storyline, which spanned Star Trek The Next
07:54Generation Season 7 and Star Trek Deep Space Nine Season 2 in order to set up Star Trek Voyager,
08:00the Star Trek universe is among the few franchises with built-in shared storytelling potential.
08:05And in today's media environment, in which shared universes are highly sought after,
08:09it would be surprising if Star Trek didn't take advantage of its own internal connections.
08:14Ultimately, though, that's exactly what happened, and the crossover between Picard and Discovery never
08:18materialized. Any similarities between the two consecutive season storylines chalked up to coincidence.
08:24Oh, and that reused footage? Well, Star Trek's no stranger to reusing footage either.
08:28Number 7. Whoopin' the Enterprise. Star Trek Beyond is widely considered one of the best movies in the
08:34franchise, praised for being the first big-budget instalment to actually feel like an episode of
08:38the original series, while also removing some of the trappings of Star Trek to focus on character.
08:43According to director Justin Lin, in order to explore the crew of the Enterprise, they had to be
08:48separated from the Enterprise. And what better way to do that than destroy the ship in spectacular big
08:53summer movie fashion? The death of the Enterprise in Star Trek Beyond is grand and operatic. The ship
08:58is systematically and brutally disassembled by Kral's forces, a symbolic deconstruction of Star
09:04Trek, scored by a dramatic choral rendition of Michael Giacchino's earworm of a main theme.
09:10It's stirring and emotional. Or at least it would be if damn near the same thing hadn't already
09:15happened in Star Trek Into Darkness, right down to the choral version of Giacchino's theme.
09:20It's unfortunate the destruction of the Enterprise doesn't have more impact in Star Trek Beyond.
09:25It's a perfectly executed sequence by the director, the cast, visual effects house double
09:29negative, and the aforementioned Michael Giacchino. The scene, however, was badly undercut by its
09:34prominence in the marketing for the film, and by the fact that the Enterprise is nearly destroyed
09:39in every single movie in the Kelvin Timeline trilogy. Directors J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin both
09:44raised the stakes of their films by clobbering the Enterprise. In the 2009 movie Star Trek,
09:49the ship was nearly destroyed by the Narada, forcing the young cadets to take on roles that
09:54would lead to their iconic positions in the original series. In Star Trek Into Darkness,
09:58Kirk must sacrifice himself in order to save his ship as it plummets to Earth, and as stated in
10:03Beyond, the death of the Enterprise separates the crew but ultimately pushes them together.
10:07In isolation, each of these instances works. Each sequence in which the Enterprise is pummeled is
10:12exciting and well-staged, and it's an understandable trick to get the audience invested. But it's also a
10:18trick that only works once, and the Kelvin Timeline did it three times, making the flashy new
10:23Enterprise look a bit like a clunker, and robbing the final chapter of some much-needed emotional
10:27weight.
10:28Number 6. Supersizing Discovery.
10:31Star Trek Discovery's third season finale, That Hope Is You Part 2, cleverly based its
10:36centrepiece action sequence around previously mundane Star Trek hardware, showing Michael and Book battling
10:42evil goons on turbo lifts as they sped through Discovery's lower decks. The sequence was full of big action,
10:48big emotion, and big turbo shafts. Due to either a weird call by the production designers or by
10:53visual effects house Pixamondo, the inside of Discovery in That Hope Is You Part 2 is depicted as
10:59being a massive open space, one that simply could not fit into the ship as we know her.
11:04It is possible the 32nd century retrofit Starfleet gave Discovery in the episode Scavengers equipped
11:10the ship with TARDIS-like, bigger-on-the-inside technology, which was actually a thing in the Star Trek
11:15Enterprise episode Future Tense. However, the more likely explanation is that the producers simply
11:20used dramatic license to amp up the scale, and thus the excitement of the sequence.
11:25Unfortunately, the scale was amped up a little too much, and Discovery's massive turbo lift
11:29funhouse threw many viewers out of the episode, especially those of us who write about starships
11:34for a living, making them wonder where exactly this open expanse is located within the generally
11:39slender starship. This isn't the first time starship interiors have been fudged for the sake of drama.
11:45The turbo shaft escape sequence in Star Trek V The Final Frontier notoriously depicted the Enterprise
11:50A as being an unfathomable 78 decks tall, and J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot film famously inflated the size of
11:58the Enterprise for dramatic effect. But either this visual effects error or misguided attempt to increase
12:03the stakes by increasing Discovery's size is an extreme example, straining Star Trek Discovery's
12:09already strained relationship with audience suspension of disbelief.
12:135. Downsizing Discovery
12:15Despite being produced solely for streaming on CBS All Access, aka Paramount+, Star Trek Discovery
12:22and now Star Trek Picard maintain much of the artifice of shows made for traditional broadcast television.
12:28Generally consisting of the standard four or five acts, each episode of Discovery and Picard
12:32more or less fit into an hour, like all previous live-action Trek series.
12:37The problem here is simply that Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Picard aren't on traditional TV,
12:41and the streaming model offers a freedom which modern Star Trek has mostly passed up.
12:45With contemporaries like Disney Plus' The Mandalorian and even Hulu's upcoming third season of The Orville
12:51dumping the standard television runtime in favour of expanded episode lengths as warranted by the story,
12:57there's really no reason why new Star Trek shows keep adhering to the hour-long episode format.
13:01This is particularly true when important material gets cut for time.
13:05Remember Narek and the XBs in Star Trek Picard?
13:08Their fates are all in deleted scenes that were cut for time.
13:10Want to know the backstories of Discovery's secondary crew members?
13:13There's no time for that! There are turbo lifts to race!
13:16It's clear the producers are genuinely interested in these show's side characters,
13:20as evidenced by the good-faith effort to give Detmer, Owo, Bryce and Rhys something to do
13:25in at least two episodes of Star Trek Discovery's third season.
13:28But did you even know all their names?
13:30At around $8 million per episode for Star Trek Discovery and $9 million for Star Trek Picard,
13:35making these shows longer is obviously not an inexpensive ask.
13:39But with thinly drawn secondary characters and often even thinner sci-fi plots,
13:43modern Star Trek would benefit from expanded runtimes and more breathing room.
13:47Number 4. Axing Dax
13:49No one is arguing that Ezri Dax isn't an interesting character who added a new flavour
13:54and new chemistry to Star Trek Deep Space Nine's final year,
13:58but we can probably all agree that Terry Farrell's Jadzia was the definitive Dax,
14:02and that Jadzia Dax should not have been killed off.
14:05Unceremoniously blasted with power wraith fire by a possessed gold Dukat in the season 6 finale,
14:10Tears of the Prophets, Jadzia's death really comes out of nowhere,
14:13a show of strength by a villain who isn't even in his right mind when he does it.
14:17Dax doesn't die in the line of duty, on the bridge of the Defiant,
14:20or fighting alongside her beloved Worf in the battle to save the Alpha Quadrant.
14:24She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, which also just happened to be church.
14:28It's unnecessarily abrupt, disconnected to the character's greater arc,
14:32and seemingly done out of malice by the show's producers,
14:35rather than out of a genuine drive to tell an interesting story.
14:38Years later, Terry Farrell herself said,
14:40I didn't want to kill Jadzia.
14:42To me, that had very little to do with good storytelling.
14:44According to Farrell, she was bullied by executive producer Rick Berman
14:48after she requested reduced screen time in season 7, stating,
14:51He had another producer come up to me and say,
14:54If you weren't here, you know you'd be working at Kmart.
14:56It was that kind of thing.
14:57Rick Berman said I was hardballing him,
14:59and I was like, I'm not, I just want to have a conversation.
15:02You're giving me a take it or leave it offer, and I'm not okay with that.
15:05So I finally did have a conversation with him,
15:07and asked to cut down my number of episodes, or just let me out.
15:10Ultimately, the producers opted to kill Jadzia off,
15:13rather than accept using Farrell on a part-time basis.
15:16While Jadzia's death weighed heavily on the characters in the subsequent final season,
15:20the producers not so subtly avoided using footage of Farrell as Dax
15:24during the feel-good montage during the series finale.
15:27A clear indication of the bad blood left by the departure,
15:30and yet another disservice to a character fans fell in love with in the previous six seasons.
15:35Number 3. My name is Conrad.
15:37This is the lowest hanging fruit possible for a video about Star Trek blunders,
15:42but here's a John Harrison is Khan level twist.
15:45Star Trek Into Darkness is good, actually.
15:47That is, until the whole Khan thing happens.
15:50We'll get to that.
15:51Star Trek Into Darkness is an easy target for fan ire,
15:54because it re-appropriates plot elements from the universally beloved Star Trek to The Wrath of Khan.
15:59By including these elements, the filmmakers practically begged us to hold the two films up against one another,
16:04and there was simply no way for Into Darkness to come off looking great.
16:07But Star Trek Into Darkness is less a rehash of Star Trek II than it is a Star Trek-themed retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
16:15It's even right there in the title.
16:17Heart of Darkness.
16:18Star Trek Into Darkness.
16:20See?
16:20Like Heart of Darkness, Star Trek Into Darkness tells the story of a quest into hostile territory
16:25to capture a comrade gone mad with power.
16:28In the journey upriver, or into Klingon space,
16:30our protagonists wrestle with the moral ambiguity of their missions.
16:34For Star Trek Into Darkness, this means presenting newly minted Captain Kirk with existential and moral dilemmas
16:39that serve to develop his character from the brash youngster of Star Trek
16:43into the more reasoned and nuanced man he would become in Star Trek Beyond.
16:47Star Trek Into Darkness is necessary character development for Kirk,
16:51and it also depicts the maturation of the young Captain's relationship with Spock,
16:54from friendly rivalry to genuine respect.
16:57The problem is, these developments and even the emotional death scene near the climax
17:01are overshadowed by the big reveal that John Harrison is really Khan.
17:05This reveal takes place at the end of Act 2 and hangs over the events of Act 3,
17:09which itself devolves into a repetitive fistfight,
17:11rather than exploiting all the character development that occurred in the movie's first two-thirds.
17:16The Khan reveal sucks not because it transforms Star Trek Into Darkness
17:19into a pale imitation of The Wrath of Khan.
17:22It sucks because it robs Into Darkness of its own identity and character development.
17:26Eight years later, it's still one of Star Trek's greatest unforgivable decisions.
17:30Number 2, back in less than 60 seconds.
17:33We touched on this concept a bit in our original video, but it's worth repeating here.
17:37Voyager spent way too much time on Earth for a show ostensibly about the struggle and yearning to get to,
17:43you know, Earth.
17:44But when it finally came time to get the crew home in Star Trek Voyager's series finale, Endgame,
17:49the writers opted to do it almost entirely off-screen.
17:52Just a quick recap, Star Trek Voyager was about the epic journey of the USS Voyager to get home to Earth
17:58after being whisked halfway across the galaxy by Banjo-Man, aka The Caretaker.
18:03This journey across space included battles with the Kazon, the Herosion, and of course the Borg,
18:08but also included numerous brief trips to alternate versions of Earth,
18:12or past versions of Earth, or duplicated versions of Earth.
18:15According to Deep Space Nine writer Ronald D. Moore, one of Star Trek Voyager's biggest problems
18:20was that the ship spent way too much time hanging around some version of Earth,
18:23as though it wasn't trapped in the distant Delta Quadrant.
18:26He stated,
18:26There have been more episodes that have taken place on Earth, or alternate Earth, or past Earth
18:31than I think the original series did in its whole run, and the original series was set over in the Alpha Quadrant.
18:36Voyager is on the other side of the galaxy, and they have already run into some alien race recreating Starfleet Academy.
18:42They've run into Ferengi, the Romulans, it doesn't feel like they are that far away from home.
18:46Moore wasn't wrong, and it's possible the producers knew this going into Endgame,
18:51opting instead to subvert expectations by opening the episode with the crew already home.
18:56But again, only in an alternate version of Earth.
18:58After much hardship and action and adventure, Endgame does in fact end with the crew arriving at Earth.
19:03Roll credits.
19:04No tearful arrivals, no heartfelt reunion of Tom Paris with his estranged father, Admiral Paris,
19:09no Harry Kim finally treating his parents to a clarinet solo,
19:12no Captain Janeway running through a picturesque Indiana field alongside her Irish setter Molly, nothing.
19:18Just before the climax of Endgame, Harry Kim gives an impassioned speech,
19:21ostensibly telling us it's the journey, not the destination, that matters.
19:24But in Star Trek Voyager's case, the destination definitely matters.
19:28The show robbed itself of its greatest chance for emotion and drama and catharsis
19:32by fading to black before its beleaguered crew could finally set foot on Terra Firma.
19:37Number 1.
19:38Taking 50 damn years.
19:40Whether or not Star Trek represents a truly progressive vision of the future is open to debate,
19:44and all the times the franchise was hopefully accidentally regressive could fill a list unto itself.
19:50To expect a product of pop culture created in the entertainment industry in the 20th and 21st centuries
19:55to realistically represent the future and every possible form of human being therein is unreasonable.
20:00However, the powers behind Star Trek in the 90s and early 2000s deliberately avoided depicting LGBTQIA plus characters,
20:08except in the rare instance that a sci-fi story was used to indirectly address the existence of an enormous group of very real people.
20:15Numerous examples of the producers' willful omission of LGBTQIA plus characters and topics have been well documented,
20:22dating back as far as David Gerrold's fight for a homosexual couple aboard the Enterprise D in Star Trek The Next Generation's first season,
20:30up to Kate Mulgrew's losing cause to have a gay character appear on Star Trek Voyager.
20:34And let's not even talk about the missed opportunity for representation on Enterprise.
20:38Thankfully, with the very minor inclusion of Hikaru Sulu's husband and daughter in Star Trek Beyond,
20:43a movie released 50 years after the original series premiered, the franchise is finally coming around.
20:49And with continued depictions of gay and non-binary Starfleet crew members in Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard, and Star Trek Lower Decks,
20:55the future looks bright for true representation in the Star Trek universe.
20:59It took 50 years and may take some time for everyone, everyone, to look at Star Trek and see themselves,
21:05but even with a few unforced errors, Star Trek really does seem like it's trying to forge a path forward.
21:10According to Wilson, Dr. Culber Cruise, the universe in which we live in on the show is a place where everyone is willing and capable of loving anyone.
21:18And that concludes our list. If you can think of any that we missed, then do let us know in the comments below,
21:23and also check out our previously mentioned video too.
21:25Also, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell, and head over to Twitter and follow us there at TrekCulture.
21:31I can be found across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
21:34I've been Ellie with TrekCulture. I hope you have a wonderful day, and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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