Rick Berman Is No Monster, Brent Spiner Says
http://syfyportal.com/pag...er.php?id=5647&page=1
By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: SyFy Portal
Dec-10-2008
In most drama, there's a protagonist and an antagonist. One side the audience cheers for, the other jeers.
Creating heroes and adversaries doesn't have to be done in a script ... it can happen in real life, too, something Star Trek fans should know better than anyone.
When Gene Roddenberry died in 1991, control of the Star Trek franchise moved over to Rick Berman. He would finish off the run of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and lead it into four feature films, but he also would help create other memorable series in Trekdom like "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Star Trek: Voyager" and the most recent series, "Star Trek: Enterprise."
Yet Berman, along with former executive producer Brannon Braga, have become the poster children for what fans vilify, and who seem to be cast the blame on what went wrong with Star Trek. Even SyFy Portal, back in 2005 at the conclusion of "Star Trek: Enterprise," declared in a headline that was later picked up by the Washington Post that Rick Berman gave Star Trek fans "the finger."
Actor Brent Spiner, who played Lt. Cmdr. Data in "The Next Generation" and eight more years in film, says it's a character role Berman never deserved.
"It think it's really short-sighted of people to give Rick grief," Spiner told SyFy Portal's Michael Hinman during a recorded interview that will be heard on SyFy Radio Wednesday night. "I just say to any of them, 'You go produce a television show and produce hundreds of hours of television shows,' which these people have watched more than once."
Spiner spent years working with Berman, who himself held the mantle as Star Trek's champion for some 16 years. And anyone who attacks Berman doesn't really know him at all, Spiner said.
"I don't know where these ideas come from," he said. "Rick more than anybody else protected Gene Roddenberry's vision. There were
times we wanted to do things in an episode, and Rick would be, 'No, no, no. Gene wouldn't want that and that's not what Star Trek is about.'
"Nobody sets out to do anything that people aren't going to like. You're doing the best you can, and I think he did pretty well. Paramount Pictures thought so. They revered him for a number of years, as well they should have."
The last time fans heard of Berman, he was working on memoirs about his time on the show, but there has been no announced plans on when such a book would be released. But if people from the cast like Spiner were to write a book about their experiences with Berman, it would be one of gratitude, not dirt.
"Trying to get a single episode of television on the air on time is such a daunting task, and this guy did it week after week, year after year," Spiner said. "And he did it in the most graceful manner. If you ever worked for Rick, he never yelled, was never angry, always was even-tempered and reasonable. It's just preposterous for a lot of people commenting on something they know nothing about."
Sometimes, in the passion for a product like Star Trek, people tend to target other people than the product itself. It's natural, Spiner said, but something that people should try to realize about themselves.
"Rick was hand-picked by Gene to carry his torch, and he took that responsibility really seriously," Spiner said. "If they didn't like the product, that's fair. But the whole bashing thing ... people do it because they are anonymous and because they can. They have an outlet for it."
Spiner's entire 35-minute interview can be heard Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT at www.SyFyRadio.com, and heard in archived form anytime after the live broadcast Wednesday night on the same site, or by searching
for "SyFy" in the iTunes store. In the interview, Spiner talks extensively about his work on the show, how fans perceive him as an actor and for his
character of Data, and if he has similar thoughts about Braga as he does for Berman.
"J.J. Abrams is doing the feature that is coming out next year, and I don't think he listens to what everyone thinks he should be doing," Spiner said. "He does what he thinks is best because he was given that job, and if it turns out great, great. If it doesn't, there will be a lot of people out there second guessing him."
Spiner recently released a new album called "Dreamland," which can be purchased at stores and on Amazon, and will appear on stage in "Man of La Mancha" beginning in February in Los Angeles, and also will visit with fans at Phoenix Comicon in late January.
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