MovieChat Forums > Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) Discussion > Michael Piller's Fade Out

Michael Piller's Fade Out

posted 12 years ago by doctorbenjiphd
7 replies | jump to latest

Just read Michael Piller's novel, Fade Out, which documents the making of Star Trek Insurrection. pretty interesting stuff. I consider myself quite the Star Trek connoisseur, at least in regards to TNG, DS9 and to a lesser extent Voyager, and Piller's book taught me a few new things I never knew about the inside workings at Star Trek. How it goes from Rick Berman offering the job and him reluctantly taking it, to working out a story and going through multiple drafts trying to appease Berman, the executives, Patrick Stewart and the rest of the cast was very enlightening. What really intrigued me to read it in the first place was that after Piller's death, Paramount and the Piller family sued to prevent the book from being released at all. It definitely holds nothing back. Of particular interest to me was hearing that the bulk of Voyager's writing staff from season 2 told Berman they would not be returning if Piller stayed on as executive producer. Berman may have been the boss, but Piller was the soul of Star Trek for so many years, which explains why TNG only started really getting good in Season 3 after they hired him, and Voyager really started sucking in it's own later seasons without his guidance. Anyway, a simple Google search will find you the book, worth a read if you have any interest whatsoever in the creative process of making Star Trek. Really quick, easy read, too.

[–] Davejohnson316 12 years ago

I might check it out. Thanks.

[–] NoahBody 11 years ago

Of particular interest to me was hearing that the bulk of Voyager's writing staff from season 2 told Berman they would not be returning if Piller stayed on as executive producer. Berman may have been the boss, but Piller was the soul of Star Trek for so many years,

hmm you should have posted the full story. They were ready to ditch because pillar wouldn't challenge the "Roddenbury box". pillar was a kiss a**.

Pillars contributions:
* "natives are always right"

* Tatoo's "Indians were ignorant and language-less until white men from space fixed them

* Chakotay's stereotypical BS (racist treatment)

* "Caretaker" the worst (till broken bow took the title) Trek pilot.

* "Rascals" the 'lets replace our actors with children' episode.

[–] Monk_Drunk 11 years ago

* Tatoo's "Indians were ignorant and language-less until white men from space fixed them

Haha I'd almost forgotten that episode. Yes, our superior white alien genes will give you language and culture so you can worship us as your sky spirits and revere us forever. I can only imagine how badly Beltran must have been puking up between takes after laboring through that garbage.

[–] kevinn02 9 years ago

The book is called Fade In...not Fade Out.

The unholy triumvirate:
The Bat, the Trek, the Bond

[–] ivitt 9 years ago

The Heart of Darkness inspired idea was far better than what got out there. Berman was a demon.

[–] douces 9 years ago

Patrick Stewart has great instincts the part where he destroys an early treatment of the film in a letter to Berman/Piller is awesome. He's absolutely right in everything he said: that film would have been an even greater disaster than what we got.

I think Stewart knew from early on this was not going to be a good film and he was trying to salvage this disaster.

[–] mtdman-90-390951 8 years ago

On this recommendation, I searched it out and read it. I skipped all the script and story versions, just read what Piller had to say. It was interesting, but I gotta say, he tried too hard. And he probably was out of his league trying to write a movie script. He should have stuck with tv. What they needed was a movie writer to write this script. What he wrote at the very end about sticking to his first idea of Picard standing alone to protect the little guy was good. About Picard being tired of war and clutter was good. He missed the point and got bogged down in the details.

Also, the bigger problem was trying to go small after such a big movie as First Contact. Expectations were high after that blockbuster. Not to mention, the tv shows kinda penned them in to what they could and could not do in the movie. Which is backwards. They should have gone big again, just in a different direction.

This movie was the beginning of the end for the TNG cast.