Kira actually had stompy boots on the show in season 1 and 2 (this cap is from “Playing God”), and it’s a shame that they were the first thing to go in the many stages of ‘softening’ Kira up (which imo, from what is hinted in several interviews, was a production decision that was taken in order to make her more ‘palatable’ to an audience that back in the 90s had a hard time accepting Kira, and not really to suggest any character ‘development’)

I was at a panel once where Nana Visitor mentioned that Rick Berman made her wear heels to stop her from “walking like John Wayne” because of course it was Berman who was overly controlling of a woman’s appearance.

Fuck🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻Rick🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻Berman🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻

I don’t get this???

That guy in the middle is Rick Berman, the man (mostly) responsible for snuffing out every hint of homosexuality in any Star Trek character. He worked against it, he said no, there should be no gay people in space. Characters suggested to be gay are often instead made that extra bit of uncomfortable pushy heterosexual, just to make a point.

As a result, where Star Trek has a lot of the time been the first, pushing the boundaries, Star Trek was instead the last. A gay character was not introduced until 2017 and this, here, is the first time ever someone has said that they’re gay on screen in a Star Trek series. 2019.

So fuck Rick Berman. Fuck him and his homophobic, reactionary ass.

(He also treated actresses like shit and was responsible for firing Terry Farrell when she wanted the same deal as Colm Meaney, but this is specifically about the homophobia).

Oh wow. Thank you for explaining! Could you elaborate on that last thing? I haven’t heard about that either.

Here’s a quote by Terry Farrell from “The Fifty Year Mission”:

So yeah, he’s a misogynist as well as a homophobe. He’s the worst.

He was also a major reason why Wil Wheaton left TNG, which you can hear more about on his episode of the Mission Log Podcast:

While I’m at it, I may as well mention a couple specific instances of Berman’s homophobia:

- He told Andrew Robinson (Garak) to “tone down” his portrayal when it became clear that he was flirting with Bashir. In later seasons of DS9, their screentime together is significantly reduced and they were both given female love interests, presumably because the producers couldn’t risk people thinking they could be gay.

- When Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) pushed for a gay character on Voyager, Berman said “In due time” and then never followed through. He had no intention of ever creating a gay character on Star Trek, despite support from several actors.

- A script was written for an episode of TNG called “Blood and Fire”, which was supposed to be an AIDS metaphor and have 2 minor, background gay characters. Berman shot it down, and it was never filmed.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s what I can think of right now. Fuck Rick Berman.

Wooooow. Yeah fuck that asshole.

YEP

Rick Berman is a disgusting bigoted piece of trash and I am SO GLAD that this filth has no control over any form of Star Trek media anymore

Also, a lot of stuff I attributed to Brannon Bragga is proving to be hugely mistaken, thanks to his work on The Orville. So it seems like Bragga’s terrible writing, and bad messaging comes down to Berman hobbling him. (that, or Bragga has evolved heavily on a lot of subjects, on top of becoming a significantly better writer).

I still find it amazing that Berman let an episode where Riker falls in love with a gender queer woman actually happen.

He let it happen, sure - but Jonathan Frakes wanted Soren to be played by a male actor. Which would have made a bigger impact, considering it was supposed to be an allegory about homosexuality.

But who shot down that idea? Yeah, you guessed it.

“Having Riker engaged in passionate kisses with a male actor might have been a little unpalatable to viewers.” - Rick Berman

Another thing: Lieutenant Hawk from First Contact was written as a gay character in the novels. The novels’ author Andy Mangels was told, by people at Paramount if I’m recalling the story correctly, to get it to press before Berman could see it or it would have been squashed.