Showing posts with label Maurice Hurley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maurice Hurley. Show all posts

Thursday 21 April 2022

Power is Ephemeral



William Shatner :
Power is an ephemeral;
it's What is Perceived

In order for Power to exist it 
has to be acknowledged by the 
people who are involved in
The Work

What I began to see 
was Gene Roddenberry
The Creator of Star Trek, 
aging and in diminishing 
health trying desperately 
to hold on to his creative vision
his legacy, and ultimately, 
His Power


Hurley:
Roddenberry had an incredible Loyalty
he was very loyal to his friends. 

David Gerold :
No, Gene screwed over all his friends 
as well as his enemies. 

You know, he had a lot of demons. 

He was very perceptive, 
had a high IQ. 

Gene was a Historical Revisionist. 

Creative and contributive
and collaborative. 

Very intimidating guy.


His good nature. 
He could be a bully. 
But he was a nice man and 
was a generous man. 

Gene had a way of making you feel really good about yourself. 
He could inspire people to do better than they believed they were capable of. 

Sir Patrick Stewart :
I just found him a decent man. 


And had a lot of worldly experience. 
A bomber pilot in the Pacific, decorated 
Pan-Am pilot world wide. 

I had great arguments about philosophy 
and all sorts of things. 

He was a really remarkable man, I thought. 

Gene was fun... but then later as things were 
not going as well I think he got sour. 

There's this twenty years
in The Desert for Gene. 
He's the forgotten man. 

D.C. Fontana:
The things that didn't happen 
were disappointing 
and very saddening.
 
His wife Majel would go to the conventions 
and they would sell memorabilia 
and make some money that way 
and that money helped sustain him. 

When you're out of work as a writer 
in Hollywood and you can't find it,
it's a difficult life. 

I guarantee you he had a difficult life 
between Star Trek and the first movie — 
We get back together for Next Gen and for him 
it's like he's been called back 
out of The Desert and given 
A Position of Power again. 

At the time Gene Roddenberry was considered 
somewhat of a pain in the neck, 
he was kind of a blustery guy 
who was not very agreeable

Everybody else forgot him after
Star Trek : The Motion Picture, this epic disaster. 

Every aspect of it got out of hand, 
this was a runaway train. 

He wasn't trusted with anything. 

He had been relegated to being 
the executive consultant on the movies. 
They paid him very well
I think that may have been enough

He had a big corner office in the Hart building. 
He pretty much spent his days in correspondence with people 
from all over the world who had become Star Trek fans. 

So they gave him this emeritus status, 
and he was a Has-Been.

Sunday 24 October 2021

Your So-Called Life


Q
The Borg is The Ultimate User.

 They're unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced. 

They're not interested in Political Conquest, Wealth or Power as you know it. 

They're simply interested in Your Ship
its Technology

They've identified it as something they can consume.

RIKER
You brought us here
you exposed us to Them
and you cost us the lives 
of our shipmates 

Q
Oh, please. 

PICARD
Number One —
Eighteen of Our People have died
Please, Tell Us this is 
one of Your Illusions.

Q:
Oh, no. This is as real 
as your so-called 
“Life” gets.

(And he vanishes



In the revised final draft of the script, in the scene in the observation lounge where Riker confronts Q about how he exposed the Enterprise to the Borg, which led to the deaths of eighteen crewmembers, his temper flares and he moves to assault Q, who warns Riker to stop or he would kill him. 

In the final aired version, Q merely dismisses Riker's comments with an "Oh, please.

This is the only Q episode that Maurice Hurley wrote. Melinda M. Snodgrass commented, "Maurice Hurley always thought Q was here to teach us a lesson, to guide and instruct us."

….because You are Trying to Have Heaven without God




“Now, Post-Modern Theology is quite a proposition — because you’re saying you want to have Theology without God.






Shatner :
Did you realize that The Next Generation, 
it was possible to characterize it as 
Gene Roddenberry's 
Dream of Heaven? 

Branon Braga :
I would never have thought that at the time
but now that we're talking,  
with his conception of The Future 
and Human Beings in The Future, 
and Q — Q is God

I mean, just look at the character, 
look at everything about 
the character. 

Shatner :
Gene was a well-known Atheist, 
but he invents Q

Q. :
Typical, so Typical. 
Savage Life Forms 
never follow even 
Their OWN Rules.

Ronald D. Moore :
As I sit here it's pretty startling — 
God's a character, a LITERALISED character, 
on Star Trek : The Next Generation. 

Shatner :
By An Atheist. 

Ronald D. Moore :
By An Atheist. 
Very interesting.



Hurley
Gene's IDEAS about 
The Future and about Man  — 
are wacky doodle

He sees Us now in Our Infancy 
where we just gather and accumulate 
like a three-year-old in a crib,

That's Mine, that's mine, 
give me this, you can't have that 
I need this, I need that.

He believed that Mankind in the twenty-fourth century had •resolvedALL Conflict between themselves.


Dorothy Fountuna
That developed between the first Star Trek 
and the second Star Trek. 

David Gerrold
Back in the 60's, Gene wanted 
to be The Womaniser and always 
gets the beautiful woman and always 
punches out The Bad Guy 
and always wins. 

And in 1986, Gene is not going to be 
down there on the front lines punching, 
but he WILL be The All-Seeing ADVISOR
The WISE Man.

Shatner
The real Trouble in Year One
is the dictumshow to 
get a good script OUT. 

If you tell A Writer that the characters can't have conflict between them, you're just cutting his legs off. 

Some writers really chaffed against 
Gene's Vision of A Better Future 
where there was No Conflict —
The ESSENCE of Drama is Conflict.


“There was No Evil.”

“There's No Money anymore. 
There was No Jealousy
There's No Fighting anymore. 

No separate Individual 
GOALS or IDEAS — 
We just negotiate

No Tension, what?”


Branon Braga :
I liked the Dramatic Constraints 
it put on ME as A Writer.”

Shatner
Really

Branon Braga :
Well, I had to find new ways 
to tell stories.”


“When you look at The Original Series 
there's a LOT of Conflict between 
those characters, they argue a lot, 
and crewmen on The Enterprise 
are YELLING at each other — 

If Our People are Perfect and have No Conflicts 
or Problems between them, 
there is no STORY here. 

We would walk around in each others' offices going, 
"I don't know how to write about that, 
I don't know how to write about Perfect People.

Hurley :
That was Gene's vision of 
Star Trek: The Next Generation, take it or leave it 
and work within it or DON’T.

I don't think you can sustain a show 
where the characters are not 
accessible to the audience. 

Where you don't see somebody 
over coming A Flaw, 
if there's no Conflict and no tension 
between people, then there's no relationship 
between people and that show will wither

And that's what was happening. 

I tried to make it sustainable, 
I wanted to create this new adversary, The Borg
I want the Federation to form allies against this OVERWHELMING, awesome adversary. 

At the end of the first season 
there's an episode called ‘The Neutral Zone’, 
which was the arc for the second season, 
and the arc for the second season was going to be 
Here come The Borg.

At the end of the second season 
they DEFEAT The Borg.”

Shatner : 
Then what happened? 

Hurley :
Writers Strike

End of the first season, 
Writers Strike begins. 
Couldn't talk to The Writers, 
couldn't talk to Roddenberry. 

And the hiatus dragged on and on and on, 
it was five and a half months


“Patrick kept saying the trouble with the show is 
there's not enough f-ing and f-ing. 

Fighting and Fornicating.

Patrick Stewart : 
And I said I have a feeling Our Audience 
might like to see Our Captain just getting 
blown away by meeting Somebody New.

Ira Stephen Behr :
The Writers were real excited. 
Well Rick says,You've got to 
go in to see Gene.’ 

So I go in and he's very nice but he says, 
‘I like the idea of The Pleasure Planet 
and I want it to be a place where 
you see women FONDLING and 
KISSING other women, 
and men HUGGING and 
holding hands and KISSING 
and we can imply that 
they're having SEX 
in the background.’ 

Huh? Really

I'm going, "Oh, man, I'm in 
The freakin' Twilight Zone." 

I go back to Rick, he goes, 
‘Pft, pay no attention to that, 
just get The Captain laid."

Friday 22 October 2021

Shiny



Maurice Hurley :
“I get a call from Paramount saying 
Come and meet Roddenberry, 
we want to consider you as a writer 
for Star Trek: The Next Generation’ 
I said that's A Joke, that's a JOKE. 

But I want to meet Roddenberry. 
Who wouldn't wanna meet Roddenberry? 

I was coming off two cop shows. 
I was coming off Miami Vice, very good show. 
Equalizer, very good show. 

So he gives me the first episode to rewrite. 
We pass each other in the hallway four or five times a day, 
he won't look at me.

Dorothy Fortuna
Apparently Gene didn't like 
What He Wrote. 
It was probably the first time 
we heard them battle.

Hurley :
And he raises up behind his desk, 
this great bird-like creature 
and he points his finger at me like this 
and he says, 
"YOU don't know the difference 
between SHIELDS 
and DEFLECTORS!." 

And that went on for weeks.”

Shatner :
What did that say to you about 
What You Were Confronting? 

Hurley :
He didn't want ME,  
Hurley, The Writer. 

He didn't want me to write Me
he wanted me to write HIM…








You cannot have 
A Protagonist 
without Desire.

It doesn't make any sense.
Any fucking sense.

You follow? Good.
Anyone else?

Yes?

Kuafman :
What if A Writer is attempting to create 
Story where nothing much happens?

Where people don't change,
they don't have any epiphanies.

They Struggle and are Frustrated,
and nothing is resolved.

More a reflection
of The Real World.


Lektor :
The REAL World?

Kaufman
Yes, sir.

Lektor :
The Real fucking World.

First of all, you write a screenplay
without Conflict or Crisis,
you'll bore your audience to tears.

Secondly, Nothing Happens
in The World?

Are you out of your fucking mind?

People are murdered every day.

There's Genocide, War, Corruption.

Every fucking day,
somewhere in the world,
somebody sacrifices his life
to save somebody.

Every day, someone somewhere
takes a conscious decision
to destroy someone else.

People find love.
People lose it.

A Child watches A Mother beaten
to death on the steps of a church.

Someone goes Hungry.
Somebody Else Betrays His Best Friend 
for a Woman.

If you can't find that stuff in life,
then you, My Friend,
don't know crap about Life!

And why the fuck are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie?

I don't have any use for it!

I don't have any bloody use for it!

Okay, thanks.

Thank you. You're welcome.

No. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Mr. McKee.

This course makes you look at
writing in a whole different way.

Mr. McKee. 

Yes?

I'm the guy you yelled at this morning.

….I need more.

I'm the one who thought
things didn't happen in life.

Ah. Right. Okay.

Nice to see you. 

I need to Talk.

Mr. McKee, my even standing here is very scary.
I don't meet people well.
But what you said this morning
shook me to the bone.

It was bigger than my screenwriting choices.

It was about my choices as 
A Human Being. Please.

Yeah.

Well, you know, I could
sure use a drink, My Friend.

"...but a little fantastic
and fleeting and out of reach."

Then what happens?

Well, that's the end of the book.
I wanted to present it simply without big character arcs or sensationalizing the story.

I wanted to show flowers as God's miracles.

I wanted to show that Orlean never
saw the blooming ghost orchid.

It was about disappointment.

I see.

That's not a movie.

You gotta go back,
put in the drama.

I can't go back. I've got pages of
false starts and wrong approaches.

I'm way past my deadline.
I'll tell you a secret.

A last act makes a film.

Wow them in the end,
and you got a hit.

You can have flaws, problems,
but wow them in the end

and you've got a hit.

Find an ending. But don't cheat.

And don't you dare bring in
a deus ex machina.

Your characters must change and The Change 
must come from them.

Do that and you'll be fine.

You promise?

Mr. McKee.

Have you taken my course before?


My Brother did.

My Twin brother, Donald.
He's the one who got me to come.

Lektor :
Twin screenwriters? 

Yeah.

Lektor :
Well, Julius and Philip Epstein,
who wrote Casablanca,
they were twins

You mentioned that in class.


Lektor :
Finest screenplay ever written.



Great writers' residence.

Donald.
Hey, how's your trip going?

You getting it on with that
lady journalist, you dog, you?

Yeah.

Listen, I'm just calling to say
congratulations on your script.

Isn't that cool? Marty says he can
get me high-sixes against a mil-five.

That's great, Donald.

I want to thank you
for all your help.

I wasn't any help.

Come on,
you let me stay in your place.

And your integrity
inspired me to even try.

It's been a wild ride.

Catherine says
she wants to play Cassie.

Oh, please! Ha, ha, ha.

Please, Donald?

Catherine Keener?

Catherine Keener's in my house?
Yeah, we're playing Boggle.

She's great. You should really
hang out with her, Charles.

Yeah. Um, look...

I've been thinking.

Maybe you'd be interested in hanging
out for a few days in New York.

Oh, my God, yes.

Yeah?

I was gonna show my script
to some people,

and, well, maybe you could
read it too, you know, if you like.

Of course. I'd be flattered.

Okay.

Thanks, Charles.

Okay, bye.

So, like, what would you do?

The script kind of
makes fun of me, huh?

I'm sorry. I was trying something...
Hey, I don't mind. It's funny.

Good. Okay.

So, what would you do?

You and me are so different,
Charles. We're different talents.

Charlie Kaufman :
I know. Just for fun...
How would the great Donald
end this script?

Heh, heh. Shut up.
"The Great Donald."
I feel like you're missing something.

All right. Like what? 


LookI did a little research
on the airplane.

"Sometimes this kind of story
turns out to be something more, some glimpse of life that expands
like those Japanese paper balls you drop in water and they bloom into flowers and the flower is so marvelous you can't believe there was a time all you saw was a paper ball and a glass of water."

First of all, that's inconsistent.
She said she didn't care about flowers.

For God's sake, it's just a metaphor.

No, it’s NOT, it’s a Similie.

Well, but for what?
What turned that paper ball into a flower?
It's not in the book, Charles.

I don't know. You're reaching.


Maybe.
But I think you actually need to
speak to this woman
To know her.

Charlie Kaufman :
I can't. Really. 

I'll go. I'll pretend I'm you.
I want to do it, Charles.

We'll get to the bottom of this.
We're gonna fix your movie, bro.

Charlie Kaufman :
But you've gotta be exactly me.
I have a reputation to maintain.

You can't be a goofball.
Can't be an asshole.

The Donald :
I'm not an asshole.

Charlie Kaufman :
You know what I mean.
No flirting. No bad jokes.
Don't laugh How You Laugh.

The Donald :
I'm not gonna laugh.
I get to have people think I'm you.
It's an honor.


******
The Donald :
So I guess I'll bring out
the big guns now.

Do you keep in touch with Larouche?
I felt I detected an attraction to him
in the subtext. 
Care to comment?

Uh...

Well, our relationship was strictly reporter-subject.

I mean, certainly an intimacy does
evolve in this kind of relationship.

By definition, I was so interested in everything he had to say.

But the relationship ends
when the book ends.

Mendacious deceit


What?

Nothing.

I just have one more question.
If you could have dinner with one
historical personage, living or dead, who would it be?

Uh, well, I would have to say...
Einstein.
Or Jesus.

Very good.
Interesting Answer.

The Donald :
She's lying. 

Charlie Kaufman :
What do you mean?
What happened?

Nothing. She said everything right.
Too right.

Well, maybe because they're True.
Did you embarrass me?

People who answer questions
Too Right are liars.

Everybody says Jesus and Einstein.
That's a prepackaged answer.

"Jesus and Einstein"?
Listen, Charles, I have an idea.
You'll need to buy me
a pair of binoculars.

What's "Jesus and Einstein"?

Come on.

Sing with me.

What the hell do you need binoculars for?

Let's go, let's go.

She hung up the phone.
She's upset.

Stop watching her.
Leave her alone.

She's crying.
She's at her computer.

This is morally reprehensible.

United to Miami.
Eleven fifty-five a.m. Tomorrow.
Thought she was done with Larouche.

Her parents live in Florida.

That was no parent phone call,
my friend.

Don't say "My Friend."

A guy entering.

Handsome.

Must be her husband.

She's acting weird with him, though, right?

Don't you think?

What's she hiding from him?

Maybe she's a lesbian
and doesn't know how to tell him.

What do you think?

Have you checked out Laroche's porn site?

No. I'm trying to read.

Anyway, I'm gonna look at the porn site. Research.

Don't tell my old lady.

You mean Mom?

No, I don't mean Mom.

Still say we should go
to Miami tomorrow.

Forget it.

Some of these chicks look okay.

Hey, guess what.
We're going to Miami tomorrow.

I said, no.
I said, oh, yeah, baby. Come here.

What I came to understand
is that Change is not A Choice.

Not for a species of plant,
and not for me.

It happens, and you are different.

Maybe the only distinction
between the plant and me
is that afterward,
I lied about my change.

I lied in my book.
I pretended with my husband

that everything was the same.

But something happened
in The Swamp that day.

Hey, look —
I told you I'd find
the jewel of the Fakahatchee.

It's A Fower.
Just A Flower.

Well, might as well grab it.
Long as I'm here.

Oh, man.
Boy, my porn site's gonna be big.

Look, something I didn't tell you that 
I want to tell you about The Ghost. Okay?

I think it might help you.

I'd just started at the nursery.
And I went back one night
to pick up something.

They wanted The Ghost
just to extract the drug.

It had been a ceremonial thing,
but the young guys, you know,
they liked to get stoned.

So Matthew?

He was one of the guys who...?
Sure.

Matthew lived on that shit 
till they ran out.

Because there was this one day
he was fascinated by me.

By my hair and my sadness.

Yeah, well, it does that.
That's what I wanted to tell you.

I mean, I think you'd like it, Susie.
It seems to help people 
be fascinated.

I can extract it for you.
I know how. I watched.

I'm probably 
the only white guy who knows.
I want to do this, Susie.

I'm done with orchids, Larouche.

Hello?

Hi.

It's John.

Did you get my package?

John?

John!

Johnny.

Hey, John? Yeah?

Very happy now.

Well, I'm glad.

Very happy.

Um, John? Hm?

Will you go like this...?

No. Keep going.

No. No.

I'm trying to make a dial tone.
And you have to sustain.

And then I will join you, and together...

See, I can't do it by myself.
Which one do you want me to do?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Here we go.

That's it. We got it.

We got it. That's fucking amazing.

Do you ever get lonely sometimes, Johnny?

Well, I was a weird kid.
Nobody liked me.
But I had this idea...
If I waited long enough, someone would come around and just,
you know, understand me.

Like my mom.

Except Someone Else.

She'd look at me and quietly say,
"Yes."
Just like that.
And I wouldn't be alone anymore.

Oh, I wish I were an ant.
Oh, they're so shiny.

You're shinier than any ant,
darling.

That's the sweetest thing
anybody has ever said to me.

Well,
I like you, that's why.