Work in television

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1967 with a B.A in speech. From 1977 to 1982, he was the senior producer of The Big Blue Marble for PBS. His work won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Series. Between 1982 and 1984 he was an independent producer. He worked on various projects, including What on Earth, an informational series for HBO, and The Primal Mind, a one-hour award-winning special for PBS.

Berman joined Paramount in 1984 as director of current programming. He oversaw such popular shows as Cheers and MacGyver.

Work in Star Trek

In 1987, Berman was selected by Paramount to help Gene Roddenberry create Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG). After Roddenberry's death in 1991, Berman took over as executive producer of the show.

Berman was the executive producer and co-creator of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. He is also responsible for the production and story behind the three profitable TNG movies: Generations, First Contact, and Insurrection.

Criticism by Trekkers

Berman, together with Brannon Braga, is blamed by many Trekkers for Star Trek's downturn in ratings (and, according to many, quality) after TNG. Berman is also criticized for his corruption of Star Trek canon and the timeline, which was carefully upheld during TOS, the movies and TNG.

Under Berman many Star Trek ideals such as peaceful exploration were thrown away, instead leading to the long war story arc of Deep Space Nine.

During Berman's control of "the franchise" many old time fans became disinterested in Star Trek, and Berman effectively created a split between Old Trek and New Trek fandom. Many Old Trek fans see the new series as weak and inferior copies of the first two series.

Rick Berman is believed by numerous trekkers to be interested in money, and not the ingenous plots and stories of the original series. He is seen by many as attempting to distance the newer series he's worked on from The Original Series and Roddenberry's vision. Many episodes written by Berman ignore canon from TOS, and if Kirk's era is mentioned, it is often treated with contempt. An example is the Voyager episode Flashback.

Credit for Berman

Berman wrote many popular Star Trek episodes. He authored the acclaimed episodes Brothers and Unification for TNG. Berman's writing has been even more prolific for Star Trek: Enterprise. He wrote the premier, Broken Bow, along with Shockwave, Cogenitor, and The Expanse from season two. These episodes have been praised by some fans. Additionally, Berman was responsible for the story behind over 30 episodes from the various Star Trek series he has produced.

References