Brannon Braga

Template:Realworld

Brannon Braga

Brannon Braga (born 14 August 1965; age 58) was a writer, producer and creator, serving as such on the spin-off television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as on the Star Trek films Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: First Contact.

Star Trek

A twenty-five year old youth, Brannon Braga started working on Star Trek in 1990 as a writer/producer on The Next Generation, it being his first professional employment within the motion picture industry. Braga was recognized for his work on the Star Trek franchise with nine award nominations, winning two of them.

The Next Generation

As a writer/producer on The Next Generation, Braga was responsible for some of the most popular episodes including the series finale "All Good Things...". For this episode he won the Hugo Award for excellence in science fiction writing, along with Ronald D. Moore.

The Klingon aria lyrics by Braga

Braga is a big fan of directors Roman Polanski and David Lynch and their way to create mysterious atmospheres. As a result he was very happy with the way the seventh season episode "Genesis" was brought up. (TNG Season 7 DVD-special feature, "Departmental Briefing Year Seven: Production") Braga also co-wrote the movies Generations (1994) and First Contact (1996). In all, he has written or co-written 106 Star Trek episodes, more than anyone else in the history of the franchise. ^{(citation needed • edit)} For the sixth season episode "Birthright, Part II", Braga wrote the lyrics for the Klingon aria with music composed by Jay Chattaway.

At the conclusion of the sixth season of the series, Michael Piller asked Braga to move over to his co-creation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but Braga wanted to "(...)see Next Generation through to the end and I am glad I did because Ron [Moore] and I wrote the final episode ["All Good Things"], which was probably our best work on that show." [1] Deep Space Nine therefore remained the only spin-off television production Braga did not work on.

Voyager

Braga moved to Star Trek: Voyager as a producer, receiving a promotion to Co-Executive Producer in 1997 and a further promotion to Executive Producer in 1998 when Jeri Taylor retired. During his time on Star Trek: Voyager he entered into a relationship with Seven of Nine actress Jeri Ryan, which has since ended. After Deep Space Nine finished its run, Braga immediately hired his Next Generation writing partner Ron D. Moore for Voyager, but Moore resigned shortly afterward citing creative differences with Braga and the other Voyager writers and criticizing the lack of emphasis on continuity.

Though the series as a whole was by the fans received with somewhat mixed feelings, Braga was, usually in conjunction with Writer Joe Menosky, responsible for some of its best received episodes, most notably including the two-part episodes, "Scorpion", "Year of Hell", "Equinox" and "Unimatrix Zero". Braga had reveled in working with Menosky, as he had later emphatically stated, "Joe Menosky was brilliant. He and I wrote what I thought were some of the best ever episodes. Feel free to disagree, but if you look at those 2-parters we did...cool stuff." [2]

Enterprise; controversy and atonement

In 2000, Braga began work on Star Trek: Enterprise as the series' co-creator with Rick Berman (leaving Kenneth Biller to take over the production of Voyager), and had become Star Trek's "number two man" behind Berman. Unlike his former writing partner Ron Moore, Braga has never been a Star Trek: The Original Series fan, and it was for this reason that he had earlier turned the writing chore for the Next Generation homage episode "Relics", which was originally slated to be his, over to Moore, or as he himself had put it, "I knew I couldn't possibly write it. I didn't even know who Scotty was. This was a Ron [Moore] show." (Cinefantastique, Vol. 24, issue 3/4, p. 22) His admitted lack of understanding of original Star Trek-lore however, backfired on his work on Enterprise, as he was held co-responsible for the dismal performance of the series in its first three seasons, due to the perceived violations in established continuity – which, as it turned out, even though Ron Moore resigned over it, had not been an issue of note for Voyager, due to that show's premise.

With the additional failure of Star Trek Nemesis (on which Braga had not worked) at the box office in 2002, outspoken critics vehemently clamored for the removal of the "current leadership of the franchise from their positions, including Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, and their entire staff". Template:Brokenlink At the end of the third season of Enterprise, Paramount Television and UPN indicated its cancellation and the apparent end of Berman's tenure as the overseer of Star Trek productions. Whether or not influenced by the vocal criticism and though retaining their official credit, both men were indeed essentially relegated to the role of figureheads by the franchise management at the end of the third season, their relinquished places de facto filled for the remaining season by Manny Coto and Mike Sussman, under whose tenure as show runners much of the perceived continuity violations was redressed, aided by writers such as Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who, like them, had an equally thorough understanding of Star Trek-lore.

Candidly admitting to his reduced role, Braga has outlined his scaled-down responsibilities for the last season, "I was indeed involved in Ent-season4. But only in a supervisory capacity. Manny was really running that writing staff. I was there to help him fashion stories and give notes, which was only part of the time because Manny was doing an amazing job. I rewrote an episode called "Divergence" I believe. No offense to the credited writer. It just needed work and I was happy to help Manny out." [3]

While the season as a whole was generally well received – though it did not save the series, as its cancellation had already been decided upon – both Berman and Braga yet again took firmly hold of the reins when it came to producing the last episode, "These Are the Voyages...", also turning out to be the very last of the entire television franchise. Intended to be "a valentine to all the Star Trek shows", as Braga had put it in 2007 at the below-mentioned VegasCon, the well-meant intention was again met with intense criticism, again resulting in a violent backlash from production staffers and fans alike, causing Berman to admit years later, "I would have never done it if I had known how people were going to react." Brannon Braga at StarTrek.com In 2013, Braga made the even more unusual, but equally magnanimous, gesture of prostration by openly apologizing for the episode to cast and crew of Enterprise, conceding that he and Berman had made a "narcissistic move" in trying to make the episode a "valentine" to Star Trek. He also called it "a crappy episode." (ENT Season 2 Blu-ray-special feature, "In Conversation: The First Crew")

Actually, and contrary to former partner Berman, Braga had already shown real character, when he made a personal appearance at the August 2007 VegasCon, opening himself up for up-close-and-personal scrutiny by the fans. "To those who comment "it took guts" to get on that stage: yes, I was nervous as hell. Because as you point out, I had no clue what the reaction would be," Braga conceded, "But I was prepared to handle it no matter what. And to my relief, the audience could not have been more gracious". With the most vehement passions subsided over time and discussions being waged in a more civilized manner, a relieved Braga continued to chime on the blog covering his VegasCon appearance at TrekMovie.com for the remainder of the month, clarifying issues which had not been addressed during his live-performance as well as discussing his other Star Trek work. On that occasion Braga lauded the efforts of Coto and Sussman for the fourth season of Enterprise, "I thought Manny Coto did a great job. One could argue that Enterprise might have been that from the beginning. When I was seeing what Manny was doing it was like "you know what? Maybe this should have been the show from the start"," having added, "If Enterprise had continued, we would have kept going with Manny Coto’s unique vision of the show." [4]

The controversy surrounding Enterprise has somewhat overshadowed his previous Star Trek work for the time being, but as fan reactions on TrekMovie.com have shown, Braga's more endearing work for the franchise is in the process of being reaffirmed, as was exemplified by blog master Anthony Pascale, who summarized, "I know that it seems to be some kind of accepted blood sport to rag on Brannon Braga and Rick Berman. However (as I have noted before), Braga was part of some of the best Trek ever. Besides the "highs" mentioned above, Braga was behind what are sure to be top episodes in each of the three series he worked on such as TNG's "Parallels", VOY's "Year of Hell," or ENT's "Zero Hour". I wish many things (especially with VOY and ENT) were different (and apparently he agrees), but I also try and look at his career with Trek in the context of the full body of work." .

Coda

Braga and Berman had been rumored to have worked in the early stages on the 2009 movie, Star Trek, but Braga has since made it clear that his days with the Star Trek franchise were over, as he had already indicated at the 2007 VegasCon, declaring it his last Star Trek convention appearance. Nevertheless, Braga has not been able to resist the temptation and has since then returned to the convention circuit, appearing among others at the 2010 VegasCon. [5]

His three main writing collaborators on the Star Trek franchise, in chronological order, were Ronald D. Moore, Joe Menosky, and Rick Berman, for the television properties The Next Generation, Voyager, and Enterprise respectively, while the first and the latter were his main writing collaborators for the movie properties Generations and First Contact.

Despite all the "grief" Enterprise had brought him, Braga stated in 2014, "I miss Star Trek. I didn't realize how badly I missed it. It's such a great premise. You can do anything you can possibly imagine. It has such a great message. It has such a great feeling. I think one of the reasons I was so passionate about Cosmos [see below] and threw myself so deeply into it was because there was some part of me that missed that Star Trek feeling so I channeled some of that into Cosmos." [6]

Career outside Star Trek

Braga was born in Bozeman, Montana and during his stay on the Star Trek franchise has frequently slipped references to his place of birth into episodes and films he has written (see USS Bozeman, Eli Hollander, Gallatin). He studied Theater Arts and Filmmaking at Kent State University and The University of California. He received the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Writing Internship in 1990. An atheist, he has suggested Star Trek as an "atheistic mythology."

During his stay on the Star Trek franchise, Brannon Braga made one contribution to a non-Star Trek production, when he co-wrote a first draft for the 2000 theatrical feature Mission: Impossible II, once again in collaboration with Ron D. Moore.

After his tenure on the Star Trek franchise ended, Braga worked on various other television projects. In 2005, he was the executive producer of the CBS science fiction series Threshold (co-starring Brent Spiner), which was canceled after 13 episodes (from which only 9 was aired). Braga also wrote the first two episodes of the series.

In 2009, Braga co-created the series FlashForward, where he also served as executive producer and wrote the first two episodes. In 2012, he served as executive producer and writer on Terra Nova, a science fiction action series, reuniting him with René Echevarria and April Rossi. Both shows were canceled after one season, though FlashForward's episode "No More Good Days" netted him an additional 2010 Hugo Award nomination.

From 2009-2010, Braga worked on FOX's hit series 24, as a writer and Executive Producer, working alongside former Enterprise writer/producer Manny Coto on several scripts. He is also credited for the television film 24: Redemption as co-executive producer.

Braga's latest work is credited as Executive Producer and Director for the 2014 docu-series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, the successor to Carl Sagan's 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. [7]

Writing credits

• TNG:
  • Season 4 - Staff Writer/Intern (26 episodes, uncredited)
  • "Reunion" (teleplay with Thomas Perry, Jo Perry and Ronald D. Moore)
  • "Identity Crisis" (teleplay)
  • Season 5 - Staff Writer/Intern (26 episodes, uncredited)
  • "The Game" (teleplay, story with Susan Sackett and Fred Bronson)
  • "Power Play" (teleplay with Rene Balcer and Herbert J. Wright)
  • "Cause and Effect"
  • "Imaginary Friend" (teleplay with Edith Swensen)
  • Season 6 - Story Editor (26 episodes)
  • "Realm of Fear"
  • "Schisms" (teleplay)
  • "A Fistful of Datas" (teleplay with Robert Hewitt Wolfe)
  • "Aquiel" (teleplay with Ronald D. Moore)
  • "Birthright, Part I"
  • "Frame of Mind"
  • "Timescape"
  • "Liaisons" (uncredited)
  • "Phantasms"
  • "Parallels"
  • "Sub Rosa" (teleplay)
  • "Eye of the Beholder" (story)
  • "Genesis"
  • "Emergence" (story)
  • "All Good Things..." (with Ronald D. Moore)
• VOY:
  • "Parallax" (teleplay)
  • "Phage" (teleplay with Skye Dent)
  • "The Cloud" (story)
  • "Emanations"
  • "Cathexis" (teleplay, story with Joe Menosky)
  • "The 37's" (with Jeri Taylor)
  • "Projections"
  • "Non Sequitur"
  • "Cold Fire" (teleplay)
  • "Threshold" (teleplay)
  • "Deadlock"
  • "Flashback"
  • "Remember" (story with Joe Menosky)
  • "Future's End" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Future's End, Part II" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Macrocosm"
  • "Darkling" (story with Joe Menosky)
  • "Rise" (teleplay)
  • "Distant Origin" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Scorpion" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Scorpion, Part II" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Year of Hell" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Year of Hell, Part II" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Prey"
  • "The Killing Game" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "The Killing Game, Part II" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Living Witness" (teleplay with Bryan Fuller and Joe Menosky, story)
  • "Hope and Fear" (teleplay with Joe Menosky, story with Rick Berman and Joe Menosky)
  • "Night" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Drone" (with Bryan Fuller and Joe Menosky)
  • "Timeless" (teleplay with Joe Menosky, story with Rick Berman and Joe Menosky)
  • "Latent Image" (story with Eileen Connors and Joe Menosky)
  • "Dark Frontier" (with Joe Menosky)
  • "Think Tank" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Someone to Watch Over Me" (story)
  • "11:59" (story with Joe Menosky)
  • "Warhead" (story)
  • "Equinox" (teleplay with Joe Menosky, story with Rick Berman and Joe Menosky)
  • "Equinox, Part II" (teleplay with Joe Menosky, story with Rick Berman and Joe Menosky)
  • "Dragon's Teeth" (with Michael Taylor and Joe Menosky)
  • "Memorial" (story)
  • "Fury" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Life Line" (teleplay with Robert Doherty and Raf Green)
  • "Unimatrix Zero" (teleplay with Joe Menosky)
  • "Unimatrix Zero, Part II" (teleplay with Joe Menosky, story with Mike Sussman and Joe Menosky)
  • "Human Error" (teleplay with André Bormanis)
  • "Author, Author" (story)
  • "Endgame" (story with Rick Berman and Kenneth Biller)
• ENT:
  • "Broken Bow" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Fight or Flight" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Strange New World" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Unexpected" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Terra Nova" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "The Andorian Incident" (story with Rick Berman and Fred Dekker)
  • "Shadows of P'Jem" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Fusion" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Shuttlepod One" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Rogue Planet" (story with Rick Berman and Chris Black)
  • "Acquisition" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Oasis" (story with Rick Berman and Stephen Beck)
  • "Detained" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Vox Sola" (story with Rick Berman and Fred Dekker)
  • "Fallen Hero" (with Rick Berman and Chris Black)
  • "Desert Crossing" (story with Rick Berman and André Bormanis)
  • "Two Days and Two Nights" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Shockwave" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Shockwave, Part II" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Carbon Creek" (story with Rick Berman and Dan O'Shannon)
  • "A Night in Sickbay" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Marauders" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "The Seventh" (with Rick Berman)
  • "The Communicator" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Vanishing Point" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Precious Cargo" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Stigma" (with Rick Berman)
  • "The Crossing" (teleplay with Rick Berman, story with Rick Berman and André Bormanis)
  • "Cogenitor" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Bounty" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "The Expanse" (with Rick Berman)
  • "The Xindi" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Carpenter Street" (with Rick Berman)
  • "Harbinger" (story with Rick Berman)
  • "Azati Prime" (story with Rick Berman and Manny Coto)
  • "Zero Hour" (with Rick Berman)
  • "These Are the Voyages..." (with Rick Berman)
• Films:
  • Star Trek Generations (screenplay with Ronald D. Moore, story with Rick Berman and Ronald D. Moore)
  • Star Trek: First Contact (screenplay with Ronald D. Moore, story with Rick Berman and Ronald D. Moore)

Producing credits

• Star Trek: The Next Generation ("Descent, Part II" - "All Good Things...") - Co-Producer
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Parallax" - "The 37's") - Producer
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Initiations" - "Scorpion") - Supervising Producer
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Scorpion, Part II" - "Hope and Fear") - Co-Executive Producer
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Night" - "Unimatrix Zero, Part II") - Executive Producer
• Star Trek: Voyager ("Imperfection" - "Endgame") - Consulting Producer
• Star Trek: Enterprise - Executive Producer

Acting appearance

Nightclub patron
Star Trek: First Contact
(uncredited)

Star Trek interviews

• TNG Season 4 DVD-special feature, "Chronicles from the Final Frontier", interviewed on 15 November 2002
• TNG Season 5 DVD-special feature, "Departmental Briefing Year Five" ("Cause and Effect"), interviewed on 15 November 2001
• TNG Season 5 DVD-special feature, "Intergalactic Guest Stars" ("Crew Profile: Ensign Robin Lefler", "Profile: Captain Morgan Bateson"), interviewed on 15 November 2001
• TNG Season 6 DVD-special feature, "Bold New Directions Year Six", interviewed on 15 November 2001
• TNG Season 7 DVD-special feature, "Mission Overview Year Seven", interviewed on 15 November 2001
• TNG Season 7 DVD-special feature, "Departmental Briefing Year Seven: Production" ("New Director, New Challenges", "Creating Parallel Worlds"), interviewed on 15 November 2001
• TNG Season 7 DVD-special feature, "The Making of "All Good Things..." Year Seven" ("Writing The Final Episode"), interviewed on 15 November 2001

Star Trek awards

For his work on Star Trek Braga received the following awards and nominations in the various writing categories.

Emmy Award

Braga received the following Emmy Award nomination in the category "Outstanding Drama Series":

• 1994 for Star Trek: The Next Generation, shared with Rick Berman, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor, David Livingston, Peter Lauritson, Merri D. Howard, Wendy Neuss, and Ron D. Moore

Hugo Awards

Braga received the following Hugo Award and nominations in the category Best Dramatic Presentation

• 1995 Hugo Award for the episode TNG: "All Good Things...", shared with Winrich Kolbe and Ron D. Moore
• 1995 Hugo Award nomination for Star Trek Generations, shared with David Carson, Rick Berman, and Ron D. Moore
• 1997 Hugo Award nomination for Star Trek: First Contact, shared with Jonathan Frakes, Rick Berman, and Ron D. Moore
• 2003 Hugo Award nomination for the episode ENT: "A Night in Sickbay", shared with David Straiton, and Rick Berman
• 2003 Hugo Award nomination for the episode ENT: "Carbon Creek", shared with James Contner, Chris Black, Rick Berman, and Dan O'Shannon

Saturn Award

Braga received the following Saturn Award nomination in the category Best Writer

• 1997 for the episode "All Good Things...", shared with Ron D. Moore

Universe Reader's Choice Award

Braga received the following Universe Reader's Choice Award in the category Best Writing for a Genre Motion Picture

• 1995 for Star Trek Generations, shared with Ron D. Moore

See also

• Archive of Brannon Braga's AOL chats

External links

• Brannon Braga at Wikipedia
• Template:IMDb-link
• 2007 Brannon Braga reflections on Trek at TrekMovie.com
• 2010 Brannon Braga Q & A session at TrekMovie.com
• 2011 Brannon Braga interview, part 1 at StarTrek.com and part 2 at StarTrek.com
• 2013 Brannon Braga two part interview at TrekCore
• 2014 Brannon Braga Q & A session at TrekMovie.com