The July 2000 issue of Star Trek: The Magazine has an interview with Rick Berman, executive producer for the Star Trek franchise. The interview has been transcribed by Voyager's Delights, and so is now available for us all to read.

Berman starts out the interview by talking about the many rumours that have appaeared on the internet, saying that he's read them all, and that "all of the rumors that [he has] read about the stories, about the number of stories, about what they were about, are all utter nonsense."

Series V

After that, Berman talks some more about his recent statements that the show will be 'different', explaining what exactly that means: "Well, it certainly is not going to be darker. [...] I think 'funnier' is not something that would be valid to say. Sexier, perhaps, and more contemporary in terms of style of television production today, as opposed to the style of the mid 80's and 90's when we developed the previous three shows. I would say that would be valid. And I think you can rest assured that it will be set on a starship!"

Something he apparently wants to avoid is the darkness of the last two series. "... I think that it would be dangerous to base a Star Trek series on the darker side of the universe. I think that if anything Deep Space Nine suffered a bit from things that one might think of as being darker, in terms of Sisko's character and in terms of the war that took up most of the last two seasons. In Voyager, although 'dark' is probably not the right adjective, I don't think the idea of a ship that is not traveling off into the stars on a mission of exploration hut trying to get home although with a mission of exploration involved in that process is as bright and uplifting a direction as perhaps the original series and Next Generation went. So, I would think that if anything the new series will be perhaps less dark. But, you know, that doesn't mean it's not going to have an edge to it: I think it definitely will."

Trek X

On the tenth Star Trek film, Berman said they're currently aiming for a Thanksgiving 2001 release, three years after 'Insurrection'. They currently have a "wonderful story", and are hoping to go in production in Spring, though they are only in the early stages of writing and still have a few potential obstacles to handle. He also again repeated his comments about the screenwriter for the film, "an A-list writer with some major movies to his credit, and major movies that are in various stages of prerelease and pre-production to his credit." The name has not yet been released, despite several rumours flying around over the past days.

As to what the actual film would be about, Berman said the following: ""I would say that if there was one thing we learned from the last movie, it was that the next one needs to have a little bit more of a sense of adventure and for us just to be telling a whopping good tale, and to have something that's perhaps a drop less serious when it comes to Picard's character and the need for him to find himself in an emotional crisis as he was in the last picture. The story that we're developing here is I think a lot more fun and a lot more grand in scale, and we have some wonderful villains: villains more in the character of First Contact than the other two movies we've done."

Voyager

Finally, Berman also talks about the final season of 'Voyager', during which Kenneth Biller will be executive producer. Berman revealed that Braga will be working alongside Biller for the first few months, until Braga is immersed enough in the Series V script, when Biller will take over full-time.

A storyline for the final season has already been planned, beginning with 'Unimatrix Zero, Part Two', but apparently we won't find out early in the season how the ship's fate will be resolved. "I don't believe that we are going to be giving away too much early in the season. [...] As to how the series is going to end, and when the audience is going to learn that, obviously it would be silly for me to give you specifics. But I don't believe there are going to be any dramatic wrapping-up elements in the first half of the season."

The actual wrap-up itself will probably also take less time than DS9's: in the interview Berman also states the final closing arc won't be as long, as 'Voyager' doesn't have that many secondary characters, but only the question of the ship getting home or not.

Berman ends the interview by talking again about fan rumours and his duty to preserve the vision of Gene Roddenberry - click here to read it all.

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