There’s a kinda frustrating pattern I feel like I’ve seen of dismissing certain criticisms of Star Trek as “oh that’s a problem with (writer/showrunner/etc), not a problem with the show itself”. Especially with the shows Rick Berman had a hand in. I too blame him for a lot of issues, but that doesn’t make it “not a problem with the show itself”. I just think it’s odd to draw this kind of line between the show and the people whose creative vision is guiding the show. They’re kind of one and the same. If the person who is largely in charge of the show’s direction has an issue, the show has an issue. A creator’s weird hang ups can bleed into being the show’s weird hang ups. I just don’t like treating the shows as if they just appeared one day out of thin air and any flaws that are there because of a creator’s flaws don’t count. Its not quite “death of the authoring” (in the sense I see most people now using the term) because I see people still talking about the creator as involved and responsible it’s just that they seem to be downgrading any issues created by them by assigning them to the person and not the show. “It’s not bad writing, it’s just that there was a bad writer” is a weird stance to me, but it’s one I see with some frequency.
