First of all, I should preface this by the observation that artists are not the best judges of what they've done and the word definitive does not belong, in my opinion, in any conversation about art. When somebody says it's the "definitive" something, I'm always recoiling.
Nicholas MeyerIf you look at the heroes of antiquity and myth, they all have flaws. It's something that they have to overcome; their flaws are something that they have to act in spite of. The challenge is not to defy your fate, but to endure it. That is heroic.
Nicholas MeyerI wrote an article not so long ago that was published in the Los Angeles Times, and I think I titled it "Movies vs. History." But I think they had another title for it. I got sort of sick and tired of seeing movies that got picked apart by people because they had taken dramatic or poetic license and I said "These people don't understand the distinctions."
Nicholas MeyerThe naive thing I suppose is simply that we thought, in the words of Francis Fukuyama, that we had reached the end of history and we were entering a brave new world minus the Soviet Union where everything was going to be peaches and cream.
Nicholas MeyerRoddenberry had his own utopian vision about he perfectibility of man, and I never really believed that. And I donโt think the show demonstrates that. I think it is about gunboat diplomacy. In the final analysis, the Enterprise fires. Theyโre always shooting and bringing civilization, and coming to worlds where they donโt approve of tyrannical enterprises โ no pun intended โ and they substitute their own quote unquote enlightened version of how society is supposed to work, which is essentially American.
Nicholas Meyer