Just so...so bad

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

William Shatner did a great job. I love that he was unafraid to puncture the myths that surround Gene Roddenberry, yet he wrapped up the movie with a defense of the man.I was aware that Roddenberry had a bad drug habit. But I was unaware that apparently Roddenberry's drug habit, even in his advanced age, was so severe that his wife Majel needed to "dump him" onto a train that took him to a detox center. She did it every weekend for months at a time during the first season of The Next Generation. Mind blowing. As the writers who are interviewed for this story pointed out, he was a large, robust figure who could have lived to age 90 if he had not poisoned himself. The launch of The Next Generation forced him to sober up. Ironically, although people pointed out that he just wanted to enjoy retirement and felt somewhat like the new series was being foisted on him, it's likely that he would have died during 1987 if he had not had it in his life.I will probably never forgive Next Gen writer Maurice Hurley for forcing out the loveable and sexy Gates McFadden for a season, but I must admit that he was an extraordinary and colorful character. I'm very appreciative that Shatner profiled him just a year before he died in 2015. RIP, you "wacky doodle" (yet intriguing) man.

To the Trek fan, I found this a fun story and interesting bit of history that was well worth watching. It feels rushed in parts, glossed over in others and one-sided, but overall, a fun retelling. I think everyone knows that the behind the scenes making of TV isn't always pretty. Some of the underbelly is shown and some grievances are aired, but there's enough Trek in this little film to keep the Trekie interested. An entertaining hour I thought. 8 stars, possibly 8.5

This documentary rushes through separate lines spoken by former TNG actors, writers and directors, edited together to form a narrative of the creative and production problems behind TNG starting out.To glue this narrative together and not just have people talking on screen, it is full of cartoon animation and animated photos too support the storyline of what the old crew is sharing.The pace and production style of distraction makes it a little hard to follow, but if you're a true TNG fan, you'll still appreciate the back story of the first seasons of TNG and learn about a few interesting decisions that made TNG turn around and become a sustained success.

I was very surprised when I saw "Chaos on the Bridge". After all, for decades there has been a mystical sort of image of Gene Roddenberry as an avuncular sort of guru whose vision was THE basis for everything great about "Star Trek". Well, here this is NOT the sort of guy you hear about...that's for sure. It's a shame the guy is dead, as I'd love to see his reactions to so much hostility. But, according to the documentary, everything that was wrong with "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was due to Roddenberry and his unwillingness to create any sort of tension within the show. Instead, he insisted on a perfect, Utopian future where all the humans got along and loved each other....which is just fine except it created a rather bland package. Almost no one defended this apart, at times, aside from Maurice Hurley--who alternated between saying how much he hated Roddenberry but how he tried to stay loyal to his image. Some were nice but insisted Roddenberry was a poor addition to the show but others were quite blunt. I was frankly quite shocked to hear all this. While I could see that the show VASTLY improved in the later seasons, why was something I'd never heard anyone talk about before or so candidly. Overall, this is very revealing and well made. However, it did have one problem--the pace was too quick and it seems stretching it out to 90 minutes or so would have made the film a bit stronger...though it still is very well done and I urge Trek fans to see it with an open mind.