Starfleet Jedi

Brannon Braga is in a room, for the purposes of this debate. His tools are a typewriter plus unlimited ink ribbon and unlimited paper, his job is to write his idea of a brilliant script. This is his job, this is what he shall do, he is given an unlimited supply of food, a toilet, personal company (I'll get to that in a moment) and a small exercise room to keep healthy.

Of course, this is a versus debate, so on the other side of the room, armed with a quill, infinite amounts of ink and paper... is none other than a rather famous wordsmith from the Elizabethan times. You most likely studied his works in school quite a bit, and the influences can be seen stretching all the way across modern literature and television. His job is to

Brannon Braga, famous for his short lived series known as Threshold, the Star Trek episode of the same name, and All Good Things has to battle the esteemed William Shakespare, the author of such plays as Romeo and Juliet, the Tempest, Macbeth and Hamlet, in a fight of sheer writing skill.

Who wins; the traditionally articulate Elizabethan eloquence, or bouncing a tachyon particle beam off the main deflector dish.

Braga, easily. His extraordinary wit and talent, fuelled by the many drugs he takes, cannot fail to overwhelm the ingrained resistance that even the staunchest Shakespeare-lover will possess against Braga's exquisite work. Both wrote for money and profit, but whereas Shakespeare was merely a dilletante elevated beyond all reason by professors with nothing better to do, Brannon Braga took the opportunities given to create what can only be considered the highest verbal and philosophical art.

Verily, who can fail to be struck by the wonder, beauty, and blessedly deep meaning of Dr. Crusher sucking Riker's head contents out through a straw? Who would fail to be moved by the idea of a culture capable of spaceflight and matter replication having their ancient mythological claptrap played out on a 24th Century stage by an android wearing cheap masks?

And of course, let's not forget the tragic depth of Braga's killing off of Trip 'because he wanted to do it' in his 'valentine to the fans'. So many intricate layers of meaning in that . . . I'm at a loss for words. It speaks of the tragedy of love and oh, so very much more. It boggles the mind of mere mortals such as ourselves, for Braga is truly channelling the muses of the gods.

I'm almost offended that you would dare compare the truly great to some smelly loser like Shakespeare.

Since no one else has replied, I figured I should double-check . . . y'all know I was kidding, right? :P

Well, you have been outed as a neo-con and the whole world knows what kind of psychos you lot are. ;-) j/k

Well I had nothing to argue against, really. :P The sarcasm in that post was thick enough to cut with a knife... and I'm not sure that Shakespeare's own influence as a writer can be beaten by any modern fiction. Star Trek's sort of, kind of influencing people here, there and everywhere but the influence of Shakespeare is so evident that you'd be hard pressed not to notice that he's required reading in most modern-day English classes.

Though that isn't to say his influence upon the English Language hasn't really been beaten, William Shakespeare's influence was perhaps pre-empted by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Neo-con or not that first reply was damn funny :D