[7.1/10] I’m torn on this documentary. It’s perfectly OK for what it is -- a quick-hit oral history of the first few years of *Star Trek: The Next Generation* focusing on the behind-the-scenes drama in the writer’s room in particular. I even like the central thesis of the documentary, and theoretically the point it builds everything else around -- that Gene Roddenbury had largely fallen out of favor with Hollywood after after *Star Trek: The Motion Picture*, and his choices around *TNG*, including to spearhead the project in the first place, were a reflection of man in failing health trying to show that he still had that spark and his success wasn’t a fluke.

My problem’s with the documentary are that it doesn’t interrogate that idea especially deeply or especially well. Shatner, who’s credited as writer and director, flattens everything down to a supposed tale of power, and cheesily channels everything through poker metaphors to try to connect it to one of the recurring motifs of *The Next Generation*. He asks a ton of folks involved with the program in those days about these behind-the-scenes details, but really only scratches the surface.

I firmly believe you have to evaluate the movie you saw, not the one you wanted to see, but *Chaos on the Bridge* largely left me wanting more, and not in a good way. The editing is frantic, constantly jumping back and forth between interviewees with an alternatingly bouncy/overdramatic/corny soundtrack to the point that the film feels almost afraid to settle on one topic for more than about two minutes. That leaves it feeling a mile wide but an inch deep in places.

That sense of unseriousness about the whole thing is “aided” by well-drawn but out-of-place sketches to help illustrate the stories being told, which reduce the major figures to players at a poker table, or gunslingers, or just comically exaggerated versions of themselves. Look, it’s *Star Trek* -- there’s plenty of room for levity in this kind of look back -- but it often seemed like Shatner and company wanted to channel all of these interviews into broad shtick and tortured metaphors rather than just taking what they found.

The film’s one great saving grace is that, presumably by virtue of Shatner’s name, the documentary got tremendous access to not only the surviving writers, producers, and executives involved in *TNG*’s development and progress, but also other key figures in the entertainment world to help put things in a broader context. However much I may bristle at the way *Chaos on the Bridge* chops those interviews up and even turns them into meatloaf in places, it talks to all the right people, and it’s compelling to get to hear the story from the mouths of the people involved.

In particular, John Pike contributes some interesting descriptions of concerns from the executive side of the equation, animated former-showrunner Maurice Hurley is open about his approach and frustrations with *TNG* (though the doc never addresses rumors that he sexually harassed Gates McFadden), and in the absence of Michael Piller, writer Ronald D. Moore speaks eloquently about the changes in the series’ approach from a storytelling perspective that proved a turning point for the series creatively.
I don’t know if *Chaos on the Bridge* ever really proves its thesis, though. It moves too fast through too much to do more than kick up a lot of interest dirt around Gene Roddenbury and his state of mind during the *Next Generation* years without ever fully patting it back down. That said, as a grab bag of interesting stories and fun anecdotes from the people who were there, it’s still worth watching if you’re a Trekkie, particularly if you’re as big a fan of *Star Trek: The Next Generation* as I am.