JJ Abrams is a (visionary/disgrace) who must be (commended/stopped): Star Trek

[Reply #560 on:]

I'm trying to make my way through The Next Generation, but it really isn't doing it for me so far.

Does it pick up drastically after season 1 or something because so far it's mostly all episodes where Patrick Stewart gets possessed or drunk or something and acts a bit unusual whilst re-treading lots of the material already covered by the original series. Also, gone is the simplistic and often comical tone of the original series which I loved it for. I loved that it worked similarly to The Twilight Zone with episodes often serving as little parables.

But yes, I've heard from a few people that it's worth sticking with TNG. What are your thoughts, PEEL?

It gets better from season 3 onwards. Anything with Q or the Borg is downright brilliant.

[Reply #561 on:]

What I've heard of the Borg saga interests me... in fact, it's the main reason I'm sticking with it.

I'll keep with it for now with an open mind. But if it still disappoints me, I'm coming for you, Zmithy!

[Reply #562 on:]

Season 1 of TNG is almost as bad as Season 1 of DS9.  Actually, both series pick up noticeably at season 3. Give it time, the payoff is worth it.

[Reply #563 on:]

TNG Bluray difference:









In case those don't work (also, a giant archive):

http://www.randomtuesday.com/archive/?view=./Star%20Trek:%20The%20Next%20Generation/bluray/bridge.gif

It's so beautiful. I may need to buy these.

[Reply #564 on:]

Why is the tractor beam coming out of the phaser banks now?

[Reply #565 on:]

It's possible they're two unrelated shots. The GIF maker possibly used them to show the Enterprise's CGI update rather than anything with the beams.

I mean, the stars in the background aren't even in the same position!!!

[Reply #566 on:]

The quality improvement is great.

[Reply #567 on:]

I'm trying to make my way through The Next Generation, but it really isn't doing it for me so far.

Does it pick up drastically after season 1 or something because so far it's mostly all episodes where Patrick Stewart gets possessed or drunk or something and acts a bit unusual whilst re-treading lots of the material already covered by the original series. Also, gone is the simplistic and often comical tone of the original series which I loved it for. I loved that it worked similarly to The Twilight Zone with episodes often serving as little parables.

But yes, I've heard from a few people that it's worth sticking with TNG. What are your thoughts, PEEL?

Season 1 seemed like Roddenberry was deliberately making it campy and shallow/stereotypical, to provide contrast for the character development in later seasons.  Especially for Frakes and Spiner.  TNG is my favorite Trek.

[Reply #568 on:]

All this talk about the improvement of TNG in later seasons kind of makes me want to give it another try.

...

Nah.

* Xanfor puts the non-remastered original series back on.

[Reply #569 on:]

You dick.
TNG is really good. It has Q. Q! Worth watching the whole thing just for him, especially in the finale, it's such a huge payoff.

[Reply #570 on:]

All this talk about the improvement of TNG in later seasons kind of makes me want to give it another try.

It might interest you to know that Discord from MLP was voiced by the actor who played Q, and that the character in both shows is basically the same, an all-powerful immortal being who just wants to troll everyone.

At least watch "The Inner Light" episode if nothing else, seriously, I even recommend this to people who hate everything sci-fi as a means of showing off just how good the genre can be when it hits the right notes.

[Reply #571 on:]

I'm putting this here instead of in merch because I'd prefer that it goes to a hardcore nerd who enjoys collecting obscure bits of Trek paraphernalia.

On Friday I was riffling through boxes of old CDs at my favorite used book store and came across this.  I picked it up for next to nothing, thinking that some Trek loving peeler might like it.  The link is to someone's auction, not mine! (I don't do ebay)

If this is something you'd enjoy in your collection of Trek gear, just PM me your snail address and I'll drop it in the post.  The CDs are in a folding cardboard sleeve and reportedly have a combination of scores for scenes from the film along with some comments from Roddenberry. I only have one of these.


(STAR TREK:THE MOTION PICTURE 20TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTORS ED. 2 CD LEGACY PROMO)


Cheers!

[Reply #572 on:]

back in early jan I started re-warching trek, as I'd not watched any of it in a long time. Saved Voyager for last, watching it now; it's fairly watchable, but it's really amazing how painfully bad some of the writing is at times, particularly the technobabble. Warp 10! Coaxial warp! Transwarp! Complex transmitters attached to individual atoms! yeah.

I actually enjoyed the first season of ds9, though it did get better as time went on. TNG, I dunno anymore even. First season's pretty terrible, granted; later seasons have some of the best episodes in the entire franchise, hands-down, but at the same time, they never managed to shed the occassional barely-watchable episode, right through season 7.

[Reply #573 on:]

one of my favorite things about the star trek universe: Operating their larger ships requires coordination from dozens of highly trained specialists operating different stations - that is, until most of the crew is incapacitated, leaving only one crewman with little or no experience with any aspect of ship's engineering or bridge operations, at which point the whole ship just becomes an extension of that person's will, carrying out their verbal commands with at least the same efficiency as the usual human crew.

[Reply #574 on:]

I should totally have posted this here.  Although, in retrospect - tired as I may have been - it still wasn't the exactly wrong place to post it.

[Reply #575 on:]

Why is the tractor beam coming out of the phaser banks now?

It's not a tractor beam. That shot is from the scene when Picard ordered Yar to 'rig the phasers to deliver an energy beam' to the space jellyfish entity in the pilot episode Encounter At Farpoint. The original shot was incorrect.

Yeah, yeah, spot the Trekkie...

[Reply #576 on:]

Liberal!

[Reply #577 on:]

Let go of your hate, young duckling...

[Reply #578 on:]

What if hate is the very glue that holds him together? Were that the case, would you ask him to literally tear himself apart?

I'm just asking questions...

[Reply #579 on:]

so i'm hearing that KHAAAAAAAAAN's going to be brought back for the next movie? i dunno how i feel about that, ricardo montalban's pretty irreplaceable.

[Reply #580 on:]

That would imply talking about the augmented people and the Eugenic wars.. since that was further expanded (and retconed) in Enterprise and all the origins happent before the events in the first JJ movie (the attack on the USS Kelvin)  and this "new" universe is suposedly to share origins with the "main" one ..only beign a paralel timeline created by the Narada traveling back... (ie: The Botany Bay should be somewhere still arround)

wonder if they would follow the TOS facts.. the revised Enterprise history ..or just go with something new and different..

Thats the problem when you take on existing characters and you still insist in "it began on the same timeline" ... you are bound to either follow rules and research or screw up galactic time

[Reply #581 on:]

That would imply talking about the augmented people and the Eugenic wars.. since that was further expanded (and retconed) in Enterprise and all the origins happent before the events in the first JJ movie (the attack on the USS Kelvin)  and this "new" universe is suposedly to share origins with the "main" one ..only beign a paralel timeline created by the Narada traveling back... (ie: The Botany Bay should be somewhere still arround)

wonder if they would follow the TOS facts.. the revised Enterprise history ..or just go with something new and different..

Thats the problem when you take on existing characters and you still insist in "it began on the same timeline" ... you are bound to either follow rules and research or screw up galactic time

hopefully old spock at least told kirk that they'd better go get some whales.

[Reply #582 on:]

and be aware of crazy old space probes....

[Reply #583 on:]

It might interest you to know that Discord from MLP was voiced by the actor who played Q, and that the character in both shows is basically the same, an all-powerful immortal being who just wants to troll everyone.

Oh, I know that. I recognized his voice from the sneak previews before he was even announced. I'll admit I enjoy the Q episodes I have seen, and that TNG is rather good as sci-fi television goes, but I really can't see it as Star Trek. It's just not as campy or obviously a product of 1960s Califorina as TOS is.

Speaking of Discord, there's a funny picture I've got to PM you when I find it again.

[Reply #584 on:]

Worf wants his own movie...

[Reply #585 on:]

I say give it to him.  He's made a compelling argument, and there's an audience that will purchase it.  Win-win whether you're a purist or not.

[Reply #586 on:]

As long as he's in charge of it and not some studio honky that wants it to be like Star Trek XI (lens flares and all), I think it would be a fantastic idea. Putting it on TV and then having a DVD release would be the best way of doing it, hopefully CBS goes for it before he had to go to Syfy.

[Reply #587 on:]

Ugh, Syfy, I will never get used to that spelling...

Can you imagine if Michael Dorn did an adult film with one certain "formidable" reptile-like adversary of Kirk? They could call it Dorn Gorn Porn.

[Reply #588 on:]

Just popping in here to say, I always forget that Chris Hemsworth is George Kirk in the last Star Trek movie. Too bad he died, he was very likable in his one scene.

[Reply #589 on:]

Yes, he was.  And that scene was totally just melodrama. *



* and yeah, it choked me up big time...

[Reply #590 on:]

I just read that story about Dorn's TV-movie pitch. I think it sounds like a pretty badass idea, assuming it's done right. I'm actually surprised Star Trek has never made that leap into direct to DVD/TV films like Stargate or Farscape has. I think it'd be a great way to grow the brand and look at interesting side stories...

[Reply #591 on:]

It's always been TV series or theatrical movies though, so the jump to a distribution medium that is a little less um "classy" (?) is a big one to make for a franchise with that image (or self-image). They may be afraid of diminished quality in a direct-to universe, which is understandable. However, it's not exactly the 90's anymore. If they can crowd-fund a space Nazis film, they can make quality relatively low budget Star Trek material.

[Reply #592 on:]

I've watched a good bit of tos in the last week, and just had to come here to say to those who maintain tos is the best of trek are insane. That is all.

[Reply #593 on:]

TOS has its moments, sure.  Perhaps if it had been made in more modern times (80s, 90s) with a larger budget it could have reached its potential.  Think TNG-class effects, cinematography, props, etc.

[Reply #594 on:]

Eeeh. No. It was not the low-budget that bothers me; I can greatly enjoy things with complete shite for effects. Even the hit-or-miss acting from many of the supporting (and a few of the starring) characters isn't a big issue most of the time. It's first and foremost the writing, the terrible, terrible writing. I seem to recall the writing improving somewhat, not through with season 1 yet in this re-watch, but in most of season 1, the writing is just terrible. It would certainly help if I'd seen it when it was new, as many of the episodes have premises that are almost cliche now but were probably quite original then, but some of the most brilliant premises are still wrecked by writing that ranges from sloppy to just plain awful.

[Reply #595 on:]

TOS has its moments, sure.  Perhaps if it had been made in more modern times (80s, 90s) with a larger budget it could have reached its potential.  Think TNG-class effects, cinematography, props, etc.

No. I will not think of that. That would be a perversion.

[Reply #596 on:]

Also, "increased by 1 to the 4th power." really, nobody involved could've caught that? Also also, finding an exact duplicate of earth doesn't seem worth even discussing to anyone? They just note that it's an exact copy of earth, then move on, without anyone asking how the hell THAT happened? Also also also, while scifi shows today can be almost as bad about this sort of thing (I'm looking at you, eureka), anyone writing scifi scripts needs to learn the difference between a solar system, a galaxy, and the whole universe. The terms are never interchangeable.

[Reply #597 on:]

Don't you realize that once you take all that away, it's no longer Star Trek?

[Reply #598 on:]

I suppose if you're the kind of person who likes bad things because they are bad, then TOS is the right trek for you. I'm not that sort of person, personally.

Though I must admit, at points tng was just as bad, particularly in IT's first season. Voyager found whole new ways to be bad.

Just watched another ep. The dialog... The horrible dialog... Good ep otherwise actually.

[Reply #599 on:]

It was never meant to be scientifically accurate! It was meant to beat viewers over the head with Gene Roddenberry's annoying ideology using a sci-fi analogue of 1960s westerns!