Star Trek: Classic or Dud?

Never watched the original series much (wasn't alive at the time of the originals, don't recall seeing the reruns), but became a fan of the movies when they started. Fell into things fully when TNG began (watched from the first episode to the last) and still followed those films, though after starting with both Deep Space Nine and Voyager I gave them up fully in late 1995 and never looked back. Have a couple of the, ahem, 'technical manuals' around the place but that's about it -- the other books I've avoided. Have no costumes, have always avoided any kind of conventions general or specific, take cruel pleasure in laughing at Shatner's follies in the fifth movie, as should we all (the fake MST version is the only one to see, frankly).

Unsurprisingly, Picard is my fave (I was actually a Patrick Stewart fan already), but both Avery Brooks and Kate Mulgrew did excellent jobs in their Sisko and Janeway roles. Scott Bakula as Archer just scares me as a concept. TNG cast my favorite ensemble bunch, though I will give it up (oh yes) for George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, DeForest Kelley, Leonard Nimoy, Terri Farrell, Alexander Siddiq, Rene Auberjonois, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran and Robert Picardo. Data ist rad. And so forth.

note: star trek: the motion picture looked awful. but all the ones after that were awesome. how much cooler would next generation have been if they had those burgundy uniforms? kirk looked like the motherfucker in EVERY MOVIE wearing that shit.

ned: you think picard is tougher than picard. what. the. fuck. did you see wrath of khan? did you see that shit? he fucking kicked khan's fucking vinyl-chested ass. 'oh, yeah, you have genesis, khan but you don't have me. if you want me, you're going to have to come down here. you're GOING to HAVE to COME DOWN HERE!!!@#@@!$#'. you can say ANYTHING ELSE about kirk vs. picard, picard is smarter and more civil and professional or whatever the fuck, but nobody in their right fucking mind would say that he's tougher than motherfucking kirk. i am actually literally angry about this, so i need to calm down now. christ, i'm such a trekkie.

I thought it was Riker who had the twin. ;-)

that riker transporter twin episode is some stupid shit though.

original series: chekov...maybe, but that's stretching it. he kicks ass in the movies, he's just sort of useless on the show. but the original cast (chekov being a second series addition) is flawless.

next generation: RIKER RIKER RIKER, troi, that doctor who replaced crusher for one year, yar, data (come on, admit it. he's a super-advanced andriod and he can't understand common phrases? he thinks a 'lemon' is a literal lemon for god's sake. i'm sure the writers kissed each other for how fucking cute that was. anyway mudd's women were way smarter). and WESLEY. geordie would get on my nerves if he were played by anyone but le var burton, but he's a childhood icon and can therefore do no wrong.

deep space nine: the only memorable character besides the captain (who is cool) is quark the ferengi (who is also cool). but the rest aren't even fleshed-out enough to annoy me. wait, no, the short-haired chick with the ridges on her nose aggravates the piss out of me. and the doctor, god.

voyager: it has an indian. and an asian guy. and a black vulcan. and the captain is a woman. only as annoying as that new ghostbusters cartoon where one of the ghostbusters was in a wheelchair. like, what the hell?

evidence that kirk is the best captain: all series after that have had kirk ripoffs that are nowhere as good as kirk because they are not as cool as the godly shatner. like riker, or that really forgettable womanizer guy from voyager. i mean, what the hell, don't you just want to punch riker in the face? does anyone not want to? anyone?

All-time favorite episode is "Charlie X," where the Enterprise picks up some teenaged human waif from a planet, who then runs around the ship melting off the faces through telekinesis (?) of various crew members whenever he's teased or horny. What teenager couldn't identify with that?

I remembered TNG being great when I was 12, but I watched a few of them more recently and they were AWFUL, even the later ones. I think I might have quite liked Deep Space Nine later on, when they started having season-long story arcs, but I never saw enough of them to make sense of what was going on.

How come most of the crew are American yet NONE of them are chronically obese? (except Scotty who's - ahem - ""Scottish"")

In the 60s it was a bizarre mix of US military 'might is right' fascism and Hippy-dippy, 'why can't all nations hold hands?' idealism (though still managing to be sexist ~ Uhura the Captains secretary and Yoaman Rand (is that right) the Captains bit of [onboard] fluff. AND THATS IT SISTERS!)

It should have ended there as it ran out of ideas and people stopped watching it. But OH NO, they had to bring it back in the 80s with over-long, plodding bore-a-thon 'Next Generation' episodes that tapped into the touchy-feely / inner-child / New-Age nonsense that was on the go at the time. I mean - Counsellor Troi = WHY? She even sits on the bridge next to the Captain!! the message is in the 25th Century a bloody social worker is one of the most important jobs on a space ship.

But it was all so clinical and corperate and soul-less, advocating Pro-conformity and how you should be a good citizen. And too much sanctimonious liberal finger-wagging for my liking.

And it starred Whoopi Goldberg.

And how come all the baddies end up as the Federation's (UGH!) freind, taking tokenistic jobs as Navigators etc?

And why was it always so fucking BORING?

Another Star Trek I had over the other incarnations -- BETTER BACKGROUND MUSIC! Esp. that duh-dum-duh-dum-DUH-DUM-duh-dum theme whenever Kirk's ass was in deep ship.

On the other hand, Troi's mother was AWESOME.

And the original ST's music was Varese-influenced, hey? Hmmmm ... never knew that! Maybe I should go over to that "Who Opened Your Ears" thread in ILM and change an answer or two of mine :-)

Troi's mom was cooler than Troi, not more attractive! Aigh, my eyes!

troi: not attractive.

crusher: nuh-uh.

troi's mom: uh.

that guy who was troi's mom's butler or something and was the guy who played lurch in the addams family movies: mrowr.

question: who liked first contact? it was like a next generation episode, only like, cool. plus, supercool supporting cast with alfre woodard and the farmer guy from babe.

someone start a star wars thread so i can bitch about how much that sucks except for empire strikes back.

hey i just remembered something else i liked in next generation, although it's from that bastard movie where kirk dies (falling off a walkway! the fuck? he's saved the universe like two hundred times and he falls of a walkway and dies? fuck). um anyway, i liked when data said 'shit'.

Andrew L has not mentioned his great expertness in this area, for some reason. I know about it because I very briefly worked under him on a Star Trek magazine!

This week: Jean-Luc takes a bushel of surplus grapes over to his neighbor's and they sit a spell. Also, Number One has an encounter with a mischievous mouse.

This is gonna be on amazon in the uk. Discovery was on netflix. Pricks.

They just need to make every episode on par with The Inner Light and they’ll be fine

This is gonna be on amazon in the uk. Discovery was on netflix. Pricks.

who are you mad at

I think there's ire enough to spread evenly among all of the streaming services who feel that customers should pay $10.99/mo. for the 1-2 non-garbage original series they offer.

As much as I want to see this show there is no way I’m subscribing to cbs all access

https://trekkiefeminist.tumblr.com/post/65758607073/tng-7x14-sub-rosa

A friend reminded me of this forgotten (by me) episode and holy shit.

that episode is astonishing on many levels

I think there's ire enough to spread evenly among all of the streaming services who feel that customers should pay $10.99/mo. for the 1-2 non-garbage original series they offer.

neither of those services have produced either of these series

I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally (frequently?) half-ass a post in eager anticipation of a patented sic correction.

'Beverly's Gothic Travails' is a thoroughly wackadoo Trek installment.

omfg:

The swimming lesson that wasn't. Our foster pibble Ginger is perfect afternoon company. @ASPCA @WagsandWalks #AdoptDontShop pic.twitter.com/yDWiXbCSXS

— Patrick Stewart (@SirPatStew) March 9, 2017

a patented sic correction

I asked a sincere question, shrug emoji

ok a sincere answer: I'm mad at cbs for switching from netflix which i subscribe to to amazon which i don't; less selfishly, as OL says i am mad at the fragmentation of streaming services, which completely destroys the whole point of them.

that is in no way the point of them! but it's not really important for this thread to lurch down that road

Yeah in terms of 'point' it's like that thing where television programs basically exist to fill time between commercials.

Bit spoilery about guest stars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbXy0f0aCN0

One is not surprising, the other... not exactly leftfield, but pretty close (centerfield).

Curious about the Vulcan ninjas though!

not gonna lie, i’m psyched

i just watched all of discovery, which other than some ploddingly dubious klingon-scheming scenes and a slightly overextended season 2 finale, was hella dope

so i am down for this. despite what people say about abramsification and greater proximity to star wars fitey fite of late, it seems like they now know how to make short-form seasons play to their strengths.

and gawd if there's one thing i don't miss from the enterprise- or pre-enterprise-era shows (not sure how far back it goes) it's the CORNINESS, glad someone scared the nerds out of thinking that was ever a good idea

Trailer makes it look a little plot-heavy - like something they just plugged Picard into... but I’m still curious

why was Data in a drawer?

there was no space in the garage

Tribute to Agent 13 on Get Smart, maybe?

God knows I watched more GS than TNG

can't wait for this. no i'm not going to subscribe to cbs all access, this will be pirateland for me.

I'm cautiously optimistic. The main positive about this so far is that fucking Nemesis won't be the last story featuring Picard and co any more. And it can't possibly be worse than that.

The real answer, and lol this is probably the first time someone bothered to write this ever, but NEMESIS SPOILER:

That isn't Data, but a prototype android. Data dies in Nemesis.

Oops, that is Data.

Do you think Data will still have the skunk hair from the TNG finale? They cleverly didn't show the top of his head.

I see that Bee decks still exist in the 24rd century. In TNG they used Kem decks, probably because they looked sci-fi-y.

Ive seen Nemesis and I dont recall Data dying in it, which says everything about how engaged I was with the plot at the time I guess, lol.

Did a bit of a squee when 7 popped up in trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GOumoL4MIQ

I had Nemesis and First Contact confused, Data sacrificing his human skin in the latter. Zero memory of the Nemesis plot aside from Romulans hellbent on revenge.

Spoiler alert on the second worst Star Trek movie I guess

my worst is generations, followed by nemesis, what's yours?

The Undiscovered Country followed by Nemesis

Oops, the Undiscovered Country is great, I mean Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is the worst

lmao at this early tom hardy eccentricity from the nemesis wiki

Tom Hardy made his only appearance in the Star Trek franchise as Praetor Shinzon, the leader of the Romulan people. Baird and Berman had been looking for someone who resembled Patrick Stewart but aged about 25 years younger; at one point they had considered Jude Law. Baird specifically wanted an unknown actor, and Hardy auditioned by tape after Stewart asked Hardy's agent if they thought any of their clients were suitable for the role. Hardy was filming Simon: An English Legionnaire in Morocco at the time,[4] and decided against using the requested piece for the audition. Instead he came into the possession of a full script for Nemesis and used a different part of the script, and filmed it partly nude.[5] He was flown to Los Angeles to do a screen test with Stewart, and Hardy later described his performance there as "appalling".

Is no one else unnerved by the notion of Picard keeping Data in a suitcase under his bed all these years

where else would one keep one's positronic fleshlight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-EjWU_KtTY

i regret this

This is why you don't throw a gauntlet down in my presence, u see.

Disco, Lower Decks cartoon, and Picard summary from SDCC: https://io9.gizmodo.com/there-was-almost-too-much-news-at-the-star-trek-comic-c-1836392106

Lower Decks sounds a little like Red Shirts: The Animated Series.

Trailer breakdown, if you're inclined:

https://io9.gizmodo.com/breaking-down-the-familiar-faces-and-new-reveals-of-the-1836608419

Mild spoiler but you won't believe how they have a 'so-and-so days since an accident' workplace humor style joke in here.

just finished the dvd box of TOS and am watching the little extras on the last disk

didn't know this about Scotty: Landed on Juno Beach on D-Day as a member of the Royal Canadian Artillery... He was hit by four bullets to the leg, his middle finger of his right hand was shot off, and a bullet struck his chest. His life was saved when that hit a silver cigarette case which had been given to him by his brother.

meanwhile, george takai was in an american internment camp.

Doohan’s son posted a nice thread about this on the anniversary this year.

Artillery Lt. Doohan was one of 14,000 Canadian soldiers who stormed the beach. He once said they were more afraid of drowning than the actual battle. He led his men across an anti-tank mine field. Fortunately none exploded as the men weren’t heavy enough to activate them... pic.twitter.com/rOki0O0cuQ

— Chris Doohan (@ChrisDoohan) June 6, 2019

Some have asked if Dad visited Normandy after #DDay. He made a trip back in 1984...a very emotional day. pic.twitter.com/v4N2IwA7ow

— Chris Doohan (@ChrisDoohan) June 7, 2019

I just rewatched Star Trek VI, and utterly forgot the arc of Kim Cattrall's role.

Picard's getting most of the hype right now, but I'm also really looking forward to Lower Decks!

on risa:

https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-risa-conversation-daniel-ortberg-colette-arrand