Star Trek: Classic or Dud?

Those who really like MU Tilly and, oddly, Chase Masterson’s character should try playing Star Trek Online where they’re all over the place

RIP Nichelle Nichols

RIP wonderful lady <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs4mbHLAFuU

Damn. RIP. And I was just thinking of rewatching the execrable ST V, featuring Uhura's insane fan dance. And oh crap, David Warner is in that one, as well, isn't he?

The doc about nichele nichols & integration of nasa space program- Woman In Motion - is on paramount plus & well worth a watch

drunk history version if u dont have p+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-uJOzkrJV4

smithsonian posted a photo of her red uniform & i lost it

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgsHKsRPgoJ/

"Damn. RIP. And I was just thinking of rewatching the execrable ST V, featuring Uhura's insane fan dance. And oh crap, David Warner is in that one, as well, isn't he?"

He was also in VI - in which Uhura has to flip through a Klingon-English dictionary in order to answer a Klingon hail, despite the fact that (as Nichols herself pointed out to the director) she was the head of communications on Starfleet's flagship.

The films didn't utilise her very well. Even when communicating with the baddies was the focus it was done by Kirk or Spock, e.g. in The Motion Picture, where Spock works out that V'Ger is using a NASA code at a high frequency.

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/enterprise_rollout_at_palmdale_w_star_trek_crew_sep_17_1976_0.jpg?itok=h2O-JhNy

had no idea about this which is kind of amazing

She often recalled how Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the show and praised her role. She met him at a civil rights gathering in 1967, at a time when she had decided not to return for the show’s second season.

“When I told him I was going to miss my co-stars and I was leaving the show, he became very serious and said, ‘You cannot do that,’” she told The Tulsa (Okla.) World in a 2008 interview.

“‘You’ve changed the face of television forever, and therefore, you’ve changed the minds of people,’” she said the civil rights leader told her.

She definitely was mis- and under-used a lot both in the show and the movies, but she was able to be memorable when actually given the chance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPQvVBaOx2E

I’m curious how much Celia Rose Gooding’s role on SNW has been structured to attempt to balance that out

Can't find a YT of it, but Nichelle Nichols has a small, but memorable part in Mister Buddwing - a 1966 film where amnesiac James Garner wanders the streets of Manhattan in search of his identity while a hip Kenyon Hopkins soundtrack plays.

she also plays the villain in the fun Isaac Hayes film Truck Turner

Got the hyperfancy boxset of the updated Motion Picture cut and no regrets. But even the basic one will get you the new commentary from the production team (aka the ones who worked with Wise on the original director's cut as well) and some good short documentary stuff and more deleted scenes/behind the scenes/technical stuff.

stumbling upon this (already ten year old) rememberance from my buddy bob greenberger reminded me that i was at the 1st star trek convention. i am the "cohort" he mentions; we were in the same grade in school.
https://www.startrek.com/article/celebrating-40-years-since-treks-1st-convention

The modern Star Trek family now includes an ongoing series for every taste: Discovery for those who enjoy the high stakes and high drama of the modern feature films, Strange New Worlds for those who prefer the classic format and a lighter touch, Lower Decks for die-hard, trivia-loving Trekkies, Prodigy for young newcomers looking for an introduction to the universe, and Picard for… someone, theoretically.

https://www.polygon.com/23345284/star-trek-tv-show-best-start

Discovery for those who enjoy the high stakes and high drama of the modern feature films

psh, I like the Abrams Treks but Discovery is still pretty much unwatchable

Hello — so I finished all 7 seasons of NextGen : D

I am more of a fan of the series (and understand more references on Lower Decks now) but I will say that as a whole it felt kinda unsatisfying- not enough arcs? like i **loved** any of the klingon arcs, or what little they did w the borg but sooooo many one-off faffing about episodes got a bit tedious personally.

that being said i get why people love it & why there’s such a diehard fanbase but i think for TNG ~for me~ it may also come down to a “you had to be there”? there’s not a lot of visual charm. hotel conference center chic doesn’t really do it for me interior-wise, having lived through the 90’s i dont have nostalgia for that specifically lol

but inject Whoopi’s Guinan into my veins, i love her forever obv

And now… onto Voyager.
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0575/8445/1743/products/plateshimmer_3_1200x1200.gif?v=1630002099

(i assume you’ve already watched ds9?)

voyager is not great but it has its moments, most of which involve either the doctor or seven of nine (and the latter only shows up in season four)

brad dourif tho

also you can and absolutely should skip the two ‘holodeck irish village’ episodes, because good lord

I have to say that out of all the previous Treks, I think Disco shares the most with Voyager in terms of writing and not really laying down the basis for interesting characters. It was also corny in a way that couldn't abide by.

> voyager is not great but it has its moments, most of which involve either the doctor or seven of nine

"this creature has an exoskeleton"

yes i’ve already seen DS9 a couple of times (that was the first series I ever fully dug into start to finish when it first came out on dvd & they had those cool season box sets)

my impression of voyager s1 two-parter is that the quotient of mildly attractive guys (paris, chakotay, kim, tuvok kinda) is already much higher in this show than TNG so they have my interest

still on my first watchthru of TNG. i'm taking my time with it, started in the summer, currently at the beginning of s4

i love it so much, really don't want it to end. i know i'll rewatch it but i'm trying to savour every moment

i've read that people suggest skipping s1 and s2, which is insane to me. they're so great

i know what you mean about the one-off episodes, VG. some are clunkers. and sometimes there are multiple in a row that can be a real drag. but the cast is so strong that they make all but the worst episodes worthwhile imo

borg are just incredible. i'm kind of shocked those episodes aired on regular tv in 1989. they're scary!

that being said i get why people love it & why there’s such a diehard fanbase but i think for TNG ~for me~ it may also come down to a “you had to be there”?

It really was a case of an accident working out, in many ways, and retrospectively the gamble on a non-network/non-cable live action series -- it was syndicated! insane to think about from this distance -- was kinda nuts; there's no way that Babylon 5 would have gotten any similar traction with their path if TNG hadn't shown it could be done, and I very much doubt an original non-franchise series could have been the trailblazer too. And in practical terms there really wasn't anything else around out there that fit the bill -- I'm wracking my brain to think of what other mid-late 80s new TV sf was out there pre- or just after TNG hit and all I can think of are the 80s Twilight Zone as well as Amazing Stories and of course both were anthologies; V as a TV series had only lasted a season and was done in '85. TNG really had the field to itself as best as I can remember, so a lot of people invested in it and I sure did out of the gate. (The great exception for a lot of us would probably be Robotech but of course that was its own hammered-together mythos for an American audience as well as being animation; add on Transformers et al if you like but the point remains that TNG as live action held its own space for a while there.)

I like Voyager, the show is much more about the characters’ relationships than in TNG— of course I like TNG better, but a deep soft spot for Voyager

Table otm voyager is lovely

7, doc, tuvok, neelix all great characters IMO

Yes almost all of the humans are awful but the non humans carry it

tuvix

Poor Picard - he had to go through a lot of shit.
Riker had a much better time.

FWIW

https://trekmovie.com/2022/10/28/kate-mulgrew-reveals-the-conditions-she-gave-alex-kurtzman-for-a-return-as-live-action-janeway/

"There’s been a hue and a cry of late." Im always pleased to see this phrase used

It’s weird to say Mulgrew was undeserved by seven seasons of an hourlong show in which she was the top-billed character, but imo the character really lacked definition except for rare moments of kickassitude when under duress. But seemed like a waste of a good performer.

Is Mulgrew subtweeeting Picard?

We need a passionate love affair between Picard and Janeway on the holodeck (and then the real Janeway discovers it)

Passionate love affair between picard and katie o’claire

Sorry - katie o’clare

Passionate love affair between Janeway and Seven much more appealing, just saying— Seven as hard femme top and Janeway as soft femme bottom, whew. (My dyke friends agree with me).

supposedly mulgrew was furious when jeri ryan was brought on and personally treated her like shit. so make it a hate fuck

If Geneviève Bujold had stuck with the gig, Janeway and Picard could have ended up shouting weird space French at each other.

lol

Mr DAta is fully functional

interesting re: Mulgrew and Ryan, the scenes they did as their relationship developed were really great and felt quite believable ! good acting

Was listening to a podcast the other day where they were talking about how these days if they're recommended a show and find out it's like 5 seasons, 10 eps it's "fuck no that's too much", but seven seasons of twenty five ep Star Trek shows they can just rewatch over and over. OTM imo.

I started bingeing TNG in 2015 and I'm... still on season 4? I think my rewatch is going to take longer than the actual show

I've been quicker with DS9 (on season 3 after a year)

What helps with Trek is that there are always skippable episodes and it's okay if you have a quick snooze during parts of them

Whereas several seasons of, say, The Americans is less time than rewatching Voyager but demands a lot more ATTENTION

Yeah, we're watching the Americans at the moment (a rewatch for me) and sometimes we have to take a break for a week or so because it's so GRIM. And then we have to watch the recaps so that we can remember where the hell we were. With TNG, as you say, you can wander in and out, fold laundry, cook dinner, have a nap, and still follow what's happening. And it doesn't matter because it all resets in the next episode anyway. Winner.

Yes. Feature not a bug, if it's still okay to use that cliche.

Big reason why Strange New Worlds hit so well. While there’s more active storylines across episodes for sure, each one had its self-contained story regardless, so in respects it nicely handles old and new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJHn8-O7mJA

I like the times Picard in TNG has do things that seem out of character just because that's what the script says - like when he learns an Admiral ciommited graves offenses and he's just kind of like "yeesh! what were you thinking! instead of informing starflett
ALso Jameson reminds me of "Itchy" from teh wookie christmas special

Too Short a Season

Still slogging thru DS9 when I find time. Latest watch was "Time's Orphan" (I skipped "profit and lace" cos I hate Ferengi eps).

This epsiode was... alarming! Molly is pulled into some time portal, becomes a feral with no language or social skills (this makes no sense, she was EIGHT when this happened, not a baby), so their solution is not to resocialize her, not to give her therapy, not to hand her tp caring family or specialists but... send her back into the wormhole to deal with it on her own gbye Molly.

WAHT.