Comment Stream

Re: TAS S1: More Tribbles, More Troubles

I believe that turned out to be an urban legend, Nolan. There was a book about TAS released a couple of years ago and I either learned that that was not true or perhaps I heard it from an interview with the author.

Dude just liked pink I guess.

Re: TAS S1: The Survivor

Yeah, Chris is right about Ted Knight being the voice of Carter Winston.

This is the second best episode of the series, imo.

Re: ENT S2: A Night in Sickbay

Bakula can be very good, but he is miscast as an authority figure. Stern or angry character moments just don't fit what he does best which is to play a likeable everyman.


But let's be real: Laurence Olivier couldn't put over the scripts that Braga and Berman were churning out. The first two seasons sucked almost as bad as Voyager.

Mulgrew is still the worst of the classic Trek captains, imo. All of the classic captains (other than PS) had a tendency to overact occasionally, but she didn't have Shatner's charisma, Brooks' gravitas, or Bakula's innate likeability.

Re: VOY S6: Muse

What we see in it is good writing. If you've been watching a lot of post-DS9 Trek recently you may have forgotten what it looks like.

The episode is working on multiple levels. There's more going on than just another show about a crashed shuttle. Read some more of the more thoughtful comments in this thread and give it another watch.

Re: DS9 S4: The Way of the Warrior

DS9 is simply the best Trek series. It was the best when it originally aired, but I think the distance between it and number 2 (TNG) has grown. DS9 has aged much better.

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

Marina Sirtis is a terrible actress. She's been playing the same role for 35 years and still sucks.

The Troi character is also problematic because her powers are more trouble than they're worth from a writing standpoint. 90% of the time she is stating the obvious or the writers are having to come up with some reason why her powers aren't working at the moment.

Re: VOY S6: Memorial

"janeway’s decision at the end came close to derailing the whole thing for me."


It's completely insane, but that can be said for a lot of choices that Janeway and Archer made.

Re: VOY S5: Course: Oblivion

I've been watching some Twilight Zone recently. So many classic episodes.

FYI: Gene Roddenberry delivered a eulogy at Rod Serling's memorial service in 1975.

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

Disney produces pap. Always has, and always will. People used to ween themselves off their saccharine drivel by the age of eight or ten, but now they lap up pablum from the cradle to the grave.

30 year olds watching Disney and reading YA novels is not healthy, imo. Ditto for adults who watch comic book movies and "wrasslin'."

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

Now who's being naive, Kay?

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

Lonesome Dove was a great adaptation. Great book and a great movie. For science fiction I'd probably go with the Time Machine. The book and movie are different, but they're both still classics.

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

"I truly feel sorry for people who didn't enjoy S3 of Picard. Yes, my left brain could nitpick the hell out of things, but my right brain can't deny that I also had a lot of fun watching it as well.''


Modern Trek: It's great - if you turn half of your brain off.

Re: PIC S3: The Last Generation

memberberry wine makes you guys maudlin.

Re: SNW S1: A Quality of Mercy

"They've written Pike like a guy who quotes business self-help books to impress his wife's work friends."


Great line.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

Section 31 movie?

I clicked on a thread about it at Trekbbs. First comment I see reads "Sure, why not? I'll give it a shot, like anything with the name Star Trek attached to it."


And that, folks, is why Trek has sucked for the last two decades and will continue to suck for the foreseeable future.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

A lot of Lucy episodes still hold up. Pretty impressive for a show that old and one that has been imitated so many times.

Re: TOS S1: Where No Man Has Gone Before

Great episode. It would have been interesting if, after they found out that the series had been picked up, they had filmed one or more episodes featuring the Gary Mitchell character and aired them before this one so that his death would have even more impact.


@Saburac

In the Trek novels the barrier is often times mentioned as existing above and below the galaxy. Which explains how Federation ships were able to reach it. I think that one of the earliest novels said that it was a localized phenomenon; an area near the edge of the galaxy that was impassable. A galactic barrier, not THE Galactic Barrier.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

"If you think you're an "educated viewer" for being able to pick them out, and better than all the "unwashed plebs" for it, you're giving in to a primitive human impulse to bolster your self esteem by crushing something, and you've already taken a step back from deepening your understanding of how stories get written. Sometimes a painter's gotta paint, y'know."


Translation: nothing is perfect so we can never have any standards of quality. In fact, you are giving into your primitive atavistic instincts even if you notice shitty writing.


There's difference between "great, but not perfect" and "low-brow garbage designed to appeal to memberberry addicts and people with the attention spans of goldfish." If that makes me a gatekeeping Neanderthal for noticing that then so be it. Without criticism there is no incentive to do better. Without it we'd still be scrawling pictographs on cave walls with our own shit.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

People complain about the fans, but Trek fans are a writer's best friend. No matter how poorly written something is there is a huge chunk of the fanbase who will concoct elaborate theories to make it make sense.

Trek fans are an optimistic bunch. I think that often times we confuse what's on the screen for what we wish was on the screen. While watching we think "Well, I don't like this part, but if they just fixed x,y, and z then it would be great." And, somehow, we just sort of stick with this imaginary idealized version of the shows instead of reality. I did this while watching Voyager; a show with an incredible amount of potential. Eventually you have to admit that having great potential doesn't mean anything if that potential is never realized.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

"I don’t know much about how the TV world works. How actors relate to writers and directors or producers. Do the actors who recite these scripts get to offer their input to the director and producers?"


Say what you will about them, but I have to give Robert Beltran and Jolene Blalock a lot of credit for speaking out about some of the poor wrting on their respective shows. Too bad more of the cast didn't care enough or have the guts to do the same.

I don't imagine the TNG crew has any pull outside of PS. They're probably happy just to get a paycheck without having to schmooze with a bunch of dorks at a convention.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

"I think what surprises me is the group that criticises disco and earlier seasons of picard is the same group criticizing this season."



It's pretty simple really - they still know crappy writing when they see it. Even when it's sitting under a bushel of memberberries.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

"'First Contact'? Crap? Don't be absurd."


It's pretty bad, honestly. The Borg Queen character ruins the Borg concept, and the humor is extremely lame.

I remember being at a friends house while they were watching Two and a Half Men. It was kind of embarrassing to hear them laughing at every predictable moronic joke. I felt the same way sitting in the theater watching the TNG movies.

Re: PIC S3: Vox

"So the whole eight episode changeling distraction is basically Season 9 of Dallas or the entirety of Newhart."

If the show ends with Picard in bed with Vash onboard the Enterprise D I'll take back everything bad I've said about Nu-Trek.

"Go to sleep, Vash. You know, you really should wear more catsuits."

Re: PIC S3: Vox

off topic question: Any of you ever watch Star Trek Continues? I just watched it for the first time recently. The writing and acting are nowhere near as good as classic Trek, but for what it was it was excellent, imo. The sets and costumes were top notch. As I said, I don't think the writing was always great, but at least these guys seemed to understand TOS. That's a LOT more than I can say for a lot of the official Trek media.

Best episode: Fairest of Them All

Re: PIC S3: Surrender

"Go to... Australia and see how casually 'cunt' is thrown about."

^

This new slogan from the Melbourne tourist board is dynamite.