Star Trek

[LizzieMaine]

Sometimes, Spock would really get it handed to him -- never more so than in "The Galileo Seven," the episode where Spock is in command of a shuttlecraft on a scientific mission and ends up marooned on a hostile planet. He attempts to deal with the situation entirely on the basis of logic, which leads to rather strong confrontations with McCoy and another science-department officer on board. Spock's "logicial" actions lead to the deaths of two crewmen (remarkably wearing gold shirts, not red), and in the end, he abandons logic completely and goes with a gut instinct which leads to a successful rescue.

The high point in the episode is a moment toward the end where Spock is mumbling to himself about how he's followed every logical course and made every decision based on logic -- and yet he's failed. Impressive acting by Nimoy here, and a defining moment for Spock in realizing that even he isn't right all the time.

 

[LizzieMaine]

For me, the real double-act was Spock v McCoy, Head versus Heart - like an angel and devil sat on either of Kirk's shoulders. Nothing matched them as a double act until Quark-Odo in DS9.

Quark-Odo is my favorite pairing in Trek for the sheer comic majesty of their exchanges. "That man *loves* me! It's written all over his back!"

Of all the "outsider looking at humanity" characters in the various Trek shows, Odo was the only one not only to have a sense of humor, but to revel in it. Almost as funny as his moments with Quark was his constant baiting of Worf. "Tell me, do they still sing songs of the great tribble hunt?"

 

[HanauMan]

Sometimes, Spock would really get it handed to him -- never more so than in "The Galileo Seven," the episode where Spock is in command of a shuttlecraft on a scientific mission and ends up marooned on a hostile planet. He attempts to deal with the situation entirely on the basis of logic, which leads to rather strong confrontations with McCoy and another science-department officer on board. Spock's "logicial" actions lead to the deaths of two crewmen (remarkably wearing gold shirts, not red), and in the end, he abandons logic completely and goes with a gut instinct which leads to a successful rescue.

The high point in the episode is a moment toward the end where Spock is mumbling to himself about how he's followed every logical course and made every decision based on logic -- and yet he's failed. Impressive acting by Nimoy here, and a defining moment for Spock in realizing that even he isn't right all the time.

Yes, one of the more interesting takes on the matter of objective vs. subjective thinking. What I always liked about this episode was how, while the crew were busy yapping, good old Scotty just got on with his job repairing the shuttle. He always reminds me of one of those old army motorpool sergeants. I also like the way he didn't take sides and, unlike McCoy et al, he didn't criticise Spock and, in fact, stuck up for him.

 

[Fading Fast]

Sometimes, Spock would really get it handed to him -- never more so than in "The Galileo Seven," the episode where Spock is in command of a shuttlecraft on a scientific mission and ends up marooned on a hostile planet. He attempts to deal with the situation entirely on the basis of logic, which leads to rather strong confrontations with McCoy and another science-department officer on board. Spock's "logicial" actions lead to the deaths of two crewmen (remarkably wearing gold shirts, not red), and in the end, he abandons logic completely and goes with a gut instinct which leads to a successful rescue.

The high point in the episode is a moment toward the end where Spock is mumbling to himself about how he's followed every logical course and made every decision based on logic -- and yet he's failed. Impressive acting by Nimoy here, and a defining moment for Spock in realizing that even he isn't right all the time.

Yes, this is a memorable one. Well done, well written, well acted and made Spock a better character. So many TV shows before and of that time period had these perfect heroes (with tiny flaws that weren't really flaws) - the Cartwrights, the Barkleys, etc. - that they became boring and formulaic. ST's genius was adding all these dimensions to make the character a fully flawed human (or half human). Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty - they all had their good and bad days, like the rest of us.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Scotty is the one guy I'd want to have on my side in a tight situation -- he was intimidated by no one, he was tricked by no one, and he did what had to be done. It always bothered me that he rarely got an episode that was actually about him, and when he did he ended up being either accused of being a serial killer or went all googly-eyed over the guest crewwoman of the week.

Chief O'Brien was a worthy successor to the Scotty tradition on DS9, but it became traditional there for there to be at least one episode a season where he would be mercilessly tortured in some way. What does Trek have against engineering staff?

 

[EngProf]

Scotty is the one guy I'd want to have on my side in a tight situation -- he was intimidated by no one, he was tricked by no one, and he did what had to be done. It always bothered me that he rarely got an episode that was actually about him, and when he did he ended up being either accused of being a serial killer or went all googly-eyed over the guest crewwoman of the week.

Chief O'Brien was a worthy successor to the Scotty tradition on DS9, but it became traditional there for there to be at least one episode a season where he would be mercilessly tortured in some way. What does Trek have against engineering staff?

As an engineer who used to do research for NASA, I say thanks to you for the kind words about a fellow "outer-space-engineer".
I wasn't inspired to be an engineer by Scotty, since I was already beginning engineering school when "Star trek" came out, but if I had been a bit younger I probably would have. I suspect that he inspired quite a few later-generation folks to become engineers.

A friend once gave a "Suppressed Desires" costume party, which sounds possibly erotic, but wasn't. The idea was to come in the costume of what you would *really* like to be, if you could.
My costume was a red shirt, with appropriate sleeve braid and badge, black pants, and short boots. What more could an engineer want to be than Chief Engineer on a starship?

As for the Scotty episodes, we're definitely not serial killers, but the part about "...went all googly-eyed over the guest crewwoman of the week." sounds perfectly in-character to me. (I know I would...)

Engineers: "You have problems, we have solutions..."

 

[Rumor Control]

Star Trek TOS.
Thus endeth the lesson!

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've watched the new ST, Star Trek: Discovery (which has the unfortunate abbreviation of STD), and . . . I'm not sure what to make of it. It had beautiful effects, and the build to the hook at the end of the first episode was well done. But it doesn't *look* like the Star Trek of old. This is supposed to be set about 10 years before the launch of Kirk's Enterprise, right? That extraordinarily wide bridge and the gigantic, panoramic view screen don't seem to fit with the design philosophy of the Federation of 10 years later. Or is this supposed to be part of the Abrams reboot universe?

If it were going to run on regular CBS , I'd watch it. Maybe.

 

[scottyrocks]

From wikipedia:

'Set roughly a decade before the events of the original Star Trek series and separate from the timeline of the concurrent feature films (my bold), Discovery explores the Federation–Klingon cold war while following the crew of the USS Discovery.'

 

[Zombie_61]

At this point CBS' insistence that Star Trek: Discovery is set 10 years before the events of the original series and in the same timeline seems foolish considering all of the technology looks considerably more advanced. Most of the fans I've had online discussions with have chosen to consider STD as yet another alternate timeline that has no direct connection to either the original timeline or the J.J. Abrams timeline from the most recent theatrical movies simply because that's the only way it makes sense to them.

Back here in the real world, based on what I've read is seems the problem is that CBS owns the rights to all of the television versions of Trek, and Paramount owns the rights to all of the theatrical versions of Trek. They're both involved in the production of STD, but for whatever reasons each would apparently not allow the other to use their "intellectual property", so the people responsible for producing STD had to come up with all new designs for everything--the ships, the uniforms, the sets, the props, the Klingons, and so on--and that's why it all looks "familiar, but different".

I watched the "free" broadcast of the first episode. It didn't "feel" like Star Trek to me and it wasn't perfect, but I thought it was interesting enough that I would continue to watch if they were airing it on CBS' network channel. But pay for CBS All Abscess just to watch it? No.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sparkly purple bald-headed Klingons. Ew.

 

[MisterCairo]

There is only one way Klingons look. Like Canadian acting great John Colicos.

No stupid ridges "explained" by some genetic mutation that smoothed them out and then reversed itself. This is what I see when I watch any iteration of the show/films.

 

[Trenchfriend]

And I would be happy, if there would be more Trek-movies with "Kruge" from ST III.

 

[LizzieMaine]

With ridges or without, Colicos was brilliant. His appearances as Kor on DS9 were wonderful -- he was as Klingon as it gets, but you also got the sense of what it would be like to be a Klingon out of step with the culture of the times. And with a little help from Worf, he finally got his glorious death.

 

[Fading Fast]

Caught a small bit of a "Voyager" episode yesterday and noticed that the bridge looked as if the floor had carpet squares on it and the carpet looked pretty thick (not plush, but not berber either, there was some "sinking in" when the crew walked on it).

It struck me as odd - really odd. After I noticed it, it felt as if the bridge was someone's poorly and oddly decorate '80s living room.

 

[Benzadmiral]

And I would be happy, if there would be more Trek-movies with "Kruge" from ST III.

Kruge always struck me as somewhat unbalanced, even for a Klingon. That's not a criticism! It made him unpredictable and frightening, that he didn't think even as much like a human as Colicos's Kor did. Whenever I've seen the film in company, people cheer when Kirk kicks the monster off a cliff, snarling through his teeth, "I -- have had -- enough -- of you!!" To this day I'm in awe of Christopher Lloyd's performance. A long long way it is from Reverend Jim on Taxi, Doc Brown in Back to the Future, or Uncle Fester in The Addams Family.

Yes; it would be a good idea to have the ST-DIS people (to give it a slightly more respectful shorthand title) encounter Kruge and that nasty-looking pet of his. And Lloyd is not really too old to play him, I'd think.

ETA: From the IMDb "Trivia" page about the film: "According to Robin Curtis in the DVD Special Edition 'making of' documentary, Christopher Lloyd didn't fully understand the use of the communicators. He would often shout his lines into the air rather than speak into the communicator. (An example she used: When he says 'Bring me up' while on Genesis, he yelled at the sky as if the ship could hear him) He had to be repeatedly told not to yell at the sky."

That could also be an actor's interpretation of a character who is a megalomaniac. . . .

 

[MisterCairo]

Regarding the comments about the new series being set before the original in time, and the differences in "technology", we need to remember the original was made in the 60s on a shoe string budget, and the current series using modern tech and effects and presumably a much better budget.

Viewers need to suspend disbelief, but also interpret shows using different lenses. To re-create a set based on the 60s original would look ludicrous. Are they to have female officers in mini-skirts while they're at it? Frankly, Star Trek: Enterprise's vessels and tech looked better than TOS, and it was set what, a century or more prior?

TOS was a product of its time, and not meant to be an accurate "projection" of what technology would in fact look like.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Get your facts right, please. There was no "shoe string budget". Star Trek was one of the most expensive series on TV when it aired, with state of the art 1960s production values and effects. (The budget was eventually severely cut for the third season as part of NBC's efforts to kill the show.)

No comment on the new series, I'm not subscribing to CBS-Whatever to watch it...

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yesterday, I saw this DS9-episode for the first time!

Man, the DS9-actors in the old time! So damn great!!

 

[Zombie_61]

Regarding the comments about the new series being set before the original in time, and the differences in "technology", we need to remember the original was made in the 60s on a shoe string budget, and the current series using modern tech and effects and presumably a much better budget.

Viewers need to suspend disbelief, but also interpret shows using different lenses. To re-create a set based on the 60s original would look ludicrous. Are they to have female officers in mini-skirts while they're at it? Frankly, Star Trek: Enterprise's vessels and tech looked better than TOS, and it was set what, a century or more prior?

TOS was a product of its time, and not meant to be an accurate "projection" of what technology would in fact look like.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: At this point, the only Star Trek series that doesn't fit in is the original series that started it all.