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Star Trek

Edward

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London, UK
My problem with the Abramsverse is that there just doesn't seem to be much "there" there -- it's basically superhero movies in Trek drag. I don't mind a good superhero picture when I'm in the mood for one, but when I watch something with "Star Trek" in the title, I expect a certain emphasis on character development that I just don't see in these films.

Granted, I'm a devoted Niner, so my standard on this point is set at a high level -- I often wish Garak would get thrown thru a dimensional rift into the Abramsverse. In ten minutes he'd be running the place.

I think that's always going to be a difficulty for a big screen outing of a long-running, high quality show where the pictures have to appeal to both an informed fanbase and the casual viewer. I suppose it's why I'm slowly coming to prefer a "Netflix series" approach to the literature I'd like to see come to life, as we're now in an era where "television-like" content (as EU law labels it) has the same sort of moeny behind it as big screen epics, so there's both the money *and* the space for character development. I've recently been watching Vikings and adored the development of the relationship between Viking warlord Ragnar and former monk Athelstan. There's simply no way this could have been done so convincingly and so well in a two hour flick as opposed to over twenty odd hours of screen-time.
 
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About the trailer of the new series:

I'm very tense, if these starfleet outpost crew managed to grab this damaged Borg-cube or something!!
 

LizzieMaine

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Of course, Quark is on shaky ground there given the position of Ferengi fee-males. Until, of course, the advent of Moogie.

BTW, speaking of DS9 Ferengi, I was deeply saddened this week to hear of the passing of Aron Eisenberg, who played Quark's nephew Nog, the first Ferengi to serve in Starfleet. He was only 50 years old, and after surviving a lifetime of kidney issues, he died of a heart attack. A fine actor who gave his character incredible depth and nuance, especially in the story arc involving the loss of his leg in combat during DS9's 7th season. Watch "The Siege of AR-558" and "It's Only A Paper Moon" in his memory.

 
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Of course, Quark is on shaky ground there given the position of Ferengi fee-males. Until, of course, the advent of Moogie.

BTW, speaking of DS9 Ferengi, I was deeply saddened this week to hear of the passing of Aron Eisenberg, who played Quark's nephew Nog, the first Ferengi to serve in Starfleet. He was only 50 years old, and after surviving a lifetime of kidney issues, he died of a heart attack. A fine actor who gave his character incredible depth and nuance, especially in the story arc involving the loss of his leg in combat during DS9's 7th season. Watch "The Siege of AR-558" and "It's Only A Paper Moon" in his memory.

I think he had the best character arc on the series.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk
 
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A thing, I never wrote about in this thread, before:

I never forgot, what situation always bugged me, on TNG! Do you remember the Borg-episodes with Hugh? The crew of the Enterprise designed an electronic "weapon" to disable the Borg Collective. This trick would work like a computer virus.

In the end, Picard decided morally against this solution and prefered to use a softer solution, which gives Hugh a permanently portion of indivduality.
But I thought, Picard is kidding me!! The Borg are totally mischievous conquerers and acting like evil computer virus, themselves! I would have loved to see the Borg's organisation breaking down!! :D

How would you decide?
 
Last edited:
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New York City
A thing, I never wrote about in this thread, before:

I never forgot, what situation always bugged me, on TNG! Do you remember the Borg-episodes with Hugh? The crew of the Enterprise designed an electronic "weapon" to disable the Borg Collective. This trick would work like a computer virus.

In the end, Picard decided morally against this solution and prefered to use a softer solution, which gives Hugh a permanently portion of indivduality.
But I thought, Picard is kidding me!! The Borg are totally mischievous conquerers and acting like evil computer virus, themselves! I would have loved to see the Borg's organisation breaking down!! :D

How would you decide?

I did not see that episode as I was turned off early to TNG for the exact thing you didn't like in Picard's decision. It is a very political decision aligned with one camp of modern political thought which, IMO, was suffused throughout TNG.

The creators / writers have every right to put whatever political ideology they want in their shows and I, as a viewer, have every right to embrace or reject it. I found TNG's politics so aggressively tendentious - as with the example you note (as stated, I didn't see that one, but saw plenty of similar politics on TNG) - that I was turned off to the show and, to this day, have still not seen every episode of TNG.

To your specific question, from my knowledge of the Borg - but, again, I haven't seen every episode with the Borg in it - the universe would be better off with it dead.
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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Damn. Now I am going to have to subscribe to CBS All Access.

Re: Picard: “If the writers and production team behind the series are able to keep the prevailing "never enough action" forces at bay, and settle in with a more balanced, character-driven, and cerebral tone, that alone will make the show unique for the genre in this day and age. For Star Trek alone, it could redefine the franchise and set the bar at a new height.”

There are promising indications that the series may be heading in this direction, but we won't know for sure until the show premieres this Thursday, January 23rd, on CBS All Access.”

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ng-overdue-show-we-desperately-need-right-now
 

Edward

Bartender
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London, UK
A thing, I never wrote about in this thread, before:

I never forgot, what situation always bugged me, on TNG! Do you remember the Borg-episodes with Hugh? The crew of the Enterprise designed an electronic "weapon" to disable the Borg Collective. This trick would work like a computer virus.

In the end, Picard decided morally against this solution and prefered to use a softer solution, which gives Hugh a permanently portion of indivduality.
But I thought, Picard is kidding me!! The Borg are totally mischievous conquerers and acting like evil computer virus, themselves! I would have loved to see the Borg's organisation breaking down!! :D

How would you decide?

It's a variation on a theme - can we kill a killer? What about before he becomes a killer? Is it acceptable to murder an innocent child if we're told they'll grow up to become Hitler?

More to the point, I saws a strong strain in that one of the idea that if we behave in the same manner as the evil which we oppose, then we become evil and evil wins. Nietsche put it along the lines of "He who fights monsters should be careful that he does not become a monster himself", though a wise man beat him to the punch by a few centuries with "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world at the cost of his own soul?"

A moral conundrum still being grappled with today as many weigh up fighting for what they belive Right and Good against that which is Popular and will win them Influence and Power. It's amazing how many think it's a simple and easy thing to compromise the former temporarily in exchange for the latter to be enabled to fulfill the former.... Real life ain't always so.

All he has to do is trick them into upgrading to Windows 10.

The Devil is well known for winning over his victims with truths, to lull them into believing the Big Lie. The Big Lie, of course, being not that 10 is a nice and stalbe platform, but the minimum specs MS tells you you need to run it... (and they've been doing that since 3.1....).

Meanwhile, Hugh figures prominently in the new Picard series, and from the previews life hasn't turned out all that well for him. Picard may well be forced to come to terms with his decision thirty years after the fact.

This is what I'm looking forward to most, Picard looking back on his life. I wonder if we'll see a nod back to Tapestry in this narrative arc.

The creators / writers have every right to put whatever political ideology they want in their shows and I, as a viewer, have every right to embrace or reject it. I found TNG's politics so aggressively tendentious - as with the example you note (as stated, I didn't see that one, but saw plenty of similar politics on TNG) - that I was turned off to the show and, to this day, have still not seen every episode of TNG.

TNG got a lot of that reaction, despite the fact that Gene Roddenberry was all over it and there was nothing in it which contradicted his approach in the earlier series. THat said, TNG was often somewhat less subtle with its messages, which did put many off. The unintended consequences of a more permissive age of television: when Roddenberry's idealised UFP society was first portrayed in the Sixties, practical reality required them to be much more subtle in how they worked around the limitations of the day - a prime example being the so-called "first interracial kiss on television" (despite the fact that it wasn't evne hte first interracial kiss on Star Trek - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_and_Uhura's_kiss).

Kirk would probably have sweared:
"To hell with these bionic bastards!!"

And quoting Al Bundy: "Let's rock!" :cool:

One of the marked, and deliberate, differences with TNG was that PIOcard was suppsoed to be much less rash than Kirk, more of a thinker, more diplomatic. Kirk still shows a lot of noble ideals, such as not killing your enemy if it can be avoided, the value of making peace rather than war and so on, but notably whereas by TNG the Federation would always attempt to find a peaceful solution first, Kirk (as illustrated by his treatment of the Gorn, among many others), would fight first, and then show mercy and a respect for the value of peaceful conduct from a position of strength, having established himself the alpha. It's all too tempting to read in the easy, Freudian manner, really. Of course, as Trek always had a component of comment on the contemporary world, there's a lot to parallel the US nuclear strategy, from the Cuban Missle Crisis era notion of "but *our* bombs are *good* bombs, they help keep peace", to the era of anti-nuclear proliferation treaties backed by a notion that fewer such weapons was good for peace. Both valued world peace, but belied differening contemporary attitudes as to how it might best be acheived.
 

Héctor Fernández

One Too Many
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1,267
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Greatest Country, U.S.A.
I have been a fan for a long time. I have been to a few Vegas conventions and have visited the Desilu mock studio in upstate New York.

The last episode I watch was The Enterprise Incident.

20190912_181949.jpg
 

Tiki Tom

My Mail is Forwarded Here
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3,393
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Oahu, North Polynesia
How is everyone liking the new Picard series? We are enjoying it thoroughly, especially the appearances of the old characters from the old shows. The plot arc is starting to get intriguing too.

BTW, in this season of house arrest, one friend is coping by starting all over and watching TNG from season 1, episode 1. I will raise this idea with my family. :)
 

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