Star Trek

[Tiki Tom]

Fair enough. I have to say I’m enjoying Strange New Worlds. But I do concede that, so far (I’m only about 5 episodes in), there is an awful lot of contortions around the emotional struggles of characters that distract from the mission of the enterprise. Am hoping that I’ll eventually get to a point where I “get” where the characters are coming from and understand (and foresee) why their personal histories MUST impact the history of space exploration. I am not quite there yet. But I’m still enjoying the show for being —more or less— true to the original concept, all be it with a strong nod to The Next Generation.

 

[BGR]

Strange New Worlds made more sense after watching Star Trek: DIscovery. The Strange New Worlds series has made some definite references to the plot lines in Discovery.

 

[Zombie_61]

Fair enough. I have to say I’m enjoying Strange New Worlds. But I do concede that, so far (I’m only about 5 episodes in), there is an awful lot of contortions around the emotional struggles of characters that distract from the mission of the enterprise. Am hoping that I’ll eventually get to a point where I “get” where the characters are coming from and understand (and foresee) why their personal histories MUST impact the history of space exploration...

"Young minds, fresh ideas. Be tolerant."
Admiral James T. Kirk, Star Trek III

Ahh, feels good to use that quote on someone else for a change; I'm usually the blockheaded, "Just do it the way we've always done it" member of my family and friends that it's aimed at.

As for the "contortions" and "emotional struggles", these appear to be the sorts of things younger audiences want to see (that, and they appear to want every television character to be *******ual or bi-***ual) and don't seem to care about "plotlines" or "story" unless they involve deeply meaningful discussions that we older folk just don't give a darn about because the writers will waste 20 minutes of air time on that instead of showing how the "bad guys" escaped the police. Where's Quinn Martin when you need him?

 

[Trenchfriend]

Back to First Contact.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Another thing came to my mind!

As we all know, the Mutara nebula in ST II: Wrath of Khan does seriously interfere the sensory of Enterprise and Reliant.

But the technology of the 23th century is still not that advanced to compensate this??

 

[Tiki Tom]

Wondering if the Star Trek franchise has exhausted itself.
The good news being that a rebound is always possible with fresh writers.
Watched the first episode of the new “strange new worlds” season. Meh. But I’m a fan, so will no doubt continue to watch.

 

[Zombie_61]

Another thing came to my mind!

As we all know, the Mutara nebula in ST II: Wrath of Khan does seriously interfere the sensory of Enterprise and Reliant.

But the technology of the 23th century is still not that advanced to compensate this??

Give me 200 years and I'll let you know.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Today marks SIXTY YEARS since the premiere of Star Trek on NBC on September 8, 1966.



I was 11-1/2 and watching with my family that evening, and I doubt if I can express to younger folks what a seismic event in my life it was. I was already a science fiction movie fan (which at that point meant having seen early films like Metropolis and Things to Come, the Flash Gordon serials, and seminal fifties films like The Thing, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War of the Worlds, Forbidden Planet, and The Time Machine), and I instantly realized that this new show was WAY BETTER than the Irwin Allen shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space that were the sci-fi champs running at the time. That cool spaceship! Those fascinating characters! Those stories! And detailed levels of backstory and continuity that had never been seen on a SF series before.

So I was a first generation fan. I watched religiously (though ironically re religion, when the series was moved to Fridays in the third season, I couldn't watch because I was studying for my bar mitzvah and was required to attend Friday night services)... though it took me a couple of years after the show was in syndication for me to see all the episodes. (This was decades before home video, much less streaming - if you missed it when it aired, you missed it.) I wrote a letter to NBC to help get the show renewed for the third season. I attended the second NYC Trek convention, and my buddies and I published an interview with Gene Rodenberry in our little fanzine "Cerebrum."



When I got my hands on a copy of The Making of Star Trek - the first book about the show, published while it was still airing - it was monumentally influential on how I thought about the show, and TV in general, thereafter. (That's where the Enterprise diagram above came from!) Trek was a constant in my life, and when the Trek movies and TNG came along in the eighties, it was long-delayed vindication for the series' value. And of course, I continued to watch the series and films up until the original Trek era ended with Star Trek: Nemesis and Star Trek: Enterprise. (I hated the JJ Abrams films, and haven't watched any of the recent streaming series.)

One of my semi-guilty pleasures now is watching reaction videos on YouTube of young people watching Star Trek eps for the first time. They generally start off expecting the show to be primitive and cheesy, with bad effects work... and are quickly won over by its characters and clever storytelling.

(Of course, I HATE the "remastered" CGI effects that were done 20 years ago - it wasn't even good CGI then, and it looks awful now - and vastly prefer the original, hand-made model shots. The matte lines and grainy compositing are part of the show's charm, and those effects were WAY beyond state-of-the-art for mid-sixties television. Below: the gorgeous original 11-foot shooting model in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.)



Anyway, I couldn't let this anniversary pass without mention. Hail Star Trek!

 

[Tiki Tom]

Thanks for that. I, too, was an original fan of the original series. Though, perhaps, not as big of a fan as you. I confess that I have not rewatched the original series in a few decades. No doubt I’m afraid that, after all these decades, I’ll be disappointed by the production standards, etc, and the experience will diminish my happy childhood memories. Perhaps it’s time to revisit Captain Kirk and the original crew.

Whenever anyone asks me what I want to be in my next life, I always say “a Starfleet officer.”

 

[Trenchfriend]

Happy birthday, Star Trek!

TNG: "The measure of a Man"

Period.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Trenchfriend - Definitely the first four-star episode of TNG, after its rocky first season and beginning of the second when it was wildly uneven - and mostly disappointing - as it tried to figure itself out:

"The mission of Starfleet is to search for new life forms... Well, THERE IT SITS!"

Tiki Tom - I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how well much of TOS holds up. There are some stinkers, especially in the third season, but for the most part it remains gutsy, creative, intelligent TV.

But don't get me started again on how much I prefer the original made-on-film-with-physical-models optical effects (it's part of the show's charm!) over the character- and soul-less CGI that replaced it 20 years ago. Try and watch the earlier original-effects releases, not the "remastered" versions if you can find them.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Another thing, I never really got.
Picard´s civil leather jacket in Insurrection. I always liked that jacket without a zipper and would wear such one, if it would be in mass production and in the street stores!

But what was the thing with the shoulder bulges? I bet, in reality someone like Picard would prefer a jacket without them. I guess, it was a regie thing.