What was the last TV show you watched?

[Zombie_61]

"Balance of Terror," the Star Trek episode that introduced the Romulans. I know some of you don't care for the updates to the special effects, but I think they serve the stories in the eps I've seen; they don't overwhelm them. Here, the Romulan "bird-of-prey" ship is shown in a gunmetal grey color in several scenes, and the comet that forms an important incident in the plot is much more impressive than in the original. Otherwise, the episode remains unchanged, a space war tale that still works even after 50 years. And it concludes with a serious moment, rather than the often too-jokey tags that popped up so often on the series in its later years.

"Balance of Terror" was the first of the remastered episodes to be broadcast, and I think it's the episode that was least tampered with as far as the special effects shots are concerned. I think most fans consider it to be one of the best episodes of the original series, myself included. Yes, it's based on The Enemy Below (1957) and Run Silent Run Deep (1958), but it's still a solid episode that introduces the Romulans as a formidable adversary. Mark Lenard, who would later appear on the series in the role of Spock's father Sarek, said the Romulan Commander in "Balance of Terror" was one of the best roles he ever had on TV.

I watched Star Trek's original pilot episode "The Cage" last night, and followed it with the first proper episode of the series, "The Man Trap". Nearly 50 years old, and still every bit as entertaining as they ever were in my opinion.

 

[Fading Fast]

Zombie you and Benzadmiral are killing me as your posts - insightful and engaging - are encouraging me to go back and watch these episodes again and I really don't have the time, but I want to see them again.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Last night's Original Trek was "Shore Leave," probably the first of their comic/lighthearted episodes. It's notable chiefly for the one appearance of the lovely Emily Banks as Yeoman Tonya Barrows, Janice Rand's apparent replacement, and for Theodore Sturgeon's first script for ST. (I noticed also that the actress who played in "Balance of Terror" as the bride-to-be, Angela, was back in this one, and indeed credited as "Angela." Gee, one week later and she's already moved on from mourning the fiance killed in the Romulan battle --!)

Star Trek: The Next Generation's "11001001" ran last night too. It was the first script for the new series that stood out to me as doing something really different from the original, and doing it memorably. There were well-done little character moments (such as the technically-blind Geordi LaForge teaching android Data how to paint a picture), nice foreshadowing, and the small-screen spectacle of the entire crew of the Enterprise-D (except for Picard and Riker) evacuating the ship. Beyond that, we have a great dynamic between Riker and the exotic holodeck girl Minuet (Carolyn McCormick), and a terrific though very different one between Picard and Riker that we would never have seen between Kirk and Spock. And the detail of having Riker's holodeck fantasy take place in a Bourbon Street jazz club at 2 am ca. 1958 . . . well, it's just neat, that's all.

Good stuff all around.

 

[Touchofevil]

McHale's Navy

 

[AmateisGal]

Just finished watching the BBC series Poldark. I hope a second season comes out soon.

It is! It's coming out in the UK September 4 and in the US on September 25. Season 3 has already been confirmed.

 

[Zombie_61]

Last night's Original Trek was "Shore Leave,"...

I also continued watching Original Trek last night, and watched "Charlie X", "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Naked Time", and "The Enemy Within". "Where No Man Has Gone Before" must surely have confused some viewers in 1966 because the uniforms were different from those seen in the series, Bones had been replaced by Dr. Piper, and Spock's eyebrows and overall demeanor were noticeably different. But I have to give the crew who did the remastering credit for faithfully duplicating the "second pilot" version of the Enterprise just for this episode.

Up next: "Mudd's Women".

 

[Doctor Strange]

As somebody who watched when the series first aired... It was a very different entertainment world then. You saw an episode exactly once, and aside from short puff pieces in TV Guide and the newspapers and weekly magazines, there was no external info. No internet full of recaps and criticisms, or wikis with all kinds of extra detail. No fan communities or raging fanboy experts. You watched on a small b/w TV with fuzzy antenna reception - you couldn't tell what color the uniforms were, apart from pictures in those magazine articles. So nobody noticed those differences - they might have had two senior doctors (it was such a big ship, with hundreds of people!), and there wasn't high enough resolution to notice those costume details in a single viewing.

And I'm one of the people who won't watch the "remastered" series. It's just not Trek to me without the film grain and matte lines on the effects shots. And while I completely understand why CBS felt they had to "freshen" the series and make it look more acceptable to modern audiences (*), I think the new CGI is mostly boring, run-of-the-mill, uninspired effects work that doesn't have anything like the unique look of the original effects. The show is still one of the all-time greats, and after 50 years it should respected as a product of its time. The effects work was GROUNDBREAKING for weekly TV in the sixties, with talented artisans inventing new methods on the fly and killing themselves to get each episode ready by airtime. Replacing the effects shots is a slap in the face to their memory, and akin to colorizing the masterpiece b/w films of the golden era.

(* They haven't done anything about replacing the bombastic music, overdone colored lighting, sledgehammer acting delivery, or simplistic-to-modern-viewers plotting without arcs and subtlety. My 25-year-old son, who I raised as a Trekker from early childhood, now finds original Trek unwatchable for these things, not the allegedly "crummy" effects.)

In particular, the new too-perfect Enterprise has none of the physical presence of the old model work - there's just something about actually photographing something in three dimensions that allows you to somehow feel that it's real:

http://www.startrekhistory.com/models.html

But hey, Trek has been a pillar of my life for 50 years: I'm the first to admit that I have a special relationship with the show, and that my feelings run much deeper than the average TV fan.

 

[Fading Fast]

^^^
On a silly day, I'll get "uppity" about the weaknesses in those original Star Trek episodes you highlight, but as a fan from the early '70s reruns, I'll then remind myself of context and see them again for the gems that they are. I just don't see the added effects as adding anything to the shows. To an old fan like me, they feel like a after-market add on / to a new fan looking for a modern experience, they'll never be enough to overcome the others issues you highlight. A new fan will either be able to absorb the feeling of the time (intuitively or through study), but you won't make them "modern" with CGI.

I grew up in the '70s - with movies like "The Godfather," "Panic in Needle Park" and "All the Presidents Men" showing the graphic underbelly of human nature - but had no problem enjoying classic movies from the '30-'60s (which I'd see on Saturday and Sunday afternoon local TV) despite being very removed from that time and style of movie making. Good work in movies and TV will have a datedness to it (watch the opening sequence to any spy TV show from the '60s and tell me they weren't all singing from the same hymn book), will be constrained by the norms of its day, but if the story and ideas are strong enough, it won't matter and the quality will out.

To your CGI comments, CGI allows for more dramatic scenes of destruction, heroism, etc., but they don't feel real (if they did, I'd have no compliant about their use in modern movies - I don't see a morality to it) and, for me, meaningfully diminish the experience.

I just watched "Spectre" and was put off by how much CGI was used. I get that the audiences expect more today, but when you go back to the original Bond films or the car chase scene from "Bullet," you can tell those directors knew that the real audience impact from a action scene comes from its continuum with the story arc, its emotional impact on the characters, its tension build or release - the special effects can enhance it, but should not overwhelm.

CGI allows for so much CGI (just wanted to say that - but really, so much special effect) that I think some directors have forgotten that the real narrative value of an action scene is its context within and advancement of the story as well as its impact on the characters / theme / etc.

 

[Touchofevil]

Another well done episode of HBO's The Night of.

 

[MisterCairo]

We watched the last episode from 2015's Hell on Wheels, and can't believe we didn't record this year's season (it has been a busy year)! We're watching out for re-runs or their appearance on Netflix.

 

[Bushman]

Kayaking at the Olympics.

 

[1mach1]

Gilligan's Island

 

[Formeruser012523]

Ya'll talking about watching the classic Star Trek makes me want to watch the classic Star Trek. Again.

Was a HUGE Trekkie/er? in my teens. Watched TNG & most of DS9, but gave up on Voyager & never saw whatever came after that. . . . Until the recent films. Wow. Were I teaching a film class I'd show the first 5-10 minutes of the first film to my students. Not one for reboots at all, but these have proven me wrong.

 

[MisterCairo]

More season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, man, we love that show!

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

With nothing on but the Olympics, and with only being able to watch so much before aptly reminded of the incredible social and financial costs of the damn thing, I've been really enjoying the HBO mini-series John Adams, which I've never seen. Giamatti wouldn't have been my choice, but he isn't too distracting. Also makes me wish Turn hadn't just ended. Relationships. Life is about them. Behind most great men, there's likely to be an even greater woman and support system.

 

[Stearmen]

If you want the real first run experience of the original Star Trek series, you have to watch it in Black & White on a set smaller then 19", and with a little snow thrown in!

 

[MisterCairo]

My wife and I watched the first episode, season two of Penny Dreadful, then I watched the first couple of episodes of Broadchurch which is really good so far. Gotta love David Tennant and it's good to see Olivia Colman again, after The Night Manager and, of course, Hot Fuzz...

 

[Fading Fast]

With nothing on but the Olympics, and with only being able to watch so much before aptly reminded of the incredible social and financial costs of the damn thing...

It seems crazy that countries build stadiums and venue just to host the Olympics and, then, like Renault in "Casablanca," are shocked to find that without the Olympics they don't have that much use for them.

I know there is a whole lot more that goes into the economics of hosting the Olympics - and there is country pride, etc. - but I read a recommendation that Greece becomes the permeant host of the summer games to both help Greece's economy and as it would, then, makes sense to make the investment in the stadium / venues as they'd be used every four years at least.

Maybe there's a logic to that - but blowing out your budget for a one-time thing seems crazy and, at least based on what I've read, doesn't really make economic sense.

All that said, Phelps and Biles have been insanely impressive to watch.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I like the new effects work on Star Trek: The Original Series because it often provides a new angle or fresh perspective on something we've all seen 5 x 10-to-the-sixth-power times. We saw that profile shot of the ship moving from our left to right when orbiting a planet so many times. The new effects show the ship at a different angle -- startling views.

Example: In "The Galileo Seven," Spock commands a shuttlecraft flight which is lost on a planet within a nebula, and Kirk & Co. have a hard deadline to find them -- or must leave them behind. The planet is now surrounded by the brilliant green nebula, and we see the Enterprise and its shuttlecraft flying against that background. At the climax, when Spock "desperately" fires the shuttle's fuel as a signal flare, we see the twin streams of burning fuel trailing behind it, and we see that same green line against the planet's disk on the big ship's viewscreen.

Yes, the original effects were groundbreaking -- compared to the stuff on earlier SF TV shows, they looked like 23rd century stuff for sure. But the new ones give us a new angle, something we haven't seen so many times before.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Oh, and as for favorite quotes, in last night's "Squire of Gothos," we have this gem. I'll have to paraphrase a little:

Trelane (on the bridge, having followed Kirk and his landing party who have been beamed up by Spock): "And who is this Mr. Spock who has so rudely snatched you away from me?"
Spock: "I am Spock."
Trelane: "Not quite human, is he?"
Spock (rising from his bridge station chair): "My father was from the planet Vulcan."
Trelane: "Oh? And are its natives predatory?"
Spock (evenly): "Not generally . . . but there have been exceptions."