Star Trek and who watches it.

[TGRF]

Your poll chopices will be public.
Like the NFL thread, I am very surprised to nto see anything about this. What are3 your thoughts on Star Trek? (i.e. thoughts on star trek, star trek: the next generation, and all star trek movies.)

[RabSheila]

What? No love for Deep Space, Voyager or Enterprise?

I'd vote Deep Space if it was on the poll, but since it's not I've gotta go with STNG (although the original series rocks, too.)

[jschild]

Let's see -

TOS - Has some amazingly good episodes, especially for the times. Also has some outright horrible ones, but they are actually not so bad for the time period. Groundbreaking for the makeup of the crew, first inter-racial kiss on TV.

TNG - Helped launch the "modern" age of serialized TV. Consistently good after S3. More "realistic" Captain and a great cast of crew (except Wesley and I love WW). Introduced some of the most interesting villains in Trek.

DS9 - Best Trek overall storyline (that probably benefited from competing against B5). By far most complicated captain and crew in Trek history. Early seasons were very weak however, but later seasons contain some of the best and most emotional Trek episodes ever.

Voyager - Ummm....they had their first female Captain. Ummm....have the distinction of having what is considered the worst episodes of Trek since Spock's Brain. Introduced some of the most annoying characters since Wesley.

Enterprise - Had one of the most dramatic changes of quality in Trek history. S1 and 2 are as bad as S3 is great. Unfort, too late to save the show. Easily has the absolute worst final episode in Trek history. Completely unnecessary.

Books - Buy it if David Mack or Peter David wrote it.

Movies - if its TOS, even numbers for the most part. 5 is easily considered the worst Trek movie. Khan is the best of TOS.

If its TNG, First Contact is the only significant one. The rest are either extended episodes in feel or rip off every Trek movie ever.

The Reboot - This is one of the many reasons why I love JJ Abrams.

[RabSheila]

Originally Posted by jschild

The Reboot - This is one of the many reasons why I love JJ Abrams.

That's the main reason I don't.

[clancampbell]

Next Gen kicks a$$.

Picard, Worf, Data, awesome characters!

[Devil's Advocate]

Here is how I would rate the Main 4 I have watched:

1) TNG- The Best of the TV Series. Some of the early episodes are nothing special, but many of its best episodes rank among the best that has been on TV in a long time.

2)Voyager- The show has the Best premise of all the Star Trek shows. Being stranded in a distant quadrant and facing enemies far more interesting than the boring regulars (Romulans, Cardassians, Ferengi, etc).

3) TOS- Was Innovative and has some good episodes, but the acting is often comically bad (for example try watching any Shatner fight scene without laughing).

4) DS9- Fundamentally, what makes Star Trek interesting is the idea of exploring the universe and meeting new beings. Instead, in DS9 we get to watch them walk around a space station in most episodes and occasionally fly their underwhelming ship that can only hold a few people. If you like Star Trek but think the Trek/Exploration aspect gets in the way and prefer to see people walking corridors, then DS9 is for you.

[chas]

No one who was around in the 1960s could miss the importance of TOS, and a traveling exhibit by the Smithsonian Institute much later showed how so many of the shows were dealing with major questions such as Overpopulation, Viet Nam (or client wars), Racism, etc., etc., etc. While it looks creaky now, it retains a great impact on those of us who watched it as kids.

That being said, here's what I think about what went wrong on the bad shows:

Voyager: Would have been a fine show, had they stuck with the original theme of Starfleet vs Maquis onboard, with an eventual relationship between the Captain and First Officer sealing the breach and creating a family out of the crew. When they abandoned this, they lost their edge. After it went off, one regular actor actually said that the 'humans' were told to keep their emoting down, so as not to make the 'aliens' in costume look silly!

Enterprise: Thematically, had the exact opposite problem. Should have started out filling in the Star Trek universe mythology, which is what we all wanted to see, and didn't bother until it was too late, when they had most of the good episodes, many of which did that.

Reboot: Great humor and acting. But when you abandon the basic canon, why even call it 'Star Trek?' I still have an early large format art book that gives the history and vehicles between present day and Kirk's time, which was perfectly done, but then ignored for the later shows. I hated the old 'Imaginary Stories' in old 50s-60s DC comic books too... Handle other people's work with respect, if you're going to follow in their footsteps. Or start something new. Japanese Anime typically drives us crazy in this way, by coming up with 'alternate' versions of the same story over and over again, until you can't even keep a continuity straight! If you need to blow up the planet Vulcan, you need to operate in a different Multiverse...

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by chas

Reboot: Great humor and acting. But when you abandon the basic canon, why even call it 'Star Trek?' I still have an early large format art book that gives the history and vehicles between present day and Kirk's time, which was perfectly done, but then ignored for the later shows. I hated the old 'Imaginary Stories' in old 50s-60s DC comic books too... Handle other people's work with respect, if you're going to follow in their footsteps. Or start something new. Japanese Anime typically drives us crazy in this way, by coming up with 'alternate' versions of the same story over and over again, until you can't even keep a continuity straight! If you need to blow up the planet Vulcan, you need to operate in a different Multiverse...

That is basically what they created. In having the time travel take place, certain events were shifted out of their original paths, most notably Jim Kirk changing from being raised by a strong father figure to growing up without one. His change in childhood affects his relationship with the known players, but it doesn't completely change who he, or any of them are. So you still have Kirk's brash disrespect for authority (he reprograms the Kobayashi Maru is both continuities), Bone's cynicism, Spock's battle between his 2 halves. But you also have a Kirk that Spock is initially unable to respect, etc.

I love the Re-imaging, personally.

[KERTHWAPPYSMACK]

Honestly I dont waste much of my time with Star Trek unless Im kickin it with my dad. However the Idea of the show is as infinate as the universe. but I feel the original series is hands down the best. I dont think I have met but a small hand full of people who didnt watch "trouble with tribbles" in biology class during the "reproductive" chapter of their text book.

[jschild]

Originally Posted by KERTHWAPPYSMACK

Honestly I dont waste much of my time with Star Trek unless Im kickin it with my dad. However the Idea of the show is as infinate as the universe. but I feel the original series is hands down the best. I dont think I have met but a small hand full of people who didnt watch "trouble with tribbles" in biology class during the "reproductive" chapter of their text book.

Why would you watch Trouble with Tribbles in a Biology class. Real science is non-existent in the episode and there is nothing useful to learn from it in terms of biology (a field science fiction shows and movies consistently get very, very, very wrong).

That said, it's a wonderfully funny episode as well is DS9's tribute to it.

Worf: We don't talk about that.

[KERTHWAPPYSMACK]

Originally Posted by jschild

Why would you watch Trouble with Tribbles in a Biology class. Real science is non-existent in the episode and there is nothing useful to learn from it in terms of biology (a field science fiction shows and movies consistently get very, very, very wrong).

That said, it's a wonderfully funny episode as well is DS9's tribute to it.

Worf: We don't talk about that.

I know Thats what Im sayin, but at least it wasnt a total waste of time

[kolakoski]

Does anyone besides me remember the multi-episode "The Thing" plotline in Next Generation, where some alien slugs infiltrated the highest levels of Starfleet, that was never resolved?