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Star Trek

blessmycottonsocks said:
STSNW S2E2 (Ad Astra per Aspera) I found dreadfully dull.
If I wanted a courtroom drama, I'd watch 12 Angry Men.
The outcome of the case was pretty well signposted and inevitable from the start and we were condemned to sit through all the knowing looks and smug smiles at the end.
Please let's get back to some serious action and existential threat on a remote planet next week!
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I felt the opposite. I liked this episode more than the previous one personally.
 
On November 22, 1968 was Plato’s Stepchildren, Kirk and Uhura had the first interracial kiss on TV.

The station managers around the U.S. “shit in their pants” as angry viewers called the stations.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Because of your positive comments, I thought I would revisit Lower Decks, having previously sat through the first 4 episodes.
No. Sorry. By 5 minutes into episode 5, I remembered why I despise it with a passion (even more so than Discovery).
I hate the goofy way the characters are drawn and I absolutely loathe the SpongeBob SquarePants level of humour.
By no stretch of the imagination can it be considered as ST canon and I don't feel it's anywhere near clever enough to work as satire.
Sci-fi comedy can work well - as Red Dwarf and THGTTG ably demonstrate, but Lower Decks and the somewhat similar and equally irritating The Orville just don't do it for me.
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Hmm... yeah... it has... quirks that annoy me too.
 
marhawkman said:
It's like they forgot what made it good. :/ Lower Decks, despite being a cartoon that plays off the entire setting for laughs, actually got the source material. :/
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Agree- Lower Decks I rather like in a “ guilty pleasure” way... it may be seen as irreverent in many ways by those most devoted to the canon, but it manages to combine a good deal of TOS ethos and TNG, and that’s what makes it work for me...
 
What Tyler said:
Agree- Lower Decks I rather like in a “ guilty pleasure” way... it may be seen as irreverent in many ways by those most devoted to the canon, but it manages to combine a good deal of TOS ethos and TNG, and that’s what makes it work for me...
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yeah, it has a flippant tone, but... the writing is good at what it does. And... despite the flippant tone... the writing actually pays attention to the world, and takes the world seriously.
 
I watched it for the first season. I found it amusing but not overwhelmingly so.
I'm a fan of TNG and DS9, and know much of the lore of TOG (I've some background experience with the canon), but I'm not obsessive or precious about it. It's a TV show ... that's it.
I can't agree with anyone complaining about it being irreverent - what, we're talking about a religious experience here - I think it was meant to be irreverent.
 
I like TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager Enterprise and the animated series, but Discovery and Picard left me cold. It's like they took everything that made Star Trek Star Trek out and left a generic sci fi show.

If I wanted bland sci fi, I'd watch Babylon 5. There, I said it, fight me...
 
I wont fight you but I'm a fan of B5. In fact, I prefer it over Trek.
However, I agree with your opinion on Discovery and Picard, though Picard improved in the later season. I thought the writers had taken the optimism and shine off the preceding series, making them 'edgy', depressing and more soap opera than space opera. I watched the first three episodes of both and really wasn't interested in them. And, as far as 'it gets better as it goes along', well, if you can't hook someone in the first three episodes then if it improves later, you're not writing to tell a story - you're reacting to criticism and changing the story to capture a fan base.
 
Watched the 'Voyager' final two episodes t'other night in which they go through a Borg stargate thing and get back to earth while a Janeway from the future stays behind and does the nasty to them.

Wish they had continued the series from that point with some further missions for Voyager and the crew.
 
Stormkhan said:
I wont fight you but I'm a fan of B5. In fact, I prefer it over Trek.
However, I agree with your opinion on Discovery and Picard, though Picard improved in the later season. I thought the writers had taken the optimism and shine off the preceding series, making them 'edgy', depressing and more soap opera than space opera. I watched the first three episodes of both and really wasn't interested in them. And, as far as 'it gets better as it goes along', well, if you can't hook someone in the first three episodes then if it improves later, you're not writing to tell a story - you're reacting to criticism and changing the story to capture a fan base.
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The first season or two are never brilliant, as the writers and actors find their feet, but you can often see where they want to go, and improve by season three.. Discovery and Picard, however, left me cold...
 
I agree to a certain extent that many writers need to 'find their feet', but I'm somewhat unforgiving when they are writing stories that are based on a vast store of canon knowledge and setting. Test the waters, sure, if you're seeing what appeals, being experimental etc. But mess with established lore - changing entire histories - and you'll run into trouble.
There's so much out there in ST land to work with: what about a story following the exploits of an Orion trader, unrestricted by the Prime Directive? The further adventures of Wesley Crusher and The Traveller? Follow the career of an ensign, fresh out of Academy, trying to find their way in the world?
 
charliebrown said:
On November 22, 1968 was Plato’s Stepchildren, Kirk and Uhura had the first interracial kiss on TV.

The station managers around the U.S. “shit in their pants” as angry viewers called the stations.
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While "the first interracial kiss" is bandied about in reference to this episode, it was no such thing.

However, the network (NBC) was panicked about such a prominent scene with potential to alienate segregationist viewers, and asked that an alternate version be filmed where the kiss was resisted. Shatner and Nichols deliberately messed up the takes without the kiss so they couldn't be used.

I do remember the scene getting some attention at the time, but I'm not sure of how much negativity surrounded it. Nichols claimed there was no viewer backlash, but she certainly couldn't have been aware of all the mail and calls to the network, let alone the local stations. She did quote one mild complaint: "I am totally opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura, he ain't gonna fight it."

Interestingly, Shatner was involved in another interracial kiss on TV ten years earlier, when he and France Nuyen performed a scene from The World of Suzie Wong on The Ed Sullivan Show. I guess white men kissing Asian women wasn't as scandalous. (He kissed her on Star Trek as well.) And Uhura and Nurse Chapel smooched (in a friendly way) on Star Trek a couple of years before "Plato’s Stepchildren", proving that interracial girl-on-girl action has always been tolerated. :itslove::)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_interracial_kiss_on_television
 
Stormkhan said:
I agree to a certain extent that many writers need to 'find their feet', but I'm somewhat unforgiving when they are writing stories that are based on a vast store of canon knowledge and setting. Test the waters, sure, if you're seeing what appeals, being experimental etc. But mess with established lore - changing entire histories - and you'll run into trouble.
There's so much out there in ST land to work with: what about a story following the exploits of an Orion trader, unrestricted by the Prime Directive? The further adventures of Wesley Crusher and The Traveller? Follow the career of an ensign, fresh out of Academy, trying to find their way in the world?
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this is part of why I like Lower Decks. they don't try to be the bestest ship in the fleet... since they know they're one of thousands. And the writers don't try to redefine what Star Trek is.. the sheer number of uses of things that have come before... especially TAS, is great because it makes it feel like the same universe. Like it's the SECOND on-screen appearance of a Vendorian.... and shows us why the Vendorians are not well liked.
 
Strange New Worlds s2,e3 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, was much more like it!
Who could resist a timeslip and dimension shift?
Definitely some chemistry between La'an and Kirk, and Pelia seems to be rapidly becoming the new Guinan.
I doubt that's the last we'll see of the dept of temporal investigation either.
Whimsical and enjoyable in equal measure and, for my money, easily the best of the three so far in series 2.
 
Dinobot said:
The first season or two are never brilliant, as the writers and actors find their feet, but you can often see where they want to go, and improve by season three.. Discovery and Picard, however, left me cold...
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Which one was the series that was underwater and Ted Raimi was in it?.
 
May I constructively-remind (or indeed inform) interested individuals about the existence of the whole TOS in-canon glorious fan-fic crazy emulation that is (well, was) "Star Trek Continues".

It's really reallyreally good, in a guilty pleasures way (watching feels like you've been somehow unfaithful to your own principles, then you just have to go back & get another fix). This has been mentioned upthread a few times before, about 6 of your Earth years ago, but, no apologies for rebooting everyone's sensors about it...

 
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titch said:
You sir are a cad and a ruffian, with no taste or decent sensibilities and a gentleman does not fight fellows such as you.
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I can only presume, sir, you said these words whilst looking in the mirror?:rofl:
 
Ermintruder said:
May I constructively-remind (or indeed inform) interested individuals about the existence of the whole TOS in-canon glorious fan-fic crazy emulation that is (well, was) "Star Trek Continues".

It's really reallyreally good, in a guilty pleasures way (watching feels like you've been somehow unfaithful to your own principles, then you just have to go back & get another fix). This has been mentioned upthread a few times before, about 6 of your Earth years ago, but, no apologies for rebooting everyone's sensors about it...

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Thanks again for this @Ermintruder.
I've now watched 5 of them and it feels like discovering previously unreleased TOS episodes.
The one you linked to above is certainly the best so far.
 
I hadn't bothered with 'Picard'.
I have enjoyed very many Star Trek things.
TOS, TNG, Voyager, (some of DS9), plus all the films, and the newer films.
But I found I got rather sick of 'reboots' and 'prequels' etc.
So 'Enterprise' I tried originally watching, but it was just not very good.
'Discovery'? I dunno - I tried at first but it got more and more confusing and silly and eventually I gave up.
And I've not reached the required level of interest yet to bother with SNW.

However Picard......
.....was awful.
Episode 1, I immediately realised there was a problem, as with a lot of modern TV shows (particularly scifi) which do my head in with the crappy way that dialogue is almost inaudible.
You turn the volume up louder and louder and all that happens is it becomes a louder form of inaudible.
And I've got a new (ish) Sony Bravia with big speakers etc.

But I stuck with it. the plot seemed a bit wayward, what with 'dreams' being woven in like they are part of the story, but then Picard wakes up looking confused. And characters who appear with no explanation of who they are or what they're doing.
Nevertheless, I made it all way through episode 1.
Then I started on episode 2. Nope. I got about 7 minutes in, realised I hadn't understood half of what was being said, or what was happening, so I gave up.

Picard is dead to me. And to be fair, at 142 or however old he is, he might as well be.
 
Trevp666 said:
I hadn't bothered with 'Picard'.
I have enjoyed very many Star Trek things.
TOS, TNG, Voyager, (some of DS9), plus all the films, and the newer films.
But I found I got rather sick of 'reboots' and 'prequels' etc.
So 'Enterprise' I tried originally watching, but it was just not very good.
'Discovery'? I dunno - I tried at first but it got more and more confusing and silly and eventually I gave up.
And I've not reached the required level of interest yet to bother with SNW.

However Picard......
.....was awful.
Episode 1, I immediately realised there was a problem, as with a lot of modern TV shows (particularly scifi) which do my head in with the crappy way that dialogue is almost inaudible.
You turn the volume up louder and louder and all that happens is it becomes a louder form of inaudible.
And I've got a new (ish) Sony Bravia with big speakers etc.

But I stuck with it. the plot seemed a bit wayward, what with 'dreams' being woven in like they are part of the story, but then Picard wakes up looking confused. And characters who appear with no explanation of who they are or what they're doing.
Nevertheless, I made it all way through episode 1.
Then I started on episode 2. Nope. I got about 7 minutes in, realised I hadn't understood half of what was being said, or what was happening, so I gave up.

Picard is dead to me. And to be fair, at 142 or however old he is, he might as well be.
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Enterprise is weird. It starts and ends where you'd expect a direct prequel to... it's just... why go to the wibbly wobbly timey-wimey dimension?!?!?!
 
Ermintruder said:
May I constructively-remind (or indeed inform) interested individuals about the existence of the whole TOS in-canon glorious fan-fic crazy emulation that is (well, was) "Star Trek Continues".

It's really reallyreally good, in a guilty pleasures way (watching feels like you've been somehow unfaithful to your own principles, then you just have to go back & get another fix). This has been mentioned upthread a few times before, about 6 of your Earth years ago, but, no apologies for rebooting everyone's sensors about it...

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Why's the Kirk character behaving like a massive bell end in this fan film?. Am I missing something in the storyline?.
 
Because he's Kirk.
Duhhh.
Seriously, to be in command you have to have absolute confidence in your ability. After all, you are the End Word. You represent The Law.
This confidence has to be based on ability, but the one thing that comes in officer training is that the reason that you are looked to for decisions is because you've 'got there' for your responsibility.
In theory.
This usually shows itself as arrogance. That "What I say is right!" bit.
I'd direct m'learned collegues to an old Spy TV series called "The Sandbaggers". Great, nitty-gritty cold war spy shit. Check it out.
Anyhow, the 'hero' of this series accepts his arrogance along with his fallibility. But, ultimately, he is an enormous bell end.
In reality, there are no saints or heroes.
To get to a position of responsibility, you need to be capable, experienced and the willingness to accept that responsibility.

There is a huge supply of examples of leaders being absolutely enormous bell ends. Some got the job done, some didn't.

That's humans for you, folks.
 
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Strange New Worlds s2,e4 Among the Lotus Eaters was excellent, with a very TOS vibe.
A while back I asked for existential dangers on a remote planet and this episode really delivered.
After a ropey couple of episodes, this series is really beginning to take off.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
Strange New Worlds s2,e4 Among the Lotus Eaters was excellent, with a very TOS vibe.
A while back I asked for existential dangers on a remote planet and this episode really delivered.
After a ropey couple of episodes, this series is really beginning to take off.
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I've liked all the episodes so far. Really enjoyed the La'an and Kirk episode.
 
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