Posted on 02/25/2003 11:14:23 AM PST by pabianice
Timeline:
I was born in 1975, so I grew up watching syndicated reruns of the original series on local TV... loved it! I would draw pictures of the Enterprise and Klingon ships. (Aw, heck, I still do sometimes... Here's one I did a few weeks ago using MS Paint, of all things.) I don't remember a time before I was into Star Trek.
Okay, so being born in '75, I was fortunate enough to miss out on the awful Motion Picture, with its interminable shots of the V'ger cloud and the same ominous chord playing over it 40 quadrillion times, interspersed with shots of pastel-pajama-clad (!) Starfleet officers gaping in awe.
The first Trek movie I can actually remember seeing is The Wrath of Khan -- wow, 180 degrees away from that 'Motion Picture' crap. Arguably the most dramatic movie of the franchise. Ricardo Montalban was a cool villain, the uniforms finally looked like something military, and there was everything lacking in the first movie -- tension, suspense, action, humor, and good characterization, consistent with the TV show. All around, outstanding.
The Search for Spock was not so good as 'Khan,' but it still was a creditable effort. Replacing Kirstie Alley's Saavik seemed a little weird, instead of just writing her out, but that can be overlooked. In fact, this movie has grown on me over the years... especially Kirk's devastated reaction to David Marcus's death. It's always cool to see Kirk's human vulnerabilities, because you know he's going to kick some @$$ afterwards, not sit and cry like Picard. :)
The Voyage Home, even with it's PC eco-nut save-the-whales theme, was thoroughly enjoyable, even without the Enterprise. A lot of humor, a lot of character interplay, and the 20th-century fish-out-of-water time travel device that still worked well then but has since been overplayed into predictability. Very well written.
The Final Frontier... from one awkward campfire scene to another... hmmm, well, the less said about this, the better. It was better than ST:TMP, but that ain't saying much.
The Undiscovered Country -- Excellent. Even though it stank as a whodunit, the plotting was very good, the characters were on-target, life on the Enterprise had a cool, dark, edgy quality, it actually presented some new ideas (i.e., detente with the Klingon Empire, even as the Cold War was ending in Real Life). Christopher Plummer as an outstanding villain, possibly better than Khan. My favorite Trek movie, overall.
I guess at this point I should talk about the newer TV incarnations. The Next Generation started off a little poorly, but it really improved in later seasons. A little too PC, but well-executed. It took me years to grudgingly admit it, but TNG ended up being a better series than the original in many ways. As long as you throw out any episode in which Riker is cleanshaven, that is. Best characters: Data, and perhaps Worf. Worst characters: Guinan and especially Weasely Crusher.
Next was Deep Space Nine. I have mixed opinions about this show. I really liked some of the characters (O'Brien, Kira, Bashir and especially Odo) but the stories seemed to fall flat. They tried to shake it up some by adding the Defiant, but it still didn't really click. One big difference introduced in this series was extended, overlapping story arcs -- an admirable goal, and more like real life, but they also made it hard to appreciate individual episodes without having seen the previous ones. Overall, this series was fairly good, and worth watching, but didn't deserve any feature films. I didn't watch it nearly as faithfully as TNG.
Voyager -- what on earth happened? I watched a handful of episodes and never watched again. Maybe they got better later on, but that's not what I've heard from those who did watch. The characters were flat, and the stories were pitiful. Janeway's command style -- if you can even call it that -- was atrocious. Absurd, contrived moral angst over the stupidest things. Tuvok should have arrested Janeway due to gross unfitness for command, & assumed control of the ship.
Enterprise -- beats me, haven't seen it.
Okay, back to the movies...
Generations -- Technically well-executed, but a crappy story with plot holes so gargantuan you could fly a Borg cube through them. The ridiculous plot sequence of events still drives me nuts every time I see it. Otherwise, it would have been a good movie.
First Contact -- much better effort by the Next Generation crew. Tension, action and a better plot. No 'Wrath of Khan' but still worth the price of admission.
Insurrection -- Quite a good movie, this ninth entry broke the old 'odd-bad, even-good' rule for Star Trek films. It was well-acted and the plot was okay. The characters were consistent with what we already knew, although they really were milking that 'Data goes crazy and disobeys Starfleet' thing, since it was in all of the last three movies. Would you let someone this unstable be a commander of a starship?
Nemesis -- don't know, haven't seen it. Honestly, I wanted to, and would have if I had been busy getting married and moving when it came out. I wish it was still in theaters locally. I'll certainly buy the DVD.
I've gone on way too long, so I'll summarize:
The guy is not straight in my book.
Look, I am still pissed about Rock Hudson!
Ok, sports fans. Nemesis tanked somewhat at the cash box (It will make a bundle overseas and in Video-DVD sales) and "Enterprise" has low ratings. What can put the star back in Star Trek?
IMHO: Ashley Judd as Captain Lefler of the USS Enterprise-F with (Jerri Ryan) Seven of Nine as her Number One.
Star power plus acting chops, beauty and two tuff broads leading a new Enterprise would do it for me.
BTW, I always have thought Kirk would kick Picard's hinney-- YET Janeway would bitch slap all the Enterprise's Captains. She's in a class of her own and never sat in the Captain's chair on the Enterprise.
Remember, Janeway showed her steel by not once, not twice, but three times using her death to make things right. Review all the episodes. Janeway would eat Kirk, Picard and Worf for lunch.
Don't confuse Kate the actress (She's anti-war braindead) with her character who would have taken Saddam to the woodpile long ago.
Just because the gay community likes him doesn't make a man homosexual. Maybe they think he's cute.
What was great about Babylon 5 is they weren't afraid to kick butt, either. Take this quote from the end of season two (The Fall of Night) where Sheridan was chastising the Centauri ambassador for putting him in the position of firing on a Centauri warship to protect a Narn one:
"I apologize. I'm... sorry. I'm sorry we had to defend ourselves against an unwarranted attack. I'm sorry that your crew was stupid enough to fire on a station filled with a quarter million civilians, including your own people. And I'm sorry I waited as long as I did before I blew them all straight to hell... As with everything else, it's the thought that counts."
Can you imagine Captain Janeway ever saying anything like that? No way.
screw him, he's DEAD. What's he going to do, SUE??? I prefer a more dystopian universe... gimme B5 any day.
I like that series, too bad it got canceled now that it is starting to get interesting with Criten being able to open wormholes and all.
I DO like Enterprise but would like to see some more of the American Pioneering spirit as portrayed by Rodenberry in the original. Yea cut the PC crap.
I also like Stargate SG-1. Lots of action, character development and interaction is good too. I liked the recently aired episode where the weasel Senator invited other nations ambassadors for a briefing (Disclosure) on the Stargate, trying to screw Gen. Hammond (from Texas) in the process. It failed at the end when Thor, the Supreme Commander of the Asgard (Little Grey Dudes) made a special appearence and stated that although it was not required for continuing relations with Earth that Gen. Hammond and his team remain in place; it was Preferred.
Check and mate on the Senator. I cheered. Good show. Maybe Trek can borrow some of their writers.
The PC crowd has not influenced my thinking as of yet.
Actually, it is of little consequence, but his stage presence is undeniably feminine.
If he is, and has not come out, that is his wifes problem. The reports that I have seen regarding his sexuality were more than rumors.
The story arc with the Andorians is good, they need more like that. The Suliban and the Temporal Cold War will need a final solution in order to explain why it was never mentioned in any other series.
Other story arcs to introduce/play up could include: 1) The Orion Syndicate, 2) the merchant fleet (there were several episodes in TOS where merchant captains -- not good enough for Starfleet -- were involved, 3) the rise of Starfleet (who were the original three races: Earth, Vulcan, and ???), 4) the pig-faced race, etc.
-PJ
Don't tell that to the Marines whose aviators are grunt riflemen first and do pound ground just so they know who it is they're supporting from the air.
BTW: Space Above and Beyond was about MARINES. U.S. MARINES!
Guess we'll have to disagree. I'll take 4 kids by 2 women over a bunch of rumors or inuendo from a bunch of sexual deviants anyday.
Unless you personally have actually seen him pitching or catching, that's all it is, rumors or inuendo.
That was the one with the spores. Kirk was trying to get Spock mad in order to cancel the effect of the spores.
Spock wanted to arrest himself for striking an officer, Kirk said if we're both in the brig, who will save the ship?
-PJ
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