All Things Star Trek — Page 121

DominicCobb said:

Star Trek certainly had moments back in its day that’d be considered politically incorrect now. But I’m talking about at the time.

“Matter of Honor” was ridiculous, but I never understood what the problem was with “Angel One”, other than that it was dull as dirt and not well written.

Political correctness is about being sensitives to the attitudes and cultures of underrepresented populations. People can put whatever bs interpretation of it if they want, but that’s what it is - treating people with respect. And that’s what Star Trek has always strived for, even if it didn’t always hit the mark.

Political correctness is not just treating people with respect. You had it mostly right with your first sentence, it’s the avoidance of topics and expressions that supposedly marginalize other people or underrepresented populations. The problem is that it assumes that all attitudes and cultures are worth being sensitive to, and it puts the onus on the person speaking to censor himself, even if he’s being completely reasonable, for the sake of possibly offending somebody that might not even be the person that the information is directed at. Star Trek was never politically correct like that. For example, there’s an episode of TNG where Worf kills that asshole Klingon that framed his father and murdered his girlfriend. Picard reprimands him and responds to Worf’s defense (that it was in line with his culture) by saying that he respects all of the different ways of life of his crew, but he does not tolerate deviations from Starfleet regulations, or Picard’s orders, for the sake of cultures. That is not politically correct by today’s standards because Picard expected Worf to essentially put aside his traditional way of life. That’s the difference between respect and political correctness.

Ex. They put a Russian on the Enterprise during the height of the Cold War. Now, the execution wasn’t perfect (pretty stereotypical portrayal, looking back), but the mere fact of the matter was a ballsy move to promote inclusion.

That was actually quite politically incorrect at the time and it was a ballsy move to promote inclusion.

I pretty much agree with everything that Handman said. Progressive ideologies do not equate to political correctness.

I didn’t say that Star Trek didn’t promote inclusiveness because I think that it does and always has.

In my mind it is all about self censorship.

DominicCobb said:
It’s not like you can’t talk about testy topics, it’s more about treating testy topics with thoughtfulness and sensitivity.

So, not like this:

Lol! I get what you’re saying now, we should probably continue this in the politics thread.

Just finished season 1 of TOS as a complete newbie.
Loved every damn minute.
Every one…except for “The Alternative Factor”. What the heck happened with the writing on that one?

Sure it may not be perfect as a series, and there are times it is obvious the running time is padded to 50 mins but this is largely old fashioned S/F which is actually about IDEAS. I’m a complete sucker for this stuff. What in the world took me so long. This is NOTHING like I always thought Trek was. I realized very quickly my childhood and early experiences seeing Trek was simply bits of TNG reruns which had all kinds of people and aliens talking on a bridge leaving me extremely confused as to what was going on.

The BD is very well done, despite some minor things where very rarely the mono may be a fold of the multichannel. The restoration is clearly not as new as the one done for Batman '66, but it looks stunning on my HDCRT screen and I was surprised at just how colorful a series this was-right down to the Enterprise set. And gosh the old transfers look horribly washed out in comparison.

I LOVED the mostly untouched SFX ship shots that are repeated ad nauseum. I loved the score, the camaraderie on screen, the spirit of the production which correct me if I’m wrong was on the low budget side of things.

I’ve watched in airing order as the discs are made that way, but it somehow seems to work in some strange fashion. My favorite episode so far is probably “Corbomite Maneuver”.

Again, what took me so long? ARGH! I already loved doing bad Shatner impressions without even knowing Trek-this has increased indefinitely.

When I get through S2 and3 I’ll tun the films on LD before plowing into the animated series and TNG. I have the BD set for the latter and the purist in me is already saying “couldn’t they have branched the effects there as well despite being native NTSC? I wouldn’t mind the old ones!”

I will ask though: Is TOS S3 as bad as the indicators would have me expect? (Roddenberry leaving due to time slot change etc.)

captainsolo said:

I will ask though: Is TOS S3 as bad as the indicators would have me expect? (Roddenberry leaving due to time slot change etc.)

IMO, S3 is a noticable step down from the quality of the first few seasons, but it’s not terrible despite a few episodes being so. The only episode that was truly painful for me to watch was “And the Children Shall Lead”.

My favorite S3 episodes:
•“The Empath” (which might be an unpopular opinion)
•“Spectre of the Gun”
•“The Tholian Web”

Jay said:
The HD effects in TNG are for the most part very tasteful representations of the original effects and integrate nicely with the remastered live action; they didn’t set out to “improve” them, just make them look like they got a detail upgrade so they blended well. Many of the effects were done on film, so they technically are the originals. I never felt while watching that I was missing out by not seeing the NTSC effects.

The NTSC transfers were horrendous and the tests they did with upscaled effects looked truly awful. Had every 480i effects shot been deinterlaced to 480p, upscaled to 1080p, and spliced in with the new film transfers, they would’ve stuck out like a sore thumb and taken the viewer out of the experience many times per episode. Even though it only happens in a few episodes, I know instantly when they switch to an upscaled shot because they couldn’t find the original film. Takes me out of it every time.

Thanks for the explanation, that makes a lot more sense.

Wonder why all the old transfers are so bad for both series? They’re contrasty and in comparison almost colorless.