All Things Star Trek — Page 11

SilverWook said:

You should at least stick with TNG for a while. The general consensus is they didn't hit their stride until the third season. The first two seasons have their moments though.

doubleofive said:

 

SilverWook said:

You should at least stick with TNG for a while. The general consensus is they didn't hit their stride until the third season. The first two seasons have their moments though.

I watched them for the first time this year on Blu-ray, and I think that TNG S1-2 are still in the valley started by TOS S3, and starts climbing back up the peak in TNG S3.

 

There have been stories over the years of a lot of behind the scenes turmoil during the early era of the show. Don't know if anyone has written a tell all book about those days.

There was a period in the 90's when it seemed everybody from TOS was writing a book about how Shatner was a total dick, so there must be a market for that sort of thing. ;)

It's easy to forget how controversial TNG actually was back in '87. The idea of a new show without Kirk and company did ruffle some fan feathers. TOS cast a huge shadow in many ways. Some people were prejudiced against the show before the pilot even aired. I gave it a chance, but the first regular episode coming off as a retread of The Naked Time seemed like a bad omen at the time.

TNG eventually got it's space legs, and earned some respect, it just took a while.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I'm starting on TNG now. I'm two episodes in already, and so far I haven't seen anything all that interesting. It's too early to give up the ship yet, though, so I'll give it at least half a season before I decide whether or not to bother continuing with it.

Season 1 minus the pilot with Q is absolute garbage... and even that has its crap moments.  Season 2 improves a little but the stories are still so silly and most of the actors haven't really hit their stride yet.

Seriously.  You could practically skip everything EXCEPT "The Measure of a Man" and "Q Who" and still feel comfortable with everything after.

I don't think certain later episodes would make much sense if you've never seen Skin of Evil though?

A fair point.  I had a memory blank.  I was more referring to the jump in overall quality.

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

bkev said:

DuracellEnergizer said:


I'm starting on TNG now. I'm two episodes in already, and so far I haven't seen anything all that interesting. It's too early to give up the ship yet, though, so I'll give it at least half a season before I decide whether or not to bother continuing with it.

Season 1 minus the pilot with Q is absolute garbage... and even that has its crap moments.  Season 2 improves a little but the stories are still so silly and most of the actors haven't really hit their stride yet.

Seriously.  You could practically skip everything EXCEPT "The Measure of a Man" and "Q Who" and still feel comfortable with everything after.

I'm about eight episodes away from finishing season 1, so I can see what you mean ;-)

So far I've found most of the episodes I've seen painfully mediocre. "The Big Goodbye", "11001001", and (to a lesser extent) "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Datalore" were pretty good, but so far they're the only real exceptions.

I find a number of characters to be pretty decent (Picard, Riker, Data, Geordi, etc.), but they certainly don't have the chemistry the TOS characters had. I don't like Troi and Wesley Crusher very much, though; she's a fifth wheel who contributes nothing more than pointless exposition in a boring monotone, while he is given more focus than he deserves and is, frankly, starting to get on my nerves.

And can anyone tell me what is up with all the human aliens? I can understand why TOS used them - it would have been too expensive back in the 60's to produce anything really elaborate on a regular basis - but what excuse is there here? It seems to me that the creators are just being cheap, lazy, and uncreative.

I'm going to go on and watch season 2. To be honest, though, a lot of the stuff I dislike in future ST productions seem to have their roots in this series and, really, I'm surprised it managed to survive cancellation to last seven seasons.

 

TNG was probably the most expensive series since the original BSG. I think someone behind the scenes (Roddenberry?) expressed the philosophy that audiences couldn't identify with aliens who were not marginally human looking. I could be wrong on this so many years on. There are some truly alien looking fellows in season two. DS9 by comparison has many more exotic aliens.

TNG aired in syndication just at the beginning of the demand for original first run off network hour long programming. It was in the right place at the right time, and caught the wave. In spite of how the first two seasons may seem today, it was a ratings bonanza for the stations that carried the show. It aired back to back with a series based on the George Pal version of War of the Worlds, which had more problems than TNG, and ended after a radically retooled second season.

There was an explosion of original syndicated genre shows in TNG's wake. (Babylon 5, Hercules, Xena, Highlander, Friday the 13th, etc.) That market sadly doesn't exist anymore today.

I guess my standards are too low or something.

I loved the first two seasons of TNG as well as all the rest.

It's just one really long TV show to me. I was in it more for the characters than I was for the story-of-the-week.

My only disappointment was that the entire thing didn't end on a high-note with Star Trek VIII: First Contact and instead ended on what I consider to be a low-note with Star Trek: Nemesis.

Ideally, I would have cut Nemesis and presented the films in the following order with continuity issues (such as the NCC-1701-E) fixed:

  1  Generations

  2  Insurrection

  3  First Contact

Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed Nemesis. I just don't think it was the best way to end TNG.

All Good Things is still the real TNG finale in my mind. Chances are good we'll see the HD remaster for a one night theatrical screening down the line.

With the rumors circulating about Enterprise getting revived ala Arrested Development, maybe a final TNG movie reunion could happen? (The Blu Ray releases are certainly rekindling a lot of warm fuzzy nostalgia.) A little scary to think the cast is almost as old now as their characters were in the future scenes of AGT!

SilverWook said:

 

With the rumors circulating about Enterprise getting revived ala Arrested Development...

WHOA! Don't scare me like that.

Erikstormtrooper said:

SilverWook said:

 

With the rumors circulating about Enterprise getting revived ala Arrested Development...

WHOA! Don't scare me like that.

1. Pretty sure this was nothing more than some fan saying "Wouldn't it be great?!" instead of anything actually substantive or realistic.

2. Oh calm down Enterprise was good.

Bingowings said:

Better half's misheard lyric :

And I will see my dream
come alive at last.
I will touch the sky.
And they're not gonna hold
me down no more.
No they're not gonna make me cry.

CP3S said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

 

I'm surprised it managed to survive cancellation to last seven seasons.

 

It lasted seven years, spawned two spinoff series, and four feature films because it is freaking awesome.

Very true, but that doesn't stop its first two seasons from being crap.

I'm not disputing that, but I don't think the floodgates would have opened like they did (and I certainly don't think it would be remembered fondly today) if not for the likes of Michael Piller taking the reins from Gene Roddenberry and Maurice Hurley in season 3.  As has been said, the first two seasons were comprised largely of elements that made it seem like a pale imitator of the original series and filled with smug, flawless, unrelatable characters who were also pale imitators of their namesake.  Maybe that was still (somewhat) head and shoulders above other contemporary fare, but I'm of the mind that, had it not changed, it would have died a smug little death and be remembered in the same breath as such classics as After-MASH, What's Happenin' Now, The New WKRP in Cincinnati, and any other television sequel that failed to establish an identity outside of its successful parent.  It's season 3 onward that not only gave the show its steam but launched the '90s Trek franchise and the TV sci-fi boom you speak of.

In my opinion, of course... ;-)

DuracellEnergizer said:

This



reminds me of this



which reminds me of him



who reminds me of this



who was played by the same actress who played



who was, of course, killed by this




So, what am I trying to say? Just that "Skin of Evil" is an awesome episode, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

It's this kind of synchronicity that convinces me that Satan does truly exist and runs Hollywood!