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All Things Star Trek

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Well, we have a Star wars v.s Star trek (sic) thread, a Star Trek into Darkness thread, a Star Trek: Renegades thread, a thread about the TNG Blu Rays (and some side discussion of humpback whales), some threads of Star Trek fan edits, but really we need an all inclusive Star Trek thread.  I say this because lately my interest has been somewhat rekindled.  I’ll always love Star Wars more, but Trek is still very special to me.  It’s a very different sort of series to be compared so often to Star Wars.  As others have said before, they satisfy different thirsts.  So here I will mention the several thoughts on Trek that have been going through my mind lately.

Star Trek: Phase II - Very interesting looking fan efforts to use real but unrealized scripts to complete the original five year mission.  Not to be confused with the aborted series with Xon, Decker, and Ilia (which honestly I wish had actually come to pass).

Star Trek: Renegades - Of Gods and Men really looks cool, and I’ve been meaning to watch it since twister111 first mentioned it.  I’m excited about the upcoming Renegades.

Star Trek Into Darkness - I’m only lukewarm on ST09.  There are lots of things I like about it, but then there are lots of things I don’t.  But this new one looks really exciting.  Saw the new trailers earlier today and they’ve got me thrilled!  I am sad about the Trek we’ve lost, but this new Trek may be boldly going somewhere worthwhile as well.

Star Trek TOS - The BDs have both the new effects as well as the old.  I’d like to get my hands on those so I can enjoy either way.  Nice that we can get the special edition and the original in one package.  Too bad not every sci-fi/fantasy series is commercially available in both forms, if you know what I mean.

Star Trek TNG - I believe this is my favorite series.  But I’ll be honest, I never really have watched anything after it much.  I hear DS9 got really cool with the Dominion War and explored themes that Roddenberry kinda kept off limits.  I hope to get into that at some point.  But TNG really is great.

I watched the first two edits by Biobicbob: The V’ger Incident and Perdition’s Flames.  The idea is to edit the movies to match the Original Series, with commercial breaks and such, and it’s quite interesting as a result.  This is probably the first time I’ve ever sat through a sitting of The Motion Picture (of course massive swathes of the original film are missing, but with no loss to the plot).  I honestly enjoyed it fairly well…for the first time ever!  Perdition’s Flames was interesting as well, though I prefer the original film.  Still, the episodic feel was quite interesting.  I’m looking forward to continuing the series.

Anyway, I had to get all my Trek thoughts out.  What are yours?

UPDATE:

New threads started:

Star Trek Into Darkness Full Spoiler Discussion

Which Star Trek series is your favorite and why?  Who is your favorite commander?

What is your personal Star Trek canon?

Mod Edit: Deep Space Nine - Enterprise 1 - Enterprise 2 - Picard - Ranking the Films & Series

More fan creations:

Star Trek Continues - a fan series that competes with the above Star Trek Phase II as a continuation of the first five year mission under Captain Kirk.

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Too many stupid looking alien designs and technobabble are the only things about Trek I actively dislike.

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I love TOS, though when I was a kid I found it boring. The TOS movies were what made me a fan, and seeing STVI in the theater as a little boy is one of the best memories I have in a movie theater and made me fall in love with the films. Personally I like all the TOS movies--the only ST VHS I ever bought commercially was STV, so what does that tell you. I used to record them off TV--I still have those tapes--and watch them over and over, especially Wrath of Kahn, although today I feel STVI is the best of them by a little bit. TMP is pretty much a mess, but there is a good film buried in the VFX demo reels and really does feel like a classic Trek episode writ large, aside from the failed attempts to do 2001. The Directors Cut is a big improvement, but I have to admit I have never watched it without hitting the fast forward button. I rented it from Blockbuster around 1993 or so, despite both my parents warning that it lousy but it was the only one I hadn't seen, and I never got more than 45 minutes into it.

TNG was on TV at the time and so I followed it and loved it. I felt and still feel the early episodes sucked and that it got better as it went on. It was the last time a ST show was mainstream, as a kid many of my friends liked it, but I still don't know anyone who followed any of the subsequent series when they were airing. I still have my VHS recording of "All Good Things" that I taped off TV when it premiered, with a 1-hour behind the scenes special that aired immediately before. Was a sad day. Somehow never caught Generations until years later, loved First Contact and was thoroughly disappointed with Insurrection, so much that I'm one of the few people who thought Nemesis was a return to form (I haven't seen it since the theater mind you).

I gave DS9 many chances, but it bored me to tears with a few exceptions. I thought it was always "the bad series", and enjoyed the few episodes of Voyager that I saw much more, but when I got on the internet I was surprised to learn DS9 had a huge cult following as an underrated gem. I still haven't gotten into it, mostly because I haven't re-watched it since it was on. I have a feeling it bored me because I was still fairly young when it aired, even though TNG could be a bit cerebral; somehow it always held my attention, with maybe the first two seasons being the exception. After DS9 disappointed me and Voyager seemed "alright" I didn't give Enterprise much attention, though I watched an episode or two. But I was more interested in the upcoming Star Wars films to give much attention to Trek by then.

I absolutely loved ST09 when I first saw it, though I haven't really re-watched it much and to be fair I never followed any of the hype, I mainly saw it because my mom is a huge TOS fan (she got me into ST in the first place), and she loved it as much as I did. It's not as good as most of the TOS movies, but what is? I never, ever understood how people thought it betrayed the spirit of Trek. It's as much classic Trek as any of the TOS movies, in my opinion. People forget that TOS was a mainstream, general audience show that featured comedic episodes and action episodes and had a lot of sex and kung fu in it, it's not nearly as serious or cerebral as TNG and the way people "remember" TOS. Wasn't perfect, but I thought it was very well done. I saw the opening scene of Into Darkness with The Hobbit and all 15 people I was with wanted it to keep going, it was utterly fantastic.

That's the abbreviated history of my minor Star Trek obsession. I'm glad the whole SW vs ST thing is largely gone, and I'm also greatful that ST09 made the series mainstream and cool again. If you liked Star Wars at one point it was seen as pretty geeky, but admitting to liking anything Star Trek after age 13 was like a death warrant at one point.

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I'm with Ender, a lot in Trek to be excited about. Let me add:

Star Trek Continues: Yes, another fan Season 4, but this one has Jimmy Doohan's son as Scotty, Grant Imahara from Mythbusters as Sulu, and "Dr Trek" Larry Nemecek as Bones. There are a few vignettes (with another actor as Bones), but the first episode is in post-production now.

Mission Log: The Nerdist presents a Rod Roddenberry production. John Champion from "DVD Geeks" and Ken Ray from "Mac OS Ken" host a podcast breaking down the meaning and messages of every episode of Trek ever.

Trek.fm: A little self-promotion, but I'm the TOS Editor for this site, which means I'm supposed to be writing the episode guides, but it mostly means I'm on every few episodes of the main podcast to talk about a TOS episode. You can find a link to the episodes I'm on in my sig.

I've got to be honest, I've not seen every episode ever. So right now I'm working my way through TNG as the Blu-rays come out (which are incredible for the most part), DS9 when my wife feels like it (in the middle of Season 4), and Enterprise when I find the time (in the middle of Season 2). My wife and I have seen all of Voyager together a couple times (she watched it live before we met too), and I watched TOS on my Blu-rays.

Just got the TOS Movie Blu-rays the other day and watched VI (with commentary by Larry Nemecek). Holy crap, the DVNR on that is AWFUL. After seeing what Trek can look like with the series Blu-rays, this "restoration" is inexcusable. I hope the restoration team works their way through the movies.

Star Wars Revisited Wordpress

Star Wars Visual Comparisons WordPress

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Best TNG episode? My vote: Chain of Command - Part 2

THERE... ARE... FOUR... LIGHTS!!!

A picture is worth a thousand words. Post 102 is worth more.

I’m late to the party, but I think this is the best song. Enjoy!

—Teams Jetrell Fo 1, Jetrell Fo 2, and Jetrell Fo 3

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AntcuFaalb said:

Best TNG episode? My vote: Chain of Command - Part 2

THERE... ARE... FOUR... LIGHTS!!!

Definitely up there.

I heard that they were really over budget, and all the stuff between Pickard and David Warner was written just to get another episode out of those sets they already built. If that's true, that's amazing.

 

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         FOUR LIGHTS is my favorite TNG episode, as well.

                                                                                                                                 

                                                                                                                                   

         I think that one of my earliest memories was watching the TOS episode about the gladiator planet. My father enjoyed making models. From four years old until I was ten I had the Enterprise and a Klingon cruiser hanging from my bedroom ceiling. I woke up and fell asleep everyday with a perpetual star battle over my head. I had watched every episode of TOS several times. I enjoyed it very much.                                                                                     

                                                                                                                              

         Then SW came along and captured my imagination. TPM had interesting concepts and visuals, but was a little dull. It was still fun to see the TOS crew back on the bridge. I was a teen when II, III, and IV came along. I saw them for nostalgia's sake and they were a fun time. It seemed like a great idea for the TOS crew to go out in a blaze of fun self parody. I said goodbye to Trek at IV. V had a few cringe-inducing moments, but was allright otherwise. VI seemed like a good two hour episode of TOS. Emotionally, I had already moved on and didn't see the point. I watched V and VI on TV.                                                                                        

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                             

          TNG came along. I didn't seem to have the time for it. I could see how kids could get into it. It seemed more sterile and tidy and oddly familial. It seemed like an odd family with an enormous RV touring the space equivalent of national parks. TOS allways seemed like they were out far beyond the frontier utterly on their own. I did like the Picard character. He would have been a good recuring character in TOS. White wine and Earl Grey as a counterpoint to Kirk's cold beer and black coffee. I have seen the majority of TNG eps in re-runs. Mostly curiosity about how they were handling the material. I enjoyed the Q, Borg, and Holodeck episodes. I've read that they were considering having Q give the TOS crew youth and relaunching the TOS series. I would have prefered that they put Picard and some of the better concepts into a relaunch and skipped TNG. FIRST CONTACT would have been a good two hour episode of TNG. I've seen the other TNG movies on video and meh.               

                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                              

           I've seen a few eps of VOYAGER. BorgChick was easy on the eyes and hysterically blatant. Otherwise, nah. I think I've seen one ep each of DS9 and ENTERPRISE. nah and nah (though I like Bakula characters.)                                                                              

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                                

           Though I have some interest in sci-fi, I've been mostly detatched from Trek from after IV up until ST09. I missed 09 in theaters and saw it on DVD and immediately wished I could have seen it on the big screen. I thought it was great as a reboot. More like ANH than Trek but loved the energy.   t

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         FOUR LIGHTS is my favorite TNG episode, as well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               I think that one of my earliest memories was watching the TOS episode about the gladiator planet. My father enjoyed making models. From four years old until I was ten I had the Enterprise and a Klingon cruiser hanging from my bedroom ceiling. I woke up and fell asleep everyday with a perpetual star battle over my head. I had watched every episode of TOS several times. I enjoyed it very much.                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Then SW came along and captured my imagination. TPM had interesting concepts and visuals, but was a little dull. It was still fun to see the TOS crew back on the bridge. I was a teen when II, III, and IV came. I saw them for nostalgia's sake and they were a good time. It seemed like a great idea for the TOS crew to go out in a blaze of fun self parody. I said goodbye to Trek at IV. V had a few cringe-inducing moments, but was allright otherwise. VI seemed like a good two hour episode of TOS. Emotionally, I had already moved on and didn't see the point. I watched V and VI on TV.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        TNG. I didn't seem to have the time for it. I could see how kids could get into it. It seemed more sterile and tidy and oddly familial. It seemed like an peculiar family with an enormous RV touring the space equivalent of national parks. TOS allways seemed like they were out far beyond the frontier utterly on their own. I did like the Picard character. He would have been a good recuring character in TOS. White wine and Earl Grey as a counterpoint to Kirk's cold beer and black coffee. I have watched the majority of TNG eps in re-runs. Mostly curiosity about how they were handling the material. I enjoyed the Q, Borg, and Holodeck episodes. I've read that they were considering having Q give the TOS crew youth and relaunching the TOS series. I would have prefered that they put Picard and some of the better concepts into a relaunch and skipped TNG. FIRST CONTACT would have been a good two hour episode of TNG. I've seen the other TNG movies on video and meh.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       I've watched a few eps of VOYAGER. BorgChick was easy on the eyes and hysterically blatant. Otherwise, nah. I think I've seen one ep each of DS9 and ENTERPRISE. nah and nah (though I like Bakula characters.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Though I have some interest in sci-fi, I've been mostly detatched from Trek from after IV up until ST09. I missed 09 in theaters and saw it on DVD and immediately wished I could have seen it on the big screen. I thought it was great as a reboot. More like ANH than Trek but loved the energy.   t
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       I don't know why my new notebook is having so much trouble with the writing and posting on this site. The first was a draft.
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doubleofive said:


Star Trek Continues: Yes, another fan Season 4, but this one has Jimmy Doohan's son as Scotty, Grant Imahara from Mythbusters as Sulu, and "Dr Trek" Larry Nemecek as Bones. There are a few vignettes (with another actor as Bones), but the first episode is in post-production now.

Very cool.  I hadn't heard of this, but I'll have to check it out.


Trek.fm: A little self-promotion, but I'm the TOS Editor for this site, which means I'm supposed to be writing the episode guides, but it mostly means I'm on every few episodes of the main podcast to talk about a TOS episode. You can find a link to the episodes I'm on in my sig.

Shameless!  J/K.  I'll have to check it out :)

 

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thejediknighthusezni said:

       I don't know why my new notebook is having so much trouble with the writing and posting on this site. The first was a draft.

It's probably the government trying to keep you from exposing their lies.

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I thought Chain Of Command was a bit rubbish.

It's a straight lift from Nineteen Eighty Four it's not even a variation on the same theme like Babylon 5's Intersections In Real Time, it's the same scenes with almost the same words.

And that awful incidental music, and the make-up.

For me the best Next Generation episode is Yesterday's Enterprise.

Proper science fiction and a sense of urgency that was sorely lacking from most TNG stories.

I really liked the weird one with the masks, I wish I could remember what it was called... does anyone know the name of the TNG story with the masks?

I liked the one where Troi turned into a cake and aliens stuck probes up Riker's beard.

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"Cause and Effect" is in my personal top 5 STNG episodes.

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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Would you be talking about the season 7 episode titled Masks, Bingo?

I am pretty sure The Inner Light is my all time favorite TNG episode. I find the whole concept really interesting.

 

I totally ripped it off in a short story I wrote many years back, where a man gets in a fight with his wife, goes out for a walk to cool off, stumbles into a large hole at a nearby construction site, wakes up, and the next thing he knows he is being chased down by an army of ogres, scooped up, thrown into a cage with a bunch of other humans, and sold off as a slave. For the first few years in this fantasy-esque world he is bent on getting home, but eventually becomes invested in his new life, writes off his old life as some weird vivid dream or fantasy, joins in a slave uprising, raises a family, lives to a ripe old age, and one morning wakes up in a deep hole at a construction site, just as discombobulated as the first time around, suddenly finding himself back in a strange existence he hardly even remembers and desperately wishing he could get back.  

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CP3S said:

Would you be talking about the season 7 episode titled Masks, Bingo?

That episode is so strange, but I really enjoyed it. Watching, I felt like I could easily imagine other people hating it.

 

ROTJ Storyboard Reconstruction Project

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timdiggerm said:

CP3S said:

Would you be talking about the season 7 episode titled Masks, Bingo?

That episode is so strange, but I really enjoyed it. Watching, I felt like I could easily imagine other people hating it.

 

Another very very strange episode was the one where Troi is a cake!

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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Don't come around here no more! Whatever you're lookin' for! HEY!

I've given up!

STOP!

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I first got into Star Trek with the Next Generation but quickly jumped ship once I discovered TOS. Man do I love TOS.

Last year I embarked upon a journey through all of Trek. A trek though Trek if you will...(You probably won't =P)

Like many of you when DS9 originally aired I skipped it. The premise didn't sound all that interesting to me at the time so I stuck with TNG. Later I'd jump into Voyager around the third season or so. When Enterprise rolled around I watched that for a while before losing interest.

Having now gone through all of DS9 I can safely say it is my second favorite Trek show after TOS. As I was watching everything as it originally aired it was so weird to alternate between DS9 and TNG. The characters in DS9 were so different and open. It left TNG feeling cold in comparison.

Voyager was really hit and miss. The first two seasons were just bad. It picked up steam in season 3 and was good for a while before having another stinker season. Ended on a terrible note.

Currently in season 2 of Enterprise. Really digging it. I remember being extremely annoyed by the fact that all of the technology looked more advanced than TOS. Was even more annoyed by the Klingons having ridges. Going through it now though I can look past that stuff for the most part. What I can't get past is how frequently they use T'Pol as a sex object. Rick Berman and Brannon Braga really come off as old perverts with the situations and things they put her through.

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Well, Gene was a bit pervy in his own way. Green skinned animal women, and an entire race of bald humanoids who have to take an oath of celibacy just to serve in Starfleet!

Enterprise eventually addressed the Klingon ridge issue, and it dovetails nicely with Worf's unwillingness to discuss the issue when it came up in "Trials and Tribbleations". ;)

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Where were you in '77?

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CP3S said:

Don't come around here no more! Whatever you're lookin' for! HEY!

I've given up!

STOP!

You got lucky, babe, when I found you.

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CP3S said:

Would you be talking about the season 7 episode titled Masks, Bingo?

I honestly thought that was the worst episode of the entire series. 

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You  obviously haven't seen Genesis, or the one where Dr. Crusher gets shagged by a ghost. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?