DuracellEnergizer

It still surprises me that Shatner is that old. He looks like he's in his sixties, not his eighties.

Wolfman said:

Love your new avatar Duracell. I have met Laura a few times.

*jealous* 

I'd probably be an alcoholic if I could afford to buy hard booze on a regular basis.

Tobar said:

I'm still wondering what Obi-Wan is doing with Mace's lightsaber.

It's too blue to be Windu's saber (on my screen, at any rate). 

Alternatively, Boba could just be completely silent, removing the need for any type of voice.

Ryan McAvoy said:

darklordoftech said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Why not make the Hutt Empire the main adversary of the ST? It'd be interesting to see the Hutts invade the fragmented Empire/burgeoning New Republic and try to take control of their worlds. Frankly, it'd also be cool to see armies made up of Hutts who like this

This is a brilliant idea, duracell! I cannot put into words how much I love this idea!

 For Gods' sake no! The ST would be wall-to-wall CGI then. With the greatest will in the world you can't do whole armies of imoveable puppet Hutts.

Yes, I see what you mean. Perhaps the Hutts could just serve as the commanding officers instead, with the lower ranking soldiers made up of various slave/servant races.

Anchorhead said:

The EU is another matter entirely.  It's not a single entity (or in this case three) being squelched and damaged by a single individual who has no checks & balances.  The EU is a 35-year-old ongoing collection of works by over fifty individuals.  That will forever be a pick and choose as to what you accept or don't accept. 

It'd still be nice for me to read something new involving the Sith that didn't blatantly hit me over the head with prequelisms.

Goddamn anthropomorphic lagomorphs ...

I'm largely indifferent to the devolving episode, myself.

^I actually read through both only a few days ago. I figured it'd be interesting to watch the show knowing what was originally planned in the back of my mind.

Why not make the Hutt Empire the main adversary of the ST? It'd be interesting to see the Hutts invade the fragmented Empire/burgeoning New Republic and try to take control of their worlds. Frankly, it'd also be cool to see armies made up of Hutts who like this

imperialscum said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

I won't be convinced until the OOT gets a proper rerelease and the EU abandons the use of PT-styled Sith.

I don't really see a difference between OT Sith and PT Sith.

 *sigh* I am not getting into this with you again.

On a whim, I decided to check if DrCrow put me on ignore after his breakdown over my opinion of TNG in the Star Trek thread, and lo and behold, he did just that.

By his reaction, you'd think I'd accused close, personal friends/family members of his of being murders, rapists, or child molesters. Frankly, I think the guy has some issues.

Tobar said:

Like the Yuuzhan Vong. *shudder* 

I'd take the Yuuzhan Vong over the One Sith or any such similar garbage. 

darklordoftech said:

The hyperspace barrier. It's extremely limiting.

I don't like it, either. It's too much of a ripoff of the galactic barrier from Star Trek. 

I won't be convinced until the OOT gets a proper rerelease and the EU abandons the use of PT-styled Sith.

I watched the Holiday Special no too long ago, and I don't understand the hatred, either. It's mediocre at worst, and unlike with the PT, the OT was never altered to acknowledge/mirror it.

I've begun to rewatch Andromeda for the first time in years, and I'm almost through the first season. Some poor special effects/sets/makeup aside, I'm enjoying it, and finding most of the episodes to be better now than when I first watched them as a kid in the early-mid '00s.

I know the quality of the show goes down after the second season, but I'm planning on watching it straight through to the end of the fourth season. I loathed the fifth and final season when I first watched it, though, so I won't bother with it at all this time around.

On a final note, I just love Laura Bertram as Trance Gemini. I can't help but smile whenever this incredibly sexy, bubbly character

makes an appearance.

ray_afraid said:

The Crimson Spider was cool though. Very cool. And Ben was a decent character. The arc had it's moments. But not three years worth of moments.

That's Scarlet Spider, not Crimson Spider. =P

You're right, though, about the length and overall quality of the Clone Saga. Having re-read a fair amount of the Clone Saga in recent years, it's easier for me to spot the bad writing now than it was when I originally read it as a kid. Too bad executive meddling caused the storyarc to be dragged out far longer than was originally planned.

Warbler said:

DuracellEnergizer said:In the end, though, when you get right down to it, I could have lived with the lame rubber forehead aliens if the writers had at least come up with a better explanation for their existence other than the stupid pseudoscientific "ancient rubber forehead aliens seeded the galaxy with DNA designed to evolve into more rubber forehead aliens" crap.

was it really crap?

To me, yes.

Perhaps it reminds me too much of the Ancient crap from Stargate SG-1, another show I've come to have many issues with, perhaps too many years of buying into creationist mumbo-jumbo has left a bad taste for anything that reeks of pseudoscience in my mouth, or perhaps I just don't like the idea that the ST Universe really is inhabited almost wholey by rubber forehead aliens. Whatever the case may be, I utterly loathe "The Chase" and it's explanation behind humanoid species. 

other than the spats between Spock and Bones what great political,religious, philosophical, etc debates did the main characters in TOS get into?

It's been almost an entire year since I watched TOS, so you'll forgive me if I can't recall any major examples -- if there are any -- at the moment.

Regardless, my main argument isn't even that TOS did focus on such debates. My argument is that TNG -- which ostensibly was supposed to build upon and expand the universe created in TOS -- should have dealt with such issues.

I don't think the just because the main characters don't get into these debates with each other means than you can't have a great show. They did get into these kinds of debates with non-main characters in TNG.

I still would have prefered to have seen some significant ideological diversity amongst the various members of crew.

 

DrCrowTStarwars said:

TNG and TOS were set up to explore SCi-Fi ideas and a lot of that technobabble you complain about has a basis in real science and that was the point of the show a lot of weeks. They would take something that was a theory at the time and expand upon it.

Oh, please. Most of that technobabble is pseudoscientific hogwash with as much basis in real science as Young Earth Creationism. Besides, the people-that-be have gone on record stating that all the technobabble in TNG was added to the script merely to pad the story out so that they could have an episode that ran a full hour.

gosh, you let every little thing bother you.

The technobabble is the greatest issue I have with TNG, and that is because it is so outrageously bad and incredibly overused in virtually every single episode. If there wasn't so much of it, I wouldn't bitch about it.

DS9, I would agree does seem to be more your cup of tea. But the TOS? That doesn't seem to be something for you.

I like the characters, I like the themes, and I admire how the creators were able to create a universe that felt so very large and wonderous despite the numerous technical limitations they had to deal with.

TheBoost said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

What proof do you have that making aliens that didn't look at all human was a choice for TNG. They had to use the makeup people they had and they didn't have an unlimited budget as you admit.

In the end, though, when you get right down to it, I could have lived with the lame rubber forehead aliens if the writers had at least come up with a better explanation for their existence other than the stupid pseudoscientific "ancient rubber forehead aliens seeded the galaxy with DNA designed to evolve into more rubber forehead aliens" crap.

Why need an explanation at all? It is what it is.

You're absolutely right. The human and rubber forehead aliens didn't need to be explained at all; I could have been happy assuming that there weren't as many of them as TOS and TNG seemed to imply, that there were many more exotic alien species running around the ST Universe that just simply never made an appearance on-screen.

The TNG writers thought otherwise, though, and chose instead to explain something that didn't need an explanation in the worst way possible.

DrCrowTStarwars said:

why does TNG have to explain anything and TOS and DS9 had those same aliens so why do they get a pass.

Because TOS and DS9 had enough good characterization and writing to compensate for those same aliens.

Tobar said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

As I've already said, a simple thing such as painting an actor's face red and giving him orange contacts would have satisfied me.

So then....what's the complaint?

I am capable of recognizing and appreciating these designs. It still doesn't wash the bad taste of seeing the other 99% of the Star Trek aliens as humans with baboon asses for foreheads out of my mouth.

And anyway, when you get right down to it, the human/rubber forehead aliens are only one aspect of TNG I have an issue with. On its own, its only a minor annoyance. When combined with all the other aspects I dislike about TNG -- the unnecessary technobabble, the inconsistant characterization and writing, the pretentious utopianism, etc. -- that's when it becomes incredibly unpalatable to me.

Overall, if you want to know exactly how I feel about TNG, it's this -- the show is 50% good, 50% crap; whichever half -- good or bad -- that overshadows the other varies from episode to episode.

Suffice it to say, this list doesn't even come close to being comprehensive.

ray_afraid said:

Clone saga anyone?
"No, thanks."
Just checking.

Truth be told, I love Ben Reilly and still consider him my Spider-Man. His death was the main reason I eventually stopped reading and collecting the comics. 

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Oh and did you just call for them to use black face to change actor's skin colour? In the 1980s? I think you have gone completely insane and you still can't prove that any of this would have worked on screen or on budget.

Oh, so this

is blackface, huh?

I suppose your blinding rage caused you to skip over the part about non-human skin colours (blue, green, red, purple, etc.) something Star Trek was perfectly capable of handling in the '60s.

if making aliens that don't look human with out CGI is so easy then you do it. Come back in a week with a complete episode's worth of special effects that use no CGI and look realistic with dozens of extras made up so you can't tell they are human under the make up.

As I've already said, a simple thing such as painting an actor's face red and giving him orange contacts would have satisfied me. Now tell me how this would have been so hard to do without CGI.

Oh and you blast creationism and anyone who believes in it and then you latter blast the writers for not believe in it in and doing so in their script.

You have a comprehension problem, don't you? I don't blast the writers for not believing in creationism. What I do blast them for is for portraying evolution in a completely unrealistic fashion (individuals don't evolve and DNA cannot be programmed to evolve a certain way).

they couldn't afford to keep actors in a chair for six days while they made them look 100% non human. Not even films did that. Again if TNG could do this then it should be very easy for you to find proof.

Still putting words in my mouth, I see. I never said the aliens in TNG needed to look "100% non-human". What I did say, however, is that they could have gone the extra mile and at least painted the damn actors' face blue to make them a little less human in appearance.

But I guess a simple coat of face paint became very expensive between the end of TOS and the beginning of TNG.

You seem to be living in a dream world were TNG had an unlimited budget and access to tech that didn't exist yet and you are determined to personally attack and insult every person who worked on the show and everyone who watched it. 

And I thought I was the master of hyperbole ...

Perhaps I was too harsh in my assessment of the people who designed the alien makeup for TNG. The point still stands, though, that something as simple as painting an actor's face a certain colour could have been done but rarely ever was.

You are just someone who needs to attack the hard work of others in order to validate your own life when if you were challenged to do that same work you couldn't do nearly as good a job as they did.

I've never been in a production of a film/TV show -- amateur or otherwise -- so I have no reason to knock the efforts of others down to bolster my own ego.

You hate everyone and everything because it makes you feel better about yourself.

Here's a news flash for you -- I hate myself far more than I can hate anyone else (Lil Wayne being an exception, of course).

Oh and H.P Lovecraft wrote books,he didn't make weekly TV episodes. It's much easier to describe something that doesn't look human on paper then it is to make it week after week for dozens of extras. The fact that you think there is no more work in creating a make up effect then there is in typing out a story and it doesn't cost a cent more says all there is to say about you and just how far off the deep end you are.

It's not that I think there's no more work involved in writing words on paper than there is creating makeup. It's that reading about completely alien aliens and worlds has stimulated my imagination to such a degree that little gray men just don't impress me anymore. 

So yes in 1987 you could create CGI aliens who didn't look human at all and looked 100% realistic for $1 a piece just like they did on TOS where there were never any human aliens. The producers of TNG choose not to so they could spend all day doing lines of coke off of strippers. Oh and every script was written by an inbred redneck who's mother and sister were the same person and had no idea how to write a script and they were hired because the producers wanted Star Trek to fail. TNG was the worst thing the human race has ever produced and everyone who worked on it should be burned alive for their crimes against the human race and the one hundred percent perfect show that never put a foot wrong known as Stat Trek.

Do you know the number for this far-out universe? I'd love to add it to my list of multiverse worlds.

There I said everything you wanted now I am done with you.

Promises, promises ...

ATMachine said:

Also somehow not surprised that GL played with the statues of Maul and Talon like action figures and said "they're friends!" to illustrate his idea for the game concept.

I didn't think Lucas could add even that much depth to villains these days.