BigJKO

A Dedicated Thread For Talking About Star Trek Episodes

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Speaking of Mr. Star Trek, does Gene Roddenberry's involvement stop at some point through TNG and is that why the quality supposedly goes upwards?

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Awww.... That's a damn shame. They even telegraph their impending second invasion at the end, don't they? Damnit, Star Trek Dude. Why couldn't you skip that god damn Sherlock Holmes episode and put another body snatcher one in instead?!

 

That was clearly meant to be a larger plot, but I think it was a victim of the writers' strike, or perhaps just a lot of turnover in the writing department. There are some other loose threads like that throughout the series.

 

My brother and I have been gradually working our way through DS9. I had never seen most of it, but it's clearly some of the best Trek. The characters are more consistently written and acted than in any of the other series, and it's equally entertaining when they have a big conflict as when they're screwing around with some bullshit Ferengi hijinks or whatever.

 

Even Lwaxana Troi's episodes are way better than those in TNG.

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Speaking of Mr. Star Trek, does Gene Roddenberry's involvement stop at some point through TNG and is that why the quality supposedly goes upwards?

 

Roddenberry passed away at the beginning of Season 5 of TNG (Unification I is dedicated to his memory).  After that, for the most part, the producers tried to stick with his original vision but they deviated more and more as time went on.  As a joke, the writers used to blindfold the bust of Roddenberry they had whenever they were about to violate one of his rules (such Gambit, Part I which has space pirates in it).

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Roddenberry passed away at the beginning of Season 5 of TNG (Unification I is dedicated to his memory).  After that, for the most part, the producers tried to stick with his original vision but they deviated more and more as time went on.  As a joke, the writers used to blindfold the bust of Roddenberry they had whenever they were about to violate one of his rules (such Gambit, Part I which has space pirates in it).

 

Now I'm curious. What were the rest of his rules?

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It's so weird how goofy they allow themselves to be. Completely opposite of what I assumed this would be. It's still takes itself seriously, but every now and then it turns into a bad 80's sitcom, with the crew making some awkward joke and everyone awkwardly laughing at themselves. Cue smooth, family friendly fun music!

 

Also, the editing and acting is so hilariously off, sometimes (well.. most of the time) making a lot of the situations much more awkward than they should be. Unless that's just the intended effect?!

 

Secret Asian Man, any standout episodes in Season 2 I should definitely watch, if I end up skipping episodes?

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Now I'm curious. What were the rest of his rules?

 

I don't know all of them but I do know that the previously mentioned Conspiracy episode wasn't originally going to be an alien takeover, but instead involve a military coup.  But Roddenberry was against the idea because he said Starfleet would never stoop to that and insisted that it be aliens instead.

 

Also the reason the Federation doesn't have cloaking technology is because Roddenberry said "our heroes don't sneak around" so they created a treaty in the show in which the Federation agreed not to develop cloaking devices.

 

Both of those rules are broken later in DS9.

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Secret Asian Man, any standout episodes in Season 2 I should definitely watch, if I end up skipping episodes?

 

Really the only one I would definitely recommend is The Measure of a ManA Matter of Honor is kind of interesting if you like Riker and Klingons.  Q Who has some important plot points in it.  The Emissary has some significance for Worf that will have repercussions later on.  The rest are probably skippable.

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Alright, I watched 'The Measure of Man' - Great episode. Picard was awesome, Data got some emotional range of sorts, even Riker was great. Also, Whoopi Goldberg was there. The scientist dude was awkward.. I can never tell if the actor is just weird or if he got bad direction or what.. It's probably a bit of both. :tup: :tup:

 

Also watched 'The Emissary'. Holy shit that Klingon woman.. She was really awful. The actor delivered every line in some weirdly, over-dramatic, sleazy way throughout. I guess she was trying to come off as funny and sarcastic, but it was just bad. The episode was fine, not particularly good.  :tdown:  :tmeh:

 

I might catch couple more episodes of this season and then move onto The Hopefully Brilliant Third Season.

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Also watched 'The Emissary'. Holy shit that Klingon woman.. She was really awful. The actor delivered every line in some weirdly, over-dramatic, sleazy way throughout. I guess she was trying to come off as funny and sarcastic, but it was just bad. The episode was fine, not particularly good.  :tdown:  :tmeh:

 

The Emissary isn't a great episode, but like I said, it will have some importance for Worf later on, which is the only reason I suggested it.

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Decided to watch the final S2 episode, because all season closers are bound to be comparatively good, so -- what the hell, Riker clip show?!

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Couldn't believe it!

 

I really enjoyed Deja Q and Yesterday's Enterprise. The latter felt very LOST to me.

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I rewatched all of Voyager a month or so ago (hadn't watched it since it aired here). I enjoyed it for the most part and I don't think it quite deserves all the crap it gets. It has its share of annoying and/or underdeveloped characters, but so does every other Star Trek show and for me the characters I did like made it worth watching. Or maybe it's just nostalgia. The two-part conclusion was unsatisfying though, they put the denoument at the start and then wipe it from the timeline. I tend to like the time travel episodes but that one was a bummer.

 

Because I semi-marathoned it the episodes blend together a bit, but some that stand out for me are "Night" (I think they sold how depressing that blackness was), "Timeless" (Harry Kim gets to act! Has a great teaser too), "Dreadnought", (not a very original idea but I thought it had some great dialogue), "Counterpoint" and well, quite a few more. It had more great episodes than terrible ones, even though it had a fair amount of terrible ones. Also, I know that people hate on Janeway a bit because she can be a bit inconsistent from episode from episode, but I still like her simply because of Kate Mulgrew.

 

Probably going to watch TNG next.

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Wow, SecretAsianMan has recommended some genuinely good episodes of sci-fi drama here. Yesterday's Enterprise and Best Of Both Worlds are cracking sci-fi and The Drumhead feels eerily relevant.

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Yes, all the episodes He recommended are stellar. I'm really liking TNG a lot now that I'm well into the third season.

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Wow, SecretAsianMan has recommended some genuinely good episodes of sci-fi drama here. Yesterday's Enterprise and Best Of Both Worlds are cracking sci-fi and The Drumhead feels eerily relevant.

a big part of why I enjoyed First Contact was the continuation of the borg arc, specifically Picard's character arc.

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I'm glad you guys are liking my recommends.  I will say that a few of them are on the goofier/not as good side, but I was trying to spread it out among all the seasons.  Relics in particular is notable only because it has Scotty in it.  Unification also has a TOS cast member.

 

 

a big part of why I enjoyed First Contact was the continuation of the borg arc, specifically Picard's character arc.

 

Yeah, First Contact is definitely the best TNG movie largely because of that.

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So, is there room in this thread for Babylon 5 love? I'm watching through again and the graphics are pretty dated, but I still love it.

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