A Dedicated Thread For Talking About Star Trek Episodes

[Gormongous]

General thought, I viewed the Borg as super cool when they were first introduced, but the longer they stuck around and the more shows they appeared in, the less and less interesting they became.  They're just too "sci-fiy" for my tastes.  I enjoyed the antagonists who felt like stand-ins for real world conflicts more, as the story arcs and character had more meat to them. 

 

One of the biggest problems with the Borg is that they magnify a weakness of Star Trek's writing in general. The Borg are infinitely more knowledgeable and powerful than any other race in the galaxy, so they always have to be defeated through something unquantifiable, most often "human ingenuity". This kind of defeat is interesting and effective once, but it's happened over and over now. "You didn't account for love and friendship, my queen!" Barf. Yeah, I love the Borg in theory, but outside of TNG and very few VOY episodes they're terrible.

[SecretAsianMan]

One of the biggest problems with the Borg is that they magnify a weakness of Star Trek's writing in general. The Borg are infinitely more knowledgeable and powerful than any other race in the galaxy, so they always have to be defeated through something unquantifiable, most often "human ingenuity". This kind of defeat is interesting and effective once, but it's happened over and over now. "You didn't account for love and friendship, my queen!" Barf. Yeah, I love the Borg in theory, but outside of TNG and very few VOY episodes they're terrible.

 

It's a recurring problem in most sci-fi shows of this type.  I like Stargate (which I think is inferior to Star Trek but still entertaining) and I remember a thing one of the writers on that show said when they introduced a new enemy.  I don't remember exactly what was said, but it was something along the lines of making an enemy powerful enough to be a threat, but dumb enough that you could beat them every week.

[Ben X]

Oh man, I just skipped to season 3 and they made the theme tune even worse!

[Ben X]

The new version of the theme tune is like a YouTube parody that someone made.

 

I've watched the augment and Klingon eps from season 4. They were definitely more interesting, especially the clever linking of different strands of lore. The characters are all still rather dull, though, and although the action has got a bit more slick and exciting the plots are pretty formulaic. It's definitely getting better; as the list article says, it's a shame that it seemed to be just about to find itself when it got cancelled.

[Ben X]

The mirror universe two-parter was really cool, although I think it probably could have done with just being one episode. The crappy CG Gorn was disappointing too - I was hoping for a man in a suit, possibly with some CG or animatronic blinking/mouth movement. Crazy Archer was ace.

 

The final episode is super-dull. I know fans didn't like the Next Gen crossover, but at least it's an interesting idea.

 

And I'm DONE with Star Trek! Phew!

[Bjorn]

A friend came by tonight to watch Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (which was fantastic, can't believe I'd never seen it), and he had to show me a recent find that he discovered in his grandparents basement when visiting them recently.  It's a Star Trek Fotonovel™!  I figured if anyone around here would dig this, the people who frequent this thread would. 

 

See kids, before the internet, and video streaming, and DVDs (we won't even talk about tapes), people couldn't just rewatch classic TV shows whenever they wanted.  So they turned great television shows into books!  It was just like watching the show, but with pages, and reading!

 

I had completely forgot that this was a thing, but it brought back a memory that I owned one of these for Disney's The Black Hole when I was a kid.  I was obsessed with sci-fi stuff, so I probably read that thing a hundred times when I was 8. 

 

So this is the Fotonovel™ of City on the Edge of Forever.  I'm spoilering the Fotos™, as there's quite a few of them and there decent sized. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SecretAsianMan]

In general I dislike the Original Series but those look awesome and I would totally watch/read TOS in that format.

[Ben X]

Fantastic find, thanks Bjorn! They should keep making those for all the Star Trek series.

[Salacious Snake]

That Fotonovel rules. Earth's history has been restored!

 

 

And I'm DONE with Star Trek! Phew!

 

One is never done with Trek.

[Ben X]

Well, I do still have to learn Klingon...

[SecretAsianMan]

Well, I do still have to learn Klingon...

 

[singlespace]

Reposting from an erroneously made new thread:

 

Anyone else see Star Trek: Axanar on Kickstarter? They have a 20 minute mock documentary about the events in their film as the pitch video. It's kind of amazing that you can make something like that on the cheap (i.e. $75,000) these days:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar

 

For the Youtube inclined:

[BigJKO]

Holy shit, that's the prison leader guy from Battlestar Galactica! And Ellen!

 

I really like the idea of a mockumentary, probably more than I'd like to see this as a full-length film..

[singlespace]

Holy shit, that's the prison leader guy from Battlestar Galactica! And Ellen!

 

I really like the idea of a mockumentary, probably more than I'd like to see this as a full-length film..

 

And the grizzled captain is Martok from DS9!

 

It's unclear to me what the full Axanar film is going to be — I hope it actually will be a mockumentary at feature length.

[feelthedarkness]

Here is something for the TRUE sci-fi fan. All of the Star Trek movies without all the yik yak. SHIPS ONLY.

 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=+Star+Trek+%28ships+only%29

[singlespace]

Copying over from the erroneous thread:

 

Tony Todd played Worf's brother, right?

 

I never noticed that that, yeah he is! In my mind he inhabits other roles.

[Ben X]

Playboy ranked every Trek episode ever.

[Irishjohn]

I hope this isn't rude, and I know there's a thread for plugging podcasts, but I just thought I'd drop this in here because this is Star Trek friendly and my friend and I chat about Star Trek episodes, and record it, and post our chats online...

 

Er, that's it. Maybe you'll fancy it, maybe not.

 

http://www.theculturalapocalypse.com/category/wagontrek/

[Ben X]

Not rude, perfectly placed!

[Salacious Snake]

I hope this isn't rude, and I know there's a thread for plugging podcasts, but I just thought I'd drop this in here because this is Star Trek friendly and my friend and I chat about Star Trek episodes, and record it, and post our chats online...

 

Er, that's it. Maybe you'll fancy it, maybe not.

 

http://www.theculturalapocalypse.com/category/wagontrek/

 

I listened to the first two episodes, and I like it!

[Irishjohn]

I listened to the first two episodes, and I like it!

 

Thanks man!

[Bjorn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OjeX5drV9ms

[Gwardinen]

I haven't seen many things in life that manage to look as great and terrible at the same time as that.

[Bjorn]

That was very much my reaction to it, the thing alternates between looking like a big budget summer blockbuster and a terrible fan project.

[natellite]

Reposting from an erroneously made new thread:

 

Anyone else see Star Trek: Axanar on Kickstarter? They have a 20 minute mock documentary about the events in their film as the pitch video. It's kind of amazing that you can make something like that on the cheap (i.e. $75,000) these days:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/194429923/star-trek-axanar

 

For the Youtube inclined:

 

I love this. I love everything about this. I want a full-length documentary in this style. This does so much right that I think the Renegades trailer does wrong - it's subdued in the way that the Star Trek series is at its best. I don't want to throw JJTrek under the bus, but the feel of those movies is completely inconsistent with the stuff I grew up watching. I love the slightly hokey uniforms, the not-quite-perfect makeup, the invitation for the viewer to suspend their disbelief, not for a spectacle of Hollywood flash, but for a sober recollection of a military conflict the morality of which is constantly called into question. I hope it gets made, whatever it is - the movie doesn't have to be more of this, necessarily, but this clues me in that the people making it get what so many people like about Trek.