Scifi TV Discussion Thread

[Santheres]

You all need to chill. It's just a piece of fictional media and three of you look like you're variously trolling, flaming, and flamebaiting. Don't make more warnings happen here, please.

Thank you!

[The Spook Who Sat By The Door]

So which was better "Wrath of Kahn" or "Voyage Home"?

[Stellar Colonies]

So which was better "Wrath of Kahn" or "Voyage Home"?

WoK was my first introduction to Star Trek, so I regard it uniquely in general.

TVH has its own charm to it, though. Interesting that the movie carried forward the trend of almost every 'wave' of Star Trek doing a time travel story to the present about when it was being filmed.

When watching either, I enjoy the former more.

[Tarsonis]

So which was better "Wrath of Kahn" or "Voyage Home"?

How dare you, Sir?

[Stellar Colonies]

Since we're on the subject of the TOS movies, I feel justified in digging up this scene from The Search For Spock.

[Vassenor]

So which was better "Wrath of Kahn" or "Voyage Home"?

The Final Frontier is best TOS Movie.

Don't @ me.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Ive always really liked Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country myself.

[Ameriganastan]

Ive always really liked Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country myself.

General Chang ruled.

[La Paz de Los Ricos]

So which was better "Wrath of Kahn" or "Voyage Home"?

Motion Picture.

The Final Frontier is best TOS Movie.

Don't @ me.

Motion Picture.

Ive always really liked Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country myself.

General Chang ruled.

"I'd pay real money if he'd shut up!"

But yeah, TUC holds up as a great film. The score kicks a particularly high level of ass, Trek needs more xylophone.

Also, question, does the "var" in "Ni'var" stand for "Vulcans and Romulans" or what?

[The Spook Who Sat By The Door]

It seems to be in my nature that when examining most sets, I tend to find the most unusual to be the most interesting. Star Trek IV was contemporary, comedic, and lacked a mustache twirler. These elements are rare for a Trek movie yet still play well in the storytelling, so I can't seem to help but like it a lot. I can understand why some people would dislike it for the exact same reasons though. We are after all talking about art. Also on a minor note, I find it to be by far the most well paced of all the Star Trek films ever made.

[La Paz de Los Ricos]

It seems to be in my nature that when examining most sets, I tend to find the most unusual to be the most interesting. Star Trek IV was contemporary, comedic, and lacked a mustache twirler. These elements are rare for a Trek movie yet still play well in the storytelling, so I can't seem to help but like it a lot. I can understand why some people would dislike it for the exact same reasons though. We are after all talking about art. Also on a minor note, I find it to be by far the most well paced of all the Star Trek films ever made.

The Challenger crew would have been proud to have it dedicated to them.

[The Spook Who Sat By The Door]

Man this place became a ghost town after you all got yelled at.

I guess I'll give some opinions of various shows.

TOS Best Thing: Uhura
TOS Worst Thing: Hilariously sexist utopia

TNG Best Thing: Q
TNG Worst Thing: The idea that the Klingons are great warriors

DS9 Best Thing: The mood
DS9 Worst Thing: Ridiculously over the top villainess Kai Winn

VOY Best Thing: 7 of 9
VOY Worst Thing: The writing staff made Janeway look like a lunatic

ENT Best Thing: The initial concept
ENT Worst Thing: It made me stop watching Star Trek on TV to this day

Favorite character in all of Trek: Garak aka The Spook Who Sat By The Wormhole

[Crysuko]

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

[Ameriganastan]

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

You're a braver man than I. I refuse to even give it a look.

[Stellar Colonies]

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

You're a braver man than I. I refuse to even give it a look.

Let the pain begin.

[Heloin]

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

You're a braver man than I. I refuse to even give it a look.

Let the pain begin.

I was going to ask you lot if Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks are worth watching.

I'm... going to put a hard no next to Lower Decks.

[Ameriganastan]

Let the pain begin.

I was going to ask you lot if Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks are worth watching.

I'm... going to put a hard no next to Lower Decks.

Put a hard no next to all of them. If you want a show that feels like real Star Trek, go watch The Orville.

[The Huskar Social Union]

Discovery and Picard i enjoyed, Lower Decks i only watched a few episodes of, it was fine.

The Orville didnt maintain my interest, only watched the first few episodes then trailed off.

[Juristonia]

Lower Decks picks up a bit a couple of episodes in, but it's definitely not really my cup of tea.

[La Paz de Los Ricos]

I tried to watch an episode of lower decks. I earnestly did.

I failed

You're a braver man than I. I refuse to even give it a look.

Let the pain begin.

The "TOS" joke from whatever episode that was from gave me a physical reaction. Like, that actually made me recoil from my screen.

Lower Decks, I'll admit, I wanted to like. I sort of... do like it, which is unusual considering the extent to which I shat on it before it came out. I have to be honest, the first episode of Lower Decks punched me in the face with its hyperactivity and turned me off from it instantly, then I joined the hate bandwagon and didn't even give it a fair shot. However, I... stuck around a bit, watched a bit more. I caught those TAS references and the even the little portrait done in the TAS style in whatever episode that was from, and I really wanted to love this show, as I adore TAS. But, the show relies way too much on nostalgia and references to really do its own thing. It feels less like a celebration of canon and more like its building itself off of those old shows because it can't stand on its own two feet. Then, when it tries to do its own thing, it ends up being... well... that...

The problem with NuTrek is that it can never hit the sweet spot, between building off of old stuff and being able to hit its own stride. Whenever the shows try and build off of what came before it feels incredibly over-reliant, and when they're setting themselves apart they do so without maintaining a continuity or tonal consistency with what came before. Discovery tried its own thing in S1, before switching gears and bringing back the whole damn Enterprise in S2. Picard performed a weird splicing of the two, where it did its own violent, twitchy thing while also trying to win fans over with references to Next Gen (which is somewhat more forgivable here than in Discovery, as its Captain Picard, so you'd expect they'd maybe bring one or two things over to tie them together).

Lower Decks was different... this one felt more like the guys behind it knew Star Trek. It certainly feels like there's love for Trek from this show, whereas the other shows have an indifference/disdain for old Trek. But it's like the show is trying to convince everyone that it's different from the rest by throwing in constant references and jokes about old Trek. I realize this show is a comedy, so it's natural it'd poke some fun at old Star Trek, but I think it'd be a whole lot better if it made fun of the concepts/tropes of Trek rather than repeatedly leaning on what came before. Like the Prime Directive stuff, okay! The Prime Directive is a ubiquitous aspect of Trek which every installation of the franchise has covered, so poke fun at that more, maybe? Maybe take some more shots at the "planet of the hats", those were actually pretty interesting. It also brought some cool ideas to the table, like the "trial in pieces" episode, and that alien terraforming ship was actually pretty interesting. Some of the reference jokes even got a smile out of me, like the overuse of lens flares and over-the-top action in that one holodeck episode poking fun at JJTrek. That was actually pretty fun. There's also some pretty interesting character development. I actually want to see what comes of the gang in S2. Like, talk about the wider ideas, instead of just taking potshots at old stuff for remembrance's sake. Also, give us room to breathe, not everything needs to be all action, all the time. That was the roadblock which probably got in the way for many of us to enjoy it.

Lower Decks has potential. I was being a pretentious asshole and knocking it before it even had a chance to come out, I admit that. I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt now, definitely over Discovery and especially over Picard, with both STP and STLD which have one season out. Lower Decks needs to refine itself a bit, and it might work. It's rightfully respectful of old Trek, even if it's excessively relying on it for joke potential. With more grounded, believable sci-fi plots and more toning down of the voice-editing (leave in some of those breaths and pauses, guys, we're not watching an unboxing/storytime video) and the action, I actually think I might come to appreciate Lower Decks.

[Twilight Imperium]

-snipped for brevity-

Thank you for your honest, non-hyperbolic laying out of your feelings It matches up pretty well with what I've heard, I might have to give it a watch myself.

[Auristania]

I was going to ask you lot if Discovery, Picard, and Lower Decks are worth watching.

I'm... going to put a hard no next to Lower Decks.

Put a hard no next to all of them. If you want a show that feels like real Star Trek, go watch The Orville.

[Crysuko]

Is making non-terrible Trek some kind of 40K-esque lost technology. Picard had a good premise but flitted place to place, situation to situation with little sequence. We’re on earth and now a space station and now a cube and now Riker’s house. Just...it seems like they wrote down a list of concepts, and then immediately went and filmed them, with the actual story being an afterthought.

Lowered Drek, I have nothing but vitriol for. The animation is oversaturated, and is fairly generic besides. Has problems with depth perception at places. Combine that with characters who have no indoor voice and maybe 1 personality trait each and stories which wouldn’t engage a 10 year old, and you have why I am not letting my niece anywhere near modern animation. My kin deserves better and so does yours.

[The New California Republic]

I always find the mind rape scene of T'Pol in the "Fusion" episode of Star Trek Enterprise really disturbing, similar to the mind rape in the "Violations" episode of TNG. McCoy got mind raped in "Mirror Mirror" of TOS as well actually.

[The Spook Who Sat By The Door]

TNG - Code of Honor

Many reviewers and fans alike claim that this episode is racist and I think that's interesting. Personally I find the episode to be not very good, but not nearly the worst of Season One. I'm not particularly offended by it, but that is a subjective judgement. What is not subjective about the episode, but objectively quantifiable and undeniable, is that it is the first, last, and only episode with a planet in which a race of aliens who very closely resemble humans, look like black people.
I wonder if THAT is racist.