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Janeway and Red

Started by Demonocracy, May 25, 2014, 06:02:04 AM

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Demonocracy

I've only recently (in the past year) begun to watch Star Tek.  It has been delightful!

Along the way, I've been watching Orange is the New Black on Netflix which features the actress who plays Captain Janeway from Star Trek as their cook Red.

I'm having a blast seeing her in this role and love both series immensely--though Star Trek is most likely a favourite.

mariesalias

I love Star Trek! Both the original series and TNG, especially. I enjoyed DS9 up until all the Dominion stuff started happening, though I have not given it a proper watch-through as my access to cable was very sporadic during that time. I have heard some people say it actually got better with the Dominion plotlines. I did watch Voyager for a time and there were aspects I liked about it, but they focused on 7of9 too much though I felt (after she became so popular) and neglected other characters which kind of put me off of it. I have not really watched Enterprise at all so I have no idea how good it was or not. Never enough time to watch everything I want to!


solarscreen

Quote from: mariesalias on May 26, 2014, 01:38:17 PM
I love Star Trek! Both the original series and TNG, especially. I enjoyed DS9 up until all the Dominion stuff started happening, though I have not given it a proper watch-through as my access to cable was very sporadic during that time. I have heard some people say it actually got better with the Dominion plotlines. I did watch Voyager for a time and there were aspects I liked about it, but they focused on 7of9 too much though I felt (after she became so popular) and neglected other characters which kind of put me off of it. I have not really watched Enterprise at all so I have no idea how good it was or not. Never enough time to watch everything I want to!



I didn't like the Next Generation until they finally got the characters fleshed out and written better, especially the Troi character.  Some lifts from the original series and too many cookie cutter episodes but still so good god episodes are in there. Maybe a dozen or so for me.

Deep Space 9 was a failure for me. It was supposed to be darker, more dangerous, and cutting edge story lines but never delivered any of that. A few good characters and interesting story lines but far too few.

Enterprise was a good idea that I wanted for a long time, historical perspective. It partially succeeded but also has some of the same problems with writing and plot that hindered the earlier shows. I watch Enterprise from time to time but HATE the intro song - probably killed the show as far as I'm concerned!
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mariesalias

Quote from: solarscreen on May 26, 2014, 02:22:24 PM
I didn't like the Next Generation until they finally got the characters fleshed out and written better, especially the Troi character.  Some lifts from the original series and too many cookie cutter episodes but still so good god episodes are in there. Maybe a dozen or so for me.

Deep Space 9 was a failure for me. It was supposed to be darker, more dangerous, and cutting edge story lines but never delivered any of that. A few good characters and interesting story lines but far too few.

Enterprise was a good idea that I wanted for a long time, historical perspective. It partially succeeded but also has some of the same problems with writing and plot that hindered the earlier shows. I watch Enterprise from time to time but HATE the intro song - probably killed the show as far as I'm concerned!

I admit, TNG does start a little slowly, but that isn't unusual in TV series. I love so many of the characters, I just can't help loving the show! I will always have a soft spot for Data (as I have always had for Spock, as well). One thing that I never did though that I have noticed that many Star Trek fans did/do, and I think may ruin some of the other Star Treks for them, is compare the shows. I try to take each version as a separate entity. I have found that by doing this, it allows me to enjoy more shows and movies when they are based on other shows, movies, or books.

I did not think I was going to like DS9 much, but the characters engaged me more then I thought they would. Quark surprisingly turned out to be one of my favorite characters of that series.
Voyager I felt had some potentially interesting characters but I wish they had done more with them. As I said, the whole 7 of 9 phenomenon  diverted the show for some time.

I guess onnce I get interested/invested in a story's characters (in whatever media), I can forgive much in plot, premise, and device.  ;D


Boris_amj

#4
When I was young I loved Star Trek (TOS).
And considering I was watching it on a black and white tv and dubbed into Spanish, that's saying a lot.
I couldn't wait to get home from school to watch the next episode.

Many years later I watched a few episodes and I cringed all the way through.
Suddenly I saw all the props and the phony fighting and the inexplicable plots.

But none of that stopped me from loving all the crew members.

TNG promised much but delivered almost nothing (apart from the Borg plotline).
I couldn't stomach Data. Riker was a total prat. Troi was there just to show us her ample talents. Both of them ...
I mean, a counsellor ? Really ? AS A BRIDGE OFFICER ?
And don't get me started on Wesley (yuck!).
To me, the only character worth saving was Picard and possibly Worf.
Picard because he is the only one who can act, and Worf because, well, he's Worf, c'mon.

DS9 to me was also a failure. It looked like Disney doing a bad version of Babylon 5.
Again, Quark was the only one worth saving, even if he was there only as the comic relief.

Voyager was also a disappointment to me.
Never could endear myself to Cpt Janeway. There was something wrong I couldn't quite pinpoint.

Having said that, after the nauseating crew of TNG, the crew of Voyager seemed to be a bit more interesting, especially the doctor.
The series dragged for a while until 7of9 came along to spice things up. The Borg theme is one the best ideas in ST.

...

After all that "grumping", a keen eye would have spotted I actually saw all the series from beginning to end.
So much for the "I don't like it!" whinge  :P



Demonocracy

I admit that I'm new to the Star Trek series.  I'd never really gotten into it but never specifically disliked it.  Since there's such a plethora of material to watch from the movies to the trillionty shows... I've not caught up.  I've only watch portions of some of the Star Trek adventures.

I really wish I would have started watching it sooner.  I love Sci-fi.


Kaldir

I've watched my share of Star Trek episodes over the years, but never in the right order. Often there were 3 or 4 channels showing different series at the same time, and I watched a single episode now and then from any of them. I've seen plenty of TNG and Voyager episodes, a few TOS ones and no DS9 (I don't think it was ever shown here).

I always thought Star Trek to be okay, but not engaging enough. Everything was taken so very serious and characters were too much black and white for me, not enough greyscales; you always knew immediately who was good and who was evil and there was never someone who was both. This might have come partially because of my very fragmented viewing though. Unlike @Boris_amj I didn't watch them all

I loved the 2009 Star Trek movie though. It had a main character that was cool but an idiot, nice and clumsy ('chaotic good' comes to mind). It had a good mixture of humour and action. The 2013 Into Darkness movie was quite okay too, with some flaws.

Maybe I should watch TOS in sequence some day, to see if I appreciate it more then.

rkelly17

I was never a serious Star Trek watcher but did manage eventually to watch most of the original episodes. Since then I'd never watched any of the sequels or movies. Awhile back my grandson wanted to see the latest movie so I went with him. It wasn't bad at all. Lots of things blew up, which is always good.

Boris_amj:

"And considering I was watching it on a black and white tv and dubbed into Spanish, that's saying a lot." (Sorry about the non-techno quoting--I can't get the "Quote" button to work).
When I was in my last year of high school an exchange student from Brazil lived with us. It was when Bonanaza was at the height of its popularity and my friend had been watching it in Brazil in dubbed Portuguese, so the first night it was on after he arrived we sat down to watch. He immediately went into hysterical laughter. I asked what was going on. In between spasms of laughter he got out, "It's Hoss. His voice is so different!" You've got to love dubbed shows.

slink

The original Star Trek prided itself on not having a kid and a robot on the bridge.  Next Generation had both.  Picard reminded me physically of my first boss, for whom I worked in industry when I finished my year as a post-doc.  Worg was a Klingon, for crying out loud.  Make peace with them, okay.  Put one on the bridge?  Not on MY Enterprise!  And the series started with McCoy limping off muttering in his typical Luddite manner, a defeated old man.  I related to the original bridge crew.  Was I an old woman now?  I didn't think so.  My best female friend at that time told me to "Get with the future", but I wasn't done with living my own life.

All of those things conspired to make me not like Next Generation, of which I watched at most half-a-dozen episodes before giving up on it.  It is true that the plots of the original series were often contrived, but those of Next Generation that I watched were just as bad, in my opinion.

I never watched any of the others, so I can't comment.  I was too busy living in today.   ;)

solarscreen

One thing that gave me a problem with Voyager:



Someone called it the flying toilet seat.

:(

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Demonocracy


mariesalias

lol!  I don't see most of this at all!   

I loved Data for the same reasons I love Spock, they are similar but with opposite struggles. I also once had a dream where Data saved my life and I have adored him ever since. ;D   His struggle to become more human
Picard was a wonderful captain, at turns a stickler for protocol but not above breaking the rules a bit if he felt it was truly the right thing to do, and willing to do whatever he needed to to protect his ship and crew members. The episode where he gets his flute is one of my favorite episodes!
I enjoyed the struggles of Worf to try to reconcile his human and klingon natures and deal with prejudices from both races, without just resorting to hating everyone. I wish they had pushed things further with him though.

I did feel TNG fell a bit short with its female characters. I was disappointed with Deanna early on, they did not really start to develop her character until much later. Troi's mother, Lwaxana, was usually amusing and always opinionated. Beverly had some really good episodes based around her but I felt they could have done more with her.  They were just beginning to delve into Tasha when they killed her off. More could also have been done with Guinan, but I always enjoyed episodes she appeared in. I never warmed up to Dr Pulaski as a character so I  didn't really enjoy her in the series.

Perhaps luckily, my son requires dinner so I have to stop here. It is interesting to read everyone's different perspectives though! :)

slink

The funniest ST TNG episode that I ever read was a spoof published on BIX in the late 1980s.  In it, the Enterprise encounters an enormous head of Zsa Zsa Gabor, floating in space.  The telepathic woman concentrated on it, and said she was detecting nothing but immense stupidity.  There was enough material in the spoof to make an actual show, which was much funnier to me than the actual show was satisfying.  We had nothing but floppies to back up our PCs with back then, so I doubt that I have a readable copy of that spoof saved anyplace.  Not to mention that we were using DOS and I doubt if any of our computers that are that old still run.  I also lost a spoof on The Night Before Christmas, written about programmers finishing a project just in time, which ended "The users replied with a sneer and a taunt, this is just what we asked for but it's not what we want."

I have a whole pile of books of the original Star Trek.  Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors, in that area.

solarscreen

Quote from: slink on May 27, 2014, 07:18:19 PM...
I have a whole pile of books of the original Star Trek.  Diane Duane is one of my favorite authors, in that area.

I read so many Star Trek novels!  I'm with you on Diane!
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canis39

I never noticed this "off topic" board before, sorry for resurrecting a dying post but I had to chime in on Star Trek!

I'm not sure if I got to them all, but I read just about every ST:TNG novel ever written.  Peter David, Diane Duane and Michael Jan Friedman are the authors I remember being especially fond of.  I thought the novels were better than the series, although in the interest of full disclusure I did watch (and enjoy) all of TNG, most of DS9, and some of Voyager and Enterprise.  I wish I liked Voyager and Enterprise more, but I just could not get into them.

The New Frontier novels were actually my favorite; written by Peter David of course.  Just a fantastic series.