Current Events > Star trek watchthrough. Ongoing spoilers.

(+) Yeah! (+)

splodeymissile posted...

On to The Slaver Weapon.

Keep in mind this is a Larry Niven story that's been adapted into Trek, so the general continuity is going to be a bit odd.

Episode 14: The Slaver Weapon

I'm guessing it's the existence of the Slaver empire that's the continuity oddity. Don't think it'll bother me if they're swapped out for another precursor race in later episodes. I mean, I survived the federation being called the space probe agency for a few episodes.

Ancient weapons are always fun to play with. It's kind of surprising not having Kirk appear at all.

Spock is decently insightful about emotions and social dynamics. It's probably the best role for him when he's unable to show his own feelings. Sulu has an assertiveness that hasn't really been seen before. Can see the beginnings of him getting his own captaincy, here. Keeps his interest in weapons. Uhura is still better (and funnier) here than she ever was in the original, but I don't like her being the damsel in distress here. Her outrage at needing to pretend to be stupid is brilliant, though. Run cycle is ridiculous.

The Kzinti are a good race. Interesting peak into their culture, especially with their ideas of bigotry stemming from dislike of vegetarians. The actual characters are a silly, ineffectual bunch, but it's fitting for the cartoon vibe. The captain is probably the most sensible one and even he's daft as a brush.

The ice world vistas are utterly stunning. We're back to amazingly alien, comic style backgrounds. The many designs for the Weapon are pretty great too.

For all that the Slavers are an ancient power, I quite like that their weapon is almost unimpressive. Sure, they have the super nuke, but its only one setting that mattered. I liked the brief discussion that the Weapon would have never entered a museum. It's good to address the uncomfortable militant attitudes of the Federation.

Bit pulpy, but fairly good.

Look into The Eye of the Beholder tomorrow.

I like to watch TNG on Pluto TV they have it airing 24/7

right now its the one where the Ferangi get trapped on the other side of a wormhole like 80 years away

VampireCoyote posted...

I like to watch TNG on Pluto TV they have it airing 24/7

i don't understand why that station doesn't have all the shows. the episodes replay way too often.

Medussa posted...

i don't understand why that station doesn't have all the shows. the episodes replay way too often.

yeah it skips past the first couple seasons entirely too

Pluto is just... odd.
I was maybe twenty episodes into Kamen Rider, and it just vanished.

I forgot that freaking Lloyd Braun from Seinfeld is in this one

VampireCoyote posted...

yeah it skips past the first couple seasons entirely too

it rotates. a month or so ago they were only playing seasons 1-4, now it seems to be 3-5.

Episode 15: The Eye of the Beholder

Alien zoos are a fun concept and a race so advanced that humans are basically animals in comparison is occasionally interesting.

Kirk's a bit hypocritical with the whole following orders thing. Shatner gets his first opportunity to be properly theatrical in a while during the psychic attack. Don't much like Spock in this. He's written with his worst traits (smugness over his logic, pedantry over figures ect.) at the forefront and he will not shut up. Has some major mary sue traits with how he figures out all the explanations and is always right and it's just miserable to listen to. McCoy falls back into grouchy bigot mode, although, given how insufferable his colleague is being, I can't blame him too much.

Scotty gets to save the day offscreen, which is a bizarre choice. M'Ress shows up just to be told to fuck off. The previous landing party are almost completely irrelevant and I'm sure the ill lass gets forgotten about by the script so that Kirk can hog the action. On a positive note, the Lactrans are an amazing design.

We once again get some truly beautiful backgrounds, with the boiling swamp being a particular highlight. The many aliens have some cool designs. We're clearly in pulp territory here, as the first third of the episode is basically just action and exploration. It's fun, but it kind of suggests that there wasn't enough plot here, which is pretty bad given how short these episodes are. It doesn't help that its very similar to The Cage.

A kernel of interesting thought about continuous progress and how problematic strutting about on other people's worlds is.

I can't abide making Spock unlikeable, but, even without that, it's pretty bad.

We'll finish with The Jihad.

Episode 16: The Jihad

A potential religious war and a mad planet with ever changing weather? Pretty great concepts for the finale.

Kirk keeps a cool head and demonstrates why he's in command. His polite, but complete lack of interest in Lara is funny. Spock continues to mention his interest in art and holds his own during the bigotry, but is mostly exposition.

The aliens are all fascinating. The Vedala manage to grab a surprising amount of mythic weight for how little their one representative appears. Everything about her, from the notion that they're the oldest race, the soft, enlightened manner of speaking, appearing as a noble wolf, suddenly howling when she exercises realty warping powers, to even the hunched over posture, which makes it seem like the wolf skin is more for our comfort than hers, give off an impression of godliness. It's pretty amazing.

The others get by mostly on design work, which is fantastic, but the few character traits they do get mostly work well. It helps that we get a brief hint into some of their cultures. Em being cowardly and having a very odd full name is just one example of doing a fair bit with just a few lines. With a bit of tidying up (and a greater budget), they could probably serve as a decently interesting main cast in their own right. Lara maybe being the one exception. She's very much a stock nubile savage (although it's good that such types exist in this world, at all, and are treated as equals both by the characters and the narrative) and the hitting on Kirk is marginally better than the reverse in the originals, but still pretty sexist in execution. I feel like she's shouting all her lines (though that might be dodgy audio mixing), with little attempt at inflection, as well. What's weird is that the same actress voices the Vedala and I have no problems there, whatsoever. In the end, she's a better female character than most, but still not quite realised enough for my standards.

Tchar, of course, gets the biggest piece of exploration. A hypothetical main cast role would need his treatment (which is a little bit sinister, tbh) to stick, but he could make it work. Its an interesting angle to have him see Alar as a false messiah, but, even with the short run time in mind, it doesn't quite get the focus it deserves, due to needing to keep the plot twist, such as it is.

Speaking of, it seems like there's a decent (by the standards of kids shows, anyway, which is not the insult it sounds like) attempt at misdirection there. Sord is the obvious candidate for a traitorous role. He's a lizard, he's irritable, rude to Spock (so is Lara, but she has the "romance" angle to keep her mostly beyond suspicion), is the first to "notice" the sentinels, keeps himself on the ground floor at the end and doesn't have an obvious specialism like the others. When they begin properly speculating about a traitor, the camera cuts to him and he looks as shifty as limited animation allows.

The gathering of the ships is full of beautiful designs, but the Enterprise, with its use of shadows, takes the cake. The backgrounds, even though I'm certain some were recycled, are still beautiful and the changing planet allows for some pulpy sub episodes to keep the pace going. Best part about the pace, though, is that, apart from Spock running his mouth and, even then, he doesn't really wear out his welcome, most of the pure exposition is saved for the opening log. Character introductions occur almost immediately and its brilliant.

A pretty fantastic finish to the season.

Before I check out The Pirates of Orion, some rankings.

End of season 1

Top 4

Beyond the Farthest Star (starting off strong with the clearest statement of Star Trek's overall ethos yet)

Yesteryear (considering the show's limitations, this was a truly beautiful look at Spock's character and backstory)

More Tribbles, More Troubles (manages to be the best of the sequel episodes by being just as funny as the original)

The Magicks Of Megas-Tu (takes the federation's utopianism to its limit by having a magical romp with Satan)

Bottom 4

The Lorelei Signal (a standard run around suffering from sexism)

The Terratin Incident (prime example why technobabble is overrated. Almost made me angry at points)

The Ambergris Element (manages to be incompetent and boring)

The Eye of the Beholder (having the bulk of your resolution occur offscreen is questionable at best)

Miscellaneous thoughts

It might just be primacy bias, but it seemed like this season was front loaded with most of its best episodes

There were a decent number of contenders for the top spot (and almost no competition for the bottom). A list, then:

One of Our Planets Is Missing

The Infinite Vulcan

The Time Trap

The Slaver Weapon (I'll take this moment to point out that I'm now aware that it's basically a crossover with the Known Space series. It's a weird choice, but it works and I can't imagine I'm going to care much when it gets retconned out)

The Jihad

Can't imagine season 2 taking too long. Only 6 episodes....

Season 2

Episode 1: The Pirates of Orion

A disease that affects aliens worse than humans is pretty cool, even if diseases in general are a bit of a stock plot by this point.

The main trio's voice acting seems to have gotten better. Shatner and Kelley are adding more inflections to better convey their worry over Spock, alongside Nimoy, who does well enough with the little he's got, slowing down and speaking softly. The inevitable banter is back to mostly tolerable levels, aside from the ending bit being a bit too mean spirited to justify McCoy's laughter. Still, though, Kirk and McCoy get to properly show how much Spock means to them in a way they haven't been able to for a while.

It's nice to have the whole side crew (Chekov aside) be given a speaking role. Its not much, but at least Scotty gets to demonstrate hyper competence again. I don't know is Doohan keeps subtlety changing Arex's voice or what, but it's swung back to being a bit annoying.

O'Shea and his crew are a nice reminder that the federation is more than one ship, but they're a bit bland. The woman, in particular, has some very flat line readings. The Orions are another colourful, comic book esque design. Look like they could be early marvel villains. The culture of suicide they have is mildly interesting.

The backgrounds still look outstanding. The asteroid thicket, especially, has a pretty amazing amount of detail and sense of perspective to it. The ships are still a set of beautiful designs. I think there's a minor continuity gaff. McCoy calls, over the intercom, for Spock to be sent down for his next injection. Except, when Kirk tells Spock the news, it cuts to a shot where McCoy is clearly standing behind his chair. Why not just tell him in person?

That quibble aside, this was a pretty fun opening to the season.

I don't know what Bem is supposed to be, but it's next.

Episode 2: Bem

So that's what Bem is. I don't think I'm a fan. Something about this episode just doesn't sit right with me.

Kirk and Spock have returned to their double act that sustained a lot of otherwise average episodes. Some decent self aware humour in this. I was kind of surprised that McCoy made no appearance whatsoever.

Uhura being given more to do is still wonderful. Holding command and successfully arguing with Scotty is just the cherry on top.

Bem seems like a slightly confused, but nonetheless interesting concept. His odd behaviour and ability to separate and float his body parts about like the Genie gives him a trickster mentor vibe. I was expecting him to actually be working with the intelligence. Some interesting ideas with him being a colony creature that also has a sort of single identity. Disunity is almost more harrowing than what a more mundane suicide would be like. His speech pattern foreshadows the colony twist, but it wore out its welcome pretty quick. The fact that he isn't in cahoots with the intelligence hurts his character for me, since it makes his antics seem like he's just being a git for a very arbitrary purpose. Charging into the village goes from an audacious display of showing how directly communicating with another culture is a better way to actually understand them, to a moment of needless stupidity. Hurts the theme the episode's going for, as well, I think. Ultimately, just annoying. Decent design, though.

The Intelligence is a mostly fantastic character that almost saves this episode alone. Nichols, similar to her new turn as Uhura, gives her a appropriate amount of presence for a planetary consciousness. Calling out the problematic nature of the federation's work on the planet is great and demonstrating a gentle, but forceful wisdom makes her one of the better godlike beings we've seen so far. Even her first "appearance", of just asserting her existence and speaking forcefully, but calmly, is absolutely brilliant and without a doubt the best moment of this episode.

The big caveat, of course, ties into the themes that the episode is trying (and failing, in my opinion), to communicate. The prime directive has a lot of potential to be a patronising call to snobbery and arrogance over other cultures and Spock's comments about primitivism and similar nonsense don't help. The explicit need to classify and test other peoples, as though they're samples in a petri dish, is appallingly dehumanising, but aside from that, it's mirrored in what Bem's doing. He's observing and testing the federation in an identical manner. He even had avoidant at best (missing six missions) and inexplicable at worst behaviour. Not too far from how a real anthropologist's behaviour would seem to whichever culture they were hassling. Add to this, his trickster behaviour, casual manner when captured and the frequent mentions of a growing sensory phenomenon and we could have had the animated Errand of Mercy, where the primitives are secretly advanced (though advancing isnt strictly necessary for the next part) and ultimately hold the dodgy values of Kirk, the federation and, potentially, the audience themselves, to account.

Instead, Bem is a genuine fool who had to learn his lesson in the end. (Quite what the lesson is escapes me, since this whole thing is so confused). Even the intelligence doesn't escape unscathed. She could've been a natural part of the ecosystem/culture, like Vaal if he were in a real episode and not a complete atrocity. Having Bem work alongside her would then only enhance the impact. But, unfortunately, Kirk and Spock ruin it during the final lines when they suggest that she's as much a scientist running a lab as they were trying to be. So, I'm left confused as to whether the episode thinks that treating people as an experiment is acceptable or not. What I am certain about, though, is that, despite invoking the prime directive, the episode doesn't care about its native people at all. The only speaking roles go to the supposedly "advanced".

It's not even particularly poorly made, it's just very confused.

The Practical Joker, next.

Little fact for you in that episode Bem that is the first time that Kirk gives out what the "T" stands for in his name.

Episode 3: The Practical Joker

The Enterprise coming to life and having a silly side ain't a bad concept, but the execution marks the point where the Animated Series attempts to appeal to children become too juvenile for me.

It's nice to have the main cast all together again, but it's a shame that they are all portrayal as completely infantile. I'm not even remotely opposed to them acting silly in comedy episodes (I loved both Tribbles episodes), but in this one, it feels like they're insulting the audience. This nonsense is somewhat amusing, but not that hysterical.

There are some good points, though. It's nice getting a snapshot of daily life on the Enterprise. We see the crew sharing meals and visiting the rec room (obviously, our first appearance of the holodeck). Kirk's mock fear of the energy field is a decent plan and the animators gave him some effective facial expressions for it. Uhura is still a delight no matter what she's doing. Spock's little joke might have worked better in live action, so, we can see his expressions, but it's not bad. McCoy and Scotty get some decent lines. I can't tell what it is that makes me waver on whether I like Arex or not, but he's back to being alright here.

The Romulans are almost surplus to requirements and not particularly interesting. The Enterprise herself, however.... Although her little japes are completely juvenile, it's a bit more tolerable due to her nature as an emerging consciousness. An interesting sort of character development here, as she goes from completely silent, to laughing like a human on occasion, to laughing normally, but speaking robotically, to almost being full human. Barret's laughter is infectious and almost saves the episode by itself. Some of her antics, like Kirk is a jerk and the giant balloon are kind of brilliant. You almost want her to live on.

The asteroid and energy field backgrounds are as amazing as any other episode and the stuff in the rec room isn't bad, either. The limited animation works against the directing a bit, since there are a couple of scenes where a character gets a close up reaction shot a split second after the previous character. On the other hand, laughing through the blizzard is pretty amazing. I'm not sure about comparing the development of sentience to a nervous breakdown.

Veers into bad children's television through actually trying to explicitly appeal to them.

One word titles rarely give me much idea about what's coming next and Albatross is no exception.

Episode 4: Albatross

A trial and a disease story all in one. Not the most original premise, unfortunately.

Kirk gets to be a little devious with his plan to trick Demos. His laughter at the end comes off as incredibly creepy due to the limited animation. Spock kick starts the insults, for once. Didn't much care for McCoy nearly blubbing over potentially causing a plague. His reaction to being freed by Spock wasn't great either. Sulu explaining general order 6 when he can barely speak was painful. Changing everyone's colour is more effective than it should've been. Everyone seems to have a creepy smile.

The Dramians have a cool design, but I don't much like them. Kind of a generic, fast and swift justice system having group. Arresting McCoy was never going to make them endearing, but the prefect's jump to accusing Spock of treachery and barely being able to choke an apology at the end marks them as a pretty nasty bunch.

We have amazing backgrounds again, especially the post apocalyptic city on Dramia ii. The Dramian ship is a pretty nice design. Everything else is perfectly serviceable. Plot points are established well in advance, but that's about it. I kind of disagree with the existence of episoded like this, Court Martial and Wolf in the Fold because there is no possible way that any of the accused could be guilty. No one would tolerate these beloved characters being secretly revealed to be either evil and/or incompetent and decent writer knows that. So, there's a lot of very workable, but very dull nothing.

Almost nothing interesting to say. Just average.

Back to poetry with How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth.

Episode 5: How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth

I was about to slightly criticise this episode for being a bit of a retread of Who Mourns for Adonais? but, after looking into it, apparently it was done as a tribute to Coon who had died around the same time. Suppose I'll let it off. Besides, it's better than its inspiration.

Kirk is still defiant, but there's a note of respect in his dealings with Kukulkan. Spock is rather a git towards Uhura. McCoy a bit of an arse towards his patients, too, but at least he's funny. Scotty and Uhura get a bit marginalised and I'm fairly certain Scotty gets told to shut up before he even says anything.

Walking Bear's existence is a good thing in terms of the whole diversity thing that Star Trek prides itself on, but the actual character is basically an exposition machine who gets ignored towards the end. Treated with respect while he's relevant, though. Kukulkan has a magnificent design and stellar voice work. He hits a lot of the standard godlike being tropes, but it's done well. His swooping and snapping at the crew is a little anemic considering his supposed power. Still, even though they get some details wrong, it's nice to have a representative from a lesser seen culture.

I gush about the designs almost every episode, but they've really upped the ante here. Kukulkan's ship is magnificent and the various designs for the city, including how its build over time, are also amazing. There's something a little haunting about having Kukulkan's image among hieroglyphs. I'm quite tolerant of the reused animation for the run startup, but having two characters do it at once feels off. It's like Kirk and McCoy are somehow glitching. The many alien designs are fun.

I'm still not a fan of suggesting that all of humanity's achievements and cultures ultimately stem from aliens. It's a good concept, but it has some troubling implications with it. I also don't really like portraying humanity as children. Sure, Kirk rejects it, but then follows up by suggesting that only modern and onward humanity can be considered adults through his Lear quotation. It implicitly marginalises many historical cultures as being infantile and not worth considering.

Still, it's a very well made episode. In fact, it's frequent beautiful.

It all ends with The Counter-Clock Incident

So... going for the TOS films after that, or skipping right to TNG?

Questionmarktarius posted...

So... going for the TOS films after that, or skipping right to TNG?

I suggest that he skips The Motion Picture and start with The Wrath of Khan as if he watches TMP it would probably put him off from watching anymore Star Trek.

Maybe get into the Romulan ale, then watch TMP.

TMP isn't even a bad movie, especially compared to Nemesis or something.
It just takes too long to get to the plot, with filler vignettes that don't really serve any purpose other than "look at this neat effect we couldn't do in the 60s!"

Yeah, I'm going full chronological here and I don't intend on skipping anything.

I have heard that TMP has some rather long scenes of the ship in flight, but I can't imagine it's worse than shit like The Appke.

Questionmarktarius posted...

TMP isn't even a bad movie, especially compared to Nemesis or something.
It just takes too long to get to the plot, with filler vignettes that don't really serve any purpose other than "look at this neat effect we couldn't do in the 60s!"

Mate with the exception of the utterly fantastic First Contact the TNG movies take The Federations highest honours for crapness. It is no surprise that after the utter Targ Manure that was Nemesis a thoroughly cheesed of Paramount told them to toss a proposed 5th movie out the nearest airlock.

You are right about The Slow Motion Picture as fans call it. The story itself isn't bad but my word all that filler. Good grief just what the heck was Roddenberry playing at?

Episode 6: The Counter-Clock Incident

Backwards time is always a fun concept, even if it doesn't make a lick of sense in execution.

Is that Shatner playing young Kirk? Because although there's a good effort to make him sound a bit whiny and nasally, some of the line readings came off a bit flat. Just doesn't fit with how good an actor I know him to be. Spock is in exposition mode, but he's mercifully kept to a minimum. McCoy shows up just long enough to creepily flirt with a married woman.

Everyone had some proper good design work for their younger selves. Some of these designs were only seen for a single shot which makes it quite an impressive way to bow out for a limited animation show. Wish we could see young Scotty, though. Baby Arex is surprisingly adorable.

April gets a lot of mileage out of his lore importance. The actual character seems to mostly repeat exposition and pine for the glory days. He's harmless enough. Dr April carries herself with some typical dignity. Neither one is a particularly deep character, but they're decent enough. Karla and her family aren't all that interesting, except as an excuse to show off some examples of backwards time.

The exposition goes on for a bit, but it's not as tedious as some other episodes. Karla's ship is a nice design. The background of the other universe is surprisingly beautiful, given how simplistic the effect is. I get a kick out of seeing the Enterprise fly backwards.

While it's mostly a standard adventure, they do end it in probably the best way possible. April is obviously facing forced retirement due to his age, despite clearly still having a keen mind. Naturally, his age makes him the only person capable of saving the day. Sort of standard, so far. What I admire about the ending (and I don't much care that it makes little physical sense), though, is the decision to have him and his wife return to their old bodies and having the forced retirement renewed. While the specific mechanics of backwards time might work against it (if you can lose acquired knowledge, maybe to can regain lost knowledge. In other words, they could've come close to accidentally implying that he had dementia and was ultimately cured of it), I'm actually impressed that they managed to grasp a moderately deep anti ageism message out of an otherwise perfectly average story.

Decent way to see us off.

Best episode:

How Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth (Who Mourns for Adonais? Done right)

The Pirates of Orion was also a contender.

Worst episode:

Bem (I don't think it knows what it's trying to do)

The Practical Joker almost took it, but, as much as I fundamentally disagree with what it's doing, it at least does it competently.

Film night, next, with The Motion Picture.

splodeymissile posted...

Yeah, I'm going full chronological here and I don't intend on skipping anything.

are you planning to weave the overlapping series, or finishing each series based on when they started. because you're coming up on the first time it happens pretty soon.

Weaving between series. The idea is to try to experience them in the way a fan at the time would have done. Plus, I like variety.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

You can tell just from the start that this whole film is about feeling triumphant that Star Trek is back. Having Goldsmith's epic score play over a simple list of the main actors is only the start.

Kirk's promotion to admiral and desire to retake his ship is clearly a metaphor for the show being away. Shatner, of course, is as brilliant as always. During the pan around the Enterprise, his absolute joy at seeing the ship isn't just delight that he's got his missus back, it's Shatner himself expressing awe at how his show has grown into something so much more than it was, with all the budget that implies. Even when he's in command, he's practically fondling the captain's chair (and there's one top down shot that feels almost pornographic in how it shows this).

There is also a clear sense that maybe Star Trek has changed too much. Kirk is a stand in for the audience here, with how he gets lost and doesn't fully understand the new ship. His relationships with the other characters are quite interesting. He's visibly hurt and almost scorned that Spock doesn't seem to fully appreciate their friendship anymore. His ruthlessness arguably hits its natural limit with how he straight up drafts McCoy. His little wink to Chekov is delightful, as is the twinkle in his eye when he starts treating V'Ger like a child.

Spock's popularity means that keeping him away from the film for most of the first half (apart from a pretty amazing teaser that revels in the surprising mysticism of Vulcan society) is quite a wise move. He suffers from and has his own metaphor for Star Trek's absence. Given that Nimoy suffered the most from the transition to animation, its hard not to read TAS as playing a role in his more unemotional start. Naturally, his attempts to cast off his human side are doomed to failure and wouldn't be worth much even if they did succeed. After all, he sees the natural, cold and almost nihilistic end point of pure logic with V'Ger. What can you do but laugh when you realise that you're wrong in the most wonderful way. Also, the awkwardness after his reunion scene with the crew is beautiful.

McCoy swaggers back onto stage with his typical curmudgeonly passion. Presumably, he wasn't having a great time of it away from Starfleet judging from his beard. His bickering with Spock is toned down even more, with much less bigotry. His nature as the most human of the bunch is finally used well, as he holds Kirk to account for his more problematic traits. Love that he wastes no time in flopping down when Kirk suggests they all have a seat.

It's great seeing the whole side crew back again. Felt their joy when Kirk arrives on the bridge. Scotty, befitting his status as the honorary fourth member of the main trio, gets an extended sequence with Kirk, and Doohan does wonderfully at conveying Scotty's delight and pride at Kirk's own joy. Uhura is still in the much stronger mode that Nichols created for TAS. Sulu continues to be the most normal. Koenig's Russian accent seems a touch more natural for Chekov. For a character I was mostly ambivalent on in his first appearances, I'm kind of amazed how glad I am to have him back. Even Rand puts in an appearance and is treated with more respect and dignity than ever before.

Decker is interesting. Being Kirk's supposed replacement makes him kind of hateable on principle, but they don't make him unreasonable. His sense of betrayal is kind of justified and he's right about all of his early decisions. McCoy correctly points out that Kirk is in the wrong here. His relationship with Ilia gives him some extra sympathy. Of course, they patch things up before the end.

Speaking of Ilia, it's nice to have another alien main character on this ship. Shutting down Kirk with her vow of celibacy is a nice nod to his, somewhat unfair, reputation. The actress does a great job of subtly showing the various degrees between Ilia and the Probe.

I understand people's complaints about the ponderous nature of the space scenes, but I sort of disagree. The reason, as pointed out, is to show off that they have a budget now, but given the bizarre history of cancellations and revivals, I can't really blame them. Goldsmith's score helps make them more than bearable and it's nice that the main theme, which I recognise from the intro to TNG, is also basically the Enterprise's theme. Following the putting the band back together theme, its quite cool that the first captain's log doesn't occur until after Kirk's command is established. A cool example of directing is after Decker has defended launching the torpedoes and McCoy has chewed out Kirk, the shot lingers on the door closing and framing Kirk in shadow, as though he's becoming increasingly aware of his own darkness. The effects and models are fantastic and more than justify the amount of time the camera spend on them. I like that Klingons and vulcans have an actual language now. The Cloud is beautiful and never seems fully in shot, which only emphasises its size and unknowability. Once they get inside, it becomes even more immense. The inner chamber is shown as being a whole sub universe in its own right. Sound design is mesmerising. The notes involving V'Ger skirt the line between harsh sound effect and actual music and I love the remix of the original them. The transporter malfunction is surprisingly horrifying.

Sure, it's a retread of The Changeling, but I think it does it better. Aside from the idea of Earth's old space technology (and its better to use a real space program for this) coming back to haunt us being the perfect tale for the big, epic movie, the resolution has a beautiful human theme that takes us past logic into something much more mystical and enlightening. It's a literally glowing endorsement of true exploration and a truly glorious ending.

Occasional slowness aside, this is probably the best way to kick off a grand film series. Appropriately epic. Frankly, if this is what passes for a bad film, I'm in for a treat.

The space seeds were sown and tomorrow we reap The Wrath of Khan.

Wrath of Khan has an interesting history behind it.

The budget was cut in half after TMP floundered, and Harve Bennett (a TV guy) made it work brilliantly, in the no-budget style of Doctor Who.
Enterprise and Reliant use the same set, just slightly rearranged and lit differently. Pretty much every set was used at least twice.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

I mean, the way Space Seed ended, its almost like they knew they would one day be making a sequel.

Kirk is still facing the prospect of old age and obsolescence. It's interesting that he's the only one who feels like he's past his best. Everyone else wants him to take up being a captain again. The other major thing involving him is being held to account for abandoning his responsibilities. In a way, the film is taking the general moral and philosophical perspectives of the show to their natural conclusion. In Kirk's case, this means punishing him for his wrong decision to leave the Khan situation unresolved and to also link that to his inability to be there for his family. The other limit is, of course, his need to find a third option. His cheat of the Kobayashi Maru backfires not only because it means he never properly faced loss (hence, his utter stupidity in nearly opening the radiation chamber), but also, in a meta way, allowing the rules of the franchise to be changed just like the simulation. Just like how it's a fact that the mission is unbeatable, its a fact of the show that the regulars all survive. So, you can win a real life no win scenario, but at one hell of a cost.

Shatner's acting is still amazing. His fear when Saavik is first flying the ship is priceless. The look on his face when he finally meets Khan is fantastic. Conveys shock and fear brilliantly. I absolutely love the trickster look he applies to his mannerisms when he's bluffing Khan and effectively hacking his ship. I sort of feel that he does deliberately understate his acting a little, until he meets Khan, but given how Khan is set up as a big deal, this only helps the feel of the film. Playing on Khan's psychology is utterly brilliant.

Spock has apparently found his balance between his two sides. He's able to explicitly regard people as his friends and he even smiles now. He's open with Kirk in a way that he's never been before. Even when talking to Saavik, a fellow Vulcan, he's still somewhat proudly emotional. He meets his limit in the form of the natural endpoint of logical numbers games. Inevitably, the one must be sacrificed. Given his breakthrough at the end of the last film, I think, for once, he'd be proud to be called human.

It gets shut down quickly, but McCoy has returned to being a bigot towards Spock and its quite uncomfortable. I agree with him on the potential apocalyptic devastation the Genesis project could bring about. It's to a lesser extent, but even he hits his limit. For him, all his passionate complaining and general fealty to emotions winds up making him completely impotent. If he stopped Spock, everyone would die and as soon as Scotty's condition is mentioned, he inadvertently makes himself vulnerable to a neck pinch.

Scotty's breakdown over his nephew dieing is incredibly powerful. Koenig manages to show some pretty great acting, too, both with Chekov's fear of Khan and his creepy message about taking Genesis. Sulu has a bit of snark about him and Uhura does her job.

Marcus is a fine character. Correctly pegs that something is up and takes charge. Pretty much the only one of Kirk's exes to actually feel like a real part of his life. Her son, however, is bloody annoying. He's just so whiny. His final scene is pretty great, though.

Saavik is alright. I actually really like how snotty she is over regulations. Correctly points out that Kirk has never truly faced the no win scenario. Shedding a tear is beautiful. Khan is back like he never left. He's still got that classy, charismatic and powerful vibe about him. He's obviously playing Ahab in this film and it's a cool angle to have one of his supporters frequently question the wisdom of his revenge plan. His increasing madness is portrayed beautifully through talking in loud, raspy whispers and fidgeting worse than Decker in The Doomsday Machine. I actually love that he is self aware about his similarity to Ahab and just completely doubles down on it. Just a truly terrifying presence throughout.

Khan is another limit that the film is testing. If it weren't for the fact that I knew it had a sequel, I would have regarded Kirk's decision at the end of Space Seed as ruining an otherwise really strong episode. Its a third option that's actually worse than the more obvious alternatives, and the strictly episodic nature of the show meant that even if TOS had many more seasons, there was no way that Kirk was ever going to check up on him. Khan's story was blatantly unfinished and, so, he spent fifteen years in a dead limbo both in and out of universe (roughly the same amount of time passed between installments of his story). He's a literal unfinished ending haunting the narrative. A vengeance driven ghoul obsessively stalking the man who placed him in both a literal and metatextual purgatory. Even his wife's death has a meta reason: girls of the week were always interchangeable. Why should she be any different? Khan reasserting himself makes him the catalyst for all the other limits being tested and, in the end, his haunting forever changes the world. I could write an essay on just this man alone.

Fitting his status as the titular character, the directing does everything possible to make Khan appear important. Although he appears fairly early, the film tries to deliberately keep him away from the other characters as much as possible. It's roughly halfway through the film before Kirk and Khan even encounter each other. Even his first appearance has that delayed gratification vibe, with an achingly slow scene of him removing his outer wear to reveal his identity. It's not about hiding his identity, since there's no serious mystery, except for the illiterate. Rather, it's about highlighting his, somewhat self made, importance. His existence demands the film's and he's perfectly aware its his movie.

There's a very angry vibe to this one and I'm not just on about Khan himself. The main theme remix at the start is like an aggressive war march for its first minute or so. Every battle scene, including the Kobayashi Maru trashes the set, includes harsh sound effects, bathes everything in a dark, sometimes red light and takes time to actually focus on casualties and destruction, including a redshirt who actually matters . The torture scene is also hyper focused on cruelty and pain. At the same time, though, there's a very deliberate pace to everything. Time is taken to focus on character' personalities and interactions. As mentioned, they keep the main cast, barring Chekov, away from the action for a surprisingly long time. It's probably meant to reinforce how Khan was out of sight, out of mind for so long, but it still surprising that it works. All of this fits with the theme of deconstructing the more simplistic and/or troublesome parts of the original series, like the cavalier attitude towards casualties.

Starting with the Kobayashi Maru is a little cheeky, given how a decent number of TOS episodes started in a similar manner, except played straight. Making it the Klingons' neutral zone is also pretty cheeky, since their ships sometimes doubled for Romulans.

Some cool camera shots includes Khan standing before a kneeling Chekov and Terrell and Kirk having a conversation with Spock whilst reflected in his mirror. The nebula battle scene is breathtaking. Apparently, they reuse sets a lot. Managed to make every location quite distinct to me.

My mad ramblings about Khan being a meta force in his own right means I haven't got anywhere near enough characters to say everything I want to. Last thematic thought is that the reason Kirk feels young at the end isn't because of Genesis itself, but rather, because Spock's death, tragic though it is, allowed him and, by extension, his world, to experience something truly new. The tired old formula got a kick up the arse.

A truly amazing deconstruction. I can see why it's considered the best.

The Search for Spock next.

3 & 4 need to be watched in one setting. They're directly contiguous and basically just a long movie split in half.

I have never thought much of The Wrath Of Khan.

In my opinion it would probably have been better if they had Kirk and Khan together but since their scenes were filmed 3 months apart that wasn't possible.

IMO you are coming up on 2 better movies especially Star Trek IV.

CassandraCroft posted...

In my opinion it would probably have been better if they had Kirk and Khan together but since their scenes were filmed 3 months apart that wasn't possible.

It's a testament to Harve Bennett's genius that it worked out so well.
Kirk and Khan fighting each-other across screens is basically the prototype for internet flamewars.

Useful though it may be, I simply don't have the time to do both in one. Also, I'm typing this on my breaks. Thoughts might be a bit disparate and incomplete.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Apparently Spock's death scene leaked and was very unpopular at first. Tacked on the little tease of Spock's body on Genesis. Got a massive kick out of seeing the Excelsior.

Kirk is obviously in mourning and Shatner does a brilliant job of showing how simultaneously pained and refreshed he is by the last movie. Its the right choice to start with a personal log instead of the standard captain's log. His gratitude after stealing the Enterprise is beautiful. Shatner does his best to sell the impact of David's death, but I honestly felt more from the destruction of the Enterprise.

Kelley does a pretty great job of channeling Spock. McCoy almost seems excited to be breaking the law. The club scene is delightfully painful and I love his cantankerous attitude. His confession to Spock's body is one of the best scenes he's ever had.

I was smiling right alongside Sulu when he saw the Excelsior. In a small way, we've caught up with my childhood. Scotty is predictably heartbroken over the intended fate of the Enterprise. I like that it's Chekov who discovers that maybe Spock's not entirely dead. Uhura has a truly fantastic scene of shoving that guy in the closet. I wish she was part of the main mission, though.

David is considerably less annoying. Find it funny that he half asses the Genesis project. Dont really agree with his death. The one mean spirited blemish in an otherwise brilliant film. I prefer the original actor for Saavik, but the new one isn't too bad. Has some truly wonderful scenes with young Spock. The two other captains are a bit smug and slimy. Sarek is still played to perfection by Lenard. You can feel how he's barely restraining his grief and anger over what he feels is Kirk's apathy.

The Klingons are a little generic baddies, though I do like the idea of human traitors. They quickly become a group of farcical, comedy buffoons, whilst still being quite brutal and violent. Kluge is very hammy and fun.

It's pretty cool that during the repeat of the death and funeral scene, the colours are all muted, only to grow considerably more warmer when Kirk makes his human comment. The music is much more joyful and hopeful for this one. The lack of music during the bridge scene is great at selling the loneliness that Spock's absence had caused. The ship models are stunning, especially the Bird of Prey. I didn't mention it in the last one, but I'm loving the new uniforms and I find the computer simulation of Genesis to be appropriately apocalyptic. It's nice to touch on the political ramifications of Genesis, as well.

I like that, once it's established that Spock is going to live on in some form, the film basically becomes mostly a comedy. The many shots of Genesis and Vulcan are utterly magnificent, especially when the destroyed Enterprise is falling to the planet.

In many ways, this film completes the deconstruction of The Wrath of Khan by criticising the last remaining parts of the premise and then reconstructing it into something else. In this case, the structure of the Federation itself comes under attack. The many authorities are useless, arrogant, unpleasant and obstructive. Bothering by the book would have simply caused someone to die for no gain whatsoever. So, another natural limit is reached and the crew have to literally steal their ship back from an organisation that doesn't deserve it. The Klingons are another military limit. Despite attempting to turn this into a more serious war movie, they ultimately come across as a joke and cause their own downfall. The reconstruction comes from the focus on Vulcan culture and mysticism (its notable that Kirk's boss, who's just another military stooge, implicitly mocks their culture in one line) and, obviously, on Spock himself. With the military trappings cast off, what remains is the drive to explore and understand, which is probably why it's McCoy, originally the most bigoted of the bunch, who performs the end ceremony with Spock and confesses how much he misses him. The destruction of the Enterprise to bring back Spock is the most obvious metaphor for Star Trek's new focus on genuine discovery over playing space police and the needs of the few line perfectly encapsulates this new focus by being the perfect response to the previous film's logical nihilism.

I probably like the second film slightly more, but this is still truly wonderful.

I'll undertake The Voyage Home tomorrow.

Why are they not on Netflix? Only just now found a version with decent sound mixing. Others had the dialogue drowned out by everything else. Because of this, I won't actually have enough time to watch it today.

splodeymissile posted...

Why are they not on Netflix?

Every studio ever saw Netflix become hugely successful, and thought "I can do that do!"
Now all we have is countless streaming services nobody actually wanted, and they're all suffering - even Netflix.

We're starting in on a "consolidation" phase now, where the parent companies are gluing their subsidiary streamers together.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

I'm actually surprised they were allowed to make an explicitly comedic film. Good to touch on, at the time, current events.

Kirk showing responsibility for his actions is great, especially given how Wrath of Khan went. Justifiably heartbroken over how Spock still seems to not fully remember him. Picks up 80s attitudes remarkably quickly. That said, his confusion over things like exact change is golden.

Shatner seems to understate his acting right up until they time travel. After that, he's back to his usual, charming theatrical shenanigans. The stress over Spock swimming with the whale is especially great. His exclamation of "whales" when figuring out the plot seems to convey both Kirk and Shatner's disbelief.

A decent amount of time is devoted to Spock re-engaging his mind. It was a little disappointing to have him back in pure logic mode, having mostly forgotten his character development. I could mostly tolerate it in the show, but I expect a little more progression in a film series. Still, his deadpan nature gives him some of the best mannerisms and lines. Ripping his dressing gown for a headband, nerve pinching the rocker and the argument in the car are both truly fantastic, as is failing to fully get 80s vocabulary, but trying anyway. Glad that the near death of a friend reawakens his emotions. And that final message to his mother is perfect.

McCoy is genuinely delighted to have Spock back, which returns to annoyance when he realises he's back in pure logic mode. Felt the frustration over being unable to discuss the afterlife. That said, their relationship has only gotten more cordial. Gets some wonderful sarky lines over the time travel plot. Interesting that he seems to fit in to the 80s better than anyone. Might be a consequence of his being an old country doctor. Loved him calling out Scotty over liking his professor role too much and trying to help at the hospital.

Speaking of Scotty, it's delightful that the biggest barrier to figuring out the ship is learning Klingon. Didn't mention it last time, but Sulu is a badass. Takei's voice is mesmerising even when he's just reciting warp numbers. Being the most normal of the bunch, he fits in decently well with the 80s, too. And hes not the only one interested in the Excelsior. Uhura gets to do far more than be a one scene wonder (though it was a great scene). Pairing her with Chekov is absolutely brilliant. Chekov himself is bloody surreal, being a Russian asking an American for nukes during the cold war. The submarine and hospital scenes are a wonderful fiasco.

Sarek is his usual great self and Amanda had a pretty great scene. Do not agree with Saavik basically being told to fuck off. She absolutely should've been part of the main cast (ideally, with her original actor). The Klingon ambassador is kind of cool. Slightly more decent than other examples of his species. Don't reckon too much to the president. I guess he's decent.

Gillian is a bit of an Edith Keeler type. Better than the society she lives in and very much Kirk's dream woman. So, its fantastic that she avoids Keeler's fate and gets to arrive in the future.

The music is proper triumphant. Absolutely love it. The probe sort of has that planet killer vibe of being simultaneously simple and eldritch. It's noise is appropriately haunting. A lot of the Federation scenes are shot like horror/disaster movies, so, its impressive that it gels well with the more comedic rest of the film. And, then, there's a seamless transition back to apocalyptic. The designs of the many ships and other space bodies are beautiful. Vulcan is always shot gorgeously. The lighting truly is astounding. I haven't mentioned it up till now, but, much as I think the originals did an amazing job with less, I am loving just seeing the crew walking through the various ships now that we have a decent budget. Reminds me of the feeling I had when Red Dwarf came back and suddenly the ship actually felt like it was several kilometres long. Really like the apocalyptic scenes of Earth getting fucked. Probably the best part of the whole thing is simply the surreal sight of these colourful characters wandering about at the time modern Earth.

I almost welled up at Kirk becoming captain again, and, then, it nearly happened again upon seeing the new Enterprise.

The conservation theme is pretty obvious, so, there's not much to say, except that I fully agree. There's also how the probe is just as destructive to us, as we are to other creatures. Slightly more interesting to talk about is how it follows from the previous films. Given that a key theme of them was that Kirk and, by extension, the franchise, was growing old, after casting off and remaking the worst parts of the show, all that's left is to demonstrate what you can do. Turns out you can be relevant to the 80s, just like you were to the 60s. You can, in fact, continue to provide cautionary tales and hopeful idealism through Sci-fi allegories. And, above all, you can seamlessly turn the next big budget, darker, edgier, epic movie into a delightful comedy and have it work brilliantly. We even get a new Enterprise. Kirk getting his captaincy back is a metaphor for this renewal. He's feeling young and full of potential, again. And the franchise, even more so. So much so, that maybe a new series with a new cast is in order.

I'm actually astonished how these four films (more so, the latter three, but I'm not completely excluding The Motion Picture) has kept a continuous thematic arc.

It's an obvious summary but this really was a whale of a time.

Gonna be an Encounter at Farpoint for The Next Generation.

No it is best to stick with the movies and finish off The Original Cast.

Watch 5&6 and then watch TNG.

ST 6 is far far far superior than Encounter At Farpoint.

If you are hell bent on starting TNG I must warn you that the first 2 seasons are pretty ropey to say the least. Season 2 was hit hard by The Writers Guild Of America strike in 1988.

In my opinion the only decent season 1 episodes of TNG are:

Where No One Has Gone Before
Datalore
Arsenal Of Freedom
Conspiracy

The rest are either mediocre or complete and utter trash.

You have now got only 178 episodes of TNG to watch.

CassandraCroft posted...

I must warn

no, you absolutely fucking mustn't. let people form their own opinions, and then (and only then) talk about a shared experience.

On one hand, one might as well finish the ToS movies.
On the other hand, it might be fun to see the quality difference between the Star Trek TV shows and the Star Trek movies by watching them by release date.

You should do TNG and DS9 too

I'd only annoy myself if I didn't go in release order. I've already heard that there's basically a retool in season 3. Plan on watching the whole franchise eventually.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season 1: Episode 1: Encounter at Farpoint

I'd already heard of Q. Surprised he shows up so early. Always fun to solve a mystery and I love the idea of space jellyfish.

Picard is already fascinating. He's much stricter than Kirk and has quite a note of anger in many of his lines. At the same time, there's a fatherlyness towards some of his subordinates and he outright says he values other opinions. He's got very little patience for the usual godlike beings that show up and there's a lot of integrity to him. Deciding to be damned as they really are. Owns up to being bad with children and immediately demonstrates it with Wesley. Absolutely convinced of humanity's improvements and gets to demonstrate it in the end.

Stewart truly is a phenomenal actor. The many character traits would simply create a confused mess in the hands of someone less capable, but he sells with an incredible presence that clearly outlines who the main character is.

Riker hasn't grown the beard yet, but I don't mind him too much. Bit of a flirt and has an apparently awkward history with Troi. Seemed a bit eager to please, but Picard's little test of his position was pretty great. Got a little overly snotty with Geordie. I like that it's his willingness to explore the unknown that impresses Q.

Geordie is a pretty great idea. Not too much to his character yet, but I liked his slightly meta mocking of exposition scenes. Being in constant pain from his visor is kind of nasty.

Kind of like Yar, too. Bit of backstory to explain her faith in the federation. Quite aggressive and trigger happy. Crosby plays her as constantly twitching and on edge, which is kind of interesting.

It's great to have a Klingon main character. I think I've seen Worf at least once in the other shows. Not too much yet, but he sets up his honourable nature.

Crusher has a slightly fraught history with Picard which might prove interesting going forward. Their conversation in sickbay was a pretty great scene. Seems like she doesn't like people that much. Rejects Riker and honestly it doesn't seem like she's particularly attentive to her son. McFadden playing her with a constantly distracted vibe.

Troi's species makes her the empath of the group. Assuming her history with Riker was romantic, she seems to still want to be with him, whereas he is awkwardly trying to move on. Her acting of the various sensed emotions is merely alright.

Data is already a delight. It's clear that his character arc is going to be getting more human, though he already has some sarcasm to begin with. Spiner is doing wonders with his physical mannerisms. Simply the way of getting up after the attack on the city says more than a line of dialogue ever could.

Wesley is almost saved by the simple fact he doesn't show up too much. Having worked with children and, therefore, knowing how wonderfully anarchic even well behaved kids are, I cannot abide overly precious brats. He's a bit older than the typical age range, but he's still far too twee for my liking. Picard was right to lose his temper.

Compared to the other godlike beings, Q stands tall as the king already. Instead of a stern stuffyness , he revels in being a trickster. The many costume changes and styling the trial as medieval fare (well, post atomic, fine) betray the sort of mockery of humanity that one can't indulge in without a deep love of whatever is being mocked. Nodding along behind Picard's back as he solves the mystery completely reveals what he's really about and de Lancie is utterly fantastic every second he's onscreen.

There are a lot of characters in this. I'm hoping they avoid TOS's tendency to ignore most of them.

There is quite a structural problem here and it comes down to the teething troubles of doing a pilot. We have three episodes in one here: the standard adventure of figuring out Farpoint, the introduction of Q and the plot arc involving him (I already knew he was a recurring figure), and the establishment of the shows premise, lore and characters. The show seems slightly aware of its pacing issues, which is why Q accuses Picard of dawdling, but as great as the trial scene is (save the noisy peanut gallery, never much liked that in any show) and as functional as the mystery at Farpoint is, they are worlds away from each other. There are other strange things, like how the holodeck scene is cool on its own, but also doesn't fully cohere with everything around it or the splitting of the Enterprise. Ostensibly part of the Q story, it's really of the establishing premise part. Here's what the new Enterprise can do, and here's how good it looks doing it. And people accuse The Motion Picture of being slow. At least the visual effects were the main and arguably only focus there.

That said, the designs of damn near everything are beautiful. The new Enterprise looks head and shoulders above the original one. A part of me will miss the original version, but my inner child is screaming about how cool it looks. (A "headless" Enterprise is weird, though). The city and Farpoint itself are quite nice. The jellyfish and their spaceship form are impressive. Q's little flash teleports are simple, but effective and his Tholian Web style barrier has much the same impact as that episode did. I'm loving the more lounge like bridge, too. McCoy gets a cameo and it's fantastic. Saw O'brien's actor, but I'm not sure it's the same character.

It has problems, to be sure, but I mostly enjoyed it and can't wait to see more.

The Naked Now sounds like a sequel. Liked the original, so, why not?

The way Patrick Stewart got the role is pretty nice, at that time he was pretty much "only a British Shakespeare guy".
Gene and Robert Justman (producer) had pretty much nailed the cast, with the exception of Picard. With the words of Justman:

My wife and I were taking a course at UCLA on humour. In the arts. Tonights lecture was to be a reading by two people one was Patrick Stewart.
He came out with the lady and they were proceeded to do some Shakespeare. And he read his first line and I went crazy. I turned to my wife I said I think Ive found our new captain.
We met at Gene Roddenberrys house, Patrick pulled up in his rental car and we spent about 45 minutes together, talking. We watched Patrick drive away in his rental car to go to the airport and Gene closed the door, turned around, faced me and said, and I quote, I wont have him.
He wouldnt have him and he wouldnt tell me why. But I know why. I knew why. I knew that he had conceived of a Frenchman. And, you know, who was masculine, virile, and had a lot of hair. And Patrick didnt fit that at all. Patrick was not so handsome, he was distinctive, and he was quite bald. Quite bald.
I was hot to trot. I was very, very enthused about Patrick playing the role. And I kept after Gene and Gene kept fighting me off until one day we had a new producer come on the scene, and that was Rick [Berman]. Rick saw Patricks film and fell in love with him. As did our casting director. So the three of us were allied in the fight to get Patrick as the captain. And Gene was allied in his own fight not to have him at all. So finally I realised that the more I pushed, the more he dug his heels in.
I made an announcement, one day, in a meeting when the subject was brought up and I said I dont want to hear the name Patrick Stewart ever again. Its over with Patrick Stewart, forget him. I did that on purpose to make Gene think that Id given up.
And every time anyone mentioned Patrick Stewarts name to me, I would explode and say I dont want to hear that. Dont tell me Patrick Stewart any more. Finally our last possible candidate came to audition for us. And the guy, whoever he was, read for us and talked with us and he left the room, the door closed and we were all silent. There was not a sound to be heard. And finally Gene Roddenberry heaved a big sigh. He said All right, Ill go with Patrick.

Patrick got a call saying that the role was his.
He wasnt really interested, but his agent and friends said "It will be cancelled after a year anyway, go earn some money".
So he went and expected it to be cancelled any day. It wasnt until his first con that he realized how big Star Trek really was.

splodeymissile posted...

There are a lot of characters in this. I'm hoping they avoid TOS's tendency to ignore most of them.

TNG does an excellent job rotating out main character duties between the cast.

Picard is already fascinating

No he is not! This is more fascinating that Picard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncmg3bxtTB0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubFq-wV3Eic&t=32s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLOPygVcaVE&t=1871s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiXY7ynw6ek&t=5s

Picard is the WORST Captain ever. Give me the far far far far far superior James Tiberius Kirk any day. Just keep watching TNG and you will see just how utter crap of a Captain he is.

Having seen Life on Mars, the test cards, and other BBC artefacts, are actually quite fascinating to me, too.

Episode 2: The Naked Now

Yep, basically a sequel/remake. Still, with a brand new cast comes a need to explore both them and the actors' abilities. Also, it's like 20 years later, so, I'm not going to hold a familiar plot against it this time.

Picard seems a little calmer. Following from his difficulties with children, he seems quite socially awkward in general. His odd little wave to Crusher and drunkenly rambling about names when she tries to jump his bones. Stewart, of course, sells the hell out of it. The little hop he does as a combination excited tick/confidence booster is brilliant. I can damn near feeling his teeth grinding when he has to be vaguely civil to Wesley.

Riker might be something of an audience surrogate. I missed it last time (which is unusually stupid of me, although, in fairness, I had an assessment to finish, so, i was a little distracted), but between being shown the details of ship, including the holodeck, and pointing out the similarity of the plot to TOS, he's very much guiding us into this world. He's arguably the most normal of the bunch, too. Upon infection, he just remarks that it's not the greatest time for that and gets on with his job.

I imagine Geordie (or at least Burton) had seen many reading rainbows. Joking aside, it is masterful how he can convey so many emotions with just facial expressions, despite a great big visor blocking most of it. His irritation at Crusher clearly stems from his constant agony and, of course, it gives way to sadness before long.

Yar demonstrates quite a sweet side to Geordie. Love her sexy swagger when intoxicated. Similar to the last episode, Crosby puts her whole body into acting. Got some details on her tragic backstory. There is a potentially sexist (or at least reductionist) reading to how, after nearly being sexually abused, our strong female character wants a gentle soul, but her actions prior to fucking Data suggest that she's pretty in control of her sexuality. Plus, it amuse me to see that scene as her giving up on a bad job and grabbing a high tech vibrator that can at least follow instructions.

Worf makes some amusing comments on the antics, but I'm still not seeing much to him yet. Doesn't seem all that enthralled by Wesley, which I can understand.

Crusher is similar to Riker, in that she's relatively normal compared to everyone else. Unlike Riker, who is our audience surrogate, Crusher just appears to be someone who happens to live in this world. Its hard to put into words precisely what McFadden is doing, but I see her as the only character in this bunch who could actually exist in the real world. Fancying Picard is an interesting choice, considering their history. She manages to keep a degree of self awareness and professionalism after infection. Her and Stewart's scenes have the air of a slightly dodgy work Christmas party.

Troi is still holding a candle for Riker. Her comment about fucking him whilst also inside his mind is the kind of delightful extrapolating of psychic powers that I will never tire of. The idea is beautiful to me. Her interaction with Yar was kind of fun.

Data is rapidly becoming my favourite character. Spiner is an amazing actor. His ability to snap from stoically doing his job to being interested in the latest word or phrase is brilliant. That smile when he follows Yar into the bedroom is golden, as is his post coital drunk swagger about the bridge.

I can't abide Wesley. Mentioning this again, but having taught children of various ages, bad child characters go far beyond merely annoying me. He's trying to play the role of Riley here, but it doesn't even begin to work for me. His little Picard voice box and obsessive fantasy of controlling the Enterprise is creepy as hell. They try to give him some redemption by suggesting a couple of solutions, but it doesn't work. The boy is insufferable.

The chief engineer is a surprising highlight. Just resigned to working in a circus. Actually seems annoyed when Picard injects her.

I don't know how much Netflix updated the effects, but I'm still liking the VFX work. That room Geordie enters with the frozen bodies is a work of art. We have the same hissing noise for new infections. Got to see more of the ship. There was an overly dramatic zoom in to Crusher's face at one point. Kind of funny that suggest McCoy's solution and it doesn't work. Listening in on the party was wonderfully awkward.

Fair bit sexist, this one. All three of the female characters become incredibly lustful, whereas only two of the men (and Data is slightly ambiguous, at that) follow suit. They're a damn sight better than the needy wimps of TOS, due to actually being more overtly coded as sexual and in charge of their sexuality, but it still ain't great. Weird anti sex message at the end, too, with Picard babbling about temptation.

Wesley aside, I quite liked this one, though. It was fun.

Worf hasn't got up to much, but judging from the title, I imagine Code of Honour will have more to say about him.

The original series is the only Star Trek I like and can watch

splodeymissile posted...

Code of Honour

Oh, that one is...special. Since you're about to encounter one of the lovely gems from the first two seasons, I'd like to remind you that the show really does find its footing in season 3. Don't give up.

darkmaian23 posted...

I'd like to remind you that the show really does find its footing in season 3. Don't give up.

This. Roddenberry did all he could to unintentionally suffocate the show. It took nearly three seasons before most of the creative control was removed from him and the show was better for it.