Which is the best of star trek?

[jfetters]

You're right. There are a couple of moments in Trek V that are worthy. As a whole, though, it's one of the worst Trek flicks. It feel like a generic TV episode (not unlike Star Trek Insurrection). The interplay between the characters, though, is pretty good.

And a bad episode at that. I agree, but the poor execution of it made me angry. It also taught me the lesson of NEVER reading a movie's novelization prior to going to see the film. The book was much better written than the film was produced in every respect. And for a feature film with an original screenplay, I think that is unforgivable.

Remember, this is the film where Kirk states that he's always known that he'd die alone.

And, he did.

Well not exactly...

Spoiler:

since Picard was there.

But yeah, since the posse was not, if you look at it in that way.

 

[Supplement Four]

But yeah, since the posse was not, if you look at it in that way.

He was talking about his close friends at the time, and he meant that he wouldn't be around them when he died.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

One of the best books I've ever read (above and beyond Star Trek) is The Final Reflection by gaming's own John M. Ford. That's a masterful piece of science fiction...and it just happens to be a Trek book.

In preparation for a campaign I'm systematically reading through every single JTAS issue, and AFA adventure ideas / Amber Zones / patrons are concerned Ford's contributions are head and shoulders above the rest.

One of these days I'll finally read How Much For Just The Planet? , which people keep recommending fervently.

 

[Supplement Four]

One of these days I'll finally read How Much For Just The Planet? , which people keep recommending fervently.

After I first read The Final Reflection (I've read it three times now, since it first appeared), I immediately bought How Much For Just The Planet?

I felt like that second work was by another author. I couldn't get through it. It's a light hearted, Shore Leave (TOS episode) kind of Trek story. I didn't like it at all.

Of course, I was coming off the great Final Reflection, and I was expecting something that would rock my world as much as that first book did.

Maybe I'll try to read it again one of these days...it's just that I don't have a lot of interest in the story or the way it is told.

 

[Rhialto the Marvelous]

I felt like that second work was by another author. I couldn't get through it. It's a light hearted, Shore Leave (TOS episode) kind of Trek story. I didn't like it at all.

Well see, I like that. I plan to take both it and Alexei Panshin's Star Well on an intercontinental flight next month.

I wouldn't want it every day of the week, though, and I can see how it can fall flat if you come to it expecting a completely different tone and range.

 

[Spinward Scout]

An interesting novel that no one has mentioned is Spock's World. Set just after TMP, it's about Vulcan trying to secede from the Federation. And McCoy steals the show, so to speak.

Trek Logs were good - I believe they made some of those into the Animated Series episodes.

Star Trek V would have been good if it had a different director - the story was straight forward Trek.

Deep Space Nine had the most realistic characters because it was riding on the coat-tails of the established NextGen that worked out the bugs. But they needed to do more crossovers with NextGen.

Voyager blew unless Seven of Nine was on screen, then... what was the plot again? :devil:

Didn't get to watch Enterprise much. When I did, it was boring.

And this thread is 5 pages responding to a Banned Spammer.

o:

:rofl:

 

[jfetters]

An interesting novel that no one has mentioned is Spock's World. Set just after TMP, it's about Vulcan trying to seceed from the Federation. And McCoy steals the show, so to speak.

I very much enjoyed the so-called "giant" novels - Enterprise, Strangers from the Sky and Final Frontier. All for very different reasons, but I had an affinity for those

Star Trek V would have been good if it had a different director - the story was straight forward Trek.

And SFX team. And editor. ugh. As I mentioned elsewhere, you know you have a problem when the novelization of an original screenplay is light-years better than the movie.

Didn't get to watch Enterprise much. When I did, it was boring.

I think that was true for the first season anyway. It could never hold my interest. But reruns of the later episodes I found pretty interesting.

And this thread is 5 pages responding to a Banned Spammer.

o:

:rofl:

Hah! I didn't realize!

 

[Spinward Scout]

And SFX team. And editor. ugh. As I mentioned elsewhere, you know you have a problem when the novelization of an original screenplay is light-years better than the movie.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture novel was much better than the movie, too. Frak! Now I'm going to have to dig all of my Star Trek novels out of storage.

 

[Supplement Four]

Trek Logs were good - I believe they made some of those into the Animated Series episodes.

Other way around. The Trek Logs were the novelizations of he Animated Series episodes, the sister series to James Blish's novelizations of the 66 TOS episodes.

I haven't read any of the Logs, but I understand they're excellent, with Alan Dean Foster adding a lot to the stories that were "filmed" in the animated series.

Star Trek V would have been good if it had a different director - the story was straight forward Trek.

The Final Frontier did have some good parts, and the plot was a decent, very "Trek", idea. It just wasn't pulled off very well.

Deep Space Nine had the most realistic characters because it was riding on the coat-tails of the established NextGen that worked out the bugs. But they needed to do more crossovers with NextGen.

DS9 is one of my favorites. Too many Trekkies gave up on DS9 after season one. During season 3+, they brought a new head writer aboard (Ronald Moore, who's given us the excellent new Battlestar Galactica) and changed up some things (brought in Worf, brought in the Defiant, brought in the Dominion War).

DS9, season 3+ is some of the very best Trek ever made. There are some fabulous episode during that run.

 

[jfetters]

DS9 is one of my favorites. Too many Trekkies gave up on DS9 after season one. During season 3+, they brought a new head writer aboard (Ronald Moore, who's given us the excellent new Battlestar Galactica) and changed up some things (brought in Worf, brought in the Defiant, brought in the Dominion War).

DS9, season 3+ is some of the very best Trek ever made. There are some fabulous episode during that run.

I'd agree. The first season or two got a bad rap because of the whole Babylon 5 issue (IMO) in addition to the typical initial unevenness of a series trying to find its arc. But I think it really started to fall into a good groove once its characters finally became well defined and good stories were put on the table.

 

[BlackBat242]

Other way around. The Trek Logs were the novelizations of the Animated Series episodes, the sister series to James Blish's novelizations of the 66 TOS episodes.

I haven't read any of the Logs, but I understand they're excellent, with Alan Dean Foster adding a lot to the stories that were "filmed" in the animated series.

Yep... I still have complete (original, not reprint) sets of both novelization series (collected as they came out).

And yes, the Log versions were indeed expanded and improved over the scripts.

 

[saundby]

I enjoyed the original series the most. The animated series had some great stuff, the flat sound track really sucked the life out of it, though. If they're going to remaster anything, I'd really like to see those done with some feeling in the reading and a better score.

TNG had some episodes that I felt were absolutely brilliant. It also had some episodes that made Patterns of Force from the original series look like Shakespeare. If the series hadn't kicked off with those awful, stupid Q episodes I wouldn't have given it a miss for several years before I gave it another chance.

DS9 started out poorly. Later it got better, but IMO it never really shined. I enjoyed watching the Ro Laren episodes. When they were trying to make villains out of the Evil Ferengi Space Capitalists the show really sucked rocks, I felt.

I never saw enough of the other series to pass judgement on them. The episodes I saw were tepid, at best, and did nothing to make me go to the trouble of turning the show on again.

On the movies, I felt the TOS-based ones oscillated between awful odd numbered ones and better even numbered ones, with a generally declining trend in quality. The TNG-based movies I saw insulted my intelligence, even the ones friends rated as killer-must-sees.

I have hopes that the new movie coming in May won't totally stink.

 

[SuperGamera]

After TOS, the later series seemed to need about 3 seasons to really hit their stride. TOS can be really hokey by today's standards, but with the right retro-scifi mood it's still great to watch.

TNG really lost me by the middle of Season 2, but got me back with "Yesterday's Enterprise" and took off from there. Even so, we tend to forget that there were a lot of mediocre episodes scattered with the really good ones. By the last season, it just seemed to run out of steam. Also, watching it on TV now, it doesn't seem to have aged very well.

DS9 also took until the third season to get moving, and Seasons 3-6 probably had the highest average episode quality of any Trek series. After awhile, the time travel and holodeck concepts got overdone, and the predestination angle in the last year turned me off. If I had to watch whole seasons of any Trek series, it would be DS9.

Voyager never really appealed to me, even though there where some good episodes along the way. Bringing in the Borg brought up the level of the show, but got overdone in the end. By the later years, it seemed like the writers couldn't do anything about anyone of than the Doctor and 7 of 9. The finale really turned me off (once again, a time travelling dues ex machina!).

Enterprise probably started with a lot of doubters, and it was too late by the time it actually found its footing. In reruns, it seems better than it did at the time. Still, the worst Trek opening theme ever.

As for the movies, Khan and First Contact are probably the only ones I would care to watch again, with VI a possibility.

 

[spinwardpirate]

Every time I try watching TOS on tv my kids (5 and 7) audibly groan. I'm not sure why. They are huge fans of Star Wars, so one would think they would be game for Star Trek.

Maybe I need to try introducing them to TAS? Or maybe I need to give them my Star Trek Mego action figures to play with!


I've promised them, when XI hits the big screen, that I will take them to see it, and include a trip to the toy store along the way (bribery?). They seemed semi-interested. But then, over the weekend, I showed them the trailer for XI, and they both thought it looked really cool. So maybe there is hope afterall.

 

[kafka47]

Every time I try watching TOS on tv my kids (5 and 7) audibly groan. I'm not sure why. They are huge fans of Star Wars, so one would think they would be game for Star Trek.

Your plight reminds me of a stetch that I saw one on YouTube...when Eccleston came home to announce that to his parents that he was the new Doctor...he parents really rip into him in classic Northern drawl. Basically stating WTF role is that??? We here in the North are all Trekkers and we will have none of that Doctor Who nonesense in this household. A rejected little Chris leaves home to become one of the best Whos ever.

 

[saundby]

Your plight reminds me of a stetch that I saw one on YouTube...when Eccleston came home to announce that to his parents that he was the new Doctor...he parents really rip into him in classic Northern drawl. Basically stating WTF role is that??? We here in the North are all Trekkers and we will have none of that Doctor Who nonesense in this household. A rejected little Chris leaves home to become one of the best Whos ever.

That's hilarious! I'll have to look it up.

Brings to mind me going to a con, seeing these folks in scarfs running around talking about Doctor Who. Saw a picture of some guy with frizzy hair with the words "Doctor Who" over his head. Thought to myself "What, someone's stolen the Doctor Who moniker? Haven't they ever seen the real Doctor Who, the old guy that takes kids back in time to teach history?" It was about another year before I found out what was going on.

 

[Supplement Four]

Every time I try watching TOS on tv my kids (5 and 7) audibly groan. I'm not sure why. They are huge fans of Star Wars, so one would think they would be game for Star Trek.

That young, maybe Trek is too esoteric for them.

Star Wars is an action romp. Pow. Pow. Blast. Blast. With cool lightsabers and legions of troops in white armor.

The vast majority of Trek episodes, especially from TOS, have to do with rather brainy material. What action there is is typically short.

I know I first saw Trek when I was in grade school, and I always gravitated to the action shows.

I was in Jr. High when TMP came out, and I was like, what? Where are the phaser fights?

Then, TWoK finally made me happy.

Now, as I'm older, I really love those Old Trek shows. And, TMP? She so bad a pic any more. Quite intriguing, really.

So, I submit to you that they may like TOS when they're older.

Heck, treat 'em to TNG/DS9. With the advent of CGI, the space fights got bigger and better.

DS9, especially (season 3+) has a lot of action in it. They depicted an entire War with the Federation vs. The Dominion.