Star Trek

[Valka]

My ranking of the TV series in order from favorite to least-favorite (actually it seems absurd to even put one of them on the list since I don't think it should have been made in the first place):

Star Trek (The Original Series)
The Animated Series
Voyager
Deep Space Nine
The Next Generation
Enterprise


TOS movie rankings:

The Wrath of Khan
The Voyage Home
The Motion Picture
The Search for Spock
The Undiscovered Country
The Final Frontier


TNG movie rankings:

The only one I can even tolerate is First Contact. The rest are crap, so there's no point in ranking them.


NuTrek:

Waste of resources with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, except for one line uttered by nuSpock in STiD, and it might have fit into a TOS episode if Spock were being sarcastic.


Fan Films

I've seen all the ones in the New Voyages/Phase II series and all the ones in the Star Trek Continues series. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but I have to give the nod to Star Trek Continues because those episodes feel like they could have been done as the real 4th TOS season if they'd had one.

I've seen some of the Red Shirt Diaries and as much of Stone Trek as is available (for some reason some episodes seem to have been removed from YouTube). But neither has any aspiration beyond being a parody.

Back in the '70s, Wayne & Shuster did a spoof called Star Schtick. The jokes are really dated and some of them only make sense to people familiar with the Canadian politics of that time. But I still get a chuckle out of it.

[Buster's Uncle]

Beginning my run-down of the TNG movies, as Uno encouraged:


Star Trek: Generations
Well, to begin with, it made a terrible start; it had ST movie-era characters using TNG-era 'technobabble' - they were reconfiguring stuff in an emergency aboard the Excelsior.  A nerd nit-pick, you may say?  (And why are you bothering to defend this turkey that's absolutely no one's favorite, anyway?)  Perhaps, but also a sure sign of a problem inherent to the picture throughout; barely-competent TV writers way in over their heads trying to do a movie.  It didn't help that it was a huge rude finger raised to fans of the real ST, but leaving that aside entirely, it just wasn't well-thought-out, well-paced, was a waste of Malcolm McDowall as a supervillain, and just wasn't a very good movie on any level.

I have nothing good to say about it (and am biting back considerable profanity) EXCEPT-

I'll swim against the tide in regards to a key plot point many fans like to harp on - Picard breaking out of the Nexus fantasy when Kirk failed to do so.  One is my hero and the other is Picard, but, while the two men have much in common, both being isolated and lonely men who want only a fast ship and a star to steer by to find Strange New Worlds -- Kirk, on a profound level, was looking, throughout the series, for The One, and when the Nexus gave both the love in their lives they deeply craved, Picard must have still wanted the fast ship more.  Kirk was maybe ready to settle down at that stage of his life, and I'll let them have that one - I can't believe he'd be happy, exactly, living grounded in a Christopher Pike ranch fantasy, but having the love of his life asleep in the next room becoming more important, I'll buy.


(Protip:  this is the harshest assessment I have for a TNG movie; I rather liked the next two and Nemesis sank so quickly I've never seen it and have no useful opinion except that if they were going to bring in a Picard clone, it should have been Locutus.  That's a more winning approach on SO many levels.)

[Valka]

^Did you mean to talk about First Contact or Generations? Kirk was never in First Contact.

One of the worst things about Generations is simply this:

WHO THE HELL IS ANTONIA???!

Edith Keeler was the love of Kirk's life. Yes, Harlan Ellison would have demanded $$$$$ to use the character's name. So what? It would have made more sense than some woman we never heard of before.


And killing off Robert and Rene? Not cool. 

[Buster's Uncle]

$#@! Corrected.

[Buster's Uncle]

I goggled for Evil Spock for Shop purposes, but stumbled onto this and had to post for Mylochka.

[Mylochka]

Oh, Evil Chekov...! 

[Vishniac]

Beginning my run-down of the TNG movies, as Uno encouraged:


Star Trek: Generations
Well, to begin with, it made a terrible start; it had ST movie-era characters using TNG-era 'technobabble' - they were reconfiguring stuff in an emergency aboard the Excelsior.  A nerd nit-pick, you may say?  (And why are you bothering to defend this turkey that's absolutely no one's favorite, anyway?)  Perhaps, but also a sure sign of a problem inherent to the picture throughout; barely-competent TV writers way in over their heads trying to do a movie.  It didn't help that it was a huge rude finger raised to fans of the real ST, but leaving that aside entirely, it just wasn't well-thought-out, well-paced, was a waste of Malcolm McDowall as a supervillain, and just wasn't a very good movie on any level.

I have nothing good to say about it (and am biting back considerable profanity)...

[Valka]

I've never been a fan of large memes that are intended as a substitute for real words with coherent explanations. That's a TrekBBS thing. Surely we can do better here?

I take it you don't agree with BUncle. So what is your opinion of Generations?

[Buster's Uncle]

SIC 'IM, Valka!

He didn't even quote the part where I defended, and only speaks up in here to complain and run away again.    At least I talk about what I love and why.

[Vishniac]

(And why are you bothering to defend this turkey that's absolutely no one's favorite, anyway?)

You called me a no one, you asked for it! 

And you didn't say anything about why you dislike the movie. No facts, no arguments, nothing.
Ah, yes, the technobabble at the beginning doesn't seem right... Like 99% of the viewers would care!
You here really give Geek a bad name (you can even put bad Bon Jovi music on it  )

My opinion is quoted on #1037

[Buster's Uncle]

You're saying the turkey in question is absolutely your favorite?  You got no taste, man.  It's not a well-made movie.

And you get NO $#@! refund - I was holding back when I didn't go into details.  Forget you, Vish.

[ColdWizard]

Movies:
Wrath of Khan
First Contact
Voyage Home
Generations - generally entertaining
Undiscovered Country - somewhat entertaining
Insurrection - meh
Search for Spock - meh
Motion Picture - meh
Nemesis/Reboot - tied in suckitude because they're not worth putting any effort into tie-breaking
Final Frontier/Into Darkness - try to make me watch these again and one of us is leaving. Possibly with some velocity. And possibly through a window.

TV:
ToS
.
.
.
Voyager, I guess.
Maybe Wesley-free eps of TNG.
They made others, I heard...

[Unorthodox]

Beginning my run-down of the TNG movies, as Uno encouraged:


Star Trek: Generations
Well, to begin with, it made a terrible start; it had ST movie-era characters using TNG-era 'technobabble' - they were reconfiguring stuff in an emergency aboard the Excelsior.  A nerd nit-pick, you may say?  (And why are you bothering to defend this turkey that's absolutely no one's favorite, anyway?)  Perhaps, but also a sure sign of a problem inherent to the picture throughout; barely-competent TV writers way in over their heads trying to do a movie.  It didn't help that it was a huge rude finger raised to fans of the real ST, but leaving that aside entirely, it just wasn't well-thought-out, well-paced, was a waste of Malcolm McDowall as a supervillain, and just wasn't a very good movie on any level.

I have nothing good to say about it (and am biting back considerable profanity) EXCEPT-

I'll swim against the tide in regards to a key plot point many fans like to harp on - Picard breaking out of the Nexus fantasy when Kirk failed to do so.  One is my hero and the other is Picard, but, while the two men have much in common, both being isolated and lonely men who want only a fast ship and a star to steer by to find Strange New Worlds -- Kirk, on a profound level, was looking, throughout the series, for The One, and when the Nexus gave both the love in their lives they deeply craved, Picard must have still wanted the fast ship more.  Kirk was maybe ready to settle down at that stage of his life, and I'll let them have that one - I can't believe he'd be happy, exactly, living grounded in a Christopher Pike ranch fantasy, but having the love of his life asleep in the next room becoming more important, I'll buy.


(Protip:  this is the harshest assessment I have for a TNG movie; I rather liked the next two and Nemesis sank so quickly I've never seen it and have no useful opinion except that if they were going to bring in a Picard clone, it should have been Locutus.  That's a more winning approach on SO many levels.)

Ya know, on a lot of levels, Generations was more a bad episode of The Outer Limits than anything. 

I LIKED the general idea of insert incredibly destructive space thingy BEING HEAVEN.  (that it's an illusion was needless BS that makes little to no sense, IMO.  Yer dead/trapped/whatever, IT IS YOUR REALITY at that point. )

To go along with that, I LIKED the general idea of villain willing to commit truly EVIL acts to get to heaven. 

That the villain was an evil insert whoopie's character alien here was intriguing from a writing perspective. 

(Was it ever explained why insert evil villain couldn't have just flown a ship into the damn thing?) 

Anyway, we really didn't get a good setup of the incredibly destructive thingy IS HEAVEN, NOR did the villain ever really threaten anything we are invested in, so he falls completely flat.  Sure we're TOLD he's evil and gonna do evil and we end up on the top of a desolate desert mountain threatening...what? 

So, I think the bones are there for a good show, they just didn't get fleshed out. 

Let the villain insert religiousity rant crap about heaven and/or the reckoning.  He's practically immortal and been spending his life listening to all the religions in the galaxy anyway, and TASTED Heaven, now he wants BACK.  Let Whoopie fill in as needed. 

Put Kirk/Picard in HEAVEN.  Not illusionary bliss.  Make their decision one of "everyone's safety is more important than my happiness" not, "this is not real". 

Put the villain on...oh, let's say the MOON.  Earth, big and bright in the background, he's about to destroy something we CARE about now. 

[Buster's Uncle]

...Thing is, Malcolm McDowell as a supervillain sounds like a can't-miss, but he ended up being wrong for THIS supervillain.  Swap in, oh, David Warner for a hacky bad guy performance, and the movie goes up 50% in quality automatically, I think...

[Unorthodox]

I don't do actor names...

Dude was fine, just had nothing to work with.  Give him religious zealot lines and he'll shine.  IMO.