Star Trek

[Buster's Uncle]

I stand behind my remark.  It had some great moments the first time through, but once you know the solutions to all the mysteries, it doesn't hold up on subsequent viewings.

In RL, people who are so very sure which is right and which is wrong, and that they are on the right side, are always jerks who are deeply in error.  The whole show is based in an immature two-valued world view.  I wouldn't want the "good guys" of B5 running around in analogue, all armed and agressive.

[Buster's Uncle]

$#@!   Forum just ate ten minutes worth of post elaborating on how quickly and casually people with such dichotomous world-views will screw you over and pretend -to themsleves and anyone they can make listen- that you were the bad guy.  Do not trust people like the ones on B5 - they're as bad as innerwebs nerdz, and they're armed and in the habit of shooting.  No good would come of that, if they were real.



Now, let's hope this pic of a fine-looking Orion lady will post this time and wash the B5 stank off:

[Buster's Uncle]

This is Dr Who companion Rose Tyler on the Enterprise.  With this hairdo, she looks like Jenna Jamison, which I didn't have the heart to tell BA...

[Buster's Uncle]

Mo' green [complaints or disagreeable women; may be a verb, may indicate management of prostitutes].

[Buster's Uncle]

Star Trek: Insurrection and TNG just came up in a Skype conversation.  I think I articulated my feelings about fake Star Trek as well as is possible in a concise statement.

[10:57:34 AM] bustersuncle: I'd have LOVED it if they changed a few names and didn't call it Star Trek, because it's not Star Trek.
[10:59:06 AM] bustersuncle: Not because of new characters 75 years later, but because the people making it just didn't get Star Trek, and pretty much took a big poop all over the real show for years.

sisko, you've been called out, and all others are welcome to chime in, even the majority who are wrong.

[Unorthodox]

There is something to be said that what made the original Trek move was Shatner, and to a lesser extent Nimoy (moreso in the movies).  Even the writing, Kirk is just a more interesting character than most the rest of the cast.  He gives you a central HERO for the story.  This makes it a bit more simplistic in writing, but generally better for story telling. 

This is not the case in later Treks. 

Picard has some few and far between moments, but he's almost relegated to being the setting for all these interesting characters around him.  It becomes a muddy mess with no central theme, and episodes flail wildly as a result with little to no unifying theme and it's a miracle it made it past the first awful season.  (it picks up steam in later seasons once this multitude of 'supporting' characters each have defined storylines/backstories and can make a GOOD lead for an episode here and there)

DS9 I cant help but be more interested in the shady characters/villains than the captain and crew.  Garrick and Ducat MAKE that show, and Odo/Quark is infinitely more interesting than anything Sisko spews on about, save a few prophet episodes. 

All others are entirely forgettable, but Janeway plays second fiddle to a hologram and quantum leap-trek seemed like little more than an excuse to get vulcans in skimpy outfits.  (I admittedly only watched about 4 episodes of that series)

[Buster's Uncle]

Patrick Stewart is a trooper, and he's good, but he thought the gig was beneath him, and it showed a little.  ("25 years, Jon," he'd sometimes say to JanathanFrakes bewteen takes when he was tired/out of sorts, "25  years in the Royal Shakespeare Company for this.")

Rick Berman and Brannon Bragga are no-talent hacks who held the gig in active contempt -judging from the results- and it did nothing BUT show.  There was a whole range of talent performing onscreen in various iterations of fake Star Trek, ranging from Colm Meaney, who never, ever rang a false note ever, no matter what turd of a script he was polishing as O'Brien, to the utterly incompetent waste of space who played the admiral on the youth drug in the early TNG episode "Too Short a Season".  There was a little very good acting, and a lot of competant performances, but the scripts were almost always utter. stinking. hackwork.

Again, I claim some authority on this as a writer/artist/storyteller of some proven accomplisment, as a former professional actor/performer, and as someone holding a degree in Broadcasting.

Quantum Star Track had its good moments - they made a LOT of the same old mistakes, far and away most notably having 7 of Vulcan on the show - (you'll go broke really fast letting the public know how low you estimate their intelligence too blatantly) but, they did a lot of things really, really right.  Scott Bakula was the right guy to Kirk that sucker up as hard as it could be Kirked, in the very best sense.  The dude playing Trip, likewise.  Buster's Aunt assures me that it also mattered a lot that both are very attractive men, along with wassisname the helmsman.  And someone, I gather it was Manny Cotto who took over producing for the fourth season, worked in some dead brilliant bits from the beginning; the stuff about rage against the Vulcans for holding humanity back makes the bigotry Spock dealt with make sense.

Now, that there's something NEW for fake Star Track after a lot of years of a lot of fake - bolstering  and enhancing something in real Star Trek, instead of ignoring, contradicting and/or undermining it. 

Absolutely skip the horrid 3rd season of Enterprize, about the Xindi/911 - the first two are uneven and mostly dull.  Skip to the fourth season - they still blew up ST continuity as often as respected it, but that's improvement, and mostly it was fairly good.

[Unorthodox]

My point is not about Stewart, but about PICARD as a character.  He's just not as interesting, and is more of the stable backdrop against which the stories are told.  Many episodes where he's the actual main lead suffer since they never defined his character.  A few he does admirable on, yes (like the one where he's captured), but the character as a whole just SUCKS. 

[Mylochka]

Hi! I'm BUncle's sister.  He told me he'd posted some of my trek pictures here and encouraged me to visit and post myself.  Here's a 7 of 9 model I created for one of my friends last summer

[Green1]

All the hate against TNG/DS9/VOY era trek. ENT, I can understand. Season 4 of ENT is the only season worthwhile.

The way I look at it is pretty much the way Uno looks at it with additions. TOS was a one character driven series. You had Shatner which every story revolved around. The only other characters that mattered was Bones and Spock. Uhurah, Scotty, Chekov and the others were wallpaper with the exception of Scotty's drinking shtick.

Contrast with TNG, DS9, and VOY. The captians were important, but they shared the spotlight with other characters and had development on thier own. Even minor charaters like Garak off DS9 became memorable characters in thier own right. TNG era Star Trek had much better development than TOS. I mean, yes, the captian IS important. And, there are episodes where each captian reveals his or her own flavor of badass. But, I liked the deeper suppoerting characters. I mean, come on. On DS9, the whole Worf/ Jadzia/ Ezri thing was darn good acting.

Now, did TNG/DS9/VOY era episodes have silly stuff? Yeah. A good portion of TNG season 1 comes to mind. Some of the early Kes/Neelix stuff before they developed them on VOY comes to mind. Wesley needed to be killed off. But, TOS has some really silly things too that need to die in fire. I remember one episode where Kirk and crew go to some "alternate Earth" planet where everything is a tribal cold war thing and they worship a butchered US constitution. Just silly.

[Buster's Uncle]

Oh, that wasn't even nearly the worst episode.  That would be The Alternative Factor, the one about Lazarus from the Anti-Unverse and his anti-twin.  It just didn't hold together as a narrative at all - it's impossible to sort out which Lazarus is which no matter how many times you watch, or how hard you try, and npot because they meant to keep you guessing.  The guest star did a horrible acting job, and the episode also killed John Barymore's career.  I know my Star Trek, including all the fake Star Track, and that may be the worst episode of any of them, ever - including the TNG movies. 

Also, so? 

ST had heart - fake just didn't.  All were flawed, but real Star Trek wasn't a hollow thing done only for the money by everyone but Michael Dorn and Manny Cotto.



You neglected to greet the newb, dude.  That's some pretty sweet Pieces of Eight art up there.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hi! I'm BUncle's sister.  He told me he'd posted some of my trek pictures here and encouraged me to visit and post myself.  Here's a 7 of 9 model I created for one of my friends last summer

Very nice job, and it looks like her. You especially nailed the mouth.

But I know you'd want me to tell you what this needs to be perfect - her eyes are a tad too large and shouldn't turn up at the outside corners.  And the woman has a strong chin, and a pronounced, if delicate, jawline.  You need to bring the bottom of the face forward a bit.

[Green1]

Hi! I'm BUncle's sister.  He told me he'd posted some of my trek pictures here and encouraged me to visit and post myself.  Here's a 7 of 9 model I created for one of my friends last summer

Oh yes.. greeting newb (not n00b, there is difference!). I am sorry, I get caught up in topic discussions sometimes and get blinders on!

That artwork of 7 of 9 is professional quality. Awesome job on one of the more interesting characters of VOY.

[Buster's Uncle]

A whole family of artists, folks, even the Reverend almost-doctor Buster's Daddy, who carves wood.  I'm very proud of them.

[Mylochka]

Thanks!  And glad to be a newb instead of a n00b...

I've been watching a lot of ENT recently.  It's much better than I remembered it being... but, then again, I think the show is greatly benefiting from very low expectations on my part.