[vladazhael]

[dolarabee]

I remember that one. T'Pol was with him... or was she?

do.

[NancyBrooke]

[Scribe]

Okay might as well throw my opinion about the Treks.

I loved TNG. I really did, while it was somewhat sterile in places, there was a real effort to tell some interesting stories and characters that should have been cardboard came alive, really. I mean on paper, Data sounds dumb. A robot wanting to be human. We've seen the Pinocchio analogy too often but there was a real poignancy about Data attempting to achieve humanity. Episodes, like Measure of a Man (where Data fights for his freedom to choose), the Offspring, (where he creates a child for himself), these are what good science fiction is about and it didn't matter that it wasn't gritty or nasty. Some stories transcend that. Furthermore, what TNG and DS9 got to with earnest was experiment. They tried things out in the first three seasons, some of it didn't work, some of it did. However, there was a concerted to be more than just a science fiction show. In the same way that the X-files was able to thrive at Fox, TNG and DS9 were cable shows at a time, where cable was the new medium, free of the network ratings. They never needed to compete so we have seven seasons of great story telling.

As much as I adore TNG, DS9 did it for me. It wasn't Babylon 5 by any means but there was a darker tone about it. The Federation got its hands dirty, it had to fight a war with a superior enemy and didn't always uphold a higher moral code to achieve it (i.e. In the Pale Moonlight where Sisko unwittingly sanctions the assasination of a Romulan ambasaddor to percipate the entry of the Romulans into the Dominion War).

It also had one thing that no other trek show has had, a secondary supporting cast that had were almost as well fleshed out at the primary characters. Rom, Nog, Keiko O'Brien, Cassiday Yates, Kai Winn, Gul Dukat who might be one of the greatest trek villains of all. The evolution of Damar from third season lackey to heroic leader and let's not forget Garak. Garak had no peer in the Trek universe, a character so emersed in grey that one could never ever be certain of where his loyalties stood. I find his end the most poetic of all.

And then things changed.

Voyager arrived on the scene and was put on a network, where it was expected to produce ratings. From the onset, there were problems, probably when Kirstie Alley refused to play Captain Saviik and later on, Lindsay Wagner walked away from it too, followed by Genevieve Bujold. We ended up with Kate Mulgrew as Janeway who isn't a bad actress by any means but she didn't have the clout to carry a show dependent on the Nielsens for its survival. From one season to the next, Voyager kept struggling for the ratings grabs, changing itself constantly and I suppose for trek fans, at least the ones not interested in tits and ass, the end came with the casting of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine.

For me, that was the begining of the end. The character was good, the actress was better considering what she was forced to wear but any legitimacy she had was destroyed by the outfit. Suddenly SEven of Nine became the Mary Sue of the Trek verse. She could do anything and always in skin tight latex. She was figured so prominently it almost became the Seven of Nine show. The quality degraded. We had the Rock guest star for God sake!

Even the end of Voyager was disappointing. Seven years of waiting for the ship to return and we get sixty seconds send off once they're home. WTF???? All the plot threads, built over seven years remain unresolve. Don't even get me started on what they did to Kes.

When Enterprise started and the promise of a prequel was announced, I was iffy about it. I liked Scott Bakula, having never seen Quantum Leap. I had one experience of his acting and that was as Peter HUnt on Murphy Brown and he was damn cool there. Unfortunately Captain of the Enterprise he wasn't. He never anchored the crew even though I must say that I liked Connor Trineer (decon scene not withstanding ), he had an affable quality about him but the legacy started by Seven of Nine was continued in T'Pol. Once again, it was a ratings grab. While Trip and T'Pol showed definite chemistry, the writers decided to go with the hackneyed idea of making the woman attractive to everyoen. They had great momentum in that first season and destroyed all good will by the second. During the third, what fans there were didn't stick around, despite the interesting Xindi plotline. You had MACOs who could have been interesting but were instead made up to be little more than security guys in cooler duds. No help there.

Four season we saw glimmers of brilliance but it was too late. The ratings had done the show in and it ended. Berman and Braga having stated clearly that the fans were idiots, had driven most of them away and even Manny Coto's helming of the show couldn't save it.

Now we have a movie. I could have waited a few years for this one but they're determined to go ahead.

The opinion of most of the internet fan base in the casting of Kirk is Jensen Ackles but we got Chris Pine who looks way to pretty and that's saying some because Dean Winchester is pretty hot himself. However, anyone whose seen Supernatural would know that if you're going for younger, you want cocky, supremely confident and somewhat reckless. If that doesn't fit with Jensen's potrayal of Dean I don't know what is.

Sylar as Spock, maybe. I can see it. He is probably the only bit of casting that hasn't got me gagging.

I love Karl, I truly do but as McCoy? I mean seriously, are you kidding me? A southern doctor who has a thing about transporters?

Simon Pegg, I like him but I don't know if I'll like him as Scotty. I think I would have rather had Carson Beckett for this one.

Zoe Saldana - Uhura...okay I guess. I'll reserve judgement.

John Cho.... if he takes the Enterprise to White Castle, I'm outta there.

Anton Yelchin feels like he ought to be asking whether we want fries with that coke rather than playing Chekov. What they are thinking...I have no idea.

We can only hope that Leonard Nimoy and Eric Bana save us or else, Trek will die.

Painfully.

[Rhapsody]

[Scribe]

Now if only they got Matthew Gideon as Captain of Enterprise NX01...sigh. I loved that guy on Crusade.

[Rhapsody]

[trekqueen]

oh geez Rhapsy make me blush!

I love that we're getting our inner trekkies some good venting time.

I was in absolute love with many of the DS9 cast too so whenever they appear at one of our local conventions I make it a point to see them. Over the course of the years I've gotten autographs/pictures with Miles O'Brien, Quark, Garak, Dukat, Brunt/Weyoun (same guy Jeff Combs), and a couple others. Many were a real joy to chat with and to see on stage. I have a few videos from last year's Grand Slam SciFi Convention if anyone wants to see them. I cna't recall if I posted them to folks here last year but... *shrug* you can check out some of the others I took while there that included Adrian Paul (Highlander dude), Robert Duncan McNeill (not as annoying as Tom Paris in RL), Battlestar Galactica folks, Dukat/Kira, O'Brien, Trip from Enterprise, and James Marsters (he got two freakin' days but was super hilarious).



My YouTube profile - don't mind the psychotic dog videos or boring Europe stuff. ^_^

oh and since Scribe mentioned "In the Pale Moonlight", yes AWESOME episode... one of my favorites. A friend introduced me to another friend of hers at a luncheon a bunch of us went to and I found out he was a former Trek writer for DS9 and a couple Voyager episodes (Michael Taylor) but (at the time) wrote for Dead Zone and not long after that was brought on to write for Battlestar Galactica with his buddy Ronald D. Moore. I wasn't familiar with his name but when I went home and looked him up I absolutely freaked because he did a number of my favorite episodes which included "The Visitor" and "In the Pale Moonlight". Had a good chat with him about Berman/Braga haha

[DarkElfChilde]

Nothing against Star Trek, but seriously...Hollywood needs to come up with something, a little more...original.

[NancyBrooke]

[Viv]

The dearth of good movies is something that's been bothering me, too. Hubby and I joined Netfilx recently, and we're actually having trouble filling up our queue. I remember when I used to look forward to movies coming out (not *just* LoTR, even), but I haven't been excited about a flick since ... wow, maybe since the third X-Men...

[NancyBrooke]

Now, Pictures:

http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/node/34774

[Rhapsody]

[NancyBrooke]

[Rhapsody]