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Post by mojogirl on Aug 7, 2020 18:24:32 GMT -4
So I watched the animated Star Trek Lower Decks. It was okay. The animation is great and I love the music. I'll keep watching of course. I agree with all this 100%. I feel like it's trying a little too hard but maybe it will find its groove. |
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ElleCee
Blueblood
Posts: 1,471
Oct 19, 2005 21:09:38 GMT -4
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Post by ElleCee on Aug 10, 2020 2:08:43 GMT -4
Yes, trying too hard. The bat'leth scene at the beginning had me cringing and I guessed the "twist" from early on. The whole zombie thing was pretty funny though so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It'll be worth it if we see the tardigrade and robot from the Discovery S2 shorts show up.
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ElleCee
Blueblood
Posts: 1,471
Oct 19, 2005 21:09:38 GMT -4
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Post by ElleCee on Aug 14, 2020 13:22:01 GMT -4
Double post sorry. /Canadian
Second episode was last night. I've decided that it's a background show for me. It doesn't hold my attention and the eps are only 30min long. I just don't find it funny and the characters annoy me. I do find the animation gorgeous though and I love the cartoony Star Trek vibe.
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Post by Lwaxana on Sept 10, 2020 19:52:28 GMT -4
]BBC America recently got the rights to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and have taken full advantage by running an apparent marathon of the series. It is a tough call, but I really think that might be my favorite of all Treks, even all these years later. I'd never watched Star Trek until I binged TNG last month. Loved it. I tried to watch DS9 right after but am having trouble getting into it. I don't love the set, or the captain, or the sky mall. I've heard a lot of people say it's their favorite of all the Treks, and I don't know if the first season just isn't that great or what. Maybe I started it too soon after TNG? |
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Post by Mutagen on Sept 10, 2020 22:55:26 GMT -4
]BBC America recently got the rights to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and have taken full advantage by running an apparent marathon of the series. It is a tough call, but I really think that might be my favorite of all Treks, even all these years later. I'd never watched Star Trek until I binged TNG last month. Loved it. I tried to watch DS9 right after but am having trouble getting into it. I don't love the set, or the captain, or the sky mall. I've heard a lot of people say it's their favorite of all the Treks, and I don't know if the first season just isn't that great or what. Maybe I started it too soon after TNG? It is a completely different tone from TNG. I was put off by DS9 at first too. And yes, the first season is the weirdest and weakest (similar to TNG and Voyager in that sense). Season 2 has some really strong episodes with some duds sprinkled in the mix. Season 3 is where the show really starts to get into gear. What DS9 does uniquely well among the Trek series: a) The enormous cast of interesting and well-developed side characters, which really makes it feel like a lived-in universe. Because DS9 is set in a fixed location, the same characters recur again and again, instead of the usual "planet of the week" format where you meet an interesting character once and they are never seen again. A lot of the recurring characters go through their own arcs as well, including some who seem to start off as incredibly minor characters. Nog has one of the best arcs of any character, which is not what you would expect from the character's first impression. b) IMO Sisko actually does turn out to be one of the most well rounded captains. His relationship with his son is beautiful. Whatever the exact polar opposite of toxic masculinity is, it's that. Sisko's relationship with his longterm girlfriend later in the series is also really nicely handled -- mostly they avoid cliched drama and feel like actual grown-ups in a relationship. c) It introduces complexity and dissent into just about every main race/species. There are Ferengi who don't care about profit, Cardassians who don't mindlessly obey the state, Klingons who are lax about the ideals of a warrior -- and humans who don't care about Federation ideals. I think DS9 challenges tropes in a thoughtful way, not a mindless shock value sort of way. What DS9 lacks in "seeking out new worlds" it makes up for by doing a deeper exploration of the worlds we already know. Although, you should definitely read reviews of the Ferengi episodes before watching any of them. Some are legitimately great, others are among the worst episodes in the entire Trek franchise. There's little in between. d) For its time, and given that the studio higher-ups were notoriously skittish about acknowledging LGBTQ characters, DS9 probably got away with being the gayest incarnation of Trek in its era. A lot of the stuff around the way everybody casually accepts that Dax has lived as both a man and as a woman seems ahead of its time now. The actors playing Garak and Bashir have both acknowledged they were playing up a flirtatious angle (and in the DS9 documentary the showrunner Ira Steven Behr flat out admitted it was an obvious opportunity the writers didn't capitalize on). Anyway, I definitely think it's worth sticking with. At least watch long enough to see Louise Fletcher as Kai Winn, the OG Dolores Umbridge. |
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Post by Lwaxana on Sept 11, 2020 11:15:54 GMT -4
What DS9 lacks in "seeking out new worlds" it makes up for by doing a deeper exploration of the worlds we already know. [ You know, I think this was what was holding me back from enjoying DS9, but you gave me a lot of good reasons for sticking with it. I loved how ahead of its time TNG was. The episode where they visit the planet that has evolved into being completely gender neutral, but the person helping Riker feels like a woman and has to hide it? Fascinating. And Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra is one of my favorite episodes of television ever. I think watching the first few episodes, I felt like that sort of exploration and creativity would be lacking from DS9, but it sounds like it does a great job of keeping up that tradition by going even deeper into the concepts. Thanks! |
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Post by Mutagen on Sept 13, 2020 9:24:41 GMT -4
What DS9 lacks in "seeking out new worlds" it makes up for by doing a deeper exploration of the worlds we already know. [ You know, I think this was what was holding me back from enjoying DS9, but you gave me a lot of good reasons for sticking with it. I loved how ahead of its time TNG was. The episode where they visit the planet that has evolved into being completely gender neutral, but the person helping Riker feels like a woman and has to hide it? Fascinating. And Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra is one of my favorite episodes of television ever. I think watching the first few episodes, I felt like that sort of exploration and creativity would be lacking from DS9, but it sounds like it does a great job of keeping up that tradition by going even deeper into the concepts. Thanks! I love Darmok! Those kind of concept episodes were probably one of TNG's greatest strengths. I might have sounded a little negative about the "planet of the week" format, but it did lead to some truly creative scenarios like that one. Also, an interesting factoid about the gender neutral planet episode. Jonathan Frakes apparently lobbied hard to have his love interest character played by a male actor, but was shot down, again by execs. That doesn't at all take away from what the episode did accomplish, it's just an interesting "what could have been" (and speaks well of Frakes, who seems like an incredibly cool dude). Have you tried Voyager? It gets the rap of being "TNG lite" which is not entirely inaccurate, and its first 2.5 seasons have some ROUGH episodes (albeit those are mixed in with a couple of really good episodes like "Deadlock"). But it definitely attempted to return to that same spirit. In my opinion, its best episodes are up there with TNG's best -- it's just that the quality is a lot less consistent than TNG. Also, where TNG has some of my favorite concepts and DS9 probably has my favorite overall cast/story, I think Voyager is the crew that feels the most like a family. For all its bad parts I have a huge soft spot for that series. Anyway, I really hope you can stick with DS9, I think it is a rewarding series. It was made pre-9/11 and some of its commentary on terrorism and security ended up being freakishly on point. Also, have you seen the pandemic episode in season 1? There's a part where Quark is arguing that his bar is an "essential business" which sounds like the writers had a crystal ball for 2020... |
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Post by Lwaxana on Sept 13, 2020 13:05:21 GMT -4
Yes, the virus episode! That was crazy close to home. It's funny, TV really kept me sane through the worst of this. Early on I was watching The Tudors, and they had the whole sweating sickness, and then I moved on to sci-fi with TNG and they had their viruses, and I was like, this is just life. Some things never change and we're all a part of the cycle. It was comforting to see that. Frakes does seem like an amazing guy, though my heart belongs to Patrick Stewart. Those little bathrobes he wore while playing his flute? Swoon. Watched more of DS9 last night but to be fair, the two episodes were off the station. Odo is transporting a prisoner in the first and then the team crash lands on a prison planet that regenerates life. Super good episodes. I think I would enjoy the space station episodes more if the set design was different. It's all cold metal so far, and I miss the Golden Girls aesthetic of the Enterprise.  Maybe I should think of it as a Cardassian vessel? |
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Post by Mutagen on Sept 14, 2020 12:34:35 GMT -4
For sure! DS9 was formerly the property of the Cardassians so all the hideous aesthetic choices can be blamed on them. There is actually a GREAT episode in Season 3 called "Civil Defense" that sort of addresses this backstory - the crew accidentally trips an old Cardassian security protocol which leads to a hilarious/horrifying domino effect on the whole station. It's one of my favorite episodes in the whole series. Also, in addition to the actual design, DS9 suffers from being difficult to remaster due to annoying technical factors although of course, Trekkies being Trekkies, there are some fan efforts to do this independently. |
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Post by Lwaxana on Sept 22, 2020 17:17:52 GMT -4
For sure! DS9 was formerly the property of the Cardassians so all the hideous aesthetic choices can be blamed on them. There is actually a GREAT episode in Season 3 called "Civil Defense" that sort of addresses this backstory - the crew accidentally trips an old Cardassian security protocol which leads to a hilarious/horrifying domino effect on the whole station. It's one of my favorite episodes in the whole series. Also, in addition to the actual design, DS9 suffers from being difficult to remaster due to annoying technical factors although of course, Trekkies being Trekkies, there are some fan efforts to do this independently. Watched s1ep15 "Progress" and now I get it. It's the episode where Major Kira has to convince Mullibok to evacuate the moon he's built a farm on. Loved the set, the storytelling, and I think it's the first episode where Sisko lets some of his personality and compassion shine through and doesn't seem as wooden and stiff. The b-story of Nog and Jake trading one item for another in their quest for a profit was great, too. After that episode it felt like everything sort of fell into place for the show. O'Brien spends the next episodes complaining about the Cardassian computer system and then the ambassadors arrive and Sisko is pawning them off on Bashir and being super funny about it. And it's becoming clearer how Dax is filling the Data role with her 300 years of experience as a Trill. It's not a starship, but they're definitely dealing with all these characters who arrive from space and the constant drama and chaos it brings to their station. Anyway, it's clicking. |
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Maybe I should think of it as a Cardassian vessel?