Star Trekkin': From TOS To ENT

[kostgard]

Here's Keckler's recap.

Completely horrifying episode, but funny recap. And I think it's funny that both TWOP and The Agony Booth refer to the same character as Groundskeeper Willie - that shows you how bad his accent, etc. was.

[bklynred]

That was funny/awful.

Another DS9, TNG and Voyager watcher. I was all about the captains and the borgs. (And Wil Wheaton!) Picard, Janeway and Sisko. Remember all the flak about Janeway as captain? For that reason alone I was pulling for that show, and it gained an audience one week a time.

ETA: I meant to add, I've tried to watch the original ST shows over and over; I can't do it. I didn't grow up on it and just couldn't connect with the camp.

[chiqui]

I have to say I liked the first ST series the best, just as I still like Adam West's Batman the best. It's by turns endearingly silly and bizarrely creepy. Many of the production people on the show came off of The Outer Limits when it was cancelled, and it really shows in retrospect. Sure it's campy, and I think it was meant to be that way from the beginning, in the same way "The Wild Wild West" was campy and "I Spy."

I used to watch TNG religiously but I don't think it's aged well at all. A lot of it reminds me of the post-Trapper John episodes of M*A*S*H -- the forced camaraderie, the heavy-handed "messages." Sometimes it was amusing though. I remember one episode where Worf kept meeting duplicates of himself until at the end there were hundreds of him from different alternate universes floating around.

I never got into DS9. Too many of the characters annoyed me.

I watched Voyager from time to time and I'm fondest of the episodes with 7 of 9 in them. Jeri Ryan was so marvelously bitchy and funny, it seemed like she was skewering the sweetsy earnestness of the show every time she opened her mouth. The later episodes, where they showed her trying to be a "real woman", I didn't like as much.

I agree with whoever said Scott Bakula was extremely wooden. I barely watched that series at all.

If a new ST came out showing Kirk's and Spock's academy days as long rumored, I'd hit that.

[Ripley]

Since we were talking about how awesome Picard was...

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2009 14:48:45 GMT -4 Ripley said:

Since we were talking about how awesome Picard was...

That's pretty rad, Ripley! My friend Jodie and I have had discussions about how hot Picard was. And then Archer came along...

I was watching some Voyager and the crew was wearing their dress uniforms. Those things were HIDEOUS! They made all the women look pregnant and the men look like they were wearing shapeless Nehru jackets, and the gold piping totally looked like glitter glue. I wonder if they had been redesigned since TNG, since I don't remember them being that bad. I did notice that on DVD you can make out more of the construction and fabric details, and the uniforms don't look nearly as good. I also noticed that I'm a tremendous nerd.

One common theme I see, based on my own viewing experience and others' comments, is that each series needed a few years to find its footing and hit its stride. TOS really took off in reruns (at least from what I've read), TNG got better post-Rikerbeard, and you can pretty much say the same for DS9 (once Sisko shaved his head and gained the goatee) and Voyager (once Janeway lost the bun and got the sassy bob), ENT got better from the second or third season on. Although I have to say, no matter what season, Riker-centered episodes pretty much bugged me for some reason (alright, except for the one where he falls for the androgynous being). And Q...I think it was more how John DeLancie played the character than the character himself...(I am almost sure I'm in the minority on that one, too).

[Atreides]

Q was generally great on TNG. John deLancie and Patrick Stewart had a great antagonistic chemistry. I thought he mostly sucked on Voyager though. They're good friends in real life but John and Kate Mulgrew were boring on screen. It was hilarious when Sisko punched him in the nose though. I figured that's why he only showed up on DS9 once. You don't mess with The Sisko, omnipotent being or not.

[Deleted]

Jan 9, 2009 14:48:45 GMT -4 Ripley said:

Since we were talking about how awesome Picard was...

He could too...

I still refer to the tugging of a too-short top as "the Picard maneuver". Which probably means I'm a nerd, but then who cares? I still want my own holodeck.

And I used to covet the jacket they had Picard in sometimes in later seasons when he went off-ship. It was short too, but not as bad as his usual one, and I always thought it would have looked good on me.

[bklynred]

Did anyone see the actors who played Tuvok (ad exec) and Chakotay (Indian casino developer) on Trust Me and Big Love, respectively? That was a pleasant surprise.

[Deleted]

So what is the consensus on Wesley Crusher? Yay or nay?

I personally had a big honkin' crush on him, but what can I say, I was in the 9th grade. I am big TNG fan, and think that "Best of Both Worlds" is some of the best television I have ever watched. The Borg kicks ass, yo.

[Atreides]

Nay to The Nth Degree.