Star Trek

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eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

Post by eumaas »

We have started to watch Voyager. I only ever watched it once, as it aired. It is so awful. We aren’t even watching it with full attention, more as just background while doing something else like arts and crafts, but we have to turn it off sometimes because it is so bad. And yet we have friends who rate it highly, higher than fucking DS9!
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
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I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
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Dr. Medulla
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Re: Star Trek

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eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:11pm
We have started to watch Voyager. I only ever watched it once, as it aired. It is so awful. We aren’t even watching it with full attention, more as just background while doing something else like arts and crafts, but we have to turn it off sometimes because it is so bad. And yet we have friends who rate it highly, higher than fucking DS9!
Doctor-centric episodes tend to be better—the one where he created a holographic family, I recall, was pretty good—but the whole damned series was pancake flat. It wasn't a problem of concept—not all that different from TOS—but just crappy scripts and dull characters.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

Post by eumaas »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:20pm
eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:11pm
We have started to watch Voyager. I only ever watched it once, as it aired. It is so awful. We aren’t even watching it with full attention, more as just background while doing something else like arts and crafts, but we have to turn it off sometimes because it is so bad. And yet we have friends who rate it highly, higher than fucking DS9!
Doctor-centric episodes tend to be better—the one where he created a holographic family, I recall, was pretty good—but the whole damned series was pancake flat. It wasn't a problem of concept—not all that different from TOS—but just crappy scripts and dull characters.
The amount of technobabble is higher than any other series I think, to the point where I wondered if Janeway was supposed to have an engineering background.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

Flex
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Flex »

I warmed to it a bit when I picked up those multi-series dvd sets that focused on a theme. It cherry picked the best episodes of the series which made it seem kinda good. Then I watched the whole thing and I realized it was... not... good.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Star Trek

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eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:20pm
eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:11pm
We have started to watch Voyager. I only ever watched it once, as it aired. It is so awful. We aren’t even watching it with full attention, more as just background while doing something else like arts and crafts, but we have to turn it off sometimes because it is so bad. And yet we have friends who rate it highly, higher than fucking DS9!
Doctor-centric episodes tend to be better—the one where he created a holographic family, I recall, was pretty good—but the whole damned series was pancake flat. It wasn't a problem of concept—not all that different from TOS—but just crappy scripts and dull characters.
The amount of technobabble is higher than any other series I think, to the point where I wondered if Janeway was supposed to have an engineering background.
If you're right about the technobabble part, it speaks to a problem shared by succeeding series—Enterprise and Discovery—which is fan-servicing. Star Trek goes bad when it caters to expert fans to the exclusion of others.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

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The Doctor is probably the best part as Neil says but doesn’t save it. The weird militaristic shit always bugged me. No other Trek depicts Starfleet like that, even DS9 which is set during a damn war.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

Post by eumaas »

Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:30pm
eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:21pm
Dr. Medulla wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:20pm
eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:11pm
We have started to watch Voyager. I only ever watched it once, as it aired. It is so awful. We aren’t even watching it with full attention, more as just background while doing something else like arts and crafts, but we have to turn it off sometimes because it is so bad. And yet we have friends who rate it highly, higher than fucking DS9!
Doctor-centric episodes tend to be better—the one where he created a holographic family, I recall, was pretty good—but the whole damned series was pancake flat. It wasn't a problem of concept—not all that different from TOS—but just crappy scripts and dull characters.
The amount of technobabble is higher than any other series I think, to the point where I wondered if Janeway was supposed to have an engineering background.
If you're right about the technobabble part, it speaks to a problem shared by succeeding series—Enterprise and Discovery—which is fan-servicing. Star Trek goes bad when it caters to expert fans to the exclusion of others.
I still haven’t watched Discovery, but Enterprise is the only Trek I gave up on.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Star Trek

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eumaas wrote:
14 Feb 2018, 6:31pm
I still haven’t watched Discovery, but Enterprise is the only Trek I gave up on.
A few years ago, I went back and watched all of Enterprise on Netflix. Some things were better than I remembered, but it was mostly really dull and meandering. The last season was dedicated to filling in potholes that hardcore fans burned for (e.g., why do Klingons look different in TOS?). Discovery is actually worse. We watched every episode because B wanted to stick it out, but I honestly and truly don't care about a single character. As Boddington said a couple months ago, it just doesn't feel like Star Trek. There's zero hope or wonder to it, even when it tries, just meanness and darkness. It might be decent sci-fi if it weren't tied to Star Trek—maybe—but it is and that works against it.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

revbob
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Re: Star Trek

Post by revbob »

I never watched the quantum leap Star Trek it looked, and I dont want to sound superficial, boring. Tried Voyager but found that boring for sure and couldnt care less about any of the characters. DS9 was the pinnacle and I dont think they will ever be that good again. Sisco was just a powerful character and the supporting cast/crew were all excellent.

Flex
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Flex »

i kept waiting for scott bakula's next leap to be the leap home after every episode of ENT. alas.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a bowl of soup
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a rolling hoop
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle like a ton of lead
Wiggle - you can raise the dead

Pex Lives!

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Star Trek

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Nice article on DS9: https://io9.gizmodo.com/to-boldly-stay- ... 1823186821

"Duet" was on again last week. It really does grab hold of one's sense of war, war crimes, and how we deal with its aftermath—the dead are dead, but the living inherit the consequences and moral reckoning. I remember when I was going to school in Iowa, a bunch of us grad students went to Life is Beautiful. One of our group was a young woman from Germany, and she was visibly shaken by the movie and quickly excused herself after the movie ended. It really struck me how to those who are neither German nor Jewish (or, in some circumstances, Polish or Ukrainian) the Holocaust is rather abstract, but to her, it was apparent, it was legacy.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

Post by eumaas »

Started watching Discovery. Seems more like a show inspired by Trek (in the loosest way!) than a Trek show. It also doesn’t at all seem like it could have come before TOS. I don’t mean visually (of course they would have to be updated), but tonally (not to mention weird continuity differences). It’s an okay scifi show I guess but it isn’t Trek.

The Elon Musk callout is bizarre. What has he done to equal the Wright brothers?
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

Post by eumaas »

It doesn't seem like fan service to me. If anything it seems remote from the essence and themes of Star Trek. You could easily strip out the usual signifiers like Federation, Klingon, etc and it would be the same.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

Dr. Medulla
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Re: Star Trek

Post by Dr. Medulla »

eumaas wrote:
17 May 2018, 9:54pm
It’s an okay scifi show I guess but it isn’t Trek.
That's where I'm at. Everything that's frustrating about it comes from thinking about it within the larger Star Trek narrative, where it just doesn't mesh. As one observer said (I posted it back when episodes were airing), it could be more plausible if it took place after all the other series ended, picking up DS9's more wary view of the Federation and Star Fleet.
"I never doubted myself for a minute for I knew that my monkey-strong bowels were girded with strength, like the loins of a dragon ribboned with fat and the opulence of buffalo dung." - Richard Nixon, Checkers Speech, abandoned early draft

eumaas
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Re: Star Trek

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Kim and I just can't muster enough interest to finish Discovery.
I feel that there is a fascistic element, for example, in the Rolling Stones . . .
— Morton Feldman

I've studied the phenomenon of neo-provincialism in self-isolating online communities but this place takes the fucking cake.
— Clashy

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