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Star Trek
Aug 7, 2018 6:57:32 GMT -8
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Post by Zarnium on Aug 7, 2018 6:57:32 GMT -8
To be fair, TNG was not entirely consistent with the Borg, either. In their first appearance, they appear to assimilate technology rather than other life forms. They changed that in "Best of both Worlds." Then in First Contact, instead of having the Borg be a hive mind, they introduced the Borg Queen.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 8, 2018 17:09:46 GMT -8
My recommendations of important or especially good episodes, by order of air date:
1x01, "Caretaker:" The premier episode, might as well watch it if you haven't.
2x18, "Death Wish:" Q episode.
2x24, "The Thaw:" Probably the best episode of the series, comparable to some of the best episodes of TOS or TNG in tone and style.
3x02, "Flashback:" Voyager's 30th anniversary celebration of TOS, much like DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations."
3x05, "False Profits:" DS9 style "Ferengi episode," starring those two Ferengi who got lost in the Delta quadrant in TNG's "The Price."
3x11, "The Q and The Grey:" Q episode.
3x26/4x01, "Scorpion parts I and II:" Seven of Nine's origin.
6x02, "Blink of an Eye:" Another good one-off
7x19, "Q2:" Q episode.
7x25/26, "Endgame:" One of the worst finales I've ever seen, but if you've made it this far, you might as well see how it ends.
I'd also recommend "Eye of the Needle" (1x06), "Projections" (2x03), "Resistance" (2x12), "Lifesigns" (2x19), "Remember" (3x06), "Before and After" (3x21), "Distant Origin" (3x23), "Year of Hell" (4x08 and 4x09), "Living Witness" (4x23), "Message in a Bottle" (4x14), "Tinkor Tenor Doctor Spy" (6x04), "Deadlock" (2x21), and "Author Author" (7x20).
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Star Trek
Aug 14, 2019 8:57:16 GMT -8
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Post by Zarnium on Aug 14, 2019 8:57:16 GMT -8
Just saw the trailer for Star Trek: Picard. Anyone else excited???
This is what I've been waiting for, the timeline moving forward instead of tons of prequels.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 14, 2019 14:31:24 GMT -8
Yeah, I watched the trailer a while back. It looks great.
And Amazon Prime now has most of the Trek movies, so I'm finally going through the last few. Just saw First Contact (hadn't see it start-to-finish before) - Frakes' directing is pretty meh, but it's a solid story with a great villain, and builds compellingly off "Best of Both Worlds." Will watch Insurrection and Nemesis next.
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Star Trek
Aug 14, 2019 15:23:00 GMT -8
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Post by Zarnium on Aug 14, 2019 15:23:00 GMT -8
Unfortunately, those are two of the worst Star Trek movies, with only V being worse, IMO.
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 14, 2019 20:36:55 GMT -8
Ouch. Worse than Into Darkness? Or are you just counting the original-continuity films?
Also, very weird that Amazon Prime has all ten of the original films except Generations. Not sure why they couldn't get the rights to that one along with the other nine.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 14, 2019 21:57:06 GMT -8
Ouch. Worse than Into Darkness? Or are you just counting the original-continuity films? Also, very weird that Amazon Prime has all ten of the original films except Generations. Not sure why they couldn't get the rights to that one along with the other nine. Way, way worse. The Abrams films are often criticized for turning Trek into a dumb action franchise, but the TNG films did it first-they're just as brainless as Star Trek (2009) and Into Darkness, except duller and with worse action. Nemesis and Insurrection are complete bores. You can always re-watch "The Way of the Warrior" or "Favor the Bold"/"Sacrifice of Angels" again-better reminders of how great Trek can be.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 14, 2019 22:03:04 GMT -8
Just saw the trailer for Star Trek: Picard. Anyone else excited??? This is what I've been waiting for, the timeline moving forward instead of tons of prequels. Yes, for the reason you mentioned among others. Michael Chabon being on the writing staff + Patrick Stewart not signing on unless they had a good idea also makes me extremely excited for this. After the creatively inert Voyager, the ill-conceived Enterprise, the nonsensical Abrams films, and Star Trek: Discovery, which is cripplingly flawed on many fundamental levels-we might finally be in for the great Trek sequel. DS9 was the last time the franchise was great-hopefully Picard will follow that route-metaphorically of course.
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Star Trek
Aug 15, 2019 4:23:36 GMT -8
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Post by Zarnium on Aug 15, 2019 4:23:36 GMT -8
Ouch. Worse than Into Darkness? Or are you just counting the original-continuity films? Possibly, I haven't seen Into Darkness in a long time though. Insurrection is probably the most ideologically nonsensical of any of the films, being weirdly Luddite. Nemesis I don't really remember too well either, except that it has an extremely stupid sequence where Picard jaunts around in a dune buggy on a pre-warp civilization's planet while being shot at by natives.
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Post by Jay on Aug 19, 2019 14:14:31 GMT -8
I'm curious about the Picard series but question the over-the-top streaming media in general. My dad's not the convention or cosplay type but is otherwise a Trekkie and watched all the series as they aired. He didn't even know that Discovery existed until I mentioned it last night, but I would imagine that as a generational thing, it might pull away from consumers who are accustomed to just tuning in on a schedule.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 4, 2019 18:26:17 GMT -8
I watched Insurrection today. It is... not very good. Sadly, Zarnium and Flamepillar are correct in calling it the worst Trek film (thus far) apart from The Final Frontier.
The main problem with the movie is that... well, it's not really a movie. There isn't enough happening here to justify an entire feature film. The story plays like a standard episode of The Next Generation, except stretched to 100 minutes instead of 45. As a result, it's slow, meandering, and rarely exciting.
And the script could definitely have used another polish. I admittedly laughed at Picard singing Gilbert & Sullivan (I'm a sucker for anything HMS Pinafore, no matter the context), but a lot of the attempts at humor are really weak and lowbrow. (Haha, Data said "boobs"!) The film is at its best when it connects to the larger Star Trek franchise, as in the brief allusion to the Dominion. (Sad that the film couldn't tie anything in to the Dominion War on Deep Space Nine, although given the different mechanisms of film and TV - see the MCU for another example - not at all surprising.)
And wow, much as I like Jonathan Frakes, the dude cannot film a good action scene. The space battles in this movie are as boring and unfocused as the script. It looks like they got Stuart Baird, a pro action-film editor to direct Nemesis... hopefully that film's better than this one?
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Star Trek
Sept 4, 2019 20:48:43 GMT -8
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Post by Zarnium on Sept 4, 2019 20:48:43 GMT -8
Ideologically, the film makes little sense, as well. A common theme in Star Trek is that technological advancement is a good thing that leads to greater harmony in society; why, then, does this film put the anti-technology Ba'ku on such a pedestal? And if they don't like technology, why are they fine with letting Picard and co. use their technology to defend their interests? And since they're not native to the planet and are actually colonists who moved to the planet specifically because of the rejuvenating properties, what right do they have to keep it from the rest of the Galaxy? They just want to keep it for themselves, apparently, when they could just as easily move elsewhere and give the planet up for the greater good, and continue to reap the benefits of the rejuvenating properties of the planet anyway through the resulting medical technology.
The story is probably intended as an allegory for the displacement and disenfranchisement of native peoples for the purposes of petty material gain, a scenario which is all too common throughout history and certainly worthy of deconstruction. However, the actual content of the film is more analogous to something like if the cure for cancer was discovered on a previously uninhabited island, and a few squatters flock there and refuse to let anyone else use it. It just doesn't make any sense.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 5, 2019 7:28:53 GMT -8
I watched Insurrection today. It is... not very good. Sadly, Zarnium and Flamepillar are correct in calling it the worst Trek film (thus far) apart from The Final Frontier. The main problem with the movie is that... well, it's not really a movie. There isn't enough happening here to justify an entire feature film. The story plays like a standard episode of The Next Generation, except stretched to 100 minutes instead of 45. As a result, it's slow, meandering, and rarely exciting. And the script could definitely have used another polish. I admittedly laughed at Picard singing Gilbert & Sullivan (I'm a sucker for anything HMS Pinafore, no matter the context), but a lot of the attempts at humor are really weak and lowbrow. (Haha, Data said "boobs"!) The film is at its best when it connects to the larger Star Trek franchise, as in the brief allusion to the Dominion. (Sad that the film couldn't tie anything in to the Dominion War on Deep Space Nine, although given the different mechanisms of film and TV - see the MCU for another example - not at all surprising.) And wow, much as I like Jonathan Frakes, the dude cannot film a good action scene. The space battles in this movie are as boring and unfocused as the script. It looks like they got Stuart Baird, a pro action-film editor to direct Nemesis... hopefully that film's better than this one? Michael Piller (pretty much the guy who saved TNG in Season 3) wrote the film-he even wrote a book of how it turned from a good idea into........what it was. But yes, at the time of Insurrection, "The Siege of AR-558" and other things are happening. But the flagship of the Federation is....not on the front lines? I wouldn't say Nemesis is a big improvement, but it is slightly less yawn-inducing. Plus it has a young Tom Hardy and some good action scenes. So that's something. Overall though, First Contact is the only TNG film worth watching.
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Post by Jeremy on Sept 5, 2019 11:10:37 GMT -8
The story is probably intended as an allegory for the displacement and disenfranchisement of native peoples for the purposes of petty material gain, a scenario which is all too common throughout history and certainly worthy of deconstruction. However, the actual content of the film is more analogous to something like if the cure for cancer was discovered on a previously uninhabited island, and a few squatters flock there and refuse to let anyone else use it. It just doesn't make any sense. Oh, that was definitely the intent - Picard fully spells it out at one point. But yes, the film is pretty muddled in delivering on that message (or any other). Michael Piller (pretty much the guy who saved TNG in Season 3) wrote the film-he even wrote a book of how it turned from a good idea into........what it was. But yes, at the time of Insurrection, "The Siege of AR-558" and other things are happening. But the flagship of the Federation is....not on the front lines? I don't think a true DS9 tie-in could ever be in the cards. The film was in development before the Dominion War was even a thing, and movies are an entirely different beast from TV. They obviously had to contrive a way to get Worf into the story; beyond that, the film just did its own thing.
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Sept 6, 2019 7:05:51 GMT -8
Michael Piller (pretty much the guy who saved TNG in Season 3) wrote the film-he even wrote a book of how it turned from a good idea into........what it was. But yes, at the time of Insurrection, "The Siege of AR-558" and other things are happening. But the flagship of the Federation is....not on the front lines? I don't think a true DS9 tie-in could ever be in the cards. The film was in development before the Dominion War was even a thing, and movies are an entirely different beast from TV. They obviously had to contrive a way to get Worf into the story; beyond that, the film just did its own thing. It wasn't. But it still would have made for a much better movie. (It was Michael Piller's intention to begin with, but it still started off as much more interesting than it ultimately turned out).
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