Star Trek - Space: The Final Frontier

  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
My dad is actually something of Trekkie like I am, and he even mentioned at Christmas that he was excited about STP, and he might even be getting the shitty CBS streaming service to watch it. These platforms rarely if ever have any way of telling if people in multiple households are sharing an account, so if he actually does get it, I might leech like I did when he got DisneyMinus to see the Mandalorian.

I still preemptively hate it...
 
trekkor said:
The fight scenes were ridiculous but not in a fun way, just tedious. Bring me Kirk fighting the Gorn Captain or Worf wrestling a furry space shape shifter any day.
Click to expand...
Did Synth-girl whip out any moves from Ambo-jitsu, the ultimate evolution of martial arts!
IMG_20200124_184427.jpg
 
I just watched the first episode.

I might post my full thoughts later, but basically the main reason it doesn't feel like Star Trek is because instead of exploring new worlds and new civilizations... We are just getting member berries and some kind of conspiracy plot that would feel out of place even in DS9.

As for specifics, I didn't buy the girl being shocked about being an android. She was like "that's not possible" for a few seconds... and then use advanced martial arts, and hacking as if it was nothing. I don't know about you, but learning that your parents might not even be yours and that you were created in some lab or that Data is her father should have a huge impact.

It's obvious the real story they want to tell, is about a strong female super special android woman, and Picard and the cameos are just an excuse for the old fans to watch something nobody would care otherwise.

I hope it gets better later, but it's obvious we won't be getting the typical TNG "solve science/philosophical problem of the week" here.
 
Last edited:
SteelPlatedHeart said:
So basically if The Orville was Star Trek canon?
Click to expand...
I legit kind of wish the Orville's idea was canon. Like we've had all these shows with the flagship and these big important, memorable folks (Sisko with the war, Janeway with the Delta quad). Well what about the schlubs? What about the fleet filler ships that just poke about the galaxy? The ones nobody reads about in history books? You could have a lot of great humor to mine from that set up and some fascinating looks at the federation from another angle.

I want my "Star trek: down periscope" dammit!
 
Flexo said:
I legit kind of wish the Orville's idea was canon. Like we've had all these shows with the flagship and these big important, memorable folks (Sisko with the war, Janeway with the Delta quad). Well what about the schlubs? What about the fleet filler ships that just poke about the galaxy? The ones nobody reads about in history books? You could have a lot of great humor to mine from that set up and some fascinating looks at the federation from another angle.

I want my "Star trek: down periscope" dammit!
Click to expand...
Wasn’t there some kind of badly animated Star Trek show planned that was something similar to that? Like. The night crew or B squad or something?
 
I've never really watched Star Trek. I saw some of the old series enough to know who Command Riker is and Diana Troy is the one who looks like Andy McDowell. I've also seen some of Discovery (tuned out part way through, only watched to begin with because it had Michelle Yeoh in it). However, some random Voyager clips were thrown at me by YouTube. I admittedly clicked on them because Jerry Ryan is smoking hot, but it didn't actually look too bad.

Is it worth watching?
 
Overly Serious said:
I've never really watched Star Trek. I saw some of the old series enough to know who Command Riker is and Diana Troy is the one who looks like Andy McDowell. I've also seen some of Discovery (tuned out part way through, only watched to begin with because it had Michelle Yeoh in it). However, some random Voyager clips were thrown at me by YouTube. I admittedly clicked on them because Jerry Ryan is smoking hot, but it didn't actually look too bad.

Is it worth watching?
Click to expand...
If you want to get into Star Trek I recommend watching some stand-alone episodes from each series and then watching the show you think you'll like best going from there. I'll list some classic episodes from the top of my head but I'm sure everyone else in the thread will have their own recommendations.
TOS: Balance of Terror, Arena, Trouble with Tribbles
TNG: Measure of a Man, The Inner Light, Best of Both Worlds 1&2
DS9: The Visitor, Waltz, Things Past (DS9 is very story arc based so it's hard to find pure standalone episodes, I probably already failed)
VOY: Living Witness, The Thaw, Deadlock

Overall, I think Star Trek is a very rewarding franchise when you can develop the right mindset for it, but it can also be the most boring and cheesy shit if you don't.
 
Overly Serious said:
I've never really watched Star Trek. I saw some of the old series enough to know who Command Riker is and Diana Troy is the one who looks like Andy McDowell. I've also seen some of Discovery (tuned out part way through, only watched to begin with because it had Michelle Yeoh in it). However, some random Voyager clips were thrown at me by YouTube. I admittedly clicked on them because Jerry Ryan is smoking hot, but it didn't actually look too bad.

Is it worth watching?
Click to expand...
I think most here would probably either steer you to TNG or DS9 (and some some even TOS and Enterprise) over Voyager, but Voyager is perfectly fine for what it is, if a bit average.

The two most offensive things about Voyager are that the show is a slave to the status quo to its own detriment, pretty much hitting the reset button at the end of every episode so the show never actually lives up to it's awesome premise.

And second that the captain, despite being played by a decent actress, is written so wildly inconsistent from episode to episode (because the writers all had wildly different, and in some ways incompatible, ideas on who she should be.) that it can be pretty jarring.
 
Overly Serious said:
Is it worth watching?
Click to expand...

TOS is a bit too camp for me, TNG was my first trek and picard is the most famous bald guy for a reason (sorry terry savalas). never rally watched DS9, felt too much like a babylon 5 copy, VOY is "ok, @UnKillFill described it pretty perfectly (although I gotta admit there are some episodes I remember in a good way). ENT is also fine but it being a prequel to TOS can feel a bit off quite easily depending on your POV (different look, different tone etc.).

or if you want to simply get a feel what star trek is kinda like you can watch the orville.

word of warning, if you go into TNG the first 2 seasons are "not great, not terrible", with some rare good stuff in it. if you want to go into picard s02e09 is mandatory.

TNG_viewingguide.jpg

also, according /tv/ some more spoilers (click at your own peril):
Wesley Crusher is mentioned, he's Head of Starfleet Diversity. I'm not kidding. That's what his title is described as, it's a line like "Well, Wesley's too busy these days, Head of Starfleet Diversity." No bullshit.

as for the rest, might be fake, but considering how the first leaks turned out...

>The Dahj twins both hold the consciousness/memory of Data blended into their own (although the first Dahj dies in Ep1). His entire personality is awakened by the end of the season. (Dahj is a positronic brain in a human body)
>Therefore, Data is literally an empowered young woman by the end of the season.
>Bruce Maddox is modeled on Donald Trump. He is the key antagonist this season, even though he just starts out as being a mysterious creator of Dahj who Picard is searching for. He was behind the attack on Earth with the synths, working with the Romulan Tal Shiar.
>Crusher is confirmed to be dead in Episode 9. She and Picard agreed mutually a relationship would never work out, Picard has lived alone the rest of his days.
>Jurati, Alison Pill's character, is revealed to have been born male. She develops a comedic back-and-forth with the EMH.
>Rios sacrifices his life by the end of the season, but he is survived by his EMH doppelganger, who will stay with the crew in Season 2.
>Raffi is addicted to the Trek equivalent of painkillers. She appears to get over it, but re-lapses due to Narek.
>Elnor is the son of Sela, who was sent to murder Picard but changed his mind.
>Narek is ultimately revealed to have been pulling a lot of the strings with Maddox. He's been assimilated but as a 'sleeper' agent by the Borg.
>Episode 10 cliffhanger is a reveal of Q. Just a line from him and an appearance. He will play a bigger role in Season 2
 
Overly Serious said:
I've never really watched Star Trek. I saw some of the old series enough to know who Command Riker is and Diana Troy is the one who looks like Andy McDowell. I've also seen some of Discovery (tuned out part way through, only watched to begin with because it had Michelle Yeoh in it). However, some random Voyager clips were thrown at me by YouTube. I admittedly clicked on them because Jerry Ryan is smoking hot, but it didn't actually look too bad.

Is it worth watching?
Click to expand...
Depends on which series, and on your tolerance of silliness.

The Original Series (TOS) may be a little hard to watch for someone used to more modern productions as it is very much a product of its time from what little I've seen of it. The Next Generation (TNG) is overall quite watchable, only occasionally being ridiculous and straying far too much into the fantasy section of sci-fi and those episodes can be safely skipped over. Deep Space 9 (DS9) is at least as good as if not better than TNG and is a good take on a far more realistic view of the Star Trek Universe, meaning it isn't all daises and sunshine.

Voyager is okay, I guess. It has moments of brilliance, but also very obvious flaws and like mentioned above, basically gets reset every episode for the new monster to come along only to disappear to make room for a new monster next episode. Aside from that one episode that the writers struck from canon shortly after airing, it usually isn't too terrible. Most of the cast is quite weaker than TNG/DS9, but enjoyment can still be found.

Enterprise has the same problem Discovery has, being a prequel yet made in relatively modern times. Overall, the series ranges a bit above and below average and is mostly watchable with one exception. This exception is essentially its entire third season. Sadly, Enterprise never recovered and the fourth and final season suffers for it.

If you ever get curious about the movies, watch every other Star Trek movie (i.e. Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, etc.) including the unofficial Star Trek movie, Galaxy Quest. Skip the rest, including JJ Abram's garbage.
 
Overly Serious said:
I've never really watched Star Trek. I saw some of the old series enough to know who Command Riker is and Diana Troy is the one who looks like Andy McDowell. I've also seen some of Discovery (tuned out part way through, only watched to begin with because it had Michelle Yeoh in it). However, some random Voyager clips were thrown at me by YouTube. I admittedly clicked on them because Jerry Ryan is smoking hot, but it didn't actually look too bad.

Is it worth watching?
Click to expand...

Another Trek nerd chiming in...

The Original Series is, by modern standards, very campy. Actually, all the series are kind of a product of their era, but with TOS you can really feel it coming off the sort of pulp, nonsensical sci-fi/fantasy mishmash of the old pulp sci fi magazines. So one episode you might get a serious, gritty story about two starships locked in combat, with two clever captains trying to outwit the other, both contending with their orders and the larger geopolitical implications of what they're doing (One of the best TOS episodes, "Balance of Terror"), and then in another episode you might have them meeting the Greek gods... for... some reason. There were also some really heavy-handed "message" episodes that tend to be controversial and often very ham-handed.

Still, on the balance, there's more good there than bad, but generally you can tell in the first five minutes of any episode if it's going to be worth watching or not. There's a few exceptions, but not many. The acting is surprisingly good for a show of it's era, and even if Kirk's mannerisms have since become an object of parody, for what it was? It was good. They also remastered it quite a while ago with new special effects shots, which is nice.

---

The Next Generation is my favorite, and probably the best example of what Trek was supposed to be, although I don't think it's necessarily the best series in some ways.

The first two seasons in some ways feel very much like The Original Series... There's a lot of stories that are very campy, clumsy and stupid (Planet of aliens that are also basically tribal Africans! Planet of the Irish, aren't they so funny and drunken! Planet of sexy nazi women!), but there are enough important episodes that are worth watching that I wouldn't say skip them.

Mostly the acting is anywhere from good (Gates McFadden as Dr. Crusher always felt slightly wooden to me, and Troi suffers from basically the writers not having a damned clue what to do with her, but I don't think it's actually the actress' fault) to fantastic (most of the rest of the cast)... The one notable and infamous exception is Wesley Crusher/Wil Wheaton, although I'm going to be a bit controversial and say that I don't mind his character as much as many people do... Once they actually figure out what to do with him and try to make him more grounded and serious, anyways. Early on they were trying to justify his inclusion at far too young an age and it just didn't work.

Anyways, like I said, while it's arguably not the best of the series, I think it's the one that most closely captures Gene's vision, and it's a lot of fun.

---

Deep Space Nine is the other side of the coin from The Next Generation. I think it's probably the better series, but it's a fairly radical departure from Star Trek in a number of ways, and (again, controversial statement here), while I do think it's Trek at it's best, I think in some ways it also heralded the eventual destruction of the franchise. I'll explain!

See, Star Trek was meant to be a utopian vision of the future. Not a perfect utopia, if you will forgive the oxymoron, but utopian-ish. This was sometimes a bit of a problem, actually, because the writers were often stifled by Gene wanting some very particular things to be done with certain storylines. This was a problem that has been termed the "Roddenberry Box". There's an infamous early-series episode where a child loses his parents that the writers struggled with Gene over, because Gene insists that in the future, we will have evolved beyond silly notions such as "grief", and just accept the loss of a parent and move on.

Yeeeah, Gene was a bit of an odd duck.

Anyways, the Roddenberry Box aside, Star Trek in TOS and TNG presented a fairly positive picture of mankind and the federation. Sure, individual people could be bad, but they were the aberrations. Humanity was good and pure and noble, and we flew through the galaxy on warp-drive wings like little holier-than-thou angels, trying to be Good and Pure and such all the time and making things Gooder and Purer. Yeah, we were high on our own farts, but hey, it was a show you could watch and feel good about things. The good guys won, the bad guys lost, and your "team" was always the winner.

DS9 said to hell with all that. Mankind is still just as shitty as ever. And on one hand, that's good. Things felt a lot more natural. There wasn't the sort of forced optimism. Starfleet has corruption in it's ranks, people sometimes did bad things and justified it to themselves, and the good guy didn't always win - and sometimes who the good guys were got a little fuzzy at times, even.

Again, there was some really good acting and character building as the series went on. It was the first of the Treks to really experiment with story arcs... TNG had a few small ones, but nothing like DS9 had. In some ways the whole series was one long story arc, even.

Combine the two, and you had a really good series - but the Federation was never pure and opportunistic again. Basically every series after DS9 had to make things darker and grittier. Which is fine for The Expanse, but it's not the Star Trek that originally hooked two different generations.

Still! My ramblings aside, absolutely worth watching.

---

Voyager - skip it. There is one outstanding actor in it, which makes me kind of sad to snub it given his performance, but the series was not very good. Yes, there were some good episodes here and there, but the premise of the show was utterly squandered. It's a show that should have been better than it was.

---

Enterprise... Enterprise is was generally the most hated series until Discovery, but honestly I rather liked it. Although it wasn't perfect, it did feel like it was trying to slightly turn back the slide into dark and gritty a bit, at least until season 3. And I didn't mind the acting as much as some, although none of the characters are as good as TNG or DS9. It's also got two infamously bad episodes, including (sadly) the series final episode.

Still, unlike Voyager, I actually had a lot of fun with most of Enterprise.

---

Discovery - Skip it. Forget it exists. It is terrible beyond redemption. There are one or two episodes I would actually hesitatingly call "good", and there are a couple of good actors, but it's not enough to redeem the trainwreck. Also, regardless of what they tried to do, it feels far more like it's in the Abrams timeline than the Prime timeline.

---

Picard - Too soon to tell for sure.


---

The movies - The "even numbers" rule. 2, 4, 6, and 8. Skip 10, though.
 
Last edited:
I've always wavered on which series was the best. But as an adult, my heart has settled on TOS. I feel like those first couple seasons were just perfect. But it's just so old, and sometimes the HD reveals flaws that weren't originally visable. I watched TOS with my mom on my HDTV recently and she was shocked at how the Enterprise bridge set looked a lot hokier than she had remembered.

If you want to sample TOS, watch the movies 2,3,4, and 6.
 
To be fair to Shatner, he had often received his literally just finished scripts anywhere from a few days to a hour right before filming his scenes for TOS. Hence his mannerisms on screen as wasn't many or if any rehearsals done beforehand.

Shatner 's cover of Rocket man is still better than Elton John's original.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom