The Official Star Trek Thread

[Calthrina950]

Mr. Plinkett's

Oh, you mean the guy who started the insane hate mob against the Star Wars prequels with his bad-faith, disinformation-laden, grotesque excuse of a "review" of The Phantom Menace, which led to two perfectly fine actors getting their careers and lives ruined, George Lucas selling off his creation to Disney (with all the mediocrities it has churned out since), and an entire generation of fanatical morons who are still, to this day, unable to give these movies anything resembling a fair shake?

Yeah, you'll forgive me if I don't care what this piece of sh*t has to say.

Well, I'm not someone who absolutely despises the Prequel Trilogy; in fact, there are certain aspects of it which I enjoy. But I'm not an apologist for it either, and I like Plinkett's reviews just for the humor and entertainment value. And which two actors are you referring to?

Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best. Look them up if you're so inclined - they went through hell.

I'm not accusing you of anything, to be clear. My beef is just with Plinkett (and really with his whole ilk of reviewers). But anyway if you didn't like it, that's totally fair. To each their own.

I'm aware of what happened to Jake Lloyd, though not to Ahmed Best. But Lloyd's troubles predated Plinkett's review, which came out a decade after the movie was released.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Mr. Plinkett's

Oh, you mean the guy who started the insane hate mob against the Star Wars prequels with his bad-faith, disinformation-laden, grotesque excuse of a "review" of The Phantom Menace, which led to two perfectly fine actors getting their careers and lives ruined, George Lucas selling off his creation to Disney (with all the mediocrities it has churned out since), and an entire generation of fanatical morons who are still, to this day, unable to give these movies anything resembling a fair shake?

Yeah, you'll forgive me if I don't care what this piece of sh*t has to say.

Well, I'm not someone who absolutely despises the Prequel Trilogy; in fact, there are certain aspects of it which I enjoy. But I'm not an apologist for it either, and I like Plinkett's reviews just for the humor and entertainment value. And which two actors are you referring to?

Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best. Look them up if you're so inclined - they went through hell.

I'm not accusing you of anything, to be clear. My beef is just with Plinkett (and really with his whole ilk of reviewers). But anyway if you didn't like it, that's totally fair. To each their own.

I'm aware of what happened to Jake Lloyd, though not to Ahmed Best. But Lloyd's troubles predated Plinkett's review, which came out a decade after the movie was released.

As much as I would want to blame George Lucas instead of Lloyd for his acting, he was just as bad in 'Jingle All the Way,' from years prior, too.

I will blame Lucas for Jar Jar Binks though. It's not Ahmed Best's fault that he to read bad, jive-esque dialogue as one of the most irritating and insulting characters in cinema history. He was just doing his job as an actor. That's all on Lucas' writing and direction. Let's not forget about the Neimoidians and Watto too when it comes to obnoxious stereotypes.

[Calthrina950]

Mr. Plinkett's

Oh, you mean the guy who started the insane hate mob against the Star Wars prequels with his bad-faith, disinformation-laden, grotesque excuse of a "review" of The Phantom Menace, which led to two perfectly fine actors getting their careers and lives ruined, George Lucas selling off his creation to Disney (with all the mediocrities it has churned out since), and an entire generation of fanatical morons who are still, to this day, unable to give these movies anything resembling a fair shake?

Yeah, you'll forgive me if I don't care what this piece of sh*t has to say.

Well, I'm not someone who absolutely despises the Prequel Trilogy; in fact, there are certain aspects of it which I enjoy. But I'm not an apologist for it either, and I like Plinkett's reviews just for the humor and entertainment value. And which two actors are you referring to?

Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best. Look them up if you're so inclined - they went through hell.

I'm not accusing you of anything, to be clear. My beef is just with Plinkett (and really with his whole ilk of reviewers). But anyway if you didn't like it, that's totally fair. To each their own.

I'm aware of what happened to Jake Lloyd, though not to Ahmed Best. But Lloyd's troubles predated Plinkett's review, which came out a decade after the movie was released.

As much as I would want to blame George Lucas instead of Lloyd for his acting, he was just as bad in 'Jingle All the Way,' from years prior, too.

I will blame Lucas for Jar Jar Binks though. It's not Ahmed Best's fault that he to read bad, jive-esque dialogue as one of the most irritating and insulting characters in cinema history. He was just doing his job as an actor. That's all on Lucas' writing and direction. Let's not forget about the Neimoidians and Watto too when it comes to obnoxious stereotypes.

Agreed. As Plinkett points out, the Neimoidians were obviously a caricature of Asians-specifically, the Japanese-while Watto was the stereotypical Middle Eastern peddler or market dealer. But then again, the prequels are still superior to the Disney-helmed sequels, which have been absolutely terrible. At least they had some sense of direction to them, and were more faithful to the Star Wars Universe. The only real advantage the sequels has over the prequels was that the special effects and settings were better and more realistic, although I think that's because of the advancements in technology which took place in the decade between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Voyager is the best ST of all time and Captain Janeway is one fine mother F.

Reported for being a Janeway fanboy.

I will grant that of all the ST captains she's been the most antiheroic, which in some ways made her well suited for the 1990s.  The basic problem ST:V'ger had was despite giving the crew a well-defined goal, get back home, it never embraced it or had even the outline of a plan of how it would happen. It also had the misfortune of starting before American television was generally willing to accept episodic television with continuing story lines. However, the dreadful writing of the show led to an overreliance on time travel as a deus ex machina to get them out of scrapes and/or destroy the ship without consequence.

Kate Mulgrew did good with the character she played, but Janeway was very one-dimensional and stereotypical and easily the least interesting of those who've sat in captain's chair in Star Trek (with the possible exception of Discovery which I haven't watched as even if had gotten rave reviews, I still wouldn't have bothered paying for CBS:All Access.).  Commander Shelby in two episodes was far more compelling than Captain Janeway in seven seasons.

[DaleCooper]

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I do enjoy Voyager, but I can't really defend its problems.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I do enjoy Voyager, but I can't really defend its problems.

V'ger did have some good moments, but how the writers failed to make the most of such an excellent premise still baffles me.

What they needed to do before the show left drydock have had an idea of how many seasons they hoped the show would go, and planned a major theme/arc for each season, and how to end the show early if needed. That isn't to say they shouldn't have felt free to alter the plan if situations changed or they came up with better ideas, but other than a vague idea of having a season that would be a "Year of Hell" (that thankfully later got retconned into a single episode) it doesn't appear they had any long term plans.

[DaleCooper]

As embarrassing as it is to admit, I do enjoy Voyager, but I can't really defend its problems.

V'ger did have some good moments, but how the writers failed to make the most of such an excellent premise still baffles me.

What they needed to do before the show left drydock have had an idea of how many seasons they hoped the show would go, and planned a major theme/arc for each season, and how to end the show early if needed. That isn't to say they shouldn't have felt free to alter the plan if situations changed or they came up with better ideas, but other than a vague idea of having a season that would be a "Year of Hell" (that thankfully later got retconned into a single episode) it doesn't appear they had any long term plans.

V'ger is how my dad and I refer to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I agree with your assessment. It doesn't help that the whole reason they're stranded is because of their own foolish misunderstanding of the Prime Directive, then after that they're basically just doing random things each episode, occasionally getting a little closer to home. It's very lighthearted given how hopeless the situation is.

[Progressive Pessimist]

Mr. Plinkett's

Oh, you mean the guy who started the insane hate mob against the Star Wars prequels with his bad-faith, disinformation-laden, grotesque excuse of a "review" of The Phantom Menace, which led to two perfectly fine actors getting their careers and lives ruined, George Lucas selling off his creation to Disney (with all the mediocrities it has churned out since), and an entire generation of fanatical morons who are still, to this day, unable to give these movies anything resembling a fair shake?

Yeah, you'll forgive me if I don't care what this piece of sh*t has to say.

Well, I'm not someone who absolutely despises the Prequel Trilogy; in fact, there are certain aspects of it which I enjoy. But I'm not an apologist for it either, and I like Plinkett's reviews just for the humor and entertainment value. And which two actors are you referring to?

Jake Lloyd and Ahmed Best. Look them up if you're so inclined - they went through hell.

I'm not accusing you of anything, to be clear. My beef is just with Plinkett (and really with his whole ilk of reviewers). But anyway if you didn't like it, that's totally fair. To each their own.

I'm aware of what happened to Jake Lloyd, though not to Ahmed Best. But Lloyd's troubles predated Plinkett's review, which came out a decade after the movie was released.

As much as I would want to blame George Lucas instead of Lloyd for his acting, he was just as bad in 'Jingle All the Way,' from years prior, too.

I will blame Lucas for Jar Jar Binks though. It's not Ahmed Best's fault that he to read bad, jive-esque dialogue as one of the most irritating and insulting characters in cinema history. He was just doing his job as an actor. That's all on Lucas' writing and direction. Let's not forget about the Neimoidians and Watto too when it comes to obnoxious stereotypes.

Agreed. As Plinkett points out, the Neimoidians were obviously a caricature of Asians-specifically, the Japanese-while Watto was the stereotypical Middle Eastern peddler or market dealer. But then again, the prequels are still superior to the Disney-helmed sequels, which have been absolutely terrible. At least they had some sense of direction to them, and were more faithful to the Star Wars Universe. The only real advantage the sequels has over the prequels was that the special effects and settings were better and more realistic, although I think that's because of the advancements in technology which took place in the decade between Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens.

I still think episodes I and II are worse than all three of the sequel trilogy. 'Revenge of the Sith' is better than them though. I do appreciate though that the prequels were at least more original than the sequels in setting up its own conflict but they still relied a lot on callbacks and nostalgia in other ways. Also they are technically much worse than the sequel trilogy which have better acting, direction, and special effects (including practical ones). And as flawed as they are, were never really boring for me like I and II were.

Still, regardless of where one stands on this discussion there is no denying that the average quality of all the 'Star Wars' films has dropped significantly.

[ProudModerate2]

I have not seen any episodes of Season 1.
Is it worth watching?

[vitoNova]

Voyager is the best ST of all time and Captain Janeway is one fine mother F.

Reported for being a Janeway fanboy.

Granted, my knowledge of Star Trek in general isn't too sophisticated.

My sole criteria in judging the entire series is this: 

if I was a hypothetical member of StarFleet, which crew would I like to be a member of?

Voyager wins every time. 

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Voyager is the best ST of all time and Captain Janeway is one fine mother F.

Reported for being a Janeway fanboy.

Granted, my knowledge of Star Trek in general isn't too sophisticated.

My sole criteria in judging the entire series is this: 

if I was a hypothetical member of StarFleet, which crew would I like to be a member of?

Voyager wins every time. 

I'll grant that the show made the best use of its crew of any of the Star Trek series I've seen. However, they had to do that in part because Janeway was such a limited one-note character.

[Tender Branson]

I have not seen any episodes of Season 1.
Is it worth watching?

Yes.

Many elements of TNG are still recognizable, but with a modern aspect.

I first thought it might be bullsh*t similar to „Discovery“, but the „Amazon“/Los Angeles production might have helped in creating something a bit more common sense than this tech-infested rape that is „Discovery“.

Some scenes like with Icheb were horrible and should have been left out though and some production mistakes have been made such as those blinding lights during several camera shots.

[Dereich]

Voyager is the best ST of all time and Captain Janeway is one fine mother F.

Reported for being a Janeway fanboy.

I will grant that of all the ST captains she's been the most antiheroic, which in some ways made her well suited for the 1990s.  The basic problem ST:V'ger had was despite giving the crew a well-defined goal, get back home, it never embraced it or had even the outline of a plan of how it would happen. It also had the misfortune of starting before American television was generally willing to accept episodic television with continuing story lines. However, the dreadful writing of the show led to an overreliance on time travel as a deus ex machina to get them out of scrapes and/or destroy the ship without consequence.

Kate Mulgrew did good with the character she played, but Janeway was very one-dimensional and stereotypical and easily the least interesting of those who've sat in captain's chair in Star Trek (with the possible exception of Discovery which I haven't watched as even if had gotten rave reviews, I still wouldn't have bothered paying for CBS:All Access.).  Commander Shelby in two episodes was far more compelling than Captain Janeway in seven seasons.

You say that, but just as Voyager was getting going DS9 was dramatically and permanently changing its status quo with the Dominion War. If DS9 could do a dramatic overarching plot while still maintaining an episodic formula, there's no good reason Voyager couldn't have tried harder to do the same thing.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Voyager is the best ST of all time and Captain Janeway is one fine mother F.

Reported for being a Janeway fanboy.

I will grant that of all the ST captains she's been the most antiheroic, which in some ways made her well suited for the 1990s.  The basic problem ST:V'ger had was despite giving the crew a well-defined goal, get back home, it never embraced it or had even the outline of a plan of how it would happen. It also had the misfortune of starting before American television was generally willing to accept episodic television with continuing story lines. However, the dreadful writing of the show led to an overreliance on time travel as a deus ex machina to get them out of scrapes and/or destroy the ship without consequence.

Kate Mulgrew did good with the character she played, but Janeway was very one-dimensional and stereotypical and easily the least interesting of those who've sat in captain's chair in Star Trek (with the possible exception of Discovery which I haven't watched as even if had gotten rave reviews, I still wouldn't have bothered paying for CBS:All Access.).  Commander Shelby in two episodes was far more compelling than Captain Janeway in seven seasons.

You say that, but just as Voyager was getting going DS9 was dramatically and permanently changing its status quo with the Dominion War. If DS9 could do a dramatic overarching plot while still maintaining an episodic formula, there's no good reason Voyager couldn't have tried harder to do the same thing.

While the Dominion was introduced the same year (season 3 of DS9) as V'ger was launched, they weren't the primary focus until season 6. That said, you're right that V'ger could have tried harder, but they didn't.  Instead they kept writing purely episodic storylines and puerile time travel stories that let them keep destroying the ship without any lasting consequences. Tho to be fair, a couple of times they created duplicate ships and crews to be destroyed instead of using time travel to let them destroy the ship and have it be restored.

[7,052,770]

The worst part of Voyager was how the crews integrated so seamlessly and so quickly. The Starfleet vs. Maquis conflict should have been a major plot thread for years, even if just bubbling under everything. There's no way the two crews would have been fine with working together like that with basically no ill will.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The worst part of Voyager was how the crews integrated so seamlessly and so quickly. The Starfleet vs. Maquis conflict should have been a major plot thread for years, even if just bubbling under everything. There's no way the two crews would have been fine with working together like that with basically no ill will.

They touched upon it some, and the show in my opinion would've been worse had they done more. The proximate cause of the Starfleet v. Maquis tension was no longer proximate, since it was back in the Alpha quadrant, and many of the Maquis were former Starfleet. About the only additional use that would've made sense would have been if the tension resurfaced whenever they had one of those episodes that teased an early return home, but that would've turned the episode into a two-parter, maybe making it a good fit for the end of Season 1/start of Season 2. It would have at least been better than the cheesy episode, "Learning Curve", that ended the first season.

[Tender Branson]

Jonathan Frakes’ cryptic tweet

What has us wondering if something is afoot is a tweet sent out Friday morning by Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes.

He posted a photo—without a caption—of himself smiling with his TNG co-stars LeVar Burton and John de Lancie.

It’s a fantastic photo and in just a few hours, the tweet garnered hundreds of comments and thousands of likes.

https://twitter.com/jonathansfrakes/status/1365354155875782658

[dead0man]

The wife and I are watching through all the ST TV shows, in release order.  The changes between TOS and TNG are huge.  Which one of the above do you think changed the most?

[Alben Barkley]

I think the first season or two of TNG (when Gene Roddenberry was still involved), the storytelling and plots are still pretty reminiscent of TOS. Including some episodes that are outright remakes of TOS episodes. But after that, it starts diverting dramatically and becomes easily the biggest difference between the shows. Acting is different, a little less hammy perhaps, but outside of Stewart, not exactly top notch acting still. Sets are clearly different but it’s still recognizable as the Enterprise.

[Tender Branson]

After filming has resumed about a month ago in CA, here's the first trailer:

[Utah Neolib]

After filming has resumed about a month ago in CA, here's the first trailer:

I hope it’s better than the action lacking first season

[Tender Branson]

After filming has resumed about a month ago in CA, here's the first trailer:

I hope it’s better than the action lacking first season

Hopefully, it has a good storyline.

A lot of action isn’t needed.

See the crappy „Discovery“.

[John Dule]

After filming has resumed about a month ago in CA, here's the first trailer:

I hope it’s better than the action lacking first season

Yeah, I watch Star Trek for the action too.

[7,052,770]

Yes, I'm late to the party on this. Star Trek Continues is a fan-made Star Trek series on YouTube that ran from 2013 through 2017.

I'd heard about it a bit over the years, but never bothered to watch it, assuming (reasonably, I think) that it couldn't possibly be all that good, since it's entirely non-profit, everyone on it works for free, and it is like a "season 4" of TOS, but with unknown actors playing the roles of the characters we love. It's not officially sanctioned by Paramount, but they allowed it because no one was making any money off of it.

But, I decided to watch it all over the last few weeks, and ... wow, I was waaaay wrong. This show is fantastic! It's not just filmed "fan fiction," it's that the 11 episodes actually have the feel of TOS episodes. I had previously watched another fan film series on YouTube (Phase II/New Voyages), and that one was watchable but never felt like "lost episodes" of TOS. Continues really does feel that way.

If I were going to rank the top 10 episodes of Star Trek released since Enterprise went off the air, at least 8 of them are probably from Continues. No exaggeration. If you love TOS, you'll love Continues. If you don't love Discovery or Picard because they don't remind you of classic Trek, Continues may be for you.

If you haven't seen it, here's the official YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhvh2eq-XLgqNxH6npvQxGxLCUHy90IpZ



note to mods - can we merge every Star Trek thread into a single huge Star Trek megathread?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Don't think I have seen it, but it is probably better than Dissuckery (the only decent official Trek show currently in production is Lower Decks IMO).

New Voyages/Phase II - which I have seen - had a couple of good episodes, one of them even being nominated for a Hugo Award back then.