The Star Trek Thread

Both TNG and DS9 needed a couple seasons to get their mojo going.

Overall I enjoyed DS9 more once they found their rhythm with the war and brought some much needed continuity (though as has been mentioned, it was following on the heels of the Babylon 5). I felt the DS9 characters had a bit more overall depth/background/ulterior motives/etc, particularly with the Cardassians (Gul Dukat, Garek). The whole prophecy ending was weaksauce though. In TNG the cast felt a little more simplistic, though Picard certainly carried the more memorable performances (the "four lights" and the "lived an alternate life on a dying world and played a flute" episodes come to mind).

Voyager was just the mindless one for me. I didn't dislike it, but there wasn't anything really notable aside from 7of9's catsuit. I did find it amusing to see how many times they could kill/revive/clone/alternate-dimension-replacement Harry Kim though.

 

Kes was the most interesting character on Voyager for me and she was gone so soon.

 

Voyager is too tough for me. I like Enterprise more.

 

I totally crushed on Kes. Yeah 7of9 gets all the points for hotness, but Kes totally had the girl-next-door thing going on.

 

For me, it was her potential that was almost unexplored, then boom she's a semi-Q and gone. I was never interested in 7of9, I was actually insulted when she was made a permanent cast member. Same thing happened in Enterprise when T'Pol became this sex crazed maniac. Blalock is certainly more my speed than Ryan, additionally.

 

DS9 was such an anomalous series. I think my favourite part were the Ferengis. When I was watching it it was almost kinda boring (underpowered, no exploration), but then looking back now the depth of connections forged and relationships built were far more memorable than Voyager, for eg.

 

Just finished Enterprise last weekend. Can someone explain the hate? I thoroughly enjoyed the series although I would agree it's not quite up to par with the greats.

 

Once DS9 gets going I think it is some great PURE science fiction. I am not sure another show like it can ever be made again. It really is kind of boring for long stretches but there are some great moments and fantastic lines.

Though I enjoyed it in retrospect, I am not sure I would ever tell someone they must watch it. It has the same effect as Dr. Who, but for different reasons. The payoff for watching often takes a long while, and most people aren't served best by investing that much time.

 

For me Enterprise was much less sci fi than human drama, and DS9 was way better for that. I found it quite boring that after the technological "highs" of Voyager, you took a step back in terms of the science fiction aspect of it all.

 

That makes sense, but I would argue that every Star Trek series has revolved around human drama, with the sci-fi elements being a convenient backdrop to place our characters in different scenarios. Most of the complaints about Enterprise that I've read seem to go more along the lines of it being poorly written with mediocre characters.

 

Of course, you come for the Sci-fi but stay for the drama. I get that. But it just looked like a boring party from the start. I mean, I don't care about how we got to warp- that has been a given in the Star Trek universe for decades. There was just no excitement, mystery or anticipation in the subject matter at all. Ultimately (I think I even got to season 3 before giving up) I think this didn't help characters development either. The lack of tension led to decisions that had no dramatic element to me at all. At no point did I find myself thinking, like with all good books and tv series, "I need to know what happens next!!". Didn't care about the decisions, and so couldn't feel for the characters making them. In the end, all I took away were archetypes. Eg the Brash (Caucasian Male) Captain ala Kirk, the Vulcan ala Spock.

 

Just wait until you see how Sisko deals with the Maquis.

 

The theme song is horrendous, and by the time it came out, people had overdosed on Star Trek. We had TNG, DS9, and Voyager running concurrently for a little while, then the TNG movies. The first two seasons of Enterprise are hit and miss as well. Seasons 3 and 4 really tighten things up, but by then most people had already abandoned it. I remember watching some episodes when they first aired and felt like the crew had no chemistry either, but that also came together as the show went on.

Voyager is the real crapfest in the ST lineup. I'd rather watch Star Trek V 20 times before watching one episode of Voyager.

And my rankings are:

TNG>TOS>DS9>ENT>TAS>Voyager

Picard>Kirk>Archer>Sisko>Janeway

WoK>Undiscovered Country>First Contact>Voyage Home>Search for Spock>Star Trek 2009>Insurrection>Generations>TMP>Nemesis>Final Frontier>Into Darkness

I have some higher hopes for the new movie though, because Simon Pegg co-wrote it, and he's a hardcore old school Trekkie.

Also I'm cautiously optimistic about this new show. I'm really not happy they're putting it only on the app though. That's some BS and is the most likely thing to kill the series.

 

ENT failed because of the temporal cold war and the gratuitous sexual vulcan (IMO). S1 was pretty good for first seasons. Look at TNG and DS9 for a comparison. Voyager's first season was pretty solid, but the story forced it to be. S2 and especially S3 were really bad to unwatchable. S4 was a complete about-face and really good, but it was too late by that point.

Instead of exploring Federation history as present tense - like the fans were begging for (particularly the events surrounding the first Romulan war) - they come up with this fictitious temporal cold war that was just annoying. T'Pol exploring human sexuality is great, but don't make it every episode. So many suggestive rub-downs in the isolation room after alien contact/new planet, and then the eventual Trip affair.

 

Now that you've enjoyed DS9, you should watch Babylon 5, if you haven't. Here's the order you should use - http://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...the-babylon-5-movies-and-series-be-watched-in