Star Trek motion picture how it evolves over time

[Castout]

I grew up with TNG series of Star Trek. For those unfamiliar with the abbreviation(like I was) TNG stands for The Next Generation series of Star Trek.

Yesterday I picked a few TOS motion picture DVDs. TOS stands for The Original Series of Star Trek with Captain James T Kirk, Spock and McCoy. I have really never seen any of the TOS series having grown in the time of the TNG before and I watched Star Trek the most recent Star Trek motion picture which was rolled across the globe in all movie theaters just few months ago but after watching TOS motion pictures I give these TOS motion pictures my greatest appreciation :yeah:.

I really like the characters and above all the plots of these TOS movies. It's true that the newer motion pictures have got much better effects and ship renditions but the story and character fail to impress me as much as the old TOS motion pictures did. I'm beginning to be convinced that while Hollywood effects have dramatically improved over the decades the plots fail miserably compared to older movies.

In the typical today's Hollywood movie you are guaranteed to see impressive effects and lots of superbly done action however the entire story would escape your memory within hours of having watched them. They are shallow entertainment and feels without character to make lasting impression on my mind. The good guy is usually arrogant or made to look like a super duper hell of a guy while the bad guys are usually made even more arrogant :shifty: with emotional problem. There's no depth of character in these movies and the plots feel cheap and shallow though mildly masqueraded with premiere effects and excellent action sequences.

So my question is has Hollywood been invaded by stupid shallow script writers?! Because that is what their recent movies seem to suggest. To me today's Hollywood seems to have lost its humanistic feel to their movies. It's like watching robots in actions when you see the characters in the movies now. There's little depth both in the story and characters which tend to be overly simplified. To put it in a bit of harsh words Hollywood seems to be insulting its audience with poor plots and shallow characters in their recent movies.

Now that I've let it out I feel a bit better.

And for those of you fans of Star Trek who have no idea of what TOS is all about get the movies!


PS All comments should be taken with Star Trek motion pictures in mind though many in my opinion applies to other movies as well.

[Trool323]

I'm a big star trek fan as well. I loved the original movies for me the first 3 startrek movies we're the best for the TOS collection. I didn't really care for 4 5 and 6.. As TNG goes I like first contact and nemesis the best. Star fleet command 3 the pc game was bases around tng and nemesis if you have never played it it was awesome.

You saw the new movie star trek. I thought it was awesome. Opinions very about it I thought it was very good. You may not know but is was largely based on a comic book. It was called star trek countdown here is the wiki for it -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek_countdown

If you read the comic you'll feel better about the movie. Anyway if you look around you can find the comic online and read it with a comic book reader. the guy who helped to write the script Roberto orci also wrote the comic. I think the star trek sequel may include TNG stars at least I hope it does..

[Castout]

Perhaps part of the reason why I'm being so critical about Star Trek latest movie is because I read and heard so many raves on it so by the time I catched it on the theater I was expecting something that was beyond the movie offering. By the time we got out of the theater I felt numb :D. Never a good indication after you watch a movie.

Well but you did explain to me that it was based on a comic that might explain its rather simplicity and weak characters. The movie was a let down to me. And time travel and time continuum disruption has been done too many times already...that it felt like a cheap imitation.

Thanks I'l try to hunt for Nemesis and First contact!. I still don't have the complete TOS motion pictures yet. I'm missing I, III and VI. But I think I like TOS motion pictures much more than the TNG ones :)

[XabbaRus]

I hear what you are saying Castout and it applies to a lot of Hollywood movies.

That is why if I want an action film or thriller I am quite happy with Hollywood. If I want something more plot or story driven I watch independent films or British or European films.

The shame is that with Star Trek there are so many possibilities for good stories with flawed characters.

[Castout]

I hear what you are saying Castout and it applies to a lot of Hollywood movies.

That is why if I want an action film or thriller I am quite happy with Hollywood. If I want something more plot or story driven I watch independent films or British or European films.

The shame is that with Star Trek there are so many possibilities for good stories with flawed characters.

Yea I have to agree with you. I've watched a couple non hollywood movies even those from the 1980s such as that of Akira Kurosawa's and titles such as Das Boot, Shogun Assasins. They are GREAT! I miss the likes of titles such as Scent of a woman, Thirteen days, Forrest Gump, Powder, etc from Hollywood!

[Geno_Mariner]

I'm a big star trek fan as well. I loved the original movies for me the first 3 startrek movies we're the best for the TOS collection. I didn't really care for 4 5 and 6.. As TNG goes I like first contact and nemesis the best. Star fleet command 3 the pc game was bases around tng and nemesis if you have never played it it was awesome.


Nemesis is great. I grabbed a copy of it by luck (it was hard to find :doh:) at a supermarket and watched it. Anyone should have a look :yeah: (originally I got it for the heck of seeing the Valdores but, the movie as a whole is great :DL)

First Contact, I shall have to find that one.

And I see lots of other Trekkies talking about "Wrath of the Khan". Is it any good? :doh:
The only Star Trek Series I've seen so far is Star Trek: Voyager. Female captain :yep: And I did see the new movie while it was at the cinemas.

I should stop talking. It's getting late :doh:

[Oberon]

Wrath of Khan, get it. :yeah:
Also get The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country.
First Contact is also worth a look :up:

[Geno_Mariner]

Wrath of Khan, get it. :yeah:
Also get The Voyage Home and The Undiscovered Country.
First Contact is also worth a look :up:

Shall have a good look around then :D Wrath of Khan shouldn't be too hard to find XD

[Onkel Neal]

One thing to keep in mind when watching original Star Trek today, for the first time: If you were there when original Star Trek debuted on TV, it was like watching Star Wars for the first time. This show was way ahead of its time. There had never been anything remotely like it before.

First, it was in color. That was a big deal in 1967. You Playstation babes have no idea what that means, lol. :D:D:D

The crew was multi-ethinic and multi-racial. That was a really big deal at the time. The crew had white guys as the Captain and doctor (who was a Southerner), a black female communications officer, a Scottish engineer, a Russian, Japanese, and a guy from another planet, Mr. Spock, a Vulcan. Thankfully the creaters of TOS had limited means with which to create alien makeup effects, so the aliens were not so different than Earth people that they looked outright weird and were distracting to the plot.

The original Star Trek illustrated awesome concepts like the transporter (beam me up), warp drive (warp factor six, Mr Sulu), phasers ( as apposed to generic lasers), tractor beams, shields, matter/anti-matter drives, among others--terms that are now used in popular language.

The original Star Trek had a fantastic ship, the USS Enterprise. In sci fi movies and TV, space ships usually looked like rockets or flying saucers. I cannot think of a film that had a really cool looking ship like the Enterprise. That thing was awesome!

The characters were great--dynamic, interesting, novel. No were no dopey, gimmicky characters in the original Star Trek. Kirk was the hard ass rebel captain, who conquered alien womens everywhere. And brother, don't mess with his ship! Spock was the logical, loyal, and subtle first officer. And McCoy was the captain's friend, and the contrast to Spcok. Sadly, the show never really plumbed the depth of this enssemble cast. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/15003526/Star-Trek-101)

The original Star Trek was solidly anchored in naval terminology. There were no crude "blast off" phrases, instead, the terms "steer to course xyz", helm, bridge, set a course, steady as she goes, etc. And of course, the little naval whistle sound when the intercom went off.

The problems with TOS, they never had very much in the budget for great sets and special effects. Roddenberry had to sell the series to NBC as an affordable program that would use old backlot sets. So, yeah, by today's standards, 1967 Star Trek has cheesy production values. Imagine what they could have created with plenty of money...the TOS movies are a good example.

If you want to see the TOS films, I suggest skipping the first one, start with Wratch of Khan. That was a pretty cool movie. The ones that follow are generally good as well, especially Undiscovered Country, as Oberon suggested.

So, if you grew up on Star Wars, TOS, or some more modern sci fi series with great effects, keep in mind, a lot of them owe a big debt to the original Star Trek series. :shucks:

[Rhodes]

One thing I like in the first season of TOS, is the corridors scenes.
They are full of people, not just the main caracters and guest stars acting. We see a lot of extras doing several things, giving the ideia how was life for the crew (the 420 crew members, that we do not know what they do) and giving us that felling of a ship with a crew, the life in a starship of the XXIII century!
Latter this types of scenes began to decrease in number and the various shows mainly showed the bridge crew!

[Skybird]

What really survived the times of the classic ST legacy, is the constellation of the three major characters Kirk, Bones and Spock. It is one of the most ingenius constellation of characters in the history of film. Without this, the classic frnahcise would have been completely absorbed by now from the later events like TNG and DS9 - if these even would have taken place. However, star Trek always was scoring huge in the leading characters. While not as original as the classic trio, the Picard of the later seasons of TNG as well as Sisko from DS9 made some marvelous and strong-leading captains of their crews, both being more "realistic" and believable than the classic Kirk was. The second half of TNG and the whole DS9 I like as much as the classic series. The fall began with Voyager, which simply fell out of the trek-feeling universe that had been created so carefully by the series before. And "Enterprise", the last series, simply was not any star trek to me anymore, but an alien.

The three most famous spaceship designs: the Enterprise from Star Trek, the Eagles from Space 1999, and either the Stardestroyers or the Millennium Falcon ("Rasender Falke" in the German versions, almost an Indian's name :) ) from Star Wars.

[Blacklight]

I LOVE the original "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" with V'ger. I thought that movie as well as "The Wrath of Kahn" really did a great job at capturing the true flavor of "Trek"

For some reason, every Trek film since has kind of fallen flat for me because the writing talent just wasn't there. :down:

[Platapus]

Thanks Neal,

I thought I was the only one who remembered watching Star Trek when it was in Prime Time.

These kids these days. Thinking that the Star Trek movies are the "original" Star Trek. :nope:

The first Star Trek movie came out ten years after the Original series went off the air.

My god, we are old. :yeah:

:D

[Shearwater]

Hey, I'm 25 and I remember Star Trek TOS "as seen on TV", too :DL

For the most part however, I have watched TNG. I somehow like the plotlines (to me it seems to be the most "philosophical" of the franchise), but I also like TOS, though I haven't watched it as often (wasn't simply aired that much).
I think Voyager is okay, and DS9 is the low point. That's because I don't count "Enterprise" as being Star Trek at all :shifty: It simply doesn't feel like Trek anymore but rather like some sort of "space soap opera".
But of course I also love the movies, Warth of Khan is my favorite. I also like the first one, especially for its aesthetic qualities. After that, the even numbers have generally been better than the odd ones (with V being the worst).
Of course just my 0.02€ :DL

[Castout]

Nemesis is great. I grabbed a copy of it by luck (it was hard to find :doh:) at a supermarket and watched it. Anyone should have a look :yeah: (originally I got it for the heck of seeing the Valdores but, the movie as a whole is great :DL)

First Contact, I shall have to find that one.

And I see lots of other Trekkies talking about "Wrath of the Khan". Is it any good? :doh:
The only Star Trek Series I've seen so far is Star Trek: Voyager. Female captain :yep: And I did see the new movie while it was at the cinemas.

I should stop talking. It's getting late :doh:

I never watch Nemesis but I know it's one hell of a trek movie :D
For the TOS movies I think the undiscovered country(VI), The Voyage Home and The Final Frontier are my favorite! I haven't got the undiscovered country but my guts is telling me it would be one of my favorite after watching the DVD trailer.

What really survived the times of the classic ST legacy, is the constellation of the three major characters Kirk, Bones and Spock. It is one of the most ingenius constellation of characters in the history of film. Without this, the classic frnahcise would have been completely absorbed by now from the later events like TNG and DS9 - if these even would have taken place.

I share your sentiment with the original trio. The trio of Kirk, Dr. McCoy and Spock is what mainly drawn me to the TOS movies. I've had some good laugh watching The Final Frontier they feel like they have great chemistry together.

[Wolfehunter]

I'm a big star trek fan as well. I loved the original movies for me the first 3 startrek movies we're the best for the TOS collection. I didn't really care for 4 5 and 6.. As TNG goes I like first contact and nemesis the best. Star fleet command 3 the pc game was bases around tng and nemesis if you have never played it it was awesome.

I agree.

I'm a Trekkie fan. I've grown up on TOS and loved the cheesiness acting. Later TNG. DS9 was failing me and Voyager was a flop. I didn't even waste my time with enterprise.... What a joke.

The only movie I really like was The wrath of Khan. Best ever.

Nemesis was good too.

Rest sucked mostly.

I've played in the past table top games from Starfleet command and fasa version Startrek. Those are fun...

Been a while.. :D

Last movie I didn't like much.. I'm guessing there trying to attract new blood but there doing it all wrong... In my opinion.. :nope:

I guess I'm old school. :salute:

[Rhodes]

About the games, I think the last ST game that I played was Starfleet Command 3! A long time that i do not play any SF game...
My favorites were the old ones with TOS, its were like sim and then the adventure games with the player controling the main caracthers. And the academys series, but didn't play the klingon one, only the demo!
And then there was The Secret of the Vulcan Fury game...

[XabbaRus]

The worst Trek Movie was the second TNG one IIRC, where this race had a massive array to wipe out a planet who were related to them in a distant way.

Nemesis was good, as was first contact.

I remember the TOS on BBC way back when I was a kid. Loved it.

DS9 is good, Voyager just got boring. Saying that B'Ellana whats it helped pass the time.

[Oberon]

Ah good, I'm glad I'm not the only one who preferred B'elanna over Seven :yeah: The other half likes Paris, so I guess we're quite the match ;)

Anyway, my favourite series is DS9, can't really explain why but it seems a bit more in-depth than the other trek series, although, yes, it doesn't have quite the camaraderie of the Kirk, Spock, McCoy trio which really shines through in the later films. Couple that with fantastic acting from Plummer as Chang in VI and Montalbán as Khan in II and you have a fantastic film. :yeah:

"I am as constant as the Northern Star!"
"I'd pay real money if she'd shut up..."

[sharkbit]

The crew was multi-ethinic and multi-racial. That was a really big deal at the time. The crew had white guys as the Captain and doctor (who was a Southerner), a black female communications officer, a Scottish engineer, a Russian, Japanese, and a guy from another planet, Mr. Spock, a Vulcan. Thankfully the creaters of TOS had limited means with which to create alien makeup effects, so the aliens were not so different than Earth people that they looked outright weird and were distracting to the plot.


In the sixties, that was a huge deal. Remeber the first inter-racial kiss between Kirk and Uhura?

Good points Neal. The original series was groundbreaking in so many ways back then.

Castout said in his OP:
In the typical today's Hollywood movie you are guaranteed to see impressive effects and lots of superbly done action however the entire story would escape your memory within hours of having watched them. They are shallow entertainment and feels without character to make lasting impression on my mind. The good guy is usually arrogant or made to look like a super duper hell of a guy while the bad guys are usually made even more arrogant :shifty: with emotional problem. There's no depth of character in these movies and the plots feel cheap and shallow though mildly masqueraded with premiere effects and excellent action sequences.


I totally agree. Many people say that the original Star Wars in 1977 was the death knell for movies with good, well developed characters and good stories in Hollywood. It was the beginning of the end when special effects in movies ruled.

We rented the first Transformers a couple of years ago for my son. I wanted that 2+ hours of my life back afterwards :yawn:. I watched the last 20 minutes or so of the second one recently and it didn't look much better (except for the slow motion shots of the hot chick running in cut-offs and her breastesses bouncing :D).

It seems that now, the only thing Hollywood can make are huge special effect action movies or remakes of older movies.

:)

[longam]

My mother almost made us stop watching TOS because the way the ladies were dressed, taboo in the 60's. :wah: But we got to watch it after all when she seen it was a good sci-fi show.

And here they are setting up today's studio for making a movie.

http://www.design4reel.com/images/video_images/tutors_wc_group3/sacha_ladder_james.jpg

[Platapus]

In the sixties, that was a huge deal. Remeber the first inter-racial kiss between Kirk and Uhura?



That is one of the myths that has been going around for a while.

The first inter-racial kiss on TV was in Britain in 1964 between the characters Dr Mahler (Joan Hooley) and Dr Farmer (John White) on ITV's soap "Emergency Ward 10".


The kiss between Shatner and Nichols does not qualify as the first inter-racial kiss on US TV either.

The first interracial kiss on US television took place when Sammy Davis Jr and Nancy Sinatra kissed briefly on the variety program"Movin with Nancy"in December 1967.

The Shatner/Nichols kiss happened 22 Nov 68 almost a year after the Davis/Sinatra kiss.

[Trool323]

bump because its startrek.. :ping:

[Neptunus Rex]

Yes I'm old enough to remember when TOS premiered. It was also the first TV show I saw in color. Episode "The Apple".

ST TOS was the second TV show shot and shown in color, (Gunsmoke was the first) which is why they used colored lighting on the sets and the different colored uniforms.

[goldorak]

I'm a big star trek fan as well. I loved the original movies for me the first 3 startrek movies we're the best for the TOS collection. I didn't really care for 4 5 and 6.. As TNG goes I like first contact and nemesis the best. Star fleet command 3 the pc game was bases around tng and nemesis if you have never played it it was awesome.

You saw the new movie star trek. I thought it was awesome. Opinions very about it I thought it was very good. You may not know but is was largely based on a comic book. It was called star trek countdown here is the wiki for it -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek_countdown

If you read the comic you'll feel better about the movie. Anyway if you look around you can find the comic online and read it with a comic book reader. the guy who helped to write the script Roberto orci also wrote the comic. I think the star trek sequel may include TNG stars at least I hope it does..

Star Trek The Motion Picture was the best of the ST films.
Wrath of Kahn is pretty good but not as "epic" as the first film.
#3 is meh, #4 is funny and I still like to see it from time to time.
#5 does it even exist ? :haha: #6 just another meh.

I've never really warmed to The Next Generation, even the films were pretty much "enlarged" standard episodes.
Now Deep Space Nine, this was a fresh start.
An excellent series that didn't try to copy paste what had come before in the ST universe (although they had tendencies to copy paste from Babylon 5, mostly after the third season.). Voyager ? Another meh. Enterprise could have been good but was literally run into the ground with the stupid temporal cold war, the xindi and all that nonsense.

[Platapus]

ST TOS was the second TV show shot and shown in color, (Gunsmoke was the first) which is why they used colored lighting on the sets and the different colored uniforms.


I don't think that is correct.

10 Oct 1949 the Kukla, Fran, and Ollie show was broadcast using the RCA Dot-Sequential Color System Camera

22 November 1953 The Colgate Comedy Hour with Donald O'Conner is the first commercial NTSC color program.

23 December 1953 NBC transmitted the first commercial TV program on color film, on "Dragnet". The episode was "the Big Little Jesus".

8 July 1954 First TV network color series -- "The Marriage," a situation comedy with Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn

http://novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html (http://novia.net/%7Eereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html)

Bonanza was color before Gunsmoke when Bonanza was in color in 12 Sep 59. Gunsmoke was not in color until 1966.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunsmoke#Television_version

In any case Star Trek was way down on the list of color programs.

24 Sep 61 had "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color

And who can forget the Flintstones and the Jetsons in color starting in the fall of 1962?

Star Trek was actually one of the last shows NBC produced in color. Star Trek started in 8 Sep 66 and NBC went totally color in November 66.

[LiveGoat]

I'm probably gonna get laughed at for saying this but I'm a big believer in the talent of a certain Mr. Shatner. I think he's great, especially at comedy. His segment in the AFI salute to George Lucas stole all the other presenters' thunder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEZVwQptvWw

and who can forget his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live? The man has great comic timing.

As to drama? Well, before he went into television he did a stint as a classical actor at the Stratford Festival, was directed by none other than Tyrone Guthrie and even understudied Michael Redgrave, so pre-Trek he certainly was no slouch as an actor. My guess is he just rolled with the typecasting that he inevitably got branded with. I mean, which Al Pacino do you all prefer, Godfather I, II, and Dog Day Afternoon Al or the overacting Al of today's bloated star vehicles? I think fame and character branding can lead actors astray. But let's be honest, is Patrick Stewart any less cheesey in TNG? How many "and............engage" jokes are out there? Quite a few. I think the genre lends itself to a bit of heavy melodrama but that's what makes it fun. Anyway Shatner redeemed himself as a serious actor with his Boston legal appearances so I guess there's that.

But what do I know? I also think Adam West has never been appreciated either. Anyone ever see the Conan O'Brian penned pilot for "Lookwell"? It's great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBQ3HbB0c8Y

[goldorak]

The three most famous spaceship designs: the Enterprise from Star Trek, the Eagles from Space 1999, and either the Stardestroyers or the Millennium Falcon ("Rasender Falke" in the German versions, almost an Indian's name :) ) from Star Wars.

:yeah: the Eagles from Space 1999 were wicked.
Very nice design, and reminiscent from an Apollo era, and a not so veiled homage to 2001 A Space Odyssey mostly in the set designs of the first season. Space 1999 is still my number one favorite science fiction series (season 1 mostly) but I enjoyed even season 2 that stared Catherine Shell.

The best Star Trek Enterprise design is that of the ST : The Motion Picture (or of the NCC-1701-A at the end of The Voyage Home). When they started going with "okudagrams" and flat screens a part of classical trek just died.

[Sledgehammer427]

I have a model of Enterprise-A on my desk.

But I was always a star trek fan, more for the ships and the technology than I was on characters

[Torplexed]

This past summer I purchased the remastered DVD set of the original series with all the old special effects and exterior shots replaced with new CGI ones. It's pretty nice, especially for shuttle landing shots. The 1967 episode, "The Doomsday Machine" with all it's battle sequences seem to benefit the most.

http://pyxis.homestead.com/Sarek_sShuttle.jpg

http://pyxis.homestead.com/Sarek_sShuttle.jpg%5D

[Blacklight]

:yeah: the Eagles from Space 1999 were wicked.
Very nice design, and reminiscent from an Apollo era, and a not so veiled homage to 2001 A Space Odyssey mostly in the set designs of the first season. Space 1999 is still my number one favorite science fiction series (season 1 mostly) but I enjoyed even season 2 that stared Catherine Shell.


While I really enjoyed "Space 1999", especially their first season (After that, Mia showed up and every epsode became about her pretty much and the writing went into the crapper). The only thing I couldn't wrap my head around was the physics of the whole thing.

1. Any explosion powerful enough to throw the moon out of Earth's orbit would also blast the moon into gravel.

2. In the series, the moon was constantly whizzing past solar systems left and right and pretty much all of them had an Earthlike, inhabited, type 1 civilization on them. Considering that it would take years, even at the speed of light to reach even the nearest star, the moon would have to be travelling REALLY REALLY fast. Not to mention the fact that there's no way that those Eagles would be able to slow down enough to go visit one of these planets unless they have warp drives. They also would NEVER be able to return to the moon.
I understand suspension of disbelief, but if you're going to do something like this, write in something to make it believeable. Star Trek solved the problem by inventing warp drives (which is an actual physical concept) powered by "Dilithium Crystals" to allow them to travel faster than light. An explosion on the moon just isn't going to do that.

The only way for Space 1999 to work properly would be if something had happened and the moon was dropping in and out of some kind of interconnected series of wormholes like a pinball in a pinball machine. It would be like the TV show "Sliders" except with the moon. This way, they could do it without "A huge explosion blowing the entire thing out of orbit". All they would need is some wacky experiment that accidentally opens a stable worm hole in the path the moon is traveling and *ZOOP*
Maybe some advanced race created some kind of vast network of wormhole tunnels for their travels or something and just by chance the moon blunders into one.... Okay. I'm going to pitch this to the Sci-Fi channel. They did Battlestar Galactica !!!:rock:

[longam]

Trek Trilogy - now this is interesting trivia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4qgii7kwsA&feature=popt00us08

[Sailor Steve]

I was 16 when Star Trek debuted on television, and I thought it was very good science fiction at that time. Some of the stories were actually written by real SF writers, and the wonder of it all was amazing for my dad and me. There were some remarkably good episodes, and some remarkably bad ones ("Goin' of to Eden, yea brother yea!")

Star Trek The Motion Picture was the best of the ST films.
I disagree, but that's a matter of personal taste. What amazes me that at the time trekkies were actually weeping as they left the theater, one girl caught on camera saying "It was SO wonderful!", but now everybody claims it to be the worst of all the movies. I didn't think of it as either.

Wrath of Kahn is pretty good but not as "epic" as the first film.
What people who have never seen the series don't realize is that Wrath of Kahn is a sequel to one of the original shows, 'Space Seed', which also starred Ricardo Montalban. It was one of the better episodes.

I've never really warmed to The Next Generation, even the films were pretty much "enlarged" standard episodes.
I always felt like TNG was trying so hard to be better Star Trek they forgot to be decent science fiction. It seemed to me like every episode had two plots, and neither one ever got resolved. I liked the acting and the sets, but the writing never quite got to me. I felt the same way about the early seasons of DS9, and didn't stick around for the rest, which I've heard was much better. Of course the whole Babylon 5 argument and lawsuit didn't help much.

I felt pretty much the same about the rest of them.

[Platapus]

To me it seemed like every time the writers for TNG ran out of ideas, they would fall back on one of two concepts

1. holodeck

2. Q

Never cared for it much. Although Tasha Yar was pretty hot!

[Sailor Steve]

I'm probably gonna get laughed at for saying this but I'm a big believer in the talent of a certain Mr. Shatner. I think he's great, especially at comedy.
I love him. A couple years before Trek he had a role in one of my favorite movies, The Outrage. An almost word-for-word remake of Kurosawa's Rashamon, it starred Paul Newman, Lawrence Harvey and Claire Bloom, with Edward G. Robinson and Shatner as the minister who's lost his faith. Wonderful movie.

There there was the recent Showtime, a pretty terrible movie saved only by Robert DeNiro and Eddie Murphy, who was hilarious as an Eddie-Murphy wannabe who couldn't get it right, and Shatner hilarious playing himself trying to teach them "How T.J. Hooker would do it".

But I've really learned to appreciate him while watching DVDs of Boston Legal, in which he's an aging lawyer trying to hold to past glories, and avoiding discussing alzheimer's by telling everyone he has mad cow disease. I love the guy.

[Jimbuna]

I rated Shatner when watching Star Trek as a youngster but I believe the British public aren't all that fond of him because of the gossip stories about h is alleged ego over recent years.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1132/1199659277_d767ffa987.jpg

[Reece]

I rated Shatner when watching Star Trek as a youngster but I believe the British public aren't all that fond of him because of the gossip stories about h is alleged ego over recent years.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1132/1199659277_d767ffa987.jpgI Like his character in Boston Legal!! His ego is one of the things I admire about him, have a signed autograph on the wall!!:yep: