Slashdot Mirror
First Peeks At Enterprise
abde writes: "On Monday, TV Guide featured a preview of the new Starship Enterprise on the cover (scans and comparison with other ships courtesy German Trek site Treknews.de). Entertainment Online also features an transcript of an interview (and video excerpt!) with Scott Bakula on the new bridge (and wow are the set interiors as incredible as advertised!). More images of the ship interior (including Engineering) from that ET special are also shown on fansite Section31.com."
The one thing that can ruin this show for me immediately is playing fast and loose with Trek history. Already, I'm concerned, after reading the interview with Bacula. He says that the series is placed 100 years before Kirk. What happened one hundred years before Kirk? The Earth-Romulus wars (see Balance of Terror, original series).
Bill Shatner is such a bad actor that he has become a caricature of himself...this particular Trekkie can't even watch classic Trek without cracking up. But in the 60's, he was chosen for energy and sex-appeal...his delivery was laughable, but he still got the babe on every episode...and managed to become a revered popular icon in the process.
Picard: Make it slow...
My impression of a British SciFi show (namely, Dr. Who)
Lead Character: Natter. natter. Natter natter. Natter.
Other Character: Natter?
Blue Character: Natter natter (laugh).
Lead Character: Natter natter natter natter. Natter, and natter some more.
Monster:[special effect here done by viewing a picture of Margaret Thatcher through a glass of stout]
Lead Character: Natter natter natter natter natter natter natter natter natter.
Character with strange forehead: Natter natter natter.
[Exterior shot of a strange planet, which is strange that a strange planet has so many hedgerows.]
Captain! The webserver, she can'na take the load!
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
I read the internet for the articles.
4) I want some dumb people to crew a ship, not just the super-geniuses that Trek staffs Federation ships with.
Have you seen any of the Voyager episodes? The crew is chock full of nimrods. Besides, the writers have a tough enough time as it is writing "smart" characters. If they try to actively make someone dumb they would create the equivelent of a tetatronic-subspace-neutrino brain drainer. At least with the "smart" characters you don't allow the writers to completely forgo logic when writing for the character (although that doesn't stop them from trying).
Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.
I read the internet for the articles.
While I can't help but snicker at all the "one more swing of the cat" anti-franchise posts (preach on, brothers!) I can't help but note that the design of the Movie Enterprise (ST1-ST6) is one of the most beautiful, graceful, and just plain _right_ examples of industrial design I have ever seen.
That's what I wish real spaceships looked like.
Reliant was pretty good, borrowing heavily from the Enterprise design, and the FASA Starship Combat pen-and-paper game had an endless array of variations on the theme, most of which worked as well.
Excelcior wasn't bad, but lacked the grace of the Enterprise design.
But once they got back on the samll screen, the design went into the toilet. Enterprise-D was lopsided, unbalanced, and *ugly* "First Contact" Enterprise looked like something a Goth would design, and Voyager was putrid too. Swinging nacelles? Mein gott!
The alien races fared no better. Klingons and Romulans in the OS looked bad-ass and _alien_. In the NG and later, they just looked... hokey.
Starship design peaked in the OS movies. I hope whoever penned the design for the movie Enterprise won an award for it; he was the high water mark.
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
naw, he didn't die. TNG also had many plots of putting people in a different "phase". Kirk was what they described then as in a different universe but he didn't die. The used the transporter to bring him out of that dimention or phase. (Right dimentions and phases are different in reality but are a rough parallel between 50's and 90's Sci-Fi.)
~^~~^~^^~~^
:)
hawk
Sure, the last season had rather hooky plots; the one where Al became the Leaper, the entire Evil Leaper thing, for example. But that typically happens to any show that gets more than a couple seasons on air...
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Um, I'll accept your argument if you can quote the line from "Metamorphosis" that declares he is biologically non-human. Until then, my explanation of TOS references indicating that he is from Alpha Centauri will remain that he simply moved there as a colonist. There's a lot more history to Star Trek than what the various productions have aired. Much of it was made up by fans (some pretty clever, others less so) who just tried to fill in the blanks.
While the ship looks a lot like the Akira as a silhouette from above, I think you're in for a surprise when you see it in profile. Wait and watch...
Hunter...take a look at some old FASA Star Trek:RPG materials. The Federation Ship Recognition handbooks had a ship design called the Derf Class that has very similar lines. This one appears to be an Akira-ized version.
There's an interesting oddity with O'Neal though, in McGyver he was the smart guy who knew everything.. In SG-1 he's 'shoot first, ask questions later' and 'explain it in english' -- basically opposite to what he used to play. Unless Bakula does an extremely good acting job (I wouldn't put it past him), everyone will be thinking "Sam" when he walks onto the bridge.
You can't see this if you have sigs turned off.
Taking a few years off from the highly profitable series from star trek will help them in the long run I think. Much of the reason that I like star trek was because it was new to me. With each series that goes by, I lose more and more interest in it.
Not to mention that Bakula is entrenched in the minds of most Sci-Fi fans from his role in Quantum Leap. One thing that trek had going for it in the past was that the actors were relatively new to the minds of viewers, and therefore could be easily molded to the character.
A couple seasons of break would allow for the writers to think up new material. In the meantime, Paramount has the other trek shows to put into syndication. Hell, DS9 went into syndication immediately, and I fully expect VOY to follow the same path.
You can't see this if you have sigs turned off.
Of course, that could also partially be b/c that ship belonged to a Queen who already spends a lot of time on fashion. And for a non-militaristic planet that couldn't defend against an embargo and invasion without the writer saving the day, the fighters look about right as a ceremonial thing. Bright and shiny and never really used much.
Han Solo couldn't give a womp rat's ass - it probably helps him the more his ship looks like a piece of crap. (because who would expect it to perform like it does, at least when it's working properly) Things like the pods also had the same cobbled together, who cares what it looks like if it works style.
The more military vessels were fairly similar though - the interiors of the Star Destroyers and Death Star were not far off from the interiors of the Trade Federation ships, and both looked relatively functional but wierd.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
Quantum Leap had quite good writing, some of the better acting on TV and excellent production value. Stories were original, funny, and quite often compelling. Compare and contrast to the sitcom drivel it was up against. Or you're right and all these Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and awards were just caused by too much sun in LA. It's certainly not the pinnacle of modern literature, but it's a TV show.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Scott Bakula is a good actor. What's going on here?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Supposedly, there weren't many huge technological improvements in the time between ep 1 and ep 4, aside from the Death Star. A lot of the ships from the original trilogy featured beat-up patchwork ships that only smugglers and rebels used. If tech didn't advance much in the thirty or so years between ep 1 and ep 4, then it's possible to imagine a monarch of a wealthy planet having a nicer ship than anything a couple of dirt-poor smugglers could have decades later.
:)
And the books don't count. The first one to quote from a KJA novel gets sporked.
Akira class? Will the first officer get a headache everytime he thinks of the ship? And the captain should have a motorbike. Definitely a red one.
"WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED ENTERPRISE?!"
then why is Dark Angel doing well?
Hot chick in tight black leather, lots of action.
why did the matrix do so well?
Hot chick in tight black leather, lots of action.
Next?
Heh, all true. I was more referring to the fact that every single character has extensive knowledge of every aspect of physics and engineering. When I said "dumb people", I meant people who didn't necessarily have so much book smarts.
You're right about the Emperor's ship, but that was a standard imperial military shuttle (I used to know the name of that class of shuttle from playing X-Wing, but I forget now.) Maybe he got a ride in a star destroyer and hopped over in that shuttle once he got there. And the Emperor was also big on the Force, so maybe he didn't really care about appearances all that much. Amidala was a not-too-bright queen of a peaceful planet, and probably wanted something pretty to fly around in.
Damn, it's been too long since we've had any decent "hot grits down Natalie Portman's pants" trolls.
I always wanted to see a non-Starfleet trek show, featuring smugglers and drug-runners and privateers and other scum. Reasons:
1) No super-high-tech-magical technology. Does your average seagoing freighter have all the bells and whistles of an Aegis cruiser? I want to see a dingy, barely-functioning civilian ship with limitations.
2) I want to see real aliens, the kind that you'd find scummy civilian spaceports, way off the main shipping lanes. What's a more interesting place: 24th century San Francisco or Mos Eisley?
4) I want some dumb people to crew a ship, not just the super-geniuses that Trek staffs Federation ships with.
5) I really really want to see the Federation as, if not as outright bad guys, then chasing after the heroes of a story. Perhaps the main characters could have a bounty on their heads for drug smuggling or something, with every other low-life chasing after them for it.
6) I want characters without morals. I want to see telepaths who wouldn't hesitate to invade someone's brain as a main character. I want a captain who's willing to take innocent people hostage to get out of a situation. I want realistic, scared, survival-oriented people as the main characters.
7) An unfair universe. I want main characters to get killed off *permanently*. No time-travel, no alternate universe, no particle-of-the-week magic, no transporter-to-keep-them-alive, none of that crap. I want characters to die dramatic deaths when it would advance the story and make everything interesting.
Yes, I'm stealing many ideas from other shows. But I still want to see them in Trek.
Yeah, well, if you had Sulu, you'd expect Scotty, McCoy, Spock, etc. to appear at various points. Fortunately, you could say that Kirk's dead. :) But, unfortunately, so's Deforest Kelley.
Dammit, Jim, I'm a corpse, not a doctor!
-30-
When you look at the mirrored site, scroll down and look also at the design that was disavowed as bogus. Keep in mind that the coming show is set in the century before the original series; which of the two designs -- the certified one or the disavowed one -- looks more plausibly like a starship that would have existed prior to the original Enterprise?
"How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
A lot -- it's a really weenie way of coming up with a story. I love(d) ST:Voyager, because what else could be better? True "going where no one has gone before"! Bizarre space-born phenomena! Aliens with weird heads and perky breasts! How intrinsically easy and interesting to write for!
And what do we get? Well, mostly the above, but Voyager had it's share of "holodeck" episodes, which made me gibbering mad. I mean, jeez louise, they're in the Delta quadrant! And you're gonna give me an entire "Captain Proton" episode???
ST:TNG used a couple of crutches -- holodeck episodes and Data episodes. The Data ones weren't too bad, but an entire hour going on and on about Data's quest for humanity was just too much. Leave that for asides and sub-plots.
The new Bakula ST should be good -- no holodeck, for starters... A sort-of Horatio-Hornblower-in-space. And, thank God, the Klingons will be enemies of the Federation again, and also show them at the height of the Empire! W00t!
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
My theory is that the budget and/or costume technology for the original show were the primary factors in why the original klingons looked the way they did. How about the difference in the incidental music between the original series and the later ones?
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
Yea, but even if there are challenges, the'll be solved in the last 5 minutes by rewiring the espresso machine through the forward deflector array so it can send a $PARTICLE_OF_THE_WEEK stream to solve $PROBLEM_OF_THE_WEEK.
It just wouldn't be slashdot without someone taking a dig at Microsoft. Forget sci-fi, looks like Bill already controls your every waking thought right *now* -- you can't stop talking about him.
--
I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
but I wish they would use slug throwers
Lets see, bullets flying in a pressurized tin can, completely surrounded by a vacuum.
It would certainly make for the shortest lived Star Trak series....
;)
I checked all the sites in question... here we are just two minutes after posting the article, and the sites are all inaccessable due to traffic.
I don't suppose anyone has had a chance to mirror??
Thanks!
(Oh no! My Star Trek Whore status has been unmasked for all to see! The Shame!)
SlashSigTheorem: Humorous, Political, Critical, Constructive- If you have a
I think it would be funny if they got Dean Stockwell to be the chief engineer.
;-)
It'd be like Space Quest V... the captain walks into engineering and he's kicking away at the console to fix it.
OK, maybe not.
Has anyone noticed that most of the ST uniforms look like cheap "jumpsuits"? The only place where the uniforms looked good, was in ST2-ST6 (and the begining of ST7). Those actually looked like the military-style uniforms they're supposed to be. Damnit, I want to see my starship officers wearing noticible (not pips) rank insignia and service ribbons! At least the ST:TNG movie uniforms look a tad better than the the shows, but not good enough.
One thing I really like about TNG, is that when ever the Borg appeared, one got a very serious sense of "from this point forward, our entire civilization as we have known it will be over".
I find the sound track to "The Best of Both Worlds" to fit very well with the mood of the two-part episode. Heck, First Contact also induced the proper mood about the borg.
Voyager seems to have "softened" the Borg, and I don't like that. All of a sudden they're not scarry any more. One doesn't think "Oh shit, I'm gonna be assimilated for sure... my life is over" when seeing them on the screen.
Well, the only problem with that, is that it would break the Quatum Leap limits where Dr. Beckett can only leap into the bodies of people that lived during his lifetime. I think Capt. Archer is a bit too far beyond that. They even had Al get placed into a body becuase it was outside of Sam's lifespan. That was explained as 'exceptional' becuase Sam was in a body undergoing shock treatments during a thunderstorm.
Sig? What's a Sig?
Company uses franchise to make money.
All the news about starships, casts, history, etc. is just window dressing to this simple piece of news.
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
First, I've got a question: In the TOS episode where Kirk encounters the Romulans, I seem to remember that either A) the Federation had never encountered them before, or B) it had been a long time since the last Federation-Romulan encounter. If (A) is true, then a Romulan appearance in this new series would be inconsistent. If (B) is true, then they have some room, but they'd better still be careful :)
:/
Now, on the ship design I see floating around for the new (old) Enterprise: I've seen that design before, using ST1-7 era ship architecture! It may have been in a TV series episode, a movie, or maybe even a ST techinical manual, but I _HAVE_ seen it before... I think it looks way too streamlined for pre-TOS technology anyways
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Hopefully they will avoid the NexGen script flaw of inventing some technology (magic) to save the ship and wrap up the plot in the last 5 minutes. The Original series (TOS) I liked beter because it was more about the people solving the problem instead of the easy way out as previously mentioned. (How much does everyone hate the HoloDeck?!!)
Anyway, what I want to see is more battles - let's face it, watching the enterprise kick butt is alot of fun - TOS vs Klingons, NextGen vs Borg that's what males 12-60 want to see. But please more money on good interesting scripts and less on special effects - Dr. Who stayed around for like 30 years because of that
..........FULL STOP.
As to weapons I would see them carrying atomic/hydrogen missles for sure for those 'corbimite manuevers' if needed. If I remember right they had just settled a shaky peace after the 3(4)th world war. Then get a HUGE surprise at how ineffective they were at times.
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
The TV Guide article notes that the Universal Translator exists, but is pretty unreliable. The communications officer of the [em]Enterprise[/em], however, is a linguist.
--The basis of all love is respect
The TOS ship will always look too primitive, because the model was primitive. It will always look like a model hanging from strings. The prequel ship will be a CGI model.
However, look at the construction of the vessels. The TOS ship is smooth, almost aerodynamic--it looks like it was built in Seattle by an aerospace firm. The TNG and Voyager vessels are built like luxury liners. The prequel ship looks like its hull is solid steel--no transparent aluminum here. It looks like it was built in Detroit. It looks like it outweighs NCC-1701 by a factor of two, which it should.
Look again at the picture. The prequel ship is missing the entire engineering section--no cylinder at the bottom. It's not grand and beautiful--it's hard and functional. It looks more complicated because it should, and because the TOS ship is so simple due to the series budget.
One thing that viewers are going to have to deal with is that, while the technology of the stories is backwards, the technology of the actual production is much better than the TOS. A good way to think of it is that our views of the TOS episodes is "low res", but in the prequel we will have a high-res view of a low-tech universe.
--The basis of all love is respect
Yeah, bring back Charley Mudd.
dave
Wasn't this what David Gerrold (http://www.gerrold.com) was trying to do with his Star Wolf series?
dave
The supposed Great Klingon Transmogrification would have happened in Kirk's era, between the series and the first movie. Not a line in any movie mentioned anything funny happening to Klingon foreheads. When asked, Roddenberry said that Klingons always had bumpy foreheads, but they didn't have the makeup budget back in 1969.
What they should do is go with Roddenberry's explanation.
The two strains of Klingons theory is inconsistent with the DS9 episode where three individual Klingons, shown in the original series with smooth foreheads, were shown with forehead bumps.
Of course, doing it the Roddenberry way will be inconsistent with the "Gump Trek" episode of DS9, but Worf's "We don't talk about that" brushoff, and everyone's surprise at smooth-foreheaded Klingons, was a stupid way of dealing with the problem anyway. The transition from smooth to bumpy foreheads happened within the memory of many people alive at the time of DS9, specifically, Dax and the three Klingons mentioned above. It's as if Communism caused Russians to have bumpy foreheads, and no one remembered that Russians had normal foreheads before 1917.
(What they ought to have done for "Gump Trek" was digitally bumpify the foreheads of the "original series" Klingons. Except Darvin, of course. Alternatively, leave off Michael Dorn's makeup and never mention it, but have everyone on the space station immediately recognize him as a Klingon.)
(Lest anyone think I hated the "Gump Trek" episode, no, I thought it was a hoot. I just thought they botched the Klingon thing.)
That explanation doesn't work. Why did Kang, Kor, and Koloth have different appearances from one series to the next? Species change operation?
Here's my thought: Klingon leadership during the original series era was obsessed with spying and infiltration, and required active-duty military personnel to modify their appearances so they could infiltrate human installations on short notice. Arne Darvin from "Tribbles" was an extreme example of this.
Between TOS and TMP, there was a change in the Klingon high command. The new bosses rejected the espionage-oriented policy as dishonorable, and the Klingon troops all gratefully switched back to their native forms. They're mortified by the whole affair to this day, so "We do not speak of it."
Then again, it's possible that Q mucked with Klingon evolution just so he could use the "macro-head with a micro-brain" line. That would be just like him, wouldn't it?
Actually, that explanation was fine up until the DS9 characters actually noticed the change in that time-travel episode. And given that they didn't supply an explanation for it, it's inevitable that people are going to come up with ideas of their own.
Retroactive continuity may not be your idea of fun, but let's not get petty.
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Caimlas
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
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Caimlas
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Its been said that they will use phase pistols, a precuror to phasers, and the flip-out communicators. its ironic, my cell phone is approximately the same size as one of those.. AND i've seen one about 1/3rd said size.. hmm.
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
Well, im sure the engines will be less efficient. And keep in mind, the saucer section & Engineering hull didnt "change" between Star Trek: TOS and TMP, just the deflector, nacelles, interior, and bridge module "changed" (while in reality, the entire model was upgraded. you werent supposed to consider it being an entirely new hull).
But your right, the saucer (at least in the views i've seen) are a little too thin-faced for my liking.
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
Personally, I thought first contact was an okay movie, better than generations and much better than insurrection. The only things i wish were different were
1: The borg movie should NOT have introduced the borg queen.. The borg queen gave the borg a "weak spot", both in their infrastructure AND in their plotline.. The borg in "Best of Both Worlds" were MUCH MUCH more menacing. Though its hard to complain about 44dd of 9.
2: No time travel. For once, do something in trek that DOESNT DO TIME TRAVEL! I'd much prefer it if they would stick to one method of time travel if they even do that - slingshot around a sun, its got some danger associated with it.
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
2. Something that I can talk about in public without seeming like a social outcast. Maybe they should do a sitcom -- "Star Trek: Friends" with the lovely Jennifer Aniston as Yeoman Rachel.
ROFL.. How about:
"Touched by a Borg"
"As the dyson sphere turns"
"The Section 31 Files"
"Bajoran Hills, 90210"
"Wesley in the middle"
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
Personally, i'd love to see them drop the whole episodic series concept for a while and go to miniseries with large budgets. Give us a rest from these "second-hand" treks for a little while.
I would have also loved to see an Excelsior series - The ship seems to have a lot of history with it, and it's right in there in perhaps the most interesting (imho) era of trek. and maybe they could have gotten George Tekei to sign on.
However.. I'd like to know, of the trek fans out there, how would you prefer to see the series live on?
1: A new series.. if so, with what plotline?
2: Forget voyager ever existed?
3: Star trek miniseries?
4: Just movies?
5: Something else?
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
I forgot to mention - it was touched on in one of the books that the first "Q" was Trelane, from The squire of Gothos. So, it may come to pass that we see some Q, but not identified as "Q".
The romulan war hasn't happened yet in this timeline, according to an article i read. im sure it will be a point of conflict later in the series - and it may be a great one, if properly executed.
I'm going to wax theoretical..
I hope the klingons have their nose ridges, for one, and their sense of "Honor". I've always thought of it kind of like this.. Perhaps the klingons from the original series, identified as being from the planet "Khlinzahi", were an offshoot bunch - Klingons, without honor, perhaps some form of half-breed (perhaps with romulans? It might explain why they were allies in most of TOS [They shared the same ship design]).. If i remember correctly, they seemed to have some romulan personality traits. Somewhere between TOS and TMP, the klingons from Qo'nos became dominant again, either through politics (Perhaps all of the old klingons were from another "house") Perhaps thats why we see the "Old" klingons as the "modern rendition". Perhaps it was considered so dishonorable that klingon blood mixed with romulan blood that Worf mentioned "We don't speak of it.".
Slashdot something useful.
Management is not a tunable parameter.
correction: more scantily-clad green women in battles !
Just movies. The series is tired. Watching Babylon 5 ruined trek almost completely for me. (I liked B5 much more). Currently Farscape is the only series worth watching.
Its a direct hit captain... shall I fire again?
No Mr. Sulu they are already dead.
We are blind to the Worlds within us
We are blind to the Worlds within us
waiting to be born...
NARRATOR: In A.D. 2001, another trek was beginning.
CAPTAIN: What happen?
MECHANIC: Someone set us up the slashdot!
OPERATOR: We get signal.
CAPTAIN: What!
OPERATOR: Main screen turn on.
CAPTAIN: It's you!!
CATS: How are you gentlemen!! All your webservers are belong to us. You are on the way to destruction.
CAPTAIN: What you say!!
CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time. Ha ha ha ha....
OPERATOR: Captain!!
CAPTAIN: Turn off every Switch!! You know what you doing. Upgrade Bandwidth!! . For great justice.
no? oh suit yourself:-)
Scott: And the script is fantastic. It's unlike a lot of the other "Star Trek" scripts and pilot.
Sorry. I had to laugh. Of course, he has to promote the series, but to badmouth the others? Is he saying it won't take much to surpass the others?
also....
SCOTT BACULA: We want to, we're out there peacefully exploring.
MARK: Picking up litter as you go?
SCOTT: Exactly.
http://www.etonline.com/television/a4451.htm
with richard benjamin,right? i remember.
SCOTT BACULA: We want to, we're out there peacefully exploring.
MARK: Picking up litter as you go?
SCOTT: Exactly.
How soon they forget Quark, the sci fi comedy about space garbage collectors. Commander Quark, Ficus the science officer, (the male/female one), Andy the Android, and of course, the two Bettys!
But they did have a holodeck, eventually. Didn't you ever see the animated series? There was one episode where they went to the holodeck, and I remember McCoy at the controls. Instead of the TNG 'Arch', it was some washing-machine type setup. IIRC, Kirk or someone fell down a trap set in the forest. So much for safety protocols.
-- "Is this death or is this Ohio?"
It IS an Akira - stem to stern there is almost no difference.
This is really fucking disappointing. You'd think they could flex SOME creative muscle.
+++ATH0
Have you looked at a Star Trek episode lately? You can't possibly think that the acting was beter than . . . well, anything.
I love the show, but the quality of the acting is not exactly its strong point.
-Peter
http://www.techfx.org/ent-touched.jpg. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Here's a thought; watch the damn show before passing judgement.
I, too, wish they would go with a smaller ship with a more primitive look. It should definitely have a crew smaller than 430, maybe only 100-150. It should be cramped, like a submarine. It should have larger, inefficient engines. Was dilithium discovered yet (allowing greater power), or did they just have basic matter/antimatter? No transporter technology yet.
I don't even like that they're calling it "Enterprise" to begin with. Why wasn't this Enterprise hanging on the wall in Picard's ready room, or pictured on the rec deck in ST:TMP with the others? It also ticks me off that the writers of the series don't take pointers from the novelists, who come up with much better explanations for alot of the things in the Trek universe. Why make up something bizarre and new when a better, more elegant explanation (that would work just as well) already exists? *sigh*
The Vulcans already had a warp ship by the time they met Cochrane, and the Romulans split well before then. The Romulans are definitely capable of warp technology, though they may not have built it yet. I think they're relatively xenophobic.
I have zero tolerance for zero-tolerance policies.
Constitutionally Correct
I forgot to say, of course, that such a crossover episode would require the NX-01 Enterprise to travel back in time to the 1960s, where it would accidentally ram an even bigger NCC-1701 Entrtprise from the future that had just beamed aboard a USAF pilot destined to make the first trip to Titan, who was Captain Archer's great-grandfather....Just think, T'Pol could be Spock's grandmother and he would logically have to kill her just to see how the paradox played out...boy will Sam be confused trying to figure all of this out on the fly.....
C'mon, Scott Bakula's not THAT bad. Quantum Leap won a slew of awards and actually had some fairly thought-provoking episodes. For example, there was the one where he beamed into a Mercury Program chimp and sat in a cage with a diaper on for the whole episode. His potrayal of one of the first primates in orbit around the Earth certainly prepared him to potray one of the first primates to leave Earth's solar system. Besides, think about the fun of an Enterprise / Quantum Leap crossover episode. Sam beams into Captain Archer and looks in a mirror and sees....himself!!!
> The question is, what OS will they use on the prop computers?
Don't know, but I guess the database will be Oracle 8i Enterprise Edition. Sorry. That was inexcusable.
Get a life, everyone knows that the first "starship" enterprise was the enterprise shuttle prototype. And what about The USS Enterprise, aircraft carrier? Just because it wasnt mentioned in a show, or a manual, doesnt mean it couldnt have existed.
Not to be too picky, but...
How about a GODDAMN SPOILER WARNING?!
sheesh.
"Honey, it's not working out; I think we should make our relationship open-source."
Who cares about history, I think they should bring in something like automated battle droids or double barreled phasers (guess they can't have light sabers) or even a really anoying new species of creature that will inspire about 100 hate inspired web pages by Flash developers. Hmmmm wonder if anyone else has thought of this yet ;)
Personally this is the first trek series I have been interested since TNG. I never cared much for DS9 or Voyager. And just because Bakula is known for Quantum Leap is no reason he can't do a good job. Hell, if anything it means he CAN do a good job. It's not the actors fault if the viewer can't let go of the past. As for the ship, well, the disc is a little to Next Generation, but it looks cool.
--
Digitize me, Fred!
-- skantman
Too late.
And what history? First Contact already blew it with Cochrane on Earth rather than Alpha Centauri as mentioned in TOS. And he didn't look at all the same ;)
While I think Akira Class ships are cool; Slapping old style nacelles on it and calling it a pre-Constitution class ship is just lame.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Neither the Romulans nor the Humans had warp drive during their first war (Wolf In The Fold); Khan got well into space without warp in a sleeper ship (Space Seed).
Never have they said that warp drive was the only FTL, if you'll remember in the pilot they talked about it as something new when speaking to colonists on a distant planet.
Yea, it's just a TV show, that doesn't mean it should be immune to criticism. Lack of continuity is as deserving of criticism as anything else done badly.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Just my 2 credits.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
ummmmm, I thought he meant that Trelane was the first Q to appear in Star Trek ... not that he was the first Q to exist in the Star Trek universe.
--
The real Captain Avatar is a fictional character, so I suppose he doesn't mind if I impersonate him.
According to IMDB A.T. Montgomery gets to play Ensign Travis Mayweather. What sort of eejit thinks up a name like that? Enid Fecking Blyton?
--The opinions contained in this document are in no way expressed.
They didn't have transporters in 2151, so you can rest easy. They didn't have a starship called Enterprise, or the characteristic saucer shaped crew quarters either. But I guess they can reinvent however they like, screw consistency!
Characterized, BTW, according to the expanded universe (i.e. books and stuff) as having an extra joint in the pinkie finger, and an interesting circulatory system which would result in hexagonal shaped blotches when doing things like blushing, or flushing in anger.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
No no, according to TOS, Cochrane was FROM Alpha Centauri; he was a Centaurian.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Let me explain this even slower: HE SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ON EARTH AT ALL.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Seconded!!!
Of course, the REAL question is... Klingons: forehead ridges or no? They may be forced to answer the question of why the Klingons "don't like to talk about that"!
Freedom: "I won't!"
That's got to be difficult, though. Keep in mind that to make something that in any way resembled the TOS Enterprise would look quite cheezy.
/Brian
Hmmm... early Trek history, no Federation, underexplored galaxy... why do I suspect we'll see a lot of...
Red red shirts
Don't let it be you
'Cause what they go through
Ain't no fun at all
Red red shirts...
Shot to the head
The first to be dead
As we all know
That we all know
I'd have thought that in time
They'd get too smart to wear red
For that yeoman feeling bold
Time to make the switch to gold
(etc... either the Neil Diamond or UB40 versions will do)
/Brian
No. I was actually young enough to watch reading rainbow yet old enough to watch TNG -- he picked up TNG well into his time on RR. In fact, he even did a Trek-themed episode during the early second season of TNG.
/Brian
They may have to. Continuity on TOS was dreadful -- I think Starfleet had at least four different names in the first season.
/Brian
The only way I can see for them to pull it off is if they they boldly avoid going where they've already gone before. Hmmm...I like that, in a twisted kind of way. I feel a Saturday Night Live parody comming on...
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Er, think about it. Cochrane 'invented' the warp drive. Before warp drive, there's no way he could have GOTTEN to Alpha Centauri. It's most likely that Cochrane moved to AC *after* inventing the drive.
OTOH, ST:TOS was full of inconsistencies, such as Kirk's middle initial/name.
"Population 1,656"
No no, according to TOS, Cochrane was FROM Alpha Centauri; he was a Centaurian.
*sigh*. Let me type this slowly for you.
A. As mentioned, TOS was filled with inconsistencies.
B. As mentioned, in the ST world, Cochrane couldn't have invented the warp drive in Alpha Centauri. It's a matter of physics that apply even in the ST world.
C. I was born in California but live in Florida. When I visit another state and get asked "where are you from?" I respond with Florida as I'm a Floridian. It's not my state of birth. It's where I live now.
D. It's just a TV show, folks. Don't base your life on it, unless you really, really identified with Galaxy Quest.
"Population 1,656"
I seem to recall an episode in which Kirk died on a space walk, but the crew regenerated him from a transporter matrix. Star Trek has never been hard sci-fi.
I've begun watching the Real World, and have decided that I am going to start dressing and speaking like the cast members... I have plans for a convention next year... also these 'cell phones' look intriguing, but are far too advanced for us... what with people actually answering calls...?
"If voting could really change things, it would be illegal. " - Revolution Books, NY
Actually, it *was* mentioned in the show. I think it was in the motion picture, the scene where they showed the lounge... "All these ships were called Enterprise..."
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture Special Edition, Paramount will use CG graphics to insert the new Enterprise into those pictures. Also the opening scene will be changed so that VGR fires first and barely misses the klingons, thus making their attack of the cloud merely self-defense. Finally, VGR will be replaced by the Pluto Kupiter express because we all know there will be no more voyager missions nor any mission to pluto.
//m
4) I want some dumb people to crew a ship, not just the super-geniuses that Trek staffs Federation ships with.
Plenty of those on Voyager. Just look at Kim and Tuvok. Any alien can come on board, know nothing about the technology, and yet still manage to circumvent the security and take a shuttle or transporter whenever they feel like it. "Lock them out" .. "too late captain"... I think those are written in the inside cover of the writer's manual. "Use the tractor beam!" "I can't keep a lock captain". I wished captain janeway would have once just said "well use the phasers then"
//m
- Bad science. OK, this isn't PBS. But can we at least get writers who know that a "planetoid" is not a kind of planet and that burnt hydrogen (commonly known as water) is not a rare substance? And even when the science is totally made up (like transporters) it at least needs to be consistent ("We don't have energy to replicate food! We'll have to transport it from the planet's surface!"). Yeah, I know, most TV viewers don't care. But SF fans are not most TV viewers.
- Idea Cowardice. When you get an interesting Basic Premise, give it time to work, and don't abandon it the moment it gives you problems. Idea: give the characters families and make them part of the story. (Naw, can't put children at risk.) Idea: A Warp Drive Crisis! (Naw, too hard to write around.) Idea: Give the Captain a girlfriend! (What?! You want to pay another regular? Dr. Crusher can fill in when he gets horny.) A society that has evolved beyond greed! (Hey, careful, some of our sponsers are Republicans!)
- Lazy storytelling. Not just "magic". Using the same gimmicks over and over. The worst one is time travel -- since it's paradoxical, the story doesn't have to make sense. Which is why we get more and more time travel episodes!
- Brainless imitation. It shouldn't suprise me -- Hollywood hates taking risks -- but it's painful to watch. Just because there's a successful movie with planet-obliterating aliens and gigantic space battles, doesn't mean the same thing will work on Star Trek. Not every cop show needs car chases or running gun battles, and not every space opera needs to be Independence Day or Star Wars.
- Dweebish characters. Need I elaborate?
- Preaching. OK, the Big Message has always been an important part of Star Trek stories. But it doesn't work as the whole story!
- Enough with the damn Holodecks. These people are part of my fantasy life. I don't want to know about their fantasy life.
- No more trekkie stories. If people who make Star Trek into a pathetic kind of religion want to write "fanfiction" let them post it on the web. Nobody else wants to watch TV shows or movies written by overenthusiastic amateurs. Take some money out of your sfx budget and spring for some real scriptwriters.
What's really sad is that I won't be able to resist watching the new series -- even though I know I will see all of the above!__
One of the things that has always been a little funny is that the new ship will look better than the original enterprise. This is done in movies all of the time. For example, in Star Wars episode I, the ship that was used in the movie from Naboo was a lot nicer than anything from the previous three movies made. I know that the special effects was not then what it is now, but have some historical integrity (if there can be such a thing is a sci fi show/movie).
If they were to make a movie about the 1970s now, I would bet that they would not use a 2000 car in it.
That makes sense, but even the ship that the emperor used in Jedi was not as cool as the Queen's ship in episode I. Granted, he was evil and everything, but even villans have awesome items, for example (back to Star Trek) the Romulan ships look much cooler than the Federation ships, and they were using cloaking on a regular basis, where the federation had a treaty stating that they couldn't use cloaking devices.
All of this geek talk is making me thirsty, Jolt anyone?
Kirk: Scotty, get those webservers back up!
Scotty: Och, captain, if I give 'er any more bandwidth she'll blow!
I was kind of hoping that they would make a prequel by starting out in the future, firing up some nifty time travel gizmos, and going back and wiping out every speck of Star Trek: The Overloaded Future. That way they could start over without having to work toward the convoluted mess of the Star Trek future. It would also shut up all of those whiny Star Trek geeks who cry foul at every violation of Star Trek brand physics or Star Trek timelines. They could even give it a clever hip-sounding techie name like Star Trek: Re-Evolution or something. Without the all-powerful technology that is the central theme to most recent Star Trek stuff, they would have to focus on interpersonal relationships, cultural reactions to space travel, societal change, the formation of interplanetary alliances, etc. I know, Star Trek with humanity rather than technology is just a dream...
I thought he was already on Star Trek when he got at gig.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
The rationalization for the Episode 1 look versus the Episodes 4-6 starship looks in Star Wars is that the Ep.1 era was the zenith of the Old Republic, just before a fall. The look and feel of everything was a lot more "classic" and "designed", because they had time to spend on the artistry of their work.
By Ep 4-6, the galaxy was embroiled in civil war (and had been for years), under the boot of the Empire. The Empire cared only about destructive power and plenty of it, while the Rebellion cared about getting any sort of fighting ship they could lay their hands on.
In such a situation, the "design" and "look" of the vehicles is obviously a far second behind their ability to produce them in mass quantities.
To cement the idea in your head, think about how cars looked in the mid-late 50's - all streamlined and fancy, and then think about how they looked in the 70's and early 80's - ugly crates on wheels. The 50's cars plainly looked better, but that was not important to people who wanted cheap cars that would consume less gas and be safer to drive.'Historical integrity' as you put it does not mean 'things look better over time' - it means that the universe's history is self-consistent. It's not the "look" of Star Trek: Enterprise you should be concerned with, but rather its place in the Star Trek universe, and what impact it has on that universe's self-consistency.
"So on one hand, honey is an amazingly sophisticated and efficient food source. On the other hand it's bee backwash."
The romulan war hasn't happened yet in this timeline, according to an article i read.
2156: First Romulan war
2161: Formation of the Federation.
Assuming that the new Enterprise is a Federation ship, as opposed to just an Earth ship predating the Federation, what you've said doesn't make sense. Unless you're confusing the first Romulan war with the second.
however since star wars is already in its second prequel mr lucas can still improve its ship desing so it makes a change agianst the enterpice.
news:alt.discussions.starwars.vs.startrek
..over the "new" Enterprise. All the fanboy goodness can be found at here
I like the idea of having a whole klingon version of star trek. THe personal dynamics would be different considering everyone would be klingon.
However there is no way in hell that DS( is better then TNG. I found out the writters for enterprise are the same from Voyager ( sigh) so I expect this next one to be quite boring. You could tell several years ago that the writers were already running out of idea's. I think paramont should either A. hire more writers or B. let the tv show die in history and make a few movies.
I like the idea of having another star trek made in the future but there were alot of time traveling stuff already in Voyager and the show would get old quickly. Perhaps star trek "DEATH_FALCON" with klingons battling might be something different and klingons have a very complex society. Perhaps there might be a few civil wars or mutinies on the ship. IT would be something new.
http://saveie6.com/
Windows.net with setup wizards and clippy on all the terminals from the Microsoft federation of planets sponsored by the Corporate States of American. %80 of the crew are mcse's who's only job is to hit the reset button when the bsod appears and just to barely keep the ship running. The other %10 are microsoft certified salesmen who's job is to force windows.net and office.net and space.net into everyone's throat. The last %10 actually run the ship and have real space like duties.
Sadly I believe in a century form now corporations will become the next communist party in which they monitor everyone like 1984 and sponsor space programs like the enterprise to sell more windows based products. Bill would be thrilled if he could spy on everyone to make sure we were license compliant and with msn messenger and the spyware in windowsXP, it looks like he will get his wish.
http://saveie6.com/
They had lasers.
I/O, I/O, its off to disk I go, with a read and a write, and a bit and a byte, I/O, I/O, I/O, I/O
TrekWeb has a bunch of links to various information on Enterprise including first looks of the sets. BTW, I am not affiliated with trekweb so I don't care if you don't check them out either.
Captain: set your phasers on stun
Vader: click vwaaan....vwan von bwap.
Captain: thud.
http://www.bureau42.com/view/?id=302&cb=3
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/TP/scoops/scoops.htm l
The reason I think they had to do a prequel is that they've totally screwed up the technological level of the future. In the star-trek future, you have super-shields and weapons, you can travel in time, you can use wormholes, etc, etc. Its pretty difficult to write stories where there are abolutely no challenges.
The Federation was founded *ONLY* because of the Romulan threat.
I think you're right about the Klingons--but, really, unless TOS said something, they can do pretty much what they will. (Just like everything else in Trek, only the videos count.)
In any case, I think Captain Janeway was terrible. I mean, how could they really choose the main character from the spinoff "Mrs. Columbo"? Please.
Just my two cents: I'm looking forward to seeing how Scott does as captain. Maybe he's not a great actor, but hey, this is Star Trek. And he looks the part. How can anyone follow Patrick Stewart? I'm not gay, but that is a sexy man with a commanding aura. Any actor pales in comparison.
the phone is ringin, o my god
The holodeck was in the cartoon series, which was set in about the same time frame as TOS.
And allegedly TOS was supposed to have a holodeck, but effects/budget wouldn't allow.
Tastes Like Chicken
I have just been looking over the pages as treknews.de (all be it slowly due to the /. effect) and it looks like the guy needs a little help. He like most sites now only gets payment from clickthroughs on his add banners. Seeing as we are /.ing them, the least we can do is click on a banner or two :-)
-- Vagnerr - (www.vagnerr.com) Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
According to the Great Bird, Klingons always had foreheads like that. It was just that in TOS they didn't have the budget to show them.
Of course, that doesn't explain Worf's embarrassment in the Tribbles ep. However, continuity's never been Trek's strong point. :)
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
The reason why it's a prequel is because they're running out of storylines that involve the humans that they can film; Voyager is going to get a movie or two I think, and that means no 24th-century Federation storylines on TV for a little bit (they could do TNG movies easy enough while DS9/Voyager were going on because those two shows were so far away from the Main Action).
More importantly, it's a prequel because the gutless wonders (I wish Rick Berman read Slashdot :) who run Trek don't have the courage to do a show about a Klingon ship. I mean, that's where we've got real excitement in the Trek universe, in the alien races. Most of the best TNG episodes involved the Klingons, or the Romulans, or both (and of course there was the Cardassian classic, Chains of Command, maybe the best TNG episode ever). Actually, it wouldn't even have to be a Klingon ship, but they're the race we know the most about.
That's why DS9 was better than TNG. The Bajorans and Cardassians actually got to be recurring, important characters, and they're interesting. Even Quark the Ferengi had some decent eps, although again most of his character was the result of simple-minded anti-capitalist ranting.
That's why Voyager isn't so good, too. The aliens are less interesting. The Borg make neato-keen villains, but they're really not a complex society. And then there's the Q Continuum. Well, whatever. Kes had potential but she Transcended To A Higher Plane Of Existence (tm) :) The Vidiians had potential I thought, but it was utterly wasted.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
I'm not sure you can blame Voyager entirely. I think you can trace the softer, weaker, nicer Borg back to "I, Borg." In attempting to make Borg society more complex, the Trek writers merely made it more like another cute, cuddly, friendly alien race with just a few bad habits. And sometimes in Voyager, you get the old Borg, too.
What I'd love to see in a movie sometime is a sequel to the first season TNG ep "Conspiracy." Now, those villains were classics. However, I think they get excised because they don't really fit the Trek paradigm.
Trek tends to borrow from other genres when it needs to for commercial reasons; the Borg are a kind of bastardization of cyberpunk, which was getting some real commercial success in Hollywood in the early 90s (note Total Recall). However, ultimately it always returns to the cute-cuddly vision. IMO that's its downfall. While I (often) love Trek, mainly because it has the best music of any SF show ever made, good acting, reasonable scripts, and pretty f/x, it's still a formula.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore
All the images on section31 say 'STOP! This file is protected.' Well they certainly are, I can't bloody see them.
I agree. The fact that the series will be a prequel might have some advantages. No holodecks will be a big plus.
One of the problems I had with Voyager was that even after seven years in the Delta Quadrant the ship still looked like it just left the shipyards. With the stories set in the proto-Federation time period hopefully the new Enterprise with have a less spit-and-polish feel and a more held-together-by-wishful-thinking-and-duct-tape feel to it. Unfortuately, with less than state-of-the-art transporters and warp engines we might end up with more episodes involving transporter accidents (ugh) or warp malfunction/space-time anomolies (double ugh!).
And they call this a news site!
My other sig is extremely clever...
What type of weapons will they carry on away missions?
Lasers?
Phasers?
Guns?
Rocks to throw at each other?
Were phasers even invented in the 22nd century?
Did you see the TV Guide headline? Wasn't "Back to the future" something completely different?
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
And what about The USS Enterprise, aircraft carrier?
"The"? Erm, Time for a history lesson methinks...
A History of Ships Named Enterprise
Regarding CVs in particular, The Galloping Ghost made the name Enterprise famous, even if she's hardly remembered today.
If you're talking about the novel Q Squared, which is the only place you might get such a fallacy. Trelane could hardly be the first Q, since his two parents were also Q's!
The Q's have been around before man, this was I think explicitly stated in a ST:TNG episode but I can't remember which. Either way, John De Lancie rules.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
http://www.section31.com/protected-images/et-tease -1.jpg
Is that a Hanes cotton T-shirt our Enterprise Captain is wearing? =P
Bah, this is ridiculous. Even though the older Enterprise is properly designed (it looks like a design ancestor of the Reliant, which was an older ship than the Original-Series Enterprise). I don't like the "NX-01" designation. Enterprise's 1701 has always made me curious. I believe the numbering system must be as follows, first two digits indicate class of ship it is a part of (all the Enterprises have been in the heavy cruiser class) - that is, heavy cruisers (in TOS, the "Constellation Class") must start with 17. Then it is number 01 of that series (which may start with 00 for all we know, maybe the Lexington). Of course, this is ALL out of my ass and I don't know the truth of it. I would, however, suggest that the NX designator is generally used for experimental or prototype ships (Excelsior: NX-2000), not for standard ships of the line. Of course, at this early date, the Enterprise may well be experimental!
All I can say is, it will take a LOT of cunning and creativity to do this right. Think about it - they have to bring it into date with modern special effects, BUT they also have to make it look more primitive than the Original Series, shot in 1966-68!! I personally don't think "Enterprise" will have enough design talent on board to accomplish this feat. For instance, I expect to see transporters, even though it is established ST universe canon that they were not around at Kirk's time! Read John M. Ford's excellent novel, "The Final Reflection", which was set "a couple years before he (Kirk) was born" (quote). It was at this time the transporters were declared safe to use for the first time in the Federation, though the Klingons had them first. However, we're probably going to see the Enterprise crew beaming everywhere, probably with a transporter that works as nicely as ST:TNG's one. Oh well.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
I'm an old school trekkie, but I'm a bit illogical about what I consider canon. Basically, if it's one of the official ST novels, it's canon. But if it's stupid, silly, or runs counter to Gene's vision of ST ("Spock's Brain", some TNG episodes, pretty much all of Voyager starting at Season 2), then it's explained away with "alternate universe" and is not canon.
Either way, Ford had a far more interesting take on the ST world. I much prefer his Klingons to the ones we finally wound up with. After all, they ARE a SPACEFARING RACE. The folks who developed them for TNG and onwards seem to not realize this fact. Yes, it's "cool" to make Klingons stupid and gutteral and disgusting. But they figured out space travel on their own! I think they are worthy of the respect Ford treats them with. =) To my imagination at least, his take is the correct one. That is to say, I think if Gene had an equal sample of Berman and Ford in the same medium, and had to choose, I think Gene would pick Ford for creative talent. =)
Thanks for reminding me of the Constitution/stellation (I can NEVER remember which is the class and which is the ship!) and the Republic. I guess I'll need to reconsider my theory!
Cheers,
Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
Before they retcon the entire TOS.
Between TOS and TMP, there was a change in the Klingon high command. The new bosses rejected the espionage-oriented policy as dishonorable, and the Klingon troops all gratefully switched back to their native forms. They're mortified by the whole affair to this day, so "We do not speak of it."
your theory works well, it would also explain why Kirk didn't notice the differences between the southern and northern Klingons in ST3, and ST4...
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
People were irritated with DS9 and Voyager because they focused specifically on action and special effects. When that didn't work they swung to the other extreme of becoming cardboard cutout soap operas. (Remember the whole Worf/Dax thing? Shudder.) TNG had that perfect balance of action and interpersonal relationships. These relationships had long lasting effects on their characters. Remember "Vash"? Now THAT was a good episode! Or a better example, remember the episode where Picard lives another life via an alien probe? Those effects were felt on a personal basis for a very long time to come. Under this sort of story telling one almost develops an empathy with the characters. Compare this to the emotional overload in Voyager (The Doctor's holographic family for instance) and you realize that these new series just do not have the setup to tell a good story.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
You get beat up a lot, don't you?
Have you flamed SpanishInquisition t
According to the plot summary for The Broken Bow, the Enterprise crew rescue a Klingon pilot and can't communicate with him. Does this mean that we finally get rid of that insane universal translator?
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
The starship I can live with, though I would prefer something like an obvious predecessor to the Enterprise. (less streamlined - bigger engines that are less efficient etc)
I am more concerned these guys will change history as it has been portrayed through the 3 series (don't count voyuer) and the movies.
I am also concerned that this new "alien" in the background isn't the typical "must one-up the last series - (borg to dominion to 8472 etc) syndrome that we have seen before. I would think it great if it were the "Q" as we could have series cross-over "history" - but please no - We go to the future plots.
I was always under the impression that is what the Federation that met the Klingons, not the Earth itself (iow - the Federation existed).
Oh well, hopefully the Klingon ships keep their basic layout, and the Romulans don't pop up soon (they should barely be in space by this timeline)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Trek Geek 1 - A cell phone doesn't contain all the equipment and circuitry you'd need to actually contact an orbiting starship from the surface of a planet.
Trek Geek 2 - Ah, but your forgetting the minimum diameter of any given transtator component in TOS, which has to be at least--
Trek Geek 3 - We can also assume that the Eugenics wars wiped out a lot of 20th century technology, such as the minaturized components necessary for--
Me: *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*... Well I just made the world a better place. Now what do I do with the bodies?
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Damn, I wish I'd put up a website 2 years ago when I thought of all this stuff. Then I'd be cool instead of just a viewer with fantasies. Read this an tell me I'm not a genius:
The next Star Trek series should take place before the James Kirk era. Smaller ships, smaller crews, more right-stuff attitude and less PC posturing. Transporters are experimental and unreliable, not used for people unless in dire emergencies. The Feds start with virtually no space weapons until they ran into Klingons, defending themselves at first with phasers designed to be cutting tools. Photon torpedoes come later. Everything evolves.
The ship's doctor should be a Vulcan woman (attended medical school on Earth to study humans, joined Starfleet to study our explore-and-conquer nature). Initially we don't know about the Vulcan mind-meld. The first time she does it (in a desperate situation) it weirds out the crew. Can she read our minds? What else can she do? Are they using us as puppets? For a while they treat her with animosity. I never thought of her being T'Pau -- that's kind of a cool idea.
Sounds like they have done some of those things. But my vision was along the lines of the original Christopher Pike pilot. Remember that Enterprise? Clunkier, bulkier, and everything looked like it was made out of metal. I think they even had the classic structural girders with big holes. The transporter was loud when they walked into the room, and got a lot louder when they energized it. Sounded like something really powerful and dangerous, as it should. That kind of souped-up Buck Rogers feel was what I was personally hoping for. Instead it seems that the Kirk-era designs were only a brief departure from a long-standing Federation neutral tone curvy office look. Hopefully they won't throw in technology that is clearly more advanced than in the other shows.
p.s.
What should Klingons look like?
A mixture of old and new. The Klingon Empire is in a state of stagnation after an initial surge of over-expansion. Klingons stationed on the frontier have interbred with locals for several generations. These half-breeds are naturally the first ones the Federation runs into. Even then there are rumblings of racial purity from the home planet. After Kirk's time the impure Klingons will be suppressed and mostly relegated to lesser positions, except for a distinguished few who in later life will be allowed to take genetic therapy to "purify" themselves (Kang's forehead conversion). The embarrassment is that the half-breeds tend to be smarter than pure Klingons; more organized, better administrators. They are probably what stabilizes the Empire, enabling a resurgence in Kirk's time which we will see has faltered again by Picard's time.
But why a prequel?
To show George Lucas how it's really done.
Say "NO!" to tax money for religious groups.
Without the all-powerful technology that is the central theme to most recent Star Trek stuff, they would have to focus on interpersonal relationships, cultural reactions to space travel, societal change, the formation of interplanetary alliances, etc.
It's funny... a lot of diehard trek fans didn't like ds9 and voyager because they felt it was going in that very direction (more relationships, less blasting the aliens). I still like TNG best overall, though a few melodramas arn't going to keep me from watching this new serries...
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The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. --Ben Franklin
Why a prequel? In my opinion, two words: Rick Berman
- harborpirate -
// harborpirate
// Slashbots off the starboard bow!
These sets are too techy-sweepy-steely-gloomy.
I liked the it's-on-a-stage-set-in-burbank look of the original series.
I finally saw GATTACA the other night on the skiffy channel. You know what my favorite part of it was? They went to space in single-breasted suits. Not jumpsuits. Not moonsuits. Not lycra leotards and polyester toreador pants. Single-breasted GQ serge with coordinated ties and well-shined wing-tips.
They didn't climb a gantry or strap themselves into G-force cots. They walked from a hallway through one circular pressure door, sat in their stadium-style leather theater seats, and smiled at the stars out the window.
So get rid of the metal grate. I want a nice linoleum running all through the ship's decks. Maybe some shag wall-to-wall carpeting in the captain's quarters. 400 years of progress and you think humankind won't be bringing their lifestyles into space?
--Blair
The similarity is really remarkable. Could it be that we are dealing with an old-fashioned canard?
Okay, so I used to be as big a Star Trek fan as the next teenage geek without a social life, but I've sort of had better things to do recently, and the last couple of series haven't exactly floated my boat in terms of storyline, quality or acting. It seems the Star Trek is decaying with all the inevitability of uranium 235.
But why for the love of God did they pick Scott Bakula to play the captain? Have they never seen Quantum Leap!? Not only did it feature some of the most hackneyed, unoriginal plot lines seen on TV, but the acting made The Dukes of Hazzard look like an Oscar winner! Scott Blatula has all the emotional range of Pinocchio, without any of the novelty extending body parts! If you thought Janeway reminded you of a Dalek in terms of acting skill, just wait and be amazed!
Making the fifth installment of such a long-running show is incredibly tricky. Hiring third-rate actors is not making it any easier. I'll watch the pilot, but any hopes I had plummeted when I heard the news.
And a laser beam wouldn't cut through the hull in nothing flat? In retrospect, I guess they've been really lucky all these years...
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Could be fun; I found all the sequel series rather sterile (and what was with that teak woodwork on the bridge of TNG?)
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Go on, slashdot them, too :)
"What are we going to do tonight, Bill?"
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
Of course this is all ship design stuff, and I doubt ship design has a huge amount of influence on the writers. These folks are taking a big risk by setting the show in such an important, turbulent period in Star Trek history--the earliest days of the Federation. There is an opportunity here to either make a damn good story, or fuck it up spectacularly. After DS9 and Voyager (DS9 was okay, but let's face it, it wasn't that great) I'm skeptical, but perhaps they'll throw us for a loop and turn out something decent. It's still possible. Babylon 5 showed that.
The coolest voice ever.
Yes, they certainly should have tried to make the ship look more primitive then TOS Enterprise; instead this one looks more "modern" then NCC-1701D...
"Engage Scott!...Ohhh Scott...Scott make it so...MAKE IT SO! OHhh!"
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
1. Something -- anything -- that doesn't suck. Since Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: Generations, the suckage of everything produced under the Star Trek trademark has increased monotonically.
2. Something that I can talk about in public without seeming like a social outcast. Maybe they should do a sitcom -- "Star Trek: Friends" with the lovely Jennifer Aniston as Yeoman Rachel.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
If the female trekkies of the universe think like the female trekkies I work with (and the one I'm married to ;-), they're all in agreement that Scott Bakula is "a major hottie." Even middle-aged women agree: Scott Bakula flat-out turns on the ladies.
/.er was caught off-guard when his female boss dropped this bomb. Before the trolls come out of the woodwork, I have to issue the standard disclaimer: as a guy, I don't check out other guys, blah blah blah. So, after a rather unscientific poll of the females I know, I've come to the conclusion that chicks dig Scott Bakula. QED.
/. care to help prove this whack theory of mine?
YMMV, of course, as this heterosexual
Would the ladies of
Even superheroes once were losers
So what wrongs must Sam Beckett make right in the 23rd Century?
Must he stop the kligons from invading *drum roll* (wait for it...) Uranis?
=p
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From The Simpsons.....=)
Man: How many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day?
Kids: [clamoring] Oh, yeah! I would! Great idea! Yeah, that's it!
Man: And who would like to see them do just the opposite -- getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers?
Kids: [clamoring] Me! Yeah! Oh, cool! Yeah, that's what I want!
Man: So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots?
Kids: [all agreeing, quieter this time] That's right. Oh yeah, good.
Milhouse: And also, you should win things by watching.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
Seeing an old Next Generation rerun recently reminded me of a big problem with the last two Star Trek series: lighting. DS9 and Voyager were dark and murky, a little too orange, and unpleasant to look at in comparison to ST:TNG. (DS9 had some excuse, with the nature of the station). There's no reason they can't have good lighting on the new show: hope they do it!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The above book chronicles three eras of time, Post-WWIII, TOS and TNG. The book gives the history of Zefram Cochrane and how he invented the warp drive. It is a very interesting read. I would also much rather go along with the history written in that novel than with the inconsistent history of TOS. I know, that is pure blasphemy! I am going against the grain. Anyway, if you find that book I would suggest reading it. They mention that Cochrane is called "of Alpha Centauri", because that was the first place that he went after testing his warp drive design. He even settled down on the planet for a while. After living on AC for sometime he decided to leave and he ended up with that energy being that TOS Enterprise ran into. I do recomend the book, unless you are a TOS purist. Then you will totally hate the novel. Anyway, that is my two cents. -- .sig seperator
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If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
Did you think the world would be without Star Trek for very long, considering the demise of the Voyager series?
But why a prequel?
then why is Dark Angel doing well?
why did the matrix do so well?
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Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Captain were being attacked by "Space Warriors"
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Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Common Complaints: 1) It looks more High tech than the TOS Enterprise! ~ So did the Star Trek I-III Enterprises even though they were the same "serial" number (NCC-1701). Also, this ISN'T a factual account it's TV, special effects get better, we can just pretend that primitive 1960's FX couldn't accurately potray TOS generation tech. Sheez. 2) It might be "historically" incorrect! This is fiction and open for change. Pretend this is an alternate universe if you have to. I mean you very well call it history because if I'm correct according to the original timeline Khan should have already come and gone... The timeline has been changed before. All in all I'm excited about this new series, I love the Trek shows and I'm open for any non-rediculous changes the writers want to make, if they make the Romulans appear a few decades earlier- big deal. It'll be cool to have a Romulan-Earth(Federation) war. ~kyle
There is a unidentiified vessel approaching. "On screen!" - Oh no, it's the rumored slashdot vessel! "Bridge to engineering" - Engineering here, go ahead... "Shut down all webservers right away, we're about to be slashdotted". And there the saga ends... ;)
Star Trek, like Star Wars has never been Science Fiction (except for the original Star Trek). There have only been three great SF shows ever: B5, Twilight Zone, and the original Star Trek. I find all of the follow-on Star Trek attempts pitiful.