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Could Fuller Take Trek Back To TV?

bowman9991 writes "Bryan Fuller, creator of the TV show Pushing Daisies and a former Star Trek writer and producer, is geared up to make it happen. The new Star Trek TV show would be based on "old style" Star Trek, rather than the more recent incarnations and variations: Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation. There hasn't been a Star Trek TV series since Enterprise was canceled after four seasons in 2005. Fuller wrote twenty one Star Trek episodes over four years, two in Deep Space Nine's final season, and the rest for Voyager. He also produced Voyager's last season. If J.J. Abrams' reboot is successful (and the latest trailer suggests it will be!) perhaps we'll see him involved with a new Star Trek TV show with the style and impact of Fringe or Lost. The new Star Trek movie featuring a young Kirk and Spock is in cinemas May 2009." Besides his work on many episodes of Trek, Fuller's work includes Dead Like Me and some of the best of Heroes. (He's one of the names I actively seek in the writing slot.) Between him and JJ Abrams, the era of Rick Berman looks to finally be at an end. Cross your fingers.

444 comments

  1. Hmmm... by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Rather than another series that will result in overpriced DVDs, I'd have loved to get a DS9 or Voyager Movie or two...

    1. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The new Star Trek TV show would be based on 'old style' Star Trek"

      Cardboard sets FTW!!!

    2. Re:Hmmm... by FredFredrickson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm sure I'm not the only one who's hoping for a Patrick Stewart casting. DS9 or Voyager Movies? Eck. A new TV Series with Picard.. and Data!? Amazing!

      Two things:
      1. Brent Spiner would have to lose some weight
      2. They've got to get rid of Data's emotion chip. That's when Data lost his charm, I feel.

      Otherwise, bring it on.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    3. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      I'd have loved to get a DS9

      That could work if it was well done, although personally I think DS9's plots got kind of stupid towards the end. There's also the matter of it being a blatant rip off of Babylon 5.....

      or Voyager Movie or two...

      Unless you are talking about V'ger I'm going to seriously question your sanity ;)

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    4. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Brent Spiner was tired of Trek, which is why he had data killed off in Nemesis.

    5. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Two things:
      1. Brent Spiner would have to lose some weight
      2. They've got to get rid of Data's emotion chip. That's when Data lost his charm, I feel.
      3. They've got to rip off the Spock story from "Search for Spock" to bring him back to life.

      Fixed that for you ;) Alternatively they could pretend that "All Good Things..." was the last real TNG story and all of the crappy movies never existed. I'd be just fine with that.....

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    6. Re:Hmmm... by ByOhTek · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Funny, my thoughts are the reverse. Voyager at least had some good plots, though there were a couple of stretches that sucked.

      Deep Suck 9 was just that...

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    7. Re:Hmmm... by IWannaBeAnAC · · Score: 1

      Were all of them crap? First Contact was a fun movie, and Insurrection was pure Trek, albeit perhaps a bit too cheesy.

    8. Re:Hmmm... by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Funny

      I agree, Patric Stewart would make an EXCELLENT Klingon or other bad guy for the series.

      I would rather see Star trek redone with starfleet being the weak guy and getting our asses handed back regularly. Combat with the klingons needs to be "OH CRAP! RUN!" instead of this "I am here to reason with you, can we sit down for tea and crumpets?"

      They started the right track with enterprise, but it needs to be far more gritty. More death, A sea of red-shirts flowing out the ship and popping like popcorn whenever a hull breach happens. Kirk getting pissed and launching all 8 photo torpedoes at the single ship and then vowing to exterminate that species for killing ensign Davis. he can even rip his shirt and hyperventilate when he does it... That would be very much like the first season.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    9. Re:Hmmm... by eln · · Score: 1

      Brent Spiner was tired of Trek, which is why he had data killed off in Nemesis.

      He's also getting too old and wrinkly to convincingly play an android that's not supposed to age.

    10. Re:Hmmm... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      But please get a better actor than Shatner.

      "KHAAAAAAAN!"

      Need I say more?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    11. Re:Hmmm... by Kokuyo · · Score: 1

      I liked most of them except for Nemesis.

    12. Re:Hmmm... by Kokuyo · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't be the first or the last time someone questions it ;). And I do mean Voyager. Of course it would be pretty hard to explain, seeing as they've returned by now. Then again, some of the books deal with what happens after they return so...

      Unfortunately, they have no sense for business, those Trek producers. If they had, they'd just make a movie where Janeway, 7 of 9 and B'Elanna ended up in a threesome. I think the cinemas would break sales records in no time...

    13. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Were all of them crap?

      Yes. Generations utterly ruined Data's character for the sake of an "Oh.... shit!" joke, destroyed the Enterprise-D for the sake of an action scene and killed off Picard's family for the sake of a cheap shock and never bothered to explore the ramifications of this.

      First Contact was an enjoyable standalone film but utterly destroyed whatever continuity we had from TNG for the sake of creating a single villain for the audience to focus on. It also didn't really do justice to Troi or Crusher. Actually come to think of it, none of the movies did them justice.

      and Insurrection was pure Trek, albeit perhaps a bit too cheesy.

      Perhaps? It was incredibly cheesy. And don't even get me started on Nemesis. This guy summarizes Nemesis way better than I could ever hope to.....

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    14. Re:Hmmm... by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      Janeway?

      Come on you can do better than that.

      I'd replace Janeway with Councilor Troy. (Mmmm)

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    15. Re:Hmmm... by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Funny

      "They've got to get rid of Data's emotion chip. That's when Data lost his charm, I feel."

      Without his emotion chip he would fail to grasp the full irony of your statement.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    16. Re:Hmmm... by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      I read a webcomic once that basically made the point that they're going to keep rehashing shit and driving the series into the ground.

      The two best ideas I've heard for a ST series are one about Section 31 (similar to stuff like Alias, but in Star Trek) and one about the 29th century with the timeships and all that.

      LOTS of shows did time-travel well and there's a lot of variety and cookie cutter plots that could easily fill a half dozen seasons - just look at stuff like Dr. Who, Quantum Leap, Seven Days, etc.

      Either of those would be a nice change for the series instead of just more "HAY GUYZ WATS GOIN ON IN THIS GALAXY?!!!1!!!11 exploration-based shows.

    17. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Deep Suck 9 was just that...

      Oh please. DS9 was decent-to-poor in the early goings, much like TNG, but once the Dominion War plot arch started up, it went from good to truly great. No other Trek has been as dark and gritty as DS9 was, actually showing a real, unsanitized war with it's attendant ugliness, while portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted. Pity it seems to get such a raw deal from a certain subset of the Trek fanbase.

    18. Re:Hmmm... by Moryath · · Score: 1

      Generations was intended to be a "passing the torch" movie, which it accomplished poorly (though finally killing off the Duras sisters was not unwelcome).

      First Contact merely continued the ongoing emasculation of the Borg, driving them ever downward from The Scariest Thing In The Universe to their eventual comical demise at the hands of Janeway and Seven of Tits, who regularly had Voyager running around taunting their ships for fun.

      Star Trek: Itsanerection was just sad. It might have been fun as an episode of TNG, but in no way was it movie material.

      Nemesis... argh. Further proof that Berman/Braga should be buried in sand, doused with honey, and left for the ants to finish off.

    19. Re:Hmmm... by Sleepy · · Score: 1

      >>Brent Spiner was tired of Trek, which is why he had data killed off in Nemesis.

      >He's also getting too old and wrinkly to convincingly play an android that's not supposed to age.

      Not sure what I even think of the premise of bringing back data, but both your points can be easily answered.

      1) Data was a machine. All they have to do is "rediscover" the Positron technology, and stumble into an archive of data's memory, then you have the being and the experiences both.

      2) Makeup. This is especially easy if he just needs to look like a robot. Then there's always the alternative of an "aging" module (however stupid that idea might be).

    20. Re:Hmmm... by rhyder128k · · Score: 1

      I think what we're highlighting is how divisive the franchise is, like the James Bond series. For me, TNG S3-7 is my favourite. Closely followed by the films. Closely followed by some TOS and Enterprise (particularly S3+S4). It's my gut that Voy is probably the most heavily criticised amongst fans, but even that did well enough in the ratings to sustain three series.

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    21. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Problem was the better parts of DS9 were blantant Babylon 5 ripoffs lousily executed, but it still is way better than most other TNG timeline based Star Treks!

    22. Re:Hmmm... by PMuse · · Score: 1

      As Spiner has pointed out, he is more than TWENTY YEARS older than when he originated the role. Playing Data is like playing the Scarecrow in the the Wizard of Oz -- the role requires a young, limber actor.

      Sure, there are some Data stories that you could tell with an old actor, but there are many more that you'd have to tell badly to allow for the physical limitations that an android shouldn't have.

      Brent did a fine turn as this character. We should quit while we're ahead. Cast son-of-Data with another actor if you must, but don't ruin what we have.

      --
      "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
    23. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Insightful

      but once the Dominion War plot arch started up, it went from good to truly great

      Yes, if by "truly great" you mean bailed out with a plot device (wormhole aliens) and don't stop to question why Captain Sisko seemed to be single-handily running the Federation's war-effort, ranging from commanding a fleet of some 600 ships on his own to commanding a ground battle that could have been ended in two minutes if any of the Trek powers had the equivalent of machine guns or artillery. Are there really no infantry weapons bigger than rifles in the 24th century?

      actually showing a real, unsanitized war with it's pretty special effects

      Fixed that for you.

      while portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted

      That was actually one of the redeeming things about it. My favorite DS9 episodes were In the Pale Moonlight (Sisko and Garek assassinate a Romulan Senator to bring them into the war) and the various Maquis/Eddington episodes. Garek had the best character in the series (IMHO) and Eddington's critique of the Federation particularly damning:

      "Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their "rightful place" on the Federation Council. You know In some ways you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people and they don't even know it."

      It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism. Even DS9 continued this trend to a certain point -- mentioning "transporter credits" in one episode. Apparently the government doles out ration coupons to control how often the citizenry can move about. Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    24. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The two best ideas I've heard for a ST series are one about Section 31 (similar to stuff like Alias, but in Star Trek) and one about the 29th century with the timeships and all that.

      A series about Section 31 could be pretty awesome if it was done right but anything involving time travel is a recipe for disaster and reset-button plots. Section 31 though -- think of some of the stories you could write with that. Maybe the Federation has it's own torture scandals? Maybe what they did to the Founders comes out at some point? Think of intrigue with the Tal Shiar.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    25. Re:Hmmm... by geobeck · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But please get a better actor than Shatner.

      A bad actor he may be (who had his ass handed to him by Ricardo Montalban in that movie), but every captain of every TV or movie spaceship since has, and always will be, compared to Shatner's Kirk.

      Sometimes you don't need talent to achieve immortality; you just need to be recognizably unique.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    26. Re:Hmmm... by Ihmhi · · Score: 2, Informative

      Seven Days was a show based entirely around reset-button plots, and it was awesome.

    27. Re:Hmmm... by thesandtiger · · Score: 1

      The only summary one needs for Nemesis is "Bad remake of Wrath of Khan."

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
    28. Re:Hmmm... by Fractal+Dice · · Score: 3, Interesting

      No other Trek has been as dark and gritty as DS9 was, actually showing a real, unsanitized war with it's attendant ugliness, while portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted.

      Strange ... you say that like it was a good thing. Some of us actually watched Trek *because* it was a vision of a cleaner, sanitized world, a better humanity where the ideals we strive for are seen in action actually solving problems. The darker, more flawed vision of the Trek universe in DS9, where the ends justify the means and everyone's a broken hypocrite underneath, undermined what seemed to me to be the whole point of the Trek universe.

      Also, the Dominion War had a tendency to have ships blowing up all over the place as eye candy, destroying the sense that each ship mattered, that each ship represented a huge investment of resources, a rich and meaningful history and a crew with stories of their own. In attempting to be a bigger, louder Babylon 5 (all while struggling to find a message beyond "life sucks" after it's writers failed to make the initial high-concept post-insurgency-peace theme compelling), DS9 ceased to be recognizable as Trek to me.

      Oh dear, I've become a person who argues Trek.

    29. Re:Hmmm... by profplump · · Score: 1

      Good. I'm not the only one who noticed that ST2 and ST10 had the same plot.

    30. Re:Hmmm... by geobeck · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...showing a real, unsanitized war with it's attendant ugliness...

      Are you serious? DS9 was The Care Bears Fussy Day compared to the ugliness of a real war. The producers didn't have the budget or the political will from the network to add any real ugliness.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    31. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes, if by "truly great" you mean bailed out with a plot device (wormhole aliens) and don't stop to question why Captain Sisko seemed to be single-handily running the Federation's war-effort, ranging from commanding a fleet of some 600 ships on his own to commanding a ground battle that could have been ended in two minutes if any of the Trek powers had the equivalent of machine guns or artillery. Are there really no infantry weapons bigger than rifles in the 24th century?

      Meh, I never said the show was flawless. But it was, in those seasons, as good as the best TNG, IMHO, and far better than anything Voyager or Enterprise have ever offered.

      I agree, the wormhole aliens solution was a bit contrived (although, it makes sense in the context of the show... the aliens are supposedly a) all-powerful, and b) the custodians of Bajor... going to them for help isn't unreasonable). Then again, was Data's solution to the Borg problem in "Best of Both Worlds" any less contrived? And as for Sisko's role, well... you could just as easily level the same criticism against Picard in TNG leading the charge in any number of engagements.

      Garek had the best character in the series (IMHO) and Eddington's critique of the Federation particularly damning:

      I couldn't agree more. I also think the episode in which there was an attempted military coup on Earth was brilliantly executed.

      It's funny, though. You say that "portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted" "was actually one of the redeeming things about it." To me, that's what makes the series brilliant.

      I mean, the goal of science fiction shouldn't be to present funny aliens, or to give nerds neat technology to drool over. It should be to use the setting as an environment in which one can then explore the human condition in a way that would otherwise be impossible. DS9 attempted to do that, exploring the decisions and compromises one must make during a time of war, and it did so better than, I think, any other other Trek, save for TNG.

    32. Re:Hmmm... by JackassJedi · · Score: 1

      I had enough after page 3. I didn't even remember it's so crappy, but then again I only saw it I think 1 time (maybe 2 but god only knows why).

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    33. Re:Hmmm... by JackassJedi · · Score: 1

      Uh, as in Battlestar Galactica re-imagined?

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    34. Re:Hmmm... by JackassJedi · · Score: 1

      I should really try to promote a "KHAAAAAAAAAN!"-contesting event at one of the local hacker clubs.

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    35. Re:Hmmm... by Libertarian001 · · Score: 1

      And how long did it take for the Dominion War plot to get going? I don't know about you, but I watch a limited amount of TV and prefer to not spend that time watching the shitty shows. I gave it half a season before deciding it was too freaking lame to continue. It may have *eventually* gotten better, but how long would I have had to suffer? No, I spent the intervening time watching good shows (or doing something useful away from the TV).

    36. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Interesting

      First Contact coulda' been really good, if they'd played up the distrust/hatred between Sisko and Picard. With everyone not trusting Picard and Sisko hating him but being thrown together, having to work together to defeat the Borg, coulda' been a cool character driven movie.

      Instead, they went with standard Star Trek plotting and cardboard characters.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    37. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous+Monkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was thinking that Data needs to become more artificial and less human. He is a completely new form of life, and no one has scratched the surface of what that means. So, in a bid to keep Data, and still get rid of old Brent I think that he should 'outgorw' his body, and need to be transferred to something bigger. He starts as a shuttle, becomes a star ship, and then changes 'bodies' when he gets a new job. One season he is a deep space probe, next year he is a war ship, later he is a holodeck program. Maybe he could copy him self into a probe and then reintegrate himself when he returns. I think I'm just tired of machines that try to be human, we need a machine try to be a machine.

      --
      We are the Borg...
    38. Re:Hmmm... by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      I agree, I stopped watching all Trek when it turned into a war movie. It was a goofy war movie, kind of like GI Joe cartoons. If you want gritty war dramas, BSG beats anything on TV (for the next 3 weeks).

      Star Trek for me was supposed to be an idealized future, and we are the good guys. It had to tread carefully to avoid becoming overly preachy (and failed on occasion), but I'm not sure I like a darker or more warlike federation.

      I think they should kill Trek until at least 2015, if not longer. They won't, they're going to pimp that franchise for all it's worth... and that's a shame. Our kids won't watch trek.

    39. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Are you serious? DS9 was The Care Bears Fussy Day compared to the ugliness of a real war

      Heh, alright, fine, *some* of the attendant ugliness. Obviously there's no way they could do it "properly", Saving-Private-Ryan-style, but they at least *tried* (hell, one of the main characters got his leg blown off, for god sake!).

    40. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 5, Funny

      The fact that Shatner is so iconic shows that, bad acting aside, he has presence. Sometimes, that's all you need. Will be interesting to see how the new guy plays Kirk.

      Eventually, the original Star Trek roles could become a kind of entrenched character set, similar to Shakespeare characters. A hundred years from now, folks will be arguing over different actor's interpretations of Kirk and Spock in Amok Time.

      And then there will be the inevitable Star Trek in the park productions and the all nude/gender swapped productions.

      I weep for the future.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    41. Re:Hmmm... by iamhassi · · Score: 1

      "Brent did a fine turn as this character. We should quit while we're ahead. Cast son-of-Data with another actor if you must, but don't ruin what we have."

      Exactly. Don't tell me Data was the only android ever. Wouldn't be hard to create a google-spewing humanoid today much less 50 years from now. The japanese already create incredibly life-like androids compared to the crap we had in the 80s. Add some walking and you're done. Can you imagine what another 20-30 years will bring?

      I can envision a android that has a wifi connection to the ship's computer where you can ask it questions and it return results kinda like a walking Ask Jeeves. And it makes sense, having a friendly interface to information rather than a textbox, especially when speaking with aliens that might not like the idea of them running to the computer to search for information between every sentence.

      I'd also LOVE to know why they don't have bluetooth headsets or wireless cameras or anything in first gen startrek. I wish a movie or episode would explain that. TNG finally added it but everything was speakerphone which seems silly if you're trying to be stealthy, and a wireless camera would solve a lot of "What do you see? .... Hello? .... What's happening?!" questions.

      --
      my karma will be here long after I'm gone
    42. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I gave it half a season before deciding it was too freaking lame to continue.

      So I take it you never watched TNG, either? Or have you conveniently forgotten the horror show that was the majority of season one?

    43. Re:Hmmm... by bbasgen · · Score: 1

      It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism. Even DS9 continued this trend to a certain point -- mentioning "transporter credits" in one episode. Apparently the government doles out ration coupons to control how often the citizenry can move about. Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

      Great angle. This also has a modern analogue in terms of "cultural imperialism" of the West.

      I'm a huge trek fan, and strongly believe in having optimism for humanity ... BUT... Trek has taken it too far. Optimism doesn't mean flawless and imperfect, yet the federation represents that. Remember season 1 of TNG? With that hole plot thing within the federation? That was interesting. How about the several times they tried to take Data, or his daughter. And so on -- Picard and Kirk disobeyed the Federation plenty of times, and that was interesting. Yet, they need to step further and really create a flaw federation. An early post about Andromeda is a good staging ground to think about -- work towards a calamitous model. Nothing in that has to mean distopia, but it sure as hell MUST mean challenge, difficulty, and struggle. Voyager failed in that category colossally.

    44. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Yes, if by "truly great" you mean bailed out with a plot device (wormhole aliens) and don't stop to question why Captain Sisko seemed to be single-handily running the Federation's war-effort, ranging from commanding a fleet of some 600 ships on his own"

      Well, JMS didn't write Babylon 5 to fit in the Star Trek universe in the first place.

    45. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 2, Insightful

      although, it makes sense in the context of the show... the aliens are supposedly a) all-powerful

      But they weren't all-powerful. There were at least two episodes where it was revealed that you could use a plot devic^W^W"chroniton beam" to kill them. Yet the Dominion never thought to do this?

      Then again, was Data's solution to the Borg problem in "Best of Both Worlds" any less contrived

      Not in the context of that episode and what we knew about the Borg. It got pretty lame afterwards and I personally wish that Best of Both Worlds had been the last we saw of the Borg. At least DS9 stayed away from them, expect for the Pilot Episode, which was actually a good use of the existing back story IMHO.

      And as for Sisko's role, well... you could just as easily level the same criticism against Picard in TNG leading the charge in any number of engagements.

      Picard never commanded a fleet of 600+ ships or set Federation policy. Sisko seemed to be doing both as the war progressed. The size of the battles seemed at odds with continuity too. In the Best of Both Worlds Starfleet was only able to scrape together 40 ships to defend Earth but ten years later was regularly losing hundreds of ships at a time and was still able to continue the war effort? WTF?

      It should be to use the setting as an environment in which one can then explore the human condition in a way that would otherwise be impossible. DS9 attempted to do that, exploring the decisions and compromises one must make during a time of war, and it did so better than, I think, any other other Trek, save for TNG.

      Hey I'll grant you all that. And don't get me wrong -- I did enjoy DS9. It just got pretty hard to take seriously towards the end. For all the nit and grit of the war it still seemed too contrived -- Bajor never got devastated (indeed, after the first two seasons we forgot all about Bajor besides the wormhole aliens and some one-off episodes), the Dominion neatly withdrew from all of the Federation planets that it occupied without a fight and never made a second attempt at taking DS9 or ending the blockade of the wormhole. Then the female founder went from "We'll fight to the last man" to "I'll surrender and stand trial for my war crimes" after a three minute discussion with Odo.

      I would have written it a lot differently. Have Bajor forced to pick sides -- maybe it even sides with the Dominion in the same manner that Finland sided with Nazi Germany in spite of being a Democracy -- have a Stalingrad fought on Federation soil (Betazed maybe?), have the Federation start conscripting it's citizens to try and offset the manpower advantage, have a pacifist Federation member try and sue for a separate peace (Vulcan maybe?) etc, etc, etc. There are many ways you could have done it better I think.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    46. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Star Trek for me was supposed to be an idealized future, and we are the good guys. It had to tread carefully to avoid becoming overly preachy (and failed on occasion), but I'm not sure I like a darker or more warlike federation.

      Ah, but that's not what DS9 ever portrayed. What they portrayed was an idealized future where the good guys were forced into war because, guess what, sometimes you have to fight to survive. And the minute your goal is survival, well surprise surprise, it's suddenly a lot harder to be idealistic.

      I find this fascinating, though. To me, the entire reason Trek was flawed was because it's idealistic future was so wildly unbelievable. I'm sorry, but even in a world of limitless energy, food, and freedom, with perfect, idealized human beings, there's still going to be individuals/groups/races out there try to eat the good guys' lunch... you know, like the Dominion. And the minute you admit that, you have to be open to the idea of conflict with those people. And who would believe in a real, war-like conflict that didn't involve compromising one's ideals on occasion? At minimum, odds are you're going to have to kill on occasion, and last I checked, that's not a terribly nice, idealistic thing to do.

      Then again, at least in my mind, this is the difference between sci-fi, as entertainment, and sci-fi as an actual intellectual genre. IMHO, Trek, in its idealized form, can only succeed in the former. To truly examine the human condition, a prerequisite to achieving the latter, you actually have to admit that humans are not, and will never be, perfect, idealized creatures living in a perfect, idealized world.

    47. Re:Hmmm... by Shakrai · · Score: 1

      What kills me is that if they wanted to rip off Khan and include the Romulans there were much better ways to go about it. Why not bring back Sela's character in some manner? Denise Crosby was as much of a part of TNG as anyone else and deserved to be included in the send off. Instead they invent some lame race that we've never heard about before and elect to have them led by a clone of Picard who wants to exterminate humanity for the glory of the Romulan empire even though the Romulans tortured him his whole life? WTF?

      Berman needs to be taken outside and shot. Preferably with a Varon-T disruptor.

      --
      I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    48. Re:Hmmm... by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

      And what the hell was the deal with all that business around B4? We had all these plotlines around "evil Lore" yet no mention of Lore is made when this B4 robot turns up. Ugh.

    49. Re:Hmmm... by LandDolphin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But hopefully without it getting all crappy and losing direction while they try to draw it out further then it was meant to go.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    50. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      Voyager movie:

      Log Day 4,382: crossed the terminal shock boundary. Looking forward to heliopause.

      Voyager out.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    51. Re:Hmmm... by icebrain · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism. Even DS9 continued this trend to a certain point -- mentioning "transporter credits" in one episode. Apparently the government doles out ration coupons to control how often the citizenry can move about. Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

      That's one of the bigger things that bugs me about Star Trek. Starfleet guys get all kinds of cool toys and get to go places and blow shit up... but the majority of the population is held down on the planet, and kept fat/dumb/happy by the "ever-good" Federation government. Apparently, resources are unlimited, so there's no money or poverty. So what do those people do all day?

      I mean, compare that with Star Wars, where even some teenaged kid who sucks water from the air miles from civilization on an armpit of a planet somewhere between No and Where owns a vehicle capable of suborbital flight and two autonomous self-repairing AIs. I think I'll take the latter scenario, warts and all.

      --
      The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
    52. Re:Hmmm... by Phroggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Deep Suck 9 was just that...

      Oh please. DS9 was decent-to-poor in the early goings, much like TNG, but once the Dominion War plot arch started up, it went from good to truly great. No other Trek has been as dark and gritty as DS9 was, actually showing a real, unsanitized war with it's attendant ugliness, while portraying a federation that was, for a change, flawed and multifaceted. Pity it seems to get such a raw deal from a certain subset of the Trek fanbase.

      Also, the limitation the original series, TNG and Voyager is that every member of the cast is all part of the same crew, with the same background (Starfleet Academy). They're all on the same team, playing by the same rules, which means any conflict (which is what makes things interesting) must be external - it's us vs. them, or us vs. some inexplicable spatial phenomenon, or some alien influence is affecting our people. You can't have any conflict between members of the cast, and there's no opportunity for character development.

      DS9 fixed this. You have a Cardassian-built space station, owned by Bajor (which is not a member of the Federation), operated jointly by the Bajoran military and Starfleet. In the pilot, we learn that Commander Sisko, who has his own personal demons (he's a widower raising a son on his own), really doesn't want to be there and strongly dislikes and deeply mistrusts our hero, Captain Picard. Station security is operated by the Bajorans, headed by a guy who isn't really sure who he is or where he came from. There are independent businesses who lease space and pay rent, including a bar owned by a Ferengi and a tailor's shop operated by a witty Cardassian who speaks in lies and double entendres and who might or might not be a spy.

      Voyager tried to set up the same kind of conflicts: in the pilot, the crew of Voyager is chasing an enemy ship, aboard which is a Federation spy. Both ships get sucked across the galaxy and lose half their crews, so it becomes necessary to join forces; they also pick up a couple of locals (one of whom even has his own ship). However... now they're all on the same team, forced to work together (and the two locals become friends with everybody). Most of the Maquis have had at least a little Starfleet training, so even though they're not Starfleet officers, they at least have some sort of common ground. There were a couple of times when they tried to stir up some sort of conflict between the Federation crew members and the Maquis crew, but it didn't really work. The first few seasons of Voyager were pretty lame, but when they traded Tess for 7 of 9, the writing improved dramatically - I'm not sure why. 7 was an interesting character, but everything else seemed to get suddenly better at that point too.

      Enterprise had a Vulcan science officer before the Federation existed, so there was some very interesting conflict there. Dr. Phlox also wasn't from Starfleet, but like Neelix and Tess he's friendly with everybody. Like the Original Series, the crew doesn't have that bland Federation perspective; there's more of a wild frontier feel, and an opportunity for the crew to have disagreements between themselves. I thought the infamous pointy-nipple rubdown scene in the pilot was completely inappropriate, but T'Pol's later relationship with Trip was great (and her nudity there WAS appropriate). I was also annoyed that when T'Pol decided to join Starfleet, she wasn't given a Starfleet uniform, because her Vulcan catsuit looked sexier (same issue with Counselor Troi's asymmetrical cleavage in early seasons of TNG).

      Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with sex on Star Trek, but it needs to be well-written plot-driven sex, instead of gratuitous "let's put a hot chick in something revealing so people who don't care about the show will still like to look at it". 7 of 9's catsuit was just fine, because it was plot-driven (she was never a member of Starfleet, and the Doctor expla

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    53. Re:Hmmm... by witherstaff · · Score: 1

      Once DS9 started taking Babylon 5 story lines the show got better.

    54. Re:Hmmm... by nine-times · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really?

      One thing that no Star Trek series has gotten much into is the interaction between military and civilian life. It's really strange if you think much about it. You have this huge fascist/communist state with a seemingly pervasive military presence. They have tons of military vessels just patrolling around the galaxy in seemingly random ways, under the excuse of scientific research and exploration, but constantly poking their noses in everyone's business. They're using their military might to cause outcomes favorable to themselves on a regular basis.

      And then when you see civilian life, everyone seems to just be hanging around in restaurants and bars or running vineyards. It's a very pastoral but irrelevant civilian life.

      And for some reason, no one is disturbed by it.

    55. Re:Hmmm... by itschy · · Score: 1

      What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism.

      That's interesting. To me it always seemed to parallel the american cultural imperialism.
      High standard of living, plentifulness,assimilation without force, but assimilating nevertheless, moral high ground, fighting everyone with a different nose...
      Scratch the last, but otherwise it fits. Don't you think?

      BTW, Fireflys "Alliance" is a great parody of STs "Federation"!

    56. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Rule 34.

      nuff said.

    57. Re:Hmmm... by michrech · · Score: 1

      1) Data was a machine. All they have to do is "rediscover" the Positron technology, and stumble into an archive of data's memory, then you have the being and the experiences both.

      I have one word to answer your first point:

      "before" (though it was pronounced "b-4", with a pause in it)

      During Nemesis, Data dumped all his memory into "before" in an attempt to help him "grow beyond his programming".

      --
      bork bork bork!
    58. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is the Federation really?

      Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

      There's no freedom in Utopia.

      Remember this is Utopia we are talking about, where everything is beautiful to everyone, all the time. Individualism would not be tolerated.

    59. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      So... Capt. Uhura, in Evil Spock outfit, using Chekov as a foot stool in front of the captain's chair?

      Already done?

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    60. Re:Hmmm... by TrekkieGod · · Score: 2

      Yes. Generations utterly ruined Data's character for the sake of an "Oh.... shit!" joke, destroyed the Enterprise-D for the sake of an action scene and killed off Picard's family for the sake of a cheap shock and never bothered to explore the ramifications of this.

      Not to mention the bad-decision making:

      Picard: "Guinan, can I leave the Nexus?"
      Guinan: "Where would you go?"
      Picard: "I don't understand."
      Guinan: "Time has no meaning here. So if you leave, you can go anywhere, at any time."
      Picard: "Alright, I know precisely where I want to go. Veridian III, just before Soran launches the missile. Because, even though I obviously don't care about changing the past and preserving the time-line as I once did, I don't feel tempted to go back a few more weeks to warn my brother about a fire and to inspect the Amargosa observatory for trilithium, arresting Soran before the Romulans even bother attacking. No, I want to give Soran a chance to succeed. Again. You want to come?"
      Guinan: "Can't. But there's somebody else who might help. Just don't mention the details of your stupid plan or it's going to depress the hell out of him that the Enterprise is in your hands."

      First Contact was an enjoyable standalone film but utterly destroyed whatever continuity we had from TNG for the sake of creating a single villain for the audience to focus on. It also didn't really do justice to Troi or Crusher. Actually come to think of it, none of the movies did them justice.

      They stripped away everything that was original about the Borg with the introduction of the Borg Queen. However, I think they did fine with Troi and Crusher. They're not meant to be major characters. The TNG episodes that focused on Troi or Crusher were always horrible, they're just not very strong characters. They're good on supporting roles, but when you try to give them a bigger piece of the pie just to be fair, you end up with the situation on Insurrection. Yes, let the psychologist and doctor have better aim with their phaser rifles than the Klingon who used to be the security chief. That makes sense.

      And don't even get me started on Nemesis. This guy summarizes Nemesis way better than I could ever hope to.....

      That summary of Nemesis is spot on, except for the little chat between Picard and Janeway. She wasn't promoted while they passed Picard on for promotion. They offered the admiralty to Picard on several occasions during the series. If anything, Picard would be snickering that she's behind a desk, while he gets to go to Romulus.

      --

      Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

    61. Re:Hmmm... by JackassJedi · · Score: 1

      Indeed.

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    62. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "I mean, the goal of science fiction shouldn't be to present funny aliens, or to give nerds neat technology to drool over."

      I'm glad you didn't eliminate hot alien babes as a goal!

    63. Re:Hmmm... by sorak · · Score: 1

      Didn't they "reboot" data, no pun intended, by killing him off and having him be replaced by his naive "twin" brother, in the last movie?

    64. Re:Hmmm... by Obfuscant · · Score: 1
      Without his emotion chip he would fail to grasp the full irony of your statement.

      My toaster has charm because of its shape and feel. I don't want my toaster feeling sad that it burned my toast, I just want it to try again. And if it doesn't grasp the irony of me letting it try again, that's ok by me.

    65. Re:Hmmm... by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      I would rather see Star trek redone with starfleet being the weak guy and getting our asses handed back regularly.

      It doesn't fit that, but that reminds me of "Blake's 7", which is one of the few shows I think is as good as Star Trek (though both have dud episodes), and I would love to have Blake's 7 on region 1 DVDs.

      Go read the Wikipedia on it, but basically, the Federation is evil, and to simplify a lot, there's really only one _very_ good guy on the "good guys" team, but they're still fighting against the Federation.

    66. Re:Hmmm... by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Funny

      He is not a bad actor, in Boston Legal he did a FANTASTIC job. it's just that shatner is not cut out for the stiff captain role but that of a loose cannon mad cow disease old guy.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    67. Re:Hmmm... by slapout · · Score: 1

      What they've got to do is pretend the last two TNG movies didn't happen. Start over after First Contact.

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    68. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...a loose cannon mad cow disease old guy.

      I so want to see this on YouTube.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    69. Re:Hmmm... by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      I think Lost right now is doing some pretty amazing time travel plots.

    70. Re:Hmmm... by Fractal+Dice · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but even in a world of limitless energy, food, and freedom, with perfect, idealized human beings, there's still going to be individuals/groups/races out there try to eat the good guys' lunch

      Because you cannot imagine a better world, no better world can exist? Because humans are flawed, no society can exist that can allow them to coexist in near-harmony? Isn't that like saying that because a channel is noisy, there cannot be a way to communicate near-lossless information?

      The peaceful world I live in today would seem like utopia compared to what my ancestors experienced. My city and the neighboring city coexist side by side with neither one of us trying to invade each other. Why not examine why the nation-state concept of civilization still leads to assumptions of tension and conflict when city-state warfare is pretty much unimaginable? Doesn't that just cry out for a imagining a world of tomorrow where nations are as peaceful to each other as cities are towards each other today? I completely reject the notion that humanity cannot create new social structures, just as we build new technological structures, that are better than the ones we have today.

      Trek isn't about perfection, it's about reductionism ... focusing on each individual issue of today as if it was the only remaining obstacle between us and utopia. To me, the essence of Star Trek is to start with the premise that all today's problems will be solved - that there will be peace and contentment, even if we can't yet imagine how that will happen. We then take some issue or relationship of our world, our history, our society and exaggerate it to an extreme and build a new world, a new civilization around it. Then, as an intellectual exercise, you poke it and prod it and ask "would this work?", "what could go wrong?", "can it be fixed?".

    71. Re:Hmmm... by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Because you cannot imagine a better world, no better world can exist? Because humans are flawed, no society can exist that can allow them to coexist in near-harmony?

      No, it's because, as perfect as humanity could become, there's still gonna be some other race (call them the Dominion, or the Romulans, or the Borg, etc) that might decide to come along and try to take away the utopia they've worked so hard to build. And the minute that happens, you have a choice: defend yourself, or lose everything you've built. And I think it's patently obviously that self-defense may, in fact, require one to make hard choices from time to time.

      Though, as an aside (as I think this is tangential to the topic at hand), I do happen to believe that "Because humans are flawed, no society can exist that can allow them to coexist in near-harmony". The simple fact is that humans *are* flawed. And there will always be people who will attempt to take advantage of others or gain power over them. To deny that is the height of naivete. And that fact makes it impossible for any human society to rise to the level of a true utopia.

      That's not to say ST can't explore the *idea* of a true utopia. But no such society lives in isolation, and it will eventually come up against forces that challenge those utopian ideals.

      I completely reject the notion that humanity cannot create new social structures, just as we build new technological structures, that are better than the ones we have today.

      Of course we can. But unless you somehow completely eliminate the idea of a power relationship in those structures (which is impossible), then you will always have avenues for corruption that can be leveraged by the unscrupulous to take advantage of others. And voila, your utopia falters.

      As for the rest, your comments are just based on your own expectations are what ST *should* be. And that's your choice, one that I won't be able to shake you from. I just believe your notions are unnecessarily narrow, and that if the writers of, say, TNG, took your stance, the show would have been lesser for it (see the great episode "The Drumhead" for an example of TNG at it's finest... TNG depicting a world that isn't the idealized utopia you believe ST should be based on).

    72. Re:Hmmm... by Quikah · · Score: 1

      That is your idea of incredibly lifelike? It looks no better than the stuff Disney has had for the past 30 years or so.

      --
      Q.
    73. Re:Hmmm... by Wraithlyn · · Score: 3, Interesting

      That's why Cavil in Battlestar is so great. He's like the anti-Data.

      "I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN!!!"

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    74. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, the Dominion War had a tendency to have ships blowing up all over the place as eye candy, destroying the sense that each ship mattered, that each ship represented a huge investment of resources, a rich and meaningful history and a crew with stories of their own

      Thats what made the war so tragic. Why so many decisions made by the command were questioned by Sisko. He, in his own right was a deeply complicated character. Dealing with the death of his wife, his son growing up not attaching to the ideals of the Federation, dealing with unknown and almost always hostile aliens. He knew the whole time why these decisions would be bad and hurtful, but at the same time able to see the larger picture. The admirals in DS9 were cold, calculating, he brought the humanist side of the Trek world into an otherwise bleak universe.

      Though quark was the best character by far. Fun, complex, annoying and yet lovable. Actually, every character except for Dax and Worf had very complex character roles very well developed. (Worf sadly never add additional stories that really added to the depth of his char, i beleive they thought TNG was enough, and Dax was 2 dimensional. Ezri Dax however had potential, plus she was cuter =)

      DS9 was very much trek, but with eye candy to appeal to the masses. The Dominion war was something that never happened before, a real war. In every other series it was "It always happened before us. We aren't to blame for the actions of those before us." DS9 shows us how those actions taken were brought to be.

    75. Re:Hmmm... by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 1

      Well, no, that's hardly adequate. It doesn't include the part about how Shinzon's weapon is ripped off from *Rocky Horror*, for fuck's sake.

    76. Re:Hmmm... by geekgirlandrea · · Score: 1

      It got to me to thinking. What is the Federation really? At least as written by Gene Roddenberry it seems to border on communism. Even DS9 continued this trend to a certain point -- mentioning "transporter credits" in one episode. Apparently the government doles out ration coupons to control how often the citizenry can move about. Where's the individual freedom and liberty?

      I've always liked the interpretation that the Federation became a totalitarian communist state at some point in the early 24th century, and produced TNG as propaganda.

    77. Re:Hmmm... by BRSloth · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Sounds like you never saw ANY Star Trek. It never was about fighting, it always was "diplomacy whenever possible."

      How many times Kirk had to discuss with some alien race (well, most of the time, Spock) about our "old, barbarian ways" and how we learnt how to be civilized.

      How many times Q called humans "barbarians" to Picard?

      Star Trek was always "brains over power", fight only when it really needs.

    78. Re:Hmmm... by religious+freak · · Score: 1

      AGREED! Well said!

      --
      If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
    79. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you use amazing in its original, literal meaning, then yes.

      IMO: Time travel? THIS is what is behind all the wierdness in Lost? Awwww, come on! I was expecting something that WASN'T a cop-out. I guess the writers couldn't think of something respectable by the deadline.

      I continue to watch the show as long as it has Locke, and at least one attractive woman flashing her cleavage around the island (Juliet has stepped into that role currently), but I've completely given up on the plot. I sit empty in my chair wondering what the hell random lame shit I'm going to see next. Oh, and I love how they keep finding ways to inject MEANINGLESS melodrama like HEY@! It's baby delivery time! So now nothing with the story is going to happen for the next 20 minutes as everyone runs around anxiously preparing for the little shit-rat to drop. You know the drill, it's the same on all shows... god damnit, I thought they didn't need this fluff in Lost. It's filler.... emotional "don't walk away" filler. It's not why we watch Lost, it's not why Lost became popular. So please leave it out.

    80. Re:Hmmm... by commodore64_love · · Score: 1

      Did you not watch DS9's first episode? Sisko moved past his hatred, because he stopped living in the past and moved on. He no longer hated Picard.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    81. Re:Hmmm... by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 1

      Well, as much as that might be the case, (And Rodenberry's wet dream of the ascent of man in his eyes was just that... fat, dumb, happy people who have no ambition, vices, or loves... they just are) the Federation (at least hints of it in various series and movies) was not simply military in nature. There was a science arm, at least more fleshed out in TNG than the movies (the Federation of Star Trek 2 was the DoD/NATO of their era, I suppose, if you think of Regula 1 and the scientists there. And the Reliant being used on scientific missions, even though it was a warship). The exploration part of it was emphasized on TNG to varying degrees of effectiveness, even if they ran from the Borg a time or two...

      The puzzling thing was that in TNG, the Galaxy class starship, capable of annihilating most anything in the galaxy was relegated to a big bullseye while Picard and Co. tried to weasel their way out of the Prime Directive and shoot back. Lots of times, the locals weren't too keen on the Federation visiting. Understandable, considering the military might of the starship. However, Rodenberry's germ of an idea where the Federation was peaceful meant that the Enterprise took it on the chin quite a bit. Convenient, I suppose. According to some documentaries, Rodenberry never liked the "Wagon Train in Space" aspect of the original Trek, but it was what the network wanted. That explains Star Trek:The Motion Picture, since most of the set design and such was part of the "new" Trek series he was cooking up for the "new" Paramount Network (that eventually became something else entirely). That's why I loved Wrath of Khan. It was a Space Navy. It wasn't the all-inclusive Federation like TNG and subsequent offshoots portrayed it. It was the military arm of the Federation, like a NATO or really effective UN. :)

      TNG really didn't wow me but a few times... and DS9 was interesting when the war broke out. I loathed Voyager and the prequel. Now with more Veger Footage! :)

      --
      It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
    82. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    83. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What happened to Data was character development. It was the culmination of a plotline that had been progressing for years: Whether or not he would take the "fast route" of installing the emotion chip to be more human or continue trying to understand them/become one without it, and the fear that using it might make him end up like Lore.

      I hate it when people get pissed of at character development because they liked how a character was in their relatively static state. (Most) real people aren't like that. They change over time, especially if something critical happens (death of a friend, divorce, sometimes even just moving or getting a new job).

      Data was my favorite TNG character not because of "human condition" bullshit, because most characters have that to some degree, but because he actually had visible character development throughout the series (even if some writers fucked it up sometimes). Most of the other characters were pretty static or had only limited development or infrequent changes (that would often only last a couple episodes at best).

    84. Re:Hmmm... by istewart · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In a way, the wormhole aliens were simply a logical extension of the ideas they began exploring with the character of Q. Q chose to present himself as easily relatable, essentially a human with boundless control over space and time. However, it was easy for Picard to dismiss Q as a god due to his human appearance, which included such flaws as hubris and a willingness to pass judgment. The Prophets, on the other hand, had a completely different non-linear perspective that was not friendly to human comprehension (or easy writing). Thus Sisko and co. had a much harder time dismissing them.

      The theme of relating to superhuman intelligences is found throughout Star Trek. It's just too bad that later attempts at exploring it failed so miserably, such as the Q episodes of Voyager.

    85. Re:Hmmm... by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

      It was still down there. You could see it in his eyes.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    86. Re:Hmmm... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      One thing that no Star Trek series has gotten much into is the interaction between military and civilian life. It's really strange if you think much about it. You have this huge fascist/communist state with a seemingly pervasive military presence. They have tons of military vessels just patrolling around the galaxy in seemingly random ways, under the excuse of scientific research and exploration, but constantly poking their noses in everyone's business. They're using their military might to cause outcomes favorable to themselves on a regular basis.

      You know, it seemed to be explicitly Star Trek II where I noticed the difference.. at that point where "Starfleet" basically became "the military." It didn't seem to quite be like that in the original series or the first movie. I mean, when they -needed- a military (say, with the Klingons or Romulans) Starfleet seemed to double for that, but otherwise it seemed like their was really no civilian/scientists/military officer separation.

    87. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Patrick Stewart? Yeah, I'd *LOVE* to see more enterprise crew nancing around and offering to drink tea with aliens....
                (He's a fine actor, but I'm not up for more Picard!)

    88. Re:Hmmm... by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      Personally, I think Shatner has become a really good actor, in the role of Denny Crane he is great!

      TOS did not age well for any of the actors IMHO.

    89. Re:Hmmm... by Falconhell · · Score: 1

      I would replace her with T'Pau from Enterprise myself!

    90. Re:Hmmm... by nine-times · · Score: 1

      I mean, when they -needed- a military (say, with the Klingons or Romulans) Starfleet seemed to double for that, but otherwise it seemed like their was really no civilian/scientists/military officer separation.

      Yeah, and that's kind of my point. Even when it's not explicitly military, and they're saying their mission is about science and exploration, it's still paramilitary with heavily armed vessels and a well defined command structure. Even in TOS, I never got a sense for what else Kirk could have been doing if he weren't in Starfleet.

    91. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well after reading about Japans love struck robot that needed to be deactivated, emotions in androids is not so unbelievable.

    92. Re:Hmmm... by Rakarra · · Score: 2, Insightful

      hell, one of the main characters got his leg blown off, for god sake!

      I think Nog's shift from goofy comic relief at the beginning of the show to bitter war veteran was one of the better highlights of the show.

    93. Re:Hmmm... by Elrond,+Duke+of+URL · · Score: 1

      And then there will be the inevitable Star Trek in the park productions...

      Somebody: Make this happen

      Please.

      --
      Elrond, Duke of URL
      "This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"-Sam&Max
    94. Re:Hmmm... by Elrond,+Duke+of+URL · · Score: 1

      This is what makes the majority of modern Trek so unpleasant. Hollywood and the fanboys need to get it through their heads: Star Trek is not an action show! It's a space/sci-fi drama that occasionally has action.

      DS9 was a good show - a decent space opera - but it was rarely what I would call Trek. For the most part, I enjoyed a lot of Voyager precisely because it went back to the "exploring the unknown" roots of the franchise, though I never cared for Seven or the Borg-heavy later seasons.

      It's hard to say if Trek will ever find its way back. At least there are plenty of TOS and TNG episodes (and a few DS9/Voyager episodes) to enjoy...

      --
      Elrond, Duke of URL
      "This is the most fun I've had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"-Sam&Max
    95. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Troi deserves NO JUSTICE!
      Crusher deserves NO JUSTICE!

      The only things they have going for them is they aren't their mother or Pulaski.

      snap!

    96. Re:Hmmm... by smoker2 · · Score: 1

      Seven of Tits

      Hah, LOL !

    97. Re:Hmmm... by earlymon · · Score: 1

      I'm sure I'm not the only one who's hoping for a Patrick Stewart casting. DS9 or Voyager Movies? Eck. A new TV Series with Picard.. and Data!? Amazing!

      And I'm sure I'm not the only one retching at the idea of any more Patrick Steward/Picard.

      For the younger among us who may have missed it (this was early spam), I present the top 100 reasons why Kirk is better than Picard:

      : 100. Kirk is a leader, not a follower.
      : 99. Kirk never really got into that kinky "Jumpsuit" look.
      : 98. Kirk has sex more than once a season.
      : 97. One Word: Hair.
      : 96. Another Word: Pretty-good-looking-can't-see-the weave-WIG.
      : 95. Kirk can beat up a Klingon bare-handed.
      : 94. Picard is a French man with an English accent.
      : 93. Kirk would date Beverly Crusher -- and damn the consequences!!
      : 92. Kirk never drinks tea. Ever.
      : 91. Diplomacy for Kirk is a phaser and a smirk.
      : 90. Kirk would personally throw Wesley off his bridge.
      : 89. Two words: Shoulder Roll.
      : 88. Kirk doesn't wear dresses when admirals arrive for lunch.
      : 87. Kirk once said: "I've got a belly-ache -- and it's a beauty."
      : 86. Kirk would never sing to children in a crisis.
      : 85. Kirk can almost drive a stick shift.
      : 84. Kirk, almost single-handedly, re-populated the Earth's whale population.
      : 83. Kirk says "Prime Directive? What Prime Directive?"
      : 82. Kirk knows 20th Century curses.
      : 81. Kirk was NEVER infiltrated by the Borg and used against the Federation.
      : 80. Kirk ate little coloured cubes and still remained relatively healthy.
      : 79. Kirk made do with obviously low performance technology.
      : 78. Kirk never pretends to be a barber in order to gain a tactical advantage.
      : 77. Kirk wasn't shy about taken his shirt off -- even around those pesky Yeomans.
      : 76. Kirk would never waste a holodeck on something stupid like Dixon Hill.
      : 75. Kirk never once stood up and had to straighten his shirt.
      : 74. One Word: Velour.
      : 73. Kirk can beat a Vulcan at Chess.
      : 72. When Kirk was Picard's age, he retired from Admiral and took to climbing rocks.
      : 71. When Picard was 37, he was only Captain of the lowly freighter Stargazer. When Kirk was 37, he was Captain of the flagship Enterprise.
      : 70. Kirk liked a good belt of liquor every now and again.
      : 69. One Word: Iman.
      : 68. Kirk looks good with a ripped shirt.
      : 67. If Kirk ever met a Ferengi, he would rip off its head and shit down its neck.
      : 66. Kirk says, "Shoot first and wait for retaliation."
      : 65. Kirk's first officer NEVER tells him to stay on the bridge.
      : 64. Kirk never leaves the room to bawl somebody out.
      : 63. Kirk doesn't rely on the wisdom of some dumb old janitor to get him out of intergalactic scrapes.
      : 62. Two Words: Funky Sideburns.
      : 61. Kirk never asks his bartender for advice.
      : 60. Kirk never once said "Abandon ship! All hands abandon ship!"
      : 59. Kirk is not politically correct.
      : 58. Kirk never got "dumped" by a woman for an intergalactic busy body named after a letter of the alphabet.
      : 57. Kirk never wore green tights and frolicked about in Sherwood Forest.
      : 56. If there was ever a Klingon on Kirk's bridge, Kirk would likely be dead.
      : 55. Ever hear of a bar shooter called "Make it so?" No? How about a "Beam me up Scotty" then? See the difference?
      : 54. One Word: Miniskirts.
      : 53. Kirk's girlfriends always look good in soft light.
      : 52. Kirk never went anywhere without a whole bunch of guys in red shirts.
      : 51. Kirk's first officer didn't play some wimpy instrument like the trombone.
      : 50. Kirk had more dates than his first officer.
      : 49. The extent of Kirk's knowledge of Klingon vocabulary can be roughly translated as " GO F*CK YOURSELF."
      : 48. If something doesn't speak English -- it's toast.
      : 47. Kirk wasn't some prissy archaeology fan.
      : 46. Picard's middle name isn't tough or awe-inspiring like Tiberius is.
      : 45. If Kirk finds a strange spinning probe, he blows it up.
      : 44. Picard neve

      --
      Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
    98. Re:Hmmm... by LionMage · · Score: 1

      That's a pretty good disemboweling of Nemesis (thanks for the link!), although I think I disagree with the author of that pictorial guide in only one spot. Basically, that author was complaining about Picard "ignoring the Prime Directive" to ride a dune buggy on a planet. I agree that the dune buggy bit was silly and pointless, but how did that scene constitute a Prime Directive violation? Didn't seem to me that either Picard or Data were doing anything that interfered in the development of the ... er, locals... whoever they were...

    99. Re:Hmmm... by lennier · · Score: 1

      "One thing that no Star Trek series has gotten much into is the interaction between military and civilian life. It's really strange if you think much about it. You have this huge fascist/communist state with a seemingly pervasive military presence."

      Yes, exactly.

      Since the original Star Trek represented the projection of America into space via the British Navy of the 18th century (read James Cook's voyages, or watch Master & Commander to see the same setup: Captain, doctor, science officer), it seems that the 'vision' such as it was was very much of a sprawling, integrated military-industrial-science complex.

      Remember that since WW2, the military *has* been one of the largest drivers of science in the USA, and most especially so in the Space Race. The first US manned shots were literally on ICBMs (Atlas boosters). This integration continues to this day; the USA really doesn't have such a thing as a fully independent, 'civilian' science establishment, especially when it comes to space, nuclear and high-energy physics. If the Department of Energy or NORAD don't like what you're doing, you don't get to do it. The Internet was one of the few exceptions that escaped centralised military control, thanks to Gore and Clinton in the 1990s - and even then, 40-bit encryption was export-restricted until 1997 or so. Remember that?

      So Starfleet is basically just a projection of the US Cold War space/atomic science system into the future, and that means the military are running things even when they say it's 'civilian'. They're vaguely socialist because of detente and the Great Society; in the 60s, things seemed to be trending that way, toward more central planning and economic integration. Hence why we had lots of bad sci-fi about giant computers ruling the world.

      And that's why there were Klingons. Can't have a Starfleet without a cold war with a suitably nasty enemy. The US/USSR rivalry was sublimated and turned outwards so the UFP could claim to be 'peaceful' in exactly the same way the US during the Vietnam War could claim to be, but it's the major subtext for the show.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    100. Re:Hmmm... by stonedcat · · Score: 0

      Red Dwarf had the right idea with the foam mask. :p
      When the new 2 parter comes out in a few months, Kryton will be wholly believable even after all these years.

      --
      You can't take the sky from me.
    101. Re:Hmmm... by SandieK · · Score: 0

      Why does the next Trek have to be centered around Starfleet and the Federation at all? Ive always thought that there should be more focus on other aspects. Id love to see a series/movie from the Klingon perspective. Vulcans and Romulans were allegedly once one and the same. What happened there?

    102. Re:Hmmm... by SandieK · · Score: 0

      Thats one reason I liked DS9 over TNG. In TNG, you knew that everything would be okay at the end of the hour...with the exception of season finales. After that, everything would be back to normal.

      DS9? Yeah, you knew everything would turn out in the sense that "the good guys always win"...but at what cost? Who would be in the ethical hot-seat next? Yeah, Sisko and Garak DID eventually get the Romulans in the war, but only after Garak had sabotaged a Romulan ship and framed the Dominion when plan A didnt work. Very few end-of-episode resolutions for this arc.

    103. Re:Hmmm... by hawk · · Score: 1

      No. Never!

      Star Trek *needed* the bad acting.

      It wasn't about the characters (I don't give a rat's *** about the character development of that stupid robot!). The characters were used to tell the stories. *all* of the knock-offs (err, spinooffs) missed this, which is why they just didn't hold up.

      Yes, Kirk ran around the galaxy with no adult supervision.

      Yes, we liked him.

      And, yes, he had no "character growth." He was a prop.

      Star Trek was about the stories, not the characters, who where there to make the stories work.

      hawk

    104. Re:Hmmm... by ubernostrum · · Score: 1

      You might want to read a couple of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.

      The premise of the Culture is your basic lax post-scarcity society -- people can have whatever they want, do whatever they want, etc. -- but then it confronts the question of what such a society's long-term goals would be, and what happens to people who aren't content to spend their entire lives getting high and going to parties (solution: they go out and mess around with less-technologically-advanced societies to try to steer their development into something resembling the Culture, providing the basis for most of the books' plots). A good introduction (since it's relatively self-contained and lets you pick stuff up as you go), if you're interested, is The Player of Games. Then if you like it, move on to, say, Use of Weapons or Excession.

    105. Re:Hmmm... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, at least they have a chance to shine against the original without having to try too hard.

      Imagine Steward being the role model. Now here's a challenge.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    106. Re:Hmmm... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      In a hacker club? Make them design a voice synth program that comes up with a more believable, more human and more emotional exclamation. It should be doable for a dedicated hobbyist.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    107. Re:Hmmm... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, it did for Nimoy. But then again, his role asked for wooden acting and a lack of emotion.

      Basically, TOS is full of stereotypes. Some of which have been created by Star Trek, but in general you have a lot of one dimensional characters that only grew some edges with time.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    108. Re:Hmmm... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Umm... you are aware that pretty much every single "knockoff" ran longer than the original, right?

      Times change, and so do tastes. TOS got its name from the fact that shows like Bonanza and the Western genre in general was very popular in the 60s and having the "Trek" in there made it sorta-kinda one of those shows. SciFi was anything but popular.

      Today, it's right the other way 'round. No Western, all SciFi. Today, if someone wanted to make a Western show, he'd probably find a way to space theme it.

      That's the whole deal behind Star Trek, why some TOS episodes feel a bit weird (because the characters are suddenly in a old-west style town, or why violence and "shootouts" were such a big theme), and why TNG and its sequel shows have a completely different feel. Times change. Tastes change. And shows adapt.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    109. Re:Hmmm... by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I knew most of that (though you added a few interesting points which I thank you for, so I don't mean to be dismissive), but it'd still be interesting to see some sign of real civilian life.

      DS9 was the only series that came close. I remember them having a civilian freighter run by a human, and the Captain's son (Jake) talked about wanting to be a writer. But it was still sort of strange (I thought) how the civilian ships and bars and shops were all run by aliens, while the humans were all in Starfleet. And then how when humans decided not to be in Starfleet, it was to be writers or artists or chefs. It was never like, "I'm going to work for [some civilian company] back on Earth running a factory that manufactures tricorders."

      I mean, yeah, I know they don't have money, and they do have replicators, so the idea of having a manufacturing company doesn't quite fit. Still, the apparent lack of in-universe concern seems like bad writing. I can't imagine everyone would be satisfied with all economic and political power, as well as all scientific research, being consolidated into a military organization which doesn't even have a defined overall mission.

    110. Re:Hmmm... by Wolfrider · · Score: 1

      --I've seen the new "Trek" trailer a couple of times now. I don't exactly know what it's trying to be, but it didn't really look or feel like " Star Trek " to me.

      --If they had called it something completely different, I would probably be OK with it. But Trek has a LOT of past history, canon, and semi-canon (paperback books and novels.) Trying to "reboot" something like that seems kind of unnecessary to me -- they could make millions putting some of the best paperback treatments (Diane Duane, anyone?) on the big screen.

      //TOS fan
      ///Will prolly still see the movie, but only pay matinee for it

      --
      .
      == WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
    111. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      These inconsistencies are the result of adapting the storyline of Babylon5 into the Trek universe.

    112. Re:Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was thinking that Data needs to become more artificial and less human. He is a completely new form of life, and no one has scratched the surface of what that means. So, in a bid to keep Data, and still get rid of old Brent I think that he should 'outgorw' his body, and need to be transferred to something bigger. He starts as a shuttle, becomes a star ship, and then changes 'bodies' when he gets a new job. One season he is a deep space probe, next year he is a war ship, later he is a holodeck program. Maybe he could copy him self into a probe and then reintegrate himself when he returns. I think I'm just tired of machines that try to be human, we need a machine try to be a machine.

      That's a great idea, If they make a new TV series they should use Brent Spiner to be the voice of the computer on the ship. That is if the TV series is set AFTER TNG. Since Majel is no longer around they are going to need someone, and well Data would bring a portion of familiarity to the new series.

  2. Star Trek/Lost Mix by Timberwolf0122 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sort of like Voyager then in that they too were Lost (in the Delta Quadrant)? Only this time I want 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9 of 9.. In fact I see no reason to have any other cast member that a bunch of 7 of 9's... Well maybe a leather clad Janeway, hmmm I seem to have gone off topic.

    --
    In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
    1. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by u38cg · · Score: 1

      Heh. Glad I'm not the only one with dreams of a leather clad Janeway :)

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
    2. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Alzheimers · · Score: 0

      I'll just take a ship full of Sixes, please.

      wait, what?

    3. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Swizec · · Score: 1

      I wholeheartedly agree. A basestar full of Sixes please. There doesn't have to be anything much more in the show, perhaps a very thin plot, some not very good acting, Ron Jeremy or two.

      It would be the most watched television series of all time.

    4. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by cashman73 · · Score: 1

      A new series set on a new planet with Janeway and 7of9 in Orion Slave Girl costumes. Throw in Deanna Troi, as well as Kirk and Picard with their shirts off to catch the women viewers. I'd pay to watch that! =)

    5. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      Join the club.

      Macrocosm, with a Janeway-as-Ripley, is one of my guilty pleasures. Incredibly bad science, but Janeway in that tank top!!!!!!

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    6. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by kat_skan · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well maybe a leather clad Janeway, hmmm I seem to have gone off topic.

      *shudder* I think what you've gone off is the deep end.

    7. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by ZorinLynx · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Dude, Janeway was hot. I don't hide it; I have a thing for slighter older women with authority.

      I don't think I'm the only one, either. :)

    8. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by vigour · · Score: 1

      Well maybe a leather clad Janeway, hmmm I seem to have gone off topic.

      *shudder* I think what you've gone off is the deep end.

      elbow deep?
      *ducks*

    9. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      I prefer 8's. Better, 8's and 6's.

    10. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      I have the same thing, but Janeway certainly didn't do it for me. Jane Seymour on Wedding Crashers is the perfect example of awesome "older woman".

      Or, if you're into "adult films" (not that anyone on Slashdot would be), Nina Hartley is a prime example of awesomeness.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    11. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      My thoughts exactly. Actually...might want to add a few 3's just to mix things up a little. But yes, 8's...lots of 8's.

    12. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, your telling us you're into manly women?

    13. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by ZorinLynx · · Score: 1

      I liked Jane Seymour when she was Dr. Quinn. Rowr!

      I hadn't seen her in *ages*, then she was recently in some commercials on TV and it was like a trip down memory lane.

    14. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by yabos · · Score: 1

      gross

    15. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think I'm the only one, either.

      No, there's loads of other slashdotters who miss their mommies.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    16. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      Are you sure you have the title right? I can't find any movie with a title similar to that at imdb nor netflix.

    17. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      Yeah. It was the Voyager season 3 episode with the giant cold viruses.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    18. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      Oh, sorry.. I thought you were talking about a movie, and used 'Janeway' instead of looking up/remembering the actress' real name (Kate Mulgrew).

    19. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      No problem.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    20. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you like getting your temperature taken "down there", too.

    21. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I wholeheartedly agree. A basestar full of Sixes please. There doesn't have to be anything much more in the show, perhaps a very thin plot, some not very good acting, Ron Jeremy or two.

      It would be the most watched television series of all time.

      I'm afraid Patrick McGoohan has passed away.

      But why you're adding Ron Jeremy there scares me. It'd be an interesting twist though.

    22. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by smoker2 · · Score: 1

      OR Crusher and Troi working out in front of a mirror ...
      </dribble>

    23. Re:Star Trek/Lost Mix by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then just go upstairs!

  3. Hmmmm. by khasim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Fuller wrote twenty one Star Trek episodes over four years, two in Deep Space Nine's final season, and the rest for Voyager.

    And Voyager was such a great series. Sarcasm intended.

    1. Re:Hmmmm. by Kokuyo · · Score: 1

      That is clearly a matter of opinion, don't you think? I, for one, prefer it to TOS. Then again, I even prefer Enterprise to TOS ;)

    2. Re:Hmmmm. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1

      Other than having a bad case of Gilligan's Island Syndrome, it wasn't too bad. Look at the positives: they had a solid cast (I'd take orders from Janeway any day!), good character development and decent storylines (aside from the main arch).

      It could have been worse. Look at Enterprise. ;)

    3. Re:Hmmmm. by rho · · Score: 1

      I judge Star Trek writers based on whether and how many holodeck episodes they're responsible for. If you wrote holodeck episodes for Voyager, which was about a spaceship alone in the Delta quadrant, you get double the points docked.

      The holodeck killed writers' imaginations to cater to the wardrobe department's fantasies.

      --
      Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
    4. Re:Hmmmm. by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Funny

      And Voyager was such a great series. Sarcasm intended.

      Not one lesbian kiss scene in the whole series, so much for 'where no man has gone before'

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    5. Re:Hmmmm. by montyzooooma · · Score: 1

      I liked most of Voyager.
      If Fuller is bringing Trek back maybe he can get Robert Hewitt Wolfe (a DS9 writer) to write some scripts. I really liked what he did with Andromeda in the early days.

    6. Re:Hmmmm. by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      For the most part, I agree. But there's the occasional episode that justifies itself—"Take Me Out to the Holosuite" comes to mind. (And somehow, I doubt that baseball uniforms are the wardrobe department's fantasies. ;) )

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
    7. Re:Hmmmm. by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      But Bride of Chaotica was great! And Spirit Folk wasn't too bad either. The holodeck can give us dull episodes but it depends on the writer.

    8. Re:Hmmmm. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      I'm doubtful. Star Trek had some really great episodes, but some sucky ones as well. It credits the guy with "Pushing Daisies", I thought that was the dumbest show on TV at the time. Considering "Pushing Daisies" I fear Fuller is responsible for the sucky episodes.

      I'm still hopeful, though. I've been watching Star Trek since it first started in the sixties, and I've been watching STNG and DS9 on tape lately.

      I guess I'll have to buy the last season of Voyager, because the bastards that ran the TV station it was on sold out when the last season started, and it didn't air here.

    9. Re:Hmmmm. by eln · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's always interesting to see the varied opinions within Trek fandom. I, for one, thought Enterprise was an excellent show, although the story arc involving the Xindi and the Expanse took waaaaaay too long. I hated Voyager, almost as much as I hated DS9. Never cared for Janeway either.

      In order, I'd have to say my favorite treks were:
      1.) TNG
      2.) Enterprise
      3.) TOS
      Then, off in the far distance:
      4.) Voyager
      5.) DS9

    10. Re:Hmmmm. by frieko · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did you watch DS9 after the war started and they started to let Ron Moore do his thing? Watching the creature-comfort Federation come to the brink of collapse was much more interesting than watching Picard show up at a planet and lecture the locals about their backward traditions.

      By the way, if you win a Trek argument on slashdot, you automatically get laid tonight. I promise.

    11. Re:Hmmmm. by Kelbear · · Score: 1

      While I don't like Voyager's overall storyline, about half of the cast, I really like Janeway so far.

      She's a strong captain, perhaps the strongest of the captains on the shows. She's unflinchingly hard when needed, and has no weakness for the other gender. I'm only up to early season 6, but I've seen only one kiss, and she'd already placed up safeguards in case he betrays her. She's not perfect, she murdered Tuvix of her own free will, and attempted to kill a prisoner (Ransom's crewman). I think her biggest weakness is Seven of Nine (read into THAT however you like). She gives that Borg amazing slack considering how often Seven goes against orders. Overall, among the strongest female characters portrayed in the media in my opinion.

    12. Re:Hmmmm. by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did you watch DS9 after the war started and they started to let Ron Moore do his thing? Watching the creature-comfort Federation come to the brink of collapse was much more interesting than watching Picard show up at a planet and lecture the locals about their backward traditions.

      Ah, but the real fun was when he'd lecture his own crew about respecting those backward traditions...

      Also, there are four lights.

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    13. Re:Hmmmm. by Tronster · · Score: 1

      Personal preference:
      1) TNG
      2) Voyager
      3) TOS
      4) DS9

      As far as I'm concerned, Enterprise never happened.

      Before watching the first episode I told my room mates, "As long as their is no time travel involved in this; it will have potential." ...there was time travel. Overall the potential was lost not just due to time travel but the decisions made to F'up the consistency with the ST timeline. I can only guess it was done for the hopes of bringing in higher ratings. Instead it turned me off to the show 3 episodes in.

      "Sure have the Borg in Enterprise even though they weren't first discovered until TNG. Change what happened for the first contact with Klingons, we aren't anal geeks who'll lose disbelief in the ST Univserse by introducing huge consistencies. Oh wait, most* of us are."
      [* SOURCE: Shore Leave Star Trek convention; just attend for a day and get a feel for the fans.]

      So if a "reboot" is what's coming, it sounds like a fine plan as long as it returns to the roots of ST (roots meaning Gene Roddenberry's ST).

    14. Re:Hmmmm. by geobeck · · Score: 1

      Other than having a bad case of Gilligan's Island Syndrome...

      Now that would have been an interesting twist; Re-cast Bob Denver as Chakotay.

      "Skipperrrrrr! The Borg are off the port bow!"

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    15. Re:Hmmmm. by geobeck · · Score: 1

      The holodeck killed writers' imaginations to cater to the wardrobe department's fantasies.

      I think there was a lot of budget give-and-take near the end of Voyager. For every expensive "let's battle the Borg" episode, they had to make a cheap "let's relax in Fairhaven" episode. It's a lot cheaper to go out and buy a bunch of period costumes than to have ILM (or whoever they used) come up with half an hour of F/X shots.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    16. Re:Hmmmm. by JackassJedi · · Score: 2, Informative

      A friend of mine and me (over- and over-)analyzed Voyager over the years. In fact we found it so involutarily ridiculous that we wrote around 30 parody episodes of Voyager in the absurd humor style, here's an excerpt:

      (Janeway and Tuvok are in a room; there's a door on one of the walls.)
      Janeway: We're trapped. What should we do now?
      Tuvok: I could try to modify the door in such a way that it is open.
      Janeway: How do you want to do that?
      Tuvok: I will pull this lever.
      Janeway: I don't have any better idea myself (hesitates) Try it.
      (Tuvok pulls the lever, the door opens.)
      Janeway: Well done. I will add a positive record to your personel file, but now we've got to get out of here.


      Anyway my point is that a lot was due to the bad acting, a terrible lot. Some stories weren't actually so bad, but the bad execution made it look like nonsense. The same stories with the actors of DS9 would have been actually somewhat decent.

      --
      Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
    17. Re:Hmmmm. by Richy_T · · Score: 1

      I don't know about Fuller but if they put a "shoot on sight" notice on Jane Espenson up in the writing room, I'll watch for sure.

    18. Re:Hmmmm. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      (I'd take orders from Janeway any day!)

      If the primary selling point of the show is that some people have the hots for the Captain, and those people aren't nerds' girlfriends, the show is fucking over before it began.

      Voyager was more of everything Trek - they found out that it was too much. The only thing they didn't have enough of was camp. You have to be able to laugh! Personally, I've never enjoyed Trek so much as I did in Season 4 of Enterprise, so I may be the wrong guy to talk to... but seriously, you are not allowed to use story as a bullet point in the positive column if the main story arc is stupid.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    19. Re:Hmmmm. by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      Also, there are four lights.

      But for a while you beleived there were 5

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    20. Re:Hmmmm. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed. The Ron Moore-run version of DS9 after the war broke out was by far some of the best Trek ever to hit the small screen. Very entertaining stuff and it always kept you guessing. I guess if you were a dyed-in-the-wool Gene Roddenberry fan, though, you probably wouldn't have liked it because it was also the least Roddenberry-esque Trek to ever hit the small screen.

    21. Re:Hmmmm. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      you are not allowed to use story as a bullet point in the positive column if the main story arc is stupid.

      Why not? Where were the writers supposed to go with that? A starship lost in the Delta Quadrant. Of course every so many episodes are going pretty much have to be about some hair-brained attempt to get back home that fails miserably. The only way to get around that is to either not have a show based on this premise, or to establish, early on, that getting back home was not an option and they were just going to have to make the best of life in the Delta Quadrant. As long as there was any hint that they were going to try to get back home, the main story arch was doomed to failure.

      With Voyager the only Trek show on for many years, the only thing a Trek fan could do was to suck it up and look passed the stupid story arch.

    22. Re:Hmmmm. by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

      Also, there are four lights.

      But for a while you beleived there were 5

      Nah, Gul Lemec was just messing with him. He knew Picard was going to be freed and also that he was on the virge of starting to crack - so he switched the number of lights periodically to make Picard think he was losing it. :D

      (I am not enough of a Trek geek to know Gul Lemec's name without looking it up...)

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    23. Re:Hmmmm. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      With Voyager the only Trek show on for many years, the only thing a Trek fan could do was to suck it up and look passed the stupid story arch.

      Or pretend it never happened, which a lot of people did, too. Or just, you know, go outside. :)

      Let me back up a little bit, though.

      Where were the writers supposed to go with that? A starship lost in the Delta Quadrant. Of course every so many episodes are going pretty much have to be about some hair-brained attempt to get back home that fails miserably.

      My friend, the writing sucked. I honestly can't put my finger on what it was, but it still sucked. I mean, Deep Space Nine is a show about a space station and they occasionally found ways to keep that one fresh. What happened to Voyager? It didn't help that they had some of the most annoying characters ever to appear on screen in a science fiction show. You simply can't even something like that out by including some really great characters. Shit pate' is still made from shit, even if the other ingredients are the finest in the world.

      As long as there was any hint that they were going to try to get back home, the main story arch was doomed to failure.

      Yes, yes it was.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    24. Re:Hmmmm. by julesh · · Score: 1

      I've never enjoyed Trek so much as I did in Season 4 of Enterprise, so I may be the wrong guy to talk to...

      No, no, no. Season 4 of Enterprise was good. Don't worry about that. It's just that as the two of us are the only ones who actually bothered to watch it, nobody realised this. Everyone else gave up when they saw the alien nazis.

    25. Re:Hmmmm. by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      I have to admit, the one use of the Holodeck I really appreciated was in First Contact when Picard disabled the safeties and used 1930s tommyguns to kill the Borg.

    26. Re:Hmmmm. by kshade · · Score: 1

      I agree, Andromeda S1 and half of S2 were awesome. It felt like good old Star Trek but with bigger story arcs and deeper characters. And they basically got rid of the alien of the week. I loved that show and had really high hopes, but some network moron let Hercules and a bunch of new writers turn it into a mindless piece of action crap.
      I distinctively remember an episode where they just flew around in fighters and another which was basically a big magogg slaughterfest. Damn you Kevin Sorbo, damn youuuu!

    27. Re:Hmmmm. by smoker2 · · Score: 1

      Are you girlintrainings' sock puppet ?

    28. Re:Hmmmm. by Kjella · · Score: 1

      Personally, I've never enjoyed Trek so much as I did in Season 4 of Enterprise, so I may be the wrong guy to talk to...

      Season 4 was by far the best of the Enterprise run, but not overall in my opinion. The problem was that they'd alienated pretty much everyone that wanted classic trek with the season three time war arc and with the sudden change of tune they lost those who actually wanted time war paradoxes and alien nazis too. Other trek series have had bad seasons and good seasons too but nowhere near that kind of identity crisis. I guess they wanted to throw some kind of wildcard in there to not be stuck with every detail of continuity since there were people manipulating the time stream but the end result was just horrible.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    29. Re:Hmmmm. by lennier · · Score: 1

      "Also, there are four lights."

      You know that was ripped straight from George Orwell, right?

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    30. Re:Hmmmm. by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      Voyager used Foundation Imaging.

      And you're absolutely right. Special effects are expensive. Standing sets, regular cast and costumes from the costume department cost essentially nothing.

  4. Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unless you liked hearing about the latest Fucktoquadillion gigastream of pure hexashitrillic energy the borg were beaming at voyager's past timestream in order to attract the hirogen to hunt them and the leprosy dudes to steal their organs.

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    1. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fuller's episodes tended to be a lot more character based. The technobabble episodes tended to be written by Brannon Braga.

    2. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by christurkel · · Score: 1

      You are an idiot. You forgot that the leprosy dudes used reversed anti-proton streams to steal organs. Sheesh.

      --

      CDE open sourced! https://sourceforge.net/projects/cdesktopenv/
    3. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by ari_j · · Score: 1

      Voyager is an anomaly in the fiction world in that its writers can improve their resumes by adding "(fanfic only)" at the end of the line. Without looking into which episodes he wrote and then watching them, I can't be certain, but if he is responsible for writing his way out of the crack in the event horizon of a black hole then only harm will come of this.

    4. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      Sorry, I thought that was what the dudes with the breathing ships used to move around in the universe filled with snot.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    5. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      No that was Species 19323323 . . . or something.

      Strange that as people we know that numbers are hard to remember. Cell phones have contact lists for a reason. Hell us techies created DNS to solve the exact problem of assigning a number to a name. And what does Voyager do? Call one of the most important races in the storyline of their show by a fricken numeric designation.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    6. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You better watch out I'm after you with my hand held photonic weapon device with a LED delivery translation matrix! Or is this all a holo simo lameo episodeo?

    7. Re:Having written for voyager isn't a good thing by julesh · · Score: 1

      Only about half of Voyager was like that. And looking at the listing on Memory Alpha, it was a half that this guy wasn't involved with. The episodes he wrote are the ones that took the characters and had them interacting in new and different ways (e.g., my favourite Voyager episode, "Workforce", where most of the characters have had their memory of being on Voyager erased and aren't aware they know each other).

  5. I loved Pushing Daises but... by hal2814 · · Score: 1

    I loved Pushing Daises but it failed fair and square. Nobody monkeyed seriously with the time slot. It was a lead-in to mega-popular Grey's Anatomy for most of its run. Nobody watched Pushing Daisies though. I'm a little hesitant for the creator of that show to take the production helm of Star Trek. It would be awesome, but I'm a afraid it will be a fringe show with too small an audience.

    1. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by Beer_Smurf · · Score: 1

      You should give Dead Like Me a try. I even liked Wonderfalls.

    2. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by itsdapead · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I loved Pushing Daises but it failed fair and square.

      I think some of these "high concept" shows are only really good for a dozen or so episodes. Unfortunately, the US system expects everything to run for 7-8 years or be deemed a failure. If PD had been made in the UK they'd have done two runs of 6-12 episodes, finished the story and gone out while they were ahead (c.f. Life on Mars UK vs. Life on Mars USA).

      Heroes is another case in point: Season 1 found a fresh new way to do a superhero origin story. Shiny*. Unfortunately, once that was finished, well, either take up the spandex or go back to your families and quit whining, guys.

      (also c.f. the 6 episodes in each season of BSG which are really, really good or how much better B5 got when they crammed two seasons of plot arc into one...)

      Now Trek doesn't have to be high concept if they go back to the basic TOS/TNG formula: not stuck in the delta quadrant; not stuck on a space station in the vanguard of a galactic war; not a pawn in the great time ware. Nope, just a starship crew on a continuing mission to explore strange new worlds and go where no man/person/reptile/walking tree-oid has gone before. Think of a story, any story, they can stumble into it.

      If they want high concept, do a movie or mini series.

      * Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, everybody on the CColonBackSlash blog is probably whining about how rubbish Season 8 of Firefly is turning out to be, and asking why the hell they cancelled the Simpsons in 1995.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    3. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dead Like Me was a great show. Pity it got canceled.

       

    4. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by Darundal · · Score: 1

      Dead Like Me blew. It had everything going for it (good actors, good premise, the writers did a decent job of setting up a lot of interesting conflicts for the future, etc) and they just sat there and did nothing with any of the really interesting things they had.

    5. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I loved Pushing Daises but it failed fair and square.

      Lol! Good one! ... Oh, you meant that...? You really mean the part about, "failed fair and square"? Really? Come on now. Think about that part for more then a second. Yes. Really. Think about, "failed fair and square".

      Why am I asking you to think about that?

      Because it isn't true. "Pushing Daises" did not fail "fair and square".

      Why? The answer can be found in the response to your quote below.

      Nobody monkeyed seriously with the time slot.

      Very true. Nobody "monkeyed" with the time slot. The time slot didn't even kill it. What did? Two words: writers strike. There! Now you have it.

       

    6. Re:I loved Pushing Daises but... by hal2814 · · Score: 1

      If there were a Pushing Daisies-specifc strike I'd agree with you but Daisies wasn't the only show hit by the strike. All scripted shows were. The ratings did tank in the second season but it was only continuing a very linear slide started in Season 1.

  6. pushing daisies by JeffSh · · Score: 2, Interesting

    pushing daisies was amazing and it wasn't until the show was canceled and i started looking around that i even realized who fuller was, but have since recognized that I have long enjoyed his work without knowing who he was.

    Now I know who to credit for all the entertainment that I really liked (Voyager, Season 1 heroes, Pushing daisies...)

    It's a shame that pushing daisies didn't make it. I think the show was a huge victim of the writer's strike. The shortened first season killed the audience and it never recovered. it's been very disappointing for my wife and I because the shows we can watch and enjoy together are few and far between, and this was one we both really liked.

    We also both really liked Heroes Season 1, but Season 2 was a complete disaster and neither of us watch it any more. It's weird how it all seems to be about fuller's presence or absence (in hindsight).

    They hired Fuller for writing on Heroes again, but I think it's too late. They should just kill the show.

    Oh well.

    1. Re:pushing daisies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would like to point out that most posters seem to be missing what I consider Bryan Fuller's best work: Wonderfalls. Sure, it's not sci-fi, but it sure as hell was better than late Voyager. For those not in the know, Wonderfalls was yet another showed axed by FOX before it even aired a full season. Similarly, Fuller created Dead Like Me, which was very good and canceled after 2 seasons. Pushing Daisies was charming and funny, and barely limped through 1.5 seasons and a writer's guild strike before being killed off. I honestly never even knew he wrote for Heroes because I *gasp* never watched it. Strangely I seem to like all of his unsuccessful stuff far more than his "successful" shows.

    2. Re:pushing daisies by Haoie · · Score: 1

      It was certainly 1 of the most innovative, original, and outright wacky and surreal shows of the last decade.

      And I miss it too.

      --
      If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
  7. yeah right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hum this seems a rather ilogic decision coming from a carbon based lifeform. Rape the series more with big breasted cylons... i mean borgs.

    1. Re:yeah right. by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Something tells me Fuller won't be nearly as big into the big-breasted ladies as you might think. I think we're more likely to see buff dudes.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:yeah right. by faraday_cage · · Score: 1

      ... and the problem with that is what, exactly? Worked for Apollo on BSG. There hasn't been enough buff dude action in Trek since the days of Kirk and Sulu in TOS.

  8. Let the grim reaper do his job by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes a soul should just be allowed to pass over. Let that field lie fallow for a decade or so at least.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Let the grim reaper do his job by Bieeanda · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Make it twenty. When you can't stretch a modern Star Trek series more than four years, and your final episode is focused around characters from another series entirely, you need to let the horse rot for a while instead of lashing it some more.

    2. Re:Let the grim reaper do his job by TheQuantumShift · · Score: 2, Funny

      So basically, Star Trek's post-it went to Mason, and he fucked up as usual.

      --

      Shift happens. Fire it up.
    3. Re:Let the grim reaper do his job by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      No, it was toilet seat girl. She went all soft and weepy again.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. All I know by Luke+has+no+name · · Score: 4, Funny

    Rick Berman: TNG
    Bryan Fuller: Failed ABC series and Voyager

    OP loses credit

    1. Re:All I know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Rick Berman: reason Enterprise failed and responsible for Nemesis

      They need to get Manny Coto back for the show!

    2. Re:All I know by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      Nemesis and Enterprise vs Voyager.

      I can't even think of a joke that doesn't involve sodomy.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    3. Re:All I know by Ucklak · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Rick Berman is the reason Star Trek became Star Twrecked. Let's get positions casted, put putty on someone's nose, rinse and repeat.
      TNG and DS9 didn't have a token vulcan so Voyager got a black vulcan and Enterprise had a female vulcan. The guy doesn't know how to put a character together.
      All his movies with the exception of First Contact sucked and got progressively worse.

      Part of the charm of TOS was the banter of Kirk, McCoy and Spock. It was 3 guys diametrically opposed at work in different situations. That was the formula that none of the other series had. Enterprise was the closest but didn't know what it had and failed to deliver.

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    4. Re:All I know by skeeto · · Score: 2, Informative

      And I hear Fuller needs to go easy on the Pepsi.

  10. To boldly go ... by ScaledLizard · · Score: 1

    Haven't they gone everywhere where no man has gone before by now?

    1. Re:To boldly go ... by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Picard: "To baldly go where no one has gone before!"

  11. Trailer, Really? by vjmurphy · · Score: 4, Funny

    "If J.J. Abrams' reboot is successful (and the latest trailer suggests it will be!)..."

    Yes, because trailers are always the best source for determining a film's success. In fact, why bother releasing the movie, since its success is assured?

    --
    Vincent J. Murphy
    Spandex Justice
    1. Re:Trailer, Really? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      You can judge movies by the amount of good scenes that were not in a trailer before. Too often, it's been zero lately.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Trailer, Really? by YourExperiment · · Score: 1

      Even if everyone agrees from the trailer that the movie will be a triumph, not bothering to release it might have some degree of negative impact on box office takings.

    3. Re:Trailer, Really? by CXI · · Score: 1

      Star Trek 5 had a good trailer. Unfortunately, that minute and whatever was the only good footage they had managed to shoot.

    4. Re:Trailer, Really? by discord5 · · Score: 1

      Yes, because trailers are always the best source for determining a film's success.

      Oh c'mon, give JJ a break. He's got that dude in the trailer screaming "FIRE EVERYTHING!". Previous Enterprises didn't have a "fire everything" button, so this movie is guaranteed to be one awesome lasershow with torpedos flying EVERYWHERE.

      Seriously though, the latest trailer did peak my curiosity. Even if it turns out to be a brain-off action flick set in the Star Trek setting, it's been a long time since Star Trek managed to get my attention.

    5. Re:Trailer, Really? by Flint+Dragon · · Score: 1

      I liked ST5. The surrounding story sucked but the main story was more about the trio's (Kirk, Spock, McCoy) friendship than anything else. With that in mind, I find the movie quite enjoyable.

    6. Re:Trailer, Really? by JeanPaulBob · · Score: 1

      Yes, because trailers are always the best source for determining a film's success. In fact, why bother releasing the movie, since its success is assured?

      Yeah, they made that mistake with Iron Man.

    7. Re:Trailer, Really? by kellyb9 · · Score: 1

      Yes, because trailers are always the best source for determining a film's success. In fact, why bother releasing the movie, since its success is assured?

      Correction - Trailers aren't good indications of how good a movie is, but they certainly usually determine how much money a movie will make in theaters. The trailers have created quite the fervor in non-trekkies and trekkies alike, so from a profit standpoint, I think it will be successful.

    8. Re:Trailer, Really? by skeeto · · Score: 1
      Here are some reasons to not believe the movie trailers,
    9. Re:Trailer, Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kirk, Spock and McCoy sitting around a campfire for two hours would have been better than what they released...

    10. Re:Trailer, Really? by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 1

      Last night I happened to sit down and catch up on Heroes episodes quietly waiting on the 'ole Tivo. I stopped to also watch the Trek "sneak peak" trailer. It was flashy. But at the end of it, I noticed something missing. It was the "interested" feeling. I wasn't.

      I dunno why. I felt like I should have been. I like Star Trek. I like flashy movies. I can go for nostalgia, fan service, nods to old standbys with new, improved special effects. What's not to like?

      Not sure. But whatever it is, it kept me from being enthused in any way. Hopefully the movie is more successful.

    11. Re:Trailer, Really? by BRSloth · · Score: 1

      Also, if you replace the song in the new trailer by the theme of "Beverly Hills 90210", it still looks like the shit they were handing before.

      Take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciBTtckeXg

      It's footage of the old series using the sounds (and music) from the new series. And it looks a lot better than the *current* trailer.

    12. Re:Trailer, Really? by unitron · · Score: 1

      He's got that dude in the trailer screaming "FIRE EVERYTHING!".

      Doesn't everyone know by now that fire and trailers are a bad combination?

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  12. I hope not? by EvilBudMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Voyager? Wasn't that the worst one of all? That machine should have been a little more banged up at the end but yet they had even more resources than when they started out. I know trek is BS but damn the same stories over and over get old after a while.

    Let it die for a few more years at least.

    1. Re:I hope not? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Voyager? Wasn't that the worst one of all?

      If you honestly believe that, then I envy your ability to completely erase Enterprise from your memory.

      Does the world really need more Trek sequels? If we have to make sequels, couldn't we at least make one in the Babylon 5 or Blake's 7 universe?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:I hope not? by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      No, because Warner Brothers refuses to pay for more B5, and the BBC can't afford to pay for more B7. :p

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
    3. Re:I hope not? by PhilHibbs · · Score: 1

      Well, he also wrote "Company Man", one of the better Heroes episodes. Some bits of Voyager were good, maybe he was responsible for some of that as well.

    4. Re:I hope not? by skeeto · · Score: 1

      Agreed. I watched every episode TNG all the way through, and the same with DS9 and Enterprise. DS9 was the best series of them all -- even better than TOS, I say. I stopped watching Voyager during the second season because it was just so awful. Too much technobabble and too little plot.

    5. Re:I hope not? by Ifandbut · · Score: 1

      Agreed. While Voyager was the worst Star Trek series (Enterprise gets points for just trying to not completely cannon) it did have it's moments. I really liked Scorpion 2 parter Species 8472 felt like a viable threat, hell they Death Star-ed a planet.

    6. Re:I hope not? by MBGMorden · · Score: 1

      Voyager? Wasn't that the worst one of all? That machine should have been a little more banged up at the end but yet they had even more resources than when they started out. I know trek is BS but damn the same stories over and over get old after a while.

      Which is a perfect example of how much a good concept can be screwed up in execution. On many levels, Voyager had many of the same aspects of the BSG reimagined series. Lone ship(s) (heck they could have even had a mini-fleet if they'd not destroyed the Maquis ship in the pilot, which I think would have been much more interesting to keep around) far away from supplies and resources trying to find "home".

      The problem is BSG has continually focused on that struggle rather than letting it be a back story while we play the same alien of the week game that we always have.

      Not to mention that I am personally SICK of the entire Utopian society that is the Federation. It's too difficult to relate to most of the characters on any Star Trek anymore. Personally I'd rather see something set in the Mirror Universe as a new series.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    7. Re:I hope not? by EvilBudMan · · Score: 1

      --Personally I'd rather see something set in the Mirror Universe as a new series.--

      Agreed. That's the best idea I have heard. Make them the bad guys that believe in God. Cool.

      Maybe this is just old age kicking in, but it seems like you can guess every plot to anything anymore after watching enough stuff.

      --The problem is BSG has continually focused on that struggle rather than letting it be a back story while we play the same alien of the week game that we always have.--

      I dunno. Gotta watch those last to episodes just to make sure I'm right. Uh Oh they have me again. Damn.

  13. Lost interest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh god no... "The new adventures of Star Trek".
    One of the great things about ST is that each episode came to a conclusion - if they make it like "lost" it'll be destroyed

    1. Re:Lost interest by Chaos+Incarnate · · Score: 1

      Deep Space Nine begs to differ.

      --
      Benford's Corollary to Clarke's Law: "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
    2. Re:Lost interest by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Agreed, I absolutely HATE serials. If it's a space soap opera, I won't be watching.

    3. Re:Lost interest by porcupine8 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I disagree. In the past couple of years, my husband and I have been Netflixing all of TNG, as well as BSG (though we're caught up now) and, for a couple weeks, Babylon 5. We agree that while TNG was a very good show once it hit its stride in season 3, a bit more continuity would have made it really great. In fact, we're noticing the bits of continuity that we never noticed when it was on and we were in jr high (like Worf's several-season dealing-with-the-empire arc), and that alone is making the series even better for us. We love BSG for its serialness, and Babylon 5 we appreciated the serial nature but couldn't get past how bad each individual episode was.

      And there is definitely a happy medium to be found between "cliffhanger at the end of every episode" and "everything tied up with a neat little bow." To leave sci-fi, Scrubs strikes this balance very nicely. There are a lot of multi-episode arcs (often found in the subplots), and continuity in general is something that happens consistently rather than once a season, but the actual main plot line of each episode is almost always resolved at the end. You get actual character development over time, unlike many traditional sitcoms, but you can also watch a single episode and be satisfied at the end.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    4. Re:Lost interest by julesh · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Babylon 5 we appreciated the serial nature but couldn't get past how bad each individual episode was

      How far in did you watch it? It gets seriously better about half way through the second season. Some of the season 1 episodes are painful to watch (I'm primarily thinking of TKO here), but by the time you get to season 3 that just doesn't happen any more.

    5. Re:Lost interest by Spinalcold · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Give Babylon 5 more of a chance, the first season is terrible, to the point that I had a hard time getting through. But someone promised me that if I held out to season two I would be hooked and that I would think it the best Sci Fi out there. Well, the second promise never held, but it is my second favorite Sci Fi out there. And once you hit season 3 you won't be able to stop even to sleep.

    6. Re:Lost interest by Seq · · Score: 1

      My girlfriend does not like SciFi at all. I got her to tough out season 1. By the end, she was rather pissed off the "movies" were so crap and the 'Voices' dvds only had the one release.

      Now we've moved on to Alien Nation, so we're probably setting ourselves up again...

      --
      -- Seq
    7. Re:Lost interest by porcupine8 · · Score: 1

      We'd been warned to skip the first season, so we started with the start of season 2, and quickly understood why, since it seemed like they were scrapping whatever old storylines they had and started over. But we couldn't stomach more than 4 or 5 episodes. We might give it another chance at some point.

      Honestly, Season 1 of TNG was nearly as painful, but it had a few terrific actors (Stewart, Spiner, and Burton) that kept it afloat. B5 (or what we saw of it) didn't even have that.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    8. Re:Lost interest by porcupine8 · · Score: 1

      We'd been warned to skip season 1, so we started at the start of season 2 but couldn't stomach more than 4 or 5 episodes. We'll probably give it another chance at some point. The overarching storyline did seem interesting, but the acting and episode-level writing were both so bad.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    9. Re:Lost interest by julesh · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't say to skip season 1, because there are some episodes in there that are important to watch. They didn't scrap the old storylines, they simply shifted focus a little. I'd suggest watching at least these episodes from S1:

      * And The Sky Full Of Stars
      * Signs and Portents
      * A Voice in the Wilderness
      * Babylon Squared
      * The Quality of Mercy
      * Chrysalis

      Some of these are due to them being good episodes, some because stuff that happens later won't make much sense without watching them.

    10. Re:Lost interest by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      The acting never gets good. Except for Londo, whose actor manages to impressively develop his ridiculous role.

      You really can't skip season 1 even though it's bad. It's also necessary to the plot development. But it's funny -- overall I found it very entertaining from partway into S2 to the end of Season 4. Then season 5 kind of sucked again.

      In a way the cheesy episode-level writing masks some very impressive arc-level writing -- not just in terms of "overarching storyline" but even in terms of clearly setting up a one-off episode in season 4 with clues dropped in seasons 1 through 4 and it's COHERENT.

  14. Got to be kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If J.J. Abrams' reboot is successful (and the latest trailer suggests it will be!)

    You're assessing a film based on its trailer? Have you ever seen both a film and its trailer? Did you notice a pattern as to the worth of trailers in judging films? I really hope that was a weak attempt at a joke.

    As for the series, let it rest a while. 2015 might be a good time to think about it.

    1. Re:Got to be kidding by Ucklak · · Score: 1

      The movie (series if it happens) will never be able to compare to the original series. 79 hours of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (albeit that most of it sucked; the performances were key and carried us through and made it memorable) > 8 hours of new Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

      Also, if the trailers and media are an indication of quality of the film, it appears that McCoy is just a bit part and Uhura is part of the new officer triangle; Kirk, Uhura, and Spock.

      --
      if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
    2. Re:Got to be kidding by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      No, duuuuuh. Three guys hanging out in college without a single chick in sight. That's either unrealistic or ends in something that has no chance to be shown on prime time US TV.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Got to be kidding by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      Actually, the trailer suggests that the movie is going to be epic fail. The trailer shows us a typical mindless sex and violence movie. Those are fun, but that's not the direction to take Star Trek.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
  15. Star Trek is in "The Future" by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Star Trek was always a fantasy to me as an engineer about what 'could be'. Just over the progression of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY you could see incremental improvements in technology. Voice controls actually worked, bio-neural networks, etc. STOP recreating (and fucking up) the original story line.

    TOS happened, it's done with. Quit going before it. Stop milking the lives of Scotty, Kirk, or the beginning of the beginning of the federation.

    Set something 90 years out from the end of VOY. Put the first Cardassian (or other former enemy) on the bridge (Worf). Maybe bump up Warp speed or another method of going fast (But not Warp 10 retarded shit VOY broke out). Invite some scientists writers, the writers of Futurama, to the initial writings and get some pseudo-science based technologies. Just make up some new shiny tech. Don't fill it with too much technobabble. (Stargate was a good balance in my mind).

    You could easily make it dark too. DS9 is hands down my favorite series.
    Federation Civil War?
    Fall of the Federation?

    STOP GOING BACK IN TIME.

    1. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Federation Civil War?
      Fall of the Federation?

      Andromeda was, apparently, originally meant to be the sequel to ST:TNG. The Federation would be betrayed by one of its allies and collapse into a civil war and the story would follow an attempt to rebuild it.

      The folks at Paramount didn't want it. They felt it would be too dark for Star Trek and not have the hopeful feel that the rest of the series had.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by HalifaxRage · · Score: 1

      "Fall of the Federation?" that was called "Andromeda"

      --
      bomb the us up set someone
    3. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Federation Civil War?

      Fall of the Federation?

      Andromeda was, apparently, originally meant to be the sequel to ST:TNG. The Federation would be betrayed by one of its allies and collapse into a civil war and the story would follow an attempt to rebuild it.

      The folks at Paramount didn't want it. They felt it would be too dark for Star Trek and not have the hopeful feel that the rest of the series had.

      citation needed

    4. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Daimanta · · Score: 1

      "(But not Warp 10 retarded shit VOY broke out)"

      Then you must find the warp 12(or something ridiculous like that) even more absurd and that happened during TNG(with the traveler).

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    5. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Kelbear · · Score: 1

      I think a dark theme would be the best way to go. It would be easier to connect to since it would be close to the spirit of the times we live in. We don't trust the government, we don't trust companies, we don't trust fellow citizens. America is stuck in two long wars, and the world is going through a deep recession.

      TV dramas have turned darker to fit the mood, 24, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes. Star Trek's wide-eyed optimism and lust for exploration of the new and unknown feels alien. Tom Paris's "Captain Proton" hobby pokes fun at how campy those old TV shows were, which just underscores how out-of-place Star Trek seems in today's line-up.

      Which isn't to say that the Star Trek setting is useless. I think Deep Space 9 works the best for today's audience, and branching off into a show about Section 31 would be a perfect fit. Take the emphasis back off the new and unknown, and see how the futuristic technology already introduced into the show influences their society and their interactions. The internet is continually presenting us with challenges for adaptation, how is the Federation coping with their information security and privacy issues?

    6. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      And didn't Beverly's medical ship (in the future) do Warp 13?

      I just to know this: If you are traveling faster than light, and you turn on your headlights, do you have to look behind you to see them?

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    7. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Hellasboy · · Score: 1

      No offense, but the whole excessive improvements in technology over the course of a show has really started me turning away from lots of sci-fi. Kind of similar to the obsession with always going back in time.

      For example, how many times have shows found new technology in order to deal with their imminent problem(s)?
      "We can't make it in time" "Eureka! I found a way to increase our warp speed!"
      "We don't know what's causing this phenomena" "Eureka! I found a new particle that explains it perfectly!"
      "We have no way of providing enough power" "Eureka! Our scientists have developed a Naquida generator!"
      etc.

      It screams of lazy writing.

      Reboots usually are good because they do away with this. However, if a reboot is popular enough and runs for a long enough time, the writers start running out of ideas and you begin getting incredible advances in technology to write around dealing with problems.

      --

      "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams"
    8. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by genner · · Score: 1

      The folks at Paramount didn't want it. They felt it would be too dark for Star Trek and not have the hopeful feel that the rest of the series had.

      So that's how we got Hercules in space.
      I always knew a board meeting was some how involved.

    9. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by xda · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think the definition of Star Trek is an imagination of science and social interaction. TOS and TNG are perfect examples of using modern science to imagine a world far into the future on which to play out imaginative dramas. You can clearly see the progress made between these 2 series and it continues on through the films and DS9 and VOY.

      I had no interest in going backward, I never watched Enterprise until it was already canceled. I got hooked on it, but it wasn't really Star Trek to me.

      The only REAL way to make progress in Star Trek is to keep the imagination flowing, inspired by recent advances in science while making an effort to explain away the holes in the story and the stuff that looks stupid in retrospect from the previous series.

      Anything else is just mental masturbation for all those Treky bastards who make the rest of us look like dorks for liking the TV show.

    10. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by HomeyLeDieu · · Score: 1

      Roddenberry already wrote the Fall of the Federation storyline. It became the Kevin-Sorbo-laden TV series "Andromeda".

      "Systems Commonwealth" == "Federation"

      Wanna real reboot? Option THAT material and remake it as it was originally intended.

      --
      -- Chief? McCloud!
    11. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by xda · · Score: 1

      It wasn't Beverly's ship it was the "future" Enterprise under Captain Riker. It was a stupid bit of dialogue that should have been cut from the episode.

      I think i remember reading something where they were trying to explain a new warp scale where warp values higher than 10 were just nick names for speeds like warp 9.9993

    12. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Star Trek was always a fantasy to me as an engineer about what 'could be'.

      Much of the fantasy gizmos that could only live in science fiction are common today. When TOS was on TV in the 60s, there were no cell phones (communicators), no self-opening doors, no flat screen voice activated computers, and if I sat here and thought about it for a while I could probably come up with a lot more.

      Real technology in some cases has surpassed TOS. In Star Trek II, Bones gives Kirk reading glasses for his age-related presbyopia because Kirk was allergic to "Retinox" (presumably a drug that softens the eye's lens so geezers can focus), but in 2003 the FDA approved the implant in my left eye which cured my extreme myopia (nearsightedness), age related presbyopia (farsightedness), and the cataract that had formed. If I'd been astigmatic the implant would have cured that as well, too.

      I've been amazed at the scientific and technological advances in my lifetime. McCoy would be in awe if he could see a 21st century operating room!

      Don't fill it with too much technobabble

      The technobabble has always irked me, and it got worse with TNG. Why say "blind as an antarian bat?" That's just dumb IMO, "blind as a bat" suffices. I parodied 1960s sci-fi a few years ago with Saturday, written as Science Fiction from the early 1960s

      I stuck some science fiction 21st century optical devices on my eyeballs and drank some coffee. The devices are great, they're nothing at all like sticking pieces of glass in your eyes, as you had to do back in the 1970s. This new, science fiction technology is (usually) completely invisible to the user.

      Patty wasn't answering the voice communicator.

      About quarter to ten she transmitted her coordinates via the afformentioned device, and said she overslept. Was it aliens? No, I believe her friend was born in the US. In fact, she doesn't have a foregn name. Now, if she had been named Gordo Burro, that would have perhaps been an interesting alien.

      But this was just a blonde American kid.

      I flipped a switch, and the computing device stirred to life, causing a pot of coffee to appear in the coffeepot. I removed an anesceptic wrapping from a pastry and installed it in the radiation chamber for fifteen seconds. With butter.

    13. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go back to wikipedia and let the hardcore trek nerds make stuff up if they want to.

    14. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by master_p · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't understand why many people like 'dark' Trek. If you like dark sci-fi, watch something else. Star Trek is optimistic, and if you change that, it is no longer Star Trek.

    15. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      And I thought I was the only one who called it "Hercules in Space".

    16. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by geobeck · · Score: 1

      ...values higher than 10 were just nick names for speeds like warp 9.9993

      Makes sense. After all, it would be mildly embarrassing to have a situation like "Captain! They're firing a methyl-ethyl-killmequick pulse!" - "No time to lose! Take evasive action, warp nine point nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-oh-crap!"

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    17. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by CodeBuster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The folks at Paramount didn't want it. They felt it would be too dark for Star Trek and not have the hopeful feel that the rest of the series had.

      That is because they were idiots and didn't see the potential for more realistic stories along the lines of the sixth and seventh seasons of DS9. The final seasons of DS9 were really among the best Star Trek stories ever produced because they reminded us that despite advanced technology and an "evolved understanding" (never really understood how that was supposed to work, human nature is human nature no matter how evolved we might become in our understanding) there were still wars, petty squabbles, treachery, and all of the other things which make the good guys just a little bad and the bad guys just a little good. As much as I enjoyed Star Trek, I always disagreed with the optimal "we have evolved beyond all human weaknesses" view of the future. After Gene passed, they began to take more risks with Star Trek and DS9 showed us how far they had come and could still go with a Star Trek series, but even then it does not begin to approach the sort of gritty no-nonsense reality that we see in Firefly and Serenity. The following recollections from Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore, two of the DS9 writers, really sums it up best concerning the conflict between the "optimistic we have overcome all need for violence" people and the "humans are humans 24th century and technology or not with flawed characters, relationships, wars, and all of the other gritty and real stuff" fans:

      Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore were the writers most involved with the creation and development of the Dominion War. Rick Berman wanted the war to be over within three or four episodes at the most. Behr and Moore knew the series would never be able to wrap up the war in that many episodes. Berman also criticized the "depressing" and "violent" stories. Moore later said "It's a fuckin' war! What do you mean it's too violent?!"

      In fact, my favorite Star Trek episode of all time is season 6 episode 19 of DS9: In the Pale Moonlight because it shows how tough situations can bring out the worst in people, even highly evolved Star Trek perfect people, and reveals some flaws in the DS9 characters that had always before that episode remained beneath the surface, often hinted at but never before fully exposed. The episode also makes really good use of the character Garek (one of my favorite Trek characters) and his unique Obsidian Order experience, training, and assassin/espionage talents.

      "That's why you came to me, isn't it captain? Because you knew I could do those things that you weren't capable of doing. Well, it worked. And you'll get what you wanted: a war between the Romulans and the Dominion. And if your conscience is bothering you, you should soothe it with the knowledge that you may have just saved the entire Alpha Quadrant, and all it cost was the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal... and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer. I don't know about you, but I'd call that a bargain." -Garek

    18. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually, it most became hercules in space when sorbo basically staged a coup and took over the show.

    19. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      As a physicist, I really enjoyed Stargate. They did pretty much everything physically correct, within their artistic license. The technobabble was almost entirely correct.

    20. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by Pharmboy · · Score: 1

      Then it was both. Beverly's ship, the U.S.S. Pasteur ventured into Klingon space at Warp 13 during a "future" period when the Federation wasn't exactly getting along with the Klingons. Warf was involved, a good time was had by all. Picard was 70ish. Can't remember the movie, too lazy and appothetic to look it up.

      --
      Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
    21. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by MagusSlurpy · · Score: 1

      STOP GOING BACK IN TIME.

      Then how are we going to work our gratuitous Huey Lewis references in?

      --
      My sister opened a computer store in Hawaii. She sells C shells by the seashore.
    22. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by discord5 · · Score: 1

      Don't fill it with too much technobabble. (Stargate was a good balance in my mind).

      I always loved O'Neal's way of explaining things. "It's got something to do with ... wait... I know this one... MAGNETS!"

      I loved how in the first couple of seasons the show didn't take itself too seriously.

    23. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by discord5 · · Score: 1

      Andromeda was, apparently, originally meant to be the sequel to ST:TNG.

      Somehow, Hercules hopping around the galaxy doesn't really have the same impact as Picard quoting Moby Dick while staring out of the window into space.

      I watched Andromeda a couple of months ago for the first time, and I had a hard time enjoying the show. I gave up somewhere around when they found this big starship made out of planets full of maneating aliens. It tried so hard to be edgy by adding that whole grimdark look and feel to it, but as the show progressed (and that purple girl turned yellow) it wans't even entertaining anymore.

    24. Re:Star Trek is in "The Future" by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      By the time casting started, it was already in the new, non-Trek form. If it had followed the original vision, I imagine that they would have cast someone other than Hercules - the Star Trek name would have been enough of a draw that they wouldn't have needed to rely so much on established names.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  16. old skool by MrKaos · · Score: 1
    So does that mean punch ups, nasty kisses and Vulcan's shouting 'The Women!!!'

    Cooooool!

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    1. Re:old skool by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but styrofoam rocks, air blows that throw people around, alien weapons that cause severe cramps and diarhea (at least judging from Shatner's usual reaction), space stations designed by idiots (hexagonal doors, c'mon, where's the sense in that?) and aliens that dress invariably in some silk-like, flowing dresses, even in combat.

      Now that's Sci-Fi! Screw realism, I want corny!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  17. How do you reinvent Trek? by jollyreaper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'd have to change the animal so much that it wouldn't seem recognizable. The old formula has become such a cliche that there's absolutely nothing you can reuse from it. Reset button at the end of the episode, lame. Space anomalies, lame. Gritty scifi future with lots of angst, made lame by overexposure on Galactica. Aliens who look exactly like us save for bumpy foreheads? I could buy it when I was younger but it's just ridiculous these days. (I'll probably be in the minority on this one.) Time-travel plots, squishy techno-babble science plots, holodeck plots, everything that makes Trek Trek is what's been killing it. It's like asking "Can we make a healthy Big Mac?" Yeah, and by the time you're done removing everything that's bad about that burger, you're left with nothing but lettuce and sesame seeds.

    I'd say Firefly was a great model on how to do a space show that wasn't Trek but it died after a season. I'm not really sure how that happened given the fan support, it must have just been Fox superdickery more than anything else. But aside from that, Firefly gave us a space show that was like Trek only in so much as there were spaceships -- everything else was as different from Trek as it was from other shows. Even the basic premise -- "Imagine you made a TV show about Han Solo before he and Chewie joined the Rebellion" -- even that description carries certain assumptions the show blew away.

    Galactica has good production values and good acting but the writing is a crime. Half of the uber-plot of the show is a mystery, what's the Cylon's angle? What are their motivations? Why did they do what they did? And a good mystery writer needs to know how it happened before the first chapter's written because support for the whodunnit has to be written in to every subsequent chapter. Not having a clue and just pulling it out of his ass at the end is cheap and unsatisfying and that's the approach Galactica's taken. Heroes as well for that matter, and Heroes season 1 was completely awesome, it was only the later post-Fuller seasons that turned into a giant crap sandwich. But as far as BSG goes, the original was completely derivative of Star Wars and the remake seems to draw a lot more from network dramas in terms of pacing and feel.

    I'd say Babylon 5 was the true post-Trek show. You could see the inspiration from Trek but it also drew on a hell of a lot of other sources, really steeped in scifi goodness. It moved beyond what Trek was and DS9, Voyager, Enterprise, they were all muddling around at the same level. They never really rose to the challenge. The times they tried, they were just ripping off B5 plots instead of doing something bigger, better, and smarter. And that's sad because for all of the greatness that was B5, there was still room for improvement.

    I remain in the "stick a fork in Trek and call it done" camp. I'll take a look at the new movie just to be charitable but my expectations are extremely low. I'm willing to be surprised. I just feel that if they really want to do a wonders of space exploration and discovery show, they should really nix the whole Trek thing and come up with something brand new. The CGI has come so far these days, they can get away with stuff that couldn't have been imagined.

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    1. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by KritonK · · Score: 1

      Here's one way that has been suggested:
      http://bztv.typepad.com/newsviews/files/ST2004Reboot.pdf

    2. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      I wonder if it'd work to revamp the CG on B5 with modern tech and full-battles instead of the 90's era "same 3 scenes" style battles and then re-release it as a new show.

      Since there's no production cost other than redoing the graphics they can probably afford to weather through the first season or two's soap opera in space setup before Sheridan starts making it all better.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    3. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Alzheimers · · Score: 1

      Make it a legal drama on a planet you know gets destroyed in a few years so everything that happens is irrelevant.

      Oh, I thought you wanted how NOT to reinvent a story.

    4. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Hatta · · Score: 2, Informative

      But aside from that, Firefly gave us a space show that was like Trek only in so much as there were spaceships -- everything else was as different from Trek as it was from other shows.

      Man, it was Buffy in space. Is that really a good thing?

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    5. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by gizmo2199 · · Score: 1

      Maybe they can do a show where the protagonist is a kooky, yet at times fearsome lord of time,

      who's a pacifist, and has a female sidekick,

      and the biggest threat to the universe is a salt shaker with a plunger sticking out of it.

      But you'd have to be crazy to even possibly begin to comprehend the undertaking of such a show.

      If only there existed such a person.

      --
      This Sig does not Exist.
    6. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      may i be allowed to present to you (in an unread 0 score post) a set of stories?

      Han Solo -
              * The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin
              * The Hutt Gambit by A.C. Crispin
              * Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin

        "The series serves as a prequel to the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The trilogy follows the origins of Han Solo before the movies, and helps further establish his character."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Han_Solo_Trilogy

      i thank all you, who set the score to 0 to read this. or looked for the hidden posts. good day to ye all

    7. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anubis350 · · Score: 1
      It's like asking "Can we make a healthy Big Mac?" Yeah, and by the time you're done removing everything that's bad about that burger, you're left with nothing but lettuce and sesame seeds.

      That depends, are you allergic to sesame seeds? :-p

      --
      "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
    8. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by daMosh · · Score: 0

      AMEN! I'm a huge Star Trek fan, some may even call me a Trekkie (but I've never gone to a convention nor do I own pointy ears). That said I'm disgusted that anyone would try to go back and mess with Kirk. Love him or hate him Shattner "IS" James Tiberius Kirk; Nemoy "IS" Spock and you just can't replace, remake or reboot them! Leave Trek alone, let it die in peace. Or, if there is an insistence then yeah, do something in the future with new tech and new characters. Don't try remaking the old favorites. The whole thing just pisses me off.

    9. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      I wonder if it'd work to revamp the CG on B5 with modern tech and full-battles instead of the 90's era "same 3 scenes" style battles and then re-release it as a new show.

      If only that were the only problem with B5. Among others, I would cite silly costumes, and, far worse, horrible acting (nearly rivaling first season TNG). Honestly, I can't watch five minutes of B5 without changing the channel in disgust. Sci-fi is about more than nifty plot lines in a futuristic world. It's also about people. Interesting, plausible people. And when the people are worn out cliches portrayed by second rate actors, the outcome is not pretty (for the record, I give TOS a pass on this as it was really a product of its time... B5 has no such excuse).

    10. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by maxume · · Score: 1

      The problem with Firefly was that the ratings didn't justify the production costs (especially relative to shows that cost far less to produce).

      An ardent fan base isn't nearly as interesting to a media conglomerate as broad viewership.

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
    11. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But aside from that, Firefly gave us a space show that was like Trek only in so much as there were spaceships -- everything else was as different from Trek as it was from other shows.

      Man, it was Buffy in space. Is that really a good thing?

      Does Joey Ratzinger wear funny hats?

      Yes, it's a good thing! (Buffy in space, I mean. I'm indifferent about the hats, though I hear some people like them.)

    12. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by petes_PoV · · Score: 1

      I'd say Firefly was a great model on how to do a space show that wasn't Trek but it died after a season.

      The lesson to be learned from that is to ignore the vocal, but insignificant (in terms of advertising revenue) fan base and go for mass appeal. In that respect, most people hated it - me included. It wasn't SF, it was cowboys and indians. Everyone saw through the veneer of space-ships (gotta be the biggest cliche out there) and recognised an embarrassingly bad script underneath.

      If you want a good premise for a Star Trek series, lose the warp-drive, transporters, phasers and other familiar paraphernalia and look at it from a new angle: say that of a lone-trader/explorer who takes contracts from the federation or maybe a political angle, rather than the, frankly, tired old weapons-based blast 'em approach. There's huge scope in the ST universe, it just needs writers with skill and imagination to use it in a different, more engaging, way.

      --
      politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    13. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Ecuador · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Aliens who look exactly like us save for bumpy foreheads?

      Well, at least they devoted a TNG episode to explaining that. Haven't you seen "The Chase"?

      --
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
    14. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by icebrain · · Score: 1

      I'd say Firefly was a great model on how to do a space show that wasn't Trek but it died after a season. I'm not really sure how that happened given the fan support, it must have just been Fox superdickery more than anything else.

      This. "Hey, let's run the episodes out of order, keep preempting it for other events, and not advertise it!" (later) "I wonder why nobody is watching it?"

      Reset button at the end of the episode, lame. Space anomalies, lame. Gritty scifi future with lots of angst, made lame by overexposure on Galactica. Aliens who look exactly like us save for bumpy foreheads? I could buy it when I was younger but it's just ridiculous these days. (I'll probably be in the minority on this one.) Time-travel plots, squishy techno-babble science plots, holodeck plots

      Agree. Modified-human aliens just kill it for me--give me something like Moties, or the bugs from Starship Troopers (the book). Something alien, in other words, if you must have extraterrestrial life. At least go for something non-humanoid.

      I like the dark, somewhat gritty stuff (BSG was great at first, good feel to it but got way too emo and supernatural by this last season). It's easy to overdo, though. And bright happy utopia futures are hard to swallow, too.

      The first time I saw the new trailer was this weekend. I was actually pretty excited about it--"captain of a starship for twelve minutes" had me thinking "wow, a new decent-sounding SF movie!". Then I found out it was the Trek reboot. It kind of killed my enthusiasm somewhat, but I think I'll actually make an effort to see this one once it's out on DVD. I just hope the Federation is a little less utopia-ish.

      --
      The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
    15. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by sukotto · · Score: 1

      Imagine you made a TV show about Han Solo before he and Chewie joined the Rebellion

      I would much rather watch that than a new Star Trek at this point. Damn that would be cool.

      --
      Come play free flash games on Kongregate!
    16. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did I know this would be a "BSG sucks, Babylon 5 rules" post before even getting halfway through the wall of text?

      Let it die, man. Babylon 5 was a great show, but it was a completely unique moment in television. It will NEVER happen again.

      And basing your expectations of science fiction on a show that was basically Lord of the Rings with aliens is utterly ridiculous. Babylon 5 has about as much in common with real science fiction as Battlestar Galactica does.

    17. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I'd say Firefly was a great model on how to do a space show that wasn't Trek

      I might say that if Firefly hadn't sucked. It was incredibly cheesy and stupid, I got sick of it after an episode.

      Galactica has good production values and good acting but the writing is a crime.

      I might say that if BSG wasn't the best-written show I've ever seen. Damn near every episode is top-notch, and the episodes that aren't are still really damn good. The show is all but perfect.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    18. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Jim+Hall · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You'd have to change the animal so much that it wouldn't seem recognizable. The old formula has become such a cliche that there's absolutely nothing you can reuse from it. Reset button at the end of the episode, lame. Space anomalies, lame. Gritty scifi future with lots of angst, made lame by overexposure on Galactica. Aliens who look exactly like us save for bumpy foreheads? I could buy it when I was younger but it's just ridiculous these days. (I'll probably be in the minority on this one.) Time-travel plots, squishy techno-babble science plots, holodeck plots, everything that makes Trek Trek is what's been killing it. It's like asking "Can we make a healthy Big Mac?" Yeah, and by the time you're done removing everything that's bad about that burger, you're left with nothing but lettuce and sesame seeds.

      As a fan, what I'd like to see is the Star Trek experience from another point of view. Don't keep giving us the "good guys", the Federation, with their Prime Directive.

      Give us a series based on, say, the Klingons (TNG era .. please skip the whole "TOS to TNG" evolution thing - TOS Klingons looked that way because of budget, that's it.) A story similar to Star Trek: Klingon would make a great pilot for a Klingon-based series - a young Klingon goes through the Rite of Ascension to become a true Warrior, joins a ship. Let the series experience the Star Trek universe through the lens of a young Klingon - not some goody Federation captain, which we've now seen more times than we need.

      As he experiences the universe as a Klingon warrior, so do we. Let a mentor show him the true path of a Klingon warrior. Show the audience the code of honor from the Klingons. Throw in some Klingon language (swearing in Klingon!)

      In this series, there's no Prime Directive. Very little diplomacy, no helping other cultures to better themselves. And it should go without saying: no journey of self-discovery, except for the central character as he learns what it means to be a true Klingon warrior.

      Hey, I'd watch that every week!

    19. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by riker1384 · · Score: 1

      I believe JMS addressed the question of re-doing the CGI. He said that they had lost all the 3D models, so they had no way of updating the graphics. They would have to do everything from scratch, and nothing would look exactly the same. There are also other issues, such as the prominent early-90's fashion in the early episodes. It looks pretty dated.

    20. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

      But aside from that, Firefly gave us a space show that was like Trek only in so much as there were spaceships -- everything else was as different from Trek as it was from other shows.

      Man, it was Buffy in space.

      How so? I mean, really, I've watched both series in their entirety more than once. How did Firefly have anything in common with Buffy?

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    21. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      Hmmm but you'd have to come up with some hokum about "regeneration" so you could recast the star every time he gets too big for his britches.

    22. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by rlgoer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Jollyreaper's posting is right on target.

      As soon as writers get a hold of a holodeck, an all-powerful being (Q), or time travel, you can kiss the show goodbye. It's like comedians making jokes about sex: Sure, sex jokes can be good, but all too often they just mean the comedian is running short on material, and because sex is an easy giggle, they seize on it. It becomes like a comedian's deus ex machina. With a holodeck or all-powerful being you get the same thing - almost a literal deus ex machina. And with time travel, that machine quickly reveals the writer's scientific and creative limitations, as he or she either ignores obvious paradoxes, or lamely explains them away.

      I sometimes wonder whether the reason why most SciFi series's all seem to go this sorry route is that the Writer's Guild limits, consciously, the show's ability to draw in fresh ideas. SciFi and Fantasy writing is hard, and takes imagination. And you can't just stick a bunch of writers in a room and expect them (without serious prodding and mining the outside world for new ideas) to avoid burbling on about sex, holodecks, time travel, space anomalies, and all the clichés they've come to be known for.

      I'm still wondering, though, when we can have space ships that don't bank and turn (like a plane in the atmosphere) or make 'noise' when they explode in the emptiness of space, and when we have a bridge with a window to the outside world that doesn't look like my neighbor's HD TV - but rather fills most or all of the room, and doesn't just point 'forward' (with other ships always approaching with an identical orientation). I understand that one has to make concessions to the realities of earth-bound production (e.g., everyone has to speak the same language, they need mostly to be humanoid, corridors on ships need to be big enough to accommodate cameras, etc.). But that shouldn't mean that all plots must be constructed around a bunch of hackneyed conventions.

      If SciFi is going to draw in new people, it really needs to go where no one has gone before, kinda like Firefly started to do (see the thread on Fox SciFi, though, for why that didn't happen).

      Of course, part of me knows, deep down, that the reason SciFi is often so stupid is that we ourselves are stupid. Or at least I am. I watch this stuff, after all.

      --
      ---- Richard L. Goerwitz III
    23. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by jambox · · Score: 1

      Disagree. The Star Trek universe still holds a great deal of appeal but the viewpoint of looking at it from the slightly dull position of inside a spaceship got tired. It's like trying to learn about Russia by visiting a Russian submarine. The problem that I have with your argument is that if you took away the spaceships you'd have a potentially exciting new series but still have a lot of star trek left.

      It was only ever budget that kept ST ship-bound. DS9 was often more interesting than Voyager or Enerprise because there was a sort of "neighbourhood" of the station, where things were going on all the time in the background. There was also the wider region of the delta quadrant that they could go out into for the occasional outside broadcast.

      That's another thing - OBs are great, but how do you do an OB of an alien world? Wildernesses are easy enough but how about cities? TNG would build some fairly dodgy sets then do a few matte paintings, which was ok but a bit cheap looking. Nowadays you could do almost everything with CG - but it would always look crappy next to Coruscant from the star trek prequels, unless you spent $50m per episode.

      Also, they really really have to drop the techno-babble. I saw a show about how they made Voyager once and apparently they leave big holes in the script and write in "[INSERT TECHNO-BABBLE]" and gave it to some dude who filled it in with inverse warp-bubble polarities. Just the worst sort of laziness and something they were still doing at the end of Enterprise.

      --
      You thought you could break the laws of physics without paying the PRICE?
    24. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by geobeck · · Score: 1

      It's like asking "Can we make a healthy Big Mac?" Yeah, and by the time you're done removing everything that's bad about that burger, you're left with nothing but lettuce and sesame seeds.

      Um, I hate to tell you this, but the variety of iceberg lettuce McDonald's uses has basically no nutritional value, and the pesticides sprayed on the sesame seeds, due to their small volume in relation to their surface area, make them more harmful than healthy.

      So really, you've got nothing left. Except for the exercise if you walk there. Actually, scratch that; the benefit of the walk is negated by the ground-level automotive pollution in the commercial area of your city.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    25. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Man, it was Buffy in space. Is that really a good thing?

      How, exactly, is this informative? Speaking as someone who loved the original movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fucking despised the TV show version of Buffy, and then righteously enjoyed Firefly (I didn't go see Serenity in the theater or anything though) I just can't see it at all - your comment is either a Troll or Flamebait. The only thing the two shows really have in common (besides the fact that there are only so many basic plots to go around - in a show with 13 episodes it's hard not to copy yourself at least once) is that they both have snarky dialogue, which is more about Gen-X writers marketing to generations X, Y and Z than anything else.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    26. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Green+Light · · Score: 1

      If I only knew what on

      earth you were talking about, and why your comment

      is formatted the way it is. And what is this about the salt shaker

      ? I must be way out of

      the loop on this one, I guess.

      --
      "Send an Instant Karma to me" - Yes
    27. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Well, at least they devoted a TNG episode to explaining that. Haven't you seen "The Chase"?

      As far as I know, Trek and Babylon 5 are the only sci-fi universes on television (the mass of textual sci-fi has practically everything in it someplace) that actually explain why all the aliens look the same. I think some show should just explain it away as being a convenient morphism, but I don't know that anyone has bothered to do that - too complicated for the Idiocratic viewership?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    28. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by tb3 · · Score: 1

      You might like this book. Brian Daley wrote three Han Solo prequels and they're collected in that volume. Good, old-fashioned, space opera.

      --

      www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance

    29. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't look exactly the same anyway, and a few things could stand a little improvement.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    30. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A ship of Orion Pirates could be a real buzz too.

      So far, they have always just been the convenient plot device for the ego stroking goodygoody captain to overcome to get more metal stuck on his lapels.

      I'd think the mostly anarchist order of operation for a coherent, rank-less pirate ship of REAL experts would be an interesting proving ground for a pilot series.

    31. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      Man, it was Buffy in space.

      How so? I mean, really, I've watched both series in their entirety more than once. How did Firefly have anything in common with Buffy?

      Didn't see Serenity, did you?

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    32. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      Babylon 5 was a great show, but it was a completely unique moment in television. It will NEVER happen again.

      Got that right, especially since the studio is still screwing JMS on his royalties. Damned Hollyweird accounting...

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    33. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by julesh · · Score: 1

      How so? I mean, really, I've watched both series in their entirety more than once. How did Firefly have anything in common with Buffy?

      Amazingly compelling characters who have a distinctive use of language that you pick up and start using yourself. Funny one-liners. Individual episode stories combined with over-arching season plot.

      So basically: they were both well written. Big surprise there.

    34. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      While there is certainly a group that would enjoy the show, the larger audiance would probably not be too interested with a cast of characters they cannot relate to (Kingon, not human).

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    35. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Wraithlyn · · Score: 1

      I used to think they were basically making up BSG entirely as they went (ie, they did indeed pull the "Final Five" out of their ass in season 3), but I'm not so sure now.

      I read in a recent interview that Ron Moore figured out how the series would end, half way through the first season. That's not too bad. Even JMS had to stay flexible for B5 (ie, taking Talia out and effectively replacing her with Lyta), you can't plan EVERYTHING out in advance.

      Anyway, I have somewhat renewed faith in BSG to pull out an epic, brilliant, planned well in advance ending. Guess we'll know in a couple weeks.

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    36. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if Buffy gets played by Summer Glau.

    37. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are not the only one, I am sick of time travel plots. Other peeves are the mirror universe crap and the shows wasted on explaining why the klingons looked human for all of TOS all because Berman thought it would be touching if DS9 went back in time to TOS episode. I could have just accepted that make up cost money!

    38. Re:How do you reinvent Trek? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, because all races coming from the same genetic material means our bodies will be more-or-less the same shape. That must be true because all life on Earth is humanoid.

      The fact is Star Trek was a TV show with characters played by human actors, so it was most convenient for the aliens to be humanoid. Trying to come up with a convoluted explanation of why most intelligent life is humanoid is pointless.

  18. Now, I love Pushing Daisies... by 91degrees · · Score: 2, Funny

    And I think this is a good thing, but I can't help hearing the voice of the pushing Daisies narrator doing the classic Trek introduction.

    "Our five year 3 days and 32 minute minute mission..."

  19. No no no ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    with the style and impact of Fringe or Lost.

    No! Please no! Not another series with a never-ending, meandering story arc constantly redeveloped by a committee of writers that doesn't go anywhere.

    Go back to the original ST where each episode stood by itself and was written by people with good ideas that weren't interested in developing a space soap opera. Let's get some action and adventure like the new Dr Who and not "The Bold and The Beautiful"in space.

    1. Re:No no no ! by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1

      Go back to the original ST where each episode stood by itself and was written by people with good ideas that weren't interested in developing a space soap opera.

      Um, but Star Trek is a space opera and there essentially was a story arch in TOS, it was just canceled by the network before it had time to fully develop. That's at least part of what the movies were about.

    2. Re:No no no ! by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

      Go back to the original ST where each episode stood by itself and was written by people with good ideas that weren't interested in developing a space soap opera.

      Um, but Star Trek is a space opera and there essentially was a story arch in TOS, it was just canceled by the network before it had time to fully develop. That's at least part of what the movies were about.

      What do you mean by "arch"?

      <doorway and computer console appears out of thin air>

      Well, shit.

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  20. "It wasn't too bad." :) by khasim · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And that is the problem. Look at how bad it really was. Not in comparison to even worse shows. But in comparison to GOOD shows.

    They had set up a really interesting concept ... and then totally neutered it. Everyone on the ship were best friends. Even though a large chunk of the crew had declared their own war. And the ship somehow kept getting repaired. And the borg were suddenly very weak. And do we really want to go into time travel?

    Now compare that to Firefly's only season. Some of the crew did not like other members of the crew. The captain was not perfect. They had to work to keep the ship flying.

    1. Re:"It wasn't too bad." :) by Anubis350 · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure your comparison is apt. It's kinda like saying "let's see what happens when we toss a US ship of the line into an unknown sea" vs. "what happens when we toss an undermanned, beat up merchant freighter into an unknown sea".

      Even worse, since they're in difference universes, the navy ship has the ability to press it's own oil from shale it finds, create food incredibly cheaply, and has a ready supply of spare parts if anything breaks - the merchant doesnt

      --
      "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
    2. Re:"It wasn't too bad." :) by Tetsujin · · Score: 2, Funny

      Even worse, since they're in difference universes, the navy ship has the ability to press it's own oil from shale it finds, create food incredibly cheaply, and has a ready supply of spare parts if anything breaks - the merchant doesnt

      You lost me. Maybe you could try a car analogy?

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
    3. Re:"It wasn't too bad." :) by geobeck · · Score: 1

      Maybe you could try a car analogy?

      Okay...

      Firefly = 1980s Hyundai - They didn't have much, but they survived on smarts and a vehicle that could be repaired with duct tape and baling twine.

      Voyager = 2000s GM - How the hell have they survived to this point?

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    4. Re:"It wasn't too bad." :) by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Voyager = 2000s GM - How the hell have they survived to this point?

      Obviously the same way in both cases - it's a giant conspiracy.

      (When companies are allowed to become "too big to be allowed to fail" you know some big fucking money is changing hands. Especially when the solution isn't to put someone in charge who will actually get shit done. When a bad TV show is allowed to remain on the air, you know some undeserved blowjobs are occurring.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  21. Not sure about the reboot. by neokushan · · Score: 1

    As excited as I am for the new film (And this is from someone who was never a fan of TOS), I'm not sure continuing on the reboot with a new series is such a good idea.
    I don't feel the Star Trek universe is in any way "finished", 2 of it's most successful incarnations had nothing to do with the Enterprise, while one of them that did was a near-failure on nearly all fronts. There's a lot of scope left there that could easily be looked into.

    My issue with the reboot is that it's set to create two completely different star trek universes, which I feel will do more harm than good. It'd be like George Lucas recreating Star Wars, with all the same characters, except in an alternate universe. Sure, it might be a bit cool as a one-off, ala Superman growing up in the USSR, but if you run with it, you end up dividing the fanbase.

    --
    +1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
  22. more ToS would be a step backwards by petes_PoV · · Score: 1
    The original series was all about shoot it, kill it, destroy it.

    I had hoped that,as a society we had matured past this fear of the unknown or different. Maybe not.

    However, to produce a more thoughtful, TNG-like series does require more writing talent that simply the ability to produce cheap thrills from excess body-counts (heroes: are you listening? thought not). In the current climate, the money people might just decide to fall back on the old blood and thunder recipe just to scrape some extra revenue, rather than pick up the chance to produce good television.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
    1. Re:more ToS would be a step backwards by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The original series was fantastically uneven. At the high end it was unmatched by anything that followed with episodes like Amok Time, City on the Edge of Forever, Devil in the Dark etc. At the low end, well it made me want to hurl chunks.

      A common thread between many of these great episodes was great writing be authors like Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon. Bring in some good writers from Sci Fi and you will have great episodes again.

      TNG was more even but never reached the heights of the great ToS episodes. Brent Spiner though was terrific.

      Enterprise was mostly crap, but the 4th season where they reverted back to the old ToS/TNG formula it was pretty good. Of course by then everyone had given up on the series so it was too late.

  23. Worked on Voyager? Woof. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hand the franchise over to Ron Moore and brace for awesome.

  24. I saw Janeway by gizmo2199 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Rather, Kate Mulgrew entering a restaurant near Times Square a couple of months back.

    I heard the voice then I did a double take, and sure enough it was her.

    She looked old.

    I was tempted to go in and say hi, but I'm not that much of a geek.

    --
    This Sig does not Exist.
    1. Re:I saw Janeway by dr_dank · · Score: 4, Funny

      Rather, Kate Mulgrew entering a restaurant near Times Square a couple of months back.

      I heard the voice then I did a double take, and sure enough it was her.

      She looked old

      That was really Admiral Janeway who came from an alternate timeline to dine at Olive Garden.

      Fun fact: the ablative hull armor is actually made of stale Olive Garden breadsticks.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
    2. Re:I saw Janeway by discord5 · · Score: 1

      I was tempted to go in and say hi, but I'm not that much of a geek.

      You recognized her from her voice alone, and titled your post "I saw Janeway" instead of "I saw Kate Mulgrew".

      Stop kidding yourself, you are a geek :)

  25. Hmm... by kabocox · · Score: 1

    I'd actually prefer something like this be made and sold straight to DVD. I think Star Trek or Star Wars both could easily sell just about any show that they produced straight to DVD. They'd manage 3-4 seasons without a sweat. Actually, I think that it's far past time for a Star Wars TV series.

    I've always liked Trek, but it's felt bland for awhile. They are always presented as being one thing but very soon they all bring out their Kirk side. This refers to every federation leader that we've seen.

    I miss B5. I feel that it managed to set a standard that Star Trek should easily be able to match or better. I mean come on any Trek series should be able to make it 5 seasons. They should easily be able to add those little background things B5 had to pull it all together. If anything, I've been kinda disappointed in Trek lately.

    It's kinda sad that the series wants to return to its roots and go out to find hot alien women.

  26. Like what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fringe? I don't thing any trekkie wants ST to be similar to Fringe. Fringe ignores word 'science' in SF :P

    1. Re:Like what? by uberhobo_one · · Score: 4, Funny

      Fringe ignores word 'science' in SF :P

      I wish that's all Fringe did. Unfortunately, the writers of Fringe kidnapped, beat, and sodomized science in front of it's own children. Then, when done, gave each other high-fives for doing such a great job.

      It's like they have some kind of scientific buzzword dartboard in their office that they use to write the jargon that their characters use.

    2. Re:Like what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fringe ignores word 'science' in SF :P

      EVERYBODY ignores the word 'science'. When was the last time you saw any SF that had ANY scientific plausibility at all? Since Kubrik's 2001? B5 had some Newtonian flight mechanics, but that's pretty much it.

  27. It'll fail by Sqreater · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They just don't get it anymore. But I'll say it anyway. Science fiction and superhero comics are about satisfying male adolescent psychology. Stray from that with ass-kicking females wielding blasters and you will crash and burn. No female captains. No ass kicking female aliens. Male to male conflict. Have a strong, even arrogant male lead who is the ONE WHO IS QUICKER, SMARTER, almost all the time. It is NOT a group effort. It is about a superior male captain. Look to the original Kirk. Note that Spiderman succeeded and made a LOT of money. Unsure adolescent male becomes confident, capable, and powerful when he puts on the spiderman personality. And he saves the FEMALE....who does not kick his butt anywhere in the movies. Nor does she somehow acquire powers of her own to satisfy modern Political Correctness. As for a Vulcan, the Vulcan MUST be a blend of Vulcan and Human. It is not optional. The Vulcan exists entirely to explore human psychological and social truths. By itself, a Vulcan is a piece of cardboard.

    One more point of many more I could make. Science fiction has taken the depressing direction of the failure of humanity. Star Trek I was about the success of mankind. Get back to that. Apparently "serious" series makers did not feel very adult making a story in which mankind succeeds. Ok, do it again. Get them lost. Get them destroyed. Get them wandering around. Make the characters "real" by making them mean, nasty, slutty, jerks. Make them inferior and struggling. Have the female characters engage in comments about how stupid, inferior, ridiculous, juvenile male motivations and behavior are. Fail as a series.

    Oh, and don't engage in the ridiculous, like making a holographic doctor or having an alien doctor who knows more about human medicine than humans. Jeesh, who came up with that grating piece of nonsense? Someone making a job for a friend? And the sick bay should not be bigger and more technologically advanced than the bridge. etc etc etc.

    The future will be more of the same, only different. Remember that.

    --
    E Proelio Veritas.
    1. Re:It'll fail by emurphy42 · · Score: 1

      And the sick bay should not be bigger and more technologically advanced than the bridge.

      Second point granted. First point? Um, you might sometimes need to treat more people at once than a standard bridge complement.

    2. Re:It'll fail by digitalhermit · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uh, yeah.

      I enjoy strong female characters. Wishy-washy girls are damn boring. Give me a woman who can kick my ass when I try to grab hers and I'm hers. She needs to be intellectually and emotionally bad-ass too. Hell, if she can understand the DCTs behind that JPEG and adjust the DoF for optimum bokeh while she takes a picture of her kickboxing team, then I'll make my case to be her man.

      It's one thing to be with a gentle little thing just out of college... It's another thing entirely to get down with a woman who knows what she wants. Want to make an unsure adolescent male confident? Don't let him wrestle with rabbits (hah, like the recent Heroes episode).. Give him tigers.

      I agree with the rest though. Television has been emasculated. I enjoy Dystopia though... Against the backdrop of crumbling civilization, the gems that are the future of mankind stand out.

    3. Re:It'll fail by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 1

      This is one of those rare posts that requires a +6 Insightful moderation. You said a lot of things that needed to be said, political correctness be damned.

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
    4. Re:It'll fail by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The Vulcan exists entirely to explore human psychological and social truths.

      A pure vulcan allows us to explore some different themes than a half-breed. I suspect that Spock was made what he was in response to the issues of the times. By making a mixed-blood character central to the series, Roddenberry was able to examine the issue of mixed-race members of our own society. They put a black woman on the bridge for the same reason - it was not a popular decision at the time. Whether you believe it has been for good or ill, the practical necessity of having a mixed-race cast today came from pioneers like Roddenberry.

      Anyway, this is a digression; the point is that with a full Vulcan you can now examine the cultural shock of integrating someone from an extremely different culture into your society, a timely message indeed in a nation (where the show is made) which has seemingly forgotten once again that it is a land peopled primarily by immigrants. (Without attempting to defend attempts at genocide, the "native" Americans came from somewhere else too; we are all "Out of Africa".

      By itself, a Vulcan is a piece of cardboard.

      We have seen that indeed Vulcans do have emotions et cetera, which they tend to keep in check. Maybe they should bring in a Romulan character, that would be a nice foil to a Vulcan. I know that this suggestion is heresy to a lot of people - you people can go get a life. It's just a TV show.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:It'll fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Preach it, brother.

    6. Re:It'll fail by Sqreater · · Score: 1

      The CEO gets the biggest office and the more advanced toys. It is not about reality; it is about perception. The center of focus is the CAPTAIN of the Enterprise, not the doctor.

      --
      E Proelio Veritas.
    7. Re:It'll fail by Sqreater · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you need a dominatrix. Most guys don't.

      --
      E Proelio Veritas.
  28. Wait a decade before thinking about it by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Wait until 10 years after the last cancellation before thinking about a new TV show. If there is pent-up demand, you've ensured yourself of success even if the product is mediocre. If there's not, don't waste your time.

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  29. I vote for Kirk and Spock by tjstork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Frankly the whole charm of the TOS was that it wasn't -that- far into the future, and the basic characters just worked.

    By creating Kirk and Spock and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise, Roddenberry gave us the modern equivalent of a Hercules myth. We can milk Kirk and Spock for two thousands years, and, if we are as good as the Greeks, we should.

    And frankly, I'm sick of all the darkness in present science fiction. Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it. Humanity can improve, and will improve, and having a series that reminds us of what our future could be, if we chose to do it, and reminds us of our ongoing moral obligations, is a damned fine thing.

    Sick of all these moral halfwits running around in sci-fi these days. Poor Adam's crying again on Galactica. Big woosy. Poor Col Tigh's drinking again, and he's a fricking Cylon. That show had all sorts of promise and then they made Adam cry all the time and Tigh into a Cylon. What the frak is that. I'm sick of complexity in characters. I want -Gods-.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:I vote for Kirk and Spock by nevillethedevil · · Score: 2, Interesting

      And frankly, I'm sick of all the darkness in present science fiction. Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it.

      Well said. This was one of Gene's original themes in TOS. He created it with the idea that maybe, just maybe, we as a species were going to make it. Star Trek was always at it's best when it had a message (which Voyager tried to rehash but just came off as preachy).

      --
      Be gone from my sight or prepare to feel my flaming wraith!
    2. Re:I vote for Kirk and Spock by Kjella · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And frankly, I'm sick of all the darkness in present science fiction. Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it. Humanity can improve, and will improve, and having a series that reminds us of what our future could be, if we chose to do it, and reminds us of our ongoing moral obligations, is a damned fine thing.

      Autonomous computers happened. Before, technology was more or less always operated by humans. To "Go where no man has gone before" got the addendum "but where a workforce of robots have photographed the landing site, built the base, commmunicated with any natives and so on." Look at the Mars rovers, when do you think we'll ever get there? By the time humans come along it'll have been poked, prodded and probed in pretty much every way and the passengers close to tourists (ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit).

      While leaders have managed to rally the people into committing great atrocities before, but computers are obidient to a fault, never corrupt, never work against the system from the inside and has no moral problems doing anything. When people controlled people there'd always be a ratio of controllers to the controlled, but with computers you can have thousands of computers controlling each person.

      Nobody would believe you could have people listening in to every phone conversation. It'd require absurd amounts of manpower just recording and putting it all together before armies of analysts would work on it. But hooking up a supercomputer to the network backbone to do all that is credible. According to some sources, the NSA might already have done it.

      Technology makes our lives incredibly convienient which is why we we're giving it all up to computers more or less under our control. I like that I can carry a piece of plastic instead of fiddling with change and have it mapped right into my online bank where I can pull it right into some financial planning. My cell phone tracks me everywhere I go because I find the ability to make or recieve calls convienient. Honestly I'd be seriously creeped out if anyone knew exactly where I was at all times, so in ways I trust the cell phone operator more than I trust any person.

      The more I've seen of technology, the more I think it'd be like Star Trek minus the Enterprise, just the replicators and holodeck back on earth. Or the "I, Robot" movie before the takeover or "Well-E". Technology does the hard stuff and most humans are perfectly happy just enjoying life without making any significant contribution to anything. The only interesting story is someone turning all that convienience against us, which leads to dark sci-fi.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    3. Re:I vote for Kirk and Spock by geobeck · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it.

      Please give me directions to the world you live in, because it doesn't sound a lot like mine, where scientific discovery is telling me that the chlorinated organic chemicals we've been spewing out for the last half century are polluting most of our dwindling supply of fresh water, resulting in the next generation of people having shorter life expectancies than their parents for the first time, where advances in genetics are used by giant companies to patent life forms to use to engineer pesticide-resistant crops for the main purpose of encouraging industrialized farmers to use more pesticide (produced by those same companies) and to introduce terminator genes into agricultural crops so farmers will be forced to buy seed every year instead of replanting, where the rapid advances in computer technology encourage users to buy new computers and cell phones at least once a year, generating huge amounts of electronic waste that end up clogging landfills or causing dangerous levels of air pollution in the third world, and where the biggest proponent of climate science has half the world convinced that an incremental increase in global temperature is the worst thing we have to worry about.

      I'd really like to live in a world where science gives people a real reason to be optimistic, because it seems to be doing the opposite in this world.

      --
      Find environmentally and socially responsible products on http://buy-right.net
    4. Re:I vote for Kirk and Spock by Rennt · · Score: 1

      And frankly, I'm sick of all the darkness in present science fiction. Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it. Humanity can improve, and will improve, and having a series that reminds us of what our future could be, if we chose to do it, and reminds us of our ongoing moral obligations, is a damned fine thing.

      I really don't know about all that, I can't recall a real 'Hard' SF show. Ever. Technology can improve, will improve, but there is no guarantee that humans will. It is not the job of SF to coddle us and tell us that the future is rosy. It should say "Look at this! you don't want the future to look like this do you? This is where we are headed!"

    5. Re:I vote for Kirk and Spock by discord5 · · Score: 1

      Science is advancing more all the time and if there was ever a time for optimism based on a scientific society, NOW is it.

      I love star trek, but if there's one thing that annoys me endlessly about it is that it's an overly optimistic setting. Sure, the quality of life in the universe will increase, but Star Trek's attitude of "Oh lol, we eliminated monies because today we work for the betterment of ourselves" is just ... naive?

      "Oh, but don't worry, we've got the gold-pressed latinum loving ferengi."
      "So wait a minute, you've got something that acts like a currency?"
      "No, we work for the betterment.."
      "Oh shush"

  30. What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by beinh0wer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it would be a nice twist if they created a new show about Starfleet Academy. Set it in the post Nemesis Star Trek universe so as not to step on the toes of either TOS, TNG, or the JJ Abrams reboot. The story could follow the life of a select group of cadets through the rigors and trials of attending and graduating from the Academy. Would definitely allow them to provide a more 'human' look at the Star Trek universe while still getting technical enough to appease the Trekkies. Another benefit is that at the end of the show's run at the Academy, we would have a new crew, fresh out of the Academy to put on a starship for a 5 year mission and see them grow through the ranks.

    --
    "There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -AE
    1. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by rotide · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I understand where you are coming from, but no thank you. I just see an Academy series simply degrading into another 90210 or any of the multitude of other "kids in school/college" shows that are/were out in force.

      I mean seriously, we have enough shows dramatizing the trials and tribbleations of kids in school.

    2. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Think well about that. Do you really, really, REALLY want a show made up of Wesley clones?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by beinh0wer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well the big difference is that they are star fleet cadets and not Tori Spelling. :) I see what you mean, though. I don't think Dawson's Creek in the Star Trek universe is what anyone wants. I still think if done right, this could be a big hit. The cadets at Starfleet Academy are there because they are the best and brightest minds, with aspirations to become starfleet officers not some high school bimbo driving daddy's Mercedes and hanging out at the mall. Think Nova Squadron, Basic Warp Design, and a Military Academy as opposed to Beverly Hills high school, prom, and cellphones.

      --
      "There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -AE
    4. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by NCG_Mike · · Score: 1

      I oddly thought of Big Brother as I was reading your post.

    5. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by porcupine8 · · Score: 1

      Given how difficult it seemed to be to even get into Starfleet Academy when Wesley was trying to get in, it would be a show about the four or five most brilliant teenagers in the entire universe and that's it.

      Seriously, on rewatching TNG, it seems completely impossible that hundreds of Enterprise crewmembers made it through the Academy when it takes Wesley several tries to get in, and at one point seems to be competing with other child prodigies for one spot.

      But assuming they have no problem throwing out that bit of bad writing, I think that would be a really cool show.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    6. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean seriously, we have enough shows dramatizing the trials and tribbleations of kids in school.

      Heh you said Tribble.

    7. Re:What about a show about Starfleet Academy? by Glytch · · Score: 1

      Are we talking about "gee whiz, golly gee, captain!" rainbow-uniform Wesley, or "to hell with regulations, to hell with the prime directive and to hell with starfleet!" badass cosmic starwalker Wesley?

      If the latter, then yes. Yes we do.

  31. Mulligans are ok by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe I have a bit too much of my mother in me. Dunno. But watching that trailer make me choke up a bit.

    The wife and I were sitting on the couch recently and we were talking about how we used to go to the movies in the 80s and you had an original B movie every week. We spoke about how there hasn't been a good space movie recently and how that genre seemed dead.

    Trek and Terminator Salvation came up. We spoke about how even old ideas can instill excitement. She's not a terminator fan. She's been watching Sarah Connor Chronicles with me and said: "The new Terminator should have TV ads where it looks like a genuine product ad - maybe it would be a real product ad. Then as happy man is on the train or as wife is brushing her teeth the terminator appears violently and briefly. Fade to black with the word. "It is inevitable, prepare." Reboots can be done right.

    Old ideas can have new life. Modernise it, make it timely. Trek can do this. It was the first show to do a lot of things and can do it again. Bring it.

  32. The end of Star Trek? by readin · · Score: 1

    Fuller wrote twenty one Star Trek episodes over four years, two in Deep Space Nine's final season, and the rest for Voyager.

    So the guy wrote 19 episodes of Voyager? I worry that if runs a new TV series, it could be the final nail in Star Trek's coffin.

    --
    I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
  33. technology and race inflation by peter303 · · Score: 1

    Each series had to trump the previous with more fantastic technology and odder races.
    This became kind of weird int he prequel series Enterprise.

  34. No more previous Star Trek timelines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, Trek has always been about "boldly going forward" so WHY, after the miserable failure that Enterprise was (IMHO), are they continuing going back yet again. I mean, even in Enterprise, the enemy was a time traveler!

    Go forward, not back.

    1. Re:No more previous Star Trek timelines by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 1

      I say they make one that starts way before TOS or Enterprise. Or First Contact. Or the present day. It'd be Star Trek set on 1920s Earth, with no space ships, no alien races, or even the vague understanding of space travel. Just a bunch of people walking around a recreation of the 1920s.

      --
      The Internet is generally stupid
    2. Re:No more previous Star Trek timelines by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

      I believe HBO had a Star Trek series like that, except it was set in the 1880s and involved a camp full of foul-mouthed miners.

    3. Re:No more previous Star Trek timelines by Keebler71 · · Score: 1

      didn't they do that in TNG?

      --
      "It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
  35. cliff notes for Babylon 5 - already suggested by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As a long time Babylon 5 fan, it has already been suggested that a Cliff Notes version using Londo as the main focus of the show be done to shorten the investment time for new viewers... It didn't go well with the purists, but still an idea someone can persue in the future... FYI Babylon 5 was filmed in High Definision and letter box format, so the whole thing could be redone from the CGI side in HD without recasting the actors.

    1. Re:cliff notes for Babylon 5 - already suggested by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      Except that the acting was done for 4:3, so you have large 16:X shots with 3-4 people standing right next to each other in the middle.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    2. Re:cliff notes for Babylon 5 - already suggested by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      Except that the "acting" was done for 4:3

      There, fixed that for you. ;)

    3. Re:cliff notes for Babylon 5 - already suggested by Phroggy · · Score: 1

      Heh, yeah, Season 1 was especially bad. Somehow the show managed to kick ass though, even with the bad acting - I think it's because it was such a refreshing change from Star Trek.

      Human nature remains unchanged, capitalism still thrives, politicians are still corrupt, poverty is still an issue but we still ignore it, the military doesn't try to pretend that they're not a military, the laws of physics still work (even gravity and inertia), the uniforms are practical, and most importantly, several of the main characters hate each other. Star Trek has none of these things.

      B5 did compromise on having sound in space, though. It was a conscious choice they made for dramatic effect, but kudos to Firefly for making the better choice.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  36. The future not the past by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why a full remake or prequel. If the stories are good remake those but change the time/place to that of the new series.

    Personally I think a fall-rebirth of the federation setting would make for the most interesting series.

    Oh and can someone interest HBO in making it/paying for it so that the episodes are more then 40min long!

  37. The Starlost by camperdave · · Score: 1

    It might be interesting to redo The Starlost. For those who have never seen it, the show is set on Earthship Ark. The ship was sent off into space because the Earth was going to be destroyed. It is a huge ship consisting of a network of interconnected biodomes. Each dome takes about three days to walk across, and sealed within each dome is a human settlement. Unfortunately, the ship was struck by an asteroid which destroyed the bridge and knocked the ship off course. Instead of taking a small handful of generations to get to the destination, the ship has been drifting for centuries, and is now on a collision course with a star. The biodome inhabitants have lost all concept of being on a ship. Each settlement developed differently.

    One particular biodome, has become vaguely Amish: technologically backward, agrarian, and totalitarian. Three of these people manage to find their way out of their dome. They wander the interconnecting tubes, and discover the truth about the ship. The series follows their journey of discovery.

    Although the concept was great (thanks to Harlan Ellison, author of ST-TOS:City on the Edge of Forever, and one of the main conceptual people behind Babylon 5), the cheap budgets and lousy effects capabilities of 1970s videotape technologies made the original series into one of the worst SF shows in history. Even worse than Space 1999. With today's tech, and with a proper budget, I think this show might make a decent series.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    1. Re:The Starlost by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      Just read about it, thanks for the link. I would totally watch this. Although the Amish-esque nature of the main characters is not my cup of tea, the premise is great. Somebody needs to make this.

    2. Re:The Starlost by camperdave · · Score: 1
      I love the description on the website:

      Meticulously and lovingly devised by the brilliance of Harlan Ellison and thought out to perfection by Scientific Advisor Ben Bova, the series promised to be a monumental step for SF television. Ellison had contracted great SF writers such as A.E. Van Vogt, Frank Herbert, Joanna Russ, Thomas M. Disch, Alexei Panshin, Phillip K. Dick, and Ursula K. Le Guin to write storylines that would be scripted by the best Canadian writers available. Douglas Trumbull would be Executive Producer and create the special effects via the Magicam system.

      It looked good. It sounded good. It fell apart.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    3. Re:The Starlost by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      The concept is certainly intersting enough. Hopefully they will redo the series.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    4. Re:The Starlost by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 1

      While a game rather than a TV show or movie... Phantasy Star III had the same concept of a large biodome equipped ship that had lost it's bridge and the cultures within the biodomes developed in their own unique ways having lost the concept of being within a ship. It also followed 3 generations of characters (with options determining which path the following generation would tread). Based on PSIII I think the idea has potential...

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
  38. Star Trek Christmas Special by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the series really needs to reboot is a Christmas special starring Bea Arthur.

    1. Re:Star Trek Christmas Special by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      No, since Harvey Korman died, the show just wouldn't work.

  39. Yes more like TOS - W/ Kirk putting his boots ALOT by spineboy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I liked the TOS, because there was much more of an unknown quality to the enemies - Spock was distrusted by many crew members, WTF were Romulans? - oh SH*T they look like Spock.
    I much prefer the renegrade style, wild west Kirk, than Tea and Crumpets Pickard (although he is damn good)

    Yes - weekly defeats with the Federation in jeopardy would be quite tense and exciting to watch.

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
  40. Re:Yes more like TOS - W/ Kirk putting his boots A by ImpShial · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yes - weekly defeats with the Federation in jeopardy....

    Was a regular thing during the last few seasons of DS9.

    --
    I gave up religion for Lent.
  41. Have David Lynch direct? by spineboy · · Score: 1

    That would be too much fun

    --
    ..........FULL STOP.
  42. I'd watch it by gijoel · · Score: 1

    But only if the show's main character is a mild mannered pie maker on the Enterprise. And his childhood sweetheart was a red shirt sent on an away mission... well you know what happens next.

    Of course if this was on the enterprise the sweetheart would probably be promoted to nurse and seduced by Kirk. Which would mean she would end up dead anyway. So no big change in the basic premise.

  43. Let it rest by 0racle · · Score: 1

    One of the things that let TNG be fun to watch and have good stories was the fact there was ~20 years between TOS being canceled and TNG starting. There were no writers that were stuck in a Star Trek mindset, there was time for writers to have new experiences. On the other hand, you had TNG, DS9 and Voyager all slamed together to the point that the writing ended up all the same and, especially with Voyager, they just did the same stories that had come before.

    Let Star Trek rest. If it ever comes back, and there really is no law saying it has to, let it come back in 10 or more years.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    1. Re:Let it rest by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 1

      Let Star Trek rest. If it ever comes back, and there really is no law saying it has to

      Actually, there is. IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (of star trek episodes).

      We're in this for the long haul whether we like it or not, boys and girls.

      --
      Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  44. Abrams by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

    "If J.J. Abrams' reboot is successful (and the latest trailer suggests it will be!) perhaps we'll see him involved with a new Star Trek TV show with the style and impact of Fringe or Lost."

    Oh, you mean it will start off with a compelling premise, but it will eventually become clear that the writers are just making shit up as they go, and soon everyone (Abrams included) will have given up on it and moved on to the next new, compelling premise?

  45. post-Federation trek by goettel · · Score: 1

    Fuller had his shot on Voyager. 'Nuff said. Give us trek set in a post-Federation setting, where "the Borg ripped the Federoni's a new one, leaving small pockets of survivors to fight both the hive and other survivors for resources". Or something. At least give us trek set passed TNG, not more awful rewriting a la Enterprise.

    1. Re:post-Federation trek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or bring back the Daleks... uuups another show, sorry ;-)

  46. Dawson's Trek, raping your childhood by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The new ST movie looks like it was designed by committee on the basis of focus groups. It absolutely will rape the childhood of everyone who grew up with TOS in favor of a flashy, good-looking "Dawson's Trek". It fucks continuity twelve ways from Sunday.

    The reason TOS was great was the chemistry between Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley, not Kirk, Spock and McCoy. That sort of fortunate casting doesn't come along very often. Finally, if this film is a complete reboot, then Nimoy shouldn't appear; the future is also rebooted. That constrains the storylines in order to lead to the TNG era. It would make much more sense to just reboot and follow it's own storyline from then on out.

    No, we're gonna get a teenage love drama. Pfah.

  47. Why not RDM? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Voyager was a terrible moment in the Star Trek franchise - someone who was heavily involved with it SHOULD NOT be put in charge of the new series.

    It's honestly amazing to me that they haven't tapped Ronald D. Moore for the new movie / T.V. show. Battlestar Galactica may not be earning incredible ratings, but it's certainly been more sucessful than Enterprise and it has earned critical rave reviews. His involvement in TNG and DS9 lead to some of the best episodes of those respective series, and I think it is telling that Moore jumped ship after just a few episodes on Voyager.

    I don't necessarily think the new movie / show is going to suck - to be honest, I haven't seen much of J.J Abrams work and I know very little about Fuller. But Moore's track record has shown that he can do sci fi extremely well, and his history with Star Trek makes him the logical (pun only somewhat intended) choice to head the franchise.

  48. Not to launch a copywrite rant... but... by hellfire · · Score: 1

    From a legal standpoint, this is why long copywrites are bad. A lot of people look at the legal implications, but I've been a big fan of the creative implications. Instead of trying to create a brand new story and brand new content, the entire movie industry is trying to find ways of rehashing old ideas. 40 years later, instead of a new series, Paramount is trying to milk trek for all it's worth. Andromeda was actually an interesting series. A little crazy at times, not perfect, but it was a new idea, and it was allowed to stand and succeed or fail on it's own.

    No one is taking enough risks. Sure, you might think creating the Watchmen movie a "risk" but is it really? You have a guarenteed fanbase who will walk in the door and make you money even if they don't like the movie, because once they have their ticket, they most likely won't ask for a refund if it sucked. Watchmen is riskier than Wolverine or Spiderman, but it's still nothing compared to creating a brand new world from scratch... actually making something new up!

    If we could reform the law to cut off all existing copywrites to end in twenty years from now, and then give copywrite to new works for only 20 years, I think we'd break this "monopoly" on content major media corporations have, and they'd be forced to go out and look for new ideas constantly rather than try to rehash the old ones every 15 years for a "new audience," creating this monoculture that somehow Trek is so great that we must continue to remind you of it. Trek in the 60s was brilliant, and ground breaking. Now, it's 40 years old. Let us remember it for what it was, and stop beating us about the head with it, I don't need help remembering it.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

    1. Re:Not to launch a copywrite rant... but... by oDDmON+oUT · · Score: 1

      "If we could reform the law to cut off all existing copywrites to end in twenty years from now, and then give copywrite to new works for only 20 years, I think we'd break this "monopoly"..."

      Better yet make it 10 years, or five. Sidereal time is so 20th century.

      The movie-to-DVD/Bluray-to-PayTV-to-BroadcastTV-to-LateNightSyndication interval has dropped to near nothing, the copyright length should as well.

      There is absolutely nothing that says a corporation should be able to milk a property in perpetuity.

      --
      Some days it's just not worth
      chewing through my restraints.
    2. Re:Not to launch a copywrite rant... but... by porcupine8 · · Score: 1

      How on earth would that help this problem?? Paramount losing the copyright on TOS would have absolutely no impact whatsoever on their ability to create a new star trek series. Whoever owns the copyright on, say, Starsky & Hutch losing it would not have prevented the S&H movie being made - in fact, it just would have made it EVEN EASIER for any studio to grab it, without paying anyone a licensing fee!

      A copyright ending does not mean that the original author/owner can no longer create things based on the original material - it just means that when other people made derivative stuff, they don't have to pay that person. It would make it easier to rehash old ideas, not harder.

      --
      Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
    3. Re:Not to launch a copywrite rant... but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Copyright, not copywrite. Maroon.

    4. Re:Not to launch a copywrite rant... but... by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      How on earth would that help this problem?? Paramount losing the copyright on TOS would have absolutely no impact whatsoever on their ability to create a new star trek series.

      Talk to the Senator from Disney about that. What a copyright can do, due to its granting of a 'monopoly', is keep everybody else away from the 'playground'. Copyright holders are under no obligation to grant licenses to use their work. For an example of that, watch this if you can find it. And with lawsuits flying left and right, what's a creative person to do?

      Some of the 'Fan Trek' series are absolute utter shit. But there's some diamonds in there, too. Imagine if they were allowed to actually make enough money to keep their series afloat. Different writers/directors/actors/etc bring different things to the table. Diversity can be good

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  49. Just continue ST:ENT. by Jupix · · Score: 2

    Honestly, it was the most interesting piece of Star Trek since TNG. Implement some DS9 continuity and I think it could be really successful. Just my two cents.

  50. I Hope This Means by aquatone282 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I hope this means the Captain gets to bang a lot of hot alien babes again.

    And if the Captain is a woman, so much the better.

    --
    What?
  51. "The Traveller" as an example of good Trek? by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    "(But not Warp 10 retarded shit VOY broke out)"

    Then you must find the warp 12(or something ridiculous like that) even more absurd and that happened during TNG(with the traveler).

    Are you trying to make some kind of point here?

    I mean that wasn't an especially good episode... And I'm not normally a Wesley-hater, but incidentally that was also the episode where we learn that Wesley isn't like the other boys, Wesley is special...

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
    1. Re:"The Traveller" as an example of good Trek? by Daimanta · · Score: 1

      "Are you trying to make some kind of point here?"

      Yes, there is a lot of pointless hate for Voyager and I don't get it.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    2. Re:"The Traveller" as an example of good Trek? by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

      "Are you trying to make some kind of point here?"

      Yes, there is a lot of pointless hate for Voyager and I don't get it.

      OK... But the comparison you're making here doesn't gain you anything. "This stupid facet of Voyager is no worse than one of the weaker episodes of TNG's worst season".

      And it's not as though TNG stopped doing stupid crap after the first season, either - the whole "crew infected with a virus that turns them into animals" episode comes to mind... But what makes a show good isn't that you can hold it up to another show and say "see, the worst of this show is no worse than the worst of that show" - it's all about the show's strengths and how well it plays them.

      In terms of Voyager I haven't really watched enough to evaluate it: I lost interest in it around the second season or so and never really went back to watch more. I haven't watched it recently enough to critique it. I'm just saying the argument you make in support of it makes no sense.

      --
      Bow-ties are cool.
  52. Where no Sci Fi show has gone before by MrKaos · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I love Star Trek, I'm re-visiting TNG with my girlfriend who has never seen it, I think she likes it (Yah!!) but where else can the story go?

    We've done the five year mission, then went forward several hundred years to the next generation, did the space station thing, got lost in a new sector of the galaxy and then went back to the beginning. Now we go back to the beginning, again?

    I'm sorry but Star Trek has got boring. It follows a formula, new technology, new badder enemy, war, combat, new technology, beat bad guys - go home. Every ST after TNG followed the exact same formula, days of our lives in space.

    The only hope for ST is what made it interesting in the very beginning TOS and TNG, science fiction Forget all the lame 'b' grade effects, effects are the only thing that have made trek pleasing to watch, it was the imagination that filled in the gaps when I first watched TOS, and at the time it was the most ground breaking thing on TV - fuck IT WAS TV - and the story was king!!!

    but, no no no these shows are seen as 'franchises', not a craft that sparks the imagination of the viewer, as one lame idea after another is tried. I'm sure I'm not the only sci fi fan that is banging their head in frustration. Now I'm sure that the new Star Trek movie will work, but it will work in the way that when a Chinese artisan copies a work of art faithfully and skill fully, yet they still don't understand the idea that brought the art into being in the first place.

    For Star Trek to work in the future (are you listening Star Trek producers) you need to get back to what Star Trek was and should be a vehicle for hard science fiction. Go read Greg Bear Eon, Eternity (get Greg Bear to write the episodes) then call on Allister Reynolds and Robert Reed or half a dozen other sci fi writers that other slashdotters could name. Better yet, make the entire story Open Source or Creative commons and start asking for submission for stories from the fans. Two words Paramount BIG FUCKING IDEAS.

    For fuck sake make Star trek in your face science fiction again, or just say it's over, cause the way it's being killed is just sad.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  53. Re:Waerp Speed limit history by Time_Warped · · Score: 2, Informative

    TOS Enterprise could do about warp 8, but there was a chance of engine damage above warp 6. There was 1 episode where an alien took over and modded the engines and it did around warp 14 or so. There was a computer game in the 70's called trek or strtrk it place a limit of warp 10 as the max speed a star ship could travel. The closer you got to warp 10 the greater the probability you would time warp. I think the voyager episode was a tribute of sorts to the computer game " +++" ;-) The rest of the series had a faster than warp 10 being possible. Maybe there where parallel universes and warp 10 was the limit in one but not the other. ;-)

  54. We need another Trek TV Series? by Pazy · · Score: 1

    I personally love consuming Star Trek but I dont think we need another Star Trek show on TV, even though im in the minority liking Voyager and Enterprise as well as the rest. I have enough trek goodness to last me a long time with all the fan productions like Hidden Frontier and the audio drama's such as Star Trek Excelsior. If they really must do another series then ill surely watch it but id rather they give money to a fan production and some help and then enjoy that goodness over the internet with some sort of advertising attached to it to cover costs.

  55. The profitable era? by ClosedSource · · Score: 1

    "the era of Rick Berman looks to finally be at an end"

    Whatever you think of Rick Berman, the fact is that it was his era that made Star Trek financially viable for Paramount.

    Of course his era also included some of the best Trek episodes ever.

  56. ALREADY HAVE a reboot, for those that want it by macraig · · Score: 1

    This suggested reboot has already happened, as online fan-produced indie series:

    Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II
    Starship Farragut
    Starship Exeter

    That first one is by far the most technically impressive. There have been other TOS-based fan efforts, but these are the most successful of them. There are other Trek-based fan productions as well, and Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, though it's derived from later 'official' series, arguably spawned all of these efforts by proving the concept in the first place, over a span of seven years. It may be the mother of all Star Trek fan productions; it has now spawned multiple spin-offs that are all in active production.

    ST:NV/P2 has garnered enough attention that some of its production team had a hand in another indie Trek Production, Of Gods And Men, whose cast and crew included some names most of you will immediately recognize. What's more, some of the original TOS writers have been drawn into this, and are drafting new original scripts.

    I'm deliberately not providing links; I want you to poke around and discover just how much Trekking has been going on outside of Paramount. I'm posting this many hours later than I started it, because I wound up revisiting all the production sites to catch up. If you don't have that kind of time and just want to see the very best of what's out there, I'd suggest the ST:NV episode World Enough And Time (WEAT) and Star Trek: Of Gods And Men. They will both leave you wanting more.

  57. trek is a multi-generational series by peter303 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    44 years spans at least three cultural generations.
    The original Trek was military culture familiar to the WWI and Korean era veterns of the 1960s.
    The New Generation was 'yuppies in space' - well-healed baby boomers, team organization, yada, yada, yada.
    The newer Treks never quite caught the pathos of the younger generations. The GenY's are individualistic and artistic, sort of like "herding cats in space" - not your corporate team players. Another Roddenberry scifi show called Andromeda captured this pathos better.
    I cant really characterize the newest adults - the 9/11, Iraq War, and Second Depression generation. The generation always plugged into electronic communication and networks.

    The New Generation made an interesting prediction that seems to be coming true - the death of television. I recall one episode where some 21st century types were revived from hibernation and asked about television and money and the crew said they didnt do those any more. Roddenberry's uptopia did not have money or TV.

  58. What is "old style" Trek? by master_p · · Score: 1

    If by "old style" they mean TOS, then I have news for them: it will not work. The 60s was a different era. A butt-kicking chick-hunting always-succeeding swashbuckling male hero (i.e. James T. Kirk) is a little bit on the ridiculous side today. Just observe young people react to those "old" movie heros like James Bond or Indiana Jones: most youngsters make fun of them.

    What Star Trek should do is become more serious sci-fi: better pseudo-science, more interesting politics, explanation for Federation economics and why it works or why it does not work), characters with ethical dilemmas, a little bit darker when required, etc.

    Star Trek should ask all the questions we should not dare ask any more.

    1. Re:What is "old style" Trek? by jamstar7 · · Score: 1

      Star Trek should ask all the questions we should not dare ask any more.

      That's what it originally did, with episodes about racism, fascism, the Cold War, the arms race, all of that stuff. Next Gen lost its way in that it tried to be too politically correct, not asking the Hard Questions of the Day. Things went downhill from there in that it was more important to put a 'hot chick in a tight catsuit' than it was to press the envelope, until we got to Enterprise, which in the privacy of my own mind I still call 'Star Trek: What Happened To My Paycheck?'

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  59. Or they could re-ignite Star Trek like this by master_p · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They could make a show named 'Star Trek' which shows the exploration of space, first contact with an alien civilization, how faster-than-light travel was developed, etc. And slowly progress towards the 24th century, to the level of Star Trek we know.

    In this new show, the characters will watch Star Trek (TOS, TNG, DS9) just for fun. Actors from previous series could make cameo appearances as themselves, being interested in space travel.

    The show could be serious, almost a documentary, which shows the dramatic side of space exploration, the politics, the international competition, the effects on people' lives, the change of culture. It could also have a side like X-Files, with conspiracies about UFOs etc, which are later resolved.

    1. Re:Or they could re-ignite Star Trek like this by lennier · · Score: 1

      "It could also have a side like X-Files, with conspiracies about UFOs etc, which are later resolved."

      Good luck with that. There's plenty of documented evidence for UFOs which will blow your mind - but we still don't know what they are.

      http://www.dailykos.com/user/two%20roads

      The reality is FAR more fascinating than the X-Files fiction.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
  60. STAR TREK MOVIE PHASE 2 CONTEST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel and Lenovo have partnered to launch the New Frontiers Sweepstakes as a promotion for the upcoming STAR TREK movie directed by JJ Abrams: http://boldlygo.intel.com/newfrontiers From now through May 8 you can enter the sweepstakes on the web. Prizes include: Zero Gravity Flight â" Win a trip for four to experience zero gravity the only way possible without actually going into space. Star Trek Premiere in Hollywood â" Win a trip for four to the starâstudded red carpet event. http://boldlygo.intel.com/newfrontiers

  61. OMG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > There hasn't been a Star Trek TV series since Enterprise was canceled after four seasons in 2005.

    OMG, that's almost FOUR YEARS! How have we survived without new Star Trek episodes for all this time?

    I heard that back in the '70s they only had animated episodes to keep them going! And back in WWII, only radio shows!

  62. What?? Berman was pivotal in Trek.. by samalex01 · · Score: 1

    "Between him and JJ Abrams, the era of Rick Berman looks to finally be at an end. Cross your fingers. " What??? Berman was instrumental in making Trek what it was after Roddenberry passed away. He along with Michael Piller were the driving force of Trek through the 80's and 90's, and though I have no doubt Abrams can work some magic with Trek I don't see where this comment by the OP came from.

  63. Reasons for optimism by tjstork · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Your criticisms are interesting but like so many people, you lack perspective.

    The fact is, right now more people are wealthier than they ever have been. Many of our problems today, are problems of wealth. That is a good problem to have. Bad problems to have are rampant starvation. We're WELL on the way to making all of humanity less hungry than ever. China is lifted out of poverty, India is on its way out. Dude, that's 2 billion people that can eat, that couldn't. That have money, but didn't.

    Our lifetime is a TRIUMPH of progress. Even this present recession is a minor calamity compared to what other people have gone through in the past.

    We take it for granted any more that when we choose to have a child, that the child will live. This was not possible even 50 years ago.

    We take it for granted that when we turn on the tap water, it will be safe. By and large it is safer water than it has ever been. 100 years ago, we had the likes of cholera to worry about. Today, it doesn't happen, and neither do many other diseases born of bad water.

    We have more food than ever, of every kind, and if you want all natural food, you can get that too.

    Landfills might be choked with trash, but landfills are only a tiny portion of the overall earth. In the northeastern United States, a great reforestation has taken place and within our lifetimes. And there are more birds than ever before. Just look up... there used to be few birds, and now there are great and enormous flocks of them migrating. I didn't see -that- when I was a kid.

    Cars are definitely better than they have been. Today's econobox weighs less, goes farther, handles better on a tank of gas. You might rip computers, but where once people bought manufactured goods subject to the tolerances of the human eye and hand, now they get consistent and reliable products made perfectly by a machine. This allows consumers to have goods of a greater complexity than ever before.

    I'm routinely critical of science because in the short term, it is politicized, and over-promises. But the thing is, all of those incremental advances do pile up in a way that works out good for humans. We may find, as we advance more problems to solve, but, there's no denying that that past we leave behind, at least in terms of technology and lifespan and the human condition, is nowhere near as bright as the future that lies ahead.

    Either the USA or the Chinese are going back to th e moon. It looks Mars will finally survive a Democratic administration. We have better unmanned space probes heading out to newer places than ever before. I would have NEVER thought that we would see pictures of Pluto's surface in our lifetime and we're going to get that. We are getting counts and pixel sized images of planets in other solar systems.

    And plus, hell, Microsoft is shipping a version of Windows that actually works, Linux can finally recognize my mouse in X without screwing everything up, and Intel CPUs can add.

    --
    This is my sig.
  64. To Boldly Go by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2, Informative

    When the politically correct newer versions of Trek came out, and changed the line "To boldly go where no man has gone before" - which was one of the greatest ever! - to a neutered, lame "no ONE has gone".... it pretty much jumped the shark.

    1. Re:To Boldly Go by Veggiesama · · Score: 1

      When the politically correct newer versions of Trek came out, and changed the line "To boldly go where no man has gone before" - which was one of the greatest ever! - to a neutered, lame "no ONE has gone".... it pretty much jumped the shark.

      Yeah, what were they thinking when they made a NEGRO captain... or to use the sissy-pants liberal parlance, "African"? I mean, come on!

      And how about "Android"? What the hell, right? Data was a fucking ROBOT (or METAL-MAN if you prefer), and all those dictionary-nazis just HAD to change the word to suit the LIBERAL AGENDA!

      Damn politically correct liberals! They stole my naive childhood, outdated vocabulary, and culturally-biased catch-phrases!

  65. Why "old style" trek? by ThorGod · · Score: 1

    My favorite's, by far, TNG. TNG, Voyager, and DS9 stand out at the top (I dig TOS, but its quirks make me dig it for slightly different reasons). Why must we go back into the backstory of Trek? We should move forward. Isn't MOVING FORWARD what the Trek universe is all about? Thought so.

    As a complete aside. Some of my favorite episodes involve The Q. I think it'd be amazing to have a series around them. I'm sure the stories involving them are far too outlandish for the mundane viewing public, of course.

    --
    PS: I don't reply to ACs.
  66. Let's bury the prime directive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I vote for Star Trek Lawyers:
    --The diplomatic ship "INSERT NAME HERE" is officially to maintain diplomatic relations and resolves conflicts with "backwater" worlds where the prime directive applies. However, its true mission is to deal with those backwater worlds. In reality it includes a team of lawyers whose jobs is to creatively reinterpret the prime directive so the Federation can in all legality strikes back against those backwaters worlds that dare fuck up with us. From paying Ferengis to arm the populace while encouraging dissenssions in a planet to letting it know to space pirates that they will not defend the planet, no tactic is muddy enough to this team who will always ensure the letter (but never the spirit) of the prime directive is respected.

    or Star Trek Black Ops: a renegade spaceship named "INSERT NAME HERE" scouts Federation space. Little is it known that this starship is not renegade at all but actually performs missions
    under orders from the Federation itself. Well everybody suspects it but nobody has proofs. While the official Federation spaceships have their hands tied by the prime directive, this ship doesn't and never bother itself with moral dilemnas. When a backwater planet abuses the prime directive (taking Federation officers hostages), they can expect a visit from this ship and its heartless crew.

  67. Yeah, glad that Berman's gone by Pluvius · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I mean, everyone knows that only the first two seasons of TNG were any good (The Naked Now deserved a frigging Emmy!), after which Roddenberry died and Berman shitted it up with characters like Reginald Barclay, Gowron, and Locutus of Borg. Berman could never help create a character as perfect as Wesley Crusher and he should've stopped trying. And then he comes out with that boring, actionless piece of fluff called Deep Space Nine, which was so awful that it ran for only seven seasons in an oversaturated market. Some Cardassian tailor with a mysterious past? Who cares? An all-out war between the Federation and some major dominion in the Gamma Quadrant, filled with intrigue and plot twists? Who wants to see that?

    Sarcasm aside, I think what CmdrTaco meant is that we should hope for the end of the era of Brannon Braga. He's the one primarily responsible for Voyager and Enterprise, and the only things he did that were good for the franchise were because of Ronald Moore.

    Rob

    1. Re:Yeah, glad that Berman's gone by discord5 · · Score: 1

      Bring us the writers of In the Pale Moonlight. It's the only episode of DS9 I ever intentionally watched twice.

      Some people may find it a bit boring, but it was in my opinion the best Star Trek episode ever made. It was in stark contrast with the rest of the usual Star Trek setting, and presented a moral dilemma to the character of Sisko. In the end, he concluded that he'd have to live with making the wrong choice for the right reasons.

      Yeah, I'll take that over any episode of the usual quality of the later series.

  68. There's plenty of doom already. by tjstork · · Score: 1

    It should say "Look at this! you don't want the future to look like this do you? This is where we are headed!"

    Everybody does that. Doomsayers are a dime a dozen. We are doomed if we don't stop global warming, doomed if we do. Doomed because of the economy, wars, economic meltdown. Doomed because of too much food and water and doomed because of not enough.

    Sci-fi existing as a warning is just a writer's slogan to write depressing stuff, its easier to imagine how things could wrong more than it is to contemplate how things could be right.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:There's plenty of doom already. by Rennt · · Score: 1

      Sci-fi existing as a warning is just a writer's slogan to write depressing stuff, its easier to imagine how things could wrong more than it is to contemplate how things could be right.

      No, no, you miss my point. I'm not talking about stuff that is dark just to be edgy - there is plenty of that I agree. And I don't mean SF that portrays humanity as doomed or hopeless. I mean an uplifting dystopian vision ;)

      You know, the road ahead is hard, but if we put the shoulder to the wheel we might just get by kind of dark. Hard SF often portrays past/present/future as the same thing, where at any point a fork in the river could take us to oblivion or to nirvana - all we need is the foresight to know which way to take before we get there. I believe that kind of message has far more to offer then the classic Trek theme - technology and heroism saves the day again!

      As a boy I loved Kirk and Spock too. I also loved characters like Superman and the Phantom, but they got pretty dull when I got older and realized that the world is not about sides (Federation VS Klingon; shesh, how transparent is that!).

      Shades of grey, ambiguity, and personal - not external - struggles reflect life, and are far more interesting. This is why I stick to mostly SF of the anime flavor these days (and I still love the Batman!)

  69. Disagree with most comments, need a new series by MoldySpore · · Score: 0

    While I hope that the new movie does well, because if you are a Trek fan you know we NEED it to do well to save the franchise, a new series can't be another prequel, or anything along those lines, and here is why:

    Star Trek has always been about moving FORWARD. The thing about Star Trek TV shows is that they are always changing what the Trek Universe has established in a way that supports Roddenberry's dream. They change stereotypes, they make us think "oh wow!" when we don't think it can anymore. Case and point:

    Star Trek TOS: First interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura, established the series traits of Klingons being bad, Romulans being even worse, etc.

    Star Trek: TNG: Put a KLINGON on the bridge and jumped forward several hundred years. Introduction of Data, first android character with no emotions. Klingons now part of the federation. Dealings with Romulans that were not ENTIRELY bad. Established BORG as major threat.

    Star Trek: Deep Space 9: First black captain in the series, station full of every alien species ever introduced in the show, first cooperation and major storylines involving ROMULANS. Introduction of the first major, season and episode long story arcs.

    Star Trek: Voyager: Again jumped forward in the Trek timeline, First female captain, FEMALE BORG as part of the CREW, first Native American introduced as major crew member, first Black Vulcan, Different part of space than any previous Trek

    Star Trek: Enterprise: Went back to the beginning, after 2 mediocre seasons, season 3 introduced an amazing story arc which showed us glimpses of the future (Enterprise J!!!), Season 4 helped to shore of some of the story gaps between TOS and TNG and TNG and Voyager. Female Vulcan first officer.

    As you can see, there is a certain method to a Trek show. What they are suggesting is crazy in terms of this new show. If there is going to be a new Trek, in needs to be set 200-300 years after Voyager or the end of Nemesis. It NEEDS to have something amazing along the lines of the previous series. Think: Romulan first officer with Romulans part of Star Fleet, and the Enterprise S or J or P or WHATEVER the main focus. Star Trek is about the FUTURE. It's about building bridges between different races and species and cultures, and it is about epic stories. Tarnishing that with more prequel junk is not going to get the 3-5million trek fans on board, nor attract new audiences beyond the ones going to see the new movie for the "cool special effects" and to "see Sylar kick butt".

    --

    "I hope you know how very lucky you are to know me, because I am so incredibly incredible."

  70. Am i probably the only fanboi of this type here by unity100 · · Score: 1

    but pushing daisies kicks butt !!

  71. Don't make it _too_ good by smchris · · Score: 1

    You know what happened to Pushing Daisies.

    1. Re:Don't make it _too_ good by John+Bayko · · Score: 1

      Maybe you can bring it back to life for sixty seconds.

      But no longer, or Scrubs will die.

  72. No ass-kicking females? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you read any superhero comics in the past twenty years?

  73. TOS remakes ? Again ? Please stop... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I am a different generation then the 60's people who watched TOS, and sure don't want to re-experience TOS in any way. I loved TNG, and whatever people may say: it's my favorite (and probably a lot of people's favorite) and that should return. Even the soap of DS9 was better than the red shirts of TOS (although it was predictable :).

    So: please stop putting TOS back on air, bring back TNG remakes.

  74. Fuller's writing record by dlsmith · · Score: 1

    According to Jammer's Reviews, which I have found pretty reliable (the reviewer shares your distaste for Voyager), looks like the average score for episodes he wrote is 2.7 out of 4 stars. 6 of his episodes are rated especially badly (2 stars or less) and 6 are rated especially well (3.5 or more stars). Definitely a mixed bag, including the terrible "Course: Oblivion," "Sprit Folk," and "Fury." On the other hand, he is responsible for some of Voyager's best: "Living Witness," "Drone," and "Barge of the Dead."

  75. No more! by fm6 · · Score: 1

    Please. DS9 ran out of ideas after the first season. And Voyager never had any to begin with. I mean, when you hire writers who love to use the word "planetoid" but never bother to look it up...

    As a faithful fanboy, I'll probably go the movie. I might even enjoy it, if I can get past their using the time travel gimmick yet again. But more TV shows? Please, no. The whole concept is just worn out. They might be able to squeeze out a few decent movies if they keep going outside the old Berman-fanboy writing clique for their stories. But coming up with a fresh story every week that covers anything that hasn't been covered? Not doable.

    I wish we could make it illegal for movie and TV SF to be retreads of ancient franchises. I particularly felt this way when I was watching a recent ep of BSG. I'd long suspected that the whole thing was just getting made up as they went along. When they hurriedly began killing off minor characters and offering half-assed explanations of previous events, I became convinced of it. And then I saw an interview where he basically said as much!

    Of course, he didn't say that in so many words. He just said that when he invented the 12 humanoid cylon "models" he had no idea who they were or what they were about.

    So the real reason he invented them has nothing to do with telling a story. He just a mandate to tell a humans-versus-robots story, and he knew that he wasn't going to get the budget to make the robots CGI, and he knew a modern audience would never swallow the lame guys-in-robot-suits from the original.

    And why did he need to tell a HVR story? Because he and Ron Moore hand been brought in to revive an existing project that was falling apart over money and a shortage of ideas. (Which Eick supplied mainly in the form of a "retro" universe he was never consistent about.)

    And why did that project even exist? Because somebody thought it would be a good idea to revive the BSG franchise, even though the original got cancelled after about 20 eps.

    And why was the original ever created? Because NBC wanted to cash in on "Star Wars" and commissioned what amounted to a Star Wars ripoff.

    And why did "Star Wars" happen? Because George Lucas realized he could steal ideas from lots of old westerns, war movies, and even Nazi propaganda films, and recycle them for the benefit of audiences that hadn't seen them before.

    Hollywood is the opposite of creative.

  76. I Mudd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Personally I've erased about everything in my memory that is Trek since the end of TOS; only The Wrath of Khan, a few bits of DS9 and pieces of Enterprise are left. To me Trek flat lined in 1987.

    I don't think Hollywierd can resuscitate the Trek franchise as a quality product because it's become too big a potential profit maker to allow a few to steer it. A committee of businessmen will inflict their expert demographic opinion into the writing, draining any shows creative lifeblood in their lifeless corporate quest of appealing to the broadest possible market. The mentality will clutter any new Trek with the same sort of debase, trite, hollow, pop cultural pabulum most all trek was afflicted with since Next Generation.

    The magic that made TOS so good was that its creators made enlightened individualists and the bright, shiny positive future work together. They knew any other philosophic underpinnings were a lie and that the audience would not be able to suspend disbelief for very long. Everything since has been fatally flawed with a sense of stifling, mechanical, 2D, prepackaged, target audience analyzed and directed, collectivist drivel.

    Well, then again. Why should I expect so much? The whole of the planet is being turned into passive sheeple fearful of individualism when really it's simple conditioning for the fleecing by a few. I guess really that is the only target audience left.

    You know, come to think of it, Kirk would most likely up turn our world's apple cart and declare us all a dead stagnate world worthy of a little knocking about in 15 min visiting us. That's the spirit of what I liked about TOS. We can't have thinking like that on TV today now can we. Oh my god, we might give people hope and a sense to achieve with self empowerment.

    I think this is also somewhat related to why Firefly got axed.

    How about a new Trek series called "I Mudd" chronicling the exploits of Harcourt Fenton Mudd the II and his adventures avoiding the meddling nanny state of the Next Generations war against individualism?

  77. Buffy in Space by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    Man, it was Buffy in space.

    How so? I mean, really, I've watched both series in their entirety more than once. How did Firefly have anything in common with Buffy?

    Didn't see Serenity, did you?

    So the thing that makes Firefly "Buffy in Space" is the fact that the movie based on Firefly included fight scenes in which a relatively small woman kicked large amounts of ass?

    OK, granted, that's a shared theme. But it's one that's pretty much central to "Buffy" and actually never occurred in the TV show "Firefly".

    Of course, even with the ass-kicking I wouldn't call "Serenity" "Buffy in Space" either. Lots of movies feature copious amounts of ass-kicking and still aren't "Buffy".

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  78. Just throw Quentin Taradino while you're at it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Riker: You give your mother a foot massage?
    Picard: I'm the foot fucking master...

  79. Re:Yes more like TOS - W/ Kirk putting his boots A by GNious · · Score: 1

    You forget: Most people never made it past season 3 - they have no comprehension of what we mean when we say that the last 3 seasons of DS9 were actually quite good.

  80. Re:Hmmm... I, too, am sick and tired of seeing by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    innumerable incarnations of 1701. Just make a nice hull and stick with it. Surely, the Federation is not going to spend an astronomical amount of credits rebuilding "Enterprise" over and over. Newer ships would succeed, and would have different names. It's at the point of ridiculousness.

    They should draft good stories, and make either miniseries or Movie of the Week, or something. But, wasting all that money on the silver screen is BEYOND EGREGIOUS. Make low-cost-straight-to-DVD if necessary. Make a mix of Enterprise and Voyager somehow. And, for GODS' SAKE, get over it with Kirk and Spock. There are innumerable other crew and scientists who make a nation, navy/fleet/organization.... And, no, don't make them Kirk's brother Samuel, or T'Pal or anyone else emotionally close.

    IDIC! IDIC!

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  81. Will JJ's vision be enough to revive Trek? by commmorancy · · Score: 1

    Even from the trailers for the new film, I don't see this leading to a long term franchise. We've already had a re-incarnated TOS through Enterprise that didn't really work. I'm not sure why JJ is trying to do it over again. If Enterprise couldn't reinvigorate the series, I seriously doubt that JJ's vision will either.

    Worse, we're going back to the origins to try to bring in a younger version of the TOS crew. We've already visited TOS so the rules are set. Enterprise was before TOS and we knew the rules there. Trying to create something that fits between Enterprise and TOS is too small of a time frame to fill with meaningful plots.

    To create something to invigorate the Trek brand will take a complete overhaul which will not be in JJ's movie. In fact, I believe it would need to consist of all new stories, new characters and a new context (where the rules don't have to apply). It should probably be set substantially in the future far away from TOS and Enterprise, TNG/DS9/Voyager. All of those show's plot threads need to stay closed. Putting it far enough into the future could allow the rules to change substantially and also the technology. But, keep just enough of the hierarchy and structure of the federation to keep it familiar.

    By setting up a new show in this way allows the new series the freedom to do what it needs to do. With JJ's film leaching off of old characters, plots and hardware just ensures it to be a prequel. So, ultimately, JJ's film (and sequels to it) end(s) up saddled with rules that it cannot break... and if it does break the rules, then it's just viewed inconsistent (like Nemesis). A brand new franchise set in the future wouldn't need to uphold any of the old rules. A new show could start fresh with its own new set of rules that it can build upon. This change is what I believe is needed to reinvigorate the Trek franchise.

    Although, I will withhold my ultimate judgment until after I've seen JJ's film.

  82. Why not Trek outside the Federation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not have a Star Trek show that doesn't even fully involve the Federation? Why not do a show about about some other groups that exist around its fringes? I think there could be some interesting material about how things go on a Klingon Bird of Prey or perhaps have a trade runner merchant ship that is pieced together with the equivalent of bailing wire and happens to be captained by a Ferengi that is always scheming something and is more of an antagonist towards his crew than protagonist.

    I'd suspect there would be some fun material writers could come up with if the scope wasn't just limited to working around the rules, ethics, and technology of the Federation part of Trek.

  83. Re:Hmmm... Replicators and Paradise by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    I dare say the dialog for Eddington was really a jab a the US administration in its own (then, and possibly could be restated for the current, early administration's) failure or early failures in dealing with or appeasing terrorists and splinter terror groups that could be broken off and pitted against the others.

    "Sending them replicators" and "Nobody leaves paradise" could directly be seen today, given that the public stance and backroom stances in various administrations can and did have repercussions.

    (Really (for anyone demanding proof), do i need to cite anything to justify what i just wrote, or can this stand unmolested?)

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  84. Re:Yes more like TOS - W/ Kirk putting his boots A by rtrifts · · Score: 1

    I would die willingly for a leader like Jean Luc Picard. The difference is, J.T.Kirk would make sure I would die for him without ever getting much of a choice as to - whether I wanted to or not.

    I loved Kirk growing up, but Picard managed to be a hero and role model when I was already an adult and thought myself past such things.

    Whatever the case, give me Klingons off the starboard bow amd Romulans, Gorn and Tholians please.

    No Suliban, No Xindi, No god damned lame Kazon. Keep you damn Bajorans and Cardassians too.

    Klingons. Disruptors. Cloaking devices! Photon Torpedoes!!

    Shields up! Red ALERT!!

    Lock phasers and fire!!

     

    --
    .Robert
  85. Ronald D. Moore? Paging Mr. Moore... by rtrifts · · Score: 1

    C'mon. If you want to restart Star Trek, screw JJ Abrams, And forget Bryan Fuller, too.

    Give it to Ronald D. Moore and put him in CHARGE of the brand. No Braga, No Berman. Just R.D. Moore.

    Let him go do his thing.

    --
    .Robert
  86. Starships are done, done, done. by chrome · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Starships on Trek have been done. You can't do yet another one, without falling back onto the old formula. DS9 was good because it was a different formula, but even it got stale after a while. Star Trek Academy would suck, please don't do that. If Trek does come back, I'd like to see a show based on the idea of a (Culture reference here) "Special Circumstances" team, a group of top Starfleet specialists who are basically a special operations team that are show into dangerous situations, and with limited equipment and resources they need to resolve a serious problem that concerns the Federation. Or something else. Just not yet another Enterprise.

  87. Re:It'll fail Why not just create: by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    An "Adolescent-Orgieistic-Anything-I-Can-Get-Uber-(bi)Sexual-Macho-Male" show, where the male grows up to become a Roman analog, conquering his foe, screwing him up the ass, and pining to die a good fight with his lover in the battlefield, but dreading to face his wife back home?

    It could have all the underpinnings of the female-written Kirk-on/in-Spock Bruto-Logi-Gayle kirk-professing-love-for-Spock-in-the-Transporter-Room gooeyness.

    Afterall, we've had Nerys kissing herself (or, her self), Jadzia Dax kissing a female, and in at least one non-Canon Trek FanFilm episode, gay lovers aboard a starship.

    Trek has COME a long way, but not CUM a long way. It could be deep-space-cum-laud with fraternization to the hilt.

    But, writing, directing, and producing THOSE episodes would be highly toxic to the career of any non-porn projects(ions).

    HIP HIP HOOOOO HOOOO RAISE...

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  88. Re:It'll fail Why not just create: by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    It could be titled "Deep Throbe" (Throat Probe), where inalienable sights lead to spatial anuoblasty.

    Given the dearth of Kirks in the Galaxy, "Project Penises" could be the salvation of all humanoid females throughout. By seeding the planetoids with the Penises Probe, new life can be seeded by the beelions...

    If Kirk has a labido six women in six days... well WATCH OUT, GREAL'll give it to you in SIX MINUTES.

    GORAl will respond, "REAALY, Doctor, you must learn to goh-vern your passions. They will be your undoing. Throbgic suggesssts..."

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  89. Re:It'll fail Why not just create: by davidsyes · · Score: 1

    Any non-std STD that Krik would catch would be low-order detonation mono-nuclearosis.

    --
    Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
  90. groan by transiit · · Score: 1

    it's these sort of fanboy conversations that keep me from caring. Were Berman & Braga bad for the Star Trek universe? Probably, but was that universe all that phenomenal to begin with?

    You like it or you don't. All this dick-waving about what was best just makes me dislike all of it.

  91. The Dark Age is overdone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    After ST:TNG and especially after 9/11, our entertainment has entered a Dark Age of drama, unhappiness, tragedy. Even here, most of you are calling for the Star Trek of the 24th century to be dragged back to the 20th - something that was touted to be a redeeming feature by producers of the post-TNG spinoffs. Consider the "Golden Age" effect - the past invariably gets coated with a golden emotional glow that makes it seem better. When that past is evaluated with real values, though, we see the opposite happen in history - people have been becoming better, smarter, happier, excluding politicians who do such ridiculous things as claiming we're in a terrible crime wave with each election, despite decades long decreases in crime.

    What makes Trek truly great to me is that (the good parts at least) portray the human race finally reaching that point which must inevitably occur - maturity. The humans of Star Trek have just recently managed to stop killing each other or cheating each other in various ways, and work together by enabling each other instead of disabling each other. Then they begin exploring the universe, and attempt to apply that new found maturity to other races w/o falling back to the bad old ways. Ultimately, this is the most plausible and most fulfilling kind of future, as the alternatives lead only to destruction, either by internal or external elements, as destroying becomes easier with greater technology.

  92. No FOX! by cynon83 · · Score: 1

    As long as the new TV series airs ANYWHERE but on Fox -- the SciFi Killer.

    Oh, and the Enterprise would have to loose the damned 1950's car look they gave it for the movie.

  93. My Trek Vision by AP31R0N · · Score: 1

    The core location is Starfleet HQ. The UPF and council has some issue appear, they dispatch a ship to investigate. It could be a different ship every time (different crews/casts). This makes huge story arcs possible. Throw in the occasional Section 31 mission to make things fun.

    You'd need:
    A flagship for diplomacy
    A research vessel for weird shit happening in space
    A dreadnought for kicking ass
    A cloaked ship for getting black ops teams behind enemy lines

    You'd have Starfleet characters and UFP ambassadors. You could have follow the dramas of some academy students.

    WHAT i DO NOT WANT:

    Drama. i don't want BattleStar Galactica characters on a Starfleet vessel. Federation officers are supposed to be elite, well adjusted, smart people who make good decisions. Dramas require people making bad decisions. This is what i fear about this new movie. It will be an action flick with immature, neurotic characters making bad but entertaining choices.

    --
    Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
  94. How many fingers am I holding up? by Tetsujin · · Score: 1

    "Also, there are four lights."

    You know that was ripped straight from George Orwell, right?

    Nope, didn't know that was taken from 1984... (just looked it up) And being now enlightened, I find the world... remarkably unchanged...

    Still, it's good to know these things.

    --
    Bow-ties are cool.
  95. if it has to be sodomised by tabby · · Score: 1

    ... then get George Lucas to do it. At least he has talent in that regard.

    --
    I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
  96. Fuller on Trek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good grief! The movie isn't even out and people are spinning rumours about a new series? And with Fuller at the helm? Aren't they aware that Fuller has committed himself to Heroes? And since Heroes has been picked up for a fourth season, he won't be available for at least two years?