a piece of the action

[shoelace414]

[unblock]

1. great episode! at the end, mccoy leaves behind a cookbook

they read it and, being highly imitative, krako sets himself up as owner and cook of "mel's diner"

:bounce:

[shoelace414]

2. how to cook for forty humans..

[acmavm]

3. I loved the old Star Trek. It's scenery was so cheesy that it was

one of the highlights of watching the show.

I may be in the minority but I have always felt that all the spin offs couldn't come close to the original series.

[shoelace414]

4. DSN was the best and worst of Star Trek.

it has the best story line and the best episodes..

it also had some of the worst individual episodes (and a pretty horrible season)

[unblock]

5. tv, and the movies, changed with technology

in the days of the original series, it was impossible to have realistic sets for fantastical stories. as long as a sitcom is set in a house, realism is achievable. but even for just about anything else, let along a starship, you were stuck with cheesy sets.

but that was the way it was, and the audience understood, and suspended disbelief and let themselves get pulled into the show's world with the help of a little bit of imagination, just as is needed when you see a play in an actual theatre.


eventually, technology became good enough and budgets became huge enough that realism became possible, to the point that we now how dinosaurs and aliens and spaceships and so on that are so realistic that you don't needed to use your imagination one bit -- and now the production is totally responsible for pulling you into their world. a minor bit un unrealism can destroy the image and the audience resents it. in the 'old days', such minor unrealism was expected and glossed over. now it's a fatal flaw.

i think this move is every bit as profound as the move from books to movies or from silents movies to talkies.


remember that wonderful startrek engine room that was nothing but colorful cardboard boxes and a ladder? and that one handle that kirk could unscrew and pull out and beat over his assailant with? famously unrealistic, but wonderful all the same. we all knew it was supposed to be an engine room and we could imagine it as we pleased, and that enriched the startrek universe.

[Enraged_Ape]

7. The original series actually TRIED to simulate alien planets

on studio sets, by using bizarre lighting schemes and strange sound effects (sort of a "music of the spheres" sound). NONE of the spin-off series approached this level of effort. Every planet Picard, Janeway, et al, made planet fall on looked JUST LIKE OUR EARTH--truly the cheapest, cheesiest way to do it.

Plus the original series had a lot of stories written by established, respected speculative fiction writers (e.g., Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison). You can't beat that kind of pedigree, and none of the spin-off series ever approached that level (TNG came close--but as they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades).

[Deja Q]

9. Half-Agreed!

The original had its cheesy moments, but it's also the most original of the lot. There are many storylines, despite being dated nearly 40 years, that are disturbingly fresh and clever as ever. And has the best assortment of characters that, to date, can't be compared as they're that much better.

TNG, while bland and whose most human character is Data, has a certain style - but don't expect as many stories to hold up today. Even Bermantrek's big attempt at recreating an inviting movie NOT BASED on established-continuity-before-wrecking-it, that tried to recreate the feel of TOS ("Insurrection") uses a few copout moments as well.

The others are just dollar fodder for Rick Berman to use as something particularly rude. (not toilet paper, but trust me for its level of rudeness...)

[shoelace414]

6. wha? no votes for greatest?

:)

[Deja Q]

8. An oddball episode, but it's got charm (and Vic Tayback) in its favor!

I like it...

Very offbeat and as such, original.