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The General Star Trek Thread of Earl Grey Tea, Baseball, and KHHHAAAANNNN

S

SpoonyBard

Banned
It was strange how he hated Iggy Pop in The Magnificent Ferengi. I guess he didn't get the character, and thought it was just bad acting?
 
S

SpoonyBard

Banned
Big-E said:
Iggy Pop was horrible and he made me cringe every time his mouthed opened.
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Ok, I probably need to watch that episode again, I didn't realize it was Iggy Pop until after the episode... The character always was strange compared to the other Vorta characters, but I thought that it made the character more interesting.
 
R

Rinoa

Member
LOL that was one of the funniest voy reviews ever! I do like the serious bits deconstructing the episode and poor treatment of harry/his actor as well. Any reason why they didn't let him direct?
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Rinoa said:
LOL that was one of the funniest voy reviews ever! I do like the serious bits deconstructing the episode and poor treatment of harry/his actor as well. Any reason why they didn't let him direct?
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No clue. I had never heard that bit before.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
I didn't think that review was very funny.

Otherwise he was absolutely spot on about the problems with that episode.
 
C

Cheerilee

Member
Rinoa said:
LOL that was one of the funniest voy reviews ever! I do like the serious bits deconstructing the episode and poor treatment of harry/his actor as well. Any reason why they didn't let him direct?
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http://www.startrek.com/article/straight-talk-with-voyagerundefineds-garrett-wang-part-i

OK, so what were the missed opportunities? What did we not learn about Harry that you as the actor portraying him felt should have been explored?

Wang: Where do I begin when it comes to answering what I thought were the missed opportunities on Voyager? I think it would be best if we go back to the beginning. When casting ended on Voyager, all the actors were invited by executive producer Rick Berman to attend a congratulatory luncheon. It was during this lunch that Berman informed us that he expected all actors portraying human roles to follow his decree. He told us that we were to underplay our human characters. He wanted our line delivery to be as military -- and subsequently devoid of emotion -- as possible, since this, in his opinion, was the only way to make the aliens look real.

My first thought was, “That's not right! What the heck was Berman talking about? Was he pulling our legs? The human characters shouldn't be forced to muffle their emotions. We were human, not androids!” But, being the newbie in Hollywood, I did not make any objections... yet. During the entire first year filming Voyager, actors were required to re-shoot certain scenes because of excessive emotion. I personally had to re-shoot only a couple of scenes, since I learned my lesson early that crossing the writer/producers was an unwise decision. Kate Mulgrew held the record for the most re-shoots, numbering in the double digits. It is a little-known fact that during the first season, Mulgrew's Janeway had a teary eye on more than one occasion, only to be vetoed by the producers and covered up with a re-shoot. If you can allow Captain Picard to bawl his eyes out for 10 minutes over the death of his relatives in the opening of the film Generations, then how on earth can you not allow Captain Janeway the chance to show some genuine emotion?

The only possible reason for why Berman did this lies in the various death and bomb threats that were sent to the Voyager production offices at Paramount Studios over the decision to have a woman in command of a starship. Maybe he was afraid of the backlash of a male-dominated America and molded Janeway into a tough-as-nails Captain devoid of human emotions. Not only were there no tears for the human characters, there were no laughs, either. Only the holographic doctor (Picardo) and the alien Neelix (Ethan Phillips) were allowed to be funny. I seem to recall that some of the most endearing and memorable moments from the original series were the light joking banter between Kirk (William Shatner), Bones (DeForest Kelley) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy). Alas, if only the human characters were allowed to be funny. As I said in my response to an earlier question, all the actors were adept at comedy. It was a waste of talent to not allow the human characters to act human. This missed opportunity was indirectly related to another tragic missed opportunity.

Take us through that.

Wang: Years after the initial lunch meeting, I made a comment off record to a TV Guide reporter on how upset I was over (executive producer Rick) Berman's ridiculous mandate of less emotion for the human characters. My wording to him at the time was, "I think the producers of Voyager did not take the risks to make the show as good as it could be." Even though I wasn't really specific about what the issue was, that printed comment alone sealed the death of my ambitions to direct an episode of Star Trek. Robbie McNeill was the first to direct an episode during season two. After Robbie, there was a mad rush by Robert Picardo, Tim Russ and Roxann Dawson to be the next in line to direct for season four. I felt, “Let them go ahead of me.” I was in no rush. After they all had their chance to direct during season four, I asked to direct for season five, but unfortunately the TV Guide article had just gone to print and I was turned down.

I was the first actor in Star Trek history to be denied the chance to direct. The irony of the situation was that, unlike my predecessors, who only wanted to direct for the sake of directing and acquiring their DGA cards, I was the only one who wanted to direct Trek and make it the best it could be, drawing upon my knowledge and experiences as a lifelong fan of science fiction. I truly believe that if I was given the chance, it would have been the best freshman effort by a Trek actor because of my passion for sci-fi. This missed opportunity has haunted me ever since.
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F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Ah, more proof that Berman and co are fucking idiots. I assume that's probably why Jeri Taylor left the show eventually as well, but I'm just guessing at that point.
 
D

DrForester

Kills Photobucket
Wang is a cool guy. I met him briefly at the closing of the Star Trek Experience in Vegas, he wasn't there officially either, he just wanted to be there and meet the fans. The best they got for the final keynote was Suzie Plakson (K'Ehleyr, and Female Q).
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
MedIC86 said:
I have never seen any of the old star trek movies, first one was generations. Is it recommendable to watch them now, or are they dated to much?
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Star Trek 2, 3, 4 form a Trilogy and hold up mainly because of the camaraderie between Kirk, Spock and Bones.

Star Trek 6 is pretty good standalone movie and a good send off for the end of an era.

Skip 1 and 4, those were pretty bad.

Of the TNG movies, Generations was ok, First Contact was the best, Insurrection was bad and Nemesis was bad.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
The Stargate franchise is one of those things that was moderately successful for the network that they were on, but not successful enough to say, survive the MGM problems to continue the movie franchise.

If you actually think about it, Stargate was cancelled by Showtime and then picked up for one season orders by SyFy for about as long as they were on. Every season was thought to be their last... and it's ironic that the times when they purposefully wrote cliffhangers (for SG-1, Atlantis, and SG-U), they get cancelled for real.

Hell, look at the what happened with Atlantis. They brought on both Tapping and Picardo in an attempt to try to bring "names" back to the show.
(Then again, DS9 did bring in Worf and VOY brought back Barclay, so who knows. :p)
 
C

Cheerilee

Member
firehawk12 said:
The Stargate franchise is one of those things that was moderately successful for the network that they were on, but not successful enough to say, survive the MGM problems to continue the movie franchise.

If you actually think about it, Stargate was cancelled by Showtime and then picked up for one season orders by SyFy for about as long as they were on. Every season was thought to be their last... and it's ironic that the times when they purposefully wrote cliffhangers (for SG-1, Atlantis, and SG-U), they get cancelled for real.

Hell, look at the what happened with Atlantis. They brought on both Tapping and Picardo in an attempt to try to bring "names" back to the show.
(Then again, DS9 did bring in Worf and VOY brought back Barclay, so who knows. :p)
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IIRC, Stargate was considered a big, safe money earner by both MGM and Sci-Fi, but they thought it cost too much to make, so that scared them, and Sci-Fi was hopeful that if maybe they found something smaller and more creative, maybe they could earn just as much money from only a fraction of the investment. Of course, that didn't stop them from doubling up on orders for SG-1 and Atlantis at the same time, even though the ratings dropped when they diluted their audience like that.

And I think Atlantis actually got better ratings than SG-1 did (when they were both running simultaneous), so Tapping and Picardo weren't being brought in because the show was in trouble.

And then when they released the DVDs, the sales were supposedly HUGE and made MGM some crazy money. I think they released at just the right time to catch the biggest wave of the "box set" stage of the DVD format's life.

The SG-1 movies were made basically because the DVD sales were big enough to carry the entire production.

Stargate Universe kind of killed the franchise. The Stargate fanbase didn't want BSG-flavored Stargate, and the BSG fanbase didn't want Stargate-flavored BSG.

After SGU got canned, the producers wanted to go back to movies, but MGM was somehow bankrupt, and by the time they got some more money, Stargate was too far shut down to restart.

Stargate Blu-rays might sell okay, but they'll have to question if the audience is still there (it would be easier if someone put out some new material), and if they're willing to commit to more than a dozen seasons, and if the audience isn't already oversaturated because of the really strong DVD sales. Then there's also going to be an issue because SG-1 was filmed/edited in some sort of digital way that seemed modern and forward-thinking at the time, but now it's an expensive hurdle preventing an HD release.
 
W

Won

Member
They brought over Tapping because she still had a year left on her contract. They kinda needed to give her work. And I guess everyone was like "Hey, why not?!"
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Well, I mean, the other thing is that they sold a director's cut version of the pilot and I'm pretty sure no one even remembers that.

I used to follow the Stargate ratings, but it's been ages. I think it was fine when it was paired with BSG, but they weren't really anything to write home about. It's probably why they decided to give up Fridays and the idea of a "hard" science fiction block.

The other thing is that MGM made movies of their other TV productions as well. Dead Like Me is the only one that comes to mind, but this was their way of trying to monetize TV shows that weren't necessarily on TV anymore. Stargate probably did moderately well, but probably on a whole the idea of churning out movies based on IPs was probably something that didn't work out for them (well, given their bankruptcy... lol).

I think the franchise was done with Atlantis. They made SGU because it gave them a chance to get rid of old contracts and start fresh, but it was basically riding on fumes at that point. Their attempt to make it a BSG clone with love triangles and "edginess" certainly didn't help.
 
S

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
Stargate was the perfect companion to Star Trek. I used to get bianual deliveries of Trek and Gate episodes recorded on VHS by my uncle and brought back by my father during trips to the US. I have great memories of watching tape after tape of both series on my shitty little TV in Nepal and Indonesia.
It makes me very depressed to think neither franchise has any presence on TV anymore.
 
A

antonz

Member
Big Con in England this weekend with all the Captains etc.

Sisko rocking the Grandpa up to the chest pants.
408676_557634864253023_680359292_n.jpg
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Shatner still looking pretty good for being in his 80s.
552383_557635424252967_1820780835_n.jpg
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All the Captains.
408765_557140860969090_666400780_n.jpg
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The only hard question. Kirk or Picard
247293_557141647635678_808600606_n.jpg
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C

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
Would have totally loved to go Destination Star Trek London, if only or just seeing the captains but I imagine the experience as a whole would have been great.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
I watched First Contact last night for the first time in a long time. That movie still holds up as some awesome sci-fi. My only complaint is that the away team got it way too easy compared to the ship.
 
H

Henchmen21

Banned
djsandman said:
I watched First Contact last night for the first time in a long time. That movie still holds up as some awesome sci-fi. My only complaint is that the away team got it way too easy compared to the ship.
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Not really. The borg queen is a stupid idea. They didn't need to do time travel again after Generations and Picards characterization is way off.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
Henchmen21 said:
Not really. The borg queen is a stupid idea. They didn't need to do time travel again after Generations and Picards characterization is way off.
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Star Trek always goes to the well with time travel....and I understand the idea behind the Borg queen, especially given the confrontation with Data.

Now, if you really want to talk about characterizations.....how about the Defiant commanded by Worf being left for scrap by a puny Borg cube.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
djsandman said:
Now, if you really want to talk about characterizations.....how about the Defiant commanded by Worf being left for scrap by a puny Borg cube.
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I assume the Defiant had been fighting the cube for a long while by the time the Enterprise arrived.
 
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