For me it was the Exploration, Adventure, etc. What have they discovered and what problems will they be facing, how do they solve them etc. TOS and TNG are really great at this. I also liked that most were contained within 1 episode (the odd 2 part here or there). A lot of times they find themselves facing quite complex social or moral problems, and they try their best to navigate them.
I feel like these aspects were no longer the focus in some of the later series, which reduced my enjoyment from them. (And in some cases didn't even bother watching)
Star Trek is a lot like Final Fantasy. It’s all over the place and many things at once. Lots of lows, but the highs leave lasting impressions. Star Trek is at its best when it explores the human condition, what we can aspire to, and overcoming prejudices.
The TNG episode devoted to exploring Data’s rights as an android and the law recognizing him as a person versus property is probably the greatest example. It is a subject we will have to contend with in due time, maybe even within our own lifetime.
Lower Decks is the only modern Trek I thoroughly enjoy. Does more with their characters in a shorter runtime due to the format, yet embraces and celebrates the silliness that older Trek had. The exploration of the lives of lower ranking characters and the associated mundanity is great. I swear some of the writers must have served in the military.
Reflecting on the original motivations that glued me to the screen for the original TNG run, which is still the height of the franchise...
I'd say the core for me is to watch Data and Geordi face some bizarre, inexplicable anomaly and gradually discover how to make sense of it--then, particularly watching this unfold in the context of the whole crew, where each character brings a certain allegorical perspective (Worf represents the security interest, Troi compassion, Picard as wise mediator) and everyone is wonderfully mature and capable in their respective roles with mutual respect.
It's a show that takes time to work out a specific thought experiment over the course of an hour, in the manner above, with an emphasis on also exploring the ethical confusions and ambiguities that might emerge along the way.
Rather than boringly "gritty" scifi that attempts to be drab at every moment, the ship is alive and feels at time like a university or academic conference, a scientific institute, an ambassadorial vessel, and exploration craft... and yes a military-equipped vessel at times but this is tertiary and ruins the show whenever it is raised to the forefront.
Picard particularly embodies the show with his calm wisdom, and his emphasis on mature dialogue and reasoning.
But lastly, the show was not disprespectful towards normal human patterns and customs in any kind of hyper progressive way. All roles are open to everyone--but it's not a problem on TNG that, for example, Troi and Crusher are the ones representing care and compassion while being women of the crew, because this is the kind of pattern of natural difference that does emerge with real humans and there's no need to constantly disrupt or fight against that.
more negative things to say if you so want it...
On new shows, every possible gendered or typical pattern is immediately inverted as if futurism requires a kind of disruption of all natural human patterns--you would never have bald, wise Picard with his Shakespearean love of Western cannon and fatherly tone on the new shows... not a chance, and we all know that TNG's greatest character could never exist for the new writers. This--along with replacing the mature characters of TNG with sassy, "quirky," even frankly bitchy and immature characters who speak casually and curse obnoxiously--marks the departure that turned the new shows into a total inversion of what TNG represented.
Peak TNG and DS9, Wrath of Kahn and Undiscovered country…stuff I could watch again again. NuTrek I either don’t watch or wish I could forget what I watched.
Well, they teased it as a possible MASSIVE INVASION in s1, then promptly dropped it as even a worry until now. While I appreciate a more episodic show, they could have been laying more groundwork, I think. I guess they're setting up the Gorn as their Borg or Dominion or Suliban or Xindi.
www.neogaf.com
Adding the "mister" is but a slight escalation considering the indignity of waiting like 8 months and still not getting clarification. Anyway, it was meant in a friendly way but if DeafTourette
doesn't like it then I apologize.
Besides, have you heard Kirk and Spock sing? It's pretty clear that in the future autotune has so ruined man's ability to carry a note. SNW was just being true to the lore. Only Rikers skill with the sax survives.
Well, they teased it as a possible MASSIVE INVASION in s1, then promptly dropped it as even a worry until now. While I appreciate a more episodic show, they could have been laying more groundwork, I think. I guess they're setting up the Gorn as their Borg or Dominion or Suliban or Xindi.
www.neogaf.com
Adding the "mister" is but a slight escalation considering the indignity of waiting like 8 months and still not getting clarification. Anyway, it was meant in a friendly way but if DeafTourette
doesn't like it then I apologize.
Since I'm already in a Star Trek V mood...
Simultaneously a ridiculous horrible turd of a scene and still better than the SNW musical numbers
Thanks Jjason10mm
for sticking up for me, brother.
As far as the singing on that episode... The ONLY ones who sounded good to me were the Klingons and Uhura. Everyone else (especially Number One) sounded horrific!
How could I hear them? I have a Cochlear Implant and this item that hooks up to my TV and streams directly into my on-ear sound processor...I'm the only one who can hear the TV when it's streaming.
Thanks Jjason10mm
for sticking up for me, brother.
As far as the singing on that episode... The ONLY ones who sounded good to me were the Klingons and Uhura. Everyone else (especially Number One) sounded horrific!
How could I hear them? I have a Cochlear Implant and this item that hooks up to my TV and streams directly into my on-ear sound processor...I'm the only one who can hear the TV when it's streaming.
TNG was the only series I watched a bunch of episodes of. Never watched them in order or anything, but I enjoyed the character interactions and sci-fi "what ifs". It's been many years since I've seen any Star Trek media.
I always thought the whole IP was kinda campy Sci-Fi, but it at least explored some cool ideas occasionally and I liked the episodes that focused on human morals and ideals compared to what aliens might think.
The Chris Pine movies were just pseudo action junk, in my opinion.
I started watching Star Trek with TNG, for me it's about the philosophy foremost, an age where Humanity pulls itself outside its primitiveness, lust for accumulation of wealth, greed and unites with its reach reaching the stars, second it's about the exploration and encountering new civilizations and cultures, we live in age where we discovered most the planet so all we have left to discover is space.
New ship, get to explore deeper space. First thing they come across is this god like being who questions their capability and motives, the captain has to answer for the human race and does his best.
Never cared for ST, but have seen most of the movies at some point. Never really watched the TV show aside from catching some random episodes when my bro watched.
But from what I've seen, Wrath of Khan 1982 is an excellent movie. Ya, the effects are cheese for a 40 year old movie, but good script, characters and Ricardo Montalban being over the top with his outfit, he was great. From what I remember, that movie didn't have a lot of cheesy nerd jokes so thats probably why I liked it more than other ST stuff I've seen.
I also saw some TV show episodes with Q and those were really good. The guy who plays it did a great job pissing off baldy Patrick Stewart.
A formative part of my childhood. TNG and DS9 are the best but for different reasons.
TNG is a show most concerned about telling interesting stories and posing interesting questions, portrayed by interesting characters. It's not a prisoner of continuity (or, at least, it's usually at its best when it's not). Continuity is used best when it allows the telling of interesting stories. Duh, of course, but I think some may regard continuity as an end unto itself. TNG's kind of storytelling ideology carries over into Voyager... where the dangers of not playing to a continuity present themselves: The whole thing becomes even worse if you can't consistently put out interesting programs or if your scenarios push the plausibility of the premise.
DS9 is good for the opposite reason. It's about building a continuity to tell interesting stories in. The main cast aren't as solid performers imo, and allot of the standalone episodes suck (unsurprisingly I guess). General quality is all over the place too - whereas TNG is generally more even through its run, on DS9 you can watch one of the best episodes of Trek ever followed immediately by some of the worst dogshit you've ever seen. But I still like DS9 allot. Props especially to its supporting cast, which by contrast is the best Trek's ever had by a wide margin.
Deep Space 9/Babylon 5 have always been my favourite Space Dramas/Space operas. I actually thought TNG was ok, it was nice to see a show where most often, the episodes were self contained, you didn't need to see the entire season to get a single episode, kinda like the OG Star Trek.
Just watched the new Discovery, sort of like it, but it is very Star Trek? From the action to the music, it feels more like the latter Star Wars movies than Star Trek.
Orville though, is hands down the best NU Trek, and similar to TNG/Original.
When I was growing up in the 1980s/90s, TOS and TNG were at times more science aspirational than science fiction, but now, Star Trek is just another space action series. I blame Wrath Of Khan for starting that action ball rolling. Don't get me wrong—WOK is a great film—but as I've gotten older, and I'm now in my forties, I think the first Star Trek film is a better "film".
When I was growing up in the 1980s/90s, TOS and TNG were at times more science aspirational than science fiction, but now, Star Trek is just another space action series. I blame Wrath Of Khan for starting that action ball rolling. Don't get me wrong—WOK is a great film—but as I've gotten older, and I'm now in my forties, I think the first Star Trek film is a better "film".
Agreed, and the same thing happened with TNG movies. Despite its many flaws, I still consider Generations to be a more faithful TNG film than anything that followed it, and I mostly blame First Contact for getting things off track. A dark Borg-conflict action film is not what the franchise is about; at least Generations had a genuine core to its themes (Picard's family regrets) and still had warmth and color in the shots. By the time of First Contact, the ship looked like a damn warship, the bridge was a random room of podiums and grey... TNG was dead.
I'm in the VAST minority on this ... But I've enjoyed Discovery since Season 2. And so far season 5 is the best season yet... Far outpacing 4. It's a sequel to one of the best episodes of TNG... And it's great!
To me, it's all Star Trek... And I love ALL the series! Star Trek has NEVER been only one thing ... It's about the human condition and how we adapt to changes ... It's about found family (each crew is a family)... It's about how we rise above haunting challenges... It's about showing our infinite diversity in infinite combinations... These things are all baked in thanks to Roddenberry.
Yes, the Sci-fi aspect is important to Trek but it isn't ALL about that. Shoot, exploration was BARELY a focus of TNG... Unless the plot called for it to PROGRESS the story of Picard, Riker, Troi, LaForge, Barclay, O'Brien, Worf, etc. Multiverse was an allegory to what paths could Worf (or the whole crew) have taken in "Parallels". How one decision can affect our lives down the line.
I love ALL of Star Trek .. not just TOS or TNG or DS9... I love Discovery, Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds. Even the original animated series. Even the Kelvin timeline movies! Trek is in my blood. And I'm so thankful they're still trying new things and holding true to how diverse we humans are. How much potential we have. How imaginative we can be!
Communism, which is why Star Trek has always been a problematic series for me. The series has never felt anchored to what people and humans really are because it set up a world where everything is supplied and there is no struggle to live.
When the federation interacts with alien races with different belief systems that is where it works for me. I think Star Trek would be better if the federation was in a constant state of war/alliances and there were serious constraints placed on them with regard to supply chains/fuel/ food. That would make me buy into the communism aspect more with the crew being drafted forced into these dangerous situations in order to protect the federation.
This is why for me the series only shines for me when the federation is on the brink of destruction from outside forces like the Borg.
Only seen 2 seasons of tng, 1 season of ds9, and a handful of movies. The movies are hella dumb. Wrath of Khan is good at being a cool dumb popcorn movie, the others not so much. My impression of the tv show is its very utopian. Equitable distribution of resources, post-currency society, acceptance of diverse range of literal alien lifeforms, and overall just a very optimistic view that everything can be solved with just the right empathetic negotiation.
Communism, which is why Star Trek has always been a problematic series for me. The series has never felt anchored to what people and humans really are because it set up a world where everything is supplied and there is no struggle to live.
When the federation interacts with alien races with different belief systems that is where it works for me. I think Star Trek would be better if the federation was in a constant state of war/alliances and there were serious constraints placed on them with regard to supply chains/fuel/ food. That would make me buy into the communism aspect more with the crew being drafted forced into these dangerous situations in order to protect the federation.
This is why for me the series only shines for me when the federation is on the brink of destruction from outside forces like the Borg.
Star Trek is meant to be aspirational and optimistic. That's why it's set 200 years after our time ... The way things are going NOW is unsustainable. It's a vision that many gel with... That's why it's lasted so long!
If it took on the changes you suggested, it wouldn't be Star Trek anymore.
