Thursday, January 4, 2007

Trek Withdrawal

I've always been a Star Trek fan.

Well, not always. Star Trek didn't come on the air until 1966, so I wasn't a fan before then. But I have been since that time.

I've always enjoyed the original series. The one with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scott, Sulu, & Checkov.

Yeah, today the show looks a little cheesy. Heck, it looked cheesy then, too. But it was fun. And I liked the show.

After it went off the air, I missed it. But life went on.

Then, they came up with that blasted animated series. In fairness, some of those were pretty good. Some were lame. Either way, it wasn't the same.

When Star Trek - The Motion Picture came out, I went. Was a little disappointed. But still, mediocre Star Trek was better than no Star Trek.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was fantastic. Sure, Spock died. But still, it was good Star Trek.

Star Trek III - The Search for Spock was good. And I really enjoyed Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home. I didn't care for Star Trek V - The Final Frontier, but it does get better every time I see it. And I don't see it often. But I did enjoy Star Trek VI - The Undiscovered Country. A lot.

But, as much as I liked the movies ... most of them anyway ... it's not the same. Star Trek is a TV show. And should be seen on TV.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was fine. Some episodes were fantastic. Some sucked. I hated the "Data goes crazy again this week" episodes. And I didn't like the Wesley Crusher character, though I thought Wil Wheaton did an admirable job. The problem wasn't the actor, it was the character. Wesley the Wonderdog was no fun. For me, anyway.

Oh, and Jean-Luc Picard is a little too preachy for me. When I listen to somebody preach, it'll be a Baptist preacher in church on Sunday morning, not some French starship captain who won't be born for another 298 ½ years.

Still, some episodes, particularly "The Inner Light," were great.

I liked Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wasn't too keen on the whole Bajoran religion thing. And Sisko was a little preachy. But give me a baseball-playing space station Commander (later, Captain) than a cheese-eating starship Captain any day. One of my favorite characters was Garak. Andrew Robinson's a good actor. And the Garak character was great.

I was not a big fan of Star Trek: Voyager. I didn't care for Captain Janeway at all. And I didn't like Kes. Not the first season Kes, anyway. Her later episodes were fine, but the character wasn't that great. But I really liked the Doctor.

And Star Trek: Enterprise was fun. Mostly. I liked most of the characters. The only one that grated on me was T'Pol. Not the character. Or the actor. Both were fine. But I never liked the Catsuit-women on the Star Trek shows.

Deanna Troi (TNG) really turned into a great character around the same time Captain Jellico made her start wearing a uniform instead of that silly outfit they had her in at first. And Seven of Nine (Voyager) would have been a better character in a Starfleet uniform. The Maquis got to wear Starfleet uniforms; why not a Borg? Plus, the hot chick from Deep Space Nine, Jadzia (later, Ezri) Dax, wore a uniform.

A hot chick in uniform is, well, a hot chick. The catsuits detracted from the character. To me, anyway.

Still, despite all the little things I liked or didn't like, I watched Star Trek, in whatever incarnation there was.

Well, mostly.

Remember I said I wasn't a big fan of Voyager? Well, I watched it if I happened across it. But if I missed it, I didn't really care.

But a year and a half ago, Star Trek went off the air. Enterprise was canceled.

I've really missed Star Trek.

A lot.

How much?

Spike TV is carrying Voyager.

And I'm TiVo-ing it.

6 comments:

  1. DS9 was a lot grittier and darker, in many ways the writers took the Federation out of its sickly sweet, cloying goodie two shoes state..and threw them to the wolves.

    "The Siege of AR 558."

    Soldier:(watching the new troops land, shaking his head) ".....children"

    Sisko:(cradling his weapon) "Not for long"

    Sacrifice of Angels

    "Inter arma enim silent leges"

    If Voyager was about exploration and "getting home"..DS9 was about the horrors of war..and about the day the Federation finally grew up.

    In that regard, the story writers slammed the message home....and the idealistic world of the Federation was bathed in blood.

    Brilliant. And a shattering change of direction.

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  2. Friday Morning Roundup, Reading List and OTP...

    Here’s your Friday Reading List from the Yak:
    1. Wizbang has a Pelosi-palooza themed caption contest running. Take your best shot. (In a related - horror - story, Don Surber explains, in five words or less, what Nancy Pelosi has to do with....

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Spike TV is carrying Voyager."

    Watched Season 1 Episode 2 'Parallax' the other night.

    I liked The Voyage Home and quote it often "well, double dumb a$$ on you!" ;)

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  4. I cannot begin to describe how intensely I despise the Star Trek franchise -- especially TNG, which should have been called the bed-wetter generation, but Voyager almost as much.

    Gene Roddenberry should have been strangled at birth.

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  5. I was also weaned on the original Star Trek, and after it went off the air, I mourned. Then we got cable, and my brother and I found that we could get two re-runs a day from two different stations, and we were in heaven.
    To say that we got familiar with every one of those original show episodes is putting it lightly ... it's a wonder our parents survived the immersion ;-)
    To this day, I just have not gotten in to any of the variations. When they are on, and I happen to catch one, I enjoy the sci-fi goodness (or not), but I don't associate them with the 'real' Star Trek. I pretty much agree with you on the movie run-down as well.

    Still - any sci-fi is better than none, except the hubby won't watch much with me. My sister gave me the complete Firefly series and the Serenity DVD for Christmas last year, and he still won't watch any of them. *sigh*

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  6. In the late sixties, when I was in grammar school, they wanted to give me a nickname. Mr. Spock. I discouraged it. Don't laugh at me. And I don't want your pity.

    J

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