The Star Trek Poll

It was a product of its time, like a lot of the other shows. At least they showed women in real roles, not just getting coffee for the decision makers. Better than TNG in my mind - Counselor Troi was nice eye-candy, but why include a counselor in the control room? Why send the captain and other senior members on dangerous missions to the planet (which always had breathable air and little vegetation)? Those are just artifacts of making a show - you need to limit the cast so the audience can follow it and identify with the characters. And save money on props, like air tanks and helmets, which also interfere with getting facial expressions. Still, I liked the plot lines in TNG and spinoffs better than the original series (I was too young to see the originals "live"). I can only think of Stargate still in that genre, though not a Star Trek spinoff.

The technical answer is parallel evolutionary development, like why both bats and birds have wings and tails, or why octopus eyes are so close to human eyes. But as a friend explained it to me, it's beyond just saving more money on makeup and puppeteers (FarScape has at least one puppet, but generally they're hard to come by, though it would make sense. Star Wars had a few). You would think they would at least hire a bunch of dwarfs for one planet with heavy gravity, and a bunch of basketball players for a planet with light gravity. You know they could act as well as the people they did hire.

But the key is, if the aliens/bad guys, are somehow disfigured, or faces in shadow (think Darth Vader and the Emperor, the horse riders in Lord of the Rings, etc) or otherwise not recognizably human, then it's psychologically easier to kill them. This is pretty prevalent, even the obvious bad guy in The DaVinci Code was an albino who traveled at night, as if albinos are somehow different than the rest of us. In Phantom of the Opera, the disfigured person is assumed to be a bad guy, but eventually we learn he isn't, that's partly what made it so good.

Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke who said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"? When the original Star Trek came out, a two-way personal communicator like Captain Kirk had seemed as far off as interstellar travel, but now we have cell phones as small as Captain Kirk's. Captain Picard had a picture frame that would change pictures, he could scroll back and forth. They have those at Circuit City now. Teleportation is theoretically possible with entangled quantum mechanics, but even transmitting an inanimate visible object is not in the foreseeable future. I doubt any living vertebrate could be successfully sent ever, but who know what could happen centuries from now. Maybe e-mail someday might be a good use in our children's lifespan (limited to use for astonauts, spacecraft communication, Mars settlers, etc. if we figure out alternative energy sources soon enough).

Yeah, that was a good movie, as a Star Trek (& genre) parody. I like the point where the self-destruct timer stops at one second, because in the "historical documents" it always stopped at one second.

 

I think I'm with Doc on this one, any Star Trek is better than none at all. I liked each of the versions for different reasons. By the way, if I'm not mistaken, there is an Enterprise marathon on all day today for those that won't be watching the game. Gotta go.

 

Hi All,,

My Star Trek preferences in order of like are Original, DS9, Enterprise, TNG, Voyager. Although depeding on the season the middle three could be swapped around into any position.

I think the reason the original series is better is that each hour stood on its own, and was not dependant on soap opera story line, which the later Star Trek shows seem to follow.

If you remember back then several of the Star Trek episodes were emmy nominated, and one of the episodes won an emmy (dramatic ?) . That was the episode where Bones gets injected with a phsycotic drug and goes through a time portal to pre-WWII earth.

Here in Chicagoland Channel 23 is airing on broadcast TV (and OTA HDTV channel 26-2) the original series remastered. And again, I can't stop watching these shows as I first did when I was around 10 years old.

 

Yeah, bad Star Trek is better than no Star Trek for sure. I just don't think they could have made TNG worse.... And that ship. The original, re-fitted enterprise was fantastic. The Galaxy class version was such a disappointment. I still cringe when I see it. The soap opera nature of the spin-offs was also annoying. At least there was a sexy borg or vulcan in a couple of them.

 

Do the adult jammies have a flap in the back? . . . don't forget the fuzzy slippers.

 

I was, in the 70s, but am still a fan.

Hey, those who have the original Star Trek Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, you'll see my name in the dedication page, it's in the middle of the people he thanked.

Greg Weir

 

I didn't know it got an Emmy, but City on the Edge of Forever won the Hugo for best Science Fiction film that year.

 

Yes! I remember your name! Don't know if I still have the book, though.

 

Doc, never mind the jammies, you forgot jackets.
What about the jackets!
Here's mine.

 

I've got a Next Gen uniform (the old jumpsuit one) that I made one Halloween. Got pips and a communicator pin and everything. The pin even makes the beaming noise.

I also have a phaser. I think it's the newer style. I have a smaller one that makes noise I keep in the car. I use it to vaporize bad drivers.

My tribble needs new batteries, though.

 

Hmm, clearly not too many original Trekees here. The very first interracial kiss ever shown on TV was between Kirk and Uhura. The first sci fi program to win an emmy, etc, etc. I was at that age of wonder (around 10) when Star Trek came out. I was hooked and it had a profound impact on me. I would go out at night and stare at the stars for hours. Then in 1969, an American on the moon. I have never been more proud to call my self a trekee and an American. It was the as if the world had just gotten so much smaller.
That interest in discovery blossomed in college and I got my masters in statistical analysis of behavioral data. 6 years later, as a life long learner, a PhD in research imaging and now work at Cal Berkeley.
I have the complete collection of the original Star Trek on DVD , my star fleet uniform, and an original prop tricorder from the series I bought for a fortune in 1980 (I couldn't afford the phaser) as well as all kinds of trinkets, comics, photographs, and autographs, from the more then 50 Star Trek conventions I attended. Star trek was not just a TV show,,, it is a way of life. I now drive my shuttle craft, the Prius, and the original Enterprise NCC 1701A model (NO bloody B, C, D, or E) dangles in my library still. It always reminds me when I see it of my love of the unknown, my belief in the scientific method of discovery, my interest in the results of study, and how best to interpret the results without bias or preconceptions. To use statistics to tease out results I would not otherwise have found. I have the Letholians web screen saver and the original ST sound effects on my Mac.

I married outside my race, religion, and native language and have taught my kids to embrace different cultures and languages and be mindful of different beliefs that may cause misunderstandings. My children have been foreign exchange students and have lived in other cultures, become fluent in different languages, and benefited from life with host families for years and we host foreign exchange students so we all may share the differences they offer and be more with them, then less as a result of them. Hopefully they too will become ambassadors of culture and diversity and embrace the spectacular gifts other cultures provide us. That is the message of Star Trek or at least what benefit I received from the series.
-Paul R. Haller-

 

Cool! Are you wearing it now?
I've got my jacket on the back of the chair as I read this.
Ohhh, this isn't one of those chat rooms


PS Paul -- sounds like you and I are of an age. The ST dream stayed with me too...

 

"Quark" and his kind "Ferengi" from Deep space Nine, really showed us what the U.S. will be if we are not careful.

 

Well, I am an original Trekkie, though I never got much into the fandom side of it.
I DO have a Tribble, though.

For me, it's the Original, then the Next Gen, then DS9 a FAR, FAR third. Voyager never did it for me, and I've avoided the rest.

We do own all the movies.

 

I watched the original.

Even built a model that had blinking lights. You turned the "shield" or radar or whatever that thing was and it lit up. Batteries didn't last long though. I don't think I have it anymore. Too bad. I bet I'd get a fortune for it on eBay now.

I do have the original Enterprise ornament Hallmark made. The very first one. In fact, everyone in my family has one. I mom managed to snag four, one for them and one for each of us kids. It's one of my prized Christmas ornaments. I will never go fully LED as I'll always need at least one light string that can run my Enterprise ornament.

 

If you go to www.trekplace.com you can see some of us in uniform (I'm on the left).

There's a funny story associated with it, but that's for another time.

 

Only ONE, I hope!

Tom