Screw "Star Trek"....I'm not going to miss it

[jandrok]

"Enterprise" was the next to lamest entry into the franchise, behind the (mostly) terrible "Voyager". Berman is right, they need to give the whole concept a rest and let a future generation recreate the mythology.

"Babylon 5" was a whole lot better than anything the Trek universe had to offer. That's a show that I actually miss, even though it had exhausted it's idea by the time it left. They ran the concept through to it's logical ending as intended from the start.

"The Prisoner" still stands as the best televised science-fiction show EVER, in my mind. I wonder why no one has ever picked that show up for a revival, either on the big screen or small? That creepy paranoia that the show revolved around was a bellweather for our times. I would think that the concept would play well with today's audiences.

[youspeakmylanguage]

1. I really liked Max Headroom...

I'd love to see someone revive that strange marketing/television phenomenon.

[jandrok]

2. Yeah, that was a pretty cool show

It never developed an audience beyond the MTV crowd. It had some interesting storylines, though, and the cyberspace concepts still mostly hold up today.

[youspeakmylanguage]

9. I think the production of the show was just chronically under-funded...

I remember the acting and scripts were usually great, but it did look like they were filming in vacant warehouses and lots on a shoestring budget.

Speaking of cyberpunk - does anyone know if Neuromancer is ever going to make it to the big screen? Preferably NOT by the same people that made Johnny Mnemonic...

[DS1]

4. M M M M M M M M M M M

Me too

[Demeter]

3. The Prisoner is Now On DVD

and I think I have finally seen all the episodes. Without commercials, they can be heart-stopping. It's amazing we ever survived the 60's--hope that there's someone left to say the same about the Naughts, 40 years from now.

[jandrok]

8. I wanna save up to get the DVD set

That show just amazes me to this day. The entire thing worked on so many levels. Action, metaphor, symbolism, technology, intrigue....it was all there. Beautifully written and acted. Pure genius.

[coloradodem2005]

5. Screw Berman.

I do believe that Star Trek needs a break after today, but he of all people has no right to say that Trek needs a break. He was the one who has been going back to the well repeatedly to begin with.

[edbermac]

6. Screw Star Trek?!?!?

How'd you like a photon torpedo up your keester?

[jandrok]

11. That's right....I said "Screw 'em"!

But I love the little Borg smiley. That rocks! Too bad the series hasn't produced anything that original in years.......

They need to let it rest for about a decade. Let some young bucks take up the franchise and let them put some new faces and ideas to it.

[Aiptasia]

7. I'm the new #6

At least Patric Macgoohan still gets work because of that show. It wsa perhaps the most original sci-fi/spy show ever.

I also loved babylon 5 but felt it jumped the shark after the final vorlon/shadow war, right at the peak of it's popularity.

I'm not going to miss Trek either. I stopped watching somewhere around the middle of DS9's run. It just became too P.C. and blah for me to continue watching.

I had hopes for Battlestar Galactica, but the scifi channel mucked it all up like they did the "dune" movies.

[youspeakmylanguage]

10. Good to see a fellow Panther fan hanging around...

Sam Mills RIP

[hyphenate]

12. I stopped watching Enterprise before the conclusion to last

year's Xindi arc. I thought the whole thought, in the light of TOS's backstory, was horrendous and repulsive. Yeah, I knew they had to create some exciting stories, but they could still have worked with some of the backstory of TOS and the spin-offs by concentrating on "first contact" stories, and on known races in the known series.

I too hated Voyager. And, like you, I place Enterprise second worst. But the potential could have been there. I agree with someone else's comments a short while ago on whether Scott Bakula should have played Archer, because he's so well known in his own right that it detracted from the "unknown" quality of the Enterprise's history. If they had given the role to one of the show's other leads--Keating or Trinneer, for example (I think Trinneer would have been perfect), it would have had a different presence.

I'll tape tonight's 2 hour finale for historic purposes, but I don't have any feelings about it being the last episode of a Trek franchise for awhile. It hasn't been on my calendar for quite a while as it is.

On the other hand, I must admit to being an addict to Stargate. Perhaps it's the premise, with unending possibilities, with so many different ideas in one, but the show is priceless. And to make it even better, they've dealt with actors gone missing, and actors leaving and getting killed off, and it still holds up. For that alone, entering its 9th season, that is spectacular. I even like Atlantis, the spin-off. Sometimes it's more light, which means the actors don't take themselves as seriously, and that's perfect. The two male leads (Flanigan and Hewlett) play off each other so well that the buddy chemistry is superb. And Torri Higginson is a thousand times better a female authority figure than Kate Mulgrew as the Captain could ever be.

As for B5, I enjoyed it for awhile. Being in Hollywood for its run, and working with the studios, I knew stories that could curl your toes, and as a result, I wasn't as impressed as some people were. That's what happens when you have a megalomaniac as a creator. His creation was intriguing, but the archtypes and mythos were so cliched that it was pedantic at best. What is intriguing is that DS9 and B5 were created around a similar idea, and while some people think DS9 was inferior to B5, I think DS9 withstands the test of time far better, because it ended up concentrating on the character driven plots, and that made it more humane in the end. Let's face it: people will remember Quark and Odo twenty years from now, not Garibaldi, Jeffrey Sinclair, Delenn or John Sheridan (even though I named two of my cats after Delenn and Garibaldi!).

[jandrok]

13. I don't get to see "Stargate" too often, unfortunately

What I have seen, I've liked.

You're right about the longevity of the DS9 franchise in relation to B5, but I think that has to do with name recognition and it's relationship to the Trek panthoen more than it's being a better show. I did like DS9, for the most part, because it was darker and more character driven than the other entries into the series.

B5, though, when it was at it's peak, was stunning. The Vorlon/Shadow stuff was positively Lovecraftian in it's concept, and the characters were very multi-dimensional. The relationships changed and grew during the course of the show, making the characters more believable.

[BreweryYardRat]

14. Glee!

Another Stargate geek! :hug:

Love Stargate, love Atlantis-and you're dead on about Flanigan and Hewlett. They make the show, especially Hewlett.

So, you also hoping that Col. Everett manages to beat that Wraith's ass somehow? They need to keep him around-the conflict with Weir would be very interesting!

You're also dead on about DS9. Loved that show, haven't seen nearly as much as I'd like, and I'm too broke for the DVDs. Quark and Odo were awesome. Bashir was cool too.

And in conclusion, I leave you with one thought:

"You fainted."
"I passed out from manly hunger!"

[hyphenate]

21. lol!

Yeah, Hewlett is cool. Did you ever see him in Traders, one of his other roles? He was a geek in that one, too. It was about a brokerage in Toronto (where it was also filmed) and he used to be holed up in essentially a closet and act like an idiot savant at times. He was always hungry, IIRC, in that one, too!

As a point of reference, Patrick McKenna, who was one of the geek squad on SG-1 for season 6 (with Jonas) who went off with John Billingsley to rescue SG-1, was also a regular on Traders. He played Marty, the floor agent (I'm not sure of the exact title, though) who was always on the phone.

As another interesting trivia point, the series Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, had David Hewlett's now ex-wife, Soo Garay, as a regular--the doctor/pathologist, Claire Davidson. And Patrick McKenna was in the last season episode called "Force Majeure" where he played the Devil. :) And on SG-1, Lionel Prendergast, who is the main commander of Prometheus, is Barclay Hope, who was Peter Axon on Psi Factor.

DS9 remains my favorite of the Trek shows. Simply by devoting time to the creation of the characters made it memorable. It managed to make you care about them, in a way that made you feel as those they were real people.

About the cliff-hanger for Atlantis: I wasn't able to watch it, but I did tape it, so when I get the chance I might watch it. It'll be back in July, so I might just wait until it's on TV again, which they should show just before the pickup.

[coloradodem2005]

15. I agree with you.

I watched the first season of Enterprise, missed a lot of the second and third seasons, but have been watching the fourth religiously. I definitely agree that Enterprise did not follow established cannon during the first three seasons, but this season I have enjoyed if for nothing else, that it did start to fall in line with TOS cannon. The only thing sad about its cancellation to me is that it had started to realize its potential this season, and it is getting cancelled now. The other thing is, I get the impression that the actors on the show actually cared some about Trek and are pissed at Berman and Braga for writing so poorly. And for making them take a back seat to Johnathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis for the series finale.

[jswordy]

16. "Star Trek"?

That was soooo 10 years ago....

:boring:

[jandrok]

17. Yeah, but I kept missing all the other threads

So I thought that I'd start my own. If you're that bored, why read it?

I know that most of the stuff I have to say is overwhelmingly important, but really now......

:sarcasm:

[jswordy]

18. Sigh...such a serious one, that jandrok. LOL.

Don't take it personally. LOL.

[jandrok]

19. Nah, I never do. Life is too short.....

Sorry if it seemed like I was griping. You just made me want to cry is all.......ya big meanie.

[jswordy]

20. I didn't "make" you do anything...ya wimp. LOL.

Guilt trips don't work on me, I am a reformed Catholic. ROFL

[jandrok]

22. Damn....I hate that "tough love" stuff

Ah well, since you won't buy into my pretense of a fragile ego and my lack of personal responsibility, I'll just have to drown my sorrows in beer tonight.

A nice six-pack of Saint Arnold's Spring Bock will soothe my pain. Even a reformed Catholic will recognize the patron Saint of Brewing.....