OFFICIAL N-G.com Star Trek Thread
- Thread starter Zero Satori
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Maybe they might put their feet in the water, without jumping into the time traveling pool. 
Lower Decks season 1 was awful in my opinion, and I know I'm in the minority for that. It's non-stop obscure Trek references for the sake of "ha, I got that one!" along with dialogue and characters that never, ever, ever shut the fuck up or stop being loud. None of the jokes get even the slightest moment to breathe. If you take a moment to laugh, two other jokes have already passed you by when you stop. It's like every character is a 10 year old that just ate a whole box of sugar cereal.
Season 2 is better. Less reliant on obscure reference humor and while it's still obnoxious, it's less so.
Lower Decks season 1 was awful in my opinion, and I know I'm in the minority for that. It's non-stop obscure Trek references for the sake of "ha, I got that one!" along with dialogue and characters that never, ever, ever shut the fuck up or stop being loud. None of the jokes get even the slightest moment to breathe. If you take a moment to laugh, two other jokes have already passed you by when you stop. It's like every character is a 10 year old that just ate a whole box of sugar cereal.
Season 2 is better. Less reliant on obscure reference humor and while it's still obnoxious, it's less so.
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Episode 3 of Strange New Worlds was good. Classic Trek style episode where the emphasis is on developing the characters, and not so much the problem they have to solve.
The character moments for Una, Mbenga, and La'an were fantastic.
The character moments for Una, Mbenga, and La'an were fantastic.
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Same. Along with "I have something very important to tell you but just can't find the time to say it and now you're going to fuck yourself because I haven't told you", which is irritating.
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petaQ!
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What?
I keep looking at this sentece, like am I reading this right? Are you talking about the classic Trek style where every episode had almost zero character development and was always completely about solving the problem of the current episode?
I have just never heard anyone describe the "classic Trek style" the way you have above.
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TNG doesn't have a great deal of development beyond Data, really. I guess Wesley, but nobody likes him anyway.
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Was that 1993 for you?
Star Trek premiere - Sep 8th, 1966
TNG premiere - September 26, 1987
And I just learned TNG is one week older than me. Fuck I'm old now too. Awesome.
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If you can, by and large, show episodes (aside from 2-parters) wildly out of order from years apart with very little to no impact or noticeability, then I will say you have an episodic, problem-of-the-week, very-light-on-character-development tv show.
The original series you could show in completely random order, and no non-fan would ever be able to pick up on it other than maybe when Dr. McCoy doesn't get his name in the opening credits.
For TNG, you could maybe point to Worf and the Klingons, but even there, any development is glacial. Picard lived an entire extra life in Inner Light, and while it seemed to affect him deeply for about the last 20 seconds of the episode, it changed him not in the slightest by the following episode and wasn't even ever referenced again. No development.
Again, there is minimal continuity in TNG, definitely more than in the original series, but you could easily show an episode from season 7, then an episode from season 2, and then an episode from season 5, and a layperson would have no idea they weren't watching consecutive episodes from the same season. TNG season 7 Picard is not different from TNG season 3 Picard in any noticeable way.
Classic Star Trek was not about character development.
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In modern short stories, the epiphany, which involves a character realizing something important about his or her relationship to the rest of the world, usually implies a form of character growth. We usually don't stick around long enough to see it because short stories tend to be self contained and the epiphany occurs near the end. TNG episodes often have a similar structure, but the realization characters come to is usually "I've been looking at this problem all wrong."
It's in the nature of episodic television that everything resets to status quo. If they wanted to, they could have Troi and LaForge have awkward conversations about how she passed her bridge officer's test by sending him to die. LaForge could start getting paranoid and asking everyone about how their bridge officer's test went, and do they have anything they'd like to say to him about it?
But they really don't have time for that. Masaka is waking!
It's in the nature of episodic television that everything resets to status quo. If they wanted to, they could have Troi and LaForge have awkward conversations about how she passed her bridge officer's test by sending him to die. LaForge could start getting paranoid and asking everyone about how their bridge officer's test went, and do they have anything they'd like to say to him about it?
But they really don't have time for that. Masaka is waking!
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I like that no one ever asks him about it either, brilliant.
I also enjoy that Riker has an evil twin somewhere and no one can really be arsed to mention that post the episode, I think it might come up literally once.
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I think it comes up on DS9 lol.
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Worf got plenty, especially in seasons 4-7 with the Klingon Civil War, Duras, being branded a coward for the sake of the Empire, interactions with Gowron, etc.
Picard got a fair bit with his visit to his brother, Q showing him the "path not taken" by not getting stabbed, the Inner Light, and arguably the one where he gets captured and tortured by the Cardassians.
Troi had all the episodes with her mom, and other plots that fleshed her out quite a bit from the "pretty girl that emotes from other people's pain" bit she started out with.
The rest got the short end of it. Riker had the episode with his dad and his teleporter twin, but that was about it. Geordi had the one with his mom (who was actually an alien) and his holo crush with Leah Brahms. Bev had that timeless classic where her grandma died and she fucked a ghost. Nonetheless, they had their moments too and weren't always just there to make the plot progress.
Yeah, I wasn't too clear there. Was braindead after a long work week.
But yeah, I had TNG in mind when I thought that. Basically episodes where character arcs and development are the A plot, and the disaster of the week was the B plot.
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Oh fuck off I was there for the premier at 11 years old
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RE: TNG Character development, though it’s in fits and spurts Picard has some interesting development with the Borg.
I’m thinking specifically I, Borg where the Enterprise was ready to commit Xenocide on the entire Borg Species but Picard decides against.
Picards acceptance/trust Borg Jurati as well.
Anyway the Borg are fucking dumb from First Contact onward.
I’m thinking specifically I, Borg where the Enterprise was ready to commit Xenocide on the entire Borg Species but Picard decides against.
Picards acceptance/trust Borg Jurati as well.
Anyway the Borg are fucking dumb from First Contact onward.
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Season 3, Episode 9. "Defiant". Thomas appears fooling everyone he's William Riker. Apparently his DNA, fingerprints and retinal scans are an exact copy of Will. He's part of the terrorist group The Marquee but does surrender to the Federation at the end. His final fate is unresolved.
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heard they're hanging around the arcade sector
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Maquis. Close enough, lol. Big lost opportunity for his character once shit got real with the Dominion and Cardassia later on.
Agreed, and the way he died was super lame. It's the 25th century, they could have beamed his ass to the med bay and he would have been fine. If Picard can survive getting stabbed in the heart, he can survive getting stabbed in the throat with no blood pouring everywhere. Oh well, plot and stuff...
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Aside from the two part episode where Lore leads the newly independent Borg, do we ever see any other effects of the individuality and sense of self being added to the collective?
Or did they just handwave that and say they cut off those infected Borg from the collective?
I’m going to have to watch first contact, ugh.
Or did they just handwave that and say they cut off those infected Borg from the collective?
I’m going to have to watch first contact, ugh.