Star Trek Crap

[Warbodog]

Sorry to lower the tone and for being so early in the morning. But if you’re a fan of ageing sci-fi franchises generally, or a fan of complaining about them, here are some things going on with Star Trek at the moment:

– Star Trek: Short Treks. Out Now! 4 x short episodes (10-15 mins) being released once a month before Discovery returns. Minimal and supplemental, but proper stories rather than DVD-padding minisodes. The second one (Calypso) is the most Trek has intrigued me since the 90s, written by Michael Chabon. I don’t know where you can watch these where you live.

– Discovery season 2 starts in January. Hope it’s good. I found S1 watchable and they’ve already concluded (abandoned) the war arc I didn’t like. Fan service tends to repel rather than attract me, but I have a soft spot for the ‘lost’ Captain Pike era (I probably watched ‘The Cage’ more than any other episode as a kid), so I’m more interested to see their take on that vaguely-defined crew than watching another reboot of Kirk & co.

– Star Trek: Lower Decks. An adult animated sitcom in development focusing on the humdrum lives of Starfleet technicians. Creator Mike McMahan explains, “I want to do a show about the people who put the yellow cartridge in the food replicator so a banana can come out the other end.” Where do they get their crazy ideas from? Maybe the same places Rob and Doug did, it’s not that similar really.

– Picard series in development starring Patrick Stewart. I didn’t find this announcement exciting, because I prefer new things, but I just found out Michael Chabon’s on the writing team, which will help. Excitement may come as details are released.

– Various rumours about other shows or miniseries invariably centred around existing characters and concepts, but I don’t think anything’s been confirmed and may all be uninteresting clickbait.

– Reboot Star Trek 4 is supposedly stuck in development hell, and something about a weird Tarantino proposal. I don’t care about the films any more.

But never mind that tot – best Trek film? I’d probably go with VI, because I love how timely its analogy is at the end of an era, but 1-IV are all classics or comfort watches in their own ways.

Topic

[Ben Saunders]

I didn’t know what to make of Lwaxana’s relationship to/treatment of Alexander, it definitely felt a little off, but I was worried some of it may have been me projecting a little.
Yeah, that episode was all over the fucking shop. The weird kid’s show/Wizard of Oz holodeck shit is absolutely some of the worst crap I have ever seen from Trek. It reminded me of TOS, episodes like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M53aE9jLdU but at least there was an element of menace and context to that bizarre scene. This is just… eh, Worf swatting at the weird multicoloured floating head thing and making it explode was funny at least.

At least the episode gives us Troi looking fantastic in two situations – one, dressed up for the wedding and two, dressed down for the mudbath. I usually wouldn’t lower the tone this much (I would) but I’m really grasping for things to praise the episode for. There were a couple of laughs, for sure, Worf in the mudbath was pretty funny, too. But yeah, just bizarre.

[Warbodog]

I’m similarly conflicted about my worst Deep Space Nine episode that happens to feature Terry Farrell in a swimsuit, proving those spots go all the way down. I won’t like an image because there’s a big cast member spoiler you might not know about, although probably do. And I don’t really want to make this thread hit its inevitable decline into Star Trek Babe lechery, Rick Berman will do his best to make that happen later on.

[Ben Saunders]

Lol. Expect most of my comments on bad Voyager episodes to end with “Seven is a babe, though”.

[Warbodog]

People make a deal out of Seven of Nine being introduced for desperate sex appeal and being an insult to Voyager’s feminist ideal, I don’t think there’s any real evid–

[GlenTokyo]

A lot of female characters that aren’t Starfleet are wearing quite tight clothing in TNG/VOY, I often find myself thinking I can see that woman’s entire arse, as though she weren’t actually wearing trousers.

It’s like you get a Seven catsuit and then if you’re lucky they stick one of Wesley’s jumpers over it to cover you up.

[GlenTokyo]

I’m watching “The Perfect Mate”, around 15 minutes in there’s a bit of score that sounds like Chain Reaction by Journey.

Weird.

[Warbodog]

Kira’s “militia” uniform on DS9 also slyly morphs into a catsuit version over time. That series had its cake and ate it with Quark’s Dabo girls wearing teasing outfits while the humans tut about how sexist and shameful that is. Now that we’ve made our position clear, enjoy 24th-century boobs.

I don’t really want to make this thread hit its inevitable decline into Star Trek Babe lechery

Yeah, so The Perfect Mate…

[Ben Saunders]

I have wondered if the producers intentionally cast women with large breasts as extras in Trek actually, or is it canon that in the 24th century humans have just evolved that way. The average does seem to be a little bigger than our current one. I should keep these thoughts to myself.

Also, are the Klingon sister’s breasts real or prosthetic? One certainly looks real, but they have a lot of armour and stuff and they are so perfectly displayed that I wouldn’t be that surprised to learn they were prosthetic. But then again, everybody thought Ricardo Montalban’s pecs were fake in TWoK, but they weren’t. Will this thread ever move on from the topic of breasts?

The Perfect Mate
A nice episode, you almost sort of wanted Picard to give her one, especially after you realise the person she is going to be mated to for the rest of her life isn’t interested in her. And doubly so after you learn that she has already bonded with Picard, but by that point it’s too late. Give her one for the road, lmao.
>Riker saying “if you need me I’ll be in holodeck four” after rejecting the empath… I wonder what he’s using it for, eh?
>I wonder who got to educate the empath in “literature, history, art [and especially] sex”
>It always looks like night time on this show because they’re in space, their internal clocks must be all over the place, mine sure is
>It’s very depersonalising (perhaps this is intentional) that everybody calls her The Metamorph, only Picard calls her by her name

Imaginary Friend
Not awful.
>It’s another Troi-centric episode in which a luminous speck of video effects swooshes around the ship causing havoc
>Picard pronounces “Clara” as “Claire-a”
>Why the fuck is Worf (Dorn) absolutely beaming/laughing as he walks up to his station at the end of the episode?
>The child actors in this episode, especially Clara, weren’t actually all that terrible
>another pretty swift resolution

[GlenTokyo]

>Picard pronounces “Clara” as “Claire-a”

I can’t say Clara without doing an American accent. If I say it in my accent it sounds like Klehruh. It’s the same with Kari Byron off Mythbusters, when the announcer says it it’s halfway between Kerry and Carry but I can only do one or the other with my own accent.

I’m from near Patrick Stewart so maybe he’s the same or maybe I can’t talk properly haha

On the episode though, I particularly enjoyed when the real Patrick Stewart came out when he was talking to Famke Janssen about his piano lessons.

[Warbodog]

>I have wondered if the producers intentionally cast women with large breasts

That takes me to Rick Berman trivia again.

Here’s a long quote from Terry Farrell, Dax on DS9, from the book The Fifty Year Mission (not read it, just read it on reddit). Because that’s better than me paraphrasing and getting things wrong.

“In my opinion, he’s just very misogynistic. He’d comment on your bra size not being voluptuous. His secretary had a 36C or something like that, and he would say something about “Well, you’re just, like, flat. Look at Christine over there. She has the perfect breasts right there.” That’s the kind of conversation he would have in front of you. I had to have fittings for Dax to have larger breasts. I think it was double-D or something. I went to see a woman who fits bras for women who need mastectomies; I had to have that fitting. And then I had to go into his office.

Michael Piller didn’t care about those things, so he wasn’t there when you were having all of these crazy fittings with Rick Berman criticizing your hair or how big your breasts were or weren’t. That stuff was so intense, especially the first couple of years.

I started modeling when I was seventeen, so I was used to comments like that, but it was a different experience for me to be around normal, respectful people. And then he’s my boss.”

Can’t find a quote for this one, but supposedly the Voyager uniforms had breast padding and Captain Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew refused.

Mulgrew once “stormed into one of the producer’s offices, dropped a padded bra on the desk, and announced in a captain-like fashion, ‘No! I’m not wearing this!'”

She wasn’t delighted about the direction they went with Seven of Nine, to put it mildly.

>Will this thread ever move on from the topic of breasts?

Not yet apparently.

[Dave]

I can’t say Clara without doing an American accent.

I can’t say it without doing Peter Capaldi’s accent.

[Ben Saunders]

I say Clara in Peter Capaldi’s accent because that is also my accent, lol. Apparently Americans mishear that as “Clala” due to the rolled r, leading to an incessant meme of calling her Clala Oswald.

That Berman trivia is… man. He seemed alright from the two very long interviews I watched with him, obviously he made no reference to anything like that at any point. Marina Sirtis did comment on how she was made to wear a certain kind of bra that made her tits massive, and how other female cast members would tell her “I want to wear one of -those-“, so maybe my theory about them deliberately seeking out large-breasted women is true. What a wild sort of culture to be a part of. In a show that is otherwise very progressive.

I wonder how true the idea that putting a sexy woman in your show will keep “the dads” interested even is. Perhaps in a time before internet porn that was the case, but these days I can just open another tab and go look at some ludicrously massive jugs before coming back and finishing this comment, so I can’t imagine watching a show just because there’s a cute girl in it. But then I also don’t understand why people enjoy strip clubs, so perhaps it’s me.

Good for Mulgrew, she seems very steadfast in her convictions. My favourite female character is Dr. Crusher who is (for the most part) not needlessly sexualised, so uh, take that Berman. I do like Troi as well when she’s actually counseling or being friendly and not just being unable to sense things. Data is my favourite character because I want him to show me just how “fully functional” he is….

I’m now imagining am alternate universe where Rick Berman is an ass man and all the women in Trek have ludicrously huge padded arses instead

[GlenTokyo]

I think the whole Dad’s thing is something invented by producers so they have something other than their own wank bank to back up getting beautiful women to wear very little while working for them.

There’s probably a little truth in it but not to the extent that all guest characters must have some kind of lycra based garment that accentuates their tits or arse.

[Warbodog]

I’m just turning this into a gossip column and ruining Star Trek now.

Rick Berman: That and the time he tried to prevent Wil Wheaton from having a career are the worst things I’ve read about Berman, so there’s no sense of a #MeToo situation in 90s Trek at least. Which is more than can be said for his predecessors.

Maurice Hurley: There are unsubtantiated rumours of TNG season 2 producer / head writer Maurice Hurley “sexually harassing McFadden” (TNG trivia page on IMDb), causing her to quit and be invited back by Berman in season 3 when Hurley left. The public story is that he didn’t like her acting and “had a bone to pick with her” so fired her. I don’t know, not my business.

‘Chaos on the Bridge’ is an interesting documentary on the difficult early years of TNG that’s probably on Netflix, but it has some clips from the finale and maybe other late episodes so should leave it until then?

Gene Roddenberry: I’ve seen Marina Sirtis call him a “dirty old man” in some reunion panel, but I think that was just good old-fashioned leery comments. Going back to the 60s though, it’s assumed that there was a casting couch to audition some of the guest stars, because it was 60s TV.

Roddenberry was already having affairs with both female cast members, Majel Barrett and Nichelle Nichols. Grace Lee Whitney (Rand) wrote about how an unnamed producer harrassed her in her autiobiography, but it’s not confirmed to be Roddenberry (although all the hints fit). It’s the abuse of power / coercion kind rather than physical force kind… if that makes it better.

So much for escapism.

[Ben Saunders]

>It’s the abuse of power / coercion kind rather than physical force kind… if that makes it better.
Much better, thanks. I knew about Roddenberry fucking around with Nichols/Barrett/Whitney. I think I watched some of Chaos on the Bridge in a really low quality Dailymotion upload that was sped up and pitch corrected at 4 o’clock in the morning, so I don’t remember much about it, lol. I kind of assume that kind of shit went on in the 60s to be honest. I heard about the Hurley thing but just thought he didn’t like her, I hope he didn’t abuse her. Bless Berman for getting her back, I am deeply in love with her.

[Warbodog]

I had one specific adolescent Trek infatuation, but the character itself counts as a big spoiler for now… (what a hook! As if anyone’s bothered). I had a powerful and wholesome dream at 13 that she was my girlfriend, lying together fully clothed in bed with an imagined sense of romantic love in the air, and felt amazing and then bereft when I woke up :D / :'(

I got over it before too long, but that added a sentimental layer when watching at the time. I was never particularly into obvious Seven of Nine style voluptuousness, even though she came along when I was the target audience for it. Maybe just way too intimidating for my brain to even consider a realistic prospect, I wasn’t the high school football captain.

When I got more into TOS at university as a young adult, I was a bit “phwoar!” about the gorgeous guest stars and William Ware Theiss costumes, have to admit.

[Warbodog]

More Trek / Heat magazine goss, less dark:

– Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) started dating [her boss] Brannon Braga after a while during Voyager. Seeing that mentioned in a Trek magazine back then made me go “hmm…”

– Patrick Stewart (can’t remember who he plays) & Jennifer Hetrick (Vash) started dating after their characters got frisky in Captain’s Holiday and were engaged by the time of Qpid, but then must have broken it off.

– Alexander Siddig & Nana Visitor (Bashir & Kira on DS9) became a couple during the series, married and even had kids, leading to a mid-series actress pregnancy problem. <3

[Lily]

I wouldn’t discount the Dad appeal. Mine hated Doctor Who, but would be a lot more tolerant if it was a Leela episode.

[Warbodog]

To clear this up, here’s something I bothered to research and type up for people/person watching in original release order. As if that wouldn’t already exist on the internet and could just be linked to.

Spin-offs + films US broadcast/release order (+ recommendations)

– DS9 starts after TNG 6×11 (recommended)
– Generations after DS9 3×08 (any time that year, can even be right after TNG)
– VOY starts after DS9 3×12 (any time that year)
– First Contact after DS9 5×09 / VOY 3×09 (recommended)
– Insurrection after DS9 7×09 / VOY 5×09 (any time that year)
– ENT starts after VOY ends
– Nemesis after VOY ends (came out after ENT 2×17 technically, but can go right after VOY)
– Reboot films
– DIS

Rough syncing only really matters for TNG/DS9/films, as Voyager’s so disconnected. All the TNG films have mild to moderate spoilers, First Contact has the best continuity.

“Rimmer, have sex with someone. That’s an order.”

[Ben Saunders]

Thanks, I found a list that listed all the episodes/movies like that in a list, but I lost the list. I also used to have the link to a list that listed every Doctor Who story in in-universe chronological order from the point of view of The Doctor, which was really cool. It even listed Big Finish plays and books. But I lost that list too.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

a list that listed every Doctor Who story in in-universe chronological order from the point of view of The Doctor

For the most part, isn’t chronological order from the Doctor’s view point the same as broadcast order? We basically follow the Doctor’s life in a linear fashion with a couple of possible exceptions here and there.

[Ben Saunders]

I should have specified that it included books and studios in the main point rather than just mention it as an afterthought, given that the whole idea of the list is too slot the books and audios into the progression of the episodes. So yeah lmao

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

oh right, gotcha

[Ben Saunders]

I abandoned my attempt to listen to the Fifth Doctor audios alongside watching the episodes after a grand total of two audios

[Warbodog]

Wouldn’t the bad continuity of characters suddenly sounding noticeably decades older between episodes (and the style being different?) counteract the good continuity of someone maybe referencing what they did last week? It’d be like trying to sequence the scenes from that Enterprise episode into the relevant TNG episode from 11 years earlier. Best to get a bit of distance if there’s even a chance of suspending your disbelief.

[Ben Saunders]

Depending on your era of Big Finish, you could say that they stick to the style of the relevant television series TOO much. Sounding older isn’t that much of a deal for most people, unless they’re very old like Tom Baker, or were very young like Matthew Waterhouse. Something like BF’s Psychodrome is phenomenal and really benefits from you just having seen the Bidmead stuff from Tom’s last season. It isn’t like the Enterprise finale where Frakes has reached critical mass and they didn’t even bother with Sirtis’ hair, not having a visual element helps you suspend disbelief.

The audios can really benefit from the context of what era they’re seeking to imitate, and your appreciation of the characters in general can be greatly enhanced by hearing them in audio stories where they’re actually fucking given things to do rather than being completely sidelined for most of the story, as was the case for a lot of Five’s era. I also thought it would be nice to experience “all” of a character’s stories before watching them die/leave, but alas, it is an unrealistic goal given just how many audios they are and just how much easier/more convenient it is to just watch the eps.

I watched The Five Doctors (which is fucking embarassing shite) yesterday and was actually quite impressed with how Wendy Padbury looked and sounded exactly the same as she had something like 15 years after her previous appearance. The same couldn’t be said for Fraser Hines, and Richard Franklin looked horrific. Padbury still looks cute as a button even in her old age, although not exactly like she did in the 60s, obviously.

[Warbodog]

Good to know. I’m not interested enough in the 80s Doctors to need more of them, but I check out hot tips like Holy Terror and Jubilee, and the Lost Stories were an interesting novelty. I’d commit to Tom Baker if that range wasn’t regarded as largely drab, and looking at the titles it seems they’re just repeating the past a lot.

I followed McGann for years (didn’t like the long repeating-the-past stretch in the mid-EDAs) until I got tired of the “epic!!!” boxset style he’s stuck with now, when I have to remember what happened previously and what things are. Unbound was a fun range.

[Lily]

Oi! This is the Star Trek crap thread. Take this off to a Classic Who crap thread!

In fact I’ll probably start one myself in a few days if no-one else does. Think I’ve just about got all the DVDs to start watching through Doctors 1 and 2.

[Ben Saunders]

Me at the start of I, Borg:
This is bullshit. This is the BORG we’re talking about. 39 ships!! Stop trying to humanise the Borg!!

Me at the end of I, Borg:
Why am I crying over a Borg?? Don’t go, Hugh ????????????

[Ben Saunders]

I do think Picard was right to deliberately distance himself from Hugh and not let his emotions cloud his judgement, because, well, just ask Spock. The needs of the many. Allowing yourself to humanise Hugh makes you sympathetic to him and ultimately unwilling to use him to destroy the Borg, which dammit, is something you really should do. This is your chance. If you don’t destroy them now, they will go on to kill millions. Sure, Hugh is a tragic, lost, young, sentient being. But so are many of those the Borg will go on to slaughter. The needs of the many (the millions who will die) outweigh the needs of the few, or the one (Hugh).

Also, I do wish sci-fi writers would come up with something more original than “feed the computer a paradox so it explodes”. Christ. Picard even says “how original” in the episode… is that a joke?!

[Ben Saunders]

I also think they should have killed the sea creature in Doctor Who S10E03 Thin Ice, and any other episode where we’re faced with saving one life form while risking the destruction of countless others, I’m usually in favour of killing the creature. Although obviously in TV land everything is bullshit and everyone lives happily ever after and The Doctor/Geordi/whoever is praised for their compassion when in reality all odds would be in favour of killing the damn thing.

[Warbodog]

They said they would have used the Borg more, but knew they couldn’t top BOBW for action and peril so went in different directions like this. Good call. Seeing this before the introduction of Seven of Nine, I was of course mildly irritated that she wasn’t called Seventh of Nine.

Sorry for being a broken record and overhyping things to the point of annoyance, but DS9 does those difficult moral choices and grey areas well, to the point that it disappointed Majel Barret among others for being “not Star Trek” in a very narrow view.

You’re not done crying this season yet!

[Ben Saunders]

The cliffhanger to BOBW was more intense than cumming so yeah I wouldn’t want to be the person given the task of outdoing it. The Klingon civil war stuff at the end of season four felt like a bit of an attempt to do that, and it didn’t really work, probably because the Klingons are so dull.

>You’re not done crying this season yet!
Oh boy I’m so excited

[Plastic Percy]

As I understand it, ‘Disaster’ was partially written to see if Colm Meaney and Michelle Forbes had on-screen chemistry, as they’d already decided O’Brien and Ro would be transferred to Deep Space Nine.

Also, I know it would have made fandom explode, but I really liked the pitched idea of Deep Space Nine ending with a fadeout to an elderly Benny Russell, sitting about Paramount Studios, holding the script to ‘Deep Space Nine: The Emissary’ as the cameras start to roll.

[Warbodog]

I didn’t consider that about O’Brien and Ro. Ro not being in DS9 is one of those things like not keeping the Victorian Clara in Doctor Who that makes me feel a pang of regret whenever I think about the missed opportunity, but Kira had the whole resistance background and closer ties to Bajor while Ro just ran away, so they’re quite different characters and it probably turned out more interesting.

I would have loved that bold DS9 ending (today at least, not sure about when I was 14), since you could write it off as a dream or alternate reality if you cared, but doubtless would have infuriated people.

[Plastic Percy]

Avery Brooks had a very minor hand in changing Sisko’s ending. As originally written, when Sisko appears to Kassidy, he would have told her that he would never return. Brooks felt this reinforced a negative stereotype of absent black fathers and the line was changed to Sisko saying he would return someday.

And I think Kira is a better fit for the show. There’s an uneasiness early on to Kira, where she resents the Federation getting involved and even sides with Vedek Winn’s conservative religious teachings. She does have the fantastic character arc of being able to grow beyond hatred and end up helping the Cardassians retake their planet from occupation.

I know it’s resolved in the novels that Ro escaped the collapse of the Maquis, and ends up back in Starfleet, but I prefer to think of her going down fighting against the Cardassians/Dominion.

[Warbodog]

I sure hope first-timer Ben stops reading that entire post as soon as he glimpses “Sisko’s ending”…

[Warbodog]

(Spoilers!) There are a few things that always bothered me in the DS9 finale. The Kasidy scene should have been Jake, a main character’s absence from the flashbacks is distracting, all the cheap re-used footage in the battle (even going back to Search for Spock!), and the convenience of the book being the key. Generally good, but not among their best. TNG had the most satisfying series finale by far.

[Stephen Abootman]

Great to see a cameo from Rimmer’s self loathing beast in Discovery this week.

[Ben Saunders]

I ain’t reading that shit

The Next Phase: Aww :)

The Inner Light: Aww :(

Time’s Arrow Part 1: Wtf?

[Ben Saunders]

The Next Phase was cute, I loved seeing how giddy Geordi and Ro got when their plan started to work. Data planning the funeral was pretty touching, as was Worf’s reasoning for not being the person to ask to help out. I already saw part of the funeral scene out of context on a YouTube video which I think was intended to be bizarre and confusing, and I certainly remember it being, but in the episode itself it was pretty easy to follow. Ro makes some very… interesting noises when she’s being zapped into corporeality again.

The Inner Light is of course fantastic. Sometimes I’m left wanting things to be less obvious, sometimes more. In this case I was hoping for more reflection and emotion on the Enterprise following the events, but the ending we got was a nice little lowkey moment. Picard’s ageing makeup was very convincing.

With Time’s Arrow, it’s always hard when they try to open an episode with big emotions and stakes etc before you’re really geared up and ready for it, but the crew reacting to the (eventual) death of Data was pretty touching, especially Troi being cut off during her “it’s like finding out a loved one has a terminal…” line. Ouch. Troi is actually given things to do in this episode, and as she does them she is fantastic. The ending is fucking bizarre and bright and I don’t know what the fuck to make of it – where did they go?!

[Warbodog]

– The Next Phase: To over-generalise as ever, this feels like the start of a trend of episodes being based on joke pitches pulled out of a hat (“Geordi’s a ghost”) that the writers are forced to take seriously and make work. Season 6 goes to some strange places sometimes – don’t look at the thumbnails so you’ll get maximum David Tennant style “what? what?” reactions.

– The Inner Light obligatory trivia: Picard’s “son” was played by Patrick Stewart’s son. This is the only Star Trek episode I’ve thought about fan editing, but wouldn’t bother. I don’t like how it keeps cutting back to the ship, so I’d lose all of that – we know which one is the dream, for god’s sake, just let us stay immersed and worry about how the real Jean-Luc is doing until the end. TNG certainly didn’t suffer from weak penultimate episodes, only season 3’s yellow bodysuit man.

– Time’s Arrow: These episodes get dissed a lot, but I always thought they were fun. It’s a bit Doctor Who with the period costumes and (admittedly quite annoying) historical cameos. Picard-Guinan dynamic reversal too.

[Warbodog]

You know how promo teasers are sometimes released too early, before they actually have any footage to show? This uncanny image was maybe released around this time in TNG.

[Warbodog]

Trivia: This chap auditioned to be the new series’ commander, who they had already decided would be black.

Ira Behr:

“I actually have some of the auditions and some were sent in from England from some very good British actors. So they were covering on all fronts, but I think that was all just due diligence. It was always going to be a brown captain.”

[Ben Saunders]

“a brown Captain” lmao. Who says “brown?” Even though it is a more accurate description of the actual colour of Avery Brooks, you just don’t hear that lol.

They made that space station prop for either The Motion Picture or TWoK, then flipped it upside down and used it in basically every single episode after that, it seems. Using it for a Deep Space Nine poster is just too funny.

They also re-use the planet from The Outcast in one of these last two episodes of season five, at least in the CG Blu-ray remaster

[Warbodog]

I didn’t include the earlier bit of the quote where he says they weren’t specifically looking for African-American but also other non-white, so he’s using “brown” more generally. Their UK casting did get them the series’ doctor, who auditioned for the captain but was too young, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Because this is the thread for it, and you’d pick me up on getting a Dalek wrong, I have to point out that you’re confusing the Spacedock from Star Trek III/TNG/poster with the smaller orbital station / Regula 1 model (upside-down). It’s an excuse to post nice model shots anyway, which should really be most of the thread.

[GlenTokyo]

The Next Phase was great, really enjoyed it.

The Inner Light paid off after what I thought was going to be like the various Voyager episodes where crew are stranded and forced to live boring lives and try to effect change despite someone doing something to hinder them. Thankfully Patrick Stewart is a higher calibre actor.

Times Arrow, again, really enjoyed it. A good, fun story. The cast make it, love Picard bullshitting the landlady. Mark Twain is a bit much at times but he at least has a point.

Have to say, glad I continued my rewatch. Left it on series 4 about 2 years ago, and this thread got me to have a look again.

[GlenTokyo]

Man of the People, one for the Dads.

#Nips

[GlenTokyo]

There’s a couple of fades and fade to black scene transitions in season 6 so far that seem really out of place. It’s like Murder She Wrote. What’s that all about or have I just never noticed if happening in other episodes.

[Warbodog]

Realm of Fear is such a Braga/Voyager episode. I can really see the creative continuity from late TNG into Voyager now that I’m looking for it, with more Braga scripts and Jeri Taylor co-producing now that Michael Piller’s focusing on DS9.

The difference is, TNG still has people like Ron Moore (Klingon saga, The First Duty, The Next Phase) and Rene Echevarria (The Offspring, I, Borg) who later migrated to DS9 instead of Voyager. TNG’s children go in different directions when those two series get underway, there’s not much creative overlap.

[Author]

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