Star Trek

[Tango Yankee]

When I said i live in a split house, I meant that I am a trekkie and my beautiful girlfriend is a trekker. You might ask yourself what is the difference. A trekkie is a fan of the orig. series and a trekker is a fan of TNG.

Back in the '70s the difference was that a trekkie was akin to a groupie, whereas the trekker, while fascinated with the program, it's ideas and it's science, wasn't about to fall screaming at the feet of William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy as some tended to do.

Cheers,
Tom

A Trekker from the '70s who was too young to be allowed to stay up to watch Star Trek when it first came out but who remembers his older brother begging to be allowed to stay late at the friends house down the street to watch it because they had a color TV.

PS OK, I should have read the rest of the thread to see that others had already posted the original meaning of Trekker!

 

[Young fogey]

Grew up with an original Trekker sister and caught it in the first run of reruns in the '70s so I know more about the show than I usually admit.

Mostly I did and do appreciate Gene Roddenberry's eye for beautiful women (he married Majel Barrett).

Second, without straying into the taboo topic of politics, I remember the intentional depiction of... America in the mid-'60s (the Great Society and the Cold War military) in a stylised setting. (I later read Roddenberry did that for two reasons: it was his cover for doing satire and political commentary, disguised as kiddie sci-fi, and if the people were too futuristic, audiences wouldn't like them and would stop watching the show.)

Yes, we had 'A Piece of the Action', 'The City on the Edge of Forever', the WWII one, 'Patterns of Force' (grown-up me: 'Let's save money and use Paramount's old sets and props!'), and two time-travel ones to the mid-'60s, 'Tomorrow Is Yesterday' and 'Assignment: Earth' (actually a pilot for another show about alien agent Gary Seven; that would have been good).

TNG was OK: lovable characters all round. Picard is the man of course, I was in love with Crusher and Data was a wonderful reinvention of Spock. Definite hat tip to the Dixon Hill story. But when the last episode aired I just forgot about it.

Tried the pilots of all the other shows but never got into them.

The movies? Meh. Am I the only one who liked the first one? (Spock with a tear on his cheek? Classic.) What struck me about First Contact was how much more interesting Zefrem Cochrane's post-nuke apocalyptic world was than the TNG regulars' was. Very un-'Trek'.

Now that I'm grown up of course I see the plot holes: the whole universe speaking English (I don't buy the 'universal translator' gizmo... these are supposed to be newly discovered beings... 'Enterprise' got it right with Hoshi's job, guessing what they were saying) and looking suspiciously human. Then I remember that Roddenberry had a tight budget and again he was more interested in doing disguised commentary about the real world in the form of fables, and of course in being commercially successful, which he belatedly, unexpectedly was of course, than in actual science fiction.

It's fun to compare the original series to 'The Outer Limits', sort of a poor man's 'Twilight Zone'. Many of the same actors, only a year or so before they became famous. For instance there's one with a robot on trial (a plot TNG sort of used with Data once) in which Leonard Nimoy is 1964 golden-age normal, with fedora and thin tie and minus Spock's speech pattern. On YouTube you can see parts of a version of the second pilot and the resemblance is obvious: it's like a superior 'Outer Limits' episode.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

What a great idea for a post! I'm a longtime fan (3+ decades) and though initially the original Star Trek series was my favorite one, I eventually became so hooked on the Next Generation series and later the Voyager series.

My favorite Next Generation episodes include the series finale (which was the last episode I recently saw... I've always liked the episodes that featured Q and Picard) and the episode where it goes into detail as to how Picard got an artificial heart and what his life would have been like if he had not underwent the events that led up to him getting an artificial heart.

I often wonder what the show would have been like if Jeffrey Hunter had played the role of Captain Pike throughout the series. He would have been great in the part, but his wife at the time supposedly discouraged his participation in the show as she thought it was not serious enough I think? Too bad. The 2 part pilot episode, entitled "The Menagerie" was one of my favorites. The original series might have lasted longer on TV, and become even more popular. Who knows? [huh]

 

[Young fogey]

'60s Shatner was a perfectly good starship captain ( = US military officer), but yes, Hunter was good, and I liked most of the Q episodes of TNG too. The Picard episode 'The Inner Light', in which he lives a virtual lifetime in an alien's shoes, was moving but I'd think he'd need a lot of therapy after that.

Another golden-age episode I recommend: the 'DS9' one 'Little Green Men' in which Quark and his nephew are the Roswell aliens in 1947.

 

[Edward]

the episode where it goes into detail as to how Picard got an artificial heart and what his life would have been like if he had not underwent the events that led up to him getting an artificial heart... I like this episode because my heart is partly mechanical so I can relate to Picard, plus the episode helps to illustrate how our hardships define our character...

Tapestry. One of my favourites too.

 

[Miss Moonlight]

Another golden-age episode I recommend: the 'DS9' one 'Little Green Men' in which Quark and his nephew are the Roswell aliens in 1947.

Great episode! Love how the segments taking place in the past were done in a more melodramatic style, like a 40s romance.

 

[Young fogey]

Great episode! Love how the segments taking place in the past were done in a more melodramatic style, like a 40s romance.

I didn't think of that but you're right!

 

[Mr Vim]

You know, I honestly never cared for the show. I enjoyed a random episode of the original now and again, especially when some clever writing took place (I remember that planet the crew visits that manufactured their wishes)

and when the newest "reboot" film came out, I did not go and see it, and then a fellow film friend called me and said "look, you need to see it, it doesn't matter if you like Trek or not, you'll like this movie."

Well, I saw and I loved the film, I own the DVD. It is a fantastic work. But Star Trek as a whole? Not so much. Does that ring odd to anyone?

 

[The Good]

You know, I honestly never cared for the show. I enjoyed a random episode of the original now and again, especially when some clever writing took place (I remember that planet the crew visits that manufactured their wishes)

and when the newest "reboot" film came out, I did not go and see it, and then a fellow film friend called me and said "look, you need to see it, it doesn't matter if you like Trek or not, you'll like this movie."

Well, I saw and I loved the film, I own the DVD. It is a fantastic work. But Star Trek as a whole? Not so much. Does that ring odd to anyone?

I wouldn't exactly say that's odd. I know of plenty of fans that don't like a certain series or whatnot. No problem with only liking parts of the Star Trek series as whole. I mean, I'm not particular interested in some of it myself, such as the Voyager and Enterprise series. I'm more of a TOS, TNG, and DS9 guy. I like the movies, but I haven't seen the latest, yet.

 

[MrBern]

warp

BTW, the warp drive effect as shown in each of the movies
http://gizmodo.com/5629123/this-is-how-the-star-trek-warp-jump-evolved

Does anyone watch the New Voyages Fanfilms? Done in the `60s style...but with gusto!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lyjpadAV9Y

 

[CopperNY]

original series, first and always.

 

[MrBern]

fan film voyages

Its amusing to see the fan films, especially when the original trek actors make an appearance. Its a shame StarTrek Enterprise wasnt this dedicated to the TOS aesthetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn_EeDP2880&NR=1

 

[Matt Deckard]

http://foolishgadgets.com/200912/star-trek-original-series-wetsuit/

 

[Effingham]

I often wonder what the show would have been like if Jeffrey Hunter had played the role of Captain Pike throughout the series. He would have been great in the part, but his wife at the time supposedly discouraged his participation in the show as she thought it was not serious enough I think?

The line frequently quoted in fandom is, "My Jeffrey is a MOVIE STAR."

Big Trekfan here. Started with TOS, still largely *is* TOS.

The movie last year? An abomination. Well-cast though it was, it was... NOT Trek. IMHO, of course.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Thanks for the clarification, Doc. I laughed at the "I Grok Spock" button comment... what on earth (or Vulcan) does "grok" mean? lol

It came from Robert A. Heinlein's cult classic novel, Stranger in a Strange Land, a term meaning roughly "to totally comprehend/be one with," as used by RAH's Valentine Michael Smith. Smith was a human who had been raised by Martians, even as Tarzan was by the great apes, and he brings Martian concepts of love and understanding to Earth. At least I think that's right; it's been many years since I read Stranger (it's not RAH's best work).

 

[Doctor Strange]

Just to let you know that I didn't drop the ball on that one, I had PM'd Navin with virtually the same explanation a couple of days after his comment.

I didn't think that it necessarily belonged in the main thread, though... not really a Trek subject.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Ah, Star Trek!

The first SF I ever really liked, and which led me to Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, and Poul Anderson's written SF. I was there watching the original series as a young teen, and loved Next Generation (for all of its political correctness) as the full realization of Roddenberry's "Wagon Train to the Stars" concept.

I didn't see enough of DS9, as my local station kept moving it; I liked the bits I caught of Voyager (Kate Mulgrew made the first, and maybe only, believable female commander in the entire series). While I didn't care much for Enterprise, I may have missed the richer stories I understand came later.

The new film? Oh, please. Give me Wrath of Khan back. Lens flares in nearly every scene? A starship staffed with Gen-X and Gen-Y types who apparently believe it's okay to abandon your post as long as you have a really really good reason? Jim Kirk as the James Dean of 23rd-century Kansas, and a Star Fleet that comes off more like the Foreign Legion?

And let's face it, folks: Newly-minted ensigns and their classmates do NOT get to command vessels, either in our world or Trek's. If there was one thing TOS strove for, it was plausibility in the aspects of its future world, and that just doesn't cut it. (No, TOS and the other series didn't always achieve it. But they tried.)

That said, I loved the casting, especially Karl Urban's channeling of DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Sounds like we have parallel experiences and taste right down the line. (See my comments back on page 1.)

 

[Benzadmiral]

True, Doctor. But there is this one little ray of hope: It has always seemed to take two shots for Star Trek to get it right. It took two pilots for it to sell in the first place; the second try with the original cast in movies, Wrath of Khan, knocked it out of the park compared to The Motion Picture.

Perhaps Episode Two of "J.J. Abrams Revives Star Trek" will be really good!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yes, and it took Next Generation until the second season to really find its feet.

But I am not optimistic. Abrams and company are only looking at their boffo box office from the first one, and will take an it-ain't-broke approach, with more of the same loud, dumb, not-your-father's-Trek.

It's all about the youth market, not pleasing aboriginal Trekkers like us.