The Star Trek Thread, Phase II

"Phantasms"

A nice quirky episode with Data dreaming. So far this season is not too bad, actually a lot better than I recall especially with everyone else painting the season as weak as the early ones. Or am I just in the good chunk before it gets repetitive?

"Melora"

Filler episode, but as good as it gets I suppose. Still not used to the idea of DS9 dedicating an episode to a guest character we'll never see again, kinda going against the whole concept of the show. Oh well.

HD Screencaps of "The Inner Light": http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/thumbnails.php?album=3


"Dark Page"

Another good Mrs. Troi episode getting into what makes her the way she is, hiding her pain through all the flair. Of all the TNG appearances my favorite might be "Half a Life". Worst episode to feature her was the one where she hangs out with Alexander.

"Rules of Acquisition"

I love the Ferengi. I love how they're sort of a parody of humans of the 20th century but unlike in TNG (especially the S1) it's not done to show the "evils" of capitalism. Zek's sexual advances on Kira, maybe over the top but I can't help but find it amusing. Even The Sisko can't help restrain himself.



I think Dax's views on the Ferengi sum up my feelings and no doubt the writers. Oh yeah, and something about the Dominion or whatever Quark was talking about.

Just a shame that those aliens look worse than average.

The polka dot faced aliens? Yeah, but I can let it slide. Worst alien design I've seen so far on DS9 is this.

"Attached"

Here's something that should have happened like, I dunno, five seasons agp? As far as I recall nothing comes out of this except for that brief moment in the finale where Picard and Crusher kiss in his ready room, but that was undone by the reset button. Doesn't bother me though, I'm not sure what it is that Picard sees in Crusher. But I do love the concept of their relationship, Picard being in love with his dead best friend's wife, the same man who also died under his command. There's some great stories that could have come out of it, oh well.

"Necessary Evil"

Love it. Everything about this works. The Terok Nor years, Odo becoming "the constable", Dukat, ect. Just all around perfect.

Yeah the entire Picard/Crusher relationship, from all angles, was something that could've really been interesting, but never really worked. It would've made both their characters more interesting. But the TNG brass, like the VOY brass, were too afraid to put those chips on the table. Hell, probably more afraid. At least VOY did the Paris/Torres relationship -- TNG was too afraid to ever really address Riker/Troi, and then when they switched it to Worf/Troi they were too afraid to ever really adress that either! Because every relationship those characters had either ended within a single episode or was a subtext you never really saw, it gave the impression of the TNG crew being very, well, sexless. As if they were trying so hard not to be the "spreadin' my seed across the Quadrant" TOS crew, that they went way too far in the other direction.

Sykes Wanders Through the Delta Quadrant (VOY Season 6 Reviews)

"Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy"
Man, I have such fond memories of this episode. I remembering seeing it way back when and thinking it was hilarious and fun. A memorable episode. But I was like, 10, when this episode first aired. So, I guess that says something. This episode is really goofy. And it's all at the expense of the characters rather than with them. The Doc has all these overly egotistical daydreams that get out of control and then they have to act them out for real for these aliens because they've been spying on Voyager and accidentally getting the Doc's dreams. The whole thing feels very... sitcom. It's silly. It also introduces these interesting spy/pirate aliens and gives them no motivation, which is fast becoming a huge pet peeve of mine: villains who are villainous because the script says so, instead of any valid motivation. All they needed was one line like "Oh, our planet was decimated because of blah blah, now we are forced to steal from passing ships", but no, they're just the bad guys because they aren't Voyager. Even the ECH sequences I remember from my youth were just over-the-top and corny. And not in a good way.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -33
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 27,026.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Dragon's Teeth"
A pretty decent episode, although I had the entire thing figured out in the first five minutes. Janeway brings back a frozen battalion of a destroyed civilization and they want help rebuilding their society and in exchange they will give us some bullshit that'll take years off our trip. But of course by "rebuild their society" they mean "retake their empire" cuz turns out they're evil. Episode ends with us warping away having let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, with these guys resuming the war against the rebels who overthrew and destroyed them in the first place. Janeway says "I doubt we've seen the last of them."
In typical VOY fashion, we never see them again.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,811.2 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

"Alice"
This was so frustrating to sit through. Every step of the way it was equally predictable and nonsensical. Paris buys a new ship, a one man vessel, from a scrap heap because he falls in love with it at first sight and wants to destroy it. The crew lets him do this even though we already have the Delta Flyer (Chakotay also claims they have a "full complement of shuttles", which almost made me turn the TV off and quit watching the show altogether). Because we already have the Flyer and aren't going to keep this ship, I immediately know there is something wrong with it. I predicted it would have an evil AI that would go crazy and try to take over Tom. Bingo! You know you've seen too much Star Trek when... Tom begins working on the ship obbsessively, and predictably, it wrecks his relationship with B'Elanna. Tom goes crazy, starts seeing the ship in his mind as a hot chick named Alice. She convinces him to leave Voyager with the ship. Janeway pursues, the ship taking Tom to a "particle fountain" (a made-up, nonsensical space anomaly basically like a white hole or a star) and says this is "Home". Okaaaay. Then they fly into it and Voyager essentially beams Tom out before the ship is destroyed.
So... wait.... the ship... is.... from... a particle fountain? And returning there... destroyed it? Why, how? They never really explain what's going on with the ship, it's just a Maguffin for the rest of the plot. Again, a villain who is villainous because the script says so. There's no explanation, no backstory no nothing. All it would take is a line like "this pilot once really loved me, but he left me in that junkheap alone, and now I need a pilot to love me again, but my lonliness has made me crazy and suicidal, so I'm going to drive us into a star to kill us both so we'll be together forever!" See how easy that was? And that fits the themes of devotion and obsession that the episode was using with Tom. But instead we get nonsensical formulaic crap.
And why? Because no one cares. Because I bet if on that set someone brought that up and asked the writer to do a rewrite, the writer wouldn't bother. They get the same salary whether they do the rewrite or not. The episode is made and aired whether they do it or not. VOY will get renewed and get money whether they do it or not. So why do it? Unless they really cared, really loved their work, like the DS9 guys. But they don't, so no one bothers.
There's a scene in the episode, where Seven walks in demanding a refund from Neelix for one of the items from the scrap heap (despite the trader in charge telling Neelix "all trades are final"). They have a brief conversation where it turns out Neelix is also unsatisfied with an item. At the end of the conversation Seven admonishes him, smiling and saying "all trades are final". WHAT? Then why did this conversation start if she already knew that?
FUCK.
# of Crew: 135 Total -- 119 Starfleet, 13 Maquis, 3 Civilians
# of Shuttles: -3 (Chakotay claims they have a "full complement")
# of Warp Cores: 2
# of Photon Torpedoes: -34
# of Gel Packs: 30
Distance to Alpha Quadrant: 26,757.9 lightyears
Opportunities to Get Home Missed: 11

Oh, and in addition to the full complement of shuttles, the episode begins with Kim and Paris trying to guess Tuvok's age, and coming up with different numbers based on different statements he's said in the past. So references to both of Voyager's irritating inconsistencies in dialogue!

Crusher/Picard thing was pointless. Crusher might as well have been written out of Star Trek altogether. Indeed, imagine that a show that doesn't make the CMO one of the main characters. Just get on with the sodding thing.

Says the guy with a Crusher avatar.

But yeah the majority of the TNG characters were very perfunctory. DS9 figured out a way to make the ensemble work by pairing them into interesting duos or groups. Bashir/O'Brien, Bashir/Garak, Garak/Odo, Odo/Quark, Quark/Dax, Dax/Worf, etc. etc. so that in any given scene there was something interesting going on with the characters.

The other thing is that the TNG and VOY plotlines were often problem-solving based. We encounter a problem, we work to solve it. And because of that everyone becomes very attached to their job as character. There are a few DS9 episodes from season 1 and 2 like that, but for the most part the DS9 guys are reacting to problems or actually initiating an action. They are the main character in their own stories. On TNG and VOY the characters come in and interact with other peoples' stories.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

Says the guy with a Crusher avatar.

I know it's hilarious isn't it. Think they call that irony or foolhardiness.

God, I wish I was as enlightened. Besides, Big Red's temporary.

The best doctors on Trek were McCoy, Bashir and The Doctor because they were people first and doctors second. Which is a weird thing to say about The Doctor and something that happened in his case only because of Picardo's performance I think.

What works about McCoy and Bashir is that they were designed as other archetypes first. On TOS, McCoy wasn't "the doctor", he was the crusty old friend giving the lead character the hard advice he might rather not hear. On DS9, Bashir wasn't "the doctor", he was the unexperienced greenhorn who's going to have his eyes opened. On TNG, VOY and ENT you feel like the doctors were just designed to be "the doctor". Well, that's not fair, Crusher's only character description initially was actually "Wesley's mom", then they made her the doctor and Picard's old flame in order to justify Wesley. But again that points to why she doesn't work -- she was created solely to justify another character, then stayed around after that character left solely because they still needed a doctor.

Fairbairn-Sykes wrote:

The best doctors on Trek were McCoy, Bashir and The Doctor because they were people first and doctors second. Which is a weird thing to say about The Doctor and something that happened in his case only because of Picardo's performance I think.

What works about McCoy and Bashir is that they were designed as other archetypes first. On TOS, McCoy wasn't "the doctor", he was the crusty old friend giving the lead character the hard advice he might rather not hear. On DS9, Bashir wasn't "the doctor", he was the unexperienced greenhorn who's going to have his eyes opened. On TNG, VOY and ENT you feel like the doctors were just designed to be "the doctor". Well, that's not fair, Crusher's only character description initially was actually "Wesley's mom", then they made her the doctor and Picard's old flame in order to justify Wesley. But again that points to why she doesn't work -- she was created solely to justify another character, then stayed around after that character left solely because they still needed a doctor.

Quite agree. Picardo made the EMH one of the best things for me on Voyager though my view of it has declined recently. Crusher never had much written to her from what I've read and when there were Crusher episodes they were iffy at best.

But she did start my redhead fixation which has led to a world of pain.

Uploaded more tracks, here are the unused cues.



Starting at 24s is the music that would have synced with the "I am fully function" scene between Data and Tasha.



Then there's this, starting at 1:40s would have been the music during the awkward moment with Picard and Crusher, titled "Horny Doctor".



It's the last twenty seconds. The original cue to the Enterprise going to warp, and I can see why they replaced it with the closing cue from "Lonely Among Us".



The scene between Data and Sonny would have been accompanied by this little country tune.

Somehow quite liking the little country tune from Neutral Zone. Surprised but amused at the fact the track title in Naked Now includes "Horny Doctor" and liking the original series feel the early music seems to have. I think it's "Mission Forward" that sounds like it could have Kirk and co on the bridge rather than Kirk.

Oh and "We Are Back" from Neutral Zone. Like it.

When Ron Jones was scoring for "The Naked Now" that was before he was aware of the decision by producers to use the Goldsmith theme as the TNG title track, a decision that was late in the game hence why there was the alternative title theme made by McCarthy. That's why it sounds more like TOS. The Goldsmith title would finally be heard in the score for "Where No One Has Gone Before". Ron Jones would be the only composer to ever use the Goldsmith track in any of his scores as McCarthy opted use the alternative theme instead which is now known best as the "Picard Theme", it would only be used in the first three seasons.

Makeshift Python wrote:

When Ron Jones was scoring for "The Naked Now" that was before he was aware of the decision by producers to use the Goldsmith theme as the TNG title track, a decision that was late in the game hence why there was the alternative title theme made by McCarthy. That's why it sounds more like TOS. The Goldsmith title would finally be heard in the score for "Where No One Has Gone Before". Ron Jones would be the only composer to ever use the Goldsmith track in any of his scores as McCarthy opted use the alternative theme instead which is now known best as the "Picard Theme", it would only be used in the first three seasons.

Ah I see. More's the pity it didn't carry onto into the McCarthy era.

Hilly wrote:

But she did start my redhead fixation which has led to a world of pain.

I've been trying to track where mine started and I'm just not sure. I know it started around fifth grade (before that I was totally into blondes) and I think it's a mix of Mara Jade (an expanded universe Star Wars character who was an assassin for the Emperor and later became the wife of Luke Skywalker), http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070701201023/starwars/images/d/d8/Mara_insidercover.jpg, Diana Rigg as Tracy in OHMSS (Fleming calls her a blonde in the book but she'll always be a redhead to me thanks to Rigg), and a girl I had a crush on in sixth grade who had red hair and was like the first girl I knew to get tits. At the time they were proportionally quite large it seemed but as she grew up it seems they didn't because now she has super small ones.

You don't need to tell me about Mara, she was all the rage when I was at school :)

Trying to think of others way back when. I guess we could throw the likes of Tonia Burrows in "Shore Leave" and Marla McGivers [Mrs Khan] into the mix.

I first became aware of my fixation on readheads in high school, a time before Lindsay Lohan bleached her hair and snorted coke. Seriously, what the hell happened to her? :x

Makeshift Python wrote:

I first became aware of my fixation on readheads in high school, a time before Lindsay Lohan bleached her hair and snorted coke. Seriously, what the hell happened to her? :x

Hard to imagine a time when Lohan was...decent. One reason why Herbie Fully Loaded is worth a watch. Ahem.

Supposedly Disney had to digitally edit Lohan on the posters as she was too busty.

As digressions go..

More like "Mean Girls" than Herbie. But best Lohan for that era is probably her first music video. There's literally a section where it's just slo-mo boob jiggle.

I'm currently dating a redhead. She's more Velma than Daphne, but I sure as hell don't mind since when I ask "what do you want to do tonight?" the answer is usually "watch BSG or Justice League", and she's adorably cute with her glasses and 34Ds. ;)

Nights like this that I realise I live a frightfully sheltered life.

"Force of Nature"

Warp 5 huh? Sure, see how long that lasts.

Second Sight

Sisko gets cock blocked. Feels like it's been awhile since there's been a Sisko centric episode so this was a nice change of pace.

"Inheritance"

Well done but my overall feeling is that it's a pretty unnecessary entry. Kind of like a majority of the episodes this season having the characters see long lost relatives.

"Sanctuary"

"Thank you for taking us in for a bit after we've been wandering in space without a home. Oh wait, there's no way to share your world? FUCK YOU, FRIENDSHIP OFF." That's kind of how I took it. And Sisko kept reminding "hey, there's a whole other planet available for you where you can do anything you want", but the Skreena are not pleased. Ok. Besides that, it's alright. I would have rather followed Jake going on a date with a Dabo girl. That's the one with the big tits right, or is that later?

Yeah, "Force of Nature" and it's ill conceived ozone hole metaphor story. The warp 5 thing lasts until the end of the season. The DS9 runabouts can only go to w5 anyway. Once we're in DS9 S3 and VOY starts, the whole thing is forgotten and swept under the rug.

Warp 5 is hideously slow. Bajor to Earth at Warp 5 is 89 days. At the Defiant's top speed it's 3 days.

The best thing about "Second Sight" is Gideon Seyetik, the Most Interesting Man in the Galaxy.

Inserted the music Ron Jones scored for these scenes.






I think the music compliments the scene with Data and Tasha fine, and it is the only scene in the episode where we learn something new about a character. However the Crusher scene still falls apart because Gates is just soooooo awful there.