The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIV

[Synobun]

Hmm, seems like the CFC crowd likes Enterprise. That is pleasing. On one side, I can't wait for seasons 3 and 4 but on the other hand, I don't want to have it just suddenly end... Ah well. I've started reading ST novels and just finished Strike Zone, so I guess the literature can keep me afloat once I'm finished.

 

[Mise]

Well you've all convinced me to watch the rest of it now... I saw it back when it was on air on Sky, but then I went to university and never finished more than half of the second season or something (I lose track of the seasons because they're sooooo long and we don't get them over here for like a year afterwards anyway).

EDIT: Oh, wait, reading the plot summary, it turns out I've seen smatterings of Seasons 3 and 4 as well.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Is it true that the Soviet Union was a society based entirely on science?

 

[Ajidica]

Hmm, seems like the CFC crowd likes Enterprise. That is pleasing. On one side, I can't wait for seasons 3 and 4 but on the other hand, I don't want to have it just suddenly end... Ah well. I've started reading ST novels and just finished Strike Zone, so I guess the literature can keep me afloat once I'm finished.

Initially I liked ENT, but the 'Temporal Cold War' plot started to annoy me and it just couldn't hold up against TNG, Farscape, or Babylon 5.

Is it true that the Soviet Union was a society based entirely on science?

No.
The Soviet leadership did have a massive obsession with coming to the 'scientific' solution to everything and did funnel quite a bit of money toward scientific research but to say that their society was 'entirely based on science' is just false.

 

[Samson]

Is it true that the Soviet Union was a society based entirely on science?

No. While Marxist theory and Communist put a significant emphasis on how scientific advances can alter how society functions, all societies are based the rich mix of historical, social, economic and scientific realities and not one factor exclusively.

 

[PhroX]

Initially I liked ENT, but the 'Temporal Cold War' plot started to annoy me and it just couldn't hold up against TNG, Farscape, or Babylon 5.

That reminds me, here's a question, why do so many sci-fi TV shows have such god awful first seasons? I mean, TNG was the trope namer for growing a beard, Farscape was boring as hell and I gave up after about 5-6 episodes (I've heard it gets much better, which is completely believable, but I've just never got round to trying again) B5 didn't pick up till season 2 (when, admittedly, it became the best sci-fi show ever), DS9 has a pretty poor begining (I forget exactly how long it lasted, I watched it when it was 1st on TV, which was some time ago...), when, much like B5 S1, it was just "generic stuff happens on a space station", and so on.

 

[schlaufuchs]

That reminds me, here's a question, why do so many sci-fi TV shows have such god awful first seasons? I mean, TNG was the trope namer for growing a beard, Farscape was boring as hell and I gave up after about 5-6 episodes (I've heard it gets much better, which is completely believable, but I've just never got round to trying again) B5 didn't pick up till season 2 (when, admittedly, it became the best sci-fi show ever), DS9 has a pretty poor begining (I forget exactly how long it lasted, I watched it when it was 1st on TV, which was some time ago...), when, much like B5 S1, it was just "generic stuff happens on a space station", and so on.

Because it takes some time for the director, editor, producer, and actors to build some rapport with one another and to get a feel for what the show is and how it should be presented. Most television shows start with a grand vision by a writer or producer, and it takes some time and experimentation for that vision to be converted into a format which works for tv. Many shows never get that conversion at all.

 

[Synobun]

Because it takes some time for the director, editor, producer, and actors to build some rapport with one another and to get a feel for what the show is and how it should be presented. Most television shows start with a grand vision by a writer or producer, and it takes some time and experimentation for that vision to be converted into a format which works for tv. Many shows never get that conversion at all.

That, and it sometimes takes actors a while to get into their role as something they do naturally rather than force. I know Michael Dorn, the man who played Worf, really liked his time on DS9 because he had already gotten used to the role of a Klingon and wanted to develop the character more now that he knew who that character really was.

 

[Antilogic]

All of what Owen said, plus the fact that scifi shows are building a world/universe that is distinctly less familiar than the real one and so it's a more difficult task. Scifi has always struggled to be more than just B-level entertainment and hasn't always received the best personnel and resources to tackle the challenge.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I like Enterprise and certainly more than Voyager. Not sure how much I like it in relation to the other ST series though. Coincidentally, I'm actually watching my way through Enterprise now, I'm in season 2 or 3 (can't remember).

I wish they had been able to show the Romulan war and i also wish they had shown more meaningful contacts with alien species. what I mean is that in later series, it is established that a bunch of alien species are in teh Federation. It would have been awesome if Enterprise had shown more first contact or interspecies relationship-building episodes. Most of the species they introduced were either antagonistic and never show up outside of Enterprise (the Xindi) or are one or two show throw aways (they are in an episode and never seen again).

I really like how they treated the Andorians though, we go through how the entire human/andorian/vulcan relationship developed into what it is in later series. Wish they had done that with more species.

Also, more peaceful exploration would have been cool. It seems like half of the 'exploration' episodes end up with Archer + redshirts stranded on an alien world and/or int he middle of an alien civil war. It always ends in bloodshed.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

Wait. Most trekkies hate Voyager? Why? I myself found it becoming one of my favorite series, along with TNG.

 

[Antilogic]

Wait. Most trekkies hate Voyager? Why? I myself found it becoming one of my favorite series, along with TNG.

I've talked to a lot of offline people (anecdata!) who don't care for the cast as much as the other Star Treks, in particular TOS and TNG. They particularly hate Chakotay, Paris, Tuvok, Neelix, and even Janeway gets dumped on. 7of9 was oft called "sexy Data" since they both had the discovering humanity character development arc.

I didn't find the characters as stiff and monochromatic as they did relative to other Star Trek series (because let's face it, they recycle a lot of stuff and growing a beard is basically Riker's character development for most of TNG). There are characters I like and dislike all over the place, even in the beloved TNG--I'll take about any Voyager character over effing Weasles "McD-bag" Crusher.

Where Voyager really shined, I think, was making the ship a bit more believable. They have to take the engines offline for maintenance, for example, and they have a night shift that actually does stuff (and it's not always the proper captain on the bridge). That, and by setting the story so far away from Earth they were able to recreate that classic exploration and discovery feeling that was kinda missing with DS9.

 

[Tahuti]

No.
The Soviet leadership did have a massive obsession with coming to the 'scientific' solution to everything and did funnel quite a bit of money toward scientific research but to say that their society was 'entirely based on science' is just false.

The Soviets opposed certain scientific pursuits like cybernetics and genetics, as those were "fascist sciences".

 

[Chukchi Husky]

No.
The Soviet leadership did have a massive obsession with coming to the 'scientific' solution to everything and did funnel quite a bit of money toward scientific research but to say that their society was 'entirely based on science' is just false.

No. While Marxist theory and Communist put a significant emphasis on how scientific advances can alter how society functions, all societies are based the rich mix of historical, social, economic and scientific realities and not one factor exclusively.

It was something I'm told often about, how following science is bad, and one of the many reasons given is that the Soviet Union was a society that was based on science. They said that one of the things they did was give out pamphlets that said "a kiss is only saliva and air", and that they tried to make their society follow survival of the fittest.

 

[Borachio]

Your friends are fun, Mr Sky!

Social Darwinism is a fascist idea, I always thought.

Still. Fascism. Socialism. Marxism. Western democratic liberalism.

What's the difference in the end?

It's all people jumping up and down and thinking they're right, imo. Or perhaps I'm wrong.

Kissing and your health.

 

[Michkov]

Rewatching Enterprise as well recently, only at the end of the 2nd season so far though. If you leave out the temporal cold war and the 2 or 3 episodes that dont fit in with the rest of the cannon its a decent Trek series.
Its the second time I watch it, as I remember the I didn't like the Xindi arc at all. The show seemed to get into its own in the 4th season from what I recall.
In short, lots of potential, bad execution.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

How do I figure out the latinization of a particular (modern) English word?

 

[schlaufuchs]

How do I figure out the latinization of a particular (modern) English word?

Not really sure what you want here...do you want the latin form of an English word with a Latin root? In that case http://www.etymonline.com/

If it's a latin version of an English word without a Latin root...uh, really not much you can do there. If you speak Latin you might be able to get something that *sorta* sounds right, but I mean, the language is dead; it's kind of impossible to extrapolate how the language would grow to incorporate modern words.

 

[Lord Baal]

Is it true that the Soviet Union was a society based entirely on science?

No, they're not the Tograns.

Because it takes some time for the director, editor, producer, and actors to build some rapport with one another and to get a feel for what the show is and how it should be presented. Most television shows start with a grand vision by a writer or producer, and it takes some time and experimentation for that vision to be converted into a format which works for tv. Many shows never get that conversion at all.

This. It often comes towards the end of the first season or mid-way through the second, depending on the particular cast and crew. I distinctly remember B5 kicking into gear in episode 13 of Season 1. I remember waiting for The Coming of Shadows to end so I could rush to the bathroom, and that sequence towards the end where the battle-crab materialises out of nowhere damn near made me piss myself. Then they hit the ground running in Season 2 with Londo's political alliance with Refa, the assassination of the President, Sinclair being replaced, etc..

It's almost as Joe Straczynski got angry at DS9 for stealing his bible and decided to prove he could out-write them without any outside assistance. One guy writing 3 whole seasons of a television show has never been done before or since.

How do I figure out the latinization of a particular (modern) English word?

Add 'us' to the end. Corruptus in extremus.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

I've talked to a lot of offline people (anecdata!) who don't care for the cast as much as the other Star Treks, in particular TOS and TNG. They particularly hate Chakotay, Paris, Tuvok, Neelix, and even Janeway gets dumped on.

Mostly this. I just never fell in love with the main characters and there was this happy family theme going around which really could annoy the crap out of me. TNG also had its dose to some degree, DS9 did too. But VOY exceeded it all by light years in my memory.

I didn't find the characters as stiff and monochromatic as they did relative to other Star Trek series

growing a beard is basically Riker's character development for most of TNG

Yet Riker did for instance the outstanding episode where he was kidnapped and declared insane and acted it well. An accomplishment I could not imagine for anyone of the VOY crew. Maybe they had more character development and were less stiff than in TNG, but change and flexibility didn't make them a wee bit more interesting IMO.

Also existence of a night shift where no Picard nor Riker would be there was mentioned, while not explored much if at all