All Things Star Trek

[Arakhor]

Doctor in ST is brownish and in B5 black

Brownish?? Alexander Siddig is half-Libyan, I believe (North African or Arab certainly). He can also get away with playing Greeks.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Is that not brownish? Perhaps not brown, but at least brownish, no? While we are at at, what then is brown? Indians?

 

[Gucumatz]

Who were your favorite characters in Star Trek? For me they have be to Data, Quark, Q, Chekov and La Forge

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Wesley

 

[Ajidica]

And what is similar about B5 and DS9 other than them being set on a spacestation? Serious question, I never got into B5.

DS9 borrowed some of the B5 plot about the assembling of an alliance to fight against an unimaginably powerful alien race.
I watched DS9 up until the big space battle (Sacrifice of Angels, IIRC) but I just got bored with it. In my opinion, everything DS9 did, B5 did better.
Plus Claudia Christiansen's voice. That was a winner.

Enterprise (the show) suffers from this in particular because in the 1st and 2nd season there were numerous instances where the Captain gets involved in some civil war or shenanigans and is trapped because the shuttle can't land because reasons but they never even mention the frakking transporter.

For the record, that was explained away in that the transporter hadn't been cleared for biological transport yet, so using it to transport biological matter was a major no-no except at the absolute end of need.

Who were your favorite characters in Star Trek? For me they have be to Data, Quark, Q, Chekov and La Forge

Quark was pretty fun, but I still have to go with Picard. He comes off as what a captain of the federation flagship should be- a civilized, cultured, diplomatic individual.
EDIT: How could I forget Worf?
"Good tea, nice house."

 

[Gucumatz]

Picard is great too - of the main characters in any of the series my favorite for sure

 

[ReindeerThistle]

Spock and nuKirk are matched with Old McCoy and nuMcCoy for 3 and 4.

But 7 of 9 my absolute favorite, followed by the holographic Dr. -- played by the inimitable Robert Picardo.

Voyagers' Torres was the only character who I thought looked better as a Klingon half-breed than without make-up.

Mudd was a good two-episode character from TOS.

Least favorites: both from TNG: Q, tied with Weasle Crusher.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

DS9 borrowed some of the B5 plot about the assembling of an alliance to fight against an unimaginably powerful alien race.
I watched DS9 up until the big space battle (Sacrifice of Angels, IIRC) but I just got bored with it. In my opinion, everything DS9 did, B5 did better.
Plus Claudia Christiansen's voice. That was a winner.

Thanks

For the record, that was explained away in that the transporter hadn't been cleared for biological transport yet, so using it to transport biological matter was a major no-no except at the absolute end of need.

And being stranded in the middle of an insurrection is an absolute need?

I am also pretty sure they actually did clear the transporter at some point but still neglected it - it was hardly ever used in the series, even to transport materials around.


_______

I like Picard, Q, Quark, Data and Riker

 

[Synobun]

Who were your favorite characters in Star Trek? For me they have be to Data, Quark, Q, Chekov and La Forge

What a difficult question to answer.

For me, number one slot has to go to Sisko. My middle name is Benjamin, after him.

So, a list:

1. Sisko
2. Garak
3. Odo
4. Worf
5. Archer
6. T'Pol
7. Tucker
8. Quark
9. Jadzia
10. Picard
11. Wesley
12. Data

There, 12. So many more that I like, but that's as narrow as I'm gonna get.

 

[Antilogic]

I said it was a problem in all the series, but you've definitely got some selective memory going on. I watched through all of the TNG seasons a couple of years ago (still an adult) and I noticed the technobabble, of course. The difference is that Voyager goes into epic details about their space magic and throw out fifteen different made up words in a string. In TNG it's usually much more toned down. It's there, it may even be there at comparable levels to Voyager (I don't think so but I'll go along for the sake of argument) but it's not so in-your-face. It is absolutely in your face in Voyager and it ends up getting in the way of the plot because if your even moderately scientifically literate you wind up focusing on it because they won't let it go.

I get that, but I enjoyed the variety of technobabble in Voyager more than the same ol' same old in TNG.

One thing that grates me about all ST shows is that they never really show you what a Federation ship is capable of in combat very well. The ship is either horribly outmatched or can smoke anything that comes within a lightyear. Often, both cases are true, even within the same episode and with the same enemy! I think Enterprise (the show) in particular has this issue; especially during the Xindi arc or whenever the Suliban come up. They can either kick the crap out of their adversaries or they are completely trounced. It can be jarring though some episodes they play it off very well such as when they jerry-rigged the phase cannons to overload (which saved them but caused massive damage to the ship).

Probably DS9 was more consistent than the other series in this regard when it came to the war in the last 2 seasons, though of course they used mismatch between Coalition and Dominion ships as a major plot point (the Dominion with the Breen could handily disable almost all the Coalition ships save for a handful of obsolete Birds of Prey the Klignon's had). But other than that, they were overall more realistic I think in that they showed both sides winning and losing more on the circumstances than on who had the stronger space magic in that particular engagement.

I remember that working in DS9... but that was kind of a major plot point they borrowed from B5 as well.

One other thing that gets to me is the transporter. It's awesome but how many times was it made useless due to the unobtanium in the cave walls the away-team was exploring? Take away the unobtanium and the transporter would work and take the away-team out of danger; end of episode. I know it was done that way to create the conflict in the plot to begin with, but it was always heavy-handed. Enterprise (the show) suffers from this in particular because in the 1st and 2nd season there were numerous instances where the Captain gets involved in some civil war or shenanigans and is trapped because the shuttle can't land because reasons but they never even mention the frakking transporter.

In Enterprise, they never trusted the transporter and tried to limit its use to supplies and stuff, which I think makes perfect sense. Now, I remember they used the transporter in the early episodes to rescue people, so why they don't use it later on for that I don't know. Kind of a plot hole.

And what is similar about B5 and DS9 other than them being set on a spacestation? Serious question, I never got into B5.

I watched both and I never found them very similar other than the basic setting you mentioned.

...

So much of DS9 is clearly inspired by if not directly ripped off from B5. Everything from being set on a station near a wormhole, the idea of the station being a trading post that eventually is at the center of a coalition of former enemies fighting the Big Bad Evil that comes from a far away place, which is hinted at by the commander's girlfriend who is a freighter captain, to the casting decisions like having a strong female second-in-command, to character details like the commander surviving a traumatic wartime experience and even insignificant stuff like loving baseball, and so on. Here's a blog post that summarizes a lot of the information (and being in a Trek thread, I picked one that is generally favorable to the Trekkies), although there is plenty of other info out there.

The really suspicious thing is that Straczynski pitched B5 to Paramount and gave them basically the entire plot outline of the show, and Paramount passed on it because they didn't think non-Star Trek scifi would draw and engross viewers. Then they came up with a suspiciously similar show in all the ways mentioned above.

And there are a ton of similarities. This can't be just a coincidence.

I watched DS9 up until the big space battle (Sacrifice of Angels, IIRC) but I just got bored with it. In my opinion, everything DS9 did, B5 did better.
Plus Claudia Christiansen's voice. That was a winner.

That, and Straczynski basically wrote three seasons by himself and something like half the remaining episodes, so he was able to link them together and drop foreshadowing and minor details in like a boss. And since it got crammed into 5 seasons instead of 7, there are fewer generic standalone episodes (esp. in the glory days of seasons 2, 3, and 4).



Favorite characters off the top of my head, I liked Picard, Data, Worf, and I'd even add Riker for how much I rib him. In the later shows, there was nothing quite like the gap between the beloved characters of TNG and the worst characters of TNG like the aforementioned Antichrist-Weasles. I guess I kinda liked the Doctor and the general d-bagginess of Tom Paris to upset the family dynamic. Seven, O'Brien, Tuvok are all honorable mentions. Might be forgetting a few, they have had a huge cast over the years.

 

[bhsup]

Plus Claudia Christiansen's voice. That was a winner.

She had the best single line in the entire series!


Link to video.

Well, either that one or the one where she fakes "human sex" with the obnoxious alien.

I personally don't really look at DS9 and B5 being all that similar. I mean, I get the incredibly generalized broadstroke comparisons, but that's about it. One night as well say the movie Independence Day was a copy of B5 because the Americans coordinated a massive strike with foreign powers all across the globe against vastly superior alien forces. B5 was better, but then it was better than all the treks, and I am a lifelong trekkie, it's just B5 was that incredible.

 

[Antilogic]

She had the best single line in the entire series!


Link to video.

Well, either that one or the one where she fakes "human sex" with the obnoxious alien.

I personally don't really look at DS9 and B5 being all that similar. I mean, I get the incredibly generalized broadstroke comparisons, but that's about it. One night as well say the movie Independence Day was a copy of B5 because the Americans coordinated a massive strike with foreign powers all across the globe against vastly superior alien forces. B5 was better, but then it was better than all the treks, and I am a lifelong trekkie, it's just B5 was that incredible.

Loved the "God sent me" scene but hated the fake scene, it was like effing Moulin Rouge dancing. I still cringe when I see that.

We can make a separate thread for this if we have to, but I'd say it goes way deeper than "broadstroke comparisons" or the general trend of 90s scifi or what-have-you. Some similarities could be written off, but when the characters serve the exact same roles in very similar plots after the outline of the show was pitched and rejected especially given how different earlier Trek series were... yeah, I'm calling BS.

 

[El_Machinae]

So, can I *now* be sad that the "in-the-mouth, possess-the-host" alien plot never went anywhere?

I was sooooo creeped out the first time.

 

[Antilogic]

So, can I *now* be sad that the "in-the-mouth, possess-the-host" alien plot never went anywhere?

I was sooooo creeped out the first time.

From TNG in the first season?

They could have done so much more with that plot idea, or at least have given it a two-parter.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

And just think of what was at first supposed to replace them: Ferengi
The scene with the exploding head in season 1 definitely is one of the coolest Trek scenes ever.

 

[Arakhor]

I'm a fan of Claudia Christian too and I'm not just saying that because I've met her.

Spoiler eight years ago :

 

[Borachio]

My interests are rather specific.


Link to video.

 

[Arakhor]

The fine tracts of land conoisseur, I take it?

 

[Borachio]

Um. I couldn't possibly comment on that.

But whatever happened to 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9? And do they miss number 7?

 

[bhsup]

So... what's the worst trek tv episode in the history of Star Trek? Not counting TAS!

I suspect Spock's Brain will be a top choice for many, at least those among us familiar with the original (and best) series. However, I think maybe I am going to submit Skin of Evil from TNG, the episode where Tasha Yar died.