Oh my. I am very sorry, but I have to add my two Cardassian groats to this conversation.
The only actual complaint against this show that I am reading in this thread, in fact, all of the new Star Trek shows, has been “because it’s Kurtzman“.
Sorry, that’s not valid. And then those same people in their threads, extol the worship of Braga or other writers… Who was the one who decided to blow up the enterprise D because it “looked bad in 16 x 9“ (it didn’t, especially in the final episode of enterprise, which was not actually an episode of enterprise, but next generation). You know, I don’t really blame Rick Berman for Nemesis not being very popular. And therefore, losing him the Star Trek, franchise, forever. No. I blame us. And the biggest complaint against that movie after about 20 years of reading, the one star reviews? Is that Janeway was an admiral. W H A A T! We knew she was going to be an admiral. It was in the last episode of Voyager. Well, because of that, Paramount was bought out by CBS, who then sold all of our props that were lovingly cared for by Penny Juday to The richest billionaires on earth. (they basically took away her entire livelihood in one hugely promoted shindig) Fzzt, immediately gone. I don’t blame Berman for the franchise being taken over by bad robot. And I have my issues with the kelvin timeline films, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather enjoy those, especially the first one because it ties directly in to Picard, and if we recall, the Picard series is loosely based upon the comic book, miniseries Star Trek countdown. New people how to develop a new kind of Star Trek, and they didn’t have anything that the previous show, runners or directors had, namely, all of the props, the stable of writers, and most importantly, the filming crew, the people behind the scenes who do everything, those are the people that made the shows that we loved look the way that they looked day after day week after week year after year.
Everybody wants it to be the way that they remember it when they liked it the most. Right? That’s not the way the world is. I remember every single one of these arguments in this whole thread being directed at Star Trek the next generation in 1987. In fact, they used it on the motion picture, the wrath of con, Star Trek III, Star Trek IV, etc. etc. yada yada blah blah blah.
People have brought up issues with “the writing“, “the writers“, complaining that seven of nine is being represented as an LGBQTP or whatever arrangement of letters person, in fact, Jeri Taylor wanted her to have an alternate sexuality when the character was created, but UPN would not allow it. Remember, voyager was actually the first Star Trek network show since the original series. Deep space nine and next generation, we’re both syndicated, so Berman could do whatever the Blazers he wanted to do. With Voyager they had to start obeying net work rules.
Or another complaint being hammered on in here is that the actors themselves are suggesting storylines. Excuse me? The actors wrote several storylines during the next generation. Dorn was very strict about his character, he knew what he would do. He would not go on a long verbal pogrom in response to anything. He would just say yes, or no. Many of these actors directed episodes, and not just of next generation, of deep space, 9 Voyager and enterprise.
In fact, if you want to watch the way the writing changed between early next generation and enterprise, just watch the shows in succession. By the time we got to enterprise season four, The stories were much different.
I am reading complaints that are equivalent to the same complaints from the original series when Kirk kissed Uhura, or when they had an episode about a three way class struggle on the planet of troglites, or in fact, whenever Star Trek brought up a social issue, which they did on a weekly basis.
The social issues today are different, of course there are a couple that exist today that were happening back during TOS. Television writing is not the same as it was, you had to adhere to a strict formula when writing television episodes in the 1960s. There had to be four acts of specific lengths each, you could not use certain words in certain context. You could not show belly buttons (but they got away with it in mirror mirror). But today there is a little bit more freedom. We are not forced to adhere to a strict script formula. Therefore, we have episodes that are 30 minutes long and others that are almost an hour and a half. Also, they can use words and imagery that were verboten previously.
So, Kirk Thatcher reprises his role as the Punk on the bus, playing the same song that he was playing in the voyage home? And Raffi, who is a drug addict (another big no-no from the original series they could not ever depict addicts) is in a relationship with Seven of 69? Ah, so what. Actually, I love this idea because it is direct push back to certain people these days.
I enjoyed seasons one and two and I am enjoying season three immensely. And this show does not pull any social punches, referring directly to issues that we are having today, issues that we read about in our newspapers. So there is a difference of style? I am actually pleased that people that worked on one of my other favorite shows, Fringe, also work on this show. This includes musicians, some crew, writers, of course. And they finally tapped Michael Okuda to give us the monitor screen graphics again.
I can say this about season three we are given elements and enemies that had been hashed out in next generation and in movies but they are mixed with elements from deep space nine. That’s what I like. Voyager and deep space nine never got the films, they never got the Blu-ray release. They deserve some attention. It’s too bad some of the actors from deep space nine could not do cameos, like René Aberjonois. Or Nog.
I don’t know what’s going to happen when I watch this final episode that I’ve got cued up right now. All I know is that this is Star Trek which I love above everything else and of course I’m not going to like everything that they do… but as far as the story, Data having a daughter? Q becoming old and dying? And now, Picard never even had Irumatic syndrome in the first place. These are great things to build this season with.
I would have loved more episodes, more than 10 per season, to see the relationship between the Borg and the changelings expounded upon. Most of the seasons of next generation, and the other shows had 26 episodes, which was plenty to tell all kinds of stories. This is what I miss. If I had any specific complaint about the Star Trek shows, that would be it. Give us more episodes per season. If people have complaints about the writers, then give them more room to write about other, different things, to become better. With 10 episodes, you have to sit and think about what you are going to be filming and I think this has been the main problem, most of us have our own ideas about what we would like to see, and we will never get it. Not with 10 measly episodes.
And they have not identified that face in the flames that sprouted out of Captain Honeybunny’s hand… I thought for sure it was going to be Gul Dukat.
Once again, I apologize for this vomitous TOME
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