Star Trek The Next Generation appreciation thread - Page 8

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Originally Posted by Nelson Au The thing about these films, especially Nemesis is that they tried too hard to capture the glory of The Wrath of Khan. But more so, I've always said before that the Star Trek property just plays better as a weekly series. If the production values were as high as the films, that would be spectacular. 

 

That's from the same studio mentality that gives you nothing but sequels and remakes. If you're not copying something successful, it's not getting funded. I grew very tired, very quickly of Rick Berman promoting every TNG film as having "the best villain since Khan." He said it in regard to Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis. Come on, now. TWOK was a great movie, but imitating it over and over is not going to revive the franchise. The original series movies, to their credit, never tried to do that or hyped their other movies as such.

I agree that it works better as a weekly show. The realities of the box office make producers think every film that involves space ships must also involve battles and war (or war-like circumstances). What was the last Trek movie that didn't involve war? The Voyage Home? That and The Motion Picture are the only two I can think of, out of 11 movies. As someone who appreciated the original intent of Trek, I am very very tired of wars in space. But what studio is going to put up $200 million for a movie about peaceful discovery?

BTW, saw the preview for the new Hawaii 5-0. Can't say I am impressed. Why does every main character have to have a tortured past these days. (In the preview, McGarrett is shown being unable to prevent the murder of his father; he presumably sets out upon revenge. Why does every story these days have to have some deep personal angle? Don't people do anything out of any other motivation?)

Star Trek V tried to be about ideas and exploration, even though Paramount wussed out on the original concept for fear of offending anyone.

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I don't think even something like the TAS episode where Kirk defends a being who looks a lot like Satan would fly today.

Nemesis seemed like it was trying to be a Star Wars film at times. That chamber on Shinzon's ship looked a lot like the Emperor's throne room in Jedi, and the phasers sounded like blasters.

A clone of Picard who wants to kill billions on Earth simply because he had a horrible childhood is lame. A Data vs.Lore plot would have been more interesting instead of rehashing Spock's death.

Not having a movie with Q seems a missed opportunity as well.

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Originally Posted by SilverWook 

Not having a movie with Q seems a missed opportunity as well.

Well, the best Q episodes were usually of a philosophical nature, so it is not surprising that there was no feature. But you're right - I always anticipated that Q would be brought to the movies - after all, reviving a popular adversary from the show was always an effective element for the movies.

I see that Corey Allen passed away. He directed the TNG pilot, among other TNG and DS9 installments.

http://trekmovie.com/2010/06/29/encounter-at-farpoint-director-allen-dead-at-75/

I've decided to put off my DVD journey through the seven seasons of Voyager and go through TNG again first. Watched the premiere and the second episode this weekend. The decision to make the second episode a retread of an original series episode - and a comedy at that! - probably wasn't the best decision to make if they were trying to establish the show as being different from the original. I have to confess I still enjoyed it. 

One thing that is apparent though is that the show is badly in need of a video upgrade. Watching these DVDs from 2002, with the show transferred from videotape, shows the limitations of both DVD and videotape. The show appears murky and soft, especially in the darker sequences. If Paramount/CBS wants to keep this (and DS9 and Voyager) around for the ages, it really should invest the time and money into upgrading to HD, even if it means redoing the effects like with TOS. Because 10 or 15 years from now, when everything is in HD, no one is going to want to look at these shows. Even now, barely two years after Blu-Ray won the high def format war, these shows look a bit like a relic. 

I have to agree regarding the video.  While it slowly improves throughout the seven year run -- and even looks "pretty good" in seasons 6 and 7 -- it remains "soft" compared with even TV shows from the sixties shot on film.  (Like the initial Star Trek:TOS release to DVD.)  Without a complete remastering which would entail going all the way back to the film source and then re-editing the video and sound for each ep, TNG -- along with DS9 and VOY -- will be ignored by the next generation.  (Ironic, huh?)

We watched Power Play last night. (That particular disc has some gems on it -- The Masterpiece Society, Ethics, Conundrum, and Power Play.) Brent Spiner, in this episode and in those in which he plays Lore -- really does give the viewer a chill. He's particularly good when he plays an evil character IMO.

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Originally Posted by Nelson Au 

Here's a really funny outtake of Spiner in the TNG blooper reel in case you've not seen it before. Check out the part at 5 mins:30 secs into it.

 

 

Hah!  Awesome.

Nelson,

Those are some funny clips.  I actually own the TNG blooper reel (on VHS tape), which includes what you've posted here.  I recall years ago that Patrick Stewart wasn't thrilled at having them released.  And if I recall correctly, they were released quite early on during the run of the series.

Have a peek at this TNG Cast Memorandum.  Fun stuff. :)

Don't think this has been mentioned around here yet. Someone has posted the "Journey's End" tv special from 1994 on Youtube. AFAIK, this never made it to home video, except in one of the Japanese Laserdisc box sets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cUNCzu-o9k

That is a great find.  I hadn't seen that since it originally aired. 

If I remember right, between the second to last episode and "All good things" there was a week of no new eps.. our local station ran a marathon, every day at 6, there was an episode, they did the "countdown" of the five most popular episodes ever or something.   But before that, the Saturday before, they aired this.

Just a great find.  I'm hoping it shows up on a DVD/BD somewhere.  I also miss the little "behind the scenes" inserts that accompanied each of those five episodes and introductions.  I wish I could find those somewhere.

I remember watching this; awesome find, thanks!

Wasn't this released on videotape back around '94 or so, before Generations? It certainly was never issued on DVD, but I think it was on VHS.

Well, after 12 months (or, 5 months longer than I expected it would take), I finished re-watching TNG on DVD. It was a very enjoyable experience, and you can really appreciate how a show evolves and changes when you watch it straight through on a regular basis. It seems to have started out with low expectations of itself, only to really burst out in the middle of its second year and then again in its third season and beyond. But by the seventh year, the show really slowed down. Far too many retreads on the "what is reality" (a favorite of one of the writers) and other weak storylines. I think Rick Berman summed it up well in one of the documentary features on the 7th season set: He said by TNG's last season, they were producing not just TNG, but DS9 as well, on a weekly basis, were in pre-production on Generations and were developing Voyager. It's no wonder the work suffered. The studio may have simply been asking too much of the creative people behind the shows.

I came out of this viewing with renewed appreciation for Stewart, Frakes and Spiner, who are consistently good. Sadly, Burton, McFadden and Sirtis are never really given enough to do (but are very good when they are). And Dorn really shows the greatest growth on the show, starting out as pretty much a one-note background character, and quickly growing into part of the ensemble and eventually becoming the most complex and interesting character on the show. It is further a shame that he was never given a chance to shine in the feature films (although I suppose they felt he was doing that on DS9).

There's a thread in the blu-ray TV section about TNG being remastered and coming to BD. That can only be a good thing. Maybe it will shake loose CBS/Paramount into one last voyage of this crew.

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Originally Posted by Ockeghem 

Sam,

We just started both TNG and ENT again. We're about four or five episodes into both series at this time.

Did you watch the show in production or air order? Just curious. I am choosing to watch them in production order, although I've been told over the years that it really does not matter all that much with TNG.

Watched them in broadcast order, but you're right - it doesn't matter much (unless you consider that Unification II was before Unification I). We watched the whole of Enterprise last year, before TNG. I really enjoyed that - it left me with a much greater appreciation for that show than I had when it aired. In a few weeks, I will start watching Voyager, a show I haven't seen at all since it aired and one that I didn't care for the first time. We'll see if this changes my opinion at all; I am hoping it will. Watched TOS-remastered and all of DS9 a few years ago, and am eager to do so again.