posted on October 16, 2001 08:50:32 AM new
I dont think Im going to like the new Startrek series. Looks to me like its going to be more ongoing shipmate stuff, of who is bonking who, or who WANTS to bonk who, with alittle alien excitement thrown in just to keep it trekkish.
posted on October 16, 2001 09:09:09 AM new
I will agree that Enterprise is not too stimulating right now ... but I remember the first couple of seasons of STTNG, and STDS9 were pretty bad too! Maybe it just needs to find its own voice ...
Of course, I thought that Voyager tended to flounder around looking for a voice for the entire run, but that's just my opinion!
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on October 16, 2001 09:44:30 AM new
The theme song just seems so... out of place. At first, I was hoping it was just going to be used for the 2-hour pilot movie, and I was disappointed to find out that it really was the regular theme song.
*sigh*
---
The opinions expressed above are for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary....
posted on October 16, 2001 11:56:06 AM new
Don't know what's going on with the Roddenberry franchises and theme songs.
I also watch Andromeda (which only semi-sucks)and the series had an interesting futuristic house-music sort of theme song the first season. Now the second season has begun and the original theme has been replaced with a really turgid and generic instrumental bore ... er, score.
Enterprise has no appeal for me. The set and the uniforms smack too much of the Space Shuttle. I watch these shows for futuristic escapism tales. I don't want to move back in time from original Trek.
posted on October 16, 2001 12:10:04 PM new
The Vulcan sex-babe is what gives me the willies. That ain't suppose to be.
It took ST: Next Generation a season or two to reach it's stride--so I'll sit back and wait for them to tweak things---but I don't how they can tweak the Vulcan from emitting all that sex-appeal
posted on October 16, 2001 01:40:49 PM newA song with lyrics just isn't natural for ST...
Shadowcat, you disappoint me! Surely you know Roddenberry wrote lyrics for the original Star Trek theme. I think they're published in the first pages of the book The Making of Star Trek by David Gerrold.
posted on October 16, 2001 01:57:41 PM new
and here they are......
Beyond the rim of the starlight My love is wandering in starflight
I know he'll find in star clustered reaches Love strange, love a star woman teaches
I know his journey ends never His star trek will go on forever
But tell him while he wanders his starry sea
Remember me, remember me.
[ edited by Zazzie on Oct 16, 2001 01:58 PM ]
posted on October 16, 2001 02:06:13 PM new
LOL! Even I'm not into it enough to remember the lyrics or know where to find them offhand (other than in the book I mentioned, and my copy's packed away in storage).
posted on October 16, 2001 02:13:10 PM newlove a star woman teaches
If I remember correctly, it was Kirk who was always teaching the star women. I particularly recall the episode The Gamesters of Triskelion where he wins over his "trainer," this doe-eyed, large bosomed young woman wearing an outfit made of discarded jiffy pop foil. He manipulates, she capitulates and finally she utters, "What is this human ... love? Show me."
At that point, Kirk should have looked at the camera and winked at the audience, lol.
posted on October 16, 2001 02:59:33 PM new
Actually, I like the song (and images) themselves - it's just not what I was expecting.
And I liked the linguist in the first episode. "Are you sure we should be standing so close to this?" (speaking of the warp core reactor) or "Why don't we go back to where there are other people" (while she and the captain are wandering down a dark deserted-looking alley). She sounded just like any present-day human would sound in the same situation. But she was a bit too 'whiney' in the second episode - she did get on my nerves a bit there. Hopefully it'll even out.
After the third episode (the hallucigenic (sp?) spores), I really like 'Trip'. (I think that's his name - the first officer.) I thought he did a great acting job of someone slipping into delusions.
I'll definitely give it more time. I never liked the original series (w/ Kirk) - even at 13 I thought it was cheesy. Then TNG came along and I thought it was wonderful. But it definitely had it's share of klunkers too. DS9 was probably consistently the best while Voyager was uneven. (But the single best star trek show I've ever seen was a Voyager episode entitled 'Tuvix'.)
I pretty much don't view 'Enterprise' as true 'Star Trek'. I think of it as a space show set in the near future with humans that aren't perfect and which also includes certain items (Vulcans, Klingons, etc.) from the Star Trek Universe. But I definitely will keep watching.
posted on October 16, 2001 04:25:24 PM new
I also watch the other Roddenberry abortion-in-progress, Earth Final Conflict. This show is so bad, and so ad hoc, that the lead characters keep quitting. Seriously. After the first season ended, the main character quit and was killed off on the series. After the second season ended, his replacement quit, and was killed off on the series. The original female lead semi-quit after the first season (she got banished to a distant galaxy and only returned for guest appearances). The techie-guy character quit in mid second season (he just left for parts unknown in the series). Now it's in its third season and the female co-star from second season is now the lead character.
To boot, the writers killed off all the aliens who served as the antagonists in the first two seasons. Killed the whole damn race of them. Then replaced them with new aliens who suck even more.
It's like watching with mild fascination as something swirls down a drain.
It's time to bury Gene Roddenberry once and for all.
posted on October 16, 2001 04:45:05 PM new
Microbes----do female Vulcans get hit with that??? I think it's a guy thing or it might be hard to co-ordinate with your mate if your 7 year schedules weren't in sync
posted on October 16, 2001 05:09:46 PM new
Zazzie, from the reading I've done in the Star Trek literature, once the male and female Vulcan are bonded (more than an engagement, less than a marriage), the female goes through pon far on the same schedule as her mate. Otherwise, she wouldn't know when to show up at Koon-ut-Kali-fee, the place of marriage or challenge. After marriage, I would suppose the bond is even stronger.
Of course, I've never had the opportunity to put these questions to a real Vulcan - they might not answer if I did, since this is so private to Vulcan society ....
El
(n.b. In case anyone is wondering, I do realize that Star Trek is fiction.)
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
[ edited by eleanordew on Oct 16, 2001 05:12 PM ]
"In the distant past, Vulcans killed to win their mates. Even in the present, Vulcans revert to ancient mating rituals, apparently the price these people must pay for totally suppressing their natural emotions. When Vulcan children are about seven, their parents select a future mate, and the two children are joined in a ceremony that links them telepathically. When the two children come of age, they are compelled to join together for the marriage rituals. The time of mating, Pon farr, is when the stoically logical Vulcans pay for their rigid control by experiencing a period of total emotional abandon. In Vulcan adults, Pon farr comes every seven years. Vulcans who reach a certain infirmity with age sometimes practice ritual suicide."
Just let them be 100 lightyears from Vulcan when this hits her...
posted on October 16, 2001 05:28:19 PM new
So when Spock's chosen mate ditched him--did that cancel out his Pon far for the rest of his life??
My One of my favourite Voyager episodes is when the younger Vulcan on the ship picks B'lanna to be his mate (she turned him down) but sets off her Klingon hormones
posted on October 16, 2001 05:55:21 PM newSo when Spock's chosen mate ditched him--did that cancel out his Pon far for the rest of his life??
Apparently, the challenge breaks the bond, but not the cyclical pon farr. There is a book in the Star Trek series in which Spock much later marries Saavik (remember her from ST2: The Wrath of Khan?). I think this storyline is in the book Sarek.
My One of my favourite Voyager episodes is when the younger Vulcan on the ship picks B'lanna to be his mate (she turned him down) but sets off her Klingon hormones .
I don't remember exactly, but wasn't B'lanna the child of a Romulan/Klingon marriage? (I may be wrong on this, but I don't think she was part Terran.)
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on October 16, 2001 07:05:44 PM new
I would still watch reruns of the original series, but have never been able to "bond" with any of the following generations.
The only other sci-fi series that I enjoyed as much was Blakes7. does anyone know if it is on in reruns anywhere??? There are still a few episodes I haven't seen.
cariad
posted on October 16, 2001 07:14:25 PM new
Nope -- In ST3: The Search for Spock, and ST4: The Voyage Home, Saavik is played by Robin Curtis .... Kim Cattrall played the turncoat Vulcan (can't remember the name) in ST6: The Undiscovered Country.
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
(corrected because I looked it up and I was wrong)
[ edited by eleanordew on Oct 16, 2001 07:25 PM ]
posted on October 16, 2001 11:29:29 PM newSpaz: Been a looong time since I read that book and I forgot about the lyrics thing(Or I was so traumatized by the concept of lyrics to the theme that I thoroughly repressed the knowledge. )
Even with the Pon Farr restrictions, ole Spock still kanoodled about. Granted, there was usually an extenuating circumstance, but he kanoodled slightly less than Kirk.
Thinking of Kirk's-um-libido, anyone remember the ST spoof "Star Dreck" from Dr. Demento? I'm reminded of the line where Schlock(Spock) describes a typical episode of the show(whereupon the captain always gets the girl) and Capt. Jerk(Kirk) replies, "Yeah, ain't I sumthin'?"
I always thought it would be hilarious if Kirk actually said something like that.
posted on October 17, 2001 04:51:50 AM new
oh yeah -- "Torres"! Where was my head??!!
As you might guess, the subject of pon farr has been discussed thoroughly in ST fan literature. I think the conclusion was that, while Vulcans are driven to mate once every 7 years, that doesn't mean they can't or don't have sex in between those times.
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on October 17, 2001 12:08:44 PM new
Regarding the lyrics to the theme of the original series, I've read that Roddenberry wrote them for the express purpose of collecting royalties on the theme. Since he probably didn't intend the lyrics to ever be used, they didn't need to be good. But every time the theme was used, even if at some point he decided to sell off the franchise, he'd still get a check.
Record producers like Phil Spector and Morris Levy used to graft their names onto the writing credits of songs back in the 50s and 60s for the same reason.
The new series hasn't engaged my interest yet either. I've seen snippets of a few episodes but haven't been impressed. The Vulcan in the body stocking seems to be just barely containing a smouldering cauldron of emotions just below the surface, maybe good dramatically but not really the emotionless Vulcan I've come to expect. And what's with that "mood lighting" booth they go into, strip down and rub oil all over each other? Didn't have the sound on but that was diverting for a few seconds.
