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The Human Adventure Continues: Talking About Star Trek

WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

chud_666 said:
Is TMP the early 2000s director's cut?
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No, these are all the theatrical cuts. They're working on rebuilding the Director's Cut separately and that'll come out later at some point. They had a small preview trailer for it during the most recent Star Trek Day. Ostensibly they'll have to rebuild a significant part of the movie from the raw dailies to do this considering the number of changes to the Director's Cut.


I don't really like this video using the SD version of the movie as a point of comparison, but that shot of the Enterprise and the interior of V'Ger is extremely clean and digitally composited. Doesn't look remotely that clean in the 4K theatrical cut.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

There’s a moment at the beginning of Voyager’s series finale Endgame that’s very subtle but just low key brilliant. When Admiral Janeway reaches for a mug of coffee, it’s her mug she used on the Voyager for all those 22 years. Only now it’s got a ton of dents in it. She lives in a world where she could have had that mug replaced on command for free. But she choose to keep her busted mug with her because it reminds her of her journey. And I think that thematically, it symbolizes her own traumatized nature from the 22 year voyage. It’s kind of awesome storytelling.
 
YangusKhan

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
I never quite got the dislike for Voyager's finale. It really was a clever way imo for the show to have its cake and eat it too, and as you pointed out, it has a bunch of nice character moments for not just Janeway, but basically everyone else too.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

There are definitely room for improvements for things they could have done better for Endgame. But it does way more incredible things than not, and it is thematically the most satisfying swan song for any entry to the franchise IMO outside of The Undiscovered Country. The USS Voyager finally getting home felt a lot better than Picard joining the poker game, or Sisko turning into a ghost, or Trip eating it.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

I just started a rewatch of ENT today. Today is also the 20 year anniversary of ENT first hitting airwaves. It feels like destiny.

ENT's first episode is low key really good. There's definitely plenty of moments in it where you're like, ok that's obviously some corners cut there for budget purposes. But the CGI work for the ships really holds up well. And it's kinda fascinating to watch them experiment with framing TV in wide screen for the first time. There's a lot of interesting looking camera shots in Broken Bow.
 
ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
What is it about the ending of the Star Trek Voyager episode The Thaw that makes it so damn satisfying? I'm sure the defeat of an odious fear clown is a factor, but it's the WAY he dies that's so pleasing. Instead of expiring in a loud, violent explosion as is typical of Star Trek, his whole garish virtual world spins away and fades to black, before he too is consumed by the encroaching darkness. The subtle camera and lighting work borders on high art. As terrible as he was, there was really no better way for the Clown to meet his doom than by slowly being erased.

Having said that, I wouldn't mind if they found a way to shoehorn Michael McKean's character into Lower Decks somehow. I'm pretty sure a little thing like oblivion wouldn't stop him from making a return appearance in a show that prides itself on being ridiculous.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

ArugulaZ said:
What is it about the ending of the Star Trek Voyager episode The Thaw that makes it so damn satisfying?
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And all of what you said, isn't even including Janeway taunting him as he's dying like a mother effing badass.

"I'm scared..."
"I know... :devilish:"

Don't you mess with mama Janeway's family or she'll maul you and make you beg for the sweet release of death.
 
ArugulaZ

ArugulaZ

Fearful asymmetry
I'll give her that. Patching into the system without taking a deep dive was brilliant strategy, and watching Janeway dominate a situation that had seemed hopeless ten minutes before was very cathartic. She put his king in check, sank his battleship, declared Uno, reached a thousand miles, and bought both Park Place and Boardwalk in one fell swoop.

Someone on the last forum said that this episode was misunderstood by critics, and that it by design tapped into the heart of the original series from the 1960s. It really does feel like The Thaw could have worked in that era of Star Trek... almost everything was done with practical effects and smart staging. It's also a refreshing exploration of the psyche, something that's normally Red Dwarf's domain.
 
zonetrope

zonetrope

(he/him)
That's among my favorite Voyager episodes, and the final shot is one of the best in all of Trek.

McKean really kills it as the Clown. That script could have fallen flat on its face in the hands of a less talented comic actor.
 
YangusKhan

YangusKhan

does the Underpants Dance
(He/Him/His)
ArugulaZ said:
Someone on the last forum said that this episode was misunderstood by critics, and that it by design tapped into the heart of the original series from the 1960s
Click to expand...
That might've been me, I remember making that point as I watched the show for the first time. It would not surprise me at all if the idea came from an un-aired script for TOS or something like that, and it's pretty amusing to try and imagine that same story playing out with the TOS cast too. It just works!
 
chud_666

chud_666

WisteriaHysteria said:
I just started a rewatch of ENT today. Today is also the 20 year anniversary of ENT first hitting airwaves. It feels like destiny.

ENT's first episode is low key really good. There's definitely plenty of moments in it where you're like, ok that's obviously some corners cut there for budget purposes. But the CGI work for the ships really holds up well. And it's kinda fascinating to watch them experiment with framing TV in wide screen for the first time. There's a lot of interesting looking camera shots in Broken Bow.
Click to expand...

I started this earlier in Year, taking a break now just starting in s3.
So the common wisdom is 1-2 are boring then 3-4 are great. BUT 1-2 are very good, actually. I love 3 as well, and the concept of the Xindi is so wild, but feel it's weird to introduce a full other alpha race in a prequel series, and that story could have just been the Rom war?
4 is beyond reproach. Right up to the fantastic finale... Terra Prime
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

Star Trek: Prodigy's first episode is live. It's a double-length (46min) episode. I made a thread to discuss it so that people reading this general thread could more easily avoid spoilers. But one episode in, it's really freaking good. I implore everyone to give it an honest shot. If the show can maintain this momentum, I think we're in for something special.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

First episode is up for free on youtube. Two (techincally three I guess) episodes in, and I'm infatuated. It's shaping up to be a great all-ages show.

 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

Five episodes deep on Star Trek: Prodigy, and it's really just beginning to scratch the surface. But I'm immensely enjoying it. I can't wait to see where the show takes us next. It's a shame it's going on hiatus this soon.

Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery just started today. And holy shit, great opening act to the season. I loved literally every moment of that episode. Just unmitigated awesome.
 
estragon

estragon

I've been really enjoying The Greatest Generation's Voyager podcasts. I almost quit listening to the pod when they got to DS9 because it really didn't click with them for a while (which is fine) and it seemed to keep them from having a discussion of the show other than "I wish this was TNG" (which is, to me, just not interesting to listen to). But they seem to really get Voyager, with really thoughtful pods on panned/hated episodes like Threshold, The Thaw, and Tuvix that avoid the pitfalls of the received wisdom about the series.
 
estragon

estragon

you know, i guess i just assumed the thaw was disliked because it's a scary clown episode, but looking into the reception more i see that it is (correctly, in my opinion) largely seen as a risky experiment that mostly works (thanks to Michael Mckean and Kate Mulgrew just nailing it)
 
Patrick

Patrick

Magic-User
(He/Him)
Yeah, that episode was great. I did not like Threshold or Tuvix though.

EDIT: and I'll keep that podcast in mind for the next time I'm looking for something to listen to.
 
estragon

estragon

I will say that their TNG era has a very crass running joke about a lot of kind of weird accidentally suggestive scenes between Wesley and Picard that I also laughed at and joked with my husband about when I saw the show for the first time, totally independently of their podcast, before it even existed. While I thought it was funny because it was something that also stuck out to me, it was a joke they stopped doing upon request of their listenership. So, not for everyone due to that reason, but on the other hand if that's not an instant turn off they really clearly love the show and are great at talking about it.

DS9 era is IMHO also good but picks up once they get past their resistance to the show. The pod began basically as a "two friends who like TNG watch TNG" show, and continued because it was accidentally successful. There were growing pains in adjusting to become more than that.

Voyager has neither of those problems, in my opinion. If you want to hear two guys joke about Star Trek for an hour a week but also taking it pretty seriously, it's worth a try to see if it clicks.

edit: Also, my opinion is that Threshold is basically just an average episode of 90s Trek with an outsized reputation and Tuvix is great, probably one of my favorites.
 
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zonetrope

zonetrope

(he/him)
I love Greatest Gen and am a financial supporter on MaxFun, but it's worth noting that they're very much not shy about blue humor, in case that's a turn-off. But they're smart, quick-witted guys with actual experience in film, and I really like when they bring that knowledge into their analyses.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
So I gamely *tried* to watch the season premier of Disco through Paramount+, but after getting nothing but unknown errors like ten times in a row I threw up my hands and downloaded it. This was with a brand new download of the P+ app to my TV too. Ugh.

Episode was great though! Although that ending after the earlier setup there was a real unsubtle knife twist, oof.
 
WisteriaHysteria

WisteriaHysteria

Kirin, if you have Amazon Prime, get P+ as a channel through that instead and watch it through their interface. It's a lot easier to not have to deal with P+'s dumb interface/player.
 
Kirin

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Ah, didn't realize it was still on there since the switch from CBSaa to P+. Although... I was actually borrowing a friend's P+ login, I don't know if that'd work through Prime since it may assume it needs to be the same as the Prime account? Not sure.
 
Adrenaline

Adrenaline

Post Reader
(He/Him)
If they subscribe to P+ as a standalone or through their own Amazon account, you wouldn't be able to watch it on your Amazon.
 
chud_666

chud_666

FIRST EP OF DISC 4 - VERY GOOD. Didn't love the cold open, reminds me of similar scenes in Into Darkness and Beyond. But rest was killer. I like the President a lot. HOWEVER where is Jet Reno? I NEED MORE TIG NOTARO

Less caps: I'm almost caught up on prodigy. I'm basically watching for Janeway. Show is weird. So internet tells me takes place more or less same period as LD, but why would Jankom not know about the federation. If he knows he is Tellarite, and references Tellar specific tech, culture... WTF

My thoughts is it may actually be at some point in future. Anyway - not crazy about this show. My son likes it though?
 
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