I spent the last three months watching every episode of Star Trek: Voyager with my son. I had forgotten how truly amazing that show really was. He really liked it. My six year old daughter, who watched most of them with us, has started drawing a comic called "Borg Chicken," and walks told my neighbor about assimilation on Saturday.
To juxtapose the strength of old Star Trek with JJ Abrams is going to do, the three of us watched the newest movie this weekend. I had also forgotten what an absolute piece of shit that movie was.
Poor boy didn't get it. He said to me "I know you hated it, but it was good for me." I told him that I would weep for him after he went to bed, then tickled him until he was about to puke. All was well in the universe after that.
Voyager was never my favourite, more of a TNG and DS9 fan as a kid (watched plenty of Voyager too though).
I actually enjoyed the new movie (there's just one new one right?), but I'm hardly a ST purist or anything so as far as I know they botched the hell out of it!
The total lack of idealism and Star Trek values was only part of the problem. The other part is that virtually none of it made sense. I tried to make a mental list of bullshit I would talk about in a potential review of the movie, but the list got so big I decided I'd need to watch it again with a pen and paper.
Red matter?
Can't be captain if you are "emotionally compromised?"
Shameless rehashing of old dialogue that borders on pandering?
Character run-in coincidences on a galactic scale?
Total character assassination by the writers?
And there are the Trekkie inconsistencies, like warp beaming and shit like that.
That's just what I remember. There was a lot more.
Omphalos wrote:The total lack of idealism and Star Trek values was only part of the problem. The other part is that virtually none of it made sense. I tried to make a mental list of bullshit I would talk about in a potential review of the movie, but the list got so big I decided I'd need to watch it again with a pen and paper.
Red matter?
Can't be captain if you are "emotionally compromised?"
Shameless rehashing of old dialogue that borders on pandering?
Character run-in coincidences on a galactic scale?
Total character assassination by the writers?
And there are the Trekkie inconsistencies, like warp beaming and shit like that.
That's just what I remember. There was a lot more.
Right, I forgot the red matter... man that was bad, just horrible! Old dialogue I'm not surprised slipped past me, didn't want the original series much - the rest I agree, weak.
It wasn't just that it was a made up matter that sucked, it was that the whole concept and execution sucked. This stuff is THAT powerful, but for some reason needs to be delivered deep within a planet? DUMB.
(And I've only half-watched the piece of shit during wakeful periods on a trans-Pacific flight. Fuck Abrams. With a blunt broomstick. And a bedknob or two. )
Omphalos wrote:That movie did not go more than one minute without presenting something that failed to make sense.
That .. but it flies past so quickly and fluidly that you simply don't have the time or the inclination to flag the bullshit. I enjoyed it hugely the first time I saw it, but hated it the second time.
The time travel aspect fitted, although they were on about getting old-Kirk involved in the sequel, which would be a terrible idea.
My theory is that at the end of the third film they will discombobulate the Nu-Trek timeline (for some universe-threatening reason that has already killed our favourite characters). Kirk goes back and saves his dad, and sets up the original timeline as it was. Cue fast-cut flashbacks and flashforwards.
Omphalos wrote:That movie did not go more than one minute without presenting something that failed to make sense.
That .. but it flies past so quickly and fluidly that you simply don't have the time or the inclination to flag the bullshit. I enjoyed it hugely the first time I saw it, but hated it the second time.
Exactly how I felt. It was so obvious after the second viewing that I was almost too to admit that I liked it the first time. Though I had a LOT of nagging feelings after that first viewing, the only criticisms I had were of the red matter and the "emitionally compromised" bullshit.
Omphalos wrote:That movie did not go more than one minute without presenting something that failed to make sense.
That .. but it flies past so quickly and fluidly that you simply don't have the time or the inclination to flag the bullshit. I enjoyed it hugely the first time I saw it, but hated it the second time.
Exactly how I felt. It was so obvious after the second viewing that I was almost too to admit that I liked it the first time. Though I had a LOT of nagging feelings after that first viewing, the only criticisms I had were of the red matter and the "emitionally compromised" bullshit.
I think I'm going to write a review of the movie.
Maybe that's part of why I didn't notice a lot of what you'd pointed out, I've only seen it the once.
Yeah, I've also only seen it the once, and quite enjoyed it as a mindless action SF flick with some random nods to its predecessors. I guess I was prepared to give it a lot of Trek canon license, too, given that its a reboot.
I guess the problem is that it shouldn't have *been* a mindless action SF flick.
HBJ
"The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars."
- Carl Sagan
I'm still very proud of The Quarry but … let's face it; in the end the real best way to sign off would have been with a great big rollicking Culture novel.
- Iain Banks