These days, Netflix has TOS and TNG episodes. I watch them whenever I can because sometimes Netflix just randomly stops playing a series, and then I wont be able to watch it online until it pops up somewhere else.
What are your memories with the franchise... and what feature films / series do you know?
So let me begin, if you want:
My first memories are from the so-called „Next Generation“, a show I watched in my childhood with my brother, sister and mother, who introduced us to Star Trek and told us about her childhood and watching the first „TOS“ show.
Since those days, I‘ve been a big sci-fi fan and always liked Star Trek the most, and grown into it the most, because it is such a rich universe... so creative... also most of the time with a positive mood. Roddenberry’s vision is often about equality, fairness... struggle to become a better person... not to get rich. But with the Ferengi, there’s even a kind of mirror of most of ourselves nowadays in the Trek universe. I‘ve seen all movies and series multiple times, read very much about the franchise, interested in the ideas and technology behind Trek and I really love the design and artwork of the shows.
Of course I also like the actors... the way the shows are written... And some of my favorite „characters“ of the shows are actually the ships. In my eyes, they are so well designed and thoughtful... there are real masterpieces. And that’s why I even have a showcase in my office with my favorite ships from the 5 shows:
I said 5... but of course I also like the newest installment of the franchise. I think, „Discovery“ is getting better and better and I appreciate the efforts and work of the makers... it’s not easy nowadays to renew the spirit of Trek and make it profitable.
As you might realize: I’m a really huge fan and could talk and write looooooong why I love this „universe“. I would like to exchange my thoughts and ideas with some drone-trekkers here
What are your memories with the franchise... and what feature films / series do you know?
So let me begin, if you want:
My first memories are from the so-called „Next Generation“, a show I watched in my childhood with my brother, sister and mother, who introduced us to Star Trek and told us about her childhood and watching the first „TOS“ show.
Since those days, I‘ve been a big sci-fi fan and always liked Star Trek the most, and grown into it the most, because it is such a rich universe... so creative... also most of the time with a positive mood. Roddenberry’s vision is often about equality, fairness... struggle to become a better person... not to get rich. But with the Ferengi, there’s even a kind of mirror of most of ourselves nowadays in the Trek universe. I‘ve seen all movies and series multiple times, read very much about the franchise, interested in the ideas and technology behind Trek and I really love the design and artwork of the shows.
Of course I also like the actors... the way the shows are written... And some of my favorite „characters“ of the shows are actually the ships. In my eyes, they are so well designed and thoughtful... there are real masterpieces. And that’s why I even have a showcase in my office with my favorite ships from the 5 shows:
I said 5... but of course I also like the newest installment of the franchise. I think, „Discovery“ is getting better and better and I appreciate the efforts and work of the makers... it’s not easy nowadays to renew the spirit of Trek and make it profitable.
As you might realize: I’m a really huge fan and could talk and write looooooong why I love this „universe“. I would like to exchange my thoughts and ideas with some drone-trekkers here
@calmar81 - That's a fantastic display for all the series, I love the variety in your choice of ships.
Sci-fi started off with Star Wars for me rather than Star Trek, the latter was always difficult to watch because it was on TV and never consistently shown. I hadn't been that interested in the Star Wars films but had become fascinated with Timothy Zahn's Empire trilogy written in the early 90's.
However when I saw reviews for Star Trek First Contact I was keen to see the film which I thought was amazing, even just those opening moments as the massive Sovereign-class joins the battle and the open fire on the Borg cube (I can almost forgive what they did to the Defiant). Soon after I went to University and one of my flatmates had this awesome Borg cube which had all the TNG Borg episodes om TNG, he also had all the TOS episodes which I worked my way through. It's difficult to think of a time when episodes were not readily available and we were victim to TV schedules.
This was also a time when consoles were connected over co-ax and to get to the console channel you had to flick through all the TV channels first, I went to play the console in the flat and was surprised to see Borg cubes. It turned out to be Voyager's Scorpion part 1 and needless to say I tuned in to watch the second part as well, I carried on watching Voyager and was hooked with Year of Hell which is still my favourite of all Star Trek episodes. Although Voyager dwindled towards the end it still had some amazing episodes. Timeless is another stunning episode that cleverly makes use of time.
After I left University I ended up with a very long commute to work which I decided to do my train so I could do something on the train, it was a perfect time to watch TV series so I bought all seven series of DS9 and watched them back to back. Looking back it was an awful TV series as its long complex arcs and deeper characters simply were a poor choice due to the length of time it would take to show a single series and the at times erratic schedules. However it's perfect for streaming and binge watching, it can have far more complex stories than other series and really flesh out the characters. It feels like there is a tendency these days to have very black and white good and bad but DS9 acknowledges the reality that there's many shades of grey, we gradually find out the Cardassians aren't all the evil individuals they appear to me and the Bajorans had also been questionable during the occupation. Then we also find the Federation are far from squeaky clean either with the shadowy Section 31 and Sisko's questionable actions to bring the Romulans into the war.
It also featured some of the most incredible battles we'd ever seen yet despite that, its strength was its deep characters. The Visitor, where Captain Sisko is killed and his son struggles to deal with the loss is my favourite DS9 episode even though it was a low cost episode to save money and is mostly set in a single room. It's a far cry from the horrible bottle shows that were the norm for budget recoup shows.
I did try Enterprise but couldn't initially get into it as the prequel setting was a mess which wasn't helped by basing the 'old' Enterprise on one of the newest and sleekest warships from the DS9/Voy era plus this mess of trying to bring in new Star Trek fans while keeping the old ones happy. However I thought it started hitting its strides with the third series some of which was meant to be for Voyager, the gradual build up quickly builds up momentum with some great episodes along the way. Twilight which was intended as a Voyager episode works better in Enterprise and easily my favourite Enterprise episode.
The fourth series then put together some fantastic two and three parters including bringing Brent Spiner back and a brilliant mirror episode which cleverly uses footage from First Contact and even has its own new credits intro. It's a shame the final episode which would be the final Star Trek episode for a long time was just so awful.
Then onto Discovery....I've struggled through this which makes exactly the same mistakes as Enterprise did with another prequel series that just seems such a jarring mess. This time there was some effort to make the ship look suitable but then they didn't bother with the rest so we have sleek holographic interfaces, an android years before Data, sleek cybernetics and slick retractable EV suits which make Voyager look archaic.
That aside I did like the concept of a prototype scientific vessel being pushed into combat with both it and its crew unsuited to such a role being led by a warmonger Captain. I didn't the first series really worked but still tried the second series which I had to give up on, having a long single story does make sense on a streaming platform but I was really disappointed it would yet again focus solely on Burnham. I don't think that would work for any character but Burnham in particular certainly doesn't carry it and rather than develop a deep stories, everything seems too quick and easy to sort.
The real Star Trek for me at the moment is the Orville which I thought looked awful, I'm not a fan of Seth Macfarlane nor did I like the look of a Galaxy Quest style series mocking Star Trek. I was completely wrong though and found it well worth watching, Seth MacFarlane is a big Star Trek fan himself which shows and some of the main people behind the show were key members of DS9 and Voyager. Although it's silly at times it's also surprisingly serious as well and it's impressive the stories and characters they've put together.
The second series seems to have realised that its success is as a Star Trek series and it's toned down the silliness making it a bit more serious. In the second series for both Orville and Discovery they come to the same situation where a pre warp civilisation are trapped on a planet that's about to be destroyed.
In Discovery they magically fix the day in a way which doesn't even make sense then go on to violate the prime directive after repeatedly going on about how they have to maintain it. The Orville on the other hand finds they can't save the people and have to force the remaining population to make an on the spot decision about who lives. Isaac the android doesn't see the problem as they should just choose the best of them while the disgraced Bortas who has been shamed by Isaac as well responds he would never want to be like Isaac despite his constant claims to his superiority.
@calmar81 - That's a fantastic display for all the series, I love the variety in your choice of ships.
Sci-fi started off with Star Wars for me rather than Star Trek, the latter was always difficult to watch because it was on TV and never consistently shown. I hadn't been that interested in the Star Wars films but had become fascinated with Timothy Zahn's Empire trilogy written in the early 90's.
However when I saw reviews for Star Trek First Contact I was keen to see the film which I thought was amazing, even just those opening moments as the massive Sovereign-class joins the battle and the open fire on the Borg cube (I can almost forgive what they did to the Defiant). Soon after I went to University and one of my flatmates had this awesome Borg cube which had all the TNG Borg episodes om TNG, he also had all the TOS episodes which I worked my way through. It's difficult to think of a time when episodes were not readily available and we were victim to TV schedules.
This was also a time when consoles were connected over co-ax and to get to the console channel you had to flick through all the TV channels first, I went to play the console in the flat and was surprised to see Borg cubes. It turned out to be Voyager's Scorpion part 1 and needless to say I tuned in to watch the second part as well, I carried on watching Voyager and was hooked with Year of **** which is still my favourite of all Star Trek episodes. Although Voyager dwindled towards the end it still had some amazing episodes. Timeless is another stunning episode that cleverly makes use of time.
After I left University I ended up with a very long commute to work which I decided to do my train so I could do something on the train, it was a perfect time to watch TV series so I bought all seven series of DS9 and watched them back to back. Looking back it was an awful TV series as its long complex arcs and deeper characters simply were a poor choice due to the length of time it would take to show a single series and the at times erratic schedules. However it's perfect for streaming and binge watching, it can have far more complex stories than other series and really flesh out the characters. It feels like there is a tendency these days to have very black and white good and bad but DS9 acknowledges the reality that there's many shades of grey, we gradually find out the Cardassians aren't all the evil individuals they appear to me and the Bajorans had also been questionable during the occupation. Then we also find the Federation are far from squeaky clean either with the shadowy Section 31 and Sisko's questionable actions to bring the Romulans into the war.
It also featured some of the most incredible battles we'd ever seen yet despite that, its strength was its deep characters. The Visitor, where Captain Sisko is killed and his son struggles to deal with the loss is my favourite DS9 episode even though it was a low cost episode to save money and is mostly set in a single room. It's a far cry from the horrible bottle shows that were the norm for budget recoup shows.
I did try Enterprise but couldn't initially get into it as the prequel setting was a mess which wasn't helped by basing the 'old' Enterprise on one of the newest and sleekest warships from the DS9/Voy era plus this mess of trying to bring in new Star Trek fans while keeping the old ones happy. However I thought it started hitting its strides with the third series some of which was meant to be for Voyager, the gradual build up quickly builds up momentum with some great episodes along the way. Twilight which was intended as a Voyager episode works better in Enterprise and easily my favourite Enterprise episode.
The fourth series then put together some fantastic two and three parters including bringing Brent Spiner back and a brilliant mirror episode which cleverly uses footage from First Contact and even has its own new credits intro. It's a shame the final episode which would be the final Star Trek episode for a long time was just so awful.
Then onto Discovery....I've struggled through this which makes exactly the same mistakes as Enterprise did with another prequel series that just seems such a jarring mess. This time there was some effort to make the ship look suitable but then they didn't bother with the rest so we have sleek holographic interfaces, an android years before Data, sleek cybernetics and slick retractable EV suits which make Voyager look archaic.
That aside I did like the concept of a prototype scientific vessel being pushed into combat with both it and its crew unsuited to such a role being led by a warmonger Captain. I didn't the first series really worked but still tried the second series which I had to give up on, having a long single story does make sense on a streaming platform but I was really disappointed it would yet again focus solely on Burnham. I don't think that would work for any character but Burnham in particular certainly doesn't carry it and rather than develop a deep stories, everything seems too quick and easy to sort.
The real Star Trek for me at the moment is the Orville which I thought looked awful, I'm not a fan of Seth Macfarlane nor did I like the look of a Galaxy Quest style series mocking Star Trek. I was completely wrong though and found it well worth watching, Seth MacFarlane is a big Star Trek fan himself which shows and some of the main people behind the show were key members of DS9 and Voyager. Although it's silly at times it's also surprisingly serious as well and it's impressive the stories and characters they've put together.
The second series seems to have realised that its success is as a Star Trek series and it's toned down the silliness making it a bit more serious. In the second series for both Orville and Discovery they come to the same situation where a pre warp civilisation are trapped on a planet that's about to be destroyed.
In Discovery they magically fix the day in a way which doesn't even make sense then go on to violate the prime directive after repeatedly going on about how they have to maintain it. The Orville on the other hand finds they can't save the people and have to force the remaining population to make an on the spot decision about who lives. Isaac the android doesn't see the problem as they should just choose the best of them while the disgraced Bortas who has been shamed by Isaac as well responds he would never want to be like Isaac despite his constant claims to his superiority.
Excellent post. I have to admit that I discounted MacFarlanes series as a farce, but will give it another look. We did need a new Star Trek with some whimsy, as well as well thought out story lines, and deep characters.
when i was little and watched the first star trek series, i was amazed by the whole thing it was way ahead of its time, and i did not care if the monsters were not real and the action when the enterprise was under attack,was sometimes a bit over the top it didnt matter it was make believe at its best.my how times have changed, with all the wizardry of modern computerised graphics it is almost real now and it has stood the test of time
The funny thing is when I first saw TOS it looked so old and basic while TNG/DS9/VOY all looked so sophisticated and futuristic with voice activated lighting, music, computer commands and lightweight tablet devices that could be used anywhere on the ship.
Now though we have voice activated lighting, music and computer commands plus lightweight computer devices we can use everywhere making even Voyager look dated as their tablets and laptops look clunky in comparison.
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