It's the 46th anniversary of Star Trek TV series

by moshe 59 Replies latest social current

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  jws

  Used to watch it about dinner time. Our local UHF station ran reruns for a while, then switched to another old show. We watched it in the mid 70's and were JWs at the time. I remember my dad liking it and taking us to see the first movie too.

  I'm not a big enough fan (geek) to know episode names by heart. I liked the ones where the Enterprise crew went back into our time because I thought it was cool them having all this technology in our time. And likewise, the Star Trek movie where they went back in time to get a humpback whale was my favorite as well.

  I used to be all about the original series. Never got into Next Generation, I forget the space station one (Deep Space 9?), Voyager, or the latest Enterprise series. But I did like the "reboot" movie a couple of years ago and hope they continue.

  But I've gotta say, I've been watching the new series (Next Generation) on NetFlix and it's winning me over. I started watching season 3, then decided I should start from the beginning. So far, the first season's kinda iffy. It suffers from some of the same stuff where you're going "Really?" As things get absurd. Like Q. And some things look so fake. And you conveniently have the holo-deck to allow the writers to indulge in any story-telling setting. So far, season 3 seems to have gotten better. More believable.

  In general, I see it as a bit ahead of it's time. You see them touching screens like many of us do with iPhones and this was 25 years ago. Watching the blinking lights they called computers back in the old days is just getting kind of hard to watch. The old Star Trek is classic, but so much more dated. Next Generation seems to hold up better, but probably will look just as dated one day.
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  talesin

  For you, Ziddy, he's one of my favorite characters - Gul Dukat clip.

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACGW4RRbNcU&feature=related
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  cedars

  In my view, the Original Series was unquestionably the best and most gripping. In almost every episode the crew would get themselves into a nigh impossible situation and have to fumble their way out of it somehow - usually in a way that involved William Shatner using his wonderfully ham acting skills to the full.

  As well as inspiring a generation of NASA astronauts and engineers, Star Trek also gave the world it's worst ever fight scene in the history of television...

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SK0cUNMnMM

  Cedars
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  Xanthippe

  I liked the original series and all the sequels. Favourite characters, Checkov from original (later played a nasty in Babylon Five - love that series), Deanna Troy and Jean-Luc Picard from 2nd Generation, Kes and the Doctor from Voyager, Julian and Dax from Deep Space Nine - thought Terry Farrell was really convincing as a very old, wise Dax in a new body, something about the expression in her eyes. And the Brit from Enterprise, what was his name?
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  DaCheech

  watched them all, but unfortunately I don't watch re-runs
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  ziddina

  "For you, Ziddy, he's one of my favorite characters - Gul Dukat clip...." Talesin, page 2

  Hah!

  My favorite was the Cardassian "tailor", Garak, on the space station Deep Space 9!!

  

  Played by Andrew Robinson...

  
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  King Solomon

  The one that sticks out in my mind was the episode where Frank Gorshem (was it?) played the survivor of a planet that had been destroyed by civil war, but he and this other last survivor continued to try to kill each other after being rescued from their planet to the Enterprise. Kirk was confused as to why they continued to fight, and Gorshem's character said something like, "Can't you see? My face is black on one side, and his is black on the other" (they both had half-black, half-white faces, but the sides were swapped).

  The episode was a sly commentary on the dangers of racism, esp considering the era it was made (during the Civil Rights struggles of the period).
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  jgnat

  The Google doodle memorializes both the Kirk vs Gorn battle (including the assembly of gunpowder-bamboo gun), and the red-shirted guy destined for tragedy...
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  talesin

  Zid, that was my difficult choice, between Garak and Gul Dukat, but I found Dukat's redemption put him a tad ahead .. ;)

  KS - I loved that episode, "Let that be Your Last Battlefield". Even as a kid, I could see Roddenberry's point.

  Let's not forget his beautiful wife, Majel Barrett, who was the 'voice of the Enterprise', had a couple of bit parts in the original ST as a nurse (I believe) and later played Counsellor Troy's mother in TNG and other incarnations of the franchise.

  tal
• 

  King Solomon

  Yup, that's the one, tal. Thanks!

  Another episode I often think of was called, "who mourns for Adonias?" (I think), where the Enterprise came upon the Planet inhabited by an alien named Apollo who had supposedly visited Earth long before, giving rise to the ancient Greek myths about Zeus and the pantheon.... Thought-provoking stuff, for sure.

  Tip: the shot that shows the Enterprise being held captive by a hand in the beginning of the episode uses the hand-modeling skills of exec-producer Gene Roddenberry.