My TNG favorites:

1. Yesterday's Enterprise
2. Best of Both Worlds
3. The Wounded
4. Reunion
5. Inner Light
6. Measure of a Man
7. Redemption
8. Unification
9. Deja Q
10. Family

https://i.imgur.com/iszHsC0.gif

"Prodigy" the new Trek show aimed at kids:

https://i.imgur.com/C9vmjne.jpg

In Prodigy, six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek franchise, but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents.


They're bringing back the Outrageous Okona!

https://trekmovie.com/2021/02/17/bil...-trek-prodigy/


And Janeway!


Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman: “Captain Janeway was held to a different standard than her predecessors. She was asked to embody an inhuman level of perfection in order to be accepted as ‘good enough’ by the doubters, but showed them all what it means to be truly outstanding. We can think of no better captain to inspire the next generation of dreamers on Nickelodeon, than she.”

https://www.tor.com/2020/10/08/kate-...omment-page-1/


First priority: bring back an obscure, unlikeable character from a 30 year old episode that everyone hates.

Second priority: Preemptively start crying that if you don't like Janeway you are a misogynist.



Great start, guys. I think I'll stick with something a little less gay like the original animated series.

https://i.imgur.com/as4kIEW.gif

Nickelodeon already once tried to make a space exploration-type show in the style of Star Trek for kids.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Cases

They even got the black power ranger to be in it! Star power draw, man!

Only way I'm watching a Nickelodeon Star Trek show is if Moose is the captain.

https://i.imgur.com/PuW4Bj5.gif

Seven seasons of her leading her crew in a revanchist crusade against Green Slime aliens.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Say "I Don't Know"

Alright, I'm going to give Babylon 5 one more shot. I think this will be the third time I've tried to get into the show after giving up on it in the first season of the original run.

I don't generally like to skip episodes in a series, but in this case I'm going to rely on this site's recommendation and pare season 1 down to just four episodes:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-qu...t-of-babylon-5

If I find that I'm enjoying season two I will of course go back and watch those earlier episodes. Downloading now. Fingers crossed.




In Trek news:

They are making a Voyager documentary:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/t...-documentary#/


The DS9 Documentary "What We Left Behind" is available for free on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHixW9PLsAc

^ I managed about 5 minutes of it before I decided to turn it off before I started to hate everyone involved in the show.


The new Captain Pike series has started filming. They revealed several members of the cast recently too:

https://www.tor.com/2021/03/15/star-...-cast-members/


^ It would be nice if this show didn't suck but, y'know it's going to.

The behind-the-scenes team shares a lot of talent with the other current Trek shows: Akiva Goldsman (creator of Picard and a writer and producer on Discovery) serves as co-showrunner and wrote and directed the premiere episode of Strange New Worlds, which has a story by Goldsman, Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman (who oversees the Trek franchise for CBS), and Discovery executive producer Jenny Lumet.

No. **** those people. Keep them the hell away from this show.

I'm not sure how popular new Trek is. I'm not a fan, so I may be allowing my own bias get in the way, but there seems to be a fairly large number of people who don't care for it. I don't see the business sense of producing multiple shows with similar styles with the same creative teams. You would think this would lead to diminishing returns as opposed to throwing in a show or two that would specifically appeal to TOS and Berman era Trek fans. I understand that they are trying to grow their audience via their animated series and I have no problem with it even though I'm not the target audience. I just don't get what they're up to with their live action stuff.






Babylon Five Update: it has a lot of major problems, but the war episodes show some promise. A lot of people mention weak acting and low quality CGI, but my biggest gripe is the dialog. There are a lot of lines that Laurence Olivier couldn't put over.

My favorites from my (selected) watch of the first two seasons:

The Coming of Shadows
The Long Twilight Struggle




Again, I'm skipping 80% of the episodes, so I may not be giving the show a fair shake. I have watched all or most of season 1 before this though. There's way too much cheese, but I'm willing to give it a few more episodes.

I was OK with the Picard series even though the only real draw so far has been nostalgia. It was entertaining enough overall but there were some really shitty rough spots too. For me the shitty parts involved weaker story lines, underdeveloped or unsympathetic characters, and bad story telling. I did give the new cartoon a try and it wasn't horrible. I just don't really get into the, well, cartoon-y experience of cartoons like this. I binged the hell out of Rick And Morty. This one is just too much of a regular old cartoon for me. Discovery is pure shit in every way though and they plucked the only flower (the Pike ensemble) that ever grew out of that pile of manure to plant it in its own pot, so to speak. I'm still watching Enterprise and I've hit some cheesy weak episodes that remind me that this is an old TV show, but it's still very obviously better than Discovery in every single way that a TV show can be.

I never did get into Babylon 5. I tried but it was just never good enough to hold my attention. YMMV of course.

On Enterprise:

Season two is definitely the low point of the series. Brannon Braga and Rick Berman had stayed well past their primes. They simultaneously wanted writers to "do something new" while not deviating an inch from the Berman formula. A few example of how bereft of new ideas they were:

"Oasis" is a remake of DS9's Shadowplay
"Carbon Creek" is similar to parts of the Trek novel Strangers From the Sky
"Marauders" is Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven
"Precious Cargo" feels a little like TNG's Perfect Mate
"Dawn" is Enemy Mine and Hell in the Pacific
"Judgment" is a Star Trek 6 homage
"Doctor's Orders" is a remake of the Voyager episode One.

"Stratagem" takes the cake though. It has a plot from a 1940s Roald Dahl short story Beware of the Dog that was later used in a Blackhawk comic from the 50s, the 60s James Garner movie 36 Hours, the Mission Impossible episode Operation Rogosh, the made-for-tv movie Breaking Point, the Star Trek novel Time Trap, and the G.I Joe episode There's No Place Like Springfield.

^ Truthfully, even though those episodes aren't very original, some of them are still pretty good. Season two does have a few episodes that I really like. Minefield, Dead Stop, and First Flight are all quite good, imo. If you can hold on till season three you will be rewarded with some better episodes.

https://i.imgur.com/8Rp42cQ.png


On Babylon 5:

The series has a reputation for great writing, but I just am not seeing it. J. Michael Straczynski has a tin ear when it comes to dialog. I do have to say that the last episode I watched, season three's "Passing Through Gethsemane" was pretty good. The direction by Adam Nimoy was much more creative than what you get in the first two seasons of the show which really helped. Secondly, Brad Dourif was the guest star and as far as I'm concerned that man can do no wrong. Thirdly, the sci-fi idea at the center of the episode - memory wipes and new identities for criminals - actually lead to some nice character moments. The problem, yet again, is Straczynski. He's got a nice episode going, but he doesn't respect his audience's intelligence and feels the need to spell things out for them at the story's climax. What should have been a powerful moment gets tarnished by the fact that a character has to point a giant blinking arrow to say "See, this is exactly what I was talking about in that scene from 15 minutes ago!" The pacing was off a little too; especially at the end. It just feels like he has too much story to tell but is afraid to cut out even the smallest scenes featuring the series' regulars even though it hurts the episode overall.




On Picard:

I actually dislike Picard a lot more than I do Discovery. I didn't go in with high expectations, but I did have a little hope that they might do something special with the series. The main problem is the writing, of course.

- You have a show that wants to utilize a serialized format but write a plot that goes in 5 different directions in a ten episode span.

- You have a show starring an octogenarian, but they insist on a lot of action sequences.

- You want to exploit the fact that you have one of the most popular characters in Trek history while simultaneously writing the character as if he is guilty of something and needs to be taken down a peg or twenty.

- Nostalgia. You bring back Riker just so you can have him bake a pizza. You bring back Troi so she remind the audience that she is still dispensing useless advice 30 years after the show went off the air. You bring back Seven of Nine, who has one of the best character arcs in Trek, and turn her into a shitty Sarah Conner clone. By all means bring these characters back, but you have to have writers who know why they were interesting to begin with and who know how to use them in interesting ways now.

- You cap off the season with a high concept/Big Idea ending but there are no writers capable of truly exploring big ideas.



I think they should have done a 180 from Discovery. Minimize the action scenes and eliminate the frenetic camera movements. The show should have been a character study of Picard. Introduce the fact that Picard is dying from the very beginning. Make this an exploration of the human spirit. Show me an episode with 40 minutes of conversation between a dying Picard and the newly resurrected Data about the meaning of life and what it means to be human. Give me an episode with Picard sitting in a park full of children in full "Remains of the Day" mode second guessing his relationships with Beverly Crusher, Vash, and Nella Daren. Give me an episode where he tries to fix the mistakes of the past. Maybe he has second thoughts about some of his Prime Directive decisions. Does he ever think of his family from The Inner Light? Does there memory assuage some of the pain he feels for sacrificing family life in the name of duty? Picard is about to shuffle of this mortal coil and Q doesn't make an appearance?

One last thing: this is likely Patrick Stewart's last major role - let the man act. Give me Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Milton. Give me Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." Give me a final scene with Patrick Stewart reciting a piece from Tennyson's "Ulysses"


Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

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Ugh. I am so sick of time travel plotlines. :(

I'm a sucker for the Q Continuum. I'm in.

https://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images...65/753/94c.jpg

Had to go back and rewatch. I closed befor the Q. :D OK, I'll see where it goes!