Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MMario Date: 24 Sep 01 - 04:25 PM I like the various SF novels that are done in alien cultures - Hal Clement especially I think is excellent at creating a mind-set that is familiar enough that you can empathize with the characters - but odd enough that it trips you up occasionally. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Mrrzy Date: 25 Sep 01 - 09:24 AM Octopoids are fine, they have a head, it is as far from their locomotory stuff as it can be, and they have symmetry. But you need bones to work against/with gravity outside of water... and hi there, Matt! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Sep 01 - 03:17 PM When it comes to having multiple species dealing with each other, wit the differences worked out and key elements in the plot, the man is James White with his Sector General series - now that really could be fun as a TV series, if they could ever get the special effects right.
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Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Sep 01 - 03:21 PM In case you're too idel to click on thta klink, here is a staster of the article. As Miss Jean Body said, for those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like:
As every sf reader should know, Sector Twelve General Hospital is a huge interstellar construction built by many co-operating species, its 384 levels equipped to simulate the home environment of any conceivable alien patient. Conceivable, that is, to the builders' imaginations.
White gleefully harasses Sector General medics with a steady stream of inconceivables and seeming-impossibles, ranging in size from an intelligent virus and spacefaring barnacles, via a levitating brontosaur called Emily, to "macro" life-forms like the miles-long Midgard Serpent which is discovered in dismantled form and must be painstakingly assembled, or the continent-sized inhabitant of planet Meatball whose treatment requires not so much surgery as military action. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MMario Date: 25 Sep 01 - 03:29 PM oh, that doesn't begin to describe the Sector General stories...I've always wanted to meet Prilicla - and I think I may have worked for O'Hara once or twice... |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Lepus Rex Date: 25 Sep 01 - 04:00 PM Don, it wasn't so much the idea of all of the humanoid races being descended from lonely aliens that bothered me(though I still hate it, heh. And it doesn't explain, to me at least, why a human could breed with a Klingon, but not with a salamander, or even a gorilla {or maybe we CAN, and that explains me? :=D}), but the fact that the writers dropped this HUGE bomb in the laps of all the humanoid races, and they just shrugged. Information like that would have a huge effect on people. Scientific theories hundreds of years old would be thrown out the window. Pretty much every remaining religion with a creation story would be ruined. New religions or cults devoted to the 'Lonely Aliens' would probably spring up. Everything, the way people look at themselves and each other-changed. But, no, nothing. What was learned in "The Chase" was never mentioned in following episodes or series. Could have been interesting, really... Like I said, aaargh. :) ---Lepus Rex |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 25 Sep 01 - 04:07 PM Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Feds never put very much stock in religion outside it's value on a personal level... and the Klingon gods are all dead, replace with ancestor worship... Cardys and Roms? Well, who cares wha they think?? (LOL!!!) And well, the theory of evolution only has to be tweaked at the beginning with the fact that the original base pairs came from some long dead aliens... So really, I don't think the origin knowledge would really have that great an impact.. which is why everyone just watch the short message and flew away... as if to say, "Ya... so what?" I donno... That's just sorta how I saw the end of that CRAPPY episode... The Star Trek novel "Spocks World" at one point has a HORTA doing bridge duty... Now how cool would THAT be to see!?!?! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 25 Sep 01 - 04:19 PM Lepus Rex, I see your point. I did wonder where they were going to go from there, but they did nothing with it, which was a big disappointment. Great start, then it just got sucked into a black hole. I thought the episode itself was fine, but it demanded follow-up. Some great stuff could have developed out of that, but from then on, zilch! They probably bit off more than they wanted to chew, so they just dropped it. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MAG Date: 25 Sep 01 - 08:07 PM there were lots of episodes that involved some timely topic that seemed to be explored just for its own sake. How about the one where it turned out that passing starships caused severe environmental damage? |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 25 Sep 01 - 08:14 PM Thats what I meant by preferring the DS9 approach where things that happened in one episode had effects on what happened in the later ones, instead of the reset button being pushed every time. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Paul from Hull Date: 25 Sep 01 - 10:28 PM Agree with you COMPLETELY on the 'Sector General' stuff, Mr McGrath! That would certainly a programme I'd stay in to watch, if done right! Wasnt aware of half that info either (pleasantly surprised it was in the 60's) so thanks for posting the link too. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: GUEST,Mugwa Date: 26 Sep 01 - 12:32 AM hey~ in Voyager (not that I watched much) there is at least one alien race that is non humainoid, damned if I cna remember there name. But they of course live in some alternet dimesion. but there not humanoid. mugwa |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MAG Date: 26 Sep 01 - 12:48 AM I didn't like the DS9 episode where they redid "Trouble with Tribbles." That's messin' with a classic! Original Star Trek had that episode with the ambassador who was so gruesome it had a blind handler -- the same actress who played Dr. Pulaski on STNG. It is so easy for young whippersnappers to not understand how groundbreaking that show was. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Lepus Rex Date: 26 Sep 01 - 01:25 AM What, mag'?! "Trials and Tribble-ations" is my favourite DS9 episode. I love the part where Worf, when asked about the old series low-budget Klingons' appearance, says, "We do not discuss it with outsiders!" :) ---Lepus Rex |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MAG Date: 26 Sep 01 - 01:35 AM I still didn't like it ... revisionist Star Trek. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 26 Sep 01 - 02:32 PM Don't watch Enterprise then Mag'... or TNG... or DS9... or Voyager... they're all REVISIONIST! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Paul from Hull Date: 27 Sep 01 - 01:45 PM "..& do they still sing songs of The Great Tribble Hunt?..." Inspired stuff |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Mrrzy Date: 27 Sep 01 - 02:21 PM Thread creep, but I started the thread so I think that makes it OK (if not, sorry!) but if you want to see ALIEN aliens, read Larry Niven's Tales of Known Space. They may be humanoid, some of them, but none of them are humanlike. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MMario Date: 27 Sep 01 - 02:34 PM Known Space aliens and even some of the PLANTS! Slaver sunflowers, the rocket logs. Love that series. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Gloredhel Date: 27 Sep 01 - 08:17 PM To add to what was said about "Trials and Tribble-ations" (which I loved) and in view of last night's premier of Enterprise (yay!) I would like to ask how you think the Enterprise writers are going to explain why Enterprise Klingons look like post-original series Klingons, when original-series Klingons look different? Or if the issue will be addressed at all? My English teacher's opinion is that they will say that original series Klingons were a faction that had themselves surgically altered to look more like humans/Vulcans, etc., and the others were ashamed of them and that's why Worf wouldn't talk about it. Though, of course, the real reason is that they have better make-up now. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 28 Sep 01 - 12:01 AM I think (hope) tht Enterprise is gonna dry up and blow the hell off my TV! What a lousy show that was... |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Lepus Rex Date: 28 Sep 01 - 02:06 AM Gloredhel, that bugged me, too. I was looking forward to cheesy old-Trek Klingons... Heh, I like your teacher's theory, btw. Enterprise... Um. It wasn't QUITE as bad as I was expecting it to be. The theme song blew hard. Who is this dorky man-bitch of an opera singer who sings it? Apparently, he's big in England. He need to be beaten. Beaten with a stick. I actually MISS the bloated orchestral crap from the first four series... Count Bakula was annoying. Sorry Kirk wannabe. And I did not need to see him in those tiny shorts. (Yes I did... :X) The Southern-type guy ('Flip' Billingsley the 14th or whatever the Hell his name was; I don't care enough to check.) got on my nerves. Probably just because he's Southern. No offense, nice Southern people. ;) Yeah, I hated almost everyone, come to think of it. No, wait. I liked Linda Park as Hoshi Sato. She was the only character that seemed even remotely 'real' to me (T'Pol's nipples had more personality than she herself did). And she's whiney and annoying, too, which is cool! Another thing: Why are the 'Enterprise' uniforms cooler-looking than the orig. series uniforms? What happened? And is it related somehow to the Klingon-forehead controversy? Oh, and the story was pretty lame, too. ---Lepus Rex |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Mrrzy Date: 28 Sep 01 - 09:06 AM I taped it but haven't watched it yet (I teach on Weds nights) so I'm trying not to read the reviews here... but I really liked the way Worf handled the change in the Klingon look during the episode where they time-warped back onto the Enterprise and met Klingons. I think the series should NOT try to explain anything about it. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 28 Sep 01 - 04:36 PM Okay, I'll admit it: I've been an avid reader of science fiction since I was barely able to read (Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon in the Sunday funnies, then on from there), and although I'm not an organized Trekkie (or Trekker) and I don't go to Star Trek conventions, I'll come out of the closet and admit that I'm a Trekaholic.
--------------------- Those are my preliminary thoughts. I'll do my full review once I've viewed the tape. All right! Who said that? ("Get a life" indeed!!) Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Sep 01 - 05:04 PM I'd like it if they could have a folkie episode some time, with people dragging out these old songs they'd learnt at their mothers knee and that, modal versions of Yellow Submarine and so forth, and folked up versions of pop standards treated reverently as heritage.
Oh, and if you're going to put in stuff about the new one, remember we haven't seen it yet, so warn us, so we can skip the post if we want to.
My experience in these matters is that people always knock the new version as not being a patch on the old version, regardless, so I'll wait and see, because so far as I was concerned that wasn't true of the Next Generation or Deep Space Nine anyway. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 28 Sep 01 - 05:47 PM Right. They were all a little rough around the edges when they first started out. Even Kirk and the kids, but since back then it was so revolutionary, nobody particularly noticed. This is why I remain optimistic about "Enterprise." The show probably just needs a few episodes to hit its stride. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 28 Sep 01 - 06:01 PM Wanna know how stupid an idea it is to paint space ships? After 1701 had her refit after ST1, they stopped painting ships and on a Heavy Cruiser, Constellation Class they saved hundreds of thousands of tonnes... Inertia is a harsh mistress... I'll put my geek away agian... ;-) |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Paul from Hull Date: 28 Sep 01 - 06:34 PM Well, Mr McGrath, there was one Episode (I think it was the two-parter that finished TNG) where Picard sang 'Hearts of Oak'.... & Clinton H.... do I detect someone who has been drawing from other sources of Star Trek? *S* |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 28 Sep 01 - 06:45 PM Ah but it wasn't really Picard singing, it was an alien shapeshifter.
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Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Paul from Hull Date: 28 Sep 01 - 07:47 PM Was it? Ahhh....I must be mistaken with the Episodes then... I'll have to look it up! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 28 Sep 01 - 10:27 PM One of my favorite games is Starfleet Battles... ;-) |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Paul from Hull Date: 29 Sep 01 - 09:10 PM Aha! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: katlaughing Date: 29 Sep 01 - 11:56 PM I am sorry, for once I have not read the entire thread before posting. We just watched the first episode of Enterprise and I quit half way through. I don't like the "retro" Trek back to when the humans were so unaware. I found it boring to already know about the other species while the main characters did not. Oh well, I couldn't stand Voyager, either. Thanks for letting me have my say.:-) kat |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Clinton Hammond Date: 30 Sep 01 - 12:24 AM ^5's kat! ,-) |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: katlaughing Date: 30 Sep 01 - 12:33 AM "Kewt," Clinton, that's one I've not seen before! ^5's backatcha! |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 30 Sep 01 - 02:48 PM Well . . . NBC didn't like TOS much, either. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Nigel.Parsons Date: 30 Sep 01 - 03:33 PM Don In answer to your question "Who said 'get a life'?" it was Bill Shatner at a Star Trek convention when being questioned minutely on points he had no chance of remebering. This was at about the same time Nimoy issued his first autobiography "I am not Spock" Both have since recanted to some extent.
Picard sang "He is an Englishman" (Gilbert & Sullivan) early in the film Star Trek: Insurrection together with Worf & Data, to knock Data out of a programming loop...Data out of a programming loop..Knock Data... |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 30 Sep 01 - 04:00 PM Yeah, Snosrap, I know. That's kinda what I was referring to. I could be wrong, but I vaguely recall him saying it on Saturday Night Live when he looked out and saw the audience packed with people dressed in Starfleet uniforms and wearing pointy ears. He knew they were going to be there, and it was an attempt (with a slightly serious undertone) to be funny. However, the audience got royally pissed-off at him. He did have a point, though. Sorta like the way some people get worked up over Superbowl Sunday. It's only a game, for Chrissake! Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 30 Sep 01 - 04:01 PM I gather the guy who used to be in Quantum Leap was a singer before he was an actor, and not bad. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 30 Sep 01 - 04:13 PM Tidying up a bit. . . . My apologies to Ms. Blalock for misspelling her name: it's "Jolene," not "Joleen." And to Klaang, the lost Kingon. I spelled it with one "a," whereas he spells it with two. And I don't believe the NX-01 was actually painted. That looks like bare metal to me. I thing Archer was just making a smart remark to twit his companion who was piloting the shuttle, and in a moment of inattention, had lightly bumped the hull of the brand-new Enterprise. He grazed another vessel later in the show. Apparently, as a pilot, he ain't no Chuck Yeager. Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Mrrzy Date: 01 Oct 01 - 10:34 AM OK, I've watched it now. BOOOOOOOORING but still Star Trek and therefore, forgivable. Needs more action but not so much time spent on what little action there is... basically, this could have been a one-hour show. Maybe the others, in a 1-hour time-slot, will be more action-y. Here's hoping... |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Mrrzy Date: 01 Oct 01 - 12:26 PM Also - hated the song so much I couldn't even listen to it, I had to Mute, and will Mute the "to boldly go" part throughout this series, I think. AND I agree with whoever noted that since almost every character is a WASP-type man, I can't tell them apart either... |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 01 Oct 01 - 01:18 PM A Californian (Archer), a Southerner (Tucker), an Englishman (Reed), an African-American (Billingsley), an Asian, (Hoshi), a Vulcan (T'Pol), and a member of an as yet unidentified alien species (Dr. Phlox), I can't really quarrel with the mixture. The buzz is that someplace along the line, it will be revealed that one of the above is gay. The show has teething-troubles, but still, I live in hope. Bad science-fiction (like sex) is better than no science fiction at all. But that silly-assed song has got to go! Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Cappuccino Date: 01 Oct 01 - 01:34 PM Dear Trekkies, as I haven't seen this come up before, please allow me to offer you this excerpt from a feature interview with As If, a British (and excellent) Christian rock band: (and my apologies to those of you who know the story) "The new album, being recorded now, sees As If using other unusual themes. "One song is about Aberfoyle in Scotland, where a minister is said to have disappeared with the fairies in the 1700s... in fact, the villagers did away with him because he had translated the Bible into Celtic! "There is an unmarked grave, but they will never put his name on it, because they like to leave the legend intact. The old minister is supposed to appear in the church once a year, and if the villagers want him brought back to life, they have to throw a knife through his apparition. "In the 1960s, a film-maker from the States heard the story and decided to make a film about it. In the end, he decided to turn it into a space adventure... but he kept the minister's name, which was Kirk. The story became Star Trek!" (There is rather more to it than that - Kirk the minister was in fact the Walker Between Worlds, one of many Christian ministers of the time who was deeply investigating the paranormal, although he didn't intend to 'boldly go' into it quite as far as he did... and legend says he did re-appear in church, arriving for the christening of his nephew. The congregation was so staggered, they completely forgot to throw the knife at him!)" Cheers -Ian B |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: GUEST Date: 01 Oct 01 - 01:40 PM Lt. Malcolm Reed is reportedly going to be revealed as gay. |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 01 Oct 01 - 06:00 PM IanB, that sounds kind of "spacey" to me. . . . (Where was Does Gene Roddenberry while all this was going on?) Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Don Firth Date: 01 Oct 01 - 06:03 PM (Scratch the "Does." I gotta edit these things a little more.) |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Cappuccino Date: 02 Oct 01 - 10:17 AM I rather like the 'does' - I assumed it's the present tense of the verb 'I done gone....'! For all I know, the American visitor may have been Gene himself. I'll find out. All the best - Ian B |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: MAG Date: 02 Oct 01 - 07:23 PM Gad, I get home from vacation and this thread is still going. The Vulcan discontinuity is only an issue on that one show, where you had Worf and DOS Klingons on the same show. The rest of the time, good ol' "willing suspension of disbelief" is in operation. The same is true, for me, about all the humanoid aliens -- who would play them? Quark is played by a midget, is her not? How often does that work? Since I no longer own a TV I'm crossing my fingers someone taped it. Some of us would go to great lengths to see Scott Bakula in tight shorts. Remember the chimp-diaper episode on QL? |
Subject: RE: BS: Star Trek 47: So Very Tired From: Little Hawk Date: 02 Oct 01 - 07:59 PM I don't watch TV anymore, so I guess I'm going to miss this one. I think I can live with that... - LH |