Absolutely, positively NO more episodes which consist almost entirely of a flashback to a place and time that have virtually nothing to do with the Star Trek universe. AFAIK, they did that once in DS9 (Sisko passes out and dreams he’s a sci-fi writer in the 1950’s who writes stories about DS9 for a magazine, but the boss doesn’t like the idea of a black captain) and again in Voyager (Janeway talks about how one of her ancestors in the early 21st century convinced a bookstore owner(who at first is apparently opposed to progress of any kind) to sell his store so construction of some massive, historically significant structure can begin).
Ah, I know this goes without saying, but because of those thick-headed writers I’m going to have to say it anyway.
NO HOLODECK ADVENTURES WHERE THE SAFETY INTERLOCKS GET OVERRIDDEN.
You can have the holodeck be part of the show. In fact, there was actually a pretty good holodeck episode, the one where Lt. Barclay learns to overcome his addiction to the holodeck and interact with real people. OK, that one was fine. Oh, and the one where Geordi makes up a fantasy version of one of the Enterprise designers and she finds out about it. That’s two. And why were those two OK? You can do anything you want with the holodeck except one thing. You cannot, and I mean cannot, override the safety interlocks.
Yes, it’s fun to put Worf in a Stetsun and give him a Colt Peacemaker. You can do that if you need to. But you cannot make this holodeck fantasy adventure “real” simply to inject a little tension into a fantasy episode. If you want to have your characters in a western with some real dramatic tension, then just send them down to a planet with an analogue of 1800s level of technology and have Worf play sheriff down there. You can have all the western cliches you want, except the natives will have bumpy foreheads and their horses will be green and they’ll wear silver lame jumpsuits instead of chaps.
Use your heads. The whole purpose of all these planets that you travel to is that you can use them to tell just about any story you want. And instead you want them playing in a broken holodeck? No, I say! Down with holodeck accidents!
You’re on the right track, Lemur… they just need to get over this whole “every episode needs to be dramatic!” thing.
In Voyager, there were several episodes that were downright playful. They started off amusingly, and would have CONTINUED being amusing… except, for some reason, they always had some aliens attack the ship! Just to make it dramatic! Just to make tension! The gratuitous aliens make the gratuitous attack on the ship for no friggin’ reason!
Grr…
SPOOFE:
You’re quite welcome, but I was only sharing wild-assed speculation, and that’s all it was worth.
If I remember correctly, the episode “Data’s Day” was wonderfully devoid of dramatic, life-threatening scenarios (not that they don’t have there place, but every episode?). It was IMO one of the more interesting of TNG episodes because it didn’t compromise the humanistic exploration with giant space battles, and it didn’t ruin a great adventure by putting in some silly side plot about Weasely Crusher not being able to get a date.
All space shall wear SKIMPY costumes. No more full body catsuits! I would look like a hot babe if I put on Seven’s outfit.
Remember the tinfoil outfit of that chick who sped up Kirk so everone looked frozen?
Or the android chick from What are little Girls Made of?
Or that fighter chick from the episodes with the brains with the gamboling problem? (I’ll bet 10,000 qualudes on the newcomer)
If you are going to have a space babe she must have a hot body and not be afraid to show it.
Also did anyone else notice how the phasers got weaker? In TOS if you got hit with a hand phaser that’s it, you are gone buddy. I always thought there might a kind of burning smell? STTNG phasers only put a dark spot on your suit. What’s up with that? I quess logically the phasers in the new series should not only vaporise the person but the wall behind them as well.
Well, in TNG, the hand phasers were fitted with variable energy levels, from “stun” to “cause more damage than you’d ever want from something that’s not an artillery piece”. A Level 10 phaser setting was touted as being able to destroy a whole building (although this was never shown, not by a long shot). Since this is a weapon that has absolutely no means of aiming and is probably only accurate up to ten meters or so, such destructive power doesn’t make much sense…
You’d think that they’d stop worrying about making their little hand-held weapons stronger and they’d focus more on expanding their standing army… hell, maybe some form of ground transport? Tanks? Artillery? Grenades? REAL weaponry?