One of the last things I watched in realtime on broadcast TV, and this was a large part of the reason. Jesus, they packed 'em in on that one.
Was your first clue the way you pronounce that title, there?
When I saw the thread title I was sure it would be able this episode. It is pretty bad.
If you really watch Star Trek carefully you’ll come to realize as I have that deep space nine is the only good series of the lot. It is the only one with character development and humans aren’t treated like robots fulfilling genes vision of perfect humanity. Seriously no human in Star Trek is allowed to have a character flaw because it didn’t match Gene’s vision. Heck he wouldn’t even allow an episode with a child grieving for his dead mother because he felt that in the future death is just accepted as a part of life.
Ever wonder if any of those other blocks littering the corridors of the Enterprise got trodden on by accident? :dubious:
Even if we grant this to be kind of true for the first two seasons of Next Generation, Gene’s sway is clearly ending after that. Look at… oh, say “Hollow Pursuits.” The central story is about a character flaw, and other characters’ reactions to it aren’t perfect either.
“Bitch turned me down.” <stomp>
“Didn’t salute snappily enough.” <stomp>
“Gave great head.” <sidestep>
“Reported me to Star Fleet Human and Non-Human resources.” <Flamenco stomp>
From what I’ve read, Gene’s writers were perpetually bitching about not being allowed to have intra-crew conflicts. “We can’t write without conflict!”
Well, if you look at NASA astronauts you’ll notice the absolute last thing you want with your intrepid spacefarers is crew conflict.
Personally I think if you can’t write a good story without having your characters all fighting maybe you suck as a writer.
<SCRUNCH!> Oh, shit… [WALKS AWAY WITH HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK, WHISTLING NONCHALANTLY AS HE STARES AT THE CEILING]
I’ve seen episodes of ***DS9 ***only sporadically. The one time I tried binge watching it on-line, it seemed the biggest deal was deciding where on the station to set up the kindergarden, followed by Sisko agonizing over his wife’s death.
I decided to put off binge watching the rest of the series until some much later date.
What?!? With great dialogue like “… And it’s beautiful!” you were **turned **off??? :dubious:
I am shocked, shocked!!! :smack:
DS9 is not meant for binge-watching. Watch the first few seasons one episode at a time the way God and Gene Roddenberry intended. Watch all multi-part episodes in a single sitting, but don’t binge until the final arc.
“Paaaiiin…” - Troi, Encounter at Farpoint. That’s writing!
To be fair, if you supposedly have progressed to the point the crew’s families are cruising about with them, then you’d have to think you no longer have the tightly run elite crew that is used in a c. AD2000 space station or even submarine. But conversely, 300 years of development of Crew Resource Management should itself mean your spacebeings function together smoothly without drama.
Of course, Trek is not really about people of the 23rd/24th Century Earth – it’s about people of 1960s-2010s America in fancy pajamas.
Deep Space Nine is by far the best of the Trek series, but it’s not perfect either. “Let He Who is Without Sin…” and “Paradise” are two of its worst episodes.
Conflict =/= Fighting.
Measure of a Man is the perfect example of this. Nobody is “fighting” with anyone, but conflict is central to the storyline.
Roddenberry’s vision of the future was some sort of 1984 fairyland, where everyone agreed on “the truth”. Not just facts, but philosophical truth. Everyone was a lock-step Atheist Humanist. Not one Entrepreneur, Buddhist or even Libertarian or Socialist was seen even for a moment. Every one agreed on exactly how much control was allowed over human lives and who should exercise that control
Nobody ever tried in the slightest to subvert or even question the system. Nobody believed there was a better way to do anything and nobody had ever been done an injustice by the system and everyone from the First Mate to the canteen staff were perfectly happy with their lot in life.
Even though thousands of people die on a regular basis on a typical starship, and entire planets get wiped out every couple of years, the entire population of the Federation all agree that they are living in the best of all possible worlds. Only the clearly identified villains have even the slightest grip that the Federation let their entire family die in horrible agony.
Families break up on a regular basis, and nobody complains that they weren’t ready for the relationship to end. Nobody feels abandoned by their parents and so forth.
Planets exist in the dark ages and billions of children are dying every year of preventable diseases. The Federation not only mandates this, it prevents other galactic civilisations from helping these planets because they are part of the Federation’s sphere of influence. And not one of the Federation’s bazillion citizens thinks this might be immoral
I always found Star Trek quite bizarre. It’s such blatant totalitarian propaganda that it makes Starship Troopers look like a Hippy fantasy.
There is massive scope for *real *science fiction in the conflict inherent in the Star Trek Federation. And by real Sci Fi I mean exploration of the real repercussions of the technology and social structure portrayed. But Roddenberry would never allow that because it would highlight the flaws in his dreamworld.
But again, Trek left Roddenberry behind, and there were conflict stories.
Isn’t there a scene where Cloudface shows that he’s been listening/mind reading/whatever by addressing each member of the bridge crew by name? He calls each person by their last name, but he calls LaForge “Geordie.” Always struck me as patronizing and borderline racist.
Children do not belong on a starship. It is against the Laws of Man and God. :mad:
What always struck me as patronizing and borderline racist was that a lowly jay-gee whose prior experience was pushing buttons on the bridge suddenly found himself Chief Engineer of the Federation’s new flagship at the beginning of the second season. What, Affirmative Action is needed in the 24th century?!?* :dubious: 
(Okay, if not “patronizing and borderline racist” then “even more unbelievable than the rest of the BS crap we saw during the series’ run.” :mad: )
*Phew! There. I said it! 
The thing about this episode that bugs me is, wait, you allowed him to join Starfleet of his won volition, but he can’t leave of his own volition? It’s like it’s the Hotel California in space!