New Slate Article Covers Whole Frachise

[ZapBrannigan]

This Slate article is an engaging look at the whole history of Star Trek:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/t..._best_why.html

It's a good read even if you don't agree with all its conclusions.

[Third Nacelle]

Pretty good article. Though I can't possibly agree with Mr. Yglesias' ranking Nemesis higher than The Motion Picture.

I do agree with his conclusion that Star Trek belongs on television rather than the big screen.

[T'Girl]

The new ship has been equipped with a holodeck, an entertainment device that ... proves a dangerous tool in the hands of lazy writers.

[Tracer Bullet]

I liked the article, but I think he oversells TNG as the best representative of what Trek is. It's a good example of a certain kind of Trek, but it's different from TOS and DS9. I don't think any one Trek series can possibly encapsulate all of Trek--it's too diffuse.

[Dale Sams]

He ranked Voyager ahead of TOS?

Respect lost forever.

[Tora Ziyal]

I don't agree with all of it, especially the rankings. But, yes, a very good read. Thanks for posting it.

[DS9forever]

I actually agree that Nemesis is better than the Motion Picture; Nemesis is quick, bombastic and kind of dumb; TMP is slow and preachy.

[Sci]

While I think Yglesias is fair in noting that ST09 was a very violent film even while Trek's general philosophy is one of the desire to avoid violence and gunboat diplomacy whenever possible, I disagree with his assertion that ST09 had no distinctly Trekian themes. It was, in the form of Kirk and Spock's arcs, a movie about learning to see past our differences, cultural and personal, and learning to work together for the common good.

ETA:

Interesting section:

"Nicholas Meyer, writer and director of the best Star Trek movies, once wrote that 'at its absolute worst, Star Trek is a plaid-pants, golf-course Republican version of the future where white men and American values always predominate (despite blatant tokenism), and gunboat diplomacy carries the day.' And perhaps that’s true—when the show was at its worst. But at its best, the Original Series reflected not plaid-pants arrogance but Great Society optimism."

I think there's some truth to what Meyer (and, implicitly, Yglesias) say about Trek at its worst. But I think they exaggerate too much -- to me, Trek at its worst seems to embody more the '60s Kennedy Democratic establishment than "a golf-course Republican version of the future." Unless Meyer is thinking more Nelson Rockefeller than Ronald Reagan (or, for that matter, Sarah Palin).

[JirinPanthosa]

Yeah, I hate it when people flippantly refer to equality, multiculturalism, democracy and individualism as 'Western values'.

If anything that attitude is thinly veiled exoticism, and insulting toward all the people living in Eastern countries who are fighting for their basic human rights against dictatorships who force on them the opposite of said values.

I agree with most of the things that article says about the series, but not necessarily his opinion of the individual shows.

[R. Star]

Dale Sams wrote:

---

He ranked Voyager ahead of TOS?

Respect lost forever.

So anyone who has a different opinion than you personally is not worthy of any respect whatsoever? A bit harsh.

[teacake]

LOL the Janeway photo the article uses is of her rolling her eyes.

[R. Star]

Yeah I noticed that! Looked like she was just thinking "you're putting me next to -these- bums?"

[teacake]

Hoshi Sato as one of the 10 best Star Trek crew members?

[DarKush]

Interesting article. Don't agree with all of his conclusions ("Far Beyond the Stars" bizarre? or Voyager trying to recapture TOS's spirit?) but it was a nice covering of all the series.

[R. Star]

Well I'll agree with him about Far Beyond the Stars being bizarre. The episode had a great message, but it was really out of place with the rest of the context of DS9. I'd wonder if this episode was a star demand by Avery Brooks as he seems to have played a lot of civil rights roles over his acting career.