Ah, but it's the almost that's so important.
TAS: Underrated Series
- Thread starter EnsignTOS
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After everyone praised TAS I watched 'More Tribbles, More Troubles' (because it's the episode included on the TOS S2 blu-ray).
I must say... the episode did not compel me to watch more. It was just really plodding, not that funny, not that amusing, not that interesting. Interesting as an artifact of its time, but not sufficiently so that I would watch the entire series. Is this episode considered particularly good, or bad?
I must say... the episode did not compel me to watch more. It was just really plodding, not that funny, not that amusing, not that interesting. Interesting as an artifact of its time, but not sufficiently so that I would watch the entire series. Is this episode considered particularly good, or bad?
Just an amusing continuity nod, I guess.
I consider MTMT to be one of the weaker episodes. It's basically a half-hearted continuation of "The Trouble With Tribbles" and doesn't bring anything new to the table...except maybe the tribble eating glommer.
There are much better TAS episodes:
"Beyond The Farthest Star"
"Yesteryear"
"Jihad"
"Slaver Weapon"
"Albatross"
"The Pirates Of Orion"
"One Of Our Planets Is Missing"
"The Infinite Vulcan" (even with its one WTF moment)
Middle of the road episodes:
"The Time Trap"
"The Survivor"
"The Ambergris Element"
"The Lorelei Signal"
"The Magicks Of Megas-Tu"
"Once Upon A Planet"
"How Sharper Than A Serpents Tooth"
"Eye Of The Beholder"
Weakest TAS episodes (in my opinion):
"More Tribbles, More Troubles"
"Mudd's Passion"
"The Practical Joker"
"BEM"
"The Counter-Clock Incident"
"The Terratin Incident"
Yeah, MTMT was *not* one of the better ones, actually.
I would watch the first batch that Warped suggested.
In fact, going into TAS about 2 months ago, I was really excited about discovering the episodes that were a continuation of previous episodes, like the sequels to "Shore Leave", "Tribbles", and the third Mudd adventure, and they were just ok. (Maybe because I built it up in my head before watching.)
It's still a flawed show, but it's cool because it involves the TOS cast and the stories themselves are EXCELLENT, but the execution is inconsistent.
I have NOT read the Alan Dean Foster adaptations of TAS but I have to imagine it would be better to read than watch because there are TONS of cool stories in TAS.
I would watch the first batch that Warped suggested.
In fact, going into TAS about 2 months ago, I was really excited about discovering the episodes that were a continuation of previous episodes, like the sequels to "Shore Leave", "Tribbles", and the third Mudd adventure, and they were just ok. (Maybe because I built it up in my head before watching.)
It's still a flawed show, but it's cool because it involves the TOS cast and the stories themselves are EXCELLENT, but the execution is inconsistent.
I have NOT read the Alan Dean Foster adaptations of TAS but I have to imagine it would be better to read than watch because there are TONS of cool stories in TAS.
Alan Dean Foster fleshed out the stories so they don't feel truncated, rushed or as if they have scenes missing. I think the stories flow better. Only once in awhile do I feel he doesn't quite have a character right or not speaking the right dialogue.
Sort of the opposite of your suggestion, but I whipped this up just to see what it was like:
http://youtu.be/xdWvBMX0HvE
Cool! I like it, I think it works.
Mudds' Passion is so bad its good.
Its just worth watching for the following:
It has one of the slashiest scenes in all Trek.
It has the mysterious pass card on the Enterprise.
It has possibly the most awkward romantic encounter in all Trek (which is saying a lot) between Spock and Chapel.
^I loved seeing all the different craft in the Enterprise shuttlebay that one. As well as the first appearance in Star Trek of a futuristic car.
I love TAS, and all the colourful things it brought to Trek, but... it is pretty awful. Perhaps not by the standards of the time, but by today's. I still love it, though.
"Magicks of Megas Tu" has to be the nuttiest episode of the entire franchise. A portal in the centre of the galaxy which leads to a world of magic? Lucifer himself? Awesome. Although I imagine there are many who like to pretend that one never happened.
I'm still awaiting an epic novel/comic/fanfic continuing the story of Giant Spock Clone!
I love TAS, and all the colourful things it brought to Trek, but... it is pretty awful. Perhaps not by the standards of the time, but by today's. I still love it, though.
"Magicks of Megas Tu" has to be the nuttiest episode of the entire franchise. A portal in the centre of the galaxy which leads to a world of magic? Lucifer himself? Awesome. Although I imagine there are many who like to pretend that one never happened.
I'm still awaiting an epic novel/comic/fanfic continuing the story of Giant Spock Clone!
"Magicks" is a pretty classic Trek story with a nice moral statement to make. I'm uncomfortable with stories based on the conceit that there was real magic used in Salem, because that's glossing over an act of profound misogynistic persecution, but at least the episode uses the premise to make a statement about persecution of another type of difference, so that kind of balances out. My main problem, aside from the whole center-of-the-galaxy thing, is that there's simply no way to reconcile its outdated continuous-creation cosmology with the Big Bang cosmology that's referenced multiple times in later Trek.
I thoroughly agree with your sentiments about Magicks incl thoughts on Salem.
Trek physics is not our physics. They're in another timeline too. Must be a parallel universe pretty similar to ours until, say, the 1980s that would have led to the eugenics wars.
^As I said, the problem with the continuous-creation cosmology of the episode isn't just that it conflicts with real physics, but that it conflicts with later Trek physics, in which the Big Bang as the origin of the universe is a confirmed reality (Quinn actually took Voyager there in "Death Wish").
^But in the context of the episode, the continuous creation theory was correct and was confirmed by direct observation. It was the whole basis of the mechanism that allowed the crossover between universes. The story just doesn't work in the same reality as modern Trek.
That works well too!
The first sample doesn't work for me, but the second sample makes me wish the animation was better, more fluid to go with the better music. Neat.
You know considering how resources available to fans have improved so dramatically over the years in hand with the dedication of some fans it would be interesting if someone could pull off a sort of demo film of a new TAS with new animation. Yes, you could perhaps remake an actual original TAS episode using the original voice tracks or a completely new story, with new voice actors of course. Or even more ambitious would be a completely new TAS updated, either set in another time period (such as Pike era, TMP era or even TNG era) or even as a reboot (and, no, not JJ).
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