What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[fireproof78]

I think the nebula class looks way better than the galaxy class

I agree. One of the more interesting configurations with that saucer and nacelles.

I despise how the trill look, for a species with such an interesting concept and culture, regular ass people, but with leopard spots, like seriously? I get having a budget, I get needing to have as little makeup and what ever for long, or action heavy scene, but come on dude!

Yes, it is called a budget and not wanting your actress to be buried under prosthetics all the time which cost time and money. The original Trill shown in TNG had a completely different look.

 

[Unicron]

The traditional forehead aliens.

 

[FormerLurker]

I think there are two different intelligent humanoid species on the Trill homeworld, and both can host the symbiotes. We just only saw the one species the once, because the other host species runs things, and doesn't let them out much.

 

[eschaton]

If we're now talking about headcanon, here is one:

Starfleet is not the official quasi-military of the United Federation of Planets. It's more of a large NGO with a space fleet which happens to be headquartered on Earth.

This helps to explain some of the inconsistencies across Trek - most notably how the Federation is supposed to be this multi-species alliance with no discrimination, but everything is HQed on Earth and 90%-95% of Starfleet officers are human. We know that some races (the Vulcans in particular) have their own fleets and training academies after all.

 

[Commander Troi]

Holodecks I can agree too but not transporters. I would highly limit transporters, which is something the Kelvin films did a little bit, requiring more direct monitoring by the transporter crewmember than just sliding the controls.

Ditto.

I think holodecks can be quite useful, although I agree they often wound up being used in a silly manner (especially if the script revolves around holodeck problems). It'd be cool to see them used for other options besides recreation, as there are a number of useful applications.

Perhaps holodecks for training. What else can you think of?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The Doctor on VOY was a breakout character, one of the best characters in Trek history. No holodecks, no EMH. Hard pass on getting rid of holodecks.

 

[Orphalesion]

Perhaps holodecks for training. What else can you think of?

Maybe archaeology? They could use the holodeck to attempt reconstructions of ruined buildings and settlements. Or to give an idea how a landscape might have looked thousands of years ago. Or give a 3D recreation of how an ancient mummy or skeleton might have looked in life (same with extinct animals)

There could also be forensic applications, I think. Recreating a crime scene and such. Didn't Geordi use it like that in one episode?

 

[fireproof78]

Maybe archaeology? They could use the holodeck to attempt reconstructions of ruined buildings and settlements. Or to give an idea how a landscape might have looked thousands of years ago. Or give a 3D recreation of how an ancient mummy or skeleton might have looked in life (same with extinct animals)

There could also be forensic applications, I think. Recreating a crime scene and such. Didn't Geordi use it like that in one episode?

Sort of. One of my more favorite episodes is "Identify Crisis" because they get to explore the mission logs on the planet and figure out what could be causing it. It was pretty cool.

 

[Farscape One]

The holodeck use in "Identity Crisis" and "Schisms" were some of the best uses of that technology. I do wish we got to see more of that.

"Schisms" in particular, as that scene was immensely creepy. Also a great therapy tool.

 

[dupersuper]

I can see why tng would be less appealing to today's audience. The show can be very sterile with lots of talking and very little action. I loved it growing up but looking at it now...yeah. It certainly shows its age.

Yeah: those silly old shows where people talked...

I think there are two different intelligent humanoid species on the Trill homeworld, and both can host the symbiotes. We just only saw the one species the once, because the other host species runs things, and doesn't let them out much.

Didn't one of the books say that a Klingon style augment virus hit a Trill colony world?

 

[Orphalesion]

Just like with the Klingons, I'm of the opinion that the Trill don't need any other explanation than "they updated the make-up to keep Terry Farrel pretty"

 

[at Quark's]

If we're now talking about headcanon, here is one:

Starfleet is not the official quasi-military of the United Federation of Planets. It's more of a large NGO with a space fleet which happens to be headquartered on Earth.

This helps to explain some of the inconsistencies across Trek - most notably how the Federation is supposed to be this multi-species alliance with no discrimination, but everything is HQed on Earth and 90%-95% of Starfleet officers are human. We know that some races (the Vulcans in particular) have their own fleets and training academies after all.

Interesting idea. We'd still have to explain though, why it is Starfleet that seems to do all the defence, against the Borg, against the Dominion, and so on. Doesn't the government care enough about its own safety that they have mandated that task primarily to an NGO?

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah: those silly old shows where people talked...

 

[JonnyQuest037]

But the problem is: the CGI of the space shots often looks too much like what it is: cartoonish looking '00s CGI shots mixed with digitally restored '60s live-action footage everywhere else, and it's jarring sometimes. If the space shots were beyond salvageable, I think they should've used physical models that were exact replicas and reshoot the footage exactly as it was before. This would've put TOS-R on the same level as TNG-R.

100% yes. TNG was redone with respect, duplicating the original effects shots as closely as possible. TOS, more often than not, was done with the assumption "Oh, those poor dumb clods working on TOS didn't know what they were doing. We'll fix it and make it better!" I suspect this was because many folks who worked on the original TNG, like the Okudas, worked on the TNG remastering and TOS was being done by other hands 40 years after the fact.

I really hope that whenever someone takes another pass at updating TOS, they try to be as faithful as possible, and don't do stupid and disrespectful things like cutting out original footage of Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley just to make "Amok Time" jibe with Star Trek III a bit more.

I don't understand people who prefer TOS Klingons to Berman-era Klingons. At all.

I mean yes, I get the arguments that the Klingons were Flanderized and sometimes a bit one-note during the Berman era.

Sounds like you totally get it to me.

 

[Tim Thomason]

100% yes. TNG was redone with respect, duplicating the original effects shots as closely as possible. TOS, more often than not, was done with the assumption "Oh, those poor dumb clods working on TOS didn't know what they were doing. We'll fix it and make it better!" I suspect this was because many folks who worked on the original TNG, like the Okudas, worked on the TNG remastering and TOS was being done by other hands 40 years after the fact.

The Okudas worked on both the TOS and TNG remastering projects. In fact, it was mostly the same teams. The TOS project was the learning curve, where they figured out their limits, creatively, through trial and error, and applied them to TNG. They shouldn't be judged in a vacuum.

TOS Remastered was also intended to be its own thing, a semi-soft reboot of the original judged in its own way. The Okudas fashioned themselves showrunners and this was the end result. Again, they (and CBS Consumer Products) learned via audience feedback and adjusted strategy for TNG.

But I don't believe for a second that the old tech fans in charge of TOS remastering held anything less than the highest respect for original TOS. It's just they had a laser focus on visuals, not story, and had the understanding that they could create new ships, planets, and backdrops for their favorite show.

 

[Paul755]

100% yes. TNG was redone with respect, duplicating the original effects shots as closely as possible. TOS, more often than not, was done with the assumption "Oh, those poor dumb clods working on TOS didn't know what they were doing. We'll fix it and make it better!" I suspect this was because many folks who worked on the original TNG, like the Okudas, worked on the TNG remastering and TOS was being done by other hands 40 years after the fact.

I don’t think they thought the original TOS effects team were “dumb clods” they were just working with a tight (and tiny) budget. To me TOS-R is way more “this is what Roddenberry would have done if he had the money” than stuff like the Discoprise.

personally I’m fine with the way both TOS-R and TNG-R look.

 

[ichab]

For TOS, I would have preferred a simple scan and remastering and keeping the original intent intact. I can't stand some of the CGI they added because it really sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

The Okudas worked on both the TOS and TNG remastering projects. In fact, it was mostly the same teams.

Yes, I know. My point was that no one who worked on TOS back in the 1960s was involved with the project AFAIK, just because most of them were gone by 2006.

I don’t think they thought the original TOS effects team were “dumb clods” they were just working with a tight (and tiny) budget. To me TOS-R is way more “this is what Roddenberry would have done if he had the money” than stuff like the Discoprise.

Completely changing the composition and color scheme of a shot, as the TOS-R team did in this scene from "Wink of an Eye" goes WAY beyond that. I refuse to believe that the set dressers and special effects artists in the 1960s didn't intend for that statue to be in the shot, or that the background wasn't meant to be blue. But for whatever reason, the TOS-R took it upon themselves to change BOTH of those things and replace them with a dull grey GCI city. The original image pops. The remastered image is just boring.

 

[Amasov]

Got another.

I think The Corbomite Maneuver is the single-best episode of Star Trek ever.

I'll die on this hill.

 

[Lord Garth]

I don’t think they thought the original TOS effects team were “dumb clods” they were just working with a tight (and tiny) budget. To me TOS-R is way more “this is what Roddenberry would have done if he had the money” than stuff like the Discoprise.

Yes, I know. My point was that no one who worked on TOS back in the 1960s was involved with the project AFAIK, just because most of them were gone by 2006.

Completely changing the composition and color scheme of a shot, as the TOS-R team did in this scene from "Wink of an Eye" goes WAY beyond that. I refuse to believe that the set dressers and special effects artists in the 1960s didn't intend for that statue to be in the shot, or that the background wasn't meant to be blue. But for whatever reason, the TOS-R took it upon themselves to change BOTH of those things and replace them with a dull grey GCI city. The original image pops. The remastered image is just boring.

The closest you could get to what Gene Roddenberry (or anyone else working on the show) would've wanted would be looking at Production Notes and art designs that were scrapped due to budgetary reasons. But that creates a slippery slope, because where do you draw the line?

"Spectre of the Gun" was intended to take place in a full-on Western Town, until the budget forced them to get creative and they used Red Skies. "The Empath" works because it basically has no set. The feeling would be completely destroyed if they added one. Sometimes the budgetary restrictions forced them to make creative decisions that made the episodes better. Take that away and you lose a lot of what makes those episodes visually stand out.

I'm not saying TOS-R ever did the above, just illustrating why "what they would've wanted" doesn't always work out as well in practice as might sound like it would in theory.

As far as the Discoprise, I also wouldn't want it in any version of TOS. In the new shows, they should do whatever they want. But in TOS, I don't think -- on an artistic level -- they should ever make the show look like something it inherently wasn't. Again, this is why I think TNG had the better re-mastering.