Revisiting Star Trek Continues...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
You're right...The parallel evolution one was cringe, but the holodeck one beats it easily. But the worst one is technobabble (they easily avoided those in OG Trek, thank Surak)
Roddenberry wanted them to just pick up a Phaser and use it- a Police Officer would just use his gun, not stop and explain how it works. Same goes for other technology- Scotty or Spock would look at readouts, push buttons and the problem would be resolved. IMO Voyager was the worst in Technobabble- half the dialog in a show seemed gibberish
Every time I read about that, I remember the endless explication on the merits of Phaser Number One versus Phaser Number Two in "Devil in the Dark." Right up there with the brace-for-impact scene in "Balance of Terror" being used as a "what not to do" example in the season two writers' bible.
It might just be that the STC actors and directors are much younger than (clears throat) me, and thus haven't seen the OG episodes as often as they have the TNG and post-TNG ones. Although that surprises me about Mignogna as I saw an interview where it showed he would cosplay as Kirk all the way back when he was a youngun'.
Maybe the TNG witchcraft is just too strong?
Maybe the TNG witchcraft is just too strong?
One problem with technobabble is that it is progressive- one unique problem gets solved by one TB but they next time they need a solution they have to come up with another TB to solve it.
That is why, in my opinion, Voyager did it so weirdly- all the ones which could potentially make sense had already been used by TNG & DS9
That is why, in my opinion, Voyager did it so weirdly- all the ones which could potentially make sense had already been used by TNG & DS9
Let's try something: some of us have mentioned the TNG influence on STC, especially in the last two-part episode. Let's make a list...
[1] Like Encounter at Farpoint, To Boldly Go ties back into OG Trek's first official episode (production-wise)
[2] Doing the same saucer separation trick that was done in Encounter at Farpoint
There's probably more, but I will let others bring them up!
Some things I noticed while re-watching TBG, pt 2 that are no-no's dramatically:
[1] During the battle between the bridge crew VS Lana and her Vulcan husband, everyone attacks them (one at a time of course) and except for Smith get their asses handed to them...except for the red-headed Extra who later on takes over Navigation...but here she stays at her chair trembling with fright! That kinda goes against Starfleet training all of its personnel in hand-to-hand combat! Also, I know they didn't have stuntmen, but you'd think Kirk would have grabbed one of the chairs and given the 2 Esper villains a WWE chairshot to the head!!
[2] During the entire sequence where Spock is tricked into transporting McKennah to the USS Kongo, Scotty and McCoy are nowhere to be seen, and for some reason neither Kirk in the saucer section or the Bird of Prey do anything during this time at all!!
[3] for Pete's sakes, the ending of the fight between the Kongo and the Enterprise is the same as in Wrath of Khan!?!?
[4] How come none of the Espers in TBG had that voice modulating thing that Gary Mitchell had?
and finally: in WNMHGB, Gary Mitchell received the powers of great strength, telepathy and telekinesis. In To Boldly Go, how do those three powers suddenly add illusion-casting?
[1] Like Encounter at Farpoint, To Boldly Go ties back into OG Trek's first official episode (production-wise)
[2] Doing the same saucer separation trick that was done in Encounter at Farpoint
There's probably more, but I will let others bring them up!
Some things I noticed while re-watching TBG, pt 2 that are no-no's dramatically:
[1] During the battle between the bridge crew VS Lana and her Vulcan husband, everyone attacks them (one at a time of course) and except for Smith get their asses handed to them...except for the red-headed Extra who later on takes over Navigation...but here she stays at her chair trembling with fright! That kinda goes against Starfleet training all of its personnel in hand-to-hand combat! Also, I know they didn't have stuntmen, but you'd think Kirk would have grabbed one of the chairs and given the 2 Esper villains a WWE chairshot to the head!!
[2] During the entire sequence where Spock is tricked into transporting McKennah to the USS Kongo, Scotty and McCoy are nowhere to be seen, and for some reason neither Kirk in the saucer section or the Bird of Prey do anything during this time at all!!
[3] for Pete's sakes, the ending of the fight between the Kongo and the Enterprise is the same as in Wrath of Khan!?!?
[4] How come none of the Espers in TBG had that voice modulating thing that Gary Mitchell had?
and finally: in WNMHGB, Gary Mitchell received the powers of great strength, telepathy and telekinesis. In To Boldly Go, how do those three powers suddenly add illusion-casting?
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Like I said they pilfered…er, lifted, lots of stuff from other productions. There was very little of anything original in this.
Side note: I rained on bunnytails’ parade of her reaction to this two-parter finale of STC. Her and everyone watching went ga-ga over it. I was the lone dissenting voice.
Quote: I’m the dissenter here. I absolutely didn’t care for this two-part finale. For a production claiming they wanted the viewer to feel like it was 1969 again they totally missed the boat. Nothing in these episodes, certainly not any of the overdone fan service as well as all the foreshadowing would ever have been done on TOS. None of that TNG style technobabble would have been there either. And why? Because in 1969 TOS’ creators would have had zero inkling of what was to come in the years ahead.
It’s also clear the character of McKennah was created to not only push McCoy aside—McCoy being a key component of the big 3–but also primarily to create some nonsensical relationship with Spock to conjure a reason for why he resigns Starfleet to undergo the Kohlinar ritual. And Lt. Smith—originally Yeoman Smith from WNMHGB—a throwaway forgotten character was brought back and featured just because she tied back to a story TOS would never of revisited again. This isn’t a slight against the actresses who did respectable work, but a criticism of STC’s writers.
So this was just a fannish overindulgence without a shred of authenticity. This was essentially a Pocket Books novel put on screen.
Side note: I rained on bunnytails’ parade of her reaction to this two-parter finale of STC. Her and everyone watching went ga-ga over it. I was the lone dissenting voice.
Quote: I’m the dissenter here. I absolutely didn’t care for this two-part finale. For a production claiming they wanted the viewer to feel like it was 1969 again they totally missed the boat. Nothing in these episodes, certainly not any of the overdone fan service as well as all the foreshadowing would ever have been done on TOS. None of that TNG style technobabble would have been there either. And why? Because in 1969 TOS’ creators would have had zero inkling of what was to come in the years ahead.
It’s also clear the character of McKennah was created to not only push McCoy aside—McCoy being a key component of the big 3–but also primarily to create some nonsensical relationship with Spock to conjure a reason for why he resigns Starfleet to undergo the Kohlinar ritual. And Lt. Smith—originally Yeoman Smith from WNMHGB—a throwaway forgotten character was brought back and featured just because she tied back to a story TOS would never of revisited again. This isn’t a slight against the actresses who did respectable work, but a criticism of STC’s writers.
So this was just a fannish overindulgence without a shred of authenticity. This was essentially a Pocket Books novel put on screen.
No. I have dissented before, but not to this extent. And I didn’t use any remotely colourful language. I didn’t begrudge anyone else liking it. I just called it as I saw it.Did you get blocked?
Not really much new in this. I would have liked to know more about some of the creative choices and the reasoning behind them, but it wasn’t the kind of interview.
That said Vic reveals, or says, that STC wasn’t really planned out until about six or so episodes in, and then they started thinking about how to wrap it up. And he acknowledges they wanted to do 13-15 episodes, but had to curtail that plan because of another production (which he doesn’t name) running afoul of CBS and poisoning the waters for everyone else.
That said Vic reveals, or says, that STC wasn’t really planned out until about six or so episodes in, and then they started thinking about how to wrap it up. And he acknowledges they wanted to do 13-15 episodes, but had to curtail that plan because of another production (which he doesn’t name) running afoul of CBS and poisoning the waters for everyone else.
I listened as I was doing other work. i admit I was getting impatient for actual STC content which he finally gets around to at the halfway mark (I could have done without the long deep dive into the original series opinions).
As was obvious, all of the name guest stars from STC were from Mignogna's contact list of people he met at Cons.(I don't think he could have managed to cast Al Pacino for a role...though from all of the junk he's agreed to appear in in the last 5 to 10 years, you never know if a fan film would have been an impossible thing)
I did appreciate the insight on STC's/Farragut's sets and where they are now...I guess since Farragut are strictly in the movie period and STC are done, moving them far across the US means a whole new generation of people will use them now...
He does briefly mention the sets in Ticonderoga and how they are licensed for tours. I would very much like to visit those sets and had planned to this summer, but the political situation in the U.S. and stories of how some people are being treated at the border have killed those plans. I’m not going across the border and spending my money where the government, and particularly its leader, derides my country and treats us with such disrespect. I fully believe most Americans are not onboard with this, but unfortunately I don’t feel secure going there now. And the Canadian government has issued a travel advisory about not going to the U.S. unless you absolutely have to—who the hell ever imagined that would ever happen? Well, I don’t absolutely have to so hopefully I’ll be able to visit the sets in Ticonderoga when/if sanity returns.
Excuse the political commentary, so back to discussing STC.
Excuse the political commentary, so back to discussing STC.
