PHASE II successful?

[RobertScorpio]

Umm..do you actually watch Star Trek???

Kirk: the aged Captain...learned one.

Decker: his first officer, Captain in training

Ilya: Decker's former lover.

Xon: 100% Vulcan...pretty much a walking android...

__

Picard: The aged Captain...learned one

Riker (even sounds like Decker) his Captain in training

Troi: his former lover

Data: 100% android...


If you can't see the OBVIOUS then I can't help you here. You need to get freed of the SPORES or something. Why do you think they used episodes from PHASE II in the first place? Could it be because they were easy to transpose because the SHOWS WERE SO MUCH ALIKE!! Come on now, must I help you follow the bouncing ball.....the answer is YES.

And I am not sure what the hell you were watching in SEASON ONE of TNG, but I was watching rehashed crap from TOS season three.

So, don't lecture me on what I saw...and what I saw in Phase Two was a "coming soon" attraction for Season one of TNG...A COMPLETE PIECE OF CRAP..

Thank God for ALL OF US, (wink wink) PHASE TWO ended up in the trash can of history...thats exactly where it belonged. And the one thing Paramount did right? Firing G.R. before he could ruin the franchise as much as he did with Season one of TNG...The Naked Now? Angel One??? JUSTICE???? They make Galatica 1980 look like Citizen Kane!

G.R. obviously wasn't into 'modern script' writing of the 70s. How else do you explain TMP? You know, the star trek movie that put everyone to sleep during its WASHINGTON DC premier...oh yeah..that movie. The ONE Trek movie Gene produced. Do you actually believe this pile of dung you are shoveling? I'm not.

Rob

 

[Vance]

Come on, guys, we can be a LITTLE more civil here than a YouTube comments section, can't we?

 

[RobertScorpio]

Come on, guys, we can be a LITTLE more civil here than a YouTube comments section, can't we?

Usually I would agree. But everyone once in a while some turkey will come into a thread and go all wild like that. Almost as if they have gone crazy or something. I should have just hugged him...told him I understood his anger. My bad...I'll do that next time.

Rob

 

[Vance]

Usually I would agree. But everyone once in a while some turkey will come into a thread and go all wild like that. Almost as if they have gone crazy or something. I should have just hugged him...told him I understood his anger. My bad...I'll do that next time.

Or, take a bit of advice that I'm horrible at following myself ... just ignore it.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I think Data owes more to Questor than Xon.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I think Data owes more to Questor than Xon.

I don't. XON would have played the same role as DATA, which is really what we are talking about here. The so called 'logical fish out of water' aspect of a TV-show.

It was said by Shatner, or someone speaking about XON, that XON would have had a harder time adjusting than Spock did because XON would have been full blooded Vulcan (meaning more logical) than even spock. Data is, even as Doctor McCoy hinted at in ENCOUNTER, as bad as a vulcan, in terms of dealing with humans. Thats what I took away from it..

Rob

 

[Captain Robert April]

Well, Roddenberry was notorious for a) never throwing away an idea, and b) mixing and matching those ideas. Data very likely was a mishmash of both Questor and Xon, just as "Andromeda" was a mashup of the "Genesis II" and "Starship" (although in that case, it's debatable who did the mashing, considering how long it had been since GR had shuffled off this mortal coil).

 

[RobertScorpio]

I think Data owes more to Questor than Xon.

I don't. XON would have played the same role as DATA, which is really what we are talking about here. The so called 'logical fish out of water' aspect of a TV-show. The dynamics of PHASE 2 and TNG being similar isn't my own invention. So I am shocked that others cant connect the two. Others have.

It was said by Shatner, or someone speaking about XON, that XON would have had a harder time adjusting than Spock did because XON would have been full blooded Vulcan (meaning more logical) than even spock. Data, even as Doctor McCoy hinted at in ENCOUNTER, would have had, and did have, the same problems with dealing with humans as XON would have.

Rob

 

[Tom]

Still trying to figure out what UPN has to do with Phase II ? since the network was launched in 1995. Did I miss something? was Parmount planing a network in the 70's or something?

 

[RobertScorpio]

Well, Roddenberry was notorious for a) never throwing away an idea, and b) mixing and matching those ideas. Data very likely was a mishmash of both Questor and Xon, just as "Andromeda" was a mashup of the "Genesis II" and "Starship" (although in that case, it's debatable who did the mashing, considering how long it had been since GR had shuffled off this mortal coil).

Oh, I totally agree. But I am not the first one to suggest that TNG and PHASE 2 are cut from the same mold. Nor are you the first to suggest that qualities of Questor made it into Data.

But Questor/Data and Spock/XON are really, if you look at how the shows are framed, playing the same role. The 'logical character' constructed as such so as to have to fit in with 'emotion filled humans'. That is their primary reason for being there. They are story devices that just happen to be Androids/Vulcans. G.R. was just trying to find another way to tell the same dynamic that Spock had with TOS. I think some people have a problem with seperating the show with how the shows are made. But, like you, I like to stand back and look at both. Makes for interesting comparisons.

Rob

 

[Captain Robert April]

Still trying to figure out what UPN has to do with Phase II ? since the network was launched in 1995. Did I miss something? was Parmount planing a network in the 70's or something?

Yup, it was to be called the Paramount Television Service and Star Trek: Phase II was to be its flagship show (still a weird concept; what the hell is the point of a "flagship show"? It's not like they were gonna run this thing five days a week).

 

[Vance]

Still trying to figure out what UPN has to do with Phase II ? since the network was launched in 1995. Did I miss something? was Parmount planing a network in the 70's or something?

Yes. Paramount felt that the 'big three' were screwing them over (and, they were) and went about getting the Paramount Network started with Phase II as one of its bigger launch titles. The banks wouldn't go for the idea, and it was scrapped.

 

[Kryton]

Paramount WAS planning to launch a "4th Network" in the late '70s with Phase II as one of its flagship programs...not too far afield from what became UPN for about a decade until the merger with WB.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Barry Diller was the big cheese at Paramount at the time, and the 4th network gambit was his idea.

Later, when Diller was at Fox, he tried again, and the rest is history.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Barry Diller was the big cheese at Paramount at the time, and the 4th network gambit was his idea.

Later, when Diller was at Fox, he tried again, and the rest is history.

We all know that PHASE 2 would have been the so called "Flagship", but does anyone know if there were any other shows planned? I remember reading once that Diller also approached the NFL to broadcast Thursday night games weekly. (Another thing that is happening now).

So far I haven't heard of anything else beyound PHASE 2 and NFL. But I do remember that, like, FOX, the first year would have had only three nights of programing and later nights would come on line as the network progressed.

Rob

 

[ClayinCA]

but I imagine that Xon was getting pretty close to being a Boxley.

Boxey.

Actually, the character of Xon was described as "a Michael York type with pointed ears". David Gautreaux (Epsilon 9's Commander "Branch") studied meditation for months, preparing to play Xon. I think its more likely he'd have been a very intense, very serious Data type, not a child prodigy like Boxey, Wesley or Naomi.

Is there an echo in here? Just kidding - nice to see I wasn't misremembering.

 

[RobertScorpio]

but I imagine that Xon was getting pretty close to being a Boxley.

Boxey.

Actually, the character of Xon was described as "a Michael York type with pointed ears". David Gautreaux (Epsilon 9's Commander "Branch") studied meditation for months, preparing to play Xon. I think its more likely he'd have been a very intense, very serious Data type, not a child prodigy like Boxey, Wesley or Naomi.

Is there an echo in here? Just kidding - nice to see I wasn't misremembering.

Nope you got it right..

and by the way...his character would have been similar to Data's, according to others (Not only me) as the 'character who doesn't have emotion has to figure out humans, and they have to figure him out too' character....

Rob

 

[Maurice]

Thank God for ALL OF US, (wink wink) PHASE TWO ended up in the trash can of history...

Speak for yourself.

 

[Vance]

Thank God for ALL OF US, (wink wink) PHASE TWO ended up in the trash can of history...

Speak for yourself.

Though I think Scorpy overstates it, I do think that we were better off that Phase II didn't manage to hit the screens. Again, it's a statement of the times, the late 1970s, where a ton of 'network schlok' was thrown on the screen with palty budgets, models-turned-actors, and all the other problems that hit at the time. We weren't going to get the magic of TOS again (we weren't going to get Spock at all, and Kirk only in a few episodes), we were going to get a 1970s NBC production. This would have been bad.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

I would happily trade in everything that was produced since 1982 - and everything that will be churned out by CBS in the future - for just one season of Phase II, preferably produced after ST:TMP so GR could have reused the film's photographic miniatures, sets, props, costumes and visual/sound effects for the show.

TGT

I totally agree. To my mind, Phase II is the great lost opportunity for Star Trek.

Why do you think they used episodes from PHASE II in the first place?

Because there was a writers' strike.

Thank God for ALL OF US, (wink wink) PHASE TWO ended up in the trash can of history...

Speak for yourself.

G.R. obviously wasn't into 'modern script' writing of the 70s. How else do you explain TMP? You know, the star trek movie that put everyone to sleep during its WASHINGTON DC premier...oh yeah..that movie.

Please cite a news source verifying this claim. I've never seen a report of the ushers having to rouse the entire audience from a TMP induced slumber.

I think Data owes more to Questor than Xon.

I don't. XON would have played the same role as DATA, which is really what we are talking about here. The so called 'logical fish out of water' aspect of a TV-show.

Dude, Data is Questor. He sure as hell was originally intended to be that character transplanted essentially intact from TQT into TNG, right down to the early show bible describing him as having been built by mysterious aliens. All three characters had the need to explore/become more human in order to function in their environments.