TOS- Overrated?
- Thread starter AdmiralScreed
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What's there to understand? A crew of bad actors playing space cowboys in front of cheap foam and cardboard sets.
Just kidding. Sort of.
Thread summary:
OP: Is TOS over-rated? I found it dramatically stretched at points.
(8 pages later) Well, YOU obviously don't understand the Prime Directive!!
(20 pages later) What about the moral implications of Metaphasic Radiation then?!
Ok, I skimmed over all that stuff.
Despite being a huge TOS fan, the OP has a somewhat valid point. TOS episodes are built around one big dramatic conflict that requires extraordinary decisions from the main characters. However if you aren't "hooked" by the drama, then the episodes can be predictable and flat.
On the other hand, TNG often had episodes based around very insignificant personal matters. (And then X learned a valuable lesson...) In the context of the whole series, these episodes built up the characters for the big dramatic finales. But as standalone shows they often seemed plodding and pointless.
People treat Star Trek like library material nowdays. Rather than sitting down and powering through a bunch of episodes, ask yourself if you would make special plans to stay home and watch it. On that count, TOS wins overall IMO.
this is an interesting observation. TOS does often seem "bigger" and more theatrical than TNG, which, as you say, featured a big chunk of episodes that were about LaForge's dating problems, whether Riker should dye his hair a darker shade, etc.
In fact, Q mocks exactly this tendency in "AGT" with that line about how they've had Data's exploration of his character, and Troi's psychobabble.
Believe it or not, the smaller and more character-focused stories were actually some of my favorites because they fleshed out the cast and made them more relatable. Some of my favorites include "Coming of Age", "Hollow Pursuits", and "Family".
It's been a very long time since I watched The Twilight Zone, but
yes, I remember enjoying it.
Not everyone is going to appreciate the same things. If you took a moment to think about that, then you would realize just how absurd and narrow minded what you're saying is.
I'm not the one with the problem here. You're simply too narrow minded and ignorant to realize that other people have opinions too, and that those opinions won't always comply with yours. The key word here is opinion. You can't seem to distinguish between an opinion and a fact. Go do some research on both of these terms, and when you finally understand the difference between them you are more than welcome to return to this discussion.
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And all that is down to the differences between TV drama of the 1950s and ’60s and that of later decades. Earlier shows, even those with regular characters and settings, were more anthology-like: each episode was treated as a self-contained story. Serialized storytelling was the stuff of daytime soap opera. In the 1980s and ’90s, we started getting television dramas with multiple plot threads and story arcs stretching over several episodes, or even an entire season.
(As our friend Christopher has pointed out on more than one occasion.)
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Is TOS overrated......NO.
Its that's simple.
Its that's simple.
This discussion wouldn't have made it to its 25th page if it were just that simple.
I think this thread made it to twenty five pages because we have had some side trips and the fact that the Modern Trek crowd tries to downplay the quality of TOS and its importance to what came after.
Edit: From my perspective we are only on page 10.
I think this thread made it to twenty five pages because we have had some side trips and the fact that the Modern Trek crowd tries to downplay the quality of TOS and its importance to what came after.
Edit: From my perspective we are only on page 10.
Only on page 10? I know we've gotten a little off track, but 15 pages off track??? Is that even possible? I've only been on these forums for about a month, but I'd have thought that this thread would be closed down by now if we had gotten THAT off track.
Oh well...it's been a good discussion. I'm not sure if there's much more to be said that hasn't been said already. Everyone's stated their opinion, everyone's argued, and I like to think that we've all reconciled our differences in opinion. What's next? (other than starting another war between fans of respective TV series')
TOS is a good show but it is also overrated unless you judge it conditional on its circumstances like tiny budget and so on, then it is of course fantastic.
If a contemporary Trek show focused mainly on three characters and produced as many mediocre and bad episodes as TOS it would be teared to shreds by Trek fandom.
Not to mention the ridiculous continuity obsession of many people who at the same time have the uncanny ability to deny that TOS (rightly so) made stuff up as it went along.
If a contemporary Trek show focused mainly on three characters and produced as many mediocre and bad episodes as TOS it would be teared to shreds by Trek fandom.
Not to mention the ridiculous continuity obsession of many people who at the same time have the uncanny ability to deny that TOS (rightly so) made stuff up as it went along.
Some of us would argue that the later shows had must as many if not more mediocre to bad episodes as Star Trek, three main characters or not.
And of course you have to judge the show on the basis of when it was made. The technical circumstances of TV production change, styles change, and audience preferences change. By that standard almost anything that's not "current" is going to look dated or backwards to many members of an audience today.
And of course you have to judge the show on the basis of when it was made. The technical circumstances of TV production change, styles change, and audience preferences change. By that standard almost anything that's not "current" is going to look dated or backwards to many members of an audience today.
that's not what I meant. TNG actually wasn't very serialized, other than Worf and the Klingon arc. I was thinking of episodes like "in theory" and "lessons," filler episodes with very little sci-fi and lots of soap opera stuff. Neither of them were referenced again or seemed to have any long-term impact on Data or Picard. TOS did not have episodes like those
Your point is actually better applied to DS9, which was VERY serialized, and had major character shifts through the series.
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