IIRC, that's actually from a deleted line in the movie script, so it didn't originate with EoD.
Engines of Destiny: That bad?
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IIRC, that's actually from a deleted line in the movie script, so it didn't originate with EoD.
Maybe I've managed to miss negativity re "Relics". I thought Ron Moore's respect for TOS comes through very strongly in the episode. If anything, it's frustrating that the Dyson Sphere is just an easily-dismissed plot point. Those things are huge and there is probably a whole TV series of potential for exploring one.
The novelization and audio adaptation are pretty good, too, with some background on the hapless crewman who was stuck in the buffer with Scotty all those years. And the holodeck scene with the old Enterprise bridge has Scotty addressing holograms of his friends from TOS, something that the writers originally thought might end up in the episode.
"Old boy", etc.
I've ranted about how bad I think EoD is in threads gone by, but I will say that I like the idea of Guinan's Nexus "shadow" being responsible for her "feelings" that time isn't right in "Yesterday's Enterprise".
Haha, seriously? Kirk says, "Old Boy"???
What's next, does Guinan say, "Wow"?
I also liked that it added an away team going down to the inner surface of the sphere. The book made the story feel more epic in scope than the episode could have due to various time and budgetary constraints and whatnot.
The problem with "Relics" is that it wastes its time on the cliched Scotty/Geordi fish-out-of-water stuff and completely ignores the Dyson Sphere. Really, Picard? You've just discovered the ultimate Big Dumb Object, and it barely makes your pulse move? That's the problem with "Relics" -- the background idea has more potential than the foreground idea.
"Old boy", etc.
I've ranted about how bad I think EoD is in threads gone by, but I will say that I like the idea of Guinan's Nexus "shadow" being responsible for her "feelings" that time isn't right in "Yesterday's Enterprise".
Haha, seriously? Kirk says, "Old Boy"???
What's next, does Guinan say, "Wow"?
No, she says, "Yipee!"
Have you read the novelization? They send an away team to the interior surface of the sphere.
I have. I remember that Riker's team doesn't really do anything on the interior surface, though, beyond some walking around.
"Relics" is a good example of why Star Trek (all its incarnations) should have tried more arc-based storytelling, along the lines of Wiseguy or Tour of Duty. The Enterprise visits a planet, and we get a single episode out of it. Couldn't there be adventures in that single location for several weeks? "Relics"' Dyson Sphere would have been perfect for that, as the crew investigated its inhabitants (either living or dead), who built the Sphere, all sorts of things. The Scotty drama could have been one part of a larger drama.
Heck, yeah. They could've gotten a whole season out of the Dyson sphere -- even a whole series.
I could see them pulling off a season at most back then, but I think they just weren't really equipped with the kind of effects tech to really make it practical in live action. I could've seen them doing an entire series if it was a cartoon, but that would've posed a whole different set of problems.
People don't like that ep? Somehow I've missed that, and I'm very surprised to hear it. I always thought it was a fun, nostalgic episode. Hard to imagine to why anyone would hate it.
I mean, sure, the Dyson sphere thing is wasted, but the episode is really more about Scotty than the hardware.
Same here. I was under the impression that it was one of the most popular, and well liked, episodes.
The Dyson Sphere does return in the books and gets explored further in Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski's Star Trek The Next Generation #50 Dyson Sphere.
It's not completely unheard of. At the time my mom said the episode was boring, despite the fact that Scotty was her favorite TOS character.
As for why people hate it today, that's easy. Fans today hate EVERYTHING. Even the stuff they like. And for some reason, EVERYBODY gets in a negative comment about Star Trek now, no matter what the discussion is. All you have to do is look around this forum. And read comments by the people who wrote and produced it. The negativity is everywhere. Why that is, I don't know.
^ Dunno, that OTOH hasn't really been my impression at all. Well, I can't speak about this forum because I don't venture beyond the TrekLit sub-forum all that often, but in terms of both the general population and the geek sub-culture, Star Trek seems to be spoken of rather fondly of late. Also by the people involved with it: I remember many a TrekBBS or TrekToday posting with quotations of pride in the last 12 to 18 months.
The only negative thing I can remember semi-recently was Moore's complaints about the technobabble and how he wanted to get away from that with BSG, but well, that to me seemed almost a promo strategy, and it's not like BSG is a particularly non-flawed show without its overused gimmicks either, so I don't think history will be very much kinder on it.
The only negative thing I can remember semi-recently was Moore's complaints about the technobabble and how he wanted to get away from that with BSG, but well, that to me seemed almost a promo strategy, and it's not like BSG is a particularly non-flawed show without its overused gimmicks either, so I don't think history will be very much kinder on it.
Yeah, unless you're conflating criticism with dislike, I don't know what you mean, Randy. I've seen plenty of people criticizing aspects of Star Trek here, but that's not a negative comment about Star Trek. If you like something, you should be more willing to criticize the parts where you feel it falls short, not less. It's a compliment to the material, it's saying that you respect the work and the creator well enough to not let it coast by without any more than the most shallow commentary.
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