Sinead in her prime was just delicious!
Roddenberry's Worst Ideas
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
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To be honest, while the symbolism of having a female second-in-command in "The Cage" was excellent, I'm not sure that sexual equality was entirely Roddenberry's modus operandi in writing that character. It was more a case of promising his girlfriend she'd have a major (or indeed, a 'Majel'
) role in his series. And when that didn't pan out, he parachuted her in as Nurse Chapel. Nepotism will get you everywhere in Hollywood. 
I'll give you that Tasha Yar was progressive, in thought. But not so much in execution.
To be honest, while the symbolism of having a female second-in-command in "The Cage" was excellent, I'm not sure that sexual equality was entirely Roddenberry's modus operandi in writing that character. It was more a case of promising his girlfriend she'd have a major (or indeed, a 'Majel'
I'll give you that Tasha Yar was progressive, in thought. But not so much in execution.
That's why he only gets 'somewhat of a pass'.
Noémie Lenoir from Rush Hour 3
& of course G.I. Jane
Frankly, if a woman is sexy, she don't need no hair to be sexy
Call me old fashioned, but I like women to have hair.
But I'm fine with Ilya, an alien character not having any. I liked her non-acting style too. She seemed more alien, even when she was not Vger-ized, than most Star Trek aliens. Maybe they should have had more non-North Americans play aliens.
But I'm fine with Ilya, an alien character not having any. I liked her non-acting style too. She seemed more alien, even when she was not Vger-ized, than most Star Trek aliens. Maybe they should have had more non-North Americans play aliens.
It says a lot that most of TMP's promotional material over the years has focused firmly on Kirk, Spock and Ilia. Up to and including the soon-to-be-released standalone Blu Ray cover of the movie. Her look made a definite impact that was totally unique (and arguably remains so to this day).
Even I have to grant that the Bob Peak poster is iconic. Of course, Bob Peak was a brilliant comercial artist.
If there was one idea that really hit me wrong in TMP, it was the whole "V'ger" naming thing. I mean, c'mon... the lettering on the side of the probe had carbon deposits masking out "oya", and so the probe ends up calling itself "V'ger"? I mean, how ridiculous is that? I don't care how you want to fan wank it, the idea was wrong. The memory circuits don't coincidentally get corrupt to match the lettering on the craft.
What they should have done was when opening the access panel, they see the name "VOYAGER" and registry number imprinted on the interior. Then they conclude that a data error resulted in corrupt memory of some core information, hence V'ger not knowing its original name correctly. That would've made more sense to me.
What they should have done was when opening the access panel, they see the name "VOYAGER" and registry number imprinted on the interior. Then they conclude that a data error resulted in corrupt memory of some core information, hence V'ger not knowing its original name correctly. That would've made more sense to me.
Reminds me of the old comment everyone makes, V'Ger has knowledge that spans the universe but it doesn't know how to wipe dirt off its own nameplate.
V'ger = advanced enough to create an android replica of Illia, to digitize entire solar systems and to brush off Klingon attacks like they're nothing.
V'ger = too stupid to wipe the muck off it's name plate.
EDIT: Ninja'd by Wormhole
Early drafts of the story (back when it was the Phase II pilot episode) called it N'sa.
V'ger = too stupid to wipe the muck off it's name plate.
EDIT: Ninja'd by Wormhole
Early drafts of the story (back when it was the Phase II pilot episode) called it N'sa.
There's no way to pronounce that without giving the twist away.
More like N'm'd. Though damned if I know how that's pronounced.
Did anyone mention children on a starship? I was 11 years old when TNG premiered and even I could see it as a blatant attempt to get kids my age to tune in. Things like that snap the already fragile reality of sci-fi shows.
Roddenberry's worst ideas? Pretty much all of his shows including, to a lesser degree Star Trek. His best idea was to bering in people Coon, Fontana and Jeffries. They are responsible for the best of Trek. Roddenberry could be good in the big ideas but his implementation of the details was usually pretty weak and often laughable. Given a choice of only watching the Non-Roddennberry episodes or the Roddenberry ones I'll take Coon/Fontana/almost anyone else over Gene's.
Brings to mind one of my prime complaints about Wesley.
Teens like to see people on shows who are popular, certainly within their own peer group. Wesley was largely shown to be isolated from his age group (we saw him among his peers once in ten forward). Wesley wanted to hang out with the ship's older officers.
As a draw for watchers in their mid teens through early twenties, Wesley was useless. Showing him as being "The In Guy,", even on just a few episodes, would have made him a lot more interesting to younger viewers.
Give him Trip's personality.
I am the opposite: The 1st half of S1 is moodier; more like sci-fi shows set in Star Trek, rather than just-another-Trek episode as many became later; more wordsy (I like); featuring more crew going about crew life.
It got too cheerful, almost sappy, as Uhura/Sulu/Checkov got standardized as the-only-other-crewmen-of-note. And the universe got more civilized and starfleetized. YMMV
Not to mention they made it impossible for Picard to have line of sight on anything not directly in front of him in the chair.
I agree that it would have been better if we had a larger supporting cast. MASH is a good example of having background characters that can step into the spotlight for an episode or two each season. Rizzo, for example had some nice bits in a few episodes but he was never considered a major or even minor regular character, It would have been nice to see more of Kyle for example or Dr. M'Benga. Chekov and Sulu, being on the command track should have been leading a number of landing parties rather than simply tagging along with Kirk & Spock.
When Roddenberry was given the chance to submit a second pilot his story ideas were The Moega Glory and Mudd's Women. Not Trek's worst moment but neither set the tone as well as Peeple's Where No Mas Has Gone Before. Roddenberry was best at the broad strokes. Most other writers were better at telling compelling stories.
I would agree, except I would qualify it as TNG season 4 and later. TNG seasons 1-3 had some pretty darn good music. When Dennis McCarthy was let off the leash, he could write some very good music. And Ron Jones was excellent as well. I really like the season 1 music, which is far more melodic and makes uses of recurring themes and motifs, including the main title theme. And then, of course, Ron Jones' score to "The Best of Both Worlds" is outstanding. Even early season 4 has some good scores, such as Jones' score for "Booby Trap."
It was only around early- to mid-season 4 when they canned Jones and put McCarthy under tight restrictions that we ended up with sonic wallpaper.
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