Season THREE OFFICIAL TNG Blu-Ray Discussion Thread

[cbspock]

I am watching inside the writer's room. So far this has been the best documentary feature on the TNG season sets.


-Chris

 

[tomalak301]

I am watching inside the writer's room. So far this has been the best documentary feature on the TNG season sets.


-Chris

I watched it too. What a great panel discussion. I really liked how comprehensive it was, covering the overall series and not just the third season. I was wondering if them moving on to bigger projects, especially with Ron Moore and DS9 and Battlestar Galactica would hinder their opinions of TNG but it sounded like they genuinely loved working there, despite the turmoil in the early seasons. I especially liked what they said about Jeri Taylor. I hope Burnett and Ley, Jr get her for an interview for Season 4. I would love to know what she is up to these days.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Who Watches the Watchers looks fantastic. The shots of the Enterprise in orbit, and all of the external shots down on the planet - wow!

There was a yellow tinge to this episode originally (kind of like the oft described vaseline over the lens look of STNG SD), the colors are simply amazing. I love this episode as much as when it came out, but maybe a little bit more now!

RAMA

Agreed, it looked incredible. Pretty much my favourite episode, so I love seeing it refreshed like this.

Also looking forward very much to season five's Darmok getting the same treatment.

 

[cbspock]

I am watching inside the writer's room. So far this has been the best documentary feature on the TNG season sets.


-Chris

I watched it too. What a great panel discussion. I really liked how comprehensive it was, covering the overall series and not just the third season. I was wondering if them moving on to bigger projects, especially with Ron Moore and DS9 and Battlestar Galactica would hinder their opinions of TNG but it sounded like they genuinely loved working there, despite the turmoil in the early seasons. I especially liked what they said about Jeri Taylor. I hope Burnett and Ley, Jr get her for an interview for Season 4. I would love to know what she is up to these days.

It was also interesting to hear RDM's story about the episode Family, and how Gene basically trashed it. I thought it was a great episode. Also, by season 7 the writer's room was running short on people and short on ideas. It was also fun how RDM demonstrated on the white board how they used to break an episode, and later in the special they were saying how seeing the words on the board made it seems like the old days again..lol

They all took what they had learned on Trek to projects they did later. Just look at RDM. When he finally left during Voyager he couldn't stand the direction the show was going. BSG was a direct reflection of everything he felt was wrong with Voyager, and the Roddenberry Box.



-Chris

 

[tomalak301]

I am watching inside the writer's room. So far this has been the best documentary feature on the TNG season sets.


-Chris

I watched it too. What a great panel discussion. I really liked how comprehensive it was, covering the overall series and not just the third season. I was wondering if them moving on to bigger projects, especially with Ron Moore and DS9 and Battlestar Galactica would hinder their opinions of TNG but it sounded like they genuinely loved working there, despite the turmoil in the early seasons. I especially liked what they said about Jeri Taylor. I hope Burnett and Ley, Jr get her for an interview for Season 4. I would love to know what she is up to these days.

It was also interesting to hear RDM's story about the episode Family, and how Gene basically trashed it. I thought it was a great episode. Also, by season 7 the writer's room was running short on people and short on ideas. It was also fun how RDM demonstrated on the white board how they used to break an episode, and later in the special they were saying how seeing the words on the board made it seems like the old days again..lol

They all took what they had learned on Trek to projects they did later. Just look at RDM. When he finally left during Voyager he couldn't stand the direction the show was going. BSG was a direct reflection of everything he felt was wrong with Voyager, and the Roddenberry Box.



-Chris

If there was a theme to the special features this season, it was the constant fighting with Gene Roddenberry on the smallest minutiae. From the Jeremy being too evolved debate, to the whole Spock thing, to Family, it sounded like Gene just had a ton of issues. I really do wonder how TNG would have turned out had he kept it in his grasp. I hate to say it because I thank Gene for Star Trek, but it sounds like he did Star Trek a favor by stepping back.

 

[cbspock]

Even on the original Star Trek, Gene was clashing with the writers. Gene Coon really was able to help shape the series and made a lot of it work. Same with Piller on TNG. He was in the middle of what the writers wanted to do, and what gene wanted, and then deciding what was best for the show. Also not being allowed to mention the old show was just a stupid decision. It would have helped connect the two shows.

I just find it interesting that Star Wars is now at where Trek was in the 87, and in 09 Star Wars fans want to deny it, but that franchise now needs to get beyond the "Lucas box" to survive.

-Chris

 

[cbspock]

The Assimilating the TNG documentary. I am up to the Pillar Memo. Ira really had to keep the team together after it came out. Pillar really failed leadership at that moment. He should have listened to Ira.


-Chris

 

[GameOn]

by season 7 the writer's room was running short on people and short on ideas.

It probably didn't help that they were spread so thin with four different projects going at once.
TNG season 7 in production
DS9 Season 2 in production
Voyager in pre-production
Generations in pre-production

 

[senten]

Just watched Ensigns of Command.

The text of the treaty with the Sheliak (shown on screen at 38:14) is worth a close read

Couldn't find any screenshot or transcription of it online, so I've typed it out here. I've probably not read the numbers right, and "colme" and "destance" are misspellings which appear in the episode.

"All requests for changes in the text of provision (b) must be submitted in writing or by a terribly complex subspace long as it is encrypted and unreadable, as well as garbled and confused, so as to conform to the provision (a.294 a-c) of the incomprehensible acts of widdershins, Federation document locator number 784830.B340 (Section 876234). All of this is simply to get the text along to subparagraph 832, which is quite a ways down the page. You might think that this is incredibly clever stuff. Boy are you wrong.

Rick is totally getting a Kei and Yuri reference into the text. You know, the two cute girls with the big guns. We might also mention Akira, Ranma Nibunnoichi, Urusei Yatsura, Rhea Gall Force, and a few other animated films. The Federation at this point in time seems more tangled up in paperwork than the Iran-Contra scandal business.

In the text of the treaty, or didn't anyone think about that eventuality when the bloody document was first drawn up? Never mind, it's a rhetorical question anyway, but we just thought we'd try to demonstrate our legalistic cleverness. Just one more until the critical one, where we talk about consultations and that sort of thing.

We can do search-and-replace. Colme to think about it, that's what the Sheliac want to do with the colony on the planet. This section deals with the right of each party to confer with the other in the event something happens with the treaty. This may take the form of normal EM spectrum communication, subspace EM communication, face-to-face meetings, telephone tag, messages in bottles or any other water-tight form of enclosure, gossip, half-truths, outright lies, or face-to-face meetings. Interruption of treaty compliance shall not exceed one (1.00 x 10e8) standard UFP solar year (except during the month of July). See technical TA48589.1742 A-CE58945) for code inputs. LCARS updates on treaty compliance interruptions shall take place at each starbase layover, or when commanded by ranking UFP (or other designated body) officials at Starfleet Headquarters, 24-583 Federation Drive, San Francisco, CA, Earth, Sol Sector. Request for assistance may be placed by transmission to standard Starfleet booster station for channeling to UFP Treaty Office (Sol Sector).

Acceptable if appropriate notification is given to Federation Bureau of Treaties (Sol Sector). See TA 98745.234(I-F) for schedule of codes and temporal adjustment factors. Third Party Agreements. Third party assistance may be requested from a Federation if the destance from the vessel to Sol Sector is greater than 5,000 lightyears. UFP standards measurement bureau units. Assistance may also be requested if the vessel is less than 1,000 lightyears of a standard UFP subspace relay booster station. And that's the way it is."

EDIT: Just noticed this screenshot on Memory Alpha too: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Treaty_of_Armens_1.jpg (text is slightly different in this)

 

[Mott the barber]

That's pretty funny.

 

[tomalak301]

Nothing like ending Mother's Day by watching The Bonding. It's interesting watching the documentaries and then watching the episodes with a new mindset. I can see some of that Perfect human reaction in Jeremy coming through, even though there was still grief. It's going to be fun watching these episodes knowing how difficult it was in the writing room. It will really give the season a new perspective, which I'm looking forward to.

Another thing I noticed about this episode was even on episode 1, Ron Moore was the Klingon guy. I mean the scene at the end with the Bonding ceremony and the music was almost classic Ron Moore, even if this was his first episode. Later on when I'm done with the season, I might go back and listen to the commentary to see if he brings this up.

I will say though that I actually liked The Bonding a lot more than before. I still think Troi is annoying though, and I do question why everyone must deal with death the same way. It seemed like Troi was trying to get Jeremy to be angry at Worf, just like the whole Wes angry at Picard, yet I'm not sure if that's fair. It almost seemed like Troi was forcing that animosity. Why can't people grieve in their own way.

 

[GameOn]

Another thing I noticed about this episode was even on episode 1, Ron Moore was the Klingon guy. I mean the scene at the end with the Bonding ceremony and the music was almost classic Ron Moore, even if this was his first episode. Later on when I'm done with the season, I might go back and listen to the commentary to see if he brings this up.

On the commentary for "Sins of the Father" Moore says he became the Klingon guy after Michael Piller asked him to write a memo outlining Klingon history and culture. He still has the memo and reads it out during the commentary.

 

[cbspock]

Another thing I noticed about this episode was even on episode 1, Ron Moore was the Klingon guy. I mean the scene at the end with the Bonding ceremony and the music was almost classic Ron Moore, even if this was his first episode. Later on when I'm done with the season, I might go back and listen to the commentary to see if he brings this up.

On the commentary for "Sins of the Father" Moore says he became the Klingon guy after Michael Piller asked him to write a memo outlining Klingon history and culture. He still has the memo and reads it out during the commentary.

That was really interesting when he read his Klingon Brief. it is also interesting he based a lot on the Final Reflection novel, I remember first reading that book way back in the 80s, while it is held up as a good book, I remember I wasn't all that thrilled with it at the time..lol



-Chris

 

[cbspock]

Watching BoBw -disc. The documentary on the disc, I saw a lot of this if not all of it at the movie theatre event. Watching the episodes with the commentary now.



-Chris

 

[davejames]

Jeez, I know Troi was hard to write for, but you'd think they could come up with something better than "The Price." The fakest, smarmiest guy you can imagine steps foot on the ship, and she falls instantly under his spell for no apparent reason. And then they just... lie around in bed sweet talking each other for the rest of the episode.

And I had a really hard time caring about this bidding war over some random alien's wormhole as well (although I admit it was cool hearing these early references to the Gamma and Delta Quadrants).

I also had to laugh at Riker reading his little personal PADD in Ten-Forward. It may have been shot back in 1989, but it looked for all the world like someone today sitting at lunch and checking out their iphone. Lol

 

[tomalak301]

Jeez, I know Troi was hard to write for, but you'd think they could come up with something better than "The Price." The fakest, smarmiest guy you can imagine steps foot on the ship, and she falls instantly under his spell for no apparent reason. And then they just... lie around in bed sweet talking each other for the rest of the episode.

And I had a really hard time caring about this bidding war over some random alien's wormhole as well (although I admit it was cool hearing these early references to the Gamma and Delta Quadrants).

I also had to laugh at Riker reading his little personal PADD in Ten-Forward. It may have been shot back in 1989, but it looked for all the world like someone today sitting at lunch and checking out their iphone. Lol

If there was one thing Star Trek got right it was the technology PADD things. Now we have Ipads, 23 years later. I credit Star Trek for predicting that spot on.

 

[davejames]

Yeah it's a small thing, but watching everyone walking around with a PADD of some kind on TNG really does make it feel surprisingly modern. Even if they were depicting the 24th instead of 21st century, it's still about the only scifi show I can think of that actually got that part of our "future" right, and predicted just how omnipresent such technology would be in our culture.

In fact any time I watch BTTF2 or Robocop now, I can't help but wonder "Where are all the people walking around with smartphones??"

 

[Indysolo]

In fact any time I watch BTTF2 or Robocop now, I can't help but wonder "Where are all the people walking around with smartphones??"

Aren't Marlene and Marty McFly Jr. wearing "Google Glasses"?

I'm patiently waiting for season 3 to show up on iTunes.

 

[22 Stars]

Yeah it's a small thing, but watching everyone walking around with a PADD of some kind on TNG really does make it feel surprisingly modern. Even if they were depicting the 24th instead of 21st century, it's still about the only scifi show I can think of that actually got that part of our "future" right, and predicted just how omnipresent such technology would be in our culture.

In fact any time I watch BTTF2 or Robocop now, I can't help but wonder "Where are all the people walking around with smartphones??"

The are carrying them in their self-adjusting jackets

 

[tomalak301]

Yeah it's a small thing, but watching everyone walking around with a PADD of some kind on TNG really does make it feel surprisingly modern. Even if they were depicting the 24th instead of 21st century, it's still about the only scifi show I can think of that actually got that part of our "future" right, and predicted just how omnipresent such technology would be in our culture.

In fact any time I watch BTTF2 or Robocop now, I can't help but wonder "Where are all the people walking around with smartphones??"

I still wonder about the whole flying car thing once the clock hit's midnight in a new year.