why is star trek original series disliked

Discussion in 'Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series' started by tmosler, Jul 17, 2013.

  1. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Those are standard comedic devices, why not just identify them as comedic? The only thing I see that might qualify as camp are the over-the-top performances the crew puts on for the androids in "I, Mudd."

    The use of the word is also incorrect, as far as the dictionaries I have access to.

    Going back to the OP: All shows age, and all will look dated to younger viewers to some extent. TOS happens to be the eldest Trek. If a viewer doesn't have enough to identify with or connect to, they won't like a show that's so different in look, style, pacing etc. from what they're used to. With that in mind, TOS is quite remarkably ahead of its contemporaries in the amount of attention it generates, going on 50 years later.
     
  2. Galileo7

    Galileo7 Commodore Commodore

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    Agree absolutely:techman:, but for me I grew up in the '70s with the reruns Mondays through Fridays. A great decade in my boyhood to experience it with TMP December 7, 1979.:)
     
  3. marksound

    marksound Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Shows from that era aren't understood by much of the current generation spoiled by HD big screen TVs, CGI effects, 3D movies, video games, smart phones, and high speed internet. These things are recent developments in technology, but try explaining that to kids these days.

    They just won't believe ya.
     
  4. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    FWIW, I think it helps to have been around at a time when we didn't call the show TOS...when it simply was Star Trek. Those who grew up on the later shows that built upon its success (including various non-Trek sci fi shows that were only put on the air because of the ratings of TNG in its prime) aren't as appreciative of the qualities of the original, by and large.
     
  5. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    It doesn't bother me when people dislike Star Trek, but it does irk me when people disrespect it.
     
  6. MANT!

    MANT! Vice Admiral Admiral

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    As mentioned earlier, TV tropes often says it best..

    TNG like TOS was a product of it's time..and both need to be viewed in the contest of the times in which they were created. One can't criticize The Count of Monte Cristo with a modern sensibility as it makes no sense to do so..
     
  7. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    ^^ Which still doesn't mean the word "camp" is being used appropriately.
     
  8. Noname Given

    Noname Given Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    As much as I like Star Trek (TOS) I don't agree with what TV Tropes states and BOTH "The Twilight Zone" and the original "The Outer Limits" were adult themed science fiction, and had a lot of influence (and I'm sure help spur GR to make Star Trek - along with the earlier feature film "Forbidden Planet".)

    Many like to claim 'Star Trek' was the first attempt at adult science fiction on television; but that not accurate.
     
  9. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, to be fair, were we any different when we were young and ignorant? Granted, today's younger generation has a whole different kind of ignorant about them that is frankly, alarming, but what can you do?

    Speaking for myself though, I can remember being a teenager back in the 80's, and discovering that three of my favorite characters (Batman, Superman, and Buck Rogers) had films (serials) made about them in the early 1940's when my grandparents were teenagers and young adults. I tracked these films down, and watched them, and not only enjoyed them for what they were, and never once considering them "primitive", but that made me open to checking out other films from that era.

    You're right. Today's kids won't do that for some reason. It would be nice if one of them would explain to me why that is.
     
  10. Warped9

    Warped9 Admiral Admiral

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    If you grew up watching a b&w television (at least for a few years at first) then you likely were more receptive to older b&w films and television shows. But if all you ever knew was color TV then your experience and biases might be quite different.

    Not all of today's youth are write-offs, so to speak. I've known a few that aren't put off by b&w or dated production standards and f/x---indeed they're actually quite interested in what came before.

    Last summer a young coworker asked me about the original film Logan's Run. I told him about the film and yet also wondered whether he could get into it. He replied he'd still like to see it so I lent him my dvd of the film. The next day he told me he'd loved it and particularly liked the story and interesting ideas. I next lent him The Omega Man which he really liked also.

    I teased him about maybe having been born in the wrong era. :lol:
     
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2013
  11. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    I think it comes down to their being so much more to do nowadays. From video games to the internet to the 500-hundred channel universe.

    In the early-80's when we first got cable you had thirty channels, only two of those were premium movie channels (HBO, The Movie Channel). Now we have ten versions of HBO alone.
     
  12. J.T.B.

    J.T.B. Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Also, before home video you didn't have a lot of choice about what to watch. If you wanted to watch TV, you had to watch what was on at that time. And if you had cable or independent stations, a lot of the programming was older TV and older movies. So the "dividing lines" between different kinds of shows didn't seem as strongly defined. When I was a kid, I never thought of a B&W show on our color TV as somehow different or dated, it was just something that was on TV and I liked it or not on its own merits.
     
  13. Kinokima

    Kinokima Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Agreed as a huge Twilight Zone fan (and to a lesser extent Outer Limits). Like Star Trek this series also dealt with issues of the day using the cloak of sci-fi.

    The main difference to me is Star Trek has a regular cast of characters whereas TZ and OL were anthology TV.

    Both of these have their pluses and minuses. I love the characters and their interaction in Star Trek. This is of course missing from anthology shows. But the fact that TZ and OL didn't have regular characters, they could leave you with stronger endings where everything didn't always end well. TZ has some of the best endings in Television for me.
     
  14. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Indeed, as a kid in the 70s, practically everything I watched in the way of daily syndicated reruns was from the 60s, if it wasn't from the 50s. And a lot of it was in black and white.

    And while we had a color TV in the living room, if you wanted to watch something other than what everyone else was watching in the living room, you had to watch it on a little black and white bedroom TV.
     
  15. Cinema Geekly

    Cinema Geekly Commander Red Shirt

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    :lol: Says every single older generation about the newer generation ever........
     
  16. marksound

    marksound Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That don't mean it ain't true. :lol:
     
  17. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I didn't mean to imply that today's youth are all write-offs. Just that they come off as the most arrogant and close-minded generation I've ever seen.

    That doesn't necessarily make them write-offs.
     
  18. SiddFinch1

    SiddFinch1 Captain Captain

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    I'm 45 and grew up without cable Tv until I went to college......love tos ...I think its all a matter of when you grew up.....this was long before the pc craze started in the 80s
     
  19. Mr_Homn

    Mr_Homn Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    That's what every single generation says about the generations that come after them

    "oh but no, this time it's different!"
     
  20. Kemaiku

    Kemaiku Admiral Admiral

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    Yup, articles written BCE say exactly the same thing, and here we are, more educated and better off than ever, still having to put up with crotchity old gits making the same argument. :lol: