TOS makes me sleepy

[GENERAL_DS]

This is my first watch of TOS, but i have so much trouble actually paying attention to the show itself. I find most episodes not interesting enough for my attention, for example, The conscience of the king. (also the latest episode i watched) This episode just didn't spark my imagination at all, while episodes like 'the 37, VOY' 'the inner light, TNG' do. Most episodes from early TOS don't really interest me. My favorite episode from TOS that i watched is now Balance of Terror, this one actually got me thinking about what the next move of both the captains could be.

To make another example of my I find TOS (atleast early season 1) not interesting is the Episode Miri. It started out as an amazing episodes that had a lot of potential, but what bothered me the most is that the reason they came to this planet is because it is an exact copy of earth, both geographical and cultural. But the question why never got answered, with not even a hint to get the imagination going.

The point of all this, is the following question; Why do a lot of people find TOS the most interesting serie of them all?

 

[nureintier]

I love TOS, but I understand that it's not for everyone, especially people with somewhat different expectations due to having watched the other ones first. TOS is a product of its time and does appear dated. Some of it is quite goofy, the costumes and effects are not good much of the time.

Personally, TOS is one of my favorites because I love the characters in it.

Miri: I haven't watched that one in a while because it annoys the hell out of me (the kids), but as for why they came there, I figured it was just to check things out. And then they stayed because of the disease for the rest of the episode. Not one of my favorite episodes, though.

 

[borgboy]

I watched Miri last night. I thought there was some interesting set up, with the immortal children, and I enjoyed watching it, but I can't deny that they really didn't explore that as well as they should've. The set up of the duplicate earth was completely ignored, much like the titular "Tenth Planet" Mondas in Doctor Who.

 

[The Old Mixer]

TOS was far from perfect on an every-episode basis. It has its weak/slow/padded episodes, and some downright stinkers. On that note, you might want to consider skipping "The Alternative Factor" when it comes up, or at least be prepared for what most TOS diehards consider to be one of the worst episodes of the series.

TOS as a series is greater than the sum of its parts. It set the standard for sci fi TV in its time, and the later Trek series wouldn't have existed if not for TOS's strengths.

 

[nureintier]

A lot of people I know in real life who like every other incarnation of the series dislike TOS. Sometimes I find that disappointing because I really love TOS. Some reasons they have given me are the cheesiness and lack of much in the way of science in it. These are mostly people who grew up watching TNG. My cousin's wife, who was the right age to have grown up watching TOS when it originally aired, likes TOS best. I suppose nostalgia also factors in for some, but I didn't watch TOS until after I watched TNG and I still love it, despite its many flaws.

I agree with Old Mixer though, it's greater than the sum of its parts.

 

[Borjis]

Might depend on your age and life experience.

When I was younger, I HATED whenever Conscience of the King aired.
(and any non-action episodes now that I think of it)

Now I love that episode. When he reads the lines, I imagine the massacre.

This is one of the neat aspects of Original Series Trek....learning to
appreciate it later in life...and also noticing that episodes even that old
still hold up with current events 40 years later.

Fascinating

on another note, while I have a lot of nostalgia for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, (1979)
I find most of the episodes make me feel board. I've chalked that up to
cheap looking sets and poor / rushed scripts. no help there.

 

[The Old Mixer]

A lot of people I know in real life who like every other incarnation of the series dislike TOS.

Understandable, as it stands so far apart from the rest...made 20 years earlier than TNG with different production values. Unfortunate, in that the shows that they enjoy were only building on the foundations that TOS established. It helps to have gotten into TOS back when it simply was Star Trek. It also helps to have some appreciation for TV of that era in general. I grew up in an era when reruns of 60s TV shows were prevalent.

 

[Commishsleer]

I suppose I'm lucky in a way. I watched TOS in the 70s when the special effects and sets and costumes in Star Trek were pretty darn good compared to series like Dr Who and Blakes 7.
Duplicate planets were used for cost cutting mostly. I wish they had used a different method (like they used on the gangster planet) because it seems strange on multiple viewings.

My take on Miri is that they could have easily set the planet up to be an old abandoned Earth colony but maybe they didn't for a reason. They wanted it to be a direct allegory for what was happening on Earth at the time. Maybe they wanted us to see what could happen to us if scientists were allowed to create biological weapons. Using an alien planet or just an Earth colony might have lessened the impact of the story.
I was a child in the 70s so I lived with the spectre of nuclear war, the Vietnam War and (although I didn't realise it at the time - biological warfare)
Of course it could have been just a cost cutting exercise in the Miri case and I'm just reading too much into it.

 

[borgboy]

I did see TOS first, on reruns in the 70s. I remember being a young kid when a local station was reruning classic eps around the time TMP was released. My mom was nice enough to let me stay up all night which I normally wouldn't be able to do, so I could watch it and it was love at first sight. My parents aren't at all into sci fi so this was my first introduction to real proper sci fi.
Interesting to hear how some people like the newer shows but not TOS, since my impression was that TOS is the most popular. I like all the different shows.

 

[Hober Mallow]

First of all, it's not called "Tee Oh Es." It's called Star Trek.

And it's just a matter of opinion. If you're just not a Star Trek fan, you're not a Star Trek fan.

 

[nureintier]

Interesting to hear how some people like the newer shows but not TOS, since my impression was that TOS is the most popular. I like all the different shows.

I used to think so, too, until I talked to some people more about it recently. My one friend who likes TNG and DS9 very much (in fact, he talked me into watching DS9 for the first time) told me he thinks City on the Edge of Forever is the ONLY tos episode worth watching. =\ Another friend just told me he thinks TOS is unwatchable, too, and that he likes VOY better. This sort of blows my mind.

But I think it could just be kind of like the way some people like new video games are unable to appreciate good older games with poor graphics, too. Like if they've seen TNG and the others, and even the films, and then they think everything in TOS looks too different (or they see those creatures from "operation - annihilate" ) and conclude that it's not worth their time.

I think every series has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I still find it somewhat difficult to understand not liking TOS at all. I also have trouble understanding how anyone can not like the main characters in TOS. [shrug]

 

[The Old Mixer]

Another friend just told me he thinks TOS is unwatchable, too, and that he likes VOY better.

There's no accounting for taste.

 

[nureintier]

^Well, I can't argue with that. I think I just tend to make the erroneous assumption that if you like Star Trek, you like Star Trek, and then I'm shocked to find out that some people don't.

 

[Maurice]

For a lot of people TV and movies are like music: they love what they grew up with and don't the stuff that pre- (old fashioned) or post-dates it (get off'n my lawn).

 

[sttngfan1701d]

Episodes from the 60's are longer than "hourlong" episodes today, so TOS episodes FEEL longer, first of all. I watched all of TOS in the late 90's/early 00's at the height of my Trek fervor, but I don't think I could do it today if I came at it cold. The pacing is very slow for today's tastes. I ran through a few on Netflix and Balance of Terror still held my attention, as did a few others, but I had trouble watching "The Menagerie." I have to be in a certain mood for it I think.

 

[Goji]

Tasted do indeed vary. TOS was made more than 20 years before I was born but I find it (well, the good episodes, anyway) charming, engaging and exciting. TNG, very much my contemporary, puts me right to sleep with its endless monotone technobabble and static direction. I do like some of the spinoffs, especially DS9 and these days I also have a certain fondness for Enterprise, just as much as the original. But even though the original was not my first exposure to the franchise (that would be, god help me, Voyager) it will always be the truest, and honestly most downright enjoyable, Star Trek to me.

But, as I said. Tastes vary and all that.

 

[Saito S]

First of all, it's not called "Tee Oh Es." It's called Star Trek.

And it's just a matter of opinion. If you're just not a Star Trek fan, you're not a Star Trek fan.

Come on, that's just silly. There are five (six if you count TAS) series and twelve movies and hundreds of books and comics. "Star Trek" is a franchise. This just sounds to me like an attempt to frame TOS as "the one True Trek" or some such by separating it as being "just Star Trek", while of course one has to qualify all the others as "Star Trek: Something Something." People call it TOS to differentiate it from the rest of the franchise, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Interesting to hear how some people like the newer shows but not TOS, since my impression was that TOS is the most popular. I like all the different shows.

I used to think so, too, until I talked to some people more about it recently. My one friend who likes TNG and DS9 very much (in fact, he talked me into watching DS9 for the first time) told me he thinks City on the Edge of Forever is the ONLY tos episode worth watching. =\ Another friend just told me he thinks TOS is unwatchable, too, and that he likes VOY better. This sort of blows my mind.

But I think it could just be kind of like the way some people like new video games are unable to appreciate good older games with poor graphics, too. Like if they've seen TNG and the others, and even the films, and then they think everything in TOS looks too different (or they see those creatures from "operation - annihilate" ) and conclude that it's not worth their time.

I think every series has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I still find it somewhat difficult to understand not liking TOS at all. I also have trouble understanding how anyone can not like the main characters in TOS. [shrug]

I definitely wouldn't go as far as to say that TOS is "unwatchable", nor that there is only one good episode. That said, I do find it far less watchable than TNG, DS9, or VOY on that shows best days, and find the number of mediocre-to-bad episodes to far outweigh the number of above-mediocre episodes.

To be honest, I don't understand...well, not understanding people liking Star Trek, but not TOS. I do think respect is important; without TOS, you wouldn't have any other Trek. That's acknowledged. But, it's just a TV show. So is TNG, and so are the others. Each one can - and should - be evaluated on its own merits, as well as vs. the other Trek shows. And if someone just doesn't care for TOS... it just means they watched some episodes of a TV show and came away not liking it that much. That's it. As has been stated in this very thread, opinions vary. Additionally, the shows all have some similarities, but also some very significant differences. Liking - even loving - any one show does not, by any means, indicate someone will definitely like any of the other shows.

And certainly, the era we grew up in plays a role. The fact that the special effects are extremely dated doesn't have an impact for me (and I do think that the number of people for whom the effects alone are a big deal is often overstated), but other aspects that tie it firmly to when it was made (the handling of female characters, for example) very much have an impact for me. But I don't even see why that should be treated as a problem. We are all informed by many things when it comes to what entertainment we like.

 

[Commishsleer]

but other aspects that tie it firmly to when it was made (the handling of female characters, for example) very much have an impact for me.

Its funny but I think TNG in its 80s way was just as sexist as TOS. No women in command positions. The female leads being in 'love' with two of the male leads (who didn't care for them). Riker protecting Troi on away missions.

The camera work focusing on Troi's boobs all the time - I only just noticed this. Troi's outfits. 7s outfits. T'Pols outfits.

 

[Saito S]

but other aspects that tie it firmly to when it was made (the handling of female characters, for example) very much have an impact for me.

Its funny but I think TNG in its 80s way was just as sexist as TOS. No women in command positions. The female leads being in 'love' with two of the male leads (who didn't care for them). Riker protecting Troi on away missions.

The camera work focusing on Troi's boobs all the time - I only just noticed this. Troi's outfits. 7s outfits. T'Pols outfits.

I would never say that the later shows don't have some serious problems with sexism, 'cause they do. TNG especially. But I definitely would say that they weren't as bad.

 

[Commishsleer]

but other aspects that tie it firmly to when it was made (the handling of female characters, for example) very much have an impact for me.

Its funny but I think TNG in its 80s way was just as sexist as TOS. No women in command positions. The female leads being in 'love' with two of the male leads (who didn't care for them). Riker protecting Troi on away missions.

The camera work focusing on Troi's boobs all the time - I only just noticed this. Troi's outfits. 7s outfits. T'Pols outfits.

I would never say that the later shows don't have some serious problems with sexism, 'cause they do. TNG especially. But I definitely would say that they weren't as bad.

I suppose I agree with you somewhat you don't like TOS partially for its sexism. I have problems with TNG for the same reason. I figure its 20 years later. There's less excuses. If only they'd kept Tasha.