I wasn't alive to see TOS firsthand, nor the motion picture when it was first released. I watched all the old TOS reruns and the movies when I was old enough to be sucked in by the stories and characters.
One thing I felt about the movies with the TOS characters was that they became real people to me rather than caricatures. Perhaps it was the bad acting but when watching TOS, I always felt like the characters were all one dimensional, like they were going through the motions in a rather robotic fashion.
The TOS movies changed my whole perception. Kirk felt like a real captain with real hopes, dreams and regrets. His relationship with Spock and McCoy became genuine in my eyes, like three brothers who would live and die for each other if need be. The rest of the cast also felt like a real family with the crew rallying behind Kirk to save Spock or stumbling their way through the 20th century.
I felt the opposite about the TNG movies from Generations onwards. In the TNG series, we had amazing character episodes for each member of the main cast. From Worf struggling with his life as a Klingon and restoring his family's honour and raising his son, to Data exploring his own personal evolution, discovering who he was and where he came from and becoming the best human an android could hope to be. We even had specific episodes for the other characters to develop themselves, like Beverly fighting to get out of a collapsing fake universe, and the exploration of her character as a doctor when she was kidnapped by terrorists or when she saved Worf's life replacing his spine. Even Geordi had several episodes devoted to his own personal development, his relationships with women and his growth into a true miracle worker who even made Scotty proud.
I think almost all of this was lost in the transition from TV to the big screen. When Worf wasn't in the background doing his job or beating up the borg, he was getting headaches from Romulan ale for a cheap laugh. Geordi had one or two scenes doing what he does best in engineering but little else. I think like them, Beverly, Riker and Troi were also there because they had to be. At least we had Riker and Troi getting back together - something that should've happened by the 4th TNG season in my opinion.
The only two characters which were explored were Picard and Data. It felt to me like everyone else became window dressing because they had to be included as part of the TNG series cast. Some of them had their little moments but it felt like so much of the core of those characters had been lost.
It could be a testament to the lack of character driven plots in TOS that made the movies turn them into real people for me. I suppose after loving a series with so many good people in it who I got to know so well, a two hour movie about them couldn't do justice to it all.
One thing I felt about the movies with the TOS characters was that they became real people to me rather than caricatures. Perhaps it was the bad acting but when watching TOS, I always felt like the characters were all one dimensional, like they were going through the motions in a rather robotic fashion.
The TOS movies changed my whole perception. Kirk felt like a real captain with real hopes, dreams and regrets. His relationship with Spock and McCoy became genuine in my eyes, like three brothers who would live and die for each other if need be. The rest of the cast also felt like a real family with the crew rallying behind Kirk to save Spock or stumbling their way through the 20th century.
I felt the opposite about the TNG movies from Generations onwards. In the TNG series, we had amazing character episodes for each member of the main cast. From Worf struggling with his life as a Klingon and restoring his family's honour and raising his son, to Data exploring his own personal evolution, discovering who he was and where he came from and becoming the best human an android could hope to be. We even had specific episodes for the other characters to develop themselves, like Beverly fighting to get out of a collapsing fake universe, and the exploration of her character as a doctor when she was kidnapped by terrorists or when she saved Worf's life replacing his spine. Even Geordi had several episodes devoted to his own personal development, his relationships with women and his growth into a true miracle worker who even made Scotty proud.
I think almost all of this was lost in the transition from TV to the big screen. When Worf wasn't in the background doing his job or beating up the borg, he was getting headaches from Romulan ale for a cheap laugh. Geordi had one or two scenes doing what he does best in engineering but little else. I think like them, Beverly, Riker and Troi were also there because they had to be. At least we had Riker and Troi getting back together - something that should've happened by the 4th TNG season in my opinion.
The only two characters which were explored were Picard and Data. It felt to me like everyone else became window dressing because they had to be included as part of the TNG series cast. Some of them had their little moments but it felt like so much of the core of those characters had been lost.
It could be a testament to the lack of character driven plots in TOS that made the movies turn them into real people for me. I suppose after loving a series with so many good people in it who I got to know so well, a two hour movie about them couldn't do justice to it all.
