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C57D
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It's far to late for that, and anyway McCoy hasn't had time to do a full check up on me yet so he can't render me infit for duty.
Hahaha....................!!
Hahaha....................!!
In addition to the nostalgia factor, could it be a stylistic difference? Stories from TOS era were written, directed, filmed differently than the 80s, 90s or 21st Century. More was left to the imagination, suggested or implied but not depicted back then.
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I think that ST and some weird fiction can find a certain middle ground, regardless of where you start. I am on a Cosmic horror forum also, and a recent conversation there began (imho) to move into having a certain synergy with ST. Taking an 18th Royal Navy explorer (Bounty or Endeavour like) into the South Sea and encountering various weird and horrific creatures and creations. Sailing ship instead of Starship, islands instead of planets, flintlocks and cutlasses instead of hand phasers. But still an isolated crew, far from home and authority. Doing the best to explore and uncover (and try to survive) the unknown. Royal Society scientist held in some distrust by the uneducated crew, maybe even a ships surgeon who keeps the captain sane and tries to help his decision making
And a Scottish Bosun " The sails cannae take it captain!!"
Sound familiar??
That's the heart of where Star Trek came from... "Horatio Hornblower in space" with a touch of "Forbidden Planet" (and a touch of this and a pinch of that).
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Yes very much so. And where the two Venn (Scifi and Horror) diagrams can sometimes meet?
You're right about that.
Also, there was too much techno babble especially in TNG. And there was also an over reliance on a technological fix to whatever the problem was for that episode, again especially in TNG.
"The High Ground" and "Redemption" come to mind. Whether it was Wesley discovering the Elway?
theory to detect interdimensional sneaking around by the terrorist, or Data discovering that tachyon emissions are the way to detect the Romulan cloaked fleet; they were technological fixes with lots of techno babble thrown in.I found human ingenuity and cleverness of TOS more compelling. Kirk outmaneuvered Balok with his "poker" moves. He outwitted the Gorn by creating the gunpowder weapon. The TOS crew discovered the salt vampire by deductive reasoning, and not some computer program that could pick up on some odorous emission by the creature. And how many times did Kirk outsmart his computerized adversary.
Kirk always submitted to his computer adversary that they were illogical and they usually destroyed themselves when they found that out much to Spock's displeasure! 
JB
JB
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I would suggest that many of the entities encountered in TOS (and widerTrek)are pretty Lovecraftian, at first anyway!
The Space Amoeba, Doomsday Device and even Trelane and Losira would certainly make good Mythos beasties.
And going the other way, Q is a good Nyarlathotep (as is Trelane at first).
Y'Golonac could be Redjac, Yog-Sothoth the Amoeba (but needs to be further developed to be that truly).
And maybe, with the Travellers help (!!??) the TNG crew could have encountered Azathoth at the very center of the universe?
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There is a Cthulhu connection in TOS - Robert Bloch, who wrote multiple Cthulhu mythos stories, wrote three TOS episodes, “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, “Catspaw” and “Wolf in the Fold.” And there are refernces to “The Old Ones” in the first two of those. And as Redjac from Wolf in the Fold has some definite horror elements (as you say above C57D).
Ultimately though, I don’t think we see many Cthulhu-ish elements because an essential aspect of Cthulhu mythos tales is helplessness in the face of cosmic horror - and that doesn’t mesh so well with the generally utopian, triumph of the human spirit feel of Star Trek. Similarly, most Cthulhoid entities have unknowable, alien motives, and normally pay little or no attention to mortals, which doesn’t make for great Trek adversaries.
Ultimately though, I don’t think we see many Cthulhu-ish elements because an essential aspect of Cthulhu mythos tales is helplessness in the face of cosmic horror - and that doesn’t mesh so well with the generally utopian, triumph of the human spirit feel of Star Trek. Similarly, most Cthulhoid entities have unknowable, alien motives, and normally pay little or no attention to mortals, which doesn’t make for great Trek adversaries.
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Oh no, Herbert West for ships doctor! You would go see him for seasickness and end up as "ye most liveliest awfulness".
But I do like Pickmans model !!
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At one time the evil that has returned from long ago skit was fantastic! But virtually every television science fiction series has done it to death by now!
On topic though, what about Gorgon from And The children?
JB
On topic though, what about Gorgon from And The children?
JB
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Agreed.
I write and run roleplaying games as a hobby and consider Cthulhu and TOS themed games as my favourites. Both are problem solving, mysterious and investigative in nature. But TOS is the positive life affirming side and Cthulhu is most certainly not!
Certainly the two are very different, but I think that there are elements in common that later Trek maybe generally "utopianised" out.
Plus the Doomsday Machine is a great cthuloid beastie!!
In closing, thank you for reminding me of Bloch's three TOS scripts - there's a definite link! And of course his other great piece of geekdom is that his novel (inspired by the Ed Gein case) was adapted to the screenplay for the classic "Psycho".
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Very true and very hard to keep it fresh when using it creatively.
But yes, Gorgon has definite cthuloid themes
Lysian, I have to say that I am always amused when someone writes that the Balok puppet is scary or frightening! The Balok puppet was not intended by Balok to look like some sort of horrible disgusting ugly monster - otherwise he wouldn't have made the puppet look so similar to members of his own species! Instead the puppet was designed to look like a more or less typical humanoid intelligent being, though one that looked and sounded tough, harsh, and ruthless enough to destroy a spaceship full of people to protect the frontier of his realm. That was part of Balok's test for spaceships that crossed the borders of the First Federation.
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