How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others failed

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

Steven Of Nine said:
But, you can find those same stories throughout the subsequent series.

You can find them prior to "Star Trek" as well, and you'll go on finding them in non-Trek fiction in the future...and there's a reason for that, and it's why "Star Trek" is memorable.

 

[MacLeod]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

Outpost4 said:
As Warped9 stated, it's the stories. There is one other over 40 year old science fiction/fantasy series that remains popular today and it has the added disadvantage of being in black and white. But its stories are timeless. Of course I'm talking about The Twilight Zone.

There is one other thing the two series share: great acting. Say what you want about Shatner's acting style. It makes no difference. He inhabited the Captain Kirk role. That's great acting. The same can be said for Nimoy and Kelley. No offense to Martin Landau in Space: 1999 or June Lockhart in Lost In Space, but with them, we always knew they were acting out a role. For many of us, Shatner is Kirk, Nimoy is Spock and Kelley is McCoy.

What about Doctor Who, which is a popular show that is over 40 years old?

 

[voggmo]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

TOS & Twilite Zone were perhaps dam busters. In a a way like Elvis was. The 1st ones to do something,( yes I know Space Patrol & other shows came earlier, but TOS was likely the 1st "serious" sci fi to hit tv ), My favorite Martian & Lost in Space, um not.

I agree with much said above, but just adding another sort of 'timing' thought amongst these ideas.

 

[Warped9]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

Steven Of Nine said:
The base stories chosen for TOS were, as Warped9 notes, timeless. But, you can find those same stories throughout the subsequent series. TNG almost copied several TOS scripts in its first season.

Yes, but execution counts for a lot. A show like DS9 is only about a decade old and thats not a good enough measure for relevance. Lets look at it again in twenty or thirty or more years and see how it holds up.

 

[Nebusj]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

A beaker full of death said:
I saw an episode of Enterprise. It was called "The Communicator." It was about a communicator.

Well, there was also the bit about Archer's enthusiastic leap into evil and embrace of prompting unspeakable atrocities, but that's oddly not the focus of the episode.

 

[Zeppster]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

There were a few things.

There wasn't really big continuity issues with TOS because all it tried to do was explain that episode and tell the story for that episode. There wasn't these long 5 episode arcs that if you miss one you get completely lost. There was only 1 2-part episode in the Menagerie.

But the two biggest things about Trek that have made it last so long are the message that was sent out was very positive. And that got people hookoed. And the biggest thing is the trinity of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy with McCoy being one side and Spock being the other and Kirk being the one to kinda pull them together. It was so well written that it makes the show fresh no matter how old it gets.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

Anwar said:
I doubt they'd have been able to tell stories like DS9 did with our current views, probably get censored to hell.

Who'd censor it? TNG and DS9 were made for syndication.

 

[Anwar]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

The studio itself would've censored it, some dumb@$$ Execs would flip out because the show would be against their conservative stances or some nonsense.

 

[AC84]

Re: How does TOS continue to be relevant when many others fa

No doubt that DS9 was a good show (out of all the spin-offs, it was the best). But I think your statement that the stories told on DS9 wouldn't fly on television today is slightly inaccurate. Maybe not on the big basic cable networks like CBS or NBC. But Ronald D. Moore is still telling the same relevant stories today on Battlestar Galactica. He's even gone further by writing more relevant stories which directly confront this post 9/11 world. This is mostly due to Galactica's convenient premise and the boundless freedom he's been given creatively.

 

[Rad]

I was raised in a single-parent household with a father who was not... wholly... democratic. It was stress and anxiety, to say the least. Star Trek saved me. Star Trek (TOS in syndication) showed me that there are possibilities, that society and humanity can be better. Star Trek provided me moral guidance as a young teen and strength to solve those problems in life that otherwise felt insurmountable.

I am pleased that as the franchise has evolved into the new series and feature films, that somewhere in the core are still those principles that Gene Roddenberry instilled in the original series 50 years ago. Even the latest "reboots" have had some shred of those principles; of good over evil, of protecting the downtrodden, of saving humanity, and of value of family.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I often wonder why some shows even get on the air, like "My Mother The Car" for instance. Many shows don't even last a single season, while others continue for 10-20 years, as in "Gunsmoke". Bob Justman constantly argued with studio and television executives that Star Trek TOS was unique and innovative. There was nothing else like it at the time, but unfortunately ratings drove their decisions. Even George Takei has stated that he liked the quality of TOS, but he figure it would last 1-2 season at most because of the Neilsen ratings quagmire.

 

[Rad]

I often wonder why some shows even get on the air, like "My Mother The Car" for instance. Many shows don't even last a single season, while others continue for 10-20 years, as in "Gunsmoke". Bob Justman constantly argued with studio and television executives that Star Trek TOS was unique and innovative. There was nothing else like it at the time, but unfortunately ratings drove their decisions. Even George Takei has stated that he liked the quality of TOS, but he figure it would last 1-2 season at most because of the Neilsen ratings quagmire.

That was exactly "Enterprise"s issue - they wanted only four seasons to make it marketable for syndication. Not five or seven. Four. I though the Xindi season arc was exceptionally well done story telling and in season 4, the show finally found solid footing. Then they pulled the plug.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Star Trek came first. It established the tropes are archetypes used on forgotten shows like Crusade.

 

[T'Bonz]

Don't post in threads that have been dormant for so long. If it's been NINE years since there was a response and you want to revisit the topic, please start a new thread.