I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th...

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

I love the FX sequences in TMP. It's about the only time in all the films (outside of TFF, I suppose) where the intrepid Enterprise and its crew are actively exploring the unknown. It's one of the few moments in all of Star Trek, where the whole thing is so literally about the journey.

And I find the awe and wonder shown in the crew's faces (Khambatta especially) to be very visceral.

Well, both The Jerk and 1941 came out the following week. The former was fairly successful in and of itself, and I suspect Hollywood was excepting the latter to be much more successful than it actually was.

And I don't think it was all that common to release big films so close to Christmas, back then.

So then they're moving on into 1980. January-early March has always been a movie dead zone. And, given how release cycles were back then, had they pushed it too far up into spring, suddenly they would have found themselves competing with that other space movie thingy.

Outside of the novelty, it doesn't really add much and, frankly, takes a bit away.

**And, oh yes, TMP's score is simply amazing. While, all the films' scores have their moments (Save for The Voyage Home, maybe. ) , none achieve the same level of awesomeness. It really is a masterpiece, and the jewel of Goldsmith's career, IMO.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Wise spoke at my college not long after TMP came out. He lamented that there had been no time to have any test screenings before the movie was rushed to the theaters--and that a good chunk of the movie's budget had already been spent before he even signed on as director.

Apparently, it was much like jumping aboard a moving train . . . .

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Regarding TNG . . . yeah, hold on to until "The Measure of a Man." That's when the show started to get consistently good.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

You're probably thinking of the split-diopter shots (a way of faking deep focus) that were used extensively throughout Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

That is...if one is a TNG fan.

Not all of us care for the show, especially after the third season, even though there are some episodes (post seasons 1 and 2) that that are interesting.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

TOS season 3 and TNG season 1 are basically the same show.

And, yeah, I've probably seen EAF two dozen times, and "Almost as bad" still makes me laugh.

Also, you may want to consider skipping "Code of Honor." Not only is it really that bad, it's also kind of offensive.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

"Code of Honor" is one of my faves of the 1st season, and it's only major offense for some is that it has too many black people and it wasn't strongly written or acted (an issue that plagues a few early TNG episodes). Other than that, it's definitely an episode that has what 'Star Trek' is about (i.e. there are different shades of people in the universe, and not all planets have aliens that look like human Caucasians). Alas, we won't ever see that many black people in one episode ever again in the franchise...unless Lee Daniels takes over the Trek franchise while he's working on Empire.

Other notable changes:

*While Geordi takes command and seems like a strong character in 1st season episodes like "Arsenal of Freedom," he becomes 'neutered' in later seasons and can't get a date...unless it's with a black woman (e.g Aquiel). Non-black women that he wants to hook up with onscreen only want to be friends.

On the other hand:

*Asian female characters (at least the leads or recurring characters such as Keiko and Ogawa) tend to only be paired with white male characters, with no controversy or scrutinization. Never do we see them paired with non-white male characters.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

In the finale, although it would be considered an alternate reality, wasn't Geordi:

Spoiler: [Geordi]

Married to Leah Brahams?

I put that in spoilers because the original poster has not watched that yet.

Some good season 1 & 2 episodes are:

Where No One Has Gone Before
The Measure of a Man
Contagion

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Tracy Trek:

Yeah, it's hinted....but, then again, it was an alternate reality. And it could have been someone else named Leah (or Leia) since we didn't see Susan Gibney onscreen.

It's like the alternate reality where Geordi is commander of the USS Challenger: While awesome, it was just one 'other' reality, an alternate from what we consider the 'prime' universe.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

The actual answer is that Paramount COULD NOT alter the release date. Paramount had pre-booked it with theater chains (known as block booking), meaning they were contractually bound to release it by Dec. 7, 1979, and under implied threat of a class-action lawsuit by the theater chains if the film didn't materialize. Now, had things gone as planned this should not have been a problem, but basically nothing went right in production and post-production, and the Producers fumbled badly in dealing with these production problems in an effective manner. (They could easily have whacked 40% of the effects shots and saved time and money and probably ended up with a better film.)

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

You're already on the last episode ever of TNG? I thought you just started the first season. I didn't mean the season 1 finale.

Once you get to season 5, I really recommend an episode called The Inner Light and the one after that called Times Arrow.

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Oh, OK. Did you like it?

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Welcome to Trek fandom.

Thanks for giving TOS a fair chance. I realize it's not to everyone's taste.

Personally, I rejected most of the Trek spinoffs some years ago. These days the only Trek I tend to watch is TOS, the first couple of TOS movies, and the Abrams movies.

Kor

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Loving your enthusiasm! It's making me remember when I first got into Trek, when I was a little younger than you back in the early 90s. Hope you continue to enjoy discovering it, and as others have said take a break from it every now and again - there's a lot of material to get through and you don't want to burn out. Have fun!

 

Re: I officially began my journey through all Star Trek on October 9th

Let us know what you think of the excess of technobabble when it gets going. It's already there in season 1, for sure, but in later seasons there are entire episodes driven by some nonsense technical thing coming up, and resolved by someone coming up with another nonsense technical term. It practically replaced storytelling at some points. Also, the "particle of the week" got fairly tiresome.

But when TNG hit the mark, brother, it really hit it out of the park. Measure of a Man, The Inner Light, Best of Both Worlds, Family...