If Star Trek could only be one, movie franchise or series franchise, which would you prefer?

[Riley]

That’s funny because there was a whole bit of the post you quoted about TMP which I deleted for brevity.

Yes, when we get something that more resembles a ‘pure’ distillation of Star Trek on the big screen, that’s what it is. A movie which sends the general audience to sleep and is widely derided by even Star Trek fans.

I do want to add… I love TMP. I really do.

Seems a bit of a generalization to say that TMP sent "the general audience to sleep" and that "it is widely derided by even Star Trek fans." Define "widely." I see TMP as a barometer for a person's intelligence. If they're "put to sleep by it" or deride it, I feel confident they're not terribly intelligent and that their opinion is of no value or worth. These are often the same folks who find enjoyment in the Michael Bay Transformers movies or reality TV.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

Seems a bit of a generalization to say that TMP sent "the general audience to sleep" and that "it is widely derided by even Star Trek fans." Define "widely." I see TMP as a barometer for a person's intelligence. If they're "put to sleep by it" or deride it, I feel confident they're not terribly intelligent and that their opinion is of no value or worth. These are often the same folks who find enjoyment in the Michael Bay Transformers movies or reality TV.

Seems a bit of a generalisation to start calling people stupid for enjoying things that you don't like or vice versa.

There's plenty on this board that don't like TMP. Highly intelligent folk who I talk to everyday on here. My wife doesn't like TMP, she's a university professor but I guess she'd fail your 'intelligence barometer'.

Also, I like Transformers movies on occasion. Is my opinion of no worth? Or can you stop looking down your nose at people for long enough to understand others have different (valid) viewpoints?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Series. That's what it was conceived as.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I think when done well, the characters have more space to breathe and grow in a series.

Star Trek is flexible enough to work in any format though. I love the TWOK opera on YouTube (it’s eluding me right now, but it was done by college students I think).

 

[Vger23]

I'm not going to answer the question directly, but I am going to say this:

I believe Peak Star Trek was TMP-TUC (the TOS films).

 

[1001001]

Seems a bit of a generalization to say that TMP sent "the general audience to sleep" and that "it is widely derided by even Star Trek fans." Define "widely." I see TMP as a barometer for a person's intelligence. If they're "put to sleep by it" or deride it, I feel confident they're not terribly intelligent and that their opinion is of no value or worth. These are often the same folks who find enjoyment in the Michael Bay Transformers movies or reality TV.

Not cool.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Seems a bit of a generalization to say that TMP sent "the general audience to sleep" and that "it is widely derided by even Star Trek fans." Define "widely." I see TMP as a barometer for a person's intelligence. If they're "put to sleep by it" or deride it, I feel confident they're not terribly intelligent and that their opinion is of no value or worth. These are often the same folks who find enjoyment in the Michael Bay Transformers movies or reality TV.

Leaving out anything personal, I have zero tolerance for the last eight words in your posts myself. Everyone born in specific ages is going to have more tolerance for questionable programming than others (LAND OF THE GIANTS or classic LOST IN SPACE, just to name two.) To me, TRANSFORMERS is simply lunchboxes with wheels no matter how many millions of dollars are thrown into it. To a large part ''reality TV'' is endlessly slavish stale-on-arrival imitations of SURVIVOR which take up ridiculous amounts of airspace, particularly on the former Big Four networks. I'm glad HBO seems to have less of that detritus in general.

TMP is slow by Abrams' or 21st century standards, but so is THE GODFATHER and the first third of THE EXORCIST, among others. There were only three major TV channels when they first came out. Anyhow, TMP would seem far slower without Goldsmith's music. TMP's most obvious boring qualities are its excessive staring at the viewscreen.

 

[fireproof78]

TMP is slow by Abrams' or 21st century standards, but so is THE GODFATHER and the first third of THE EXORCIST, among others. There were only three major TV channels when they first came out. Anyhow, TMP would seem far slower without Goldsmith's music. TMP's most obvious boring qualities are its excessive staring at the viewscreen.

Star Wars is also slow at times as well in the original film.

TMP struggles because it's just looking at people looking at stuff.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Star Wars is also slow at times as well in the original film.

Quite so. Tatooine is 10 percent action with bits of dramatic spikes. It's saving itself for the Death Star in particular, which is nonstop asskicking. Even RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK had relative lulls between Peru and Nepal for exposition, while still containing a very necessary extended breather after the truck chase......just as A NEW HOPE paused on Yavin before the big finish.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

I'd rather have a great Trek movie franchise than anything else but as others have noted Trek TV content has historically been better than the movies

I see TMP as a barometer for a person's intelligence. If they're "put to sleep by it" or deride it, I feel confident they're not terribly intelligent and that their opinion is of no value or worth. These are often the same folks who find enjoyment in the Michael Bay Transformers movies or reality TV.

2001 is my favorite movie of all time and I like Tarkovsky's Solaris. That's the kind of movie TMP tried (and failed) to be. It aims higher than any ST movie but that doesn't make it good.

 

[Dee1891]

I just want the franchise to die. Right now. Period.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm not going to answer the question directly, but I am going to say this:

I believe Peak Star Trek was TMP-TUC (the TOS films).

If the movies had stayed this good, then it would've made my answer less clear-cut.

As it is, the only two Star Trek series that have come out in the 21st Century that I'm a fan of are Discovery and Picard. I had to be in the mood for Prodigy, which I dragged my feet on a little bit sometimes, and I liked it for what it was, but that's as far as it goes. Maybe I'd feel differently about the show if I was a parent, but I'm not. Everything else, from Enterprise onward? Forget about it. But still. That's two series out of six (from 2001 on) that I'm a fan of.

As opposed to the movies. Between the TNG and Kelvin Movies (and Section 31!), the only one I'm truly a fan of is First Contact.

So, I have to give the nod to TV. Even though it's a slighter nod than I would've liked.

 

[Vger23]

I just want the franchise to die. Right now. Period.

 

[BillJ]

If all that is left is to pick over the bones of continuity for stories, I’m even more in the camp of a movie every few years. Spend some time with old friends exploring memory lane then wait two or three years for another chance.

 

[Lord Garth]

I just want the franchise to die. Right now. Period.

I'll settle for regime change.

I've had my fill of Alex Kurtzman, just like I'd had my fill of Rick Berman. And JJ Abrams got his Star Trek steppingstone to Star Wars, the latter of which is what he really wanted anyway.

 

[TheAdmiralty]

TMP is slow by Abrams' or 21st century standards, but so is THE GODFATHER and the first third of THE EXORCIST, among others. There were only three major TV channels when they first came out. Anyhow, TMP would seem far slower without Goldsmith's music. TMP's most obvious boring qualities are its excessive staring at the viewscreen.

And yet The Godfather and The Exorcist are both way better movies than TMP and I'm hardly alone in thinking that so being "slow" is not the issue. More like, as you noted, that the bulk of the runtime is the main cast watching FX demo reels on the viewscreen and the resolution to the movie is basically a pun.

 

[FredH]

Everybody knows I love TMP, and it’s unfortunately true that for many years it was widely derided — wrongly, I felt and feel. And yes, many people a need to say how it totally put them to sleep etc, which I felt was both exaggerated and silly. But all that said, there’s no reason to get holier-than-thou in either direction regarding it. Taste is taste, and I can buy that there are plenty of people who understood the film perfectly well but just didn’t like it. (Though also plenty who didn’t; I remember more than one person, including an adult I rewatched it with, thinking V’Ger had exploded at the end.)

 

[1001001]

And yet The Godfather and The Exorcist are both way better movies than TMP and I'm hardly alone in thinking that so being "slow" is not the issue. More like, as you noted, that the bulk of the runtime is the main cast watching FX demo reels on the viewscreen and the resolution to the movie is basically a pun.

The Godfather is a masterpiece and TMP is…not.

That’s about as charitable as I can be.

 

[The Wormhole]

Allow me to sum up TMP in one word:
BWONG!!!

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

The Godfather is a masterpiece and TMP is…not.

That’s about as charitable as I can be.

If Goldsmith had scored the former, that classic would be........probably just as epic.

Allow me to sum up TMP in one word:
BWONG!!!

I would like to report unauthorized SPOCK'S BRAIN sound effects usage, but-but-but I'm not certain it was intentional. Maintaining eternal vigilance.(: