Quite possibly the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

And...in the space of one day aboard the Enterprise-D...four hundred years of improved race relations went straight down the zero-G toilet.

 

[misskim86]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

The clunky cheesiness of the acting and the way it was shot. It's like the characters from COMING TO AMERICA were given even broader accents and then plunked into the middle of a meh/so-so TOS episode from twenty years earlier. The sets all look corny even for early TNG standards and the actors barely get their lines out without sounding like background extras from the voodoo sacrifice scenes of LIVE AND LET DIE. Ick. It unintentionally made the black characters look unevolved and stupid.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

BELE:"Anyone see that Picard-era episode with the black tribal people dressed in Aladdin costumes? Ick. And I thought WE were ham-fisted and crappy!"

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

cooleddie74 said:

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

The clunky cheesiness of the acting and the way it was shot. It's like the characters from COMING TO AMERICA were given even broader accents and then plunked into the middle of a meh/so-so TOS episode from twenty years earlier. The sets all look corny even for early TNG standards and the actors barely get their lines out without sounding like background extras from the voodoo sacrifice scenes of LIVE AND LET DIE. Ick. It unintentionally made the black characters look unevolved and stupid.

Thanks. I really wasn't up to explaining this again. For TNG to show us the first in-depth look at physiognomically "black" aliens in all of Trek (two robed extras in JtB don't count) and to have their technologically advanced society portrayed with stereotypes that would be at home in a Tarzan movie is beyond disgraceful.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

Brutal Strudel said:

cooleddie74 said:

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

The clunky cheesiness of the acting and the way it was shot. It's like the characters from COMING TO AMERICA were given even broader accents and then plunked into the middle of a meh/so-so TOS episode from twenty years earlier. The sets all look corny even for early TNG standards and the actors barely get their lines out without sounding like background extras from the voodoo sacrifice scenes of LIVE AND LET DIE. Ick. It unintentionally made the black characters look unevolved and stupid.

Thanks. I really wasn't up to explaining this again. For TNG to show us the first in-depth look at physiognomically "black" aliens in all of Trek (two robed extras in JtB don't count) and to have their technologically advanced society portrayed with stereotypes that would be at home in a Tarzan movie is beyond disgraceful.

Bullseye. You'd think by 1987 that Roddenberry could have portrayed a black humanoid society in a much more advanced and positive light considering the strides he made two decades earlier in making TOS and the first Enterprise the epicenter of a multicultural universe where people were on more or less equal footing with one another. The way some of those very early TNG scripts peddled thinly-veiled racism and what amounted to a "colonial" Federation attitude towards certain worlds was just lame.

 

[Kegek]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

cooleddie74 said:
The way some of those very early TNG scripts peddled thinly-veiled racism and what amounted to a "colonial" Federation attitude towards certain worlds was just lame.

Interestingly, this result was from an odd hode-podge of intentions. As Memory Alpha relates:

In this episode, the entire humanoid population of the planet is portrayed by African-American performers. In the teleplay, however, only Lutan's guards were specifically written as being black. It was director Russ Mayberry's idea to make all the planet's occupants black. Disgusted by this decision and Mayberry's attitude towards the performers, Gene Roddenberry fired Mayberry late in production. The remainder of the episode was directed by an uncredited Les Landau.

Judging from this, Mayberry deserves much of the blame for the stupid black caricature. But neither are the screenwriters absolved - writing Lutan's guards as specifically black? Well, that's got Orientalist stereotypes all over it...

 

[Squiggy]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

cooleddie74 said:

Brutal Strudel said:

cooleddie74 said:

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

The clunky cheesiness of the acting and the way it was shot. It's like the characters from COMING TO AMERICA were given even broader accents and then plunked into the middle of a meh/so-so TOS episode from twenty years earlier. The sets all look corny even for early TNG standards and the actors barely get their lines out without sounding like background extras from the voodoo sacrifice scenes of LIVE AND LET DIE. Ick. It unintentionally made the black characters look unevolved and stupid.

Thanks. I really wasn't up to explaining this again. For TNG to show us the first in-depth look at physiognomically "black" aliens in all of Trek (two robed extras in JtB don't count) and to have their technologically advanced society portrayed with stereotypes that would be at home in a Tarzan movie is beyond disgraceful.

Bullseye. You'd think by 1987 that Roddenberry could have portrayed a black humanoid society in a much more advanced and positive light considering the strides he made two decades earlier in making TOS and the first Enterprise the epicenter of a multicultural universe where people were on more or less equal footing with one another. The way some of those very early TNG scripts peddled thinly-veiled racism and what amounted to a "colonial" Federation attitude towards certain worlds was just lame.

I dunno, I think the residents of Zamunda Prime was portrayed in a very fair light.

A little known fact. Originally, after the events of this episode, the Enterprise warped to the rainbow world of Sanfrancastro LXIX.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

^
Ahhhhhhh, yes.

The infamous and banned "Astroglide" episode.

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

Members of the cast disagree:

Q: Did you ever want to destroy an episode that you did? Something you thought just should not have been made.
ByronD

JF: We tried to get the racist "Code of Honor" episode out of the loop.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/1105.html

 

[DumbDumb2007]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

Spock's Brain, and the children will lead, lights of zetar and half of seasons 1 and 2 of next gen including the one with data taken hostage by someone who likes posssesions were all terrible.
the TNG ep about the sorceress that piacard had to expose as a fraud because she pretended to be a goddess was also terrible. half of season 3 was so so. tai lend of seaso n3 and season 4 is where the show picked up.
half of seasons 1 and 2 of ent were awful

 

[David cgc]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

JoeZhang said:

misskim86 said:
meh, bet no one would have even cared if they were all white. I don't see what was so bad about that episode

Members of the cast disagree:

Granted, but that's not his point. It would've a forgettable bad episode if it weren't for the racist undertones. As it is, the unfortunate casting is the only thing that makes it stand out at all. Otherwise, no one would care about it.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

LOKAI:"That TNG episode fills me with shame and embarrassment. After all my people have fought for...to see that your precious Federation and Alpha Quadrant can do little or no better!"

BELE:"The animal has a point. That thing sucks."

 

[2of1million]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

Guy on the right: I hate when paint gets in my ears. It makes me so MAD!

Guy on the left: Me too. No wonder we're fighting all the time. How about we wash this paint off? Then we don't have to be mad anymore.

Guy on the right: Ok that sounds like a great idea!

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

Most awkward 23rd century album cover ever.

 

[Red Ranger]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

cooleddie74 said:

And...in the space of one day aboard the Enterprise-D...four hundred years of improved race relations went straight down the zero-G toilet.

Point well taken. But Yarena was bangin'! -- RR

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

Red Ranger said:

cooleddie74 said:

And...in the space of one day aboard the Enterprise-D...four hundred years of improved race relations went straight down the zero-G toilet.

Point well taken. But Yarena was bangin'! -- RR

I'd hit it.

What's the point again?

 

[Kirks_Hairpiece]

tomalak301 said:
I don't know. Wesley's "We're Starfleet, we don't lie" scene in Justice was worse.

Still makes me cringe some 20 years later that

Worst TNG episode? Shades of Gray. Just so poor.....

 

[JM1776]

Perhaps the scene would have been improved if Tasha had begun to wax wistful and nostalgic about the drug-enhanced gang bangs of her youth back on Turkana IV, only to catch herself and proceed with an embarrassed repudiation.

No?

Nevermind.

 

[cooleddie74]

Re: Quite possible the worse TNG...or Trek scene...ever...

PICARD:"When this series finally gets Remastered, their costumes will be replaced with Snoop Dogg jerseys and button shirts from the Sean Combs clothing line."