I still think that Final Frontier is awesome, and a certain fanedit of it is one of my favorite things to watch, if only it was in high res....
The Final Days of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
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I think pretty much everybody except Michael Piller is siding with the, so called, antagonists of the movie. The Baku don't have a leg to stand on and are a giant cliche about pastoral Arcadia.
Nope. Salieri and his punks got what they had coming.
So ironic that by his being maligned in "Amadeus", Salieri's music actually got rediscovered.
And I'm not really defending the wrinkly "bad guy" race, but more Starfleet's plan to use the power of Planet Baku to transform the lives of billions. Needs of the many, after all.
And I'm not really defending the wrinkly "bad guy" race, but more Starfleet's plan to use the power of Planet Baku to transform the lives of billions. Needs of the many, after all.
Yeah, that's what I meant. Didn't the wrinkly faces just help Starfleet? It must be 10 years since I saw that movie the last time, and pretty sure back then I was confused because I thought the wrinkly aliens where the Vidiians.
This may just be a coincidence, but I tend to think not. Now, bear in mind, I know that Roddenberry had effectively been cut out of Trek before he passed away. BUT, given how loudly many of the writers complained about having to write in Roddenberry's universe, and then what happened to the characters once GR died...(FOR ME) it is kinda hard not to see a connection.
Once he died, you can see that the thoughtful, philosophical episodes sorta died out. Characters slowly shifted, tone slowly changed until, by season 7, it felt like just another sci-fi show.
Once he died, you can see that the thoughtful, philosophical episodes sorta died out. Characters slowly shifted, tone slowly changed until, by season 7, it felt like just another sci-fi show.
Which, based on Geordi in "Nemesis", proved all the running around in the Baku patch was mostly if not all for nothing. Nobody thought to send a test subject or two in, have them lounge around nekkid on the other of the planet before putting up the duckblind next to the village without anybody knowing, then have them come back and make sure the effects would be permanent?
Part of that was the look. If First Contact looked like a TNG episode, it would have felt more authentic and yes the characters were a bit different too.
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The "E" was too new, too different, and unfamiliar. It lacked the feeling of our safe comfy space is being invaded and destroyed.
That would make more sense if Roddenberry had been substantially involved in TNG after 1989.
I agree. By that time it felt like they took the Star trek out of Star Trek. In fact, some of those scripts with just a few tweaks could have been used for any non sci-fi drama show set in contemporary times. That's my big issue with later TNG and in particular, season 7.
Again, you'd have to back up to season three. At that point Roddenberry's health was in decline and his input was occasional. According to people who worked on the show he was rarely at the studio at all.
The tremendous improvements in the series that year were largely due to his diminished participation and a more charted independence on the part of the producers, though they never stopped giving lip service to the "Vision."
The tremendous improvements in the series that year were largely due to his diminished participation and a more charted independence on the part of the producers, though they never stopped giving lip service to the "Vision."
I didn't really get that kind of vibe, but certainly the Enterprise E was different... it was smaller, sleeker, more lethal. I don't think it was hauling families, either. But ironically, beyond the different setting, First Contact seemed to pull more of its content from the TV series: the main villain of course, but also smaller things like the holodeck scene and Worf's Klingon cutlery. And it also threw in bits from DS9 and Voyager.
TNG most certainly did time travel on a regular basis, particularly once Brannon Braga became a producer.
Offhand, let's look at all the episodes that dealt with time...
Season 1: "We'll Always Have Paris"
Season 2: "Time Squared"
Season 3: "Yesterday's Enterprise", "Captain's Holiday"
Season 4: "Qpid"*
Season 5: "A Matter Of Time", "Cause And Effect", "Time's Arrow"
Season 6: "Time's Arrow, Part II", "Tapestry"*, "Timescape"
Season 7: "All Good Things..."*
* - I'll concede these were Q illusions, but it still were our heroes out of their time.
Just like holodeck episodes, time was used at least once a year, so we can call that regular.
Holodeck episodes...
Season 1: "The Big Goodbye"
Season 2: "Elementary, Dear Data", "The Outrageous Okona"
Season 3: "Booby Trap", "A Matter of Perspective", "Hollow Pursuits"
Season 5: "Cost Of Living"
Season 6: "A Fistful of Datas", "Ship In A Bottle"
Season 7: "Emergence"
Except season 4, it was a staple for every season.
Where they though? Genuinely asking. I always took it that Picard's timeline was being actively messed around with rather than it being an illusion.
Q has the power to do either I suppose.
Regarding "Tapestry", it truly can go either way. But with "Qpid" it certainly was Q's illusion, and with "All Good Things...", once Picard realized the paradox and sealed the rift, Q put things back to normal.
What was once the Roddenberry Box came to be known as the Piller Box. Piller was scrupulous about upholding what he perceived to be Roddenberry's vision. The most of the same restrictions that writers complained about whilst Roddenberry was alive were still in place during production of Voyager.
I think sometimes it seems like Roddenberry's death led to a writing revolution because it coincides with the start of DS9. The setting of DS9 and ISB being creative within Piller's box makes it appear that the franchise turned a corner, but while DS9 was pushing boundaries, TNG was serving up the same old with Voyager being a reskinned TNG a few years later. Then in Voyager they tried to push against the Piller box with the Maquis, but it didn't take long for the box to wall everything in...
I tend to think TNG got better after Season 2 because the show started to hit a groove. The actors knew their characters and the writers reciprocally developed that. The uniforms got smartened up. Those behind the cameras weren't learning on the job anymore and they had a better idea of what shots worked, what effects were possible and how much time X or Y would take. Some consistency in the writing team helped as well. Seasons 1-2 had a very nasty revolving door for writers. It's quite horrible to read about the weird politics that were going on during those early years.
In fact what the link between Roddenberry's death and the uptick in quality is probably more attributable to the fact that it meant he wasn't around actively hindering everyone in their jobs with the aid of his lawyer rather than a lifting of writing restrictions.
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