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Throwback: What was your opinion of Star Trek 20 years ago?

This comment of yours reminded me of an episode of The Twilight Zone (80s version not the black and white one). I remember the story but not the title. I had to look it up. The title of the ep is "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty". Your paragraph, more or less, describes the premise of the story. It had an interesting twist at the end.

Btw, the episode was based on a story by Harlan Ellison, who as you know wrote "The City on the Edge of Forever". So I guess this isn't completely off topic. There is a connection to Star Trek.

I rambled on too long already. If you are, or anyone else is interested, you can probably see it on youtube.

I'll check it out. Thanks!

It's also going kind of into "Tapestry" (TNG) territory. "If I'd been more like I am now... " I guess everything happens the way it does for a reason and that's how you learn in the first place.
 
1998: I’d catch bits and pieces of Voyager episodes if I happened to come across one while flipping channels. I didn’t bother with DS9 at all, and thought Insurrection was disappointing.
 
I was starting to burn out. I wasn't overly interested in DS9 (foolishly) and only caught a few episodes per season. I was even more alienated from DS9 as it grew more and more serialized...so I watched less and less because I didn't know what the hell was going on. And I'd pretty much given up on VOY entirely by the middle of the 2nd season, so I literally watched none of it. What's more, the "high" of Star Trek: First Contact had worn out at this point.

I was looking forward to Insurrection, and then I saw the trailer and knew something was REALLY off about that as well.

This was probably the beginning of the lowest point of Trek fandom for me.
 
Loved DS9
Voyager was running thin and I would stop watching towards the end of that season.
Insurrection, I always look forward to a new Star Trek film and coming on the heels of First Contact I had high hopes.
 
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My opinion of Trek in 1998 was probably higher than it should have been. I was disappointed in the direction that Voyager was taking, but my ongoing investment in Trek was propped up by the fact that DS9 was bringing its A-game. Insurrection had the dubious distinction of being the first Trek film that I didn't bother seeing a second time in the theater since I'd become a fan in the mid-'80s. Even STV:TFF got a second theatrical viewing (though I was apologizing after the movie to the friend that I'd brought along).
 
I think the Trekbbs was around so I am guessing my opinions might actually be documented somewhere out their on the internet!:) Me that was a kind of bad time because that was when my OCD started to become a issue as well so I am sure alot of my feelings were clouded by real life issues.
I do sort of know that since I became a Trek fan in 1994 by the time the late 90's came around I had my interests grow into liking other Sci-FI stuff and also stuff away from the genre so my tastes were still kind of maturing but I still was able to enjoy the softer more old stuff as well but not as much as I do now where I am starting to like it again and thinking that not everything has to be edgy and groundbreaking to be fun. Back then though I felt like Trek even DS9 wasn't quite pushing the envelope enough.

Jason
 
I think the Trekbbs was around so I am guessing my opinions might actually be documented somewhere out their on the internet!:)

Pretty close! April 1999, I think. I was posting on Psi Phi (among other places) at the time. Someone here was promoting the board in the summer, and I registered that August. Then I was posting something about the board (I don't remember what), and that prompted Temis the Vorta to join in October.
 
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I remember in the trailer for Insurrection the one memorable moment was Data saying ‘Saddle up, lock and load’.

Should have been a warning sign. That is a very uninteresting line which makes little sense for Data.
 
Yeah I had some doubts about "Insurrection" as well. Soon as they started talking about a "peaceful primitive villiage" I just new it wasn't going to be good.

Jason
 
I remember that INSURRECTION was the first TREK movie I ever saw on my lonesome. Before that, you could always get a group together to see the latest Trek movie, usually on opening night. But I ended up catching a Sunday matinee by myself because there didn't seem to be much interest in a group expedition . . .

Mind you, this could have just been a busy weekend or the fact that my personal circle of fan friends was getting older and settling down with kids, family obligations, moving to the suburbs, etc. Probably easier to get the whole Trekkie gang together on a Friday night when you're in college, your early twenties, etc.
 
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I remember in the trailer for Insurrection the one memorable moment was Data saying ‘Saddle up, lock and load’.

Should have been a warning sign. That is a very uninteresting line which makes little sense for Data.

Like a line that was in the movie that was really only written for the advertising and trailers.
 
Like a line that was in the movie that was really only written for the advertising and trailers.

What's worst is it isn't even his worst line. You got the "floation device" line "Or your boobs feeling firm line" way ahead of it. Or the singing!

Jason
 
Still watching & enjoying DS9. I was sorry that they killed of Jadzia, as I really enjoyed her character.

I'd given up on VOY by that point. The Captain Sulu episode was pretty much the last straw for me, as I felt they seriously flubbed the story on that one. They also added insult to injury by getting insulting & condescending about TOS on an episode that was supposedly a tribute to it ("Of course they'd all be thrown out of Starfleet today..."). I finally decided that the words "Star Trek" being in the title was not a good enough reason to continue watching a show I wasn't enjoying. When I saw they'd added a large-breasted Borg character to the show, it further confirmed my impression that they were getting pretty desperate.

Thoroughly disappointed in INS. It wasn't awful, just sort of mediocre, and when you're getting a movie only once every 2-3 years, mediocre just doesn't cut it. It became the first Trek movie I didn't bother buying on DVD, and I haven't seen it all the way through since.

TOS was still my favorite series, and while I had fond memories of TNG, I didn't feel the drive to rewatch it the way I did in the 80s and early 90s. That's still pretty much the case.

So I guess I was getting pickier about my entertainment overall and Star Trek in particular.
 
1998 - Getting to a stage of indifference for me.

I had not seen any of Voyager post-season 2 (in the UK, unless you had Sky TV, buying the two-per-episode VHS releases was the only way to see newer episodes of the show. My friend had collected Voyager, while I collected the DS9 videos and we would obviously share viewing them. But he gave up on Voyager after season 2 and I didn't care enough about it to find alternative access!).

I collected all the DS9 VHS releases through till the end, but - though I didn't realise it at the time - season 6 was such a mammoth drop in quality that my interest in seeing the next episodes was getting lower and lower.

I went to see "Insurrection" (actually released beginning of 1999, I think, in the UK - at least that's when I went). Thought it was OK-ish. Nothing amazing.

I think 1998 (possibly 1999) was when I also gave up buying Star Trek Monthly (the magazine) as well, having collected since #1 in 1995. So yeah, I guess this was the gradual dying of my unquestioning love of Trek for a good long while.
 
Yes, the Star Trek magazine started off really good and then got pretty boring! I always distrust things or people that keep telling you how good their product is when it really isn't! Soon after I bought it and left it in the cupboard so sort of stopped getting it!
JB
 
I'd given up on VOY by that point. The Captain Sulu episode was pretty much the last straw for me, as I felt they seriously flubbed the story on that one. They also added insult to injury by getting insulting & condescending about TOS on an episode that was supposedly a tribute to it ("Of course they'd all be thrown out of Starfleet today..."). I finally decided that the words "Star Trek" being in the title was not a good enough reason to continue watching a show I wasn't enjoying. When I saw they'd added a large-breasted Borg character to the show, it further confirmed my impression that they were getting pretty desperate.

That was a turning point for me as well.

"Well, even though that old kid's show was fun, NOW we're pumping out mature, sophisticated entertainment for our fans" is what it felt like they were trying to say. And then I went in the other room and vomited.
 
I hate to admit it that there may be something to that. When Scotty appeared on TNG, he certainly didn't come off as The Miracle Worker. He was made to seem like something that fell out of a tree. Scotty's ways were backwards and Geordi even had to snap at him for being such an annoyance. So, to have VOY speak this way of TOS, it probably was meant in a way that wasn't meant to show TOS in the best light. I wish those comparisons hadn't been there, because they really weren't necessary. If the new shows just stuck to the universes they were making up, I don't think anyone would've complained for lack of TOS crossovers or commentaries. But ... that's just Hollywood creeping in, for you, I guess. Always hitting below the belt ...
 
20 years ago Ezri Dax was a few months from her debut. My opinion of that was and is good.
 
I was 20 and not a fan. I had some pretty poor preconceived notions about Star Trek and it's viewers. I had watched episodes of TNG when it first aired with my mother, but I had frightfully basic notions about what could ruin my rep as a party girl.

Had I not been so lacking in self confidence and had my self identity been more important the the group identity, I think I would have really enjoyed TNG and been put off by DS9. I lived in a good time bubble and likely would not have been able to really get how dark and twisty the show was.

I am not sure I even knew that there was TOS or ST books back then.
 
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