TNG Movies...Are We Missing Out???

[indolover]

Fun?? FUN?? Didn't you like Data's:

• Mr. Tricorder
• ...but the Ferengi in the Gorilla suit has to go.
• Humor! I love it!
• Lifeforms, you tiny little lifeforms...
• No problem!
• Oh shit!
• ...and his lip should curl...
• A pimple, sir.
• Have you noticed how your boobs...
• Never saw the sun shining so bright...
• Why does the big man have a furry face?
• Why? Why? Why?
• Move, puny human animal!

How about Worf's wacky lines:

• (falling into freezing cold water and growling)
• It is a gorch!
• Sir! I am experiencing aggressive tendencies!
• Romulan Ale should be illegal.
• Irving Berlin!
• (bumping his head as he awoke from oversleeping)
• Captain, I do not think it is appropriate for a Starfleet officer to appear ...naked.

Humor is a difficult concept for Trek to handle successfully. Each of the movies would've benefitted greatly if they hadn't tried so hard to be funny. Data and Worf are among the richest characters in all of Trek yet in the movies Worf the great Klingon warrior was turned into a buffoon and Data the super intelligent android was made out to be a clown. Awkward moments and fish out of water experiences can be funny but these lines were painful to hear.

Data and Worf were the comic relief characters in the show. Think of Worf lines in the TV show like:

- I am not a man
- Delicious
- I am not a merry man!
- Good tea, nice house
- I would require a Klingon woman for "companionship".
- Nice legs. Er..for a human.

So I don't think it was out of place to use them like that in the films. Data and Worf are probably the only characters who could pull off comic relief.

 

[doubleohfive]

I don't know. I think the humor in Generations, mostly focused on Data and Worf, and while at times hammy (the lifeforms song springs to mind...) were still within the acceptable parameters of the characters we'd seen for seven years on TV. I don't think the humor got really out of hand until Insurrection, which tried to be equal parts action/adventure and comedy.... and mostly failed on both attempts.

 

[indolover]

What let the latter two movies down as poor writing. Generations was good, whilst First Contact was very good.

IMO, Insurrection could still have been a rebellion movie (as obviously the title suggests) but tie it to the Dominion War. The fact most regular Joe movie goers had never heard of the Dominion matters little. Films sell big via promotion. If it's promoted that Picard and co. were at war, then it could have worked, and had a knock on effect on DS9. That would have been to Paramount's benefit, since DS9 was not a lucrative end for them (despite a high outlay).

Nemesis could have gone as thus. In the Mirror Universe, the Terran Rebellion has conquered the Cardassian part of the Alliance and wants to steal some "real" universe Starfleet ships to conquer Qo'nos. To this end, the mirror Picard transports over to the real universe and duplicated the real universe Picard. The nemesis then is the mirror Picard, since the goal of the Terran Rebellion is to destroy the mirror Qo'nos, as punishment for them being enslaved by the Klingons. Again, proper/effective promotion could have drawn in persons to see it.

Does anybody remember the Blair Witch Project from years ago? I think the only reason people went to see it (since the movie stunk to high heaven) was because of how it was promoted. Film promotion can make moviegoers see anything.

 

[Jetfire]

^
I think promotion would work in playing on peoples fears...like the tech actually exists(which Joe movie goer would find unnerving)...not so much in a spoofy Galaxy Quest way...but really play on peoples imagination...maybe even get NASA involved in the publicity.

I read this back and forget I said anything.

[edit] This really wouldn't work for a TNG movie...it would have for Star Trek 2009.