TNG... oozing the 80's

[Nerys Ghemor]

I hear ya. I have a lot of Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Yngwie Malmstein on my iPod, but it just seems like the electric guitar has been forgotten for the past 15 years...so it ends up sounding old.

I'd say that any kind of musical and compositional skill at all has been forgotten.

And I say if bad 80s fashion can be resurrected (which it is lately...have you seen some of the big-belted monstrosities in the women's clothing section?! )--why not GOOD MUSIC?

 

[Gates]

It is very 80s (and early 90s) but we love it anyway. Some wonderful things came out of those decades and so what if they're all a little dated now. It's nice to look back on them and remember those decades.

 

[Lynx]

They started making TNG a mere five years after the REALLY dated Buck Rogers!!!

Even DS9 and Voyager are now looking dated.

I don't think the generic Trek lighting and filming on video helped much.

We'll probably find that, despite being absolute rubbish, that Enterprise will date the least of the modern Treks, on the basis of modern TV production values.

It's the same argument about old and new Doctor Who.

With he shows that have dated badly we can always say that it was all about the stories, characters and the audience's imagination!!

Honestly, I think everything looks dated after a few years. Trek is at least one of few shows which has aged with grace.

 

[JustKate]

I watched an episode of Newhart last night (the one from the 1980s that didn't have Suzanne Pleshette in it), and j-e-e-e-e-e-e-z, are styles for the women dated. The hair, the aerobics leotards, the over-decorated sweaters...

In comparison, Trek is stunning in its classicism. And as several people have noted, TNG was halfways a '90s show anyway, and the '90s weren't as fashion extreme as the '80s as far as I can recall.

I really think part of the problem is that some decades just have more extreme fashions than others, and the 1980s were one of those decades.

The Darrells' coveralls are timeless, though!

 

[troisboobs]

I love the 80's ness. I'm watching a few on TV right now from first season (Datalore and Angel one) and they are just great. I love the frequent bursts of 80's suspense music :P

 

[RAMA]

It is very 80s (and early 90s) but we love it anyway. Some wonderful things came out of those decades and so what if they're all a little dated now. It's nice to look back on them and remember those decades.

I just watched a DVR recording of The Big Goodbye, and I just don't see this supposed 80s dating at all. The 24th century part of it looked futuristic and high tech. I don't doubt there are a few elements of the 80s here and there, but the show itself is timeless. My stepdaughter watched it and laughed at the right parts and enjoyed it.

RAMA

 

[Forbin]

Try watching a series like Miami Vice, Hunter or The Equalizer. Bad guys wearing silver lame jackets and headbands, men with pastel suits with square shoulder pads and hair that goes straight up...

 

[ALF]

I love the 80's ness. I'm watching a few on TV right now from first season (Datalore and Angel one) and they are just great. I love the frequent bursts of 80's suspense music :P

Sometimes those quick doses of absurd keyboard flourishes... just terrific stuff.

 

[Tom]

They still show 'Full House' repeats my kids watch, man that show screams the 80's.

 

[Ghrakh]

Another vote here for TNG not looking THAT 80s. Just some bits here and there look dated, but overall I think it's held up pretty well.

 

[Gary7]

The first two seasons screamed "80's" to me... then it began to subside. As we entered the 5th season, I felt like that decade was shed completely. The only thing is that I still feel like those touch screen panels all looked so "80's futuristic". On a military vessel, controls must have tactile sensation, for reliability and accuracy... none of this delicate "touch screen" stuff.

 

[Gary7]

Speaking of the 80's, this is SO Teri Hatcher of 80's style...

(Scene from: Desperate Lieutenants)

 

[Lord Garth]

The first season "oozes '80s". I agree. The second season, still looks very '80s, but less aggressively so.

The third season goes either way. I can see it being called '80s or '90s. The difference between look and production values in the second and third seasons, outside of the uniforms and some of the props, is a little overstated but just a little.

The fourth season looks early-'90s. The fifth season looks even more early-'90s.

The sixth season, is hard to describe. 1992 is the last "early-'90s" looking year. 1993 is in a world of its own. It's neither "early-'90s" nor "mid-'90s".

The seventh season seems like a long-running series that has run into the mid-'90s but is not indigenous to it, like a lot of other long-running series that were ending around that time.

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With that said, the '80s are currently the Big Retro Decade. I don't see how "being '80s" in today's climate would be a negative thing, as opposed to as late as a little over 10 years ago when "eighties" was a four-letter word.

 

[Lord Garth]

I think that overall it's just because the 80s trends (hair, clothes, colors) have just faded far enough back on the style cycle that they're no longer in vogue and we see them as cheesy, but also not yet old enough to appeal as retro.

Where I live, that's not true. The '80s have now completely replaced the '70s.

The '90s are now "old school" and the '80s are full-on "retro". Granted, I work in a college and the median age is 20, but it's still the sense I get overall.

 

[Lucy of Nine]

I don't remember guys wearing skirts in the 80's so why the hell were some male crew members wearing skirts in TNG's first season? I always thought that was ridiculous and unpractical for women, not to mention the men! Where did they pull that style from?

Yes. And since the first season tried visually to take cues from TOS, you get pure 80s with dashes of sci-fi of the 60s.

Instead of only women wearing skirts, the sexes are equal. Let everyone wear skirts!

Anyway, that style didn't last for longer than the first half of S1, did it?

I'll be glad if that piece of fashion doesn't catch on. Let the women wear trousers, fine. but lets question the right to let men wear skirts

That man in Season One who was in the mindress... I remember seeing that and going OH MY GOSH THATS RIDICULOUS!

 

[Forbin]

Now THIS oozes the 80s!

 

[Salinga]

I don't think the generic Trek lighting and filming on video helped much.

Actually the soft blur effect used in the filming of all the "new" Trek Shows helps TNG not to look aged since the soft blur hides many glitches the sets, special effects and actors masks had. The sharp picture of TOS shows the glitches of a TV production back then every detail.

The soft blur makes TNG, VOY or DS9 look sometimes still better than the new SciFi shows where you can actually see a film set was used because of the sharp detailed picture.

 

[Epsilon IX]

Seasons 1,2 and 3 certainly feel very 80s, but the latter seasons IMO, although they were made nearly 20 years ago still look alright and have aged much more gracefully. I guess it's just a fact that nothing ages as badly as our perceptions of the future, since we are always judging it by the standards of our own time.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I think TNG has aged pretty well. The only things that make me think 80s are the hotel lobby bridge and, as John McCain would call him, that one.

They started making TNG a mere five years after the REALLY dated Buck Rogers!!!

Even DS9 and Voyager are now looking dated.

I don't think the generic Trek lighting and filming on video helped much.

No Trek series was ever taped on video, all were filmed on film. The final episodes were then transferred to videotape, like, well... every show was back in the day.

Had the show been taped rather than filmed it would be obvious. Old Doctor Who (like many old british shows) used both tape and film, videotape for interior scenes and film for exterior scenes.

 

[BrownShatner]

It's not really. I was just commenting sometime back how I didn't think Tasha's hairstyle was attractive is all.

I think that was intentional, the character was definitely portrayed to be all-business and not a sex object.

Perhaps they trying not to detract from Troi as the show's main "feminine" character. Or maybe they were simply trying to be progressive and overcompensating in getting away from the space-bimbo reputation of TOS.

The androgynous look/persona is very much a popular figment of the late-80s/early-90s, though.