TNG Returns!

[Mudd]

Making her a linguist is an evolution to maintain her relevance as a highly-skilled and essential member of the command crew. On TOS, she was the ship's "radio officer;" all of that kind of thing is now thoroughly automated. The later Trek shows don't even feature someone assigned to communications.

 

[Jedman67]

One more time: nowhere in TOS is it ever established that Uhura is some sort of brilliant "language expert." She's an expert on communications technology and very skilled at her job, but point to the episode where she's previously shown to be fluent in Klingon or any other alien language. The popular notion that she's a super-linguist comes from fanon, not the actual shows or movies. It's a fan theory at best. (At least until the reboot.)

Yes, one can certainly make a case for why it would behoove a Starfleet communications officier to be a trained linguist as well, but the fact remains ST VI was hardly in error for not being consistent with something that had never actually been established onscreen in the first place!

And, yes, I love The Undiscovered Country. It's my third-favorite Trek movie, after Khan and the whales. (I guess I really like Nicholas Meyer's take on Trek.)

True, its not established that she was a linguist, but i think its a logical assumption that a communications officer would be able to speak "common" foreign languages easily. That scene would have worked a lot better in a comedy, or at least a dramadey like TVH - in a serious drama that TUC was supposed to be it just felt out of place. I don't hate the movie - but it hasn't aged well.

 

[Greg Cox]

True, its not established that she was a linguist, but i think its a logical assumption that a communications officer would be able to speak "common" foreign languages easily. That scene would have worked a lot better in a comedy, or at least a dramadey like TVH - in a serious drama that TUC was supposed to be it just felt out of place. I don't hate the movie - but it hasn't aged well.

Like I said, you can make a case, and indeed the reboot movies jumped on the notion, which is cool.

But it is just an assumption that, for some reason, people started taking as gospel, to the the extent that TUC is slammed for getting it "wrong."

Even though Uhura was never shown to speak even "common" alien languages in any of the previous episodes or movies. As Serveaux points out, her function on TOS was more akin to the "radio officer" on an old-time submarine. Did we ever see her translating something on the original series? Not that I recall, but there were any number of episodes where Uhura manages to punch a signal through some kind or interference or performs heroic last-minute, emergency repairs on the communications equipment. (See "Who Mourns for Adonais?" for instance.) She was always portrayed as an expert technician, not a language expert.

There's lots of stuff in STAR TREK that we "assume" or speculate about, but that doesn't mean every fan theory needs to regarded as established fact just because it seems logical or whatever.

 

[jaime]

Like I said, you can make a case, and indeed the reboot movies jumped on the notion, which is cool.

But it is just an assumption that, for some reason, people started taking as gospel, to the the extent that TUC is slammed for getting it "wrong."

Even though Uhura was never shown to speak even "common" alien languages in any of the previous episodes or movies. As Serveaux points out, her function on TOS was more akin to the "radio officer" on an old-time submarine. Did we ever see her translating something on the original series? Not that I recall, but there were any number of episodes where Uhura manages to punch a signal through some kind or interference or performs heroic last-minute, emergency repairs on the communications equipment. (See "Who Mourns for Adonais?" for instance.) She was always portrayed as an expert technician, not a language expert.

There's lots of stuff in STAR TREK that we "assume" or speculate about, but that doesn't mean every fan theory needs to regarded as established fact just because it seems logical or whatever.

So she should have fixed the universal translator (difficult, as it wasn’t shown as broken) rather than got out the dusty tomes. I mean...not even an ebook...and we know Trek has those...

 

[Jedman67]

I don't think TUC "got it wrong" in a technical sense, i just think that TUC "did a bad job of showing tensions between humans and klingons, specifically in a terrible scene that fails miserably at being funny."
I"m not going to argue that she should have been able to speak klingon passingly enough to get them through the border (or ya know, just turn off all emissions and sneak through?) - we disagree and thats fine. I am going to argue that sifting through dictionaries because the UT was sabotaged was a clumsy scene and not well-thought, IMO. It just felt out of place for that movie. The infamous dinner scene fit the mood of the movie, although it suffered from some pretty horrendous dialog.

 

[jaime]

I don't think TUC "got it wrong" in a technical sense, i just think that TUC "did a bad job of showing tensions between humans and klingons, specifically in a terrible scene that fails miserably at being funny."
I"m not going to argue that she should have been able to speak klingon passingly enough to get them through the border (or ya know, just turn off all emissions and sneak through?) - we disagree and thats fine. I am going to argue that sifting through dictionaries because the UT was sabotaged was a clumsy scene and not well-thought, IMO. It just felt out of place for that movie. The infamous dinner scene fit the mood of the movie, although it suffered from some pretty horrendous dialog.

It suffers from many of the things V gets short shrift for.

 

[Nyotarules]

Let's now all just hope the Great BIrd of the Galaxy would have approved of whatever they do.

Jason

Make Picard a love instructor

 

[Paul Weaver]

d if this is really going to be a personal story about Picard how can they not involve his "family" from the Ent-D and -E?

That family spent 15 years together.

It's been another 20 since then.

TNG had barely any mention of Picard's stargazer family.

 

[Makarov]

People will be talking about The Picard show long after Game of Thrones

 

[MakeshiftPython]

People will be talking about The Picard show long after Game of Thrones

Hopefully on a positive note.

 

[Mudd]

People will be talking about The Picard show long after Game of Thrones

 

[Jayson1]

I think it's safe to say that the new Picard show will become the greatest show on tv that even outshines TNG. Years from now TNG will be looked upon as the "The Tracey Ulman" show that launched this all-time great thing in "The Simpsons." People are going to look back and wonder why the Picard character doesn't feel quite right from how we all see him. Picard is suppose to be this kick-ass solider of fortune and they really got him wrong back in the early days on "TNG."

Jason

 

[Ometiklan]

That family spent 15 years together.

It's been another 20 since then.

TNG had barely any mention of Picard's stargazer family.

Outside of Jack Crusher, it would seem they weren't much of a family.

Seriously, there is no way they don't deal with his Enterprise family. It is, both in-universe and out, one of the most important elements of Picard/Stewart's lives. It cannot go unmentioned.

 

[mos6507]

Trek going back to the "old look" of TNG would be like if a Kirk-centric TV show in the 80s returned to the TOS aesthetic.

It's already being done on The Orville and the public accepted it. So the idea that it won't sell is false. Not saying it should go that route, just that retro is indeed a viable option.

However this Picard show turns out, I hope it establishes its own visual identity to make it unique.

Yes, a visual identity SEPARATE from the abomination of Discovery.

I really think Kurtzman and co. have very specific (and wrong) notions of how to make Trek look contemporary, something that is likely to permeate all the Trek shows. Pulse phasers, viewscreens as windows, god-awful wardrobe ideas like half-collars, kinked camera angles, overly high-contrasty and FX-laden shots, constantly swooping camera movement for the sake of camera movement. That sort of stuff has to be quarantined off in Discovery and not bleed into these other shows.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

There's no way this new series will copy the aesthetic of TNG. It works for Orville because that show cashes in on the TNG camp it offers. Rather, the new Picard adventures will recreate -- to within the essence -- the look of TNG, but it will have a 21st. c. appeal. Exactly the same way ST09 recreated the 60s look of the TOS bridge, but with modern appeal.

I'm super pumped for this show, BTW!

 

[mos6507]

It suffers from many of the things V gets short shrift for.

Trek VI should have been more careful about inserting humor, given how badly the gags in Trek V went down. Plus the somber tone of the film doesn't lend itself to a lot of yuks. There's one bit in Trek VI, though, that is one of McCoy's finest moments of grouchy humor. Also, Meyer is known for inserting anachronisms into Trek. "Right standard rudder" and the old-school dictionary are part of that. I'm willing to grudgingly accept that as his personal quirk. Funny thing is, though, I'm already sensing a sort of nostalgia for physical media in a digital age as my daughter just bought one of those new instant cameras that outputs baseball-card style photos.

 

[mos6507]

It works for Orville because that show cashes in on the TNG camp it offers.

Have you actually watched the show? It's not presented as camp.

Rather, the new Picard adventures will recreate -- to within the essence -- the look of TNG, but it will have a 21st. c. appeal. Exactly the same way ST09 recreated the 60s look of the TOS bridge, but with modern appeal.

Hopefully not exactly the same way. I've seen enough lens-flares, brewery engine-rooms, and applestore bridges for a lifetime. New doesn't make it automatically better.

Also, by the time of Nemesis circa 2002 most of the 80s-isms of the TNG universe had been phased out. I don't think that look is particularly dated and it's more or less the look that Star Trek Online adopted.

Joysticks, glass-panels to bump into, and physical window viewscreens are not necessary to make things look "modern".

 

[thribs]

The windows on the bridge really annoy me. It makes it look less advanced.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Imagine for a second they pull a Logan and have Picard's entire Next Gen crew die off-screen somewhere between Nemesis and now.

 

[thribs]

Imagine for a second they pull a Logan and have Picard's entire Next Gen crew die off-screen somewhere between Nemesis and now.

Is Rian Johnson in charge of it?