Yeah, those shots from "Attached" just look like typical TV framing to me. None of the huge vistas or aerial shots that you expect from a big budget motion picture.
TOS vs. TNG - adaptability to the big screen
- Thread starter NewHeavensNewEarth
- Start date
I think the TOS movies were written better, in general, than the TNG films. I don't care for The Voyage Home or The Undiscovered Country, though. Of the TNG films, the only one worth much was First Contact, and only as an action-type film, anyway. When I watched it (and it's been years - I don't find it very "re-watchable") it didn't even really register as Star Trek. I didn't see much Trek in it. The rest of the TNG films were dreadful, poorly written, usually over-ambitious SiFi Channel-level movies that always missed the mark.
The problem with TNG on the big screen is that it was a much more "cerebral" show than TOS was. TOS, on the other hand, was essentially a space western with characters that really fit in that paradigm. So when TOS moved to the big screen, it felt like they really expanded upon what TOS was trying to do in the shows in some aspects, while transitioning TNG from TV series to the big screen was much more jarring a transition and the essence of the show was lost.
It also didn't help that the TNG movies/storylines were, save for First Contact, just badly conceived/written.
Even FC was no picnic, unfortunately. Entertaining? Absolutely! Well-written, though? Ehhhh....I don't think so.
More cerebral? Not really. More restrained and more talky? Certainly.
Yeah. Storytelling by committee. Most of the TNG movies were trying to tick off items on a checklist, and it showed.
Wasn't Brent Spiner pushing for more focus on his character. And I believe that Patrick Stewart wanted his character to be more action oriented. It seems like those two characters had the most focus on them in the movies. The great thing about TNG was that it was much more an ensemble. Sometimes you had Worf-centric episodes, Troi-centric episodes, Riker-centric, and so on. TNG movies were like the Picard and Data show.
The funny thing is that Data was one of my favorite characters in TNG but in the movies, not so much, and there wast oo much of him.
The funny thing is that Data was one of my favorite characters in TNG but in the movies, not so much, and there wast oo much of him.
You know what kinda confuses me a bit? How TMP got criticism partly because it was an attempted to do "a motion picture" event and that the following films were better because they were "more like the TV series."
Then TNG goes into theaters and people say "meh, these are just glorified TV movies."
Soooooo....what is it to be?
Then TNG goes into theaters and people say "meh, these are just glorified TV movies."
Soooooo....what is it to be?
^^^More like the TV series meant in terms of tone and pacing. And the TOS films were being compared to the a 1960s TV show, whereas the TNG were being compared to more modern show with much higher quality production values, so the difference was not as pronounced, so it was easier to see the films for what they were.
Usually when I read that it was "like an overblown episode" in regards to TNG films, it's generally Insurrection, because of the low stakes plot and a lot of Picard posturing. The production values of First Contact were pretty good for the money spent. I mean, it looked great. Nemesis was also obviously much bigger than a TV show (the ramming sequence alone would have probably killed a season's effects budget). Generations wnet out of its way to fill the cinema screens, so I'm not sure it's about the visual.
Yeah, Insurrection was rather like a TNG two-part episode, and sadly, not a very good one. Why the boobs joke?!
Generations was the opposite of "just like an episode". They used that movie as an opportunity to do everything they weren't allowed to do in TNG. Everything. It just seems it would be like the TV series because it was produced immediately right after it. It was shot on the same sets with the actors looking exactly the same. It would be like if they made the first TOS movie in 1969. It would've felt "just like an episode" no matter what, even if the story wasn't.
First Contact feels like a movie. It shows First Contact between Earth and Vulcan, making it feel significant. It follows up on "The Best of Both Worlds", making it feel like a necessary next step for Picard. It has high stakes. If they don't win, the Federation will never exist and Earth will be assimilated.
Nemesis, whether you like the film or not, puts the main characters in a much different position than they were at the beginning of the film. With no follow-up for 17 years in real time and 20 years in continuity. So the changes NEM brought were permanent and lasting. And by 2002, we were distanced enough from the TNG series that the feel and vibe were different. Having an outsider direct also contributed to this.
So, yeah, the only TNG Movie that really feels like an episode is Insurrection.
First Contact feels like a movie. It shows First Contact between Earth and Vulcan, making it feel significant. It follows up on "The Best of Both Worlds", making it feel like a necessary next step for Picard. It has high stakes. If they don't win, the Federation will never exist and Earth will be assimilated.
Nemesis, whether you like the film or not, puts the main characters in a much different position than they were at the beginning of the film. With no follow-up for 17 years in real time and 20 years in continuity. So the changes NEM brought were permanent and lasting. And by 2002, we were distanced enough from the TNG series that the feel and vibe were different. Having an outsider direct also contributed to this.
So, yeah, the only TNG Movie that really feels like an episode is Insurrection.
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There are some significant events but Riker and Troi's marriage (& Riker's promotion) and more so the discovery of B4 and Shinzon feel so random (B4 and Shinzon even unbelievable), and also with nothing happening with Worf and Crusher, that the movie feels too episodic despite some significance especially with the ending, like aside from the ending it was a two-part episode after skipping a few episodes. I think probably more so than Generations (which did feel awkwardly between being a film and a TV season/series finale/sequel to a TV series but that was more appropriate, it was a sequel to a TV series that yes just ended, and better).
dingdingding
winner
Oh, and make money for shareholders, which they did.
But the gang had been on for seven years, never dearly missed as TOS was, and then, poof, they're still here, killing Kirk to be edgy and sell tickets. I actually like two, dislike one and am ok with GEN.
