New Testingstan

Eh, planet of the week has been done. Though if they combined it with DS9's focus on character development and having things matter, that'd be great.

I mean Picard told Riker at the end of "The Pegasus" about something-something consequences for all that stuff coming to light and literally nothing ever came of it.

Crazedwraith wrote:But I expect you mean full on Andromeda style?

I haven't actually seen Andromeda but yeah, like full-on with the AI and all that.

RogueIce wrote: I mean Picard told Riker at the end of "The Pegasus" about something-something consequences for all that stuff coming to light and literally nothing ever came of it.

Much like Sisko told Worf at the end of "Change Of Heart" about something-something consequences for abandoning his mission for Dax and literally nothing ever came of it?

Ds9 was a guilty as any other series on that point.

Crazedwraith wrote:

RogueIce wrote: I mean Picard told Riker at the end of "The Pegasus" about something-something consequences for all that stuff coming to light and literally nothing ever came of it.

Much like Sisko told Worf at the end of "Change Of Heart" about something-something consequences for abandoning his mission for Dax and literally nothing ever came of it?

Ds9 was a guilty as any other series on that point.

Well he did say he'd never make Commander.

Which ended up being true.

But yeah DS9 wasn't perfect either but it was better than the other shows about it, generally.

man I'd love planet of the week
but contemporary tv being what it is, this new trek show will 100% be more like Enterprise/DS9 than Proper Star Trek

... did you just lump DS9 and Enterprise together? *nerd rage*

Though i kind of see your point. Though Enterprise did its move to an arc structure to jump on the gritty grim dark band wagon whereas Ds9 did it to rip off B5 be new and innovative dammit.

Enterprise had noticeable arcs from the beginning. S1 of Enterprise was much more arc-driven that S1 of DS9, albeit it was more along the lines of Buffy than B5 (i.e. one big arc per season).

That's just the prevailing trend of television. And now that everything is all primed for binging on netflix, they'd be insane (or, at least, going against received wisdom, which is basically the same thing lol) to roll back to planet of the week. Unfortunately

I don't have a problem with season long arcs. They can do planet of the week while still having an overarching plot line for the season.

TNG kinda did that... like look at Worf.

That was more a character arc which had overarching plot in the background. But yeah, TNG sort of pushed the franchise along in that direction, and got pushback as a result. I can't remember who, maybe it was Berman but I hesitate to pin it on him, but IIRC I think some people didn't like the whole 'let's have a character arc for Worf' thing because it went against the planet of the week formula.

I was having a conversation about a week ago with a friend who commented that you can't do the 20+ episodes a season thing anymore, and I took the dissenting opinion. You can, it just means that TV regresses a bit. Because the reason why seasons have gotten shorter (at least in cable shows) is because character arcs are more closely embedded with the seasonal plot arc, to the point where they can't be easily separated. Especially if you do ensemble shows where you have a large cast of characters who each have character arcs that need attention every episode along with the season plot arc. That's where you get shows like The Wire or the cable TV shows that now routinely win TV awards.

My preference would be in having an overarching plot but flexible enough so you can do planet of the week stuff too. And if it's a network show chances are it'll be in that format.

Stofsk wrote:I was having a conversation about a week ago with a friend who commented that you can't do the 20+ episodes a season thing anymore, and I took the dissenting opinion.

Arrow gets like 22/23 episodes a season, and that thing is highly arc-based. And very well regarded.

Don't most shows still get around 20 episodes a season still? At least with US TV.

You don't see 20+ episodes a season in *puts on monocle* refined and sophisticated cable tv shows

arrow is complete shithouse, though

Stofsk wrote:You don't see 20+ episodes a season in *puts on monocle* refined and sophisticated cable tv shows

I was going to say "it depends on what you mean by cable" but then I realized even some of my beloved USA/TNT shows had less than 20 episodes.

I could also have said that stuff like HBO shows - which actually run for the full hour - probably gets "around" the actual 'show-time' of Network shows with their commercials; but then USA Network, TNT and so on also do commercials and have lower episode counts so there you go.

TBH I'm not sure why you can't do the plot/character arc thing with a longer episode count? It just means they have more stuff going on? I don't know.

I just kind of attribute it to budget and/or the differences in airing needs between Network TV and Cable (especially HBO and the other premium channels). But maybe there's something I'm just not seeing here.

evilsoup wrote:arrow is complete shithouse, though

Quiet you. Arrow is awesome.

Rise Dead Trek thread.

There's a movie coming up! Are we excited?

Also all six series are on Netflix UK. I've been meaning to watch early ds9.

Me and Timmy are gonna go see it next week

New Trek show is coming to netflix so I don't have to pirate it

I stopped playing STO a couple weeks ago and don't really feel too bad about it

I am friends with Doug Drexler on Facebook and yesterday he posted a mini-rant about David Gerrold and David Gerrold replied to him in the comments section and it's like watching your parents argue

Do they have a beef with each other? I thought they were from different time periods? Like Gerrold was TOS and Drexler ds9/vgr/ent

going to see ST:B with Work hopefully next week.

Actually Gerrold worked on TNG. I am almost 100% certain he wrote the series bible. He and a lot of the early writers have legitimate grievances against Gene or more accurately Gene's piece of shit attack dog lawyer.

Doug Drexler worked on TNG (and DS9, Voyager, Enterprise etc) but I vaguely recall he got started on some of the films? I dunno. But yeah they know each other. Drexler was never part of the writing staff though.

Drexler hasn't got the bitter and cynical attitude towards Gene that others do, and it's probably because Gene never fucked him over (coz he was never on the writing staff to GET fucked over). So he'd have nothing but fond memories of the man. Gerrold on the other hand seems like the kind of guy who'd tell you to your face that your shit stinks, rather than ignore how the Emperor wasn't wearing any clothes.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bqm9HSYbf0o

Wow, even for a teaser that CGI is shit. They could have made the video in Goddamn STO and it would look 100x better than that.

And the design is just...bleh. From some angles it looks merely decent, but in other angles it's pretty poopy.

The story, characters and acting had better be fucking top notch or this series will be shit.

so I have heard good things about the new movie, someone said it is like they remembered how to do a star trek movie

but one of the positive reviews also said it was worse than the last two

which might be a good thing because anyone who liked those other two doesn't know what a good star trek movie is

but then again if it is worse than those turds it must really be a stinker


meh who cares maybe i'll watch it when it comes out on VHS

You could just watch it and make up your own mind

adr wrote:meh who cares maybe i'll watch it when it comes out on VHS

when are you going to join us in the 21st century

He fetishises his self-imposed luddism, so the odds of that happening are slim to none.

(The extra is to let everyone know I am being facetious. You do you, adr.)

RogueIce wrote:
Wow, even for a teaser that CGI is shit. They could have made the video in Goddamn STO and it would look 100x better than that.

And the design is just...bleh. From some angles it looks merely decent, but in other angles it's pretty poopy.

The story, characters and acting had better be fucking top notch or this series will be shit.

I must be terrible at judging CGI goodness.

Weirded out they've gone with the Star Trek: Phase II design with the wedge shaped engineering hull. It just looks wrong.

Went and saw the new Trek movie today.

It's several distinct kinds of awesome.

Stofsk wrote:when are you going to join us in the 21st century

when are you going to join me in the 23rd century?????????/

my starship's central computer uses Very High Science data tapes


By "VHS" I mean "cheap home video"... I hate going to theaters, so that is right out, but if I have heard enough good things about a film, I'll give it a try through a borrowed dvd or if i hear REALLY good things, i might even fork out the $4 to amazon stream it.