Star Trek

Books, Movies, Theatre, Lectures Movies, Shows, and Theatre
21

I watched an episode of STNG last night: First Contact. It had a very annoying end but overall it was a great episode with two people who were willing to accept change and adapt, while everyone else on the planet were still convinced that their planet was the center of the universe and meeting aliens would disrupt their entire culture. For the most part the message was pretty good…anti religion and pro change and science - Picard has some good lines.

I’ve always enjoyed Star Trek - my friends have always made fun of me, but I know it is because of it’s pro-life & pro-discovery views that I really enjoy watching it. I’ll always stop on an episode of STNG.

22

Captain Jean-Luke Picard is my hero! Always rational; always calm; even in the face of incredible danger. It seems like some of you are concentrating to much on the negatives; blowing them way out of proportion. Ayn Rand was a fan of Victor Hugo even though their philosophies were very different. It was his ability to create drama and write incredibly descriptive pieces that won Ayn Rand’s respect.

I have wanted to make Jean Luc walk the plank since he gave a free pass to the Crystalline Entity and the Borg. He should have been court marshaled and spaced through an airlock.

Bob Kolker

23

The I, Borg episide is definitely my favorite episode of TNG. That’s the one where Geordi and Beverly manage to teach a captured borg to be an individual. In my mind, that one episode makes up for any other flaws in the series.

24

I’ve always loved Star Trek, mainly for it’s depictions of rational (most-of-the-time), heroic men and women.

Yes, the moral relativism emphasised by the Prime Directive is amongst several problems with the Federation, but, on the whole, the characters who exemplify great values are well-respected and, since the Federation allows all-comers to apply for officer-training, it shows that there is an explicit meritocracy within the system.

My personal favorite episodes from each of the modern series are-

STNG - I’ Borg (for the same reasons as Miss Snow)

DS9 - In Purgatory’s Shadow/By Inferno’s Light (In which Worf is forced to fight in an arena in mortal combat - each victory leading immediately to another, fresh, opponent until Worf faces the commander of the Jem Hadar who continues to brutally drop Worf to the floor. To accept defeat, all Worf must do is stay on the floor but he continues to rise and accept the challenge. In the end, the commander submits in admiration saying, “I can kill him, but I cannot beat him.” Worf would not relinquish his personal honour.)

STV - The Omega Directive (Nice to see the rational side of Seven-of-nine facing the rarely-seen fear of the unknown shown by Starfleet’s Omega Directive.)

STE - It’s been awhile since I saw them, but there are quite a few moments from many of the 3rd/4th seasons worth watching.

25

I grew up likeing “The Next Generation” and really liked that show at the time, generally for it’s positive vision of the future. However as I got a little older the moral relativism and socialist communist stuff *really* started to great on me, but in addition to that, you can see a clear progression in TNG from real plots to “technobabble pseudo plots” where problems arose with mysterious psuedoscientific causes and solutions, instead of real conflicts and challenges that were overcome, until eventually the plot became = to technobabble, see the episode where Wesley defeats the energy thing guarding the water by clacking away on the tricorder. It’s lazy writing, but fans started to love the technobabble so it became a cornerstone of the show.

The final nail in the coffin for Star Trek was Babylon 5, which I think is arguable the best Sci Fi show ever concienved. The author wrote all five seasons out before filming any of the show, and the plot questions revolve around deep philosophical questions, leading up to a great galactic war. The future depicted in B5 isnt a communist utopia but it is clearly progressive, rational, and heroic, and definately not communist. But more than that, the charachters undergo significant growth and change throughout the course of the series, some you start out hating but end up really liking, some go through grand epiphanies, some see their people enslaved. Things that happen in one episode remain relevant to all other episodes, yet each episode is self contained as well. Unlike star trek where soething that happens in one episode is completely disconnected from every other Episode. In B5, JMS (the writer) had a story and a message he wanted to tell, in Star Trek liberal english socialist writers merely sat around tables thinking “ok what are we going to have happen this week?!”

Since then I’ve toned down and come to find a little joy in Star Trek again, but sometimes it’s pretty hard.

Stargate is also an excellent show, I highly recommend that to any sci-fi fans out there.

Additionally I would recommend the Star Destroyer.net link posted previously again as well, the author cites every single instance of shitty moral relativism and communism throughout the series.

I actually posted recently on the forums on StarDestroyer.net about a Star Wars Vs Star Trek animation

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic.php?t=108403

if you are interested in either universe or 3D animation check it out, its in rough draft phase right now but you can see from my posted Star Destroyer pictures the quality of my 3D modeling.

26

I grew up likeing “The Next Generation” and really liked that show at the time, generally for it’s positive vision of the future. However as I got a little older the moral relativism and socialist communist stuff *really* started to great on me, but in addition to that, you can see a clear progression in TNG from real plots to “technobabble pseudo plots” where problems arose with mysterious psuedoscientific causes and solutions, instead of real conflicts and challenges that were overcome, until eventually the plot became = to technobabble, see the episode where Wesley defeats the energy thing guarding the water by clacking away on the tricorder. It’s lazy writing, but fans started to love the technobabble so it became a cornerstone of the show.

Gene Roddenbury was less of a Communist and more of a atheist humanist. So while his vision of the future downplays property and currency, he certainly does not take the Communist rhetoric to back up his ideas. I would agree with the sentiment that while in general very good, TNG did get occasionally too politically correct and technobabble filled. The characters were also more boring and it was after Gene died that all of a sudden the characters were actually allowed to be interesting as opposed to boy scouts.

The final nail in the coffin for Star Trek was Babylon 5, which I think is arguable the best Sci Fi show ever concienved. The author wrote all five seasons out before filming any of the show, and the plot questions revolve around deep philosophical questions, leading up to a great galactic war. The future depicted in B5 isnt a communist utopia but it is clearly progressive, rational, and heroic, and definately not communist. But more than that, the charachters undergo significant growth and change throughout the course of the series, some you start out hating but end up really liking, some go through grand epiphanies, some see their people enslaved. Things that happen in one episode remain relevant to all other episodes, yet each episode is self contained as well. Unlike star trek where soething that happens in one episode is completely disconnected from every other Episode. In B5, JMS (the writer) had a story and a message he wanted to tell, in Star Trek liberal english socialist writers merely sat around tables thinking “ok what are we going to have happen this week?!”

Hmmm… I would think that Objectivists would be much more averse to B5. (I am not an O’ist.) The series tends to have a very positive portrayal of religion, especially with the quote “Faith and Reason are like the shoes on your feet, you go further with both then just one.”

I agree that B5 was helped by its intricate plot but its not a perfect show. A lot of Season 1 is simply unwatchable and there are a lot of episodes which need to be watched for the plot but are just not that good, like “Walkabout.”

There are some very boring characters as well like Sinclair. Even Sheridan is not that engaging. The best three characters were probably Ivanova, G’kar, and Londo. Garibaldi is alright but spends a lot of time just being grumpy. Lennier and Delen are cool though I have always felt that her courtship with Sheridan was rather bland.

Also, although I do love the general over-arching ark in B5 (which has since been a model used very well in Battlestar Galactica) I do think that there is a benefit to having an episodic series. The entire original Star Trek was entirely episodic but that did not make it less of a good show.