Star Trek general discussion (series, films, rumours)

Manny Coto has passed away.

Much like Terry Matalas saved ST: Picard by leaning into the TNG nostalgia aspects, Manny saved ST: Enterprise by mining Trek lore for stories. Under his tenure season 4 was when the show finally figured out how to do a Trek prequel. It will always be a regretful 'what if?' for me that we didn't get his planned fifth season.
 
Manny Coto has passed away.

Much like Terry Matalas saved ST: Picard by leaning into the TNG nostalgia aspects, Manny saved ST: Enterprise by mining Trek lore for stories. Under his tenure season 4 was when the show finally figured out how to do a Trek prequel. It will always be a regretful 'what if?' for me that we didn't get his planned fifth season.

RIP. I've always thought ST:ENT was underrated, I even enjoyed season three which I know a lot of people didn't like the full season story - I think it just needed to be 5-6 episodes shorter.
 
It's the only ST series that isn't currently still running that I've watched end to end (I'm 3/4 my way through Next Generation I think). I genuinely enjoyed it, Scott Bakula is very easy to watch, the theme was great IMO and T'Pol... That said it was a long time ago now, but maybe against some of what's come since it's been elevated for many.
 
I always loved enterprise and it’s good to see it finally getting the recognition it deserved at the time. OK, series 3 wasn’t great, but season 4 was shaping up nicely until it got the can.
 
Disaster episode tonight. Started off with kids on the bridge winning a science prize and I thought this is going to be a bit crap!

Turned out to be one of the best episodes - key bridge crew separated and having to overcome their own problems, Picard finally overcoming his fear of kids and smug Troi having to make some real decisions instead of just floating around the ship "I can feel something, but I don't know what".

Great episode!
 
I’m on the final few episodes of season 7 of TNG, the only ST series apart from TOS I’ve not seen in its entirety. I’ve really enjoyed the trip even the early seasons!

I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to watch TOS. I’ve tried but they’ve not aged well. I especially find the slow tempo awkward. Maybe I’ll manage on an episode a week!
 
Disaster episode tonight. Started off with kids on the bridge winning a science prize and I thought this is going to be a bit crap!

Turned out to be one of the best episodes - key bridge crew separated and having to overcome their own problems, Picard finally overcoming his fear of kids and smug Troi having to make some real decisions instead of just floating around the ship "I can feel something, but I don't know what".

Great episode!

Worf as midwife to Keiko in Ten Forward is one of the best parts of the episode. And serves up a brick joke in DS9 much later on :)

I’m on the final few episodes of season 7 of TNG, the only ST series apart from TOS I’ve not seen in its entirety. I’ve really enjoyed the trip even the early seasons!

I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to watch TOS. I’ve tried but they’ve not aged well. I especially find the slow tempo awkward. Maybe I’ll manage on an episode a week!

There are some that you really should watch for world-building purposes, and some because they're great. And then some you should absolutely feel free to skip because they've either aged badly or didn't work to begin with (looking at you, "The Alternative Factor"!).

As a TOS fan here are the ones that I'd absolutely watch, in this order:

Season One

"The Cage" un-aired pilot, since it sets up SNW.
"Where No Man Has Gone Before", the actual TOS pilot.
"The Corbomite Maneuver", since it was produced next and introduces the rest of the main characters except Chekov
"The Man Trap"
"Balance of Terror"
"The Conscience of the King"
"The Galileo Seven"
"Court Martial"
"The Menagerie" two-parter, uses "The Cage" footage but you need the other episodes first
"Shore Leave"
"The Squire of Gothos"
"Arena"
"A Taste of Armageddon"
"Space Seed", sets up the second film and every plot point to do with Augments in all of Trek
"The Devil in the Dark"
"Errand of Mercy"
"The City on the Edge of Forever"

Season Two

"Metamorphosis", introduces Zefram Cochrane the inventor of warp drive
"Friday's Child"
"Amok Time" for a spot of Vulcan world-building and the best/cheesiest/best and cheesiest fight scene in all of Trek
"The Doomsday Machine"
"Mirror Mirror"
"The Trouble with Tribbles"
"Journey to Babel"
"Obsession"
"The Immunity Syndrome"
"A Piece of the Action"
"The Ultimate Computer"
"Assignment: Earth"

Season Three

"Spectre of the Gun"
"The Enterprise Incident"
[You could watch "Spock's Brain" here simply for the camp value :p]
"The Tholian Web"
"For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
"Whom Gods Destroy"
"The Lights of Zetar"
"All Our Yesterdays"

That cuts out around half of TOS. The remaining episodes, for me, are a mixed bag of 'meh, can take or leave', didn't age well or were truly wretched like "The Alternative Factor" and "The Way to Eden". And definitely watch the remastered show - the model and VFX shots done originally were great for their time, but once you realise for example that the USS Constellation is an AMT model kit Enterprise that's been damaged with a soldering iron it kinda takes you out of the whole deal :p
 
Worf as midwife to Keiko in Ten Forward is one of the best parts of the episode. And serves up a brick joke in DS9 much later on :)
"You cannot. This is not a good time, Keiko."

Worf: "Congratulations, you are fully dilated to ten centimetres. You may now give birth." Keiko: "That's what I've been doing!"

Worf: "The computer simulation was not like this. That delivery was very orderly." Keiko: "Well, I'm sorry!"

Yeah :)
 
S5 underway and already some great episodes:

Redemption
Darmok - thought this was going to be poor, but turned out to be a great episode.
Ensign Ro - yey, i get the reference and who she is now in Picard S3.
Disaster - Troi finally has to make a decision.
The Game - good episodes, but didn't really need to see the crews sex faces and moans of pleasure!
Unification - Spock!!
A Matter of Time - nice twist on the timey wimey stuff. Oh wow, the Professor was Max Headroom!
 
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S5 underway and already some great episodes:

Darmok - thought this was going to be poor, but turned out to be a great episode.

Darmok was exactly what Star Trek was meant to be - encountering a species who live and communicate in a completely different way, and figuring out a way to speak to them through learning and adapting, rather than just saying they’re wrong.

The world could learn a lot from it.
 
New Ground - Worfs son comes on board, bleurgh.

Hero Worship - another kid episode, but was interesting. Kid has a traumatic experience and starts to imitate Data as a coping mechanism.

Violations - son with daddy issues mind rapes the crew. Meh.

Season started well, but has started to dip. Hope it picks back up again.
 
New Ground - Worfs son comes on board, bleurgh.

Hero Worship - another kid episode, but was interesting. Kid has a traumatic experience and starts to imitate Data as a coping mechanism.

Violations - son with daddy issues mind rapes the crew. Meh.

Season started well, but has started to dip. Hope it picks back up again.

You've got some real good ones coming up - but you've got a few bad too.
 
Just finished S5 - 6&7 still to go.

  • Conundrum: When an approaching alien ship wipes their memory, the crew struggles to put back together what happened.

  • The Outcast: quite ahead of its time, non-binary ethics and those displaying these characteristics were medically 'cured'. They bottled the ending though and he-she was medically cured before Riker could intervene. Wrapped it up too easily.

  • Cause and Effect: The Enterprise gets caught in a time loop which always has one result: total destruction of the ship, itself. Very good and Frasier!

  • The Perfect Mate: Xenia Onatopp! Interesting episode too.

  • I-Borg: 3 of 5 becomes Hugh.

  • The Next Phase: A transporter malfunction, combined with a Romulan ship under stress and a damaged cloaking device, creates the illusion that Ensign Ro and Geordi are dead.

  • The Inner Light: Picard awakes to find himself living in a small village where he is a well-known member of the community who is suffering from a delusion of being a starship captain. Wow! Picard lives a lifetime in 25mins. Not sure on the ending though? All the villagers explain what has happened, does this mean they knew all along? Bit mean to do this somebody if they did! Also, this should have effected Picard massively - yet the following episode his experience is totally forgotten.
"From Picard's standpoint, he lived about 30 - 40 real years as someone else, only to be dropped back into his Starfleet life in an instant. Can he even remember how to be Captain after that long? Can he remember procedures and technical details and even the names of people he hasn't seen in decades? How painful his grief must be to have lost his wife years before, then his children. He outlived them all, and nobody else he encounters has any memory of them. In fact, it never really happened at all. Where is a support group for this? Recovering from a Borg assimilation seems almost pedestrian by comparison. He has lost a family, a world and a life. He is further tasked with honoring the wishes of a dead civilization that longed to be remembered. One wonders how a man as private as Picard will be able to tell of these people and share his pain and deal with his grief."

The rest? A bit meh, so many kid stories, yawwwwn.
 
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  • The Next Phase: A transporter malfunction, combined with a Romulan ship under stress and a damaged cloaking device, creates the illusion that Ensign Ro and Geordi are dead.

This and the season 6 episode Timescape are my two favourite TNG episodes. Timescape has a similar feel to The Next Phase, I think you will enjoy that one. There is one moment in Timescape where Patrick Stewarts acting skills will send a shiver down your spine.
 
This and the season 6 episode Timescape are my two favourite TNG episodes. Timescape has a similar feel to The Next Phase, I think you will enjoy that one. There is one moment in Timescape where Patrick Stewarts acting skills will send a shiver down your spine.

The Inner Light: PS said this episode was his most challenging acting episode of all 7 seasons. I thought he was great in this and so looking forward to Timescape :)
 
The Inner Light: PS said this episode was his most challenging acting episode of all 7 seasons. I thought he was great in this and so looking forward to Timescape :)

What I am referring to in Timescape is one particular moment in the episode, which stops you in your tracks and you think just how special Patrick Stewart is acting in this way he does at that moment in a science fiction show on TV. There are decent actors around him in the show of course, Brent Spiner in particular, but when I first saw this particular bit I did wonder if all the other actors in the show where just standing there watching in awe. It is only a brief moment, and it'll be interesting if you can spot the bit I mean.

I've seen Patrick Stewart live in plays a sum total of five times. Safe to say I am a fan.
 
I'm off to Bournemouth Comic con next month.

Meet and greet with Marina Sirtis for £30 :o :o

STTNG is by far my favourite series, so meeting one of the main cast is a Brucey Bonus for me. (it's the only reason I'm going, as the rest of the guest list is pretty junk)
 
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