Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Literature, Music, Art & Entertainment => Topic started by: Harrowby Hall on February 01, 2020, 08:32:05 AM
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Something for the Trekkies.
Have you missed whirling through the cosmos at warp factor 8 in a starship loaded with exponentially multiplying tribbles?
Jean-Luc Picard retired from Starfleet as an admiral, is grieving over the "death" of his dear friend Data and now makes wine on his French estate. He is visited by a young woman whom he realises is Data's daughter. Before his eyes, she is murdered by a group of renegade Romulans dedicated to ridding the universe of synthetic life forms. Picad decides to rejoin Starfleet and avenge his friend.
The first two episodes are now available on Amazon Prime Video. I shall say no more except that they must have used a whole warehouse of computers to produce the special effects and that the credits name the Executive Producer as Sir Patrick Stewart.
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Watched them both - I'm not convinced as yet: to me Picard is portrayed as being too frail, with slightly quivery voice, to boldly go anywhere even slightly risky.
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But that is probably the point ....
I must admit that I am puzzled by the death of Data. Didn't he become Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge?
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But that is probably the point ....
I must admit that I am puzzled by the death of Data. Didn't he become Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge?
Ah....continuity, not treks strongest suit. Data "died" in the last film in the Next Gen sequence "Nemesis" - the reference to Data being a professor was earlier in the TV series.
Anyway, Picard. Saw the first one and was pleasantly surprised. It is certainly a good deal better than "Discovery" which also provides further lapses in continuity - Spock had a half sister? Since when? Since Alex Kurtzman and Fuller (the creator and writers of Discovery) needed a peg to tie Discovery to.
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Possibly Picard is intended to be more of a slow burn series, with less warping off to distant planets at the drop of a phaser.
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Dunno about this, as I don't have Netflix. However, I've read the ST: Destiny trilogy, which shows what happened to the Borg, and as an incidentalk, that Picard married Crusher and had a child. Is she part of the mx in the nesw strand?
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Dunno about this, as I don't have Netflix. However, I've read the ST: Destiny trilogy, which shows what happened to the Borg, and as an incidentalk, that Picard married Crusher and had a child. Is she part of the mx in the nesw strand?
Minor detail but Picard is on Amazon Prime. Discovery is on Netflix.
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I've kept at it and found the last couple of episodes much better. Interesting piece of casting with Harry Treadaway which recalls his Frankenstein in Penny Dreadful
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Finally got around to finishing this off yesterday. A plot that could probably have been told in half the time and still maintained its key elements.
The ending now leaves them free to warp off in any direction.
Strangely after my initial reactions I have to reverse my previous thoughts and admit to enjoying Discovery much more than Picard. Especially now that Captain Pike has shown up at the beginning of the 2nd run of Discovery.
Perhaps, Picard will pick up during its second run.
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Finally got around to finishing this off yesterday. A plot that could probably have been told in half the time and still maintained its key elements.
The ending now leaves them free to warp off in any direction.
Strangely after my initial reactions I have to reverse my previous thoughts and admit to enjoying Discovery much more than Picard. Especially now that Captain Pike has shown up at the beginning of the 2nd run of Discovery.
Perhaps, Picard will pick up during its second run.
I would agree Picard was less than the sum of its parts. Discovery defeated me sometime in the middle of the 2nd season. My rewatch of TNG has been enjoyable though.
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Just to update this thread - I finished watching ST: Discovery a while ago. I posted this review over on IMDB:
OK first, for all those Berman haters - I bet you wish he was around now! This is dreadful, I have really tried to like it but it is impossible. Let me say that I don't think it is the characters in the main, yes Burnham does come across as cold and perfect, but to redress that you have the wonderful (to me) Tilly and the marvellous Saru and an excellent Captain Pike. Three reasons to watch the show. Sadly the characters are the least of the shows problems.
It's the story stupid. Red Angels, mycelial network bollocks, inserting klingons into humans, reconstrucitng dead Culber from spores, himself, his memory (I haven't really got a clue). Enough stop already. I can suspend disbelief along with the best, but this is the best they can do?
SFX good enough but with the amount thrown at the show they should be.
I don't even think the so-called PC nature of the show is an issue. I want strong women characters and gay characters if they interact like real characters, these don't. It all comes back to the script, clearly written in a hurry by committee whilst either inhaling or injecting some substance or other. Admittedly it works for some artists. Just no for this bunch of under-achieving script writers.
3 stars for SFX and some of the characters. I may be being generous.
I have obviously revised my opinion of this show since I last posted here.
The good news (or possibly not) is that another spin off is planned called "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" based around Pike, Spock and Number 1. They are promising that this will go back to a more episodic format. Wait and see I guess.
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I enjoyed Star Trek with the original cast, but it went down hill after that, imo.
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Just to update this thread - I finished watching ST: Discovery a while ago. I posted this review over on IMDB:
I have obviously revised my opinion of this show since I last posted here.
The good news (or possibly not) is that another spin off is planned called "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" based around Pike, Spock and Number 1. They are promising that this will go back to a more episodic format. Wait and see I guess.
I’m afraid that when the pre Kirk world of the federation was not faithfully reproduced that just about wrapped discovery up for me. To see how that should be done please refer to the fan film series Star Trek the new voyages and the absolutely brilliant Star Trek Continues.
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I’m afraid that when the pre Kirk world of the federation was not faithfully reproduced that just about wrapped discovery up for me. To see how that should be done please refer to the fan film series Star Trek the new voyages and the absolutely brilliant Star Trek Continues.
I have seen some of the early ones of these, I'm afraid the quality of the acting in the ones I've seen defeated me - is Captain Kirk played by Vic Mignolia or some such name?
The SFX were fine and some of the stories were ok, but the acting, oh dear.
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I have seen some of the early ones of these, I'm afraid the quality of the acting in the ones I've seen defeated me - is Captain Kirk played by Vic Mignolia or some such name?
The SFX were fine and some of the stories were ok, but the acting, oh dear.
I beg to differ over the acting. Vic Mignogna is a good actor and love him as much as I do....Shatner is, Er, unique. So for Mignogna to do almost the full Shatner was for me a nice piece of acting.
Shatner and Blessed are equivalent imho.
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The Enterprise really exists I've stood on the deck some time ago at the science museum and oh yes I took my two boys along with me.
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The Enterprise really exists I've stood on the deck some time ago at the science museum and oh yes I took my two boys along with me.
Which one? NX01,
Enterprise 1701 A, B, C, D orE?
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I enjoyed Star Trek with the original cast, but it went down hill after that, imo.
It really didn't.
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Which one? NX01,
Enterprise 1701 A, B, C, D orE?
Dunnow but it was a real one!
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It really didn't.
Agreed.
Just watching DS9 on DVD - again - and still think it's the best ST series.
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Agreed.
Just watching DS9 on DVD - again - and still think it's the best ST series.
Well, we agree for slightly different reasons. I prefer TNG. I know DS9 is the better scripted and planned but it doesn't make me want to watch it the way TNG did/does still!
And on a good day Voyager (OK it didn't have too many) knocks it out of the park too. A prime example being the 2-parter "Equinox".
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Well, we agree for slightly different reasons. I prefer TNG. I know DS9 is the better scripted and planned but it doesn't make me want to watch it the way TNG did/does still!
And on a good day Voyager (OK it didn't have too many) knocks it out of the park too. A prime example being the 2-parter "Equinox".
Voyager was the best series of those that I've seen. I have, however, only seen a few episodes of DS9 and two episodes of Discovery.
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Voyager was the best series of those that I've seen. I have, however, only seen a few episodes of DS9 and two episodes of Discovery.
Voyager was my favourite but in the end I think the return to Earth was kind of rushed. In reflection I now think DS9 was better. It seemed somehow more complete. Sisko and his interaction with the Prophets were the episodes I liked the most.
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Agreed.
Just watching DS9 on DVD - again - and still think it's the best ST series.
It's all subjective, of course, but I thought DS9 was shite.
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Transgender and non binary characters for Discovery
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54012463
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Transgender and non binary characters for Discovery
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54012463
In a universe where two crew members can metamorphose into large newt like animals and then back again (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Threshold_(episode)), transgender is a walk in the park.
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In a universe where two crew members can metamorphose into large newt like animals and then back again (https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Threshold_(episode)), transgender is a walk in the park.
I don't have to look at the link to know what that is about. Star Trek didn't really have a great record with evolution episodes
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What I would like to know is how the federation went from needing only half a dozen unlabelled buttons to fly a shuttle craft say to needing two dozen labelled switches and accompanied dials and displays.
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Transgender and non binary characters for Discovery
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54012463
Just to update this thread re: Discovery. The 3rd series is about half way through at the moment, and it is, for me anyway, a vast improvement. Something has clearly gone on behind the scenes and the scripts are much better (although still far too much emoting) and there are many more links to previous iterations of trek.
The most recent episode was called "Unification III" (a sort of follow up to TNG Unification 2-parter) and even managed to squeeze Leonard Nimoy in. Very enjoyable.