For Geeks Only.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I guess I'm in the minority, but I never had any interest in Star Trek, j.

I did enjoy William Schatner. He was the character i found amusing.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

I adore Trek. Trekkie from birth, really. Most definitely I will see the new film though I have to admit I am going to go into it with a high amount of skepticism. I'm trying to remain open and unbiased but it's so hard to see someone rebooting such a massive franchise and universe where canon has been laid down for over 40 years. That being said, I'm still excited for the new film. I crave Trek like blood craves oxygen. The cancellation of Enterprise was just depressing...yes, the series kind of blew for a while, but the premise was good and they FINALLY got a good writer to come in that last season and really hit home with some great plotlines. Unfortunately that ship was already half-underwater at that point. Grrrr.

Which show I favor changes from time to time as I go back and watch them again in many reruns and on DVD. Right now I'm in love with DS9. Sometimes I drool over TOS. And occasionally I have a deep love for Voyager. TNG will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the one thing I escaped to most often in high school whenever I had troubles. And honestly, my most favorite Trek episode ever is from the TNG series ("The Inner Light" for those who know/care).

As far as the films...I think Undiscovered Country is the one I'm most drawn to these days. Used to be Wrath of Khan but that has grown stale over time unfortunately. I'm still a firm believer in the "odds are crap, evens are good" theory, though that doesn't explain Nemesis, which ate complete shit (but was still a step or two above Insurrection IMO). But anyway.

Like you, J, I love the moral issues and philosophical debates, the ideas and science and technobabble that spills from every episode. But above all else, I love it for the eternal optimism that Gene Roddenberry infused into his vision of a Trek future, and the fantastic things we can learn about ourselves as human beings and how we turn that outwards towards other races and exploring the universe. That's why "The Inner Light" is my fave episode. I just thought the entire idea of a whole race of people going extinct but being remembered through Picard's experiencing them via his life as Kamin was beautiful. I actually bid on that damn flute during the Trek memorabilia auction two years ago but the price got too steep for my blood. :)

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Excellent post, Amanda!

I watched all 7 seasons of DS9 on DVD in a flurry a couple of years ago.  I liked its darker tone and how a lot of the storylines were actual season and series long arcs and not just self-contained like TNG.  Characters like Garak, Dukat, and going to Quark's bar has always appealed to me.

TNG probably has the best ensemble cast.  I love Worf and his prune juice.

VOY always felt like TNG-lite, but I do enjoy it, especially Seven of Nine ;).

I have seen all of the films and like Kahn and Undiscovered Country the best. 

I have only seen a handful of episodes from the original series and Enterprise.  Even though it gets bashed a lot, I am going to order Enterprise Season One on DVD tomorrow.  Love me some Jolene Blalock!

These shows are pure escapism at its finest and sometimes make you think about life differently.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Couldn't have said it better myself, J. :)

I'm actually rewatching DS9 right now. :) I think DS9 had a hard time gaining audiences the first time around because it launched while TNG was still on the air, and a great number of people were very very much into TNG, and DS9 felt so completely different, it threw folks off. I remember during Trek conventions at that time, there was heavy emphasis placed on TNG and DS9 was kind of an afterthought.

I have to admit when it first came on, I had to force myself to watch every week because it was just so different in style and tone. But I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a fantastic show...and it had Garak! I mean, really. If I had to give people just one single reason to watch it, Garak would be it. :D

You won't be disappointed with Enterprise. I mean, altogether it's a good show with great promise. The 2nd and 3rd seasons were just...hm. It felt like most episodes were a struggle to come up with something else for the cast to do. There were some plot lines and story arcs that were terrible and some that were just plain boring. The last season showed so much promise...at that point they had brought Manny Coto on to do the bulk of the writing, along with some other newer blood, but. Show was already on the chopping block and ratings couldn't get high enough by mid-season. It was almost as big a bummer as when TNG finally bowed out.

Favorite part of Enterprise has to be the Andorians...especially Shran. Jeffrey Combs is still my geek girl crush from years back. :D Manny Coto has gone on record saying that 5th season would have seen the integration of Shran into the Enterprise crew...not sure how I feel about that entirely. Part of the charm of the character was having him just randomly appear and have fantastic banter with Archer. Having him on all the time could have possibly just diluted him or made the show irritating. Dunno. Either way, sad we didn't get to find out for ourselves...

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

amanda's opinions about trek are pretty flawless

it's all about TOS, 6, ds9, and the last season of enterprise

i have a growing affection for star trek 3, which i'm pretty sure is based solely upon christopher lloyd and shatner's reaction when david is murdered. if you don't get a lump in your throat when his ass misses that chair, you're proooooobably a bad person

i keep trying to give a shit about the new movie, but i cant really get excited. the only thing i'm really in it for is simon pegg as scotty. the one thing i'll say for the new movie is that 9 times out of 10 if nimoy is involved on a creative level it's pretty awesome, and from what i understand he's assisting with the plot or something.

I bought Enterprise Season One this morning!

I want to serenade each and every one of you with the opening credits theme song.  I'm serious.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I get off on subspace anomalies, level one diagnostics, warp cores, ready rooms, and temporal vortexes.

When they use dialogues chock full of this gibberish, I shout hells yeah!

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

 she looks like a hot chick that took a bat to the face, like when i used to smush my sister's barbie doll heads

i can't stand voyager, but i will say it had a pretty damn good theme song. DS9's sounds completely generic to me. the tng/TOS movies theme will always be the best theme to me

does anyone else really dislike tng? last time i went back and tried to watch some of it, it's actually pretty terrible 90% of the time. i mean we all remember the good ones but even stuff that SHOULD be good like Unification is bland as all hell 

I am currently watching Season 4 of TNG and it is very hit and miss, although I think the first 2 seasons were the worst with the craptastic Dr Pulaski and Tasha Yar.  TNG 3-7 are pretty good.

Jeri Ryan looks like  a Barbie doll.

The EMH was frakkin' awesome on Voyager.

Some of the guest actors are atrocious on the shows though.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"To boldly go where no geek has gone before..."

With the caveats that I've not seen any of Enterprise, very little of Voyager, and probably less than half of the movies, I'm with you cool, "Wraith..." and DS9.

I found the other movies to be pretty silly.  The last one I saw was First Contact and I had trouble getting past the queen of the borg.  I mean isn't the whole point of the borg that there are no individuals?  I don't think I've seen any since then which is basically what happened after I saw The Voyage Home, I couldn't get past the 'Screwus Ex Machina' giant space ship at the beginning.

DS9 for many of the reasons that have already been articulated plus it has my favorite ST captain in Sisko and, in my opinion, the hottest ST hottie in Jadzia.

Star Trek 'vanilla' and TNG seem pretty cheesy when I see them any more but, of course, I still watch them when I have a chance.

That's it, beam me up.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

The Borg Queen has always been a bit of a conundrum in the Star Trek canon. Her introduction in First Contact pissed off a huge portion of the Trek community. The character was created to give the Enterprise a specific villain to combat. Another genius move by those who continued to rape the Trek franchise after Roddenberry's death (his original concept of the Borg was that they were a hive species; at no time did he indicate that they were controlled by a single entity within the collective).

As the Borg Queen tries to explain in First Contact, she is there to bring order to chaos. She in essence acts as a controller and representative of the Borg collective. Though she seems to be an individual, if you look at the greater picture the entire collective acts from her outwards. In other words, her thoughts and actions ripple out to the collective and together they act as one. Her origins are a little hazy, though she does sort of give an explanation of that by saying that she is the beginning and the end. So common thought is that she is the first Borg from which the first wave of Borg drones was created.

Another theory is that she was selected from the drones to be a representative and her role is constantly refreshed as the Queen is destroyed by enemies. I subscribe to the first theory, as the second theory would suggest that the Borg exercise individual thought in selecting a representative. The problem with that though is that in Voyager we see the Borg Queen returning after having been destroyed in First Contact and I believe she is destroyed at least once and returns again during Voyager as well. Piss poor planning on Berman and Braga's part. Assholes. All in all, the writers of the film were intentionally vague in creating explanations regarding the Borg Queen's origin and presence.

Regardless, the Borg were a great antagonist introduced in TNG and subsequently watered down to piss in Voyager. Where they were once a bit frightening, they became nothing more than cheap plotline fodder. That will always piss me off. I enjoyed First Contact in that it really addressed the effect that being assimilated had on Picard, someone who we always saw as being this sort of rock upon which others could lean. While I'm not a fan of the "let's make the strong character suddenly go crazy" concept (see: final episode of M*A*S*H...OMG...) I think in this case it was well done.

The presence of the Borg Queen is the only thing that really sullies it in any way, but having her to play off of Data's "I wish I were a human individual" Pinocchio syndrome was OK. Though I don't know about anyone else, but by the end of that movie, I was beyond tired of having to deal with good Data/evil Data/emotional Data. Brent Spiner should have been told to go fuck himself, as his constant need to keep him and his character at the forefront of the TNG cast really created some sore spots. His whole emotion chip subplot made Generations just that much more unpleasant. Ugh.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Ah, but it's only the first few eps of the first season. :) The fun doesn't start until later.

Hoshi does become less irritating later on but I personally never cared for the character at all. Though at least they try to make her more consequential, unlike poor Travis who is practically a red shirt the entire series.

Fear not...there will come a day when you look at Scott Bakula and think nothing but "Captain Archer". Took me a while as well.

The slow version of the theme song is still unbelievably stupid. I will stand my ground with that. The faster version they use beginning...3rd season? Can't recall. Anyway, it's much more tolerable. I never said the theme song was complete shite, nor did I say the title sequence was shite either. The lyrics and images are perfect for the series. I just take exception to the Diane Warren-ness that the original version carries. You'll see what I mean when you finally start watching episodes with the updated theme.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

I love talking about Star Trek on here with you, Amanda!  I loved your craving Trek/oxygen-blood analogy!

I am going to watch episode 4 tonight. 

Don't get mad if I climb a mountain because of the Enterprise theme song.

I get pumped when I see your superlong posts on here.  Are you a canon junkie?  Some people are freaking about Trek XI.

I like Trip's good ole boy accent (he is the Sawyer of ENT), T'Pols smashed face, and haven't seen enough of Phlox yet to decide.  I did hear Mayweather hardly ever does anything important and has little screen time on the series.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Kirk: Mr Scott we need those disbelief suspenders online in the next five minutes or this movie is doomed!

Scotty: I'm tryin Cappin but they are stressed beyond all reason!

Kirk: Dammit Scotty stop talking and get working, Mr. Spock get down to conception and beat some sense into those writers! 

Spock: It would be my pleasure...

Kirk: MOVE YOU IDIOT!  Mr. Sulu, plot a course past that Pulsar, if we can't baffle 'em with bullshit maybe we can dazzle them with brilliance!"

Well I'm still unsure of the queen of the Borg but I know who is the queen of the TP geeks!  All hail Amanda!  Long live the queen!  Oh, and thanks for the analysis.

"It's not so bad as long as you can keep the fear from your mind." - D. Cooper

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." - P. Atreides

"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe" - L. tzu

LOL I don't think I'd consider myself the Queen much, but I'm definitely a Trek geek. :) The whole Borg Queen thing does irritate me much. I was so pleased when I learned that the Trek community in general felt the same way. I mean, I appreciate what the writers were trying to do by creating the character, but to me it not only created too many questions, it also worked to water down the Borg. They were much more frightening and menacing when you thought they were just this big collective that mercilessly took over the universe with one like mind. Knowing that there's a Queen behind it makes it just seem like a giant army with a supreme commander. Not so menacing anymore. It reduced the Borg to nothing more than the henchmen for the universe's most egotistical bully.

Still, I think that First Contact is hands-down the best of the TNG films and I love that they made Zefram Cochrane out to be nothing more than a genius drunkard who invented warp drive as a way to just make money. It was so amusing to see people like Geordi fawning over him and him just getting really irritated and overwhelmed by the fame. And I LOVE the interaction between Lily Sloane and Picard where she just basically calls him on his shit because his own crew has too much respect for him and his position to really put him rightfully in his place. (though Worf gets close to it in the scene where Picard insults him and Worf says "If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand!")

I'm not a HUGE canon junkie but I do believe in trying to maintain consistency throughout a series' (or in this case, an entire universe's) existence. I'm not crazy about Trek XI and I hesitate to even refer to it as "XI" as this would indicate that it belongs within the Trek film franchise and I have a nagging feeling that it won't. That being said, it will be interesting to see how closely the film tries to stick with Trek canon and how much creative liberty they'll try to take. They stray too far and they will lose the support of most of the Trek community.

I think they fear sticking too close to canon though because it may alienate possible new or casual viewers. I call BS on that because it wouldn't be that difficult to make a Trek film that doesn't contain so much technobabble and insider knowledge that it would put people off. It's a matter of trying, and sometimes I don't think the Trek powers that be really want to try that hard. They could have done better with Nemesis and they failed miserably. They allowed Spiner to have too much power over the script, and it showed. The whole B-4 plotline was ridiculous and made Data's death just a complete laughable joke. I didn't even cry when he died because I was so angry that we'd been duped in such a manner. Ugh.

I fully support your decision to make passionate love to the Enterprise theme song. In all fairness, the images and lyrics perfectly capture the essence of what Enterprise was supposed to be all about. It bothers me greatly that the series just wasn't given enough of a fair shake by the writers, producers, studio, fans...well, fans were there. We've always been there, even through really bad scripts (of which there are decidedly many all across the five series'). Enterprise became just another casualty in today's ratings race...we see it with many good shows that for one reason or another don't garner a huge audience but do garner a small, very loyal audience.

I realise networks have to pay attention to ratings because a show's popularity directly relates to ad revenue...but it's gotten to a point where networks aren't even trying anymore. They float a show out there and hope for the best, and as soon as things waver, they yank it. No attempts to salvage or ask for better scripts or strike a deal with the studios. Someone bangs the gong and you're done. Who knows where the Trek universe would be right now had the series been allowed to continue? We wouldn't be seeing the Trek film coming out this year. It would be a different film with the Enterprise cast and probably a really good script. I think it would have been the first "first" film in the franchise to not have the "first film sucks ass but it all gets better from here" stigma. I really do.

I really like Phlox as a character. Then again, I've always had a fetish for Trek doctors. :) The great thing about Phlox is that he has a very pragmatic approach to his role on the ship. He doesn't bleed compassion like previous doctors but he doesn't maintain that stiffness that the Doctor on Voyager had for a while. He's just very...so. I appreciate that.

The one thing that tickles me most about Enterprise is that it shows how flawed the Vulcans really were and how they behaved in an extremely human manner even though they purported to be very different from the humans. They are arrogant and domineering, yet they hide behind a veneer of logic and superior control over emotions. There are points in the series where they are caught with their pants down a bit. It's wonderful. :) For so long we knew Vulcans as the sages of the universe, being very peaceful, logical, intelligent...to see them as flawed and near-human...it's lovely. :D

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

She is attractive, but I have never understood the fascination with Jadzia Dax.  She is average in my book.

Amanda, do you know if any of the ST actors in the shows or films have monster egos and were a problem or maybe ruined some shows or films?  I have heard these things about Shatner and Spiner the most.

The crew with the some of the weakest cast members IMO was Voyager.  It had my least favorite captain and Kim and Paris sucked.

The Search for Spock is underrated.

I want Troi for some bizarre reason.

Random thoughts by an ADD sufferer.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Spiner is (or rather, was) the biggest ego in the Trek universe. The bulk of the ego-trip stories you hear are about him and his demands as far as how his character is portrayed and demanding script changes before he would sign some of his film contracts. I know Patrick Stewart has demanded script changes before but his were along the lines of "what you've written is so completely far removed from what my character would do, I think you need to change it or I'm not comfortable with being on this project." Granted he still sounds a big egotistical but I kind of hand it to him because he's the superior actor to Spiner and had a very crucial character to look after.

Spiner's constant demands were to change and "grow" the character of Data because Spiner wanted to be allowed to do something other than act like an android. Which, duh, his character is a fucking android...what did he expect? It's Trek...personal growth is kind of a back-burner concept in the Trek universe. Some characters need it, most don't. Data didn't need the personal growth spurt that came from that damned emotion chip. Ugh. UGH. All he did was create unnecessary comedy.

I do have to say though, Spiner is one hell of a stage actor. If you ever get a chance to see him on Broadway or in a musical of any sort, he is phenomenal. I remember seeing him in "Sunday in the Park with George" with Bernadette Peters (a personal fave of mine) back in the...late 80's I think? And he was just awesome. So. He's good for something. (though thankfully, he finally admitted after the debacle that was Nemesis that he was really just too old to play Data any longer...THANKS BRENT) One of my friends met him this past year while working at the Vegas Trek con and said he's definitely more chill and personable than he had been in the past. Yay.

Shatner definitely had a bit of ego and rubbed people the wrong way behind the scenes, which shows in how some of his former castmates speak of him. George Takei isn't afraid to be very blunt about how he hasn't really cared for the way Shatner has behaved over time. They are still blandly cordial to one another, but you can see the animosity here and there. I think the rest of the cast tolerated Shatner because, you know, it's Shatner. He grew decidedly less egotistical over time because his pull as the big cheese of Trek really dwindled with the introduction of TNG. But still. He was a turd-burglar for a time.

Overall, I've heard that behind the scenes on most of the Trek series', people were actually pretty groovy. TOS is the only one where you hear about Shatner's antics as head jerkoff. Even with Spiner's ego, I've heard many a TNG actor say that they were like a big fun family on set. Subsequent series casts stated the same thing. Granted they could be saving a bit of face, but I don't think so. Over time, someone would finally speak up. I think if anything, those needing the ego stroke knew when and where to launch their personal agendas and kept it away from situations where it would make it uncomfortable to work with their fellow actors.

As far as behaviors by the Trek actors that I have personally witnessed...the only actor I found to be very unpleasant and not at all what I'd come to expect was Marina Sirtis. She seemed kind of lovely at first when she began speaking to the crowd...she has a fantastic accent and a sharp wit. But during the course of the hour she talked to us, she grew to be more unpleasant and a bit snippy with people who asked questions. A couple of times she said "Why would I know that? I don't know that!" I mean, come on. Granted fans ask some ridiculous questions sometimes, but fuck. Have a little decorum.

She was just as unpleasant when we approached her for an autograph during the scheduled signing period afterwards. She didn't really say anything and just acted as though she wanted to get the hell out of there and not be dealing with it at all. It was the most uncomfortable celeb meeting I've ever had aside from my Julee Cruise debacle.

Aside from her, all the other Trek actors I ever met were very cordial and took the time to give honest answers to the fans and give talks that felt warm and comfortable and not rushed or rehearsed. I think one of the loveliest actors I met was Roxanne Dawson. It was just after the first season of Voyager had ended and she was just so happy to be in a room with people who wanted to know things about her and talk to her about her work. She said she felt very fortunate to be working on such a fun show in such a great franchise, and she took the time to take photos, answer questions, sign multiple items (I had her sign a pic for my father because he thought her character was so cool, and then a magazine for me), and thank each fan for coming. She was a really dear person.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

Thanks for all the inside info!

I have been watching Enterprise and will be up to Episode 7 The Andorian Incident of Season One tonight.

I have enjoyed it so far except for one uber stinker, Unexpected.  WTF?!??! Trip pregnant?  The actors even looked uncomfortable in this episode even when they were trying to act out humorous scenes.  This is my nomination for worst episode of season and maybe series.

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper