Star Trek

[EricJ]

I don't know anyone who ever bought Prime just for the video service--
Like Instant Netflix used to be something you got free with the discs, most Prime customers think of it as something you get as a bonus for the Free Shipping. (Of DVD/Blu's.)

And for those saying "Why doesn't CBS Access just give up and call itself the 'Star Trek Network', as nobody ever buys it for any other reason?", well, that's now their new idea they're promoting in the marketing:
They've already included the Paramount streams of TOS, TNG, Enterprise and the Movies, although thankfully not "exclusive", as you can still catch those on Netflix and Prime.

[Randall]

Discovery is AWESOME, Vi. Check it out somehow, if you can. It's sophisticated, unpredictable, and has a great cast. I bought the Blu-ray sets, which might be how I end up seeing Picard someday.

[ShyViolet]

Thanks for the info Rand! . I’m really glad to know that.

[James]

Discovery is AWESOME, Vi. Check it out somehow, if you can. It's sophisticated, unpredictable, and has a great cast. I bought the Blu-ray sets, which might be how I end up seeing Picard someday.

I've always been a Star Trek over Star Wars man. But I heard the first season had nudity, cursing, and was overly violent which completely put me off it. Can't judge it because I haven't seen a minute of it. But if that's true, it would feel like a complete repudiation of why people love Trek. (Not being prudish here: I have no problem with nudity, cursing, and violence in other shows/movies. But that's not Star Trek.)

[droosan]

I worked on VFX for the 2-part pilot episode of Star Trek: Discovery .. and was rather unhappy with (what should have been) a 'dream job'. I can't say much more than that, due to NDAs .. but I was left completely 'incurious' to ever check out the ongoing ST:D series.

Funnily enough, I had the exact same experiences with the Battlestar Galactica revival and Firefly, many years ago (worked on VFX for their pilot episodes, was convinced they were both terrible pilots .. and never watched those series, either).

I've never been able to truly enjoy 'just watching' anything I've worked on, it seems ..

[Ben]

I can totally relate. Being on "the other side" does have its down points.

[Randall]

I prefer Trek over Wars, myself. (Sorry, Ben!) Just my preference for science fiction over science fantasy, basically.

I don't recall all those things you mentioned, James. I think one would really have to be a prude to find anything in Discovery that objectionable. Jolene Blalock's formfitting costume in Enterprise, or Seven of Nine's appearance in Voyager, were much more pandering to male libido than anything I recall in Discovery. And the violence has been no worse than anything the films ever gave us. (And if there was swearing, it made no impact on me. I certainly don't recall anything too strong.) I would say your concerns are unfounded. Having said that... Discovery does not feel like any Trek before it. It is much more sophisticated in many ways, and makes much of previous Trek look simplistic in comparison, though I like it all. (It very much feels closer to the recent films than any prior shows.) I have enjoyed Discovery immensely. The concepts and plot twists have been great, and the effects just unreal. The toughest part in some ways was adjusting to the new designs for the Klingons.

Sorry you didn't enjoy the job, Droo. I can certainly see how a bad experience can color your desire to watch. As you likely heard, lots of us loved BG and Firefly, too.

[James]

Might give it a go then!

I could have sworn that early reviews mentioned sex scenes with nudity, f-bombs, and gore. Which, like I said, I have no issue with in other properties. But that's not Star Trek, and if anyone wanted to add that in then they're tossing away longtime fans to try to pander to a different audience. Lots of sci-fi has that stuff. No need to make Star Trek into something else -- just go watch something else!

[Randall]

I agree with that.

Googling this issue, it looks like there was one instance of a bare-breasted Klingon (which was a prosthetic), but that is certainly not the norm for the show. That same brief scene has her raping a male human, which certainly goes beyond what Trek has shown before in terms of violence (but not in story, as there is precedent for coerced mating in STTNG, though it was not portrayed as violently). Fortunately, the scene is brief, but rightfully upsetting. Make no mistake, this show is not for little kids, though that rape scene is a single one, and not emblematic of the show--- any more than every episode of Blossom was "a very special episode." Discovery is considered to be "a hard PG-13," so it does skew more adult than typical TV Trek. But it is not "R" rated, and for the most part, it is just great sci-fi.

[droosan]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the job, Droo. I can certainly see how a bad experience can color your desire to watch. As you likely heard, lots of us loved BG and Firefly, too.

That's why I'd made certain to mention those other two shows; I wanted to make the point that my own opinion on ST:D (colored entirely by 'behind the scenes' politics/experiences) was fully separate from the general audience's perceived quality of the series.

Also -- although I had a happier experience on the project -- in the brief time I'd worked on Avatar, in its earliest 'pre-visualization' phase .. I was (personally) not certain the movie would be any sort of success.

I'm no great judge of what movie/TV audiences want, is what I'm saying ..

[ShyViolet]

100% Star Trek girl here. (For one the tie-in novels are infinitely better.)




This is really funny though! (A few swears but overall OK.) It was posted about six months before TFA.

(The Riker leg thing is because there are tons of memes now about how Riker/Frakes was always putting his leg on everything, plus sitting on chairs in a weird way. Apparently he had a bad back from an injury in his youth, which resulted in him standing/sitting like that. It's basically considered incredibly cool by many fans.)


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Also, I'm sorry you didn't have the greatest time on ST: Discovery Droo, but that's just SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME that you got to work on it!

[Randall]

Well, I quite enjoyed that video.

[ShyViolet]

I’m glad!

[Ben]

Everything is so true...on both sides! The thing is, both ST and SW are not that fundamentally different. For all their good and great points, they have have dumb and dumber points.

And here’s the thing...I never actually said I prefer one over the other! All I did was express surprise that James came out and said he preferred Trek over Wars, since I’d had him down as more a Wars nerd than a Trek one. Me? I like 'em both about equally, at different times and for different reasons. Wars is something that I perhaps get more "excited" about because it can surprise and frustrate in equal measure, but Trek is like coming back to family, warm and cosy where, despite getting hairy at times, you know things are going to be okay.

Both take me back to childhood, of course. I remember distinctly taping Star Wars off the TV when they made a big deal of showing it in 1982, which may have been the first time I saw it. My Dad, having just worked on Empire, was more excited than I was, but I remember not being too crazy about it that first time! Maybe it was because he’d tasked me with pause-button control when the adverts came on, to cut them out of our taping!? I had maybe already seen Empire Strikes Back by then, too, which we’d had on tape and I had watched a few times. By then I was well into Tron, though, so it wasn’t until maybe 1993, when we ran original prints of the original films at an Elstree Star Wars Day (the last time they were shown anywhere in their original form!) that I *really* appreciated them as "new" experiences (although I had seen them all on the big screen when they came out, Empire at a studio screening, Star Wars eventually with an Empire double bill, and Jedi on regular release).

But Trek had always kind of been there, although I don’t think I saw a film version until part IV, which was the first (and only?) time it really kind of crossed over into the mainstream. Before that, though, I remember being seven or eight and being traumatised by The City On The Edge Of Forever at my "girlfriend’s" house where I went back after school sometimes (this is also where I discovered Harold Lloyd, through the compilation clip show that was hugely popular then...ahh, back when you could run old "silent" black and white clips as kids entertainment and we used to lap it up!). So I’d known the Trek series but saw the films in a funny order: IV, I think, III, the first, then II, although I’d vaguely seen II before III...I know it bizarrely took me ages to finally see III for some reason. And then, of course, TNG became ritual viewing (my sister and I actually singing "this...is the meaning of life!" to the title theme!), and into DS9. I think things started to wane by Voyager, but by then Wars was back and disappointing too, eventually leading to a point where I can enjoy both and recognise them both for what they are, strengths and weaknesses and all.

But Star **** rules.

[EricJ]

And besides, the question of which is "nerdier", Wars or Trek, immediately becomes academic when an Avatar fan enters the discussion.