Speaking of bad Riker episodes how about the one where he was in pajamas for the whole episode going crazy. Wasn’t he in some kind of prison. They recycled that idea again with Picard, but he had to stare at lights the guy couldn’t break him. I think any episode with Lor is usually alright but if Brent Spiner is more than two characters I immediately think it will be shit.
The one where Data has a girlfriend sucks too. While we’re at it, how the fuck could Picard be Worf’s cha’DIch? Was it the Earl Grey that clinched it? Oh yeah any episode of Voyager where the Borg were the monster of the week usually sucks. The one where Janeway debates the Borg queen about 7 of 9 is total shit.
I wouldn’t exactly say it was recycled, the Riker thing was going on the mindfuck angle of him not knowing what was real, the Picard one was just straight Cardassians doing Cardassian things while back on the Enterprise there’s a replacement captain who grates on everybody. But at least he gets Troi out of those hideous outfits and into a uniform.
The base premise is what makes that one more irritating for me, because Picard happened to know something about some fancy waves a supposed Cardassian weapon makes that IIRC didn’t really have anything to do with said weapon’s function he becomes the best choice to be yanked from command and turned into a commando? Instead of maybe getting actual commandos and teaching them about those fancy waves? And even if assuming the Federation being all nice and peaceful doesn’t have any standing special forces, still seems to me the middle aged captain of your flagship shouldn’t be the first guy you tap to infiltrate Outer Heaven and destroy Metal Gear.
it’s so weird that they are returning to this timeframe again and yet this series will almost certainly have very little aesthetic/technological resemblance to any of the three other subfranchises that already basically take place in it (the original series, enterprise, or the jj abrams ones)
so i’ve been watching Voyager for some reason and surprisingly it’s not as horrible as i remember it. i decided to start w season 4 because i stopped watching it before they introduced 7/9, even though i don’t really like her that much i feel like you can also sort of see the show finding its own identity in these episodes. it’s also kind of funny to see how they try in vague ways to tie it in to what was going on contemporaneously with deep space 9.
the problem with voyager is still just that the characters are so bad and poorly defined. and neelix is repulsive and horrible. but i still really like the doctor hologram, he is the only actor that really seems willing to be consistent w/ characterization. with janeway you can really see them straining to keep creating captains that are believably authoritative and smart and yet still continue in the Kirk tradition of being willing to just take insane, stupid risks for the sake of dignity and righteousness or whatever. i actually appreciate that they went full-on with Archer and just made him into a George W Bush-esque cowboy idiot, it’s a good move for the franchise
I do feel most fans of Star Trek would feel the same way if they watched it again. It has it’s problems but it still has Star Trek charm and the Doctor owns.
i’m definitely skipping around a lot, if the netflix description seems too absurd then i just skip it. though that led me to actually watch the episode Retrospect, which is basically a cautionary tale about how hysterical women will unknowingly invent fake memories of assault that end up leaving honest chauvinistic arms dealers no choice but to kill themselves rather than face trial. the end of that episode actually made me really angry, which i think is the point i suppose, but i dunno if we really need to be telling fictional stories that are basically metaphors for the peril of false rape accusations. in spite of being basically ideologically abhorrent it was still pretty well written though, i guess.
My problem with Voyager was them making the Borg the monster of the week, plus they were lost in space. Their mission was basically trying to find a shortcut across the galaxy. Tom Parish was cool and the klingon babe beats 7 of 9 any day. I still think DS9 has the most attractive women of all the Star Trek series…sorry non-sequitur
I didn’t laugh once, referential humor in a Star Trek parody is so lame I’m shocked that it got Greenlight. Why would he even know what a jar is? Aging banana as a demonstration of time dilation, and mocking it… like… god there is a solid dick joke in there that he’s not even looking for.
I think the “lost in space” concept could’ve been compelling with some real arc and continuity. Like imagine ship resources and distance to Earth being actually logical and quantified, and that having a tangible effect on the plot and the emotional state of the characters. But the show mostly preceded that TV trend.
