It's taken over ten years but Star Trek is finally back on the telly (well, Netflix) in the form of Star Trek: Discovery.
The show does a really good job of bringing Trek up to date, whilst having to navigate the minefield of fifty years of history. Aside from one or two minor niggles, such as the Klingons being subtitled for added "realism", I loved it. The sets and costumes are stunning and the detail is amazing in HD.
This Trekkie is very happy! :)
I do not have a TV Licence, so no good to me...
I might have a long wait for the DVD / BluRay
Thanks for the heads up... just watched the trailers and it looks good to me. Let's hope it lives long and prospers :thumbsup:
Unlikely to get to see this version of ST as don't have/don't want Netflix. My interest waned with Voyager and peaked with DS9 so luckily, having bought the full boxed set of the latter, I still have plenty to assuage my 'fix'
And that's my Netflix sub reactivated 8)
Quote from: MJKERR on September 25, 2017, 12:14:33 PM
I do not have a TV Licence, so no good to me...
I might have a long wait for the DVD / BluRay
You don't need a TV licence to watch Netflix, although you do need to pay!
Quote from: newportnobby on September 25, 2017, 12:19:24 PM
Unlikely to get to see this version of ST as don't have/don't want Netflix. My interest waned with Voyager and peaked with DS9
Ditto re Netflix. Can't be bothered with Sky or any of the PayPerView stuff.
Wasn't a major fan of Voyager but as it's on the telly at the moment I'm watching it through. ST Enterprise was the low point for me, and yes DS9 definitely the best.
Currently working my way through Babylon 5 again, I have the full box and usually watch it through at least twice a year - typically kicks off if I'm off sick!
Will hopefully start to watch it tonight when I get home from visiting the wife in hospital
The original series is on freeview channel 70 usually 2-3
episodes a day.
I guess I have a long wait for it to eventually turn up on a free terrestrial channel.
Just finished watching an episode an hour ago.
Quote from: ntpntpntp on September 25, 2017, 12:31:42 PM
Ditto re Netflix. Can't be bothered with Sky or any of the PayPerView stuff.
Wasn't a major fan of Voyager but as it's on the telly at the moment I'm watching it through. ST Enterprise was the low point for me, and yes DS9 definitely the best.
Currently working my way through Babylon 5 again, I have the full box and usually watch it through at least twice a year - typically kicks off if I'm off sick!
I won't pay extra to watch tv, so I'll have to hope that ST: Discovery reaches 'poor person's tv' eventually. I'm also re-watching ST: Voyager (on the Horror Channel) and am enjoying it quite a lot.
Watch all of B5 last year for the nth time, and it's still one of the best sci-fi series ever made. The last ever episode still has massive impact (as does the end of the war).
Do what I do..... convince relatives to buy ya boxed DVD sets for Christmas!
Quote from: Bealman on September 25, 2017, 01:30:23 PM
Do what I do..... convince relatives to buy ya boxed DVD sets for Christmas!
Nice idea George, but I don't think mine can afford them
as well as all the n-Gauge stuff on Santa's List. :no: :D
As with others, TNG and DS9 vie for my favourite Trek series with Voyager representing a drastic slump that terminated in the disappointment of Enterprise.
Babylon 5 was amazing and totally unlike anything on TV at the time. In spite of how the SFX have dated, I still think this sets a high bar for future shows to meet. My only disappointment was that I felt season 5 rather fizzled out. This was due to JMS compressing the main storylines into season 4 as he was not sure the show would get a 5th season which left just padding material left over. The departure of Claudia Christian didn't help. I have always felt Season 5 justified Peter Jackson's decision to omit the Scouring of the Shire from his Lord of the Rings films.
I really enjoyed the revived Battlestar Galactica, even if some of the twists were obviously added late in the day rather than planned in advance.
I don't intend to pay for Netflix in order to watch Discovery. With 3 kids, a full time job and only a few hours a week for modelling, I don't think I would get value for money from it. Maybe I will wait until the full season is out and then get a 1 month free trial and binge-watch it before cancelling. :angel:
Shame that Axanar got tied up in legal wrangling. :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1_8IV8uhA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1_8IV8uhA)
It's Star Trek Jim, but not as we know it!
Torrents are your friend + a good VPN.
I loved Voyager.
Quote from: bandwagon on September 25, 2017, 02:59:03 PM
I loved Voyager.
To each their own. I liked the premise but found the execution disappointing and the characters uninteresting.
Also it featured some of the worst abuses of physics in the show's history (which is saying something for Star Trek). I think the worst example was when the ship escaped from a Black Hole (impossible) by finding the hole they made in the event horizon on their way in. :confused1:
I hope Brannon Bragga is careful no to break any contour lines when he is driving. :laugh:
Quote from: broadsword on September 25, 2017, 01:22:59 PM
The original series is on freeview channel 70 usually 2-3
episodes a day.
oh ! I didnt know that ! so many channels to keep track of ! Thanks for the heads-up.
I see that Voyager is on later today as well, Voyager started well but went rapidly downhill.
My fav. was tngenaration (and the original of course), saw a few episodes of DS9 and Babylon, didnt impress me but sounds like from what y'all are saying I should have persisted !
If the Klingons are now sub-titled I'll not be impressed with that either, too busy reaching for my glasses to enjoy the pics/plot :(
Quote from: MalcolmAL on September 25, 2017, 03:41:47 PMBabylon, didnt impress me but sounds like from what y'all are saying I should have persisted !
Definitely. Babylon 5 picked up as it went along. In large part this is because we (as viewers) realised during season 2 that what we had been seeing as individual episodes were actually chapters of an ongoing storyline that was actually going somewhere very impressive. Season 2 is where it really starts to pick up steam but several episodes from Season 1 are important because they introduce storylines or characters that are picked up on later.
If you get a chance to see it again on DVD or streaming, I would give it a shot. The entire saga and associated TV movies can be picked up new for less than the price of a new loco (and 2nd hand for the price of a couple of coaches).
I was really looking forward to this, as i have to admit i love star trek, but as its on Netflix i have to decide whether i really want another subscription to go with sky (currently watching through voyager on SYFY). May just have to wait until the series finishes then subscribe for a month and go on a star trek binge, sadly just like i did for the grand tour on Amazon prime.
So the big question is can i wait that long? Time to ponder...
Chris
SF? Firefly!
Quote from: tutenkhamunsleeping on September 25, 2017, 12:22:08 PM
You don't need a TV licence to watch Netflix, although you do need to pay!
The only option I appear to have is Digital TV, and I do not pay for any TV providers
Quote from: Karhedron on September 25, 2017, 01:45:39 PMI really enjoyed the revived Battlestar Galactica, even if some of the twists were obviously added late in the day rather than planned in advance.
Yet another series (including Caprica) that was cancelled part way through the story, and one reason I stopped watching TV
It seemed to be all the rage for a few years!
Does anyone recall which series had Wilfred Hyde-White in it ?
Flying round the universe in an old cardy.
Quote from: Karhedron on September 25, 2017, 03:59:18 PM
Definitely. Babylon 5 picked up as it went along. In large part this is because we (as viewers) realised during season 2 that what we had been seeing as individual episodes were actually chapters of an ongoing storyline that was actually going somewhere very impressive.
Couldn't agree more. Season 1 is weak (for the most part) and Season 5 is very uneven (certainly some excellent episodes, but some much less impressive ones). But Seasons 2-4 are solid. If you accept the acting is somewhat wooden, and the special effects are dated, there's still a lot there to enjoy.
It's probably the best example of a show that doesn't simply use 'story arcs' as a way of stringing viewers through a full season just to see what happens. Instead there's a real story with a beginning, middle, and end. By the end of Season 4 you really have been through something that feels like a novel.
The reimagined 'Battlestar Galactica' is an example of a show that used arcs poorly. I think is started well, offering up the idea that the "Cylons have a plan". It turned out they didn't, unless 'kill all humans' is a plan!
Personally, I didn't really mind the idea that God was behind the humans surviving and in some degree mixing with the Cylons, so that modern humans (us) would contain both human and Cylon DNA. After all, 'Lord of the Rings' basically boils down to God works in mysterious ways -- Frodo failed, and couldn't have succeeded anyway; there's only a happy ending because God had ensured Gollum was there to bite Frodo's finger off, in the process of which said Gollum tumbles in the lava, destroying himself and the One Ring. It works because of this plan to work, Frodo had to be heroic, for example, not killing Gollum when he had the chance.
What felt clunky about the 'Galactica' version of this was that it felt so forced and unoriginal. Tolkien had done it well, C S Lewis had also done it well with Aslan and co.; the 'Galactica' version boiled down to "well, the last 4 seasons were all set-up by God, so none of it mattered, and those invisible head people were angels, and it'll all work out for the best now... or will it?!"
Cheers, NeMo
Quote from: broadsword on September 25, 2017, 05:31:07 PM
Does anyone recall which series had Wilfred Hyde-White in it ?
Flying round the universe in an old cardy.
While he was in the pilot movie version of 'Battlestar Galactica' in the late 70s, he was also in Season 2 of 'Buck Rogers' on some sort of explorer ship. He did indeed wear a knitted cardigan there!
Cheers, NeMo
Thanks for info, old codger should have been in his London club
drinking G&Ts instead of whizzing across the Universe !
I'd recommend any SF fan with a Netflix sub to take a look at The Expanse. The second series has recently been made available.
Plays fast and loose with gravity on board spacecraft and in the asteroid belt (but think of the special effects and choreography budgets otherwise) and with transit times in the solar system, but otherwise very good, IMHO. Not a warp drive or a phaser in sight. (Not that that will stop me watching ST:Discovery as soon as poss. :D
Much preferred Voyager over DS9. To me it went back to the premise of the original series seeking out new worlds and new civilisations albeit in the delta quadrant. DS9 was just Coronation St in space :thumbsdown: :P
Think I might cancel my NowTV sub, now that Game of Thrones has ended and give Netflix another go and check out this new Star Trek story. (I don't count Enterprise, it was :sick2: )
C. :D
:smiley-laughing: i never thought of DS9 as Coronation Street in space lol but thats so true. Still watched it tho, but i have to agree voyager was my favorite.
Oh dear.....am I alone in never having watched Star Trek?
Quote from: Nick on September 25, 2017, 05:48:20 PM
... (but think of the special effects and choreography budgets otherwise) ...
https://youtu.be/M8dX0pR9D0g :laugh2:
Quote from: Nick on September 25, 2017, 05:48:20 PM
Not a warp drive or a phaser in sight.
How do they wiz about the galaxy shooting aliens? :confused2:
C. :D
Quote from: port perran on September 25, 2017, 08:54:57 PM
Oh dear.....am I alone in never having watched Star Trek?
That's no bad thing when you consider the fine layouts you have built while others boldly went where no TV viewers had gone before. :D
Quote from: broadsword on September 25, 2017, 05:31:07 PM
Does anyone recall which series had Wilfred Hyde-White in it ?
Flying round the universe in an old cardy.
Original Battlestar Galactica ISTR
Quote from: port perran on September 25, 2017, 08:54:57 PM
Oh dear.....am I alone in never having watched Star Trek?
Probably not, I've never seen any Star Wars movies and I'm a big Sci -Fi fan.
Just didn't appeal to me.
Quote from: broadsword on September 25, 2017, 10:47:46 PMJust didn't appeal to me.
Nothing to be ashamed of. I always thought the original was cheesier than melted Camembert. But I did like Voyager (largely because when I was bottle-feeding my-then-baby daughter -
who started university last week!!! - it was what I watched at around 3am.
But while we're talking SF, let's remember Buck Rogers and Colonel (Colonel!) Wilma Deering:
(https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/2835/511920-erin_gray0118.jpg)
My preference was DS9 , I liked the Idea of boldly staying where others stayed before. I also loved Space 1999 though this and Blakes 7 have dated very badly
Quote from: Nick on September 25, 2017, 05:48:20 PM
I'd recommend any SF fan with a Netflix sub to take a look at The Expanse. The second series has recently been made available.
Plays fast and loose with gravity on board spacecraft and in the asteroid belt (but think of the special effects and choreography budgets otherwise) and with transit times in the solar system, but otherwise very good, IMHO. Not a warp drive or a phaser in sight. (Not that that will stop me watching ST:Discovery as soon as poss. :D
I agree with you Nick, Netflix has some brilliant SiFi on there.
Quote from: ChrisWV10 on September 25, 2017, 05:56:00 PM
Much preferred Voyager over DS9. To me it went back to the premise of the original series seeking out new worlds and new civilisations albeit in the delta quadrant. DS9 was just Coronation St in space :thumbsdown: :P
Think I might cancel my NowTV sub, now that Game of Thrones has ended and give Netflix another go and check out this new Star Trek story. (I don't count Enterprise, it was :sick2: )
C. :D
You are so right about DS9, Coronation Street in the future.
Never watched GOT because of having to pay for every episode, but I got Season 1 for a Birthday present and wow what I have been missing.
Quote from: port perran on September 25, 2017, 08:54:57 PM
Oh dear.....am I alone in never having watched Star Trek?
Well to be honest although I watched Star Trek, i can't and won't now, that Ham actor, William Shatner always had to have a woman, that was the thinking then, the leading actor in no matter what always had to get the woman lol.
Quote from: bandwagon on September 26, 2017, 05:51:42 AM
Well to be honest although I watched Star Trek, i can't and won't now, that Ham actor, William Shatner always had to have a woman, that was the thinking then, the leading actor in no matter what always had to get the woman lol.
If you watch 'Star Trek' for the acting, then sure, it isn't another 'Brideshead Revisited'!
But what it did (and still does do) is portray a positive image of the future. Just how many of those have we seen recently? Turn on the news and you'll see countries and nations fragmenting, you'll see world leaders making everyone else nervous, and you'll see a global environment that gets incrementally, but steadily, worse every day.
'Star Trek' was about the fact we should be a united planet, that we're all human beings, and if we put aside our racial prejudices and love of money, we could achieve great things. If we never leave this planet, we'll eventually exhaust it, and at best, stagnate. If we do head out into space, it won't be on a rocket bearing a Union Jack banner! Such a thing would have to be a global effort, and we'd all have to benefit, equally.
As we get older and more cynical, we tend to descend into this mentality of "I've got my own problems, thank you very much", or even worse, the old "well, I'm alright jack, and plan to keep it that way" line of thinking. 'Star Trek' reminds me that I'm not the future, and if I want the grandchildren of my grandchildren to have a good life, then this planet has to pull together, and we could actually do that if we really tried.
I believe some young Jewish guy tried to say much the same thing a couple thousand years ago, but we didn't quite understand it then, either.
Cheers, NeMo
Sorry Nemo I didn't mean to upset, I totally agree with you about the future and indeed our Children and Grandchildren and their Children need to be able to live where there is no wars and hostilities, but even in StarTrek there is conflicts between Klingons and Romulians. So it will never be perfect I am afraid.
And yes that young Jewish boy tried to tell them then and even now.
Quote from: PeteW on September 25, 2017, 11:56:13 PM
But while we're talking SF, let's remember Buck Rogers and Colonel (Colonel!) Wilma Deering:
(https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/2835/511920-erin_gray0118.jpg)
I'll always remember Wilma Deering. :heart2:
She was a looker thats for sure.
Erin Gray (Wilma Deering) also appeared in Star Trek. Well, at least in an episode of the webseries Star Trek Continues (2013 > )
http://www.startrekcontinues.com/gray.html (http://www.startrekcontinues.com/gray.html)
Quote from: bandwagon on September 26, 2017, 06:51:04 AM
Sorry Nemo I didn't mean to upset, I totally agree with you about the future and indeed our Children and Grandchildren and their Children need to be able to live where there is no wars and hostilities, but even in StarTrek there is conflicts between Klingons and Romulians. So it will never be perfect I am afraid.
Not upset at all! Welcome any opportunity for open discussion. Merely wanted to clarify that the show isn't about finely performed drama. In fact most episodes are pretty dumb when you think about it, but what they are, to me, are modern versions of medieval morality plays -- the point isn't what happens, but the lesson they teach us about the human condition. How do we make difficult decisions? Such as how do to choose between the needs of the many (innocents we don't even know) and the few (who happen to be our friends)?
Quite right about the wars with Klingons, et al (though don't forget rather beautifully very early on in the show it's prophesied that humans and Klingons will be firm friends, despite the rocky road ahead of them). 'Star Trek' is science fiction, after all, and space battles are important! Most episodes were more cold war in tone though, about finding ways to avoid all-out conflict.
A lot of better-made dramas are about how humans really are. 'Star Trek' was unique in suggesting what we can be, if we really tried.
Quote from: bandwagon on September 26, 2017, 06:51:04 AM
And yes that young Jewish boy tried to tell them then and even now.
There's a great poem by Paul Gallico called 'Good News' that features (in the form of a cat) the Devil, who explains that he's actually behind everything that affects humanity. The gist of the ending is that the cat explains that God was just some minor poet who tried to explain to us a few lines about love that we never really understood.
Cheers, NeMo
With everything in the world seeming to be going backwards - Trump, Brexit, ISIS, etc, we need the optimistic message of Star Trek more than ever. Mankind will one day evolve beyond petty notions of nationalism and religion and work together to reach the stars.
So long as there are still trains, that will be fine :)
I watched the first two episodes of Discovery on Monday night and other than having issues with the ship designs looking too modern for pre TOS (although they do seem to be keeping more with the JJ Trek look) and the Klingons (what on earth!), I enjoyed it (and loved the hand phasers!). I think there is room for improvement but not too bad for the pilot episodes. What I'm not looking forward to is the Discovery itself - why did they pick that design for the ship? There was a reason why it was rejected for the look of the refitted Enterprise for Star Trek Phase Two/Motion Picture!
Going onto the previous series, I'm a big fan of the TOS, TNG (from season three anyway) and DS9 as well as Star Trek Continues, New Voyages and Prelude to Axanar (shame about the issues with CBS regarding the last one, although given the set up the first two episodes of Disovery, hardly surprising in hindsight). Voyager left me feeling a bit cold as it always seemed a bit disjointed to me (and how many shuttles and torpedoes did they get through!) and the characters seemed to jump around to whatever the story theme dictated. That said, there were some great episodes, Year of Hell (both parts) being one of them and I enjoyed some of the Borg story arcs. Enterprise caused me to stop watching after season two but I'm slowly making my way through it on Netflix and have to say that season four generally improved.
However, for me the best Star Trek is Wrath of Khan, great story, brilliant (for the time) effects and really captured the human aspect to Star Trek - also notable as Kirk and Khan never actually meet in person (and didn't need to) throughout the whole movie. Into Darkness, while really quite watchable had too many nods to the previous Khan movie and personally, I think that they should have done something completely original.
Star Trek for me has always been about optimism, overcoming adversary and identifying/tackling our own prejudices. The apparent grittier nature of this new series will work as long as they don't forget these core values.