The 40th Anniversary of Star Trek 327
Digitus1337 writes to mention the 40th Anniversary of the original Star Trek series. StarTrek.com's article has a look back at that first episode, and tries to explore the whys behind the popularity that followed it. From the article: "On the evening of the 8th of September, following Daniel Boone, this new NBC show premiered with an episode called 'The Man Trap.' The angle of the story was different, to say the least: It was a love story with a sci-fi twist, borne of a relationship from the doctor's past, featuring a monster that, in the end, just wanted to live. It was moving, tragic and anything but cheesy. The viewers -- at least the ones who were paying attention -- were hooked." Update: 09/09 16:16 GMT by Z : Just to be sure you're aware of it, Slashdot's own CleverNickName is celebrating the 40th anniversary by reviewing episodes of ST:TNG on TVSquad. He begins with "The Naked Now". You know, "You are fully functional, aren't you?"
Kirk's thoughts,. . . (Score:5, Funny)
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Sulu's Thoughts... (Score:2)
My Thoughts: "Star Trek" Follow-ons Are Travesty (Score:3, Funny)
Below are the characteristics of each TV series based on "Star Trek".
1. Original Series: brash captain, hot-looking women, dangerous adventures in a ship designed for living but not for tourism
2. The Next Generation: refined captain who talks like an English professor, women who emphasize their intellect, adventures in a ship designed like a luxury hotel
3. Deep Space Nine: captain who talks like a high-sch
Forgotten Trek (Score:2)
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I file it right alongside Highlander 2.
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Re:My Thoughts: "Star Trek" Follow-ons Are Travest (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:My Thoughts: "Star Trek" Follow-ons Are Travest (Score:3, Insightful)
If by "brash," you mean "talentless ego-maniac," then yes. Also, I dispute your claim of the women being "hot-looking".
2. The Next Generation: refined captain who talks like an English professor, women who emphasize their intellect, adventures in a ship designed like a luxury hotel
Spot on.
3. Deep Space Nine: captain who talks like a high-school dropout, women who emphasize their intell
It has lived long... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It has lived long... (Score:5, Insightful)
Is it so much to ask that B&B be fired for incompetence? But noooooooo. Paramount had to keep them on until the bitter end.
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Funny you should mention "fired"... (Score:3, Funny)
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As you might remeber, the original post stated that he ranked FC as good.
You then 'proved' that it wasn't.
My point was that if I, or anyone else, ranks j.random movie as good, then we do, and we aren't very intrested in someone telling us that we are wrong.
If you think it's rotten, or ok, or soso, fine, you're free to have your view, but it doesn't mean that you are right and I or anyone else is wrong.
It just means that we have different opinions, which is
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And even after death, it's katra lives on! [trektoday.com]
Here's hoping they don't follow Lucas' tracks and ruin the originals; however, this could be pretty nice if done right. A friend and I were talking and thought it would be very cool if for Trouble with Tribbles they insert the DS9 cast into the background so it matches up with the DS9 episode Trials and Tribble-ations (where DS9 cast were superimposed into TOS footage). Very cool, but probably too much to ask
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40 years? Can't be. (Score:2)
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I think your own nick should have prepared you for that eventuality.
On the bright side, you can say you were there when
Cheers
Oblig (Score:3, Funny)
Death by Fandom (Score:2, Funny)
This is why the ultimate downhill slide after TNG ended. Berman and pals were catering to the fans who wanted to know exactly how phasers worked rather than the fans who wanted to see hot Riker/Picard action.
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No, I don't think so. I'm not the most gearheady of Trek fans, but I certainly had that inclination, and that's not why Voyager (particularly; Enterprise was worse than any non-Voyager Trek series, IMO, but better than Voyager) blew, at least for me. I mean, yes, definitely the characters and relationships were handled far worse than prior series, but its
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And, well they should have. Picard is way too cool for the likes of Will "Baggy Eyes" Riker.
I'm not sure than man slept at all in the last four seasons. =)
Cheers
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I'm STILL irritated they never explained how the "Heisenberg Compensators" worked...
Re:Death by Fandom (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Death by Fandom (Score:5, Funny)
You can have either the working device or the explanation for how the device works, but not both.
attempts to go from movies to TV (Score:4, Insightful)
For a similar effect try "2001 a Space Odyssey" and "Space 1999" or "Star Wars" and "Battlestar Galactica".
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And Wagon Train.
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Funny Interview with Shatner and Nimoy (Score:5, Interesting)
SHATNER: Money.
NIMOY: Yeah. The big, the big bucks.
SHATNER: Money. The money gets you fired up.
TOGETHER: The biiiig bucks.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/09/06/star.tre
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on TVLand tonight (Score:5, Informative)
Man Trap (the first broadcasted )
City on the Edge of Forever
Trouble with Tribbles
Platos Stepchildren
I think these are ones with new digital F/X, but not sure.
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Those are the best, for sure, but you forgot The Doctor.
"Dead Like Me" is nice. Not SciFi, but nice.
"Eureka" has potential. They have the TNG techno-babble down and it has a humorous ring to it.
Most of the rest is rubber-monster and wrasslin' crap
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No it wasn't (Score:2)
This is one of those really annoying myths that seem to live forever.
That was NOT the first inter-racial kiss.
There was a TV show that pre-dates Star Trek and had not just many inter-racial kisses but an inter-racial marriage and a mixed race child.
Everyone seems to for get I Love Lucy.
Ricky Riccardo was Hispanic and Lucy was most certainly not.
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That episode may or may not have been (US) TV's first interracial kiss, but you'll have to find a better counter-example than "I Love Lucy".
Most of TOS can be downloaded from Amazon (Score:2, Informative)
Star Trek [amazon.com]
Enterprise [amazon.com]
Influence on Technology? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now if I could only figure out a way to turn my PDA into a fully functional phaser...
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Motorola had a flip cell phone a decade ago, but GE had the "flip-phone, a brand new phone you can own.", that was obviously modeled after the ST communicator.
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Re:Influence on Technology? (Score:5, Interesting)
Tricorder v1.0 C [jeffjetton.com]
Re:Influence on Technology? (Score:5, Informative)
On a recent episode of Boston Legal, Denny Crane (portrayed by Shatner) received a text message on a newly-received cell phone, to the amusement of Shore (James Spader). Apparently, Crane had never had a cell phone until his new girlfriend gave him one so she could send him lewd text messages.
Of course, it was a flip-phone. And when Crane/Shatner opened the phone to read the message, the foley artist inserted the easily recognizable sound of a communicator being opened on the original Star Trek series.
Earlier this year, The Discovery Channel broadcast a mockumentary entitled: How William Shatner Changed the World [discoverychannel.ca]. It was a semi-amusing look at the technology (cell phones, computers, etc) that was either predicted by Star Trek or even inspired by it. The "hook" was Shatner projecting his infamous ego throughout the show, taking credit for all of it.
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When is BL coming back?
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How William Shatner (And Star Trek) Changed the World
Goes into all the tech that has come from the Star Trek series, and the people that created todays tech.
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PDA into a phaser? (Score:4, Funny)
Well, first dig the universal translator out of your arm and pry that little piece of dilithium out of it. Careful not to damage the transtators, you're gonna need those later.
Next you need to crack open your PDA. Drill a hole in the leading edge of the PDA. This is where your emitter element will go. Dont worry too much about getting the size right. The first test firing will finish the hole quite nicely.
Next place the dilithium chip about
Ok, now, reroute the plasma flow from the PDA's reservoir through one of the transtators from the translator. Direct the output at one side of the dilithium chip so it acts as a lens for the output of the transtator....
What do you mean, you dont have a plasma reservoir in your PDA? Then, how do you power it? What? Chemical BATTERIES?
Ugh. Stone knives and bearskins....
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Save your "suddenly occured to me" and "too bad I don't have the sound effect" for the non-Slashdot crowd. We know better.
The Downside... (Score:2)
Reason (Score:2)
2. Writing.
3. Intro/Score.
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Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner (Score:2)
Cool links. [blogspot.com]
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Oh my!
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Perhaps if you enjoy 2 hours of homosexual jokes from C-list comedians.
At what the heck was Farrah Fawcett doing there? I checked IMDB. She had never worked with Shatner before.
I think a lot of the reaction clips (the laughs from the audience and the roasters/roastee) were cut in from other times in the show, because so much of it was so unfunny. They certainly seemed uneven to me.
Shatner should have taken Nimoy's advice -- Don't do it.
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And I assumed Farrah was there becaus
of its time .. (Score:5, Interesting)
With hindsight the characters were a bit steriotypical. Scotty the Scotish engineer (what else). Nurse Christine Chapel and Spock as the token Alien.
And right in the middle of the cold war, there on the bridge was Sulu and Chekov, possibly the only Russian sounding name the viewer would be familiar with. Better that Svyatoslav Likhovtseva or that other guy perry stroika.
Ignoring the cardboard sets and the fact that all the alien planets looked the same it did make a huge impact. A number of scientists say they took their inspiration from it.
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Could have been the first inter-racial kiss... (Score:3, Interesting)
bad joke... (Score:2)
Gene was asked that question... $1 in goodwill to the first person that knows his response.
time sure flies... (Score:2)
God, i feel old. and i'm only 24.
To Serve All My Days (Score:3, Informative)
The Star Trek New Voyages folks are using this anniversary for the premiere of their latest episode "To Serve All My Days". It was written by DC Fontana and guest stars Walter Koeinig. Check out all of the episodes and shorts do far at: http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ [startreknewvoyages.com]
Cheers, Xleeko
Obligatory Howard... (Score:2)
"S-U-L-U Sulu DANCE!"
You can dance like Sulu hello
And shake your little behind yes
You've gotta give it a chance when you do the sulu and dance and you're friends will say oh my
I say, jump around if you want to and move your arms like a machine yes
If you do the sulu dance while wearing tight pants some people may call you a queen
The sulu dance! Sulu! Sulu! Just fine! Sulu! Sulu! Now that's ridiculous!
Never was a fan (Score:5, Insightful)
Contrast that with the original Star Wars trilogy. Everything is dirty, weathered and worn. The banter added to the credibility of the characters. Humans aren't living in some utopian vision with just the occassional evil alien to battle. I had the Star Wars RPG as a kid and their description of the Star Wars feel nailed it. Lucas' characters felt like they actually lived in their world. They weren't impressed with their own technology. I remember after the first shot of the Millenium Falcon (which is amazing to the movie viewer), Luke calls it a piece of junk. It's a small remark, but it tells you a hell of a lot about the setting the writer is trying to present.
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Lucas isn't responsible for the "grubby future" concept. That was introduced in 1972, in Doug Trumbell's Silent Running [imdb.com]. Although it wasn't a hugely popular movie, it introduced many of the background concepts seen in later SF films. It's worth seeing today; it looks less dated than Star Trek movies made after it.
Re:Never was a fan (Score:5, Insightful)
In the original show you see the support crew a couple times, in early episodes. Maintenance men don't typically make for great drama. And to be fair, the Enterprise is a military ship. Go tour a Navy aircraft carrier sometime and you'll probably find it's pretty clean and everybody's pretty well-behaved when they're on duty, because that's how you run a military. The inside of the Death Star was pretty clean too. It was just Tatooine that looked like a 70s party town. It sounds like you just prefer the aesthetic of Star Wars, but come on ... do you think the Millennium Falcon would really look like it did, if it was designed to take off and land through planetary atmospheres? All those little panels and radars and things would fly right off. Look at the troubles the space shuttle has just putting a little paint and insulation on its fuel tank. Star Wars looks cool but that's not the same thing as being "more realistic."
It was a simpler time... (Score:2)
When a captain could slap his short skirted
yeoman on the butt and say "Get me some coffee, honey."
When a giant space Lincoln could use words like 'nigress'.
They don't make them like that anymore...
Star Trek (all of them) was crappy television. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, they were both in re-runs by that time, but still opposite each other on Channels 9 and 33 in Baton Rouge, LA.
Friend's got a much better show (what was I at the time? seven or eight?): Star Trek. And the first episode I ever saw was "The Man Trap"
I didn't sleep that night.
Years later, in college, I'm still playing "name that trek" (First person to name the episode wins. If nobody names the episode 10s after it starts, game's over, no winner).
I won more than not. At a hardcore geek school (RPI).
Yes, I realize Star Trek was crappy television played by mediocre actors with lame special effects.
Preachy and unrealistic, the writing was among the worst literature ever produced.
The stories were so derivative of themselves they became exponentially worse each time another ST series or movie was produced.
And I still love it.
Star Trek, B5, Logan's Run, Anderson, Vonnegut, Bear, Benford, Brin, Heinlein, Asimov, Bradbury, Niven (with and without Pournelle), Cherryh, Chalker, Leslie Fish, Le Guin, Van Vogt, Verne, Wells, Baen (let's not forget the BFL), Saberhagen, and a hundred others.
Either you're a SF fan or you're not.
And if you are, then you already know who's going to be in the spaceships when they land.
Remember remember... (Score:5, Funny)
The Enterprise, phasers, and Spock
I know of no reason that Star Trek's first season
Should ever be forgot
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Klingon programmers (Score:3, Funny)
Top 10 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon on your software development team:
1. "This code is a piece of crap! You have no honor!"
2. "A TRUE Klingon warrior does not comment his code!"
3. "By filing this bug you have questioned my family honor. Prepare to die!"
4. "You question the worthiness of my Code?! I should kill you where you stand!"
5. "Our competitors are without honor!"
6. "Specs are for the weak and timid!"
7. "This machine is a piece of GAGH! I need dual Pentium processors if I am to do battle with this code!"
8. "Perhaps it IS a good day to Die! I say we ship it!"
9. "My program has just dumped Stova Core!"
10. "Behold, the keyboard of Kalis! The greatest Klingon code warrior that ever lived!"
Enjoy,
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Why must you troll? The correct order is: Kirk, Picard, Sisco, Janeway, Archer. That also sums up the order of the shows as well. But I have to say that they should now just let this franchise die and we can all forget about watching it as reruns as kids in the 70's. Dr who on the otherhand...
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Sulu, the fencing botanist? Yes, I was particularly impressed by the dainty way he sipped tea from the fine china set. Were I a starfleet grunt, I'm certain I would follow him into the mess hall at dinner time, cuz the guy clearly knew how to eat. Whether I'd let him lead me into deep space is another story...
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Uh, I believe you meant movie not move . Sulu also appeared as Captain in one episode of Voyager where Tuvok relived something from his past as a young ensign on Sulu's ship.
Speaking of Sulu, I was able to recently meet George Takei at a SciFi convention and he was extremely nice and friendly. Just a great all around guy.
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Captains: Picard > Kirk > Sisco >> Archer > Janeway
Shows: TOS > TNG > DS9 >> Enterprise >> Voyager
But, clearly, YMMV.
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Now who was the better Captain? IMO It's Picard->Sisco->Kirk->Janeway->Archer
Now I will make some notes, Janeway and Sisco were better administrators then Captains, Sisco is better because I believe be had a better supporting cast to work with him. Kirk is an excellent battle Captain, but he not very good at much else except loving women. Kirk was very head strong, and being s
Re:Best captain (Score:4, Funny)
Geez...what else do you need??
That pretty much covers the bases for me....
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Re:Best captain (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Best captain (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Best captain (Score:4, Funny)
I didn't realize that pulling down one's uniform jacket when standing up was an indicator of tactical ability!
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Oh yeah, and never mind that whole little combat maneuver used during the first encounters with the Ferengi... totally unrelated.
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Isn't that what it is?
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> > Isn't that what it is?
Umm, sir? This is a Star Trek thread. Kirk isn't the Admiral you're looking for, even if his fingers always smell like fish. You want that other Admiral [elitemrp.net] whose fingers also smell like fish.
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Re:I thought the "Managerie" was the pilot? (Score:4, Informative)
-Mike
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Re:I thought the "Managerie" was the pilot? (Score:4, Informative)
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BTW, there was also the demand upon the second pilot to "get rid of the guy with the ears", which explains why there are no Ferengi.
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Ah, but did you know that the "Where No Man Has Gone Before" that aired was quite different from the original pilot version [youtube.com]?
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I'd like to tell my DVR to stop recording them as suggestions without lying to it that I hate it. I already have all the series and movies preloaded into my DVD changer (except TAS on preorder and one TNG disc that was missing from the package) in rough order. I'd rather the DVR use the free space for something new.
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