Nasty transporter tricks. Bad Trek crimes.

[trekgeezer]

Many a trek writer has griped about how the Roddenberry edict  limited the story telling  on  TNG.  That 's one of the reasons they mixed the crews up on DS9 and Voyager.  To tell the truth Gene had very little to do with show after about the second season.  He also had practically nothing to do with the movies with the exception of TMP.  Gene was a good concept man, but poor at the execution of them.  TNG was the first thing he had sold a studio since TOS.  

In my opinion DS9 was a far more character driven show  and had some of the richest characters of any science fiction show.  You actually saw the characters grow over the years.  Voyager suffered too many missed opportunities and some downright crappy writing  and continuity.  The only character on that show that showed any growth was the holographic doctor.

[Ash]

And I thought I was a Star Trek geek!

[Fearless Freep]

Many a trek writer has griped about how the Roddenberry edict limited the story telling on TNG.

I'm not surprised.  "Character driven" can be just a euphemism for "soap opera".  It's easy to write for Star Trek, just change the names to have more Xes and less vowels and make them green or something.  Writing "Character driven" is fairly easy because everyone learns how to it in school and you can just recycle through the same basic plot outlines that have been in a thousand other TV shows; instead of a ranch, you have a space ship..instead of Indians you  have Aliens.

Look back to the original show and what made it great.  It had almost *zero* character development and the characters on the show were pretty close to steroptypically embodying certain personality traits.  What it did was throw these simple character types up against intersting ideas, against creative settings and cultures and fundamental challenges in to how we think and act.  In had good writing by writers who could really be creative.    That's what sci-fi is ultimately about; contemplating the potential of the unknown and the danger of the unknowable

However, as I've said before, being creative is hard; you can't just decide "today, I'm going to have an original, clever thought"  You either are, and it comes through in the writing, or you are not, and you ending up writing "Dyntasy" or "Dallas" or some other drama silliness of people who take themselves far too seriously.

Where TNG shined is when it had good ideas of foregine cultures and alien technology and how it challeneged the Enterprise either externally or internally; where it sucked is whenever Deanna got a new boyfriend and you knew it would end it tragedy.  Soap opera in space.

TOS had Trelane as the Suire Of Gothos, DS9 had "the little Ferengi joins the federation"..  TOS had the god Apollo in all his power, DS9 had "Jake fights with his dad".  TOS had Jack The Ripper, DS9 had "Bashir falls for Dax".  TOS had "Ideas", DS9 had "Charatcer Development.  Usually "Character Devlopment" in a Sci-Fi environment sucks because, frankly, a sappy love story where one of the particpants is a purple alien with two heads is still a sappy love story, unless the writer is *very* good and can rise about that.

With TOS I always had the feeling that humanity was small and frail and the universe was a very mysterious and dangerous place at every turn.  With DS9 I started thinking "haven't I seen this movie before?  I think it was with Germans though..."  In the end, Q way far more dangerous than the entre Dominion because of his sheer power and mercurial attitude and he could only be held at bay by bringing the best of humanity forward.  The Dominion could be beat with more ships and giving them more power.  In the end, Q was much scarier and Picards conflicts with him much more interesting to watch

I will thank you for one thing..up until now I never really understood why I lost interest in DS9 after awhile and gave up on it.  You've made me think through the difference in why Star Trek started off great and why it just bores me now.



Post Edited (06-28-04 15:13)

[trekgeezer]

Different  people, different opinions I 'm sure  stuff you find interesting would bore me to tears.  Diversity makes the world turn.

Yea  ASHTHECAT, I have been a fan of Star Trek since age  11 and that was 38 years ago.  I'll say this though, I have never been to a convention and you won't catch me wearing vulcan ears and a Starfleet uniform.  I usually keep it pretty much to myself unless someone else gets a discussion going.