I found this commercial very affirming. Also, the original Star Trek was better than all those derivative new versions.
(via io9.)
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I found this commercial very affirming. Also, the original Star Trek was better than all those derivative new versions.
(via io9.)
Fascinating!
Consumerist.
Don’t start this again PZ. TNG is vastly superior to TOS.
Agreed.
The newer series, though some episodes, characters and ideas here and there were good, were often too pretentious and taken too seriously. Also a pet peeve – didn’t like the idea of Klingons and humans as buddies. Also though the new Klingon makeup looked way too cartoonish and cheesy.
bricewgilbert:
In your opinion — but it at least wasn’t a soap opera set in space.
(Also, Wesley Crusher)
As my pappy always said ” old age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill”
Wow, that was great. I really liked the part where Dr. Bell used the force on Sylar. Good find.
duce7999, ’twas Spock’s Vulcan neck pinch, not the farse.
(Invented by Nimoy!)
John Morales, you’ve missed a meme. Mash up as horribly as you can in as few words as you can (mostly an image.) “Use the force, Harry”, said Gandalf as a Dalek chased him onto the Enterprise. Except this was smarter because it used the actors’ alternative characters.
Ahem, those are fighting words. (tng clearly the best)
But Spock (Nimoy) is hands down the finest Star Trek character of any series/film in the genre!
Oh gods, TNG was like a combination trust exercise/consciousness-raising session. At the end of every episode, they stand in a circle, hold hands, and sing “I’d like to buy the world a Coke.”
And somebody get Riker a neck brace.
Nimby singing Bilbo Baggins was great. Way to take back something that must have been an embarrassment for years. Also, neck pinch FTW.
Damn it. Autocorrect so sucks. Obviously I meant Nimoy.
They™ made Riker grow a beard because he looked too much like Potsie.
chigau, and it’s become the trope exemplar!
John Morales
From your link, I’d say that it’s the Nehru collar …
they don’t even mention Potsie
When did Nimoy acquire Gerard Depardieu’s nose?
The Star Trek rewind of ’09 was an assault on my ears and had nothing of what made the original series worthwhile. It was all third-season action-adventure schlock and was rather thin in what we need at least as much as we needed in the ’60s and ’70s: an idea of a better future. I’m not keen on seeing the next movie; I’ll await reviews.
I don’t understand how anyone can think TNG was better than TOS. Kids these days.
I agree with otrame, the Bilbo Baggins song was the biggest win in that ad.
I hope I’m not stepping into too much to suggest that my favorite Star Trek series is Deep Space Nine, with its complex characters and multiple-episode story arcs. Yeah, I know it is far friendlier to religion than the others, but I don’t judge art on the degree to which I agree with its philosophy.
My favorite character on any Trek series is Elim Garak, a recurring character on Deep Space Nine portrayed by Andrew Robinson.
The best Star Trek was Galaxy Quest.
Yey the Ballad of Bilbo Baggins!
Pity they didn’t find a way to get in a reference to the dancers doing squirrel impressions (or whatever it was they were doing) but I suppose they had to draw the line somewhere:
Oh richardelguru, you just made my day! :D
@Ben 21
Bashir: “Tell me, Garak, are the stories they tell about you true, or is it all just lies?”
Garak: “They’re all true. Especially the lies.”
DS9 was my favorite, too, but I’m a sucker for a show with loads and loads of characters and fake guest stars.
TOS was awesome, but hardly as perfect as people make it out to be. I personally prefer TNG and DS9 (although DS9 fell apart in the seventh season).
But Babylon 5 is better than all of them.
@14> Frakes grew the beard on his own during the off season. Gene liked it so they kept it.
But you miss the point. Its obvious imperfection is part and parcel of its awesomeness!
You…you
.
.
.
?
*shakes grey old head slowly*
btw, did you notice that the actual information content of the ad was that the Audi rich-guy’s-car has a bigger trunk and more hydraulic gadgets than the Benz rich-guy’s-car? I think that shows admirable restraint.
Surely these people who suggest TNG or DS9 are the best Star Trek series are just here to shore up controversy. Noone could possibly be so deluded.
*goes back to strumming Britney Spears songs*
They should have given Nimoy the Audi. Or a better Mercedes.
Enterprise has an episode that pretty much punches religion in the face.
Toward the end they simply ran out of ideas, and it was just “space beauty of the week” anymore.
Ha! I like that! :-)
Doesn’t matter.
The Old Guy won.
I’m not sure I buy the “DS9 is friendlier towards religion” idea. Sisco punched a god in the face after all and the gods the Bajorans worshiped were aliens (albeit powerful aliens).
Which series was best is a matter of personal preference. TOS had its faults as well. TNG was better IMHO for several reasons.
1) Data
2) Borg
3) Q
4) Klingons
5) 7 seasons
6) No Shatner
7) No Kirk shagging alien women in half the episodes
A venn diagram may be in order. Your 6) kind of implies 7) already.
/Morales
Btw, I found the Klingon episodes in TNG some of the worst and most tedious.
http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/32051/how-many-alien-women-has-capt-admiral-kirk-slept-with
1) Data
bah
2) Borg
OK, that was cool.
3) Q
Please; the stupidest thing ever, a permanent get-out-of-jail-free-deus-ex-machina bullshit all-purpose plot device. Fuck Q and the Continuum he manifested in from or whatever.
4) Klingons
What? Star Trek had Klingons. Nasty, russky-type Klingons who were fucking assholes in every way and that’s all you had to know.
5) 7 seasons
That’s a good thing?
5.5) tedium
6) No Shatner
you really preferred Baldo? Really?
7) No Kirk shagging alien women in half the episodes
*shrug* It’s of its time. And it’s lonely at the top.
I’ve got an original poster for Star Trek the Motion Picture. Tag line: The human adventure is just beginning. Haven’t seen anything human from the Star Trek franchise in many years.
I won’t say TNG is better than TOS, but I will say that I watch TNG obsessively to this day and can’t sit through a single episode of TOS. I think it’s a generational thing; TNG started airing when I was 2, and had a direct impact on my personal development, while TOS is just too of-its-time for me I suppose. However…
ChasCPeterson:
1) Data is an awesome, nuanced character, and the vastly-superior android on an endless quest for humanity is a concept with a lot of narrative potential.
2) Yes, yes it was. No argument there. Best of Both Worlds is, in my entirely subjective opinion, the best of all Trek.
4) Klingons were portrayed in TOS as mustache-twirling antagonists. They were portrayed in TNG as people. Yes, their warrior culture is still cartoonish in many ways, but at least they had a measure of nuance. And TNG spent a lot of time exploring that culture. In addition, I think it’s absolutely in keeping with the ethos of Star Trek that the Federation could forge an alliance with their former arch-nemeses.
5) The best seasons of TNG were seasons 3 through 6. So yes, in these specific circumstances, it’s a good thing.
6) Picard was actually a captain. Kirk was a cowboy. I’ve got love for Kirk, but Picard was a better officer, and more interesting character, by far.
7) I’m assuming you’re at least half-joking.
I don’t want to argue TNG vs TOS or anything. As far as I’m concerned, the Star Trek I love owes its existence to Kirk and company. All that matters is that Star Trek is awesome.
A. Balfour:
The Star Trek we know and love owes its existence to Gene Roddenberry and his perseverance against all odds. TOS and TNG were his babies, from the the original pilot (The Cage) to Season 5 of TNG. He is the Creator of all Trek!
Word.
ALL of the Treks were 90% crap and 10% decent sci-fi. DS9 as the best of the lot upped the percentage to, maybe, 15%.
B5 was good, but hasn’t aged well. Better than TNG, but still not well.
Farscape though. For alien of the week space opera, Farscape was the frelling mezonks!
But the more important point in regards to this commercial is that it is highly illogical. Infiniti M56x is the obvious choice of any right thinking sentient being who wants a sporty AWD executive saloon. 20 grand cheaper than the Audi or Merc, better looking, all engine and ATTESA E-TS for the win! The fact that you can’t fit a full size golf sack in its trunk is a selling point as far as I’m concerned. If I need to store a few dead bodies I’ll steal a 7-series BMW ’cause I sure as hell ain’t ever golfing.
This was the highlight of my day. I live a sad, lonely life. All things Trek are gold (except maybe Voyager. That shit was pretty dire).
Spock was my first crush. Those ears! That voice! The logic! *swoon*
Oh, and Farscape equals love.
You could have fooled me.
kidding. Of course it’s all in good fun, and of course it’s largely generational, as you say.
Me, I was one week shy of 7 years old when I watched the premiere episode, in primetime, in black-&-white (our TV, not, obviously, the program), and me and Billy Hardy spent the whole next day arguing about how to draw the spaceship right.
…and my autographed Spock photo (“Logically, Leonard Nimoy”) hangs on my office wall to this day.
Full disclosure.
Star Trek is like beer. TOS is a fucking fantastic beer. TNG is less fantastic, but its still beer. Voyager was STILL BEER. I like beer. I want more beer.
Also, just got done grading for the semester, and tomorrow I begin preparing for a field trip. So guess what happens tonight?
Star Trek.
And Beer.
AE,
I kinda like that comparison. Like most beers, I find I prefer the smaller view to the larger. There are episodes, or sometimes merely scenes within them, of each series which I enjoy, but to extend that to saying that I like all of a series or prefer it to another is as strange as saying that I like Bocks better than IPAs.
ENVY! That’s my favorite day of the year: Spring semester grades in.
But I don’t even give finals until next week and I even have one next fuckin Friday.
Still, there’s beer.
I had a strangely front loaded semester. Lots of homework, pain in the ass lectures (did the whiteboard type lecture for pop gen–ashamed to say, first time ever), but not a lot of grading in the end. I didn’t expect this. Regardless of what you’re doing, I named this beer *gestures* “Chazzy” and I’ll drink it in your name. For you.
well, they’re about to ruin the best Star Trek character ever created (Khan), so that’s pretty much my opinion as well. And they still haven’t managed to remember that TOS had more than one named, recurring female character.
apparently I am twice as old as i thought i was.
signed,
a “millenial” who likes TOS more than TNG
ah. Nurse Chapel.
oo and Yeoman Rand.
.
.
.
sorry, what?
ditto.
People, please – let’s remember who the enemy is: Jar-Jar Abrams. The 2009 film was horrendously bad; the only thing positive I can say for it is that Karl Urban was a fantastic casting choice for McCoy. Other than that – from the obnoxious product placements, the hideous redesign of the Enterprise, through the sheer idiocy of having someone fall out of a transporter beam that had started its cycle (when they were able to beam up people free-falling through the sky) and ending with a third-year problematic cadet being boosted all the way to Captain – not given a commendation or five and given his choice of assignment when he graduated normally as a Lieutenant – it was a revolting, disgusting, offensive cesspool.
I’ve heard that several people associated with TOS really, really hated Jar-Jar’s film but are being circumspect in public about it; as I can’t source what I’ve heard, I won’t name who I’ve heard rumors about, or even drop hints… but even just the rumors make me feel good. ;)
As for myself, I’m a fan of most of the TV versions of Star Trek (just not fond of Enterprise – the Year of Xindi was ridiculous) and Babylon 5. There’s good things in all of them. For example – if you liked the social commentary in TOS, there’s an example the equal of “A Private Little War” in the DS9 two-parter “Past Tense” from Season 3.
I ♥ed Spock, too.
but
Uhura…
*sigh*
Ok, when it comes to trek, I think that there is one thing upon which there is almost universal agreement, and it might just be the only thing.
Voyager was not the best.
Just wondering … did anybody else notice how Zach’s car had all these lense-flares and Nimoy’s didn’t?
TOS is nice and quaint but since the series was 20 years old by then, there was no true airing schedule for the episodes I saw (often mixed with BSG, Buck Rodgers and Blake’s 7).
TNG was the first Trek series I saw as they were released. And now for the flame-retardent suit … I actually liked Voyager … especially the concept of the first seasons where the Federation wasn’t high and mighty and getting by on your wits was more important. Too bad they didn’t go with the original idea of having the ship deteriorate over time. (An idea they succesfully implemented a decade later with the relaunch of another classic Sci Fi series)
Anyway … it’s Trek … good fun but no ESB.
I was, yes, at least half, but it turns out I was exactly correct!
I was thinking about ST and remembered that at some point I had acquired a pdf scan of the original writer’s guide/’bible’ (third revision, April 17, 1967), and I just found where I had it squirreled away. I quote directly from the official character sketch of Captain James T. Kirk (p. 10; my emphasis):
Can you recall a title or even just a season to narrow it down a little?
I had to physically hold my mouth shut with my hands to keep from filling the office with boisterous laughter when Nimoy started singing.