Does anyone like Star Trek? Or do you think it went downhill over time?

Question

I am a trekker, a really avid fan who's been watching Star Trek for years, but I was watching it the other day and I thought, when did it get so cheesy?

I watched Tom Paris and Harry Kim on Voyager in one of those stupid Captain Proton episodes and had to turn it off...when did Gene Roddenberry's vision start to get turned into this crap?

It's 2007 and Enterprise was the best thing anyone could come up with for a modern version of Star Trek? Does anyone feel like I do, that the spirit of the concept has been lost by all the producers who came after Roddenberry, like Rick Berman, etc. I feel like only Jeri Ryan produced anything that I liked...

I know countless fans who could come up with better stuff than some of the Captain Proton-like drivel that took over Star Trek...my goodness, get out of the holodeck and actually fly around some planets or something, jeez...

Answer 1

I like Star Trek, but agree that it did go downhill. TOS was good, but I loved TNG and VOY. DS9 was okay too.

Enterprise [this gets a whole paragraph because of all the complaints I have about it] was where Star Trek put a knife to its throat for the first time. This show had almost unlimited potential. They had crappy gadgets, a semi-lousy crew, and a ship that didn't work so well, but they started to dig into very interesting storylines; a temporal Cold War with a new race of changelings, the founding of the United Federation of Planets, a race of super humans created by no less than the grandfather of Dr. Soong, great time travel episodes with locations like fast food restaurants, oh I could go on and on...and then there are things like Trip, Archer, and T'Pol. Okay, Trip was kind of cool in the beginning, but I lost any interest that I had in him really fast. Archer was the same type of thing, except I really didn't have any interest in him even in the beginning. I NEVER found T'Pol interesting and would -- no joke -- have celebrated if they had killed her off at any time for any reason. The only I really liked was Dr. Phlox. Malcolm and Mayweather were okay too, but not exceedingly so. Seasons 1 & 2 were kind of bland and left you thinking that, "Oh, it'll get better, it's just the first two years." However, when season 3 rolled around, it just started going steeply down. There were some cool moments, like Azati Prime, Twilight, Carpenter Street, E2, Stratagem, and Zero Hour, but they were lost in the murk found in most of the other episodes. Season 4 had some great ideas, many of them listed above, but with all the inappropriate junk mixed in, it really wasn't worth it.

Okay, I'm done raving for the most part, even though I haven't even mentioned Nemesis yet.... I guess the best we can hope is that the new movie (coming next year) will be good. It is being produced, directed, written, etc. by people who've never done trek before, so they don't have experience ruining things.

Answer 2

I think it probably peaked in 1996 with ST:First Contact.
That was a great film. Funny and engaging throughout. It embodies the best of what the ST universe is. And if you check out the extras on the DVD, you will know that the writers thought so too. Every clicked on that movie for those who worked on it.

I don't know why I couldn't like Enterprise...maybe the blue uniforms and the ship were too dreary. And it is really pre-ST universe, not true ST universe. Humans were still acting like barbaric clods in space. Minds still a little closed.

I agree Voyager had too many holodeck retreads, but it had it's moments too. So did DS9. But perhaps dragging it on for 7 years is the problem. What if they did a series that had basically one main arc and less filler episodes, like they are trying with Lost, Heroes, and 24. Unlike 24 though, ST needs some filler episodes and relaxed moments to let the crew become "family" to the audience.

I still have hope for the upcoming movie. The ST universe is still a viable well for entertainment... and more importantly inspiration for humanity.

Answer 3

After over 40 years it's still making Paramount alot of money, so how can anyone say it's gone downhill? That's like saying the Beatles have gone downhill. Of course the spirit of it has changed from the original conception, but I think that is the intent with the newer series. Gene Roddenberry wanted changes for the New Generation because of things he did not like about the original series. The fact that Star Trek is still around or that we are even having this conversation now speaks volumes.

Answer 4

Well, Levi, me, too. YOu and Jeans should join STARFLEET, INTERNATIONAL and one of their chapters- the one closest to where you are.
I still like Star Trek. BUt I can seen need for some improvement. I sure wish paramount would seriously consider
my ideas for it, and or let me write my own Star Trek novel.

I also think some holodeck progams that would be good for the Star Trek world, are ones that involve history. And the best version of Star Trek, other than the first 9 of 10 movies, are the novels by Peter David. I'm a big fan of that book series!

Answer 5

I agree, it went down after Roddenberry died and they started letting the actors direct the episodes. Voyager was just a verson of Lost in Space with a chick. Enterprise just didn't make sense-it was supposed to be before the original series, but they were more advanced-no continuity. Scott Bakula did great-but the stories sucked!

Answer 6

Love Star Trek and Jeri Ryan is fantastic in her uniform and these shows are other peoples versions of Star Trek and some were cheesy and dumb but some were good too.

Answer 7

There was a magic about Kirk, Spock and Co that for me was never recaptured in the later series. That said I enjoyed them all (sometimes a lot) and look forward to the inevitable new series in 3 or 4 years time.

Answer 8

I really wouldn't consider myself a trekker or trekkie...just a fan, as a matter of fact, just saw the "Spock's Brain" episode.

I would agree with you though, maybe it has run it's course, or with better writing, it can be just as fresh...I was a fan of TNG, DS9, and Voyager (if that's the one with 7 of 9)...after that they haven't been able to re-capture my imagination, and my kids won't watch it at all.

Answer 9

it incredibly is a form. the latest action picture star Trek installment is a poor imitation of what an impressive sequence was once. there is incredibly little that replaced into as quickly as sturdy that hollywood gets that is hands on that doesn't finally end up being dumbed-all the way down to the subject-loose point of the extra youthful generations brainless, uncreative questioning to attraction to an aim audience with a low mind and feed the hundreds. The Gene Roddenberry years, whilst thoughts would play with questions of technological know-how, ideals or philosophy, have been replaced with the aid of thoughts decreased to loud and vibrant action.think of of what Hollywood did to Battlestar Galactica. look, I even have been an informal fan of the sequence for 15 years, I even have seen very very nearly each episode of each sequence, i could bypass on for days, yet i'm making myself nauseous basically questioning approximately how they take each little thing clever out now and shrink each little thing to motor vehicle chases, explosions, and unsophisticated a million-dimensional humor. As for this action picture star Trek reboot. nicely, the plot/tale replaced into stupid and pointless. The communicate replaced into undesirable, and Checkov's fake accessory on my own replaced into adequate to justify me getting my money lower back. And the villains have basically gotten successively stupider on the grounds that Khan. frightening tattoos? provide me a smash. For absolutely everyone who hasn't had a frontal lobotomy, flashy particular outcomes on my own do exactly not upload as much as a satisfying action picture adventure worth of Gene Rodenberry's beautiful and confident resourceful and prescient of what our destiny as a species could be. Even the tries at humor fell flat- Is Simon Pegg's new green pal meant to be exciting or what? basically undesirable. They did do a competent interest on the outcomes as that's all action picture manufacturers look centred on as we talk. This installment would have been wonderful with extra perfect writing yet I had a feeling that this action picture replaced into going to interchange most of the sequence great tale telling with action. regrettably that's the sole way manufacturers are going to get the audiences interest by some ability. in reality it incredibly is extra a mirrored image of the disintegration of cutting-edge society than it incredibly is of undesirable action picture making.

Answer 10

Nothing compares to the original series.
From story lines to characters to special effects.
The only saving grace for the more recent issuances were the movies. I'd say on the whole, TOS and TNG were equal when it came to the movies.