User:CzechOut

Things under-rated in Star Trek (in no particular order)

 * Gene Roddenberry, as a show-runner. The man had a talent for staffing, and for writing a series bible.


 * D.C. Fontana. She put the human in "the Human Adventure".  And the Klingon in Worf.  And the Trill in Dax.  And the Vulcan-Human in Spock.  And the Romulan in Kirk.  And the Continuum in Q.  And the LCARS in the Enterprise-D.
 * A good, long teaser. Perhaps the biggest functional problem of Enterprise was that the short runtime generally resulted in teasers so brief that they didn't, well, tease.  As a result, viewers were often given little cause to return after the credits.
 * Ferengi.  Stop dismissin' 'em.  Now.


 * The original theme song and title sequence for Enterprise. Best titles for any Star Trek show.  Sadly, the whole thing was thrown out of synch by the 1970s remix of the theme in seasons 3 and 4.
 * Jeffrey Combs. Probably not under-appreciated by Star Trek fans, but it's sad that the general public doesn't know him more.  One of the greatest character actors ever.   He never puts a note wrong.


 * Leonard Nimoy, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton and Roxann Dawson as directors. Except in the cases of Nimoy and Burton, I don't think it's a stretch to say that their best contributions to Star Trek were from behind the camera.
 * William Shatner. Even at his hammiest, you can't . . . . stop . . . watching him.


 * Ezri Dax. She got more character definition in one season than most supporting regulars get during a full run on a Trek series.


 * Uhura, even though Hoshi Sato, as an Ensign, ran circles around Uhura, as a Commander. (Compare  with ).  Still, Uhura's skills likely got rusty because of how freakin' little she was given to do.  What few character beats we did get with her made her the most appealing supporting regular on TOS.


 * Kathryn Janeway. Too bad about the show you were on, babe.


 * Enterprise, Season 1. Could it have been better?  Ironically, I think it probably would have been had Berman gotten his wish to have the whole first season be the run-up to the launch of the NX-01.  Certainly, that would've made for a better start to the second season.  But, still, there's something quite appealing about the spirit of exploration in the first season.  Its repetition of ideas seen before is mostly annoying only if you were a Voyager fan in the first place.


 * and . Never understood the "odd-numbered movies suck" rule.

Things over-rated in Star Trek (in no particular order)

 * Gene Roddenberry, as a writer. Most of the best things about Star Trek have been done without his influence.  Most of the more confusing things about Star Trek are directly due to him.  Most of the characterization in Star Trek was someone else's idea.


 * . Great story.  But hardly deserves its hype as the best episode of TOS.  And I'm so sick of hearing how Harlan Ellison was "wronged" by the production staff.  Dude, welcome to television.
 * Data. Spiner's a great actor, but in the vast majority of episodes, Data's just so . . . boring, dramatically.


 * Jean-Luc Picard. Now, I don't wanna suggest the character's bad.  Far from it.  I love the character.  But he's not the be-all, end-all of starship captains.  Perfection doesn't always result in the best drama.  Frankly, I prefer Janeway and Sisko to him, because of their flaws.


 * The wedding of William T. Riker and Deanna Troi.  What a yawner.  Honestly, did anyone care that they got married?


 * Oh, what the hell. The whole freakin' cast of TNG — except those played by actors of African-American descent.  They're a masterly study of being "reliably okay".  On the whole, I'd have been happier with Worf as captain, Geordi as first officer, and everyone else out on the street.


 * The need for a starship-based series.


 * The Borg. They're good, but they're overdone.


 * The Miles O'Brien/Julian Bashir friendship. Sometimes it was done well, but often it was just a cliché of male bonding.  On the whole, I'd rather be watching a Ferengi episode.


 * Technobabble. Throwing made-up words at a problem don't do diddly for drama.

Worst-executed ideas in Star Trek history

 * The Prime Directive. It's really more of a Situationally Important Suggestion.  (But I did enjoy the Archer/T'Pol/Tucker conversations on the subject.)
 * Romulan Star Empire. Every apperance makes them worse.  Without using non-canon sources, explain them to me.  Please.  So far I've got:  pseudo-Roman, emotional Vulcans with a penchant for espionage.   But they're willing to give away their cloaking technology to their historic enemies for a kiss and a promise.   And they have these vampirical cousins from a "twin world", who were their slaves, but no one from the Federation saw for the first 200 years of contact.  Even though Spock lived on Romulus for a time, and Remans were seen on Romulus as early as the time of the NX-01.  Seriously, we're done here.  Never use these guys again.  Don't even mention them.  At this point, I simply do not care about the Romulan-Federation war, reunification with the Vulcans, or anything that might have at one time been interesting about the Romulans.


 * . Roddenberry makes Lucas look like a master of characterization.


 * Star Trek: Voyager. What a waste of a (mostly) great cast.  How can a concept with so much inherent conflict be so boring, so often?  Oh, I know:  because technobabble is easier to write than Federation-Maquis mistrust.


 * The creepy Uhura-Scotty implied romance in . Talk about your final frontiers...


 * Harry Kim.  Such a girl.


 * Anyone named Riker doing just about anything, in just about any story.


 * Anyone named Crusher doing just about anything, in just about any story.


 * Chakotay. An obvious attempt to make Riker seem, by comparison, "the fun one".


 * Ocampa. Just when they started to show promise, Jennifer Lien left.


 * Spock talking through his own brain surgery.


 * The Temporal Cold War. Seriously, what the hell was that?


 * Deanna Troi. I'm all about inter-species mating, but is there anything more useless than a half-empath?  Oh, wait, there is.  Ilia.  An intensely sexual being who's forced into celibacy.  Where's the IDIC in that, Roddenberry?


 * Chekov. Sorry, Koenig.  You're a nice guy, but your character's all about the Russian shtick.  Oh, and you shouldn't have been promoted to first officer before Sulu or Uhura in.

The very best things about Star Trek

 * IDIC


 * The incredibly long, coherent Klingon narrative arc, which begins in and ends with .  If viewed chronologically, the Klingon-heavy episodes (and films) of all the Alpha Quadrant-based series form a genuine "epic" of Worf's attempt to restore honor to the decayed Empire we first see on Enterprise.  It comes complete with a herald (Kolos), a prefiguring ancestor, youthful isolation, a tentative discovery of his society, rejection by that society, a noble marriage, stalwart friends, near destruction of the Empire, and, finally, redemption.  I still marvel at the duration, complexity,  and consistency of "Worf's Tale".  It's the best story Star Trek has ever told.


 * Deep Space Nine


 * Enterprise, Season 4


 * Star Trek (TAS)


 * The first 30 minutes of


 * Alfre Woodard vs. Patrick Stewart in


 * Leonard Nimoy, generally, but especially his performance in


 * Any episode with the word in the title.


 * Any episode with the word "Enterprise" in, or implied in, the title.


 * Any episode dealing with the subject of Augments, or the consequences of Human genetic engineering


 * Any episode which features Grilka


 * Any episode which features K'Ehleyr


 * Any appearance of Mark Lenard


 * Every glimpse of the planet Vulcan


 * An Emissary-Kai showdown


 * Shran, we barely knew ye


 * Weyoun, you magnificent bastard


 * Khan, KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!


 * Quark, and all his family members. Contrary to popular belief, Ferengi episodes rock.


 * All the main CMOs, except Crusher (see above).


 * The Bajoran Occupation


 * The Dominion


 * The Mirror universe


 * The Dax symbiont


 * Trills in general


 * Jadzia as Par'Mach'kai


 * Ezri, from the get-go


 * The Sisko family


 * Trip and T'Pol


 * The exploratory enthusiasm of Travis Mayweather, Jonathan Archer and Porthos


 * The unexpected ending of


 * Hoshi Sato's realistic insecurities

The best episodes (and films) of Star Trek

 * . It all started so well for the Romulans . ..
 * . Forget the overhyped "City on the Edge of Forever".  This is the best episode of TOS.
 * . How can you say no to tribbles?  But it's not just that they're cute; it's that the script is so damn tight.
 * . It's so fundamental to a love of Star Trek, it hardly needs comment.
 * . If you haven't seen it, you're depriving yourself of one of the foundations of the Vulcan mythos on Star Trek.
 * . How can you not like an episode with a heavy dose of IDIC and a Sulu who breaks the fourth wall to wink at the audience?
 * . Go, aqua-shuttle, go!
 * . Shakespeare and ancient Earth culture?  In one episode?  Maybe the best example of the educational spirit of TAS, and yet also a prime reason the show failed.
 * . Nicholas Meyer saves Star Trek from itself.  Ricardo Montalban deserved an Oscar nomination.
 * . A movie chock-full of the best character moments from TOS cast.
 * . Not only foundational to the development of the 24th century shows, a surprisingly great Spock story.   Nothing showcases logic better than a good mystery.
 * . Hey, Klingon High Council: don't make Worf angry.  Trust me, you're not gonna like him when he's angry.
 * . Worf and K'Ehlyr. Hottest Star Trek couple ever.  Half-Klingon done oh-so-right.
 * . So, Natasha Yar was good for something, after all.
 * . This thing deserved an Emmy just for finally making Riker likable.
 * . Maybe the best conclusion to a two parter in the history of TNG.  Patrick Stewart absolutely rocks in this one.
 * . The best expression of IDIC ever.
 * . If you don't love this episode, go back to watching Voyager.  DS9 is not for you.
 * . Ditto.
 * . Best episode of any Star Trek series.  Ever.
 * . The good, and the bad, about DS9.   Bad, because it requires that you be a faithful viewer of the program just to understand the teaser.  Good, because if you were watching religiously, it was a sweet, sweet reward.
 * .  After 12 years, Michael Dorn finally restores honor to the Klingon Empire.
 * . I myself always tend to like the next-to-last installment in epic struggles.  Oh, and the Ferengi arc comes to a gloriously humorous end.
 * . Andy Dick vs. Robert Picardo.  The only thing better would've been Phil Hartman vs. Robert Picardo.
 * and its sequel . I'm a Doctor Who fan.  It's good to see the Sontarans making the crossover.  Oh, and the ECH: brilliant.
 * . Deanna Troi's best guest shot on a series not her own.
 * . Personally, I found this more compelling a court case than Data's struggle for civil liberties.  Best exploration of the definition of personhood in Star Trek.
 * . I freaked out first time I saw this one.  Now that it can be viewed as the first of a whole Vulcan-Andorian arc, it's even better.
 * . A rare case of the framing element of a flashback episode containing items of genuine interest, as well as the flashback itself.
 * . Honestly, I'm at a loss to say whether I like Kolos or Martok more.
 * . Suzie Plakson goin' head-to-head against Jeffrey Combs?  And T'Pol nearly gets recalled?  You gotta be kidding me.
 * . Easily better than .  T'Pol's decision to get married made for much more drama than T'Pring's decision not to.
 * . Possibly the best episode of Enterprise.  Without it, it would be relatively easy for me to dismiss the whole series as non-canon.
 * . What a clever, clever script.
 * . I love that a baby born purely of a scientific procedure produced so much emotion.
 * . I love that a baby born purely of a scientific procedure produced so much emotion.