Re: Sci-Fi gets "Ghost Whisperer," "Star Trek: TNG," "Charmed," "Highlander," "Mork & Mindy"

In article <oYGdnStU9-tb9oLVnZ2dnUVZ_umdnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 jewahe <j.hanvey@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> PV wrote:
> > "Obveeus" <Obveeus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> writes:
> >> The Next Generation, being the best of the Star Trek series, is most 
> >> certainly not 'crap'.
> > 
> > Except that TNG isn't even the second best Star Trek series (if you
include
> > TOS), and most of it *is* crap that doesn't survive rewatching. *
> 
> Except that it isn't. It is the best of the ST series.

Third best.  Fourth, if you count TAS.
> 
> TOS was too much a product of its times. Some of the episodes have 
> withstood time, but it's overall look and language dates it too much. 
> What's more, the series often became tiresome with its 
> monster-of-the-week repetitions.

We'll have to agree to disagree.
> 
> DS9 was incredibly inconsistent with plot and character, and too often 
> descended into soap-opera plotting.

It's last season was awful, and it's finale a crime against humanity, 
but overall it was much better than any Trek since real Trek.
> 
> VOY, of course, might as well have been a stand-along series, without 
> any regards to the established universe. When the plots weren't just 
> plain inane, they were too much of a soap-opera. And the characters were

> very inconsistent, annoying, or useless.

Yes
> 
> ENT, like VOY, discarded the established universe and just couldn't 
> figure out what it wanted to be about.

It wanted to be about crap, and succeded spectacularly.
> 
> TNG, at least, attempted to be consistent (both in its own universe and 
> the greater ST universe), broke new ground in many of the plots and 
> devices, and distinguished itself effectively from the past
incarnations.

I disagree.  Almost every time they started something interesting, a bad 
case of 'our writers are idiots' destroyed it.
> 
> While I'd agree that Seasons 1 - 2 were weak (suffering from turnover, a

> writers' strike, and the normal growing pains) even many of those 
> episodes resonate with events that are going on in today's world. By 
> Season 3, the show had found its voice and direction, and started 
> consistently producing extremely good and entertaining television.

Granted one is weak.  Two is better by virtue of less Crusher.  But it's 
last two seasons produced some of the worst shows ever put on 
television.  

I doubt there are more than 3 or 4 watchable TNG eps in any given season.

Whenever it comes on and I catch it by accident, I watch for 3 or 4 
minutes until I say "oh, this is a bad one" and turn it off.

I doubt there are more than half a dozen TNG eps I wouldn't classify 
that way.  The last one I watched again was RELICS, and it suc***bed to 
'our writers are idiots'
> 
> One of my biggest complaints about DS9 and VOY, in fact, is that they 
> ran many of the themes introduced (and often done extremely well) in TNG

> into the ground, and never distinguished themselves sufficiently from 
> the series. These themes mostly revolve around the exploration of 
> individual "species-ness": Data's quest for humanity, Worf's quest for 
> Klingon-ness, etc...these stories repeat ad infinitum in the arcs 
> followed by Ba****r, Dax, Torres, Seven, Tuvok, etc.
> 
> The biggest weakness of TNG is that it did tend towards preachiness 
> (especially in S5, when the actors were allowed to introduce their pet 
> causes into the show), the insistence of keeping Troi (and her mother) 
> as an active cast member, and the reliance on too much techno-babble.

Agreed.  So it's last 3 seasons were bad.  So:  Bad: 1,2,5,6,7.  Good: 
3,4.
> 
> As far as re-watchability goes, I can sit through a lot more TNG 
> episodes than I can DS9 or VOY episodes - and I often don't have the 
> desire to watch episodes of the later series at all.

Agree, Voyager and Enterprise have no repeat value except to laugh or 
howl.

-- 
Star Trek 09:

No Shat, No Show.