How did Trek Become Such a Phenomenon?

[ggroy]

You're unlikely to see one that makes it to the "mainstream" following you'd like to see. Trek managed to make it work by jumping over current events of the time. If you want to discuss what good we can do by 30 or 40 years from now, you have to address current problems - and that makes your show political. Probably very political.

One current sci-fi tv show which does this in a clever manner, is Continuum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_(TV_series)

 

[sabrinathecat]

Heights of ToS would be the appeal of the Top Trio of Characters in solving the weekly morality play they were put into. TNG was way too much of the MiniVan generation to make the characters interesting to me. And every time they started to get somewhere interesting, they'd back away at warp speed--especially with 2-parters.

Person of Interest sounds like an update of The Equalizer. Could be good. Will have to see if Netflix has that.

 

[Umbran]

Heights of ToS would be the appeal of the Top Trio of Characters in solving the weekly morality play they were put into. TNG was way too much of the MiniVan generation to make the characters interesting to me.

Okay, that's a pretty subjective measure of height. Based on that sort of notion, I think you'll have quite an argument to get TNG fans to accept that their show wasn't a match for TOS. Because, you see, most of those fans of TNG are of the MiniVan generation, so they find the characters far more interesting than Kirk, who gets all the character development arc of a piece of granite

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I will take a bit of an extreme analogy to illustrate a point: Would you judge a Shakespearean play by how it fails to conform to what is considered reasonable in a 21st century police procedural show? No, that would be silly.

I'm not judging; I like Trek...in a lukewarm kind of way. I just don't grok its continuing popularity.

Nor why fans give free passes to some captains, but not others. But hey, c'est la vie.

It became a big thing because, for all that there are plot holes and what seem to our sensibilities to be tactical or strategic errors, we still like morality plays.

Trek as a series of morality plays -- that isn't meant to be internally consistent -- I can buy. It's not particularly appealing to me, but I can wrap my head around it.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

I disagree with your disagreement. And pretty much all of the movies were disappointing compared to the TV show. Imho, TNG was definitely the highlight of the franchise.

Oddly, I've had much more fun watching the Trek movies (that I've seen) than the shows.

 

[Storminator]

Trek as a series of morality plays -- that isn't meant to be internally consistent -- I can buy. It's not particularly appealing to me, but I can wrap my head around it.

ToS had a very consistent inconsistency. Every week the Federation was assumed to have solved all of human foibles except the one on display this week. It always isolated one failing and worked its morality play around it. Then next week, that one was solved again and a new failing cropped up.

PS

 

[sabrinathecat]

TNG didn't really do character arcs either. After 7 years, Riker grew a beard, and Picard got to go on away missions. Warf changed shirts, and Troi started to wear a uniform instead of a unitard. The character with the most development was Wesley, the child genius everyone hated.
Kirk and crew only had 3 years, and were working against a network in the 60s.
ToS was a morality play of the week in an era of Westerns.
TNG was a suburban safety net of touchy-feely.
DS9 was crawling around fixing broken machinery.
Voy was a group of explorers whining about wanting to go home.
Ent was hit or miss with no consistency, trying very hard not to step on the future, then trying to create the future.

 

[MarkB]

DS9 was crawling around fixing broken machinery.

DS9 had plentiful character arcs and story arcs, the majority of which were carried off reasonably successfully. Despite its more 'static' location, it told stories with more far-reaching scope than any of the other series.

 

[sabrinathecat]

So I heard. I was quoting a joke about season 1. I gave up after season 3.

 

[Umbran]

So I heard. I was quoting a joke about season 1. I gave up after season 3.

So, you missed more than half the series. That latter half has a great deal of good stuff in it.

But, anyway, you're allowed to have your opinions on the series - I just don't agree. However, I've no desire to change your mind or argue about it with you. I hope you find something you actually enjoy watching.