Worst series ending concepts

[Viking Bastard]

just to get back to this...

[...]

So basicly, it wasn't a hazard to navigation, it wasn't useless, and it wasn't without value. Blowing it up was cheesy.

I beg to differ.

When they broke from Earth, didn't the Minbari and Coalition of Neutral Worlds (or whatever
it was called) pay for it's upkeep? So it wasn't self-sufficient. The hazard of navigation was
just an excuse. It was obsolete. It was old, it was pointless and Sheridan didn't want it in
someone else's hands. He wanted it to go out with dignity because he loved the damn thing
and because he knew he was dying this was his last chance to 'save' it.

 

[Richards]

I just want to point out an episode of the original Star Trek series, to refute the position that the show had no deities. I don't remember the name of the episode, but there was a planet where the Roman Empire hadn't fallen, but had lasted and progressed (technologically, anyway) into the equivalent of the 20th century. (I remember the "Jupiter 8" was a brand of car or something.) Anyway, there was a cult of "sun worshipers" that were being subjegated, and Uhura mentions at the end scene that the universal translator indicated it wasn't "sun worshipers," but rather "Son worshipers" - and that most likely, Jesus would shortly be born onto that world as well.

I'm not trying to get into a religious argument, and I don't think I've crossed over any religious lines (I'm just stating facts from a specific episode of the show), but despite the fact that Star Trek had Greek gods that were really just powerful aliens, and the serpent-god Vaal who was really just a powerful computer, it occasionally would pop in something like the above to reinforce the fact that Christianity had made it intact to the "current" Star Trek era.

Johnathan

 

[mojo1701]

I just want to point out an episode of the original Star Trek series, to refute the position that the show had no deities. I don't remember the name of the episode, but there was a planet where the Roman Empire hadn't fallen, but had lasted and progressed (technologically, anyway) into the equivalent of the 20th century. (I remember the "Jupiter 8" was a brand of car or something.) Anyway, there was a cult of "sun worshipers" that were being subjegated, and Uhura mentions at the end scene that the universal translator indicated it wasn't "sun worshipers," but rather "Son worshipers" - and that most likely, Jesus would shortly be born onto that world as well.

The episode was called "Bread and Circuses." I read somewhere that episodes like that and the pro-patriotist episode "The Omega Glory" were episodes written to appease and pander to the Network execs.

I'm not trying to get into a religious argument, and I don't think I've crossed over any religious lines (I'm just stating facts from a specific episode of the show), but despite the fact that Star Trek had Greek gods that were really just powerful aliens, and the serpent-god Vaal who was really just a powerful computer, it occasionally would pop in something like the above to reinforce the fact that Christianity had made it intact to the "current" Star Trek era.

One part I remember especially was in an Enterprise episode (probably the first one, "Broken Bow") where Phlox mentions his experience during a mass at St. Peter's Basilica.

 

[Viking Bastard]

It was also hinted at a couple of times throughout DS9 that both Sisko and his father were christians while Sisko's son was less so.

It was never stated outright, but Sisko said things like 'There are certain things I... believe in.'

I never took it as religion was dead in Federation era Earth, as much as it was a non-issue.

 

[DM_Matt]

superhuman combat ability is already randomly distributed through the buffyverse. Any given potential could have ended up "next in line" anyway, and there would have been no group of similarly powered women around to deal with her.

Yes, but there are only one or two at a time with that kind of power and the Watchers' council had an infrastructure. The survivors form Sunnydale would have to create a system from scratch with little to no rescources, and even then they wont get most of the new slayers until they have been slayers for a while and have probably decided what path to take with thier powers.

Besides, even if that were wise, the last two episodes had way too many Deus Ex Machinas to be decent. The two crazy artifacts, Willow's sudden realization that she could cast a spell to create dozens of superheroes from scratch, and the utter rediculous of Buffy's plan come together to make one cruddy ending.

It is about Vietnam. It just happens to be set in Korea 15 years earlier, but it's about Vietnam all the same.

I never denied that. I was taking issue with the claim that it is the key cultural image in everyone's mind of the Korean War.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

It was also hinted at a couple of times throughout DS9 that both Sisko and his father were christians while Sisko's son was less so.

It was never stated outright, but Sisko said things like 'There are certain things I... believe in.'

I never took it as religion was dead in Federation era Earth, as much as it was a non-issue.

Exactly. In Gene Rodenberry's Startrek religion for humans was a non-issue. We had our histories and some people had our beliefs but as a society we evolved beyond the need for faith in a higher power.

I seem to remember Picard making that point MANY times in the first few seasons of TNG.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Ack! Thinking this in depth about ST:Voyager (Voyager!) scares me. How I take seriously any show where they find a car floating in space and start it up (apparently it was floating in space with a full tank of gas), and then find the AM radio works and lead them to a planet they didn't know about? The show was so bad on so many level, so at some level the ending was appropriat.



I don't really care what GR would have wanted, I liked the ending. If the ending was a preachy atheist ending, I doubt I would have liked it.

And I think the ending is quite fitting for a Gene Roddenberrys vision - the prophets, supposed to be gods, with incredible powers, needed a human to help them understand the world...

 

[swordsmasher]

but then you have Beverly Crusher constantly saying "Oh my god!" every time she turns around.

 

[Villano]

Exactly. In Gene Rodenberry's Startrek religion for humans was a non-issue. We had our histories and some people had our beliefs but as a society we evolved beyond the need for faith in a higher power.

I seem to remember Picard making that point MANY times in the first few seasons of TNG.

I was always bothered by this. The writers say that humanity has "evolved" beyond the need for what amounts to religious beliefs. OTOH, other alien cultures, from Klingons to Vulcans, are shown to have some kind of religious beliefs. This must then mean that these aliens aren't as evolved (and hence inferior) to humanity. After all, they are still clinging to what the writers view as primitive, superstitious beliefs.

 

[DonTadow]

I was always bothered by this. The writers say that humanity has "evolved" beyond the need for what amounts to religious beliefs. OTOH, other alien cultures, from Klingons to Vulcans, are shown to have some kind of religious beliefs. This must then mean that these aliens aren't as evolved (and hence inferior) to humanity. After all, they are still clinging to what the writers view as primitive, superstitious beliefs.

I think he was implying evolve within the human culture. Different cultures evolve differently. I don't think the writers discounted the beliefs of the other cultures as primitive and supersititious as the klingon spirituallity played a heavy emphasis on ds9 and tng.