Present day reviews of TOS episodes

[rflowers]

"The Onion" (the parody news paper/site) has an off-shoot called "The A.V. Club", which has reviews and news of popular culture, such as movies, TV, and video games. There is a feature where a guy does reviews/capsules of TOS episodes (and the old movies, too). The last entry is not so great - he actually explains that he lost his notes - but mostly they are good. And he reviews them without cynicism, which is good, because the A.V. Club can be a snarky site.

Here's the link: www.avclub.com/tvclub/tvshow/star-trek,62/

[Falconer]

Thanks for the link. Some entertaining reads, if not particularly illuminating.

[finarvyn]

I read through parts of this, then gave up. It's certainly an odd site, and I don't quite know how seriously to take his comments. He seems to enjoy Trek, but doesn't seem to inspire me to watch based on what he has to say.

All in all, I find that most people nowadays don't really appreciate TOS Star Trek much. I think it's because CGI and other special FX have grown to the point where too many can't bear to watch the 1960's stuff. Such a shame, because the old episodes had some of the best writing, in my opinion, even though they were sometimes over-acted. :-)

[Falconer]

Shatner is the #1 reason to watch Star Trek. The reviewer seems to have a lot of negativity towards him. He also complains a lot about realism (why do they speak English everywhere? why does every planet have Earth-like air and gravity? etc.). Personally, that stuff doesn’t bother me. Yes, you need realism to the degree that the PCs can solve problems through logic. But these issues are simple story conventions that they ask you to accept at the beginning of the series and carry throughout pretty consistently. Most alien planets and most alien species are “alien” enough that they’re exotic, but not so much that it distracts completely from the story, which is paramount. By telling you up-front, “this is a Native American planet” or whatever it may be, you immediately get the picture, the associations, and are able to empathize with the characters. Regards.

[finarvyn]

Heck, isn't that the basis of most RPG worlds? Okay, let's say that there are elves....

I like some realism but am perfectly willing to accept certain things as "series science" and okay even if not technically correct. For example, I don't believe that warp drive is really going to happen unless our understanding of relativistic physics is totally wrong, but I have no problem saying "okay, so they have warp drive. Now let's use it in our story..."

On the other hand, I get really annoyed with things which are unrealistic for no apparent reason. So Jedi can leap great heights or fall from great heights without getting hurt? How does that happen? I've seen no indication that Jedi are anything but normal humans who can use the Force. I get annoyed by those types of things because they aren't really set up in the background of the universe. (Maybe I have a bias because in movies IV, V, and VI the Jedi couldn't do these things...)

[Falconer]

Don’t get me started!

[Badelaire]

No kidding. I mean, Stargate SG-1 had everyone on every planet in the galaxy speaking English. Atlantis had everyone in ANOTHER galaxy speaking English. And neither show ever tried any kinda of "universal translator" or similar gimmick to explain it away. Simply put, if you're so anal retentive that this makes the show unwatchable to you, it's not the show for you anyways.

TOS Trek falls into the exact same category, in my opinion.

[Badelaire]

Jan 28, 2010 16:40:29 GMT -5 finarvyn said:

On the other hand, I get really annoyed with things which are unrealistic for no apparent reason. So Jedi can leap great heights or fall from great heights without getting hurt? How does that happen? I've seen no indication that Jedi are anything but normal humans who can use the Force. I get annoyed by those types of things because they aren't really set up in the background of the universe. (Maybe I have a bias because in movies IV, V, and VI the Jedi couldn't do these things...)

Eh, not to get overly picky, and certainly not to defend the prequels in any way, but you see - especially in Empire - that Luke's physical abilities become vastly more impressive as his training progresses. He's running around doing backflips and all sorts of other acrobatics, and it's not because he's learning to be an acrobat - he's using the Force to help him do it. In the lightsaber fight with Vader, when he falls into the carbonite chamber, he does a vertical jump out of there of what, 20, 30 feet? That was blatantly a Force-assisted leap of superhuman distance and speed. Vader at one point in that fight jumps down from a pretty significant height and all but floats to the ground.

Yes, it wasn't established that Jedi could constantly bounce around like gummi bears, but you do see that their physical abilities are greatly enhanced. Really the problem was more a lack of wire-work resources than "Jedi couldn't do that".

[Falconer]

Start a new “Off Topic” thread if you must discuss Star Wars, please.