|
Sash! posted:I enjoyed Hardcore Henry Great movie.
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 01:38
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
Cruising through TNG S7 and soaking up the special features. The older I get, the more I like Gambit and the less I like Descent.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 01:44
|
|
|
CharlieWhiskey posted:Cruising through TNG S7 and soaking up the special features. The older I get, the more I like Gambit and the less I like Descent. that's because descent is bad
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 01:56
|
|
|
Admiral Bosch posted:that's because descent is bad Yeah, Descent kinda blows. Isn't that another instance where they wrote the first part of the two-parter without knowing how they were going to end it? It seems be reflective of what was really going wrong in the Berman era. The producers want a big flashy cliffhanger to end the season, but everyone involved is exhausted from doing 26 episodes, so they just kind of handwave it and say, "eh, we'll figure out the ending later." Of course, that's not really how this kind of writing works. An episodic story needs to have a beginning, middle, and end that flow together and build on each other. There's a sort of symmetry that has to be there where the issues raised in the beginning of the story are reflected in its ending. A crisis arises, the heroes venture out to deal with it, they come back changed. The typical Trek formula (common to most TV, actually), is rising tension and escalating conflict in the first half culminating in a dramatic reveal at the end of act 2 (IE just before the commercial break), followed by the climax and denouement. For two-parters, they essentially wrote them like one long episode, with the big cliffhanger taking the place of the reveal you'd get halfway through a normal episode. There's nothing wrong with this in theory, but in practice, it generally meant that things draaaaged. For starters the entire first part is all build up. The slow build up has to be slower, or else there has to be lots of back and forth faux-crises so they can postpone the climax. Then, just when you get to point where poo poo is actually going down, it's "to be continued..." Then you get to the second half (frequently months later) and, unlike in a conventional episode, they can't really just throw you straight into the climax, because it's a new episode and they have to back off long enough to reintroduce the situation and reestablish the stakes, so you get these awkward first and second acts where everyone is tensely trying to deal with things, but nothing seems to be happening, then you get a long, drawn out true climax that's usually still pretty underwhelming (see Best of Both Worlds part 2), and a "what did we learn?" denouement that feels awkward because, by this point, you've probably forgotten exactly how the story started and aren't really that invested in seeing how the initial story hooks are addressed. Even worse, since the setup was written without knowing how the climax would play out, the part two often seems to be answering different questions than those raised in part 2 and any attempt to tie everything back together into one consistent story arc is pretty much doomed. Gambit is better because the writers could do it as one continuous story and it didn't have to "reset" the way the season-ending cliffhangers did, but it still falls flat because the plot is too thin for two hours and the stakes never feel high enough to justify its existence (also dumb space pirate poo poo).
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 03:37
|
|
|
Just got to Borg children, there is no salvaging this series now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 04:09
|
|
|
WickedHate posted:Assignment Earth. I just re-watched "Assignment: Earth" and I had forgotten just how boring it was. I'm honestly inclined to say "The Alternative Factor" is better if only because Gary Seven is somehow the most irritating and yet dull character ever written.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 04:44
|
|
|
Gary Seven was a dunce and his magic pen was stupid.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 04:47
|
|
|
Gonz posted:Gary Seven was a dunce and his magic pen was stupid. Yeah but his cat was hot.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 04:52
|
|
|
Rhyno posted:Just got to Borg children, there is no salvaging this series now.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 05:03
|
|
|
Gary Seven helped to inspire the totally unnecessary Men in Black III.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 05:07
|
|
|
Gary Seven strikes me as a bad knockoff of Doctor Who
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 05:29
|
|
|
Descent is the episode where the redshirts come of badly, even compared to their ToS counterparts. Especially that idiot in Picard's landing party who has the worst decision making process I have ever seen.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 06:32
|
|
|
Farmer Crack-rear end posted:Gary Seven strikes me as a bad knockoff of Doctor Who Somehow worse than the Sixth Doctor.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 06:41
|
|
|
Oh man, I hate that guy on American Pickers.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 07:24
|
|
|
It's some kind of bad cliche... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwZiezIxCVU
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 09:09
|
|
|
8one6 posted:It's some kind of bad cliche... It's really quite hypnotic.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 09:21
|
|
|
It's especially jarring when Tuvok does it, because you'd think a Vulcan at least would have an appreciation for precise language.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 10:17
|
|
|
Rhyno posted:Just got to Borg children, there is no salvaging this series now. Icheb actually isn't too bad, but they don't bring anything new to the show, so they're just a waste. One was a more interesting "Seven raises a Borg" story.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 12:42
|
|
|
King Hong Kong posted:"The Alternative Factor" Good lord the episode titles in TOS were stupid.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 13:57
|
|
|
Data Graham posted:Good lord the episode titles in TOS were
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:00
|
|
|
For I Bumped My Head and Became an Indian
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:04
|
|
|
The city on the edge of rape
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:06
|
|
|
Discovery being delayed is actually very good for another reason, it swaps places with "The Good Wife" spinoff so that the spinoff is now the first original programming to premiere on All Access. This is a very good thing for two reasons. 1) If subscribing to All Access for original programming is a thing people are going to do, this will at least give them the chance to iron out bugs and improve the service. It will be a good load test. 2) It gives CBS a lot of metrics to determine if people are NOT going to subscribe just for a TV show. While not a ratings blockbuster "The Good Wife" did get consistently decent ratings and was a critical darling with a strong following. So, it stands to reason that it SHOULD attract users to the service. CBS will have a few months at looking at subscription models and seeing if there's a significant net gain in subs during that time and if those subs happened to watch the show. If (hopefully) this All Access thing turns out to be a flop, it gives them time to make alternate plans for Discovery. I'm hoping that we get to be around April of next year and CBS will announce that Discovery episodes will also air on Showtime a week after they premier on All-Access.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:07
|
|
|
"Spock's Brain" is some silly poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:29
|
|
|
egon_beeblebrox posted:"Spock's Brain" is some silly poo poo. "Brain and brain. What is brain?" Brilliant!
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:38
|
|
|
8one6 posted:It's some kind of bad cliche... There it is, that's why I don't like Voyager
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:49
|
|
|
I think it's worth noting that just because CBS released a delayed premier date now, doesn't mean they just made the decision in some blind panic. This isn't like broadcast TV where anything that doesn't premiere in January or September is automatically suspect. Given what we've seen (and haven't seen) about this show's production, it does seem likely that they simply wanted more time to make the show, but I'm inclined to think that the producers have known for quite a while that it wouldn't actually be airing in January and have been pacing development accordingly. However, there are other explanations besides production needs for why the release date changed. Perhaps CBS wanted more time to refine and promote their streaming service. If Discovery is still supposed to be the flagship of the new network, then they may have thought a botched release (either because of technical difficulties or a lack of subscribers) could kill the service. The decision could also be about marketing. Perhaps they want more time to promote the show or chose to move its release to a time when it wouldn't be competing for attention with dozens of other premieres. I mean, there was never any reason it had to come out in January. Netflix staggers its premieres all over the calendar and it hasn't hurt their business. The January date may have just been the product of outdated network thinking (because that's when they're used to doing premiers) and they have since wised up and decided that spring would be a better time for it. More far-fetched, but still plausible: we have been the unwitting dupes of an intentional bait-and-switch wherein they deliberately announced an earlier release date so that fans would get more excited about it and now have decided that the hype train has been rolling long enough for them to release the real date. You never know. For the record though, I still think the production delays hypothesis is probably right.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:51
|
|
|
Rhyno posted:Just got to Borg children, there is no salvaging this series now. Q-Who???
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 14:58
|
|
|
MrL_JaKiri posted:Q-Who??? A gaggle of autistic Borg children following Seven around is infinitely worse than Riker finding a drawer full of Borg babies.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:05
|
|
|
While we're on absurd/bad episodes...Although the episode is objectively Not Good I really like Rascals from season 7 because for whatever reason the kid they got to play Picard really sold me on his character actually being Picard and I'm so fascinated that he managed to pull that off that I'm able to forgive the rest of the episode's many many flaws. He was the same kid actor who played Renee Picard if I recall correctly. The kid who played Guinan was good too, I think she also had played a kid version of one of Goldberg's characters before. Man, what a niche.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:32
|
|
|
Xibanya posted:While we're on absurd/bad episodes...Although the episode is objectively Not Good I really like Rascals from season 7 because for whatever reason the kid they got to play Picard really sold me on his character actually being Picard and I'm so fascinated that he managed to pull that off that I'm able to forgive the rest of the episode's many many flaws. He was the same kid actor who played Renee Picard if I recall correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z__xets6hU
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:36
|
|
|
Sometime I'll do a marathon of nothing but the best bad episodes of all the series, and Spock's Brain will definitely be top of the list. Yes, it is stupid and insane, but you can't accuse it of being boring or having some horrible social message or anything.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:46
|
|
|
So I'm watching Where No Man Has Gone Before, and holy poo poo, Dehner is 5'2" with a psychiatry doctorate at 21, and Mitchell is 5'9" and a 23 year old Lt. Cmdr  
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:50
|
|
|
Blade_of_tyshalle posted:So I'm watching Where No Man Has Gone Before, and holy poo poo, Dehner is 5'2" with a psychiatry doctorate at 21, and Mitchell is 5'9" and a 23 year old Lt. Cmdr Everyone on the Enterprise is supposed to be ridiculously good at their job, and in the future we have much better education presumably (remember also in TNG how that 6 year old is learning calculus) - I bet this was Roddenberry's weird futurizing of humanity at work. Or, rather, I believe he always resented that he wasn't an officer when he was in the military, and he believed that he would have been a Lt. Commander USN by age 23 if he hadn't been held back by ineffective education.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:57
|
|
|
Blast Fantasto posted:My favorite bit of original series YOU FOOLISH WOMAN-sexism is in Who Mourns for Adonis, where Lt. Palamas is willing to submit the entire Enterprise crew to slavery because Apollo is v buff and handsome. For me, it's between this and the historian in "Space Seed" who falls in love with Space Hitler not unlike George Michael Bluth's history teacher is in love with Saddam Hussein. So dreamy... can't resist....  
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 15:58
|
|
|
In the novelization of ST:II, Scotty's nephew Peter was only supposed to be 14.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 16:09
|
|
|
bull3964 posted:In the novelization of ST:II, Scotty's nephew Peter was only supposed to be 14. Did the novelization explain why Scotty went to the bridge with his corpse?
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 16:16
|
|
|
Because Scotty is descended from the ship's cat and thought that perhaps Kirk would like a snack.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 16:23
|
|
|
Blade_of_tyshalle posted:So I'm watching Where No Man Has Gone Before, and holy poo poo, Dehner is 5'2" with a psychiatry doctorate at 21, and Mitchell is 5'9" and a 23 year old Lt. Cmdr Huh. Does that mean Kirk was actually one of Mitchell's instructors at the academy? I'd previously been thinking of them as classmates.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 16:37
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 17:34 |
|
|
Apollodorus posted:Or, rather, I believe he always resented that he wasn't an officer when he was in the military, and he believed that he would have been a Lt. Commander USN by age 23 if he hadn't been held back by ineffective education. Gene Roddenberry was an officer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2016 16:38
|
|