Star Trek series coming in 2017

[BanzaiCat]

Naw. This was what, the early-to-mid-90s? Probably more like Ace Of Base.  ;D

[JasonPratt]

I've always wondered why Frakes never did anything else. He was great as Riker.

Frakes has been doing a lot of work as a TV director on some popular shows, so he's not hurting for employment.  Out of the TNG crew, he came out easily second best in an after career, with Wil Wheaton pulling maybe a distant third.

Plus I'm sure he gets lots of residuals for his role as Xanatos on Gargoyles  >:D

[Arctic Blast]

Yep. Fire Birds. A total stinking POS of a movie that I actually spent money on to see at the theater. 

So did I. I had forgotten how horrific it truly is.

[Martok]

The even-numbered movies were great. II was by far the best. I liked IV and VI equally but thought VI was an excellent send-off for the main cast, and liked how it dovetailed into the back end of TNG.

For me, The Undiscovered Country is actually tied with Wrath of Khan as my 2nd-favorite Trek film.  I really liked VI's themes (the Cold War parallel, Kirk's ruminations with both Spock & McCoy over his conflicted feelings regarding peace with the Klingons, etc.), as well as it being a great sendoff for the TOS crew and a "passing of the torch" to the TNG crew. 

The odd-numbered ones were weird (I), dull (III), or just plain stupid (V).

While certainly not the greatest Trek movie, I've come to appreciate The Search for Spock a lot more than I once did.  There's no denying TMP and TFF are bad, however -- TMP in particular.  Even The Final Frontier I don't find completely irredeemable; I can enjoy it in a campy/cheesy "so bad it's good" sort of way when I'm in the mood for it.  The Motion Picture, however, is simply straight-up awful; I'm still amazed the franchise survived it. 

The TNG movies weren't all that great. I thought most of them were very disappointing. First Contact is probably the best one with Nemesis being Star Trek V levels of retarded.

I loved First Contact; it remains my favorite of the ten Star Trek films.  I'm sure that's at least partially because I'm admittedly more of a TNG than TOS fan, but I also genuinely enjoyed the twin storylines as well -- the "great" Zepham Cochrane turning out to be very human after all, and watching Picard's mind become warped/twisted by hate/revenge -- is always worth seeing in my book. 

No question, though that the other TNG films were pretty "meh" at best, and Nemesis was downright horrible.  To this day, I find it a tragic irony that what are (for me) the two worst movies in the franchise are the first and last ones.  :-\ 

I think my most difficult hurdle for III was seeing Saavik as some other chick that looked like a dried-up MILF porn queen. It's a shame that Kirstie couldn't reprise her role; godDAMN she was hot. Even fat Kirstie was hawt. Hell, 65-year-old Kirstie puts a lot of chicks half her age to great shamefrul!

That's ironic, because I actually liked Robin Curtis as Saavik *much* better than Kirstie Alley; I thought she was an improvement in every way.  I felt Curtis did a better job of playing the character, in addition to which her facial features better match what I'd expect a stereotypical Vulcan female to look like. 

Also, Curtis has generally aged better than Kirstie Alley as well.  Not that either would likely still be considered a "looker" at this point in their lives (not surprisingly), but if I was going to shag one of them, I'd much sooner do so with Curtis.  ;) 

I did like Christopher Lloyd as the Klingon, but in all honesty, the dude is a comedian, and I just couldn't take him seriously. There was a comedian in the 80s (Maurice LaMarche, I think) who did a GREAT Chris Lloyd as a Klingon impression...wish I could find a video of it but can't..."Kirk, you won't give me the Genesis Device? ... Okey doke!" 

I see where you're coming from.  Yet despite all his comedic roles, I was totally able to buy into his Lloyd's character as Commander Kruge.  Maybe it was because he was just a complete, unremitting bastard?  I dunno. 

Fun fact:  Marc Okrand, who's considered the main inventor of the Klingon language (the late James Doohan also gets partial credit), once stated that of all the actors who have played Klingon characters, Christopher Lloyd apparently spoke the language with the best/most authentic "accent".  8) 

III was very underwhelming, but I will begrudgingly say of the three odd ones, it's probably the better of the three.

As I stated near the beginning of this post, I've come to enjoy The Search for Spock much more than I did when I was younger.  I'm not entirely certain as to why, although I suspect it's for at least some of the following reasons (in no particular order): 


1.)  The entire movie is pretty much about The Power of Friendship...and it's done very well. 

2.)  The scene(s) where the crew breaks McCoy out of the psych ward and then steals the Enterprise is made of pure awesome.  (Hell, the movie is worth watching just for that alone!) 

3.)  The themes of death & rebirth, and balances being maintained thereof (i.e., Kirk's son David sacrificing himself so that Spock & Saavik might live). 

4.)  He may be somewhat two-dimensional, but Kruge is still such a wonderfully over-the-top villain that he's fun to watch anyway.  :D 

5.)  Watching Kirk's heart break not once, not twice, but three times:  First, when Sarek mind-melds with him, and he's forced to re-live Spocks' death; second, when David is killed; and third, when he blows up the Enterprise.  (You almost grieve with him more for that last one than anything else; that ship was his lady, his true love.)  His character truly suffers a great deal in this film. 


Anyway, those are some of the reasons I like III; there are undoubtedly more I'm not thinking of right now.  The Search for Spock still isn't a great Star Trek movie, no, but I have come to believe it may have been under-rated all this time. 

[BanzaiCat]

I can't disparage any of your feedback, Martok.

In fact I'd point out that First Contact disappointed me at first. I'd grown up with TOS (my stepdad was a HUGE fan of it and I absorbed a lot of the extraneous stuff that was out there, like the various Star Trek Guide publications (Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, Star Fleet books, etc.), so I grew up knowing that Zephram Cochrane was from Alpha Centauri. So, he had two thumbs on each hand. Seeing him as a human was some retcon BS and I think that revelation made me resist enjoying First Contact to an extent, at least that first time I saw it (at the theater, too).

Eventually it became my favorite. I rank the ST movies like this:

#1 - ST II Wrath of Khan - natch
#2 - First Contact - grew on me greatly
#3 - ST VI The Undiscovered Country - great send-off for the main cast
#4 - ST IV The Voyage Home - preachy, but I still enjoyed its tempo, humor, and time travel aspects
#5 - Insurrection - somewhat underrated, if underwhelming, but still a decent movie...but feels a LOT more like an episode of TNG instead of a movie
#6 - ST III The Search for Spock - this doesn't rate highly with me, but it's not the worst one by far
#7 - Generations - oh God I SO wanted to love this movie...I didn't like what they did at all with the characters
#8 - ST I The Motion Picture - liked it a lot as a kid, and honestly some scenes are still stunning, but overall it's a crap movie
T #9 - ST V The Final Frontier / Nemesis - hard to say which one is worse

Admittedly, David's death in III was kind of stunning. What's more unfortunate is the actor himself died of AIDS complications five years afterwards.

[Bison]

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

[mirth]

I rewatched ST III last night on Netflix. It holds up very well.

[BanzaiCat]

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

Hey now. I've only been to ONE Star Trek convention in my life - and went with a GIRL, too (my GF at the time). Marina Sirtis and Majel Barrett were there doing autographs for free (what a concept) and I remember I couldn't look Marina in the eyes, she was far too gorgeous and friendly...lol. Majel was a sweetheart too.

Brent Spiner was there as well, but he didn't make an appearance to sign autographs, though he did speak and he was hilarious.

That's all I know, man!  :-\

[Steelgrave]

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

Hey now. I've only been to ONE Star Trek convention in my life - and went with a GIRL, too (my GF at the time). Marina Sirtis and Majel Barrett were there doing autographs for free (what a concept) and I remember I couldn't look Marina in the eyes, she was far too gorgeous and friendly...lol. Majel was a sweetheart too.

Brent Spiner was there as well, but he didn't make an appearance to sign autographs, though he did speak and he was hilarious.

That's all I know, man!  :-\

My youngest (who is 30) still has autographed pics of Marina Sirtis and Rene Auberjonois hanging over his desk. Trek runs deep in my family.

[bbmike]

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

Not that strong if they are bashing Star Trek: TMP.  ::)

[Martok]

I can't disparage any of your feedback, Martok.

In fact I'd point out that First Contact disappointed me at first. I'd grown up with TOS (my stepdad was a HUGE fan of it and I absorbed a lot of the extraneous stuff that was out there, like the various Star Trek Guide publications (Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, Star Fleet books, etc.), so I grew up knowing that Zephram Cochrane was from Alpha Centauri. So, he had two thumbs on each hand. Seeing him as a human was some retcon BS and I think that revelation made me resist enjoying First Contact to an extent, at least that first time I saw it (at the theater, too).

Fair enough.  I've only ever been vaguely aware of Cochrane's original background (while I've seen most of the "classic" episodes, I admittedly was never the biggest biggest TOS fan), so I'm probably going to have less appreciation over having an important in-universe character's origin story changed; I can certainly see how that might affect one's enjoyment (or lack thereof) of First Contact. 

Eventually it became my favorite. I rank the ST movies like this:

#1 - ST II Wrath of Khan - natch
#2 - First Contact - grew on me greatly
#3 - ST VI The Undiscovered Country - great send-off for the main cast
#4 - ST IV The Voyage Home - preachy, but I still enjoyed its tempo, humor, and time travel aspects
#5 - Insurrection - somewhat underrated, if underwhelming, but still a decent movie...but feels a LOT more like an episode of TNG instead of a movie
#6 - ST III The Search for Spock - this doesn't rate highly with me, but it's not the worst one by far
#7 - Generations - oh God I SO wanted to love this movie...I didn't like what they did at all with the characters
#8 - ST I The Motion Picture - liked it a lot as a kid, and honestly some scenes are still stunning, but overall it's a crap movie
T #9 - ST V The Final Frontier / Nemesis - hard to say which one is worse

Your list isn't terribly different from my own, and I concur with your characterizations for most of them (the one about Insurrection feeling more like a TV episode than a movie especially resonates, and is a common critique).  I personally rank the films thusly: 

1.)  First Contact
T 2.)  Wrath of Khan; The Undiscovered Country
4.)  The Voyage Home
5.)  The Search for Spock
6.)  Insurrection
7.)  Generations
8.)  The Final Frontier
T 9.)  The Motion Picture; Nemesis

The first five listed (through SfS) I all consider to be some level of "good/decent", and I find to be fun enough that no arm-twisting is required to get me to sit down and watch them.  I also Insurrection, Generations, and even TFF, but I have to be in the right mood to watch them.  I only watch TMP and Nemesis as part of a Trek marathon and/or some mad sense of (masochistic) fanboy "duty".  ::)   

Admittedly, David's death in III was kind of stunning. What's more unfortunate is the actor himself died of AIDS complications five years afterwards.

Yeah, I remember watching an interview (maybe an extra on the DVD?) where the aforementioned Robin Curtis talked about the late Merritt Butrick and his passing.  Apparently they got to be good friends while filming III, and she took his death pretty hard. 

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

Well in my specific case, one must understand that it was my exposure to Star Trek that helped make me realize that I *was* a nerd.  :P  A good chunk of my formative years were spent sitting on the couch in the family room next to my dad, watching reruns of The Original Series with him; we went and saw all the films together as well (except for TMP and WoK, which we watched at home on VHS -- I remember we both wept when Spock died).  Likewise, we watched all (or at least most) of the episodes of TNG when that series came out. 

Star Trek spurred my love of science-fiction, and (ultimately/indirectly) got me not just into reading, but gaming as well.  For better or worse, it's had a pretty significant influence on the person I am today.  So small wonder that I often geek out on it (and why I can nerd-rage over it at times).  :D 

Wow there is some strong Trek nerd power in this thread.  :D

Not that strong if they are bashing Star Trek: TMP.  ::)

Dude, have you actually *watched* TMP lately?  Or even in the last ten years?  I mean, I totally respect that it's the first Trek film and all, but seriously, there's a reason it almost killed the franchise.  O:-) 

[mirth]

You people and your Star Trek film lists  ::)

It goes like this:

1. Wrath of Khan
2. Search for Spock
3. First Contact
4. Voyage Home
5. The Motion Picture
6. Undiscovered Country
7. Nemesis
8. Generations
9. Final Frontier


I agree with BC about the retconning of Zephram Cochrane in First Contact. It bothered me too. It was a huge departure from established canon. However, First Contact stands on it's own as a solid action/adventure Trek story and it's the only good TNG movie.

[Martok]

You people and your Star Trek film lists  ::)

It goes like this:

1. Wrath of Khan
2. Search for Spock
3. First Contact
4. Voyage Home
6. The Motion Picture
5. Undiscovered Country
7. Nemesis
8. Generations
9. Final Frontier


I agree with BC about the retconning of Zephram Cochrane in First Contact. It bothered me too. It was a huge departure from established canon. However, First Contact stands on it's own as a solid action/adventure Trek story and it's the only good TNG movie.

Aside from the fact that you have VI ranked too low and I and Nemesis both ranked way too high, you're missing Insurrection.  ;) 

[Barthheart]

Y'all have been drinking too early in the day....  :P

It's like this:

1. Wrath of Khan
2. Undiscovered Country
3. First Contact
.....
And all the rest.

[mirth]

You people and your Star Trek film lists  ::)

It goes like this:

1. Wrath of Khan
2. Search for Spock
3. First Contact
4. Voyage Home
5. The Motion Picture
6. Undiscovered Country
7. Nemesis
8. Generations
9. Final Frontier


I agree with BC about the retconning of Zephram Cochrane in First Contact. It bothered me too. It was a huge departure from established canon. However, First Contact stands on it's own as a solid action/adventure Trek story and it's the only good TNG movie.

Aside from the fact that you have VI ranked too low and I and Nemesis both ranked way too high, you're missing Insurrection.  ;) 

Insurrection, meh. Drop it in there some place after Undiscovered Country and before Final Frontier.