Serious texts with terrible puns in the title are to be approached cautiously.

DS9 only really started to get good halfway thru season 3 i think - thats when they developed the bigger plot arcs and stop trying to copy TNG. There are only 1 or two good episodes from the first 2 seasons. Some are downright rubbish. But from Improbable Cause/ The Die is cast, things just take off and then enters Worf & The Defiant - making things much much better.

Section 31, Garak and Odo all make sure that the Federation are not whiter-than-white and do their own dodgy stuff too "for the greater good" ... In the Pale Moonlight is one of the best episodes and challenges morals on all kinds of levels too. DS9 did major plot arcs and political intrigue in a fabulous way. I have a moderate interest in most other ST but DS9 *quite frankly rocked* ...

But i don't like the original series much but then i didn't really watch many episodes so i won't slag it off. I get peeved a little when people criticise DS9 and then admit they never watch any of the later eps cos that isn't a fair assessment of the show ...

I wish Sky would show it all again - i don't have enough money for the DVDs yet!

Sefi x

Most academic papers have titles like that. 'Gnomic phrase: punning description to demonstrate my wit'. You're right, though, to advise caution.

Duet is head and shoulders above most episodes in series one, and the three part opener of season 2 isn't too bad either.

Duet was the one i was thinking about BTW - miles better than anything else that season, i agree. It was shades of things to come ... Past Prologue was also good if only for the HUGE HOMOEROTIC UNDERTONES of when Garak hits-on, i mean, meets Bashir for the first time. But some like If wishes were horses are just so awful, no wonder folk are suspicious of DS9.

Series 2 opener The Homecoming is good but then there is the horror that is MELORA one of the worst ST episodes ever - the disabled alien story that not even a Troi based empath TBG episode would touch with a barge-pole. Not all abd though - Rules of Acquisition with the female Ferengi amusing i suppose but only cos i like Zek. And some of the Marquis stories are okay but not a patch on the later stuff.

Series 3 really gets better with only a few bad episodes (Meridian being a crappy alien love story) and Fascination (with Troi's mam but - it's obligatory ST stuff in that every series must have at least one episode when all the cast cop-off with each other due to alien virus or possession etc). After Through The Looking Glass, slip-ups get less awful ...

i could discuss DS9 all day but i shan't cos that is far too nerdy and exclusive.

Sefi x

Season 1 has one of my favourite episodes, in "Captive Pursuit." Sure, it may not be the greatest Trek ever written, and never places highly on any of the best-of lists, but I can always watch it. And let's not forget Season 2's "Crossover," the first mirror-universe episode!

Seaason 3 has my least-favourite episode by far, "Fascination." I never liked Lwaxana Troi in the first place, but, my God, she's even worse when there's a sex-virus blowing through the station.

Season 4 blows every season prior to and following, though, on the strength of one single episode: "The Visitor." I'm getting misty just thinking about it!

daphne askbrook, of course, turned up later in the DOCTOR WHO movie to ruin that franchise as well...

i love the mirror-universe eps. nana visitor really shines in these as an actress and it is clear she is having a ball. Although her costume looks like something Sheena Easton would have worn around 1985 - SPace Boogaloo. Kira suffered from some nasty outfits and bad-hair-days for a while. I never went for the dyke-chic flat top at all. The bob worked best of all i think. Can you tell how bad an episode is by how bad Kira's hair is? Is it like Jake Sisco's height in that way???



i hate Lwaxana in this and in general. And Bareil i never liked - he seemed sleazy and in this episode her proves it to me!!! bad episode all round i think.



the Visitor was great but not one of personal faves overall - it is brilliant though - undeniably.

Sefi x

I think you'll find that's Daphne Ashbrook, who did indeed go on to do the Doctor Who movie and was last seen in the OC.

I liked The Visitor as well, a very good episode!

was there actually that much point in highlighting that typo? do you think i would have mentioned that point if i didn't know who she was? dear me...

Pedant's prerogative.

2008.

Looks like it will be an earlier Enterprise era thing then - from the styles etc.

Sefi x

With the gold and the blue background I'd say it's almost certainly going to be a Kirk/Spock story.

but but ... how they gonna do it? Shatner and Nimoy are like ancient stuffed mannequins now. This is part of the guessing, i suppose.

Sefi x

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are playing logical Vulcan and randy Captain respectively.

Actually ... that might just work!

Sefi x

I believe they're either doing a "how Kirk and Spock met at the Academy" story or they are doing a complete reboot (in the same way as they have recently done with Batman and Superman etc).

Financially it's the only route I can see that makes sense - if they start a new ship with a new crew, before or after the existing series, the reaction from the general public will be "So?" Starting over, with characters that people already know, gives the general public a better idea of what to expect.

Indeed - who gives a damn anymore?

A 'reimagining' of the Star Trek universe may take away its essence, but prequel stories hold little interest either. That smacks of a lack of ideas. The whole franchise was kicking squarely in the nuts with the desperately dull Enterprise, and I have no idea where they should boldly go next, if at all.

They painted themselves into a corner with Enterprise, it had it's moments but come the end the show wasn't appealing anyone other than the hard-core fans.

I can see a re-boot working (commercially) if it's done right but I can't see it going down well with existing fans (I was just looking at a Trek site, they're getting a little frothy, bless 'em ).

Perhaps it will be a story from the birth of the federation and before Scott Bakula/Capt. Archer.

Edit: actually, what JJJ said is probably true.

Perhaps its the the future after Capt. Picard but they had a fashion identi-con and went retro again.

Nah, the Starfleet symbol with the pointy piece in the middle is the symbol used for the Enterprise - in the orginal series - and the gold = command and the blue = science.

What ever the story is I'm sure it's Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise.

Matt Damon....rumoured to be Kirk???

MATT DAMON </slow low voice>

-m0r

JJ Abrams directing? Matt Damon as Kirk?

It's like a brilliant dream.

But will Shatner be happy?

William Shatner has reprised his role as Captain James T Kirk for a computer game version of Star Trek.

There's only one way to settle this...

FIGHT!

Perhaps...a fistfight...in some sand...With Shatner and Damon in torn torso-revealing uniforms no doubt.

I've got Star Trek fighting music in my head now! You know, the one that goes - durdur dur dur dur dur DAH DADA DAH DADAH!

If Damon gets hold of a pen, Shatner's fucked.

As spot-on as that is, I like how it suggests Shatner could actually take out Damon, a man some 40 years his junior, unless a pen was brought into the equation.

"Oh no! He has...a Bic biro! I am...powerless...against them!"

Hmm, I read that earlier - sounds like Shatner may be lining up to have a pop at Paramount at some point . . .

In my head the fight was between a barrel chested, sixties Kirk sheathed in mustard spandex and Jason Bourne.

you mean the national anthem for Dr Zoidburgs people?

Taken from the Star Trek Inspirational Posters web site.

NOTE: BEFORE YOU START DRAINING THIS GUYS BANDWIDTH, PLEASE CAN YOU EITHER RE-HOST ANY PICTURES YOU MAY WANT TO POST (AS I HAVE DONE) OR JUST POST A LINK TO THE IMAGE IN QUESTION.

Abrams may direct Star Trek XI! (or he may not).

He may decide soon if he is going to do so however! (or he may not).

For the full and riveting story of something that may, or may not, happen, see the Star Trek web site.

Or not.

He will!

Glad that's over.

Maybe this time he can put together a proper ending!

M:I-III wasn't half bad, for the most part, but what the hell happened to the climax?

Christmas Day 2008 Release for "Star Trek XI".

IGN is bandying about some rumours regarding the casting... While they have yet to be confirmed, they're reporting that, if things pan out, we'll be seeing Matt Damon as Kirk, Adrian Brody as Spock, and Gary Sinise as McCoy...

Some interesting possible choices there, as well as this:



Now, I LOVE McAvoy, but I don't know how he'd work as Scotty.

That reminds me, there's a guy who lives across the lake who make a small yet tidy living as a James Doohan impersonator. I haven't seen him around in years, but when you'd run into him at the mall, or wherever, you could barely tell he wasn't, especially since he always ventured out in full, Voyage Home-era regalia.

Did he have an inappropriately young wife and small children as well?

May not be a prequel after all . . .

"The writers did promise that this movie will contain more action than any "Trek" film that has preceded it" - Why do Trek script writers automatically think that more action = better film?

"Reimagining".

Oh dear. If I were a Trek fan, I would be very worried about now.

Don't be so quick there. Remember that the new BattleStar Galactica is a "reimagining" after all.

True. I usually take "reimagining" in it's Tim Burton sense.

Tim Burton's Star trek sounds rather good to me.

Sefi x

10 quid says Johnny Depp would be in it.

Better than JMS getting his hands on it anyway . . . (I read his story treatment for a proposed new series and he'd completely missed the boat).

Re-imagining Trek is something that's been banded around for a while now, and when I first heard of the idea I was against it, but now I'm not so sure.

From a story point of view they could easily start over with a new ship and crew set "x" years after DS9/Voyager etc, ignore most of the continuity issues (because the intervening time has changed the Trek universe) and move on from there. The problem with this though is that it is just another new Star Trek series with yet another group of new characters - there is no appeal for new viewers so you'll end up relying for the most part on existing fans.

If Paramount were willing to leave it rest for a decade or so, they could probably get away with this (alá Doctor Who etc), but they want to keep milking their cash cow so they need an approach that will get the fans and the casual viewer interested now.

Solution? Reboot the show and start over with a new Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

They've taken the same approach with Batman and Superman etc, why should Trek be immune?

Which you should try watching, GLENN.


If the script is as good as the first, and especially the second, seasons of Alias then no one should have anything to worry about. Now that Jaybrams doesn't have himself spread so thin it might be something quite special.

I'm still looking forward to it, though it'll make my lovely Special Collectors Edition movie boxset obsolete.