Star Trek: Picard

[Karhedron]

I still think Babylon 5 is my favourite sci-fi television. Although TNG and DS9 were both pretty good. 

[30801]

1 hour ago, Alex TM said:

Space Above and Beyond - great show - and a great reworking of the elements of the US Pacific Campaign of WW2.  Killed off, I believe, by the schedulers continually moving it around.  I read somewhere that all the pre-shooting work had been done for season 2 before it was dropped.  A real pity.

 

I always thought it was killed off for being too expensive to make despite good ratings. It was up against the X Files where Fox & Mulder could inexpensively shine their torches around in the dark.

[melmerby]

 

 

No one mentioned

[MJI]

25 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

I still think Babylon 5 is my favourite sci-fi television. Although TNG and DS9 were both pretty good. 

 

I do need to wtch this saw a few when first on TV but do need to find my TPB versions.

 

My first ever TPB was Farscape miniseries as BBC were not awarded showing it, so took ages on ISDN obtaining it. I had the DVD preordered before it even hit internet.

 

I have never cold got anything from TPB only after it was taken from proper TV or I had seen some.

 

Andromeda I saw about half on TV, ended up TPBing the rest.

 

I did try pay TV once but they went bust, was £3 per month so worth a gamble, still got the CAM somewhere.

[MJI]

Just now, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

 

I did previous page

[jchinuk]

23 hours ago, brossard said:

I don't think this kind of language adds anything to a drama.  Realistic?  Who knows, it's the 24th century, anything could happen between now and then.

 

John

 

I am not familiar enough with US culture to know if the language used is regarded as particularly strong.  I do know than 'damn' is called the 'D word' in polite US society.

 

jh

[jchinuk]

14 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I still think Babylon 5 is my favourite sci-fi television. Although TNG and DS9 were both pretty good. 

 

Recently repeated on Pick (a UK freeview channel), showing one episode per night.  I agree it's good, perhaps ripe for a remake?

 

Don't forget the films and the spin-off series, "Crusade", set five years after the events in B5, I don't think it was ever transmitted on terrestrial channels in the UK.

 

jh

Edited February 16, 2020 by jchinuk

[jchinuk]

14 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

 

I liked "Farscape", though I feel it got a bit eccentric later in the series.

 

jh

[jchinuk]

14 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

 

I liked "Farscape", though I feel it got a bit eccentric later in the series.

 

jh

[jchinuk]

My biggest disappointment with "Picard" so far is that "No.1" (his dog) seems to have been left behind on Earth.  So far, it has avoided the danger of becoming "Last of the Summer Wine" does "Star Trek".

 

Spoiler Alert 

 

"7 of 9" (Jeri Ryan) appeared in the latest episode, which might liven things up a bit.

 

jh

[Din]

Johnathon Frakes is also due to turn up at some point alongside Mariana Sirtis.

 

It's nice seeing a number of the old cast members replaying these roles.

 

It's weird seeing Star Trek updated like this. It's only a few decades after TNG, but the change in our own technology has lead to a change in the tech depicted in the show. Going with simple touch screens now would seem quaint and antiquated when we're probably less than a decade from holograms depicted in Picard now.

 

Personally I'm enjoying it. I think the plot is slow and interesting enough to be worthy of a trekkian show. Hearing the Irish Romulan Lass speak technobabble for two minutes straight in previous episodes was a joy when compared to the more "nicking Star Wars boots" Discovery.

[jjb1970]

I quite like Picard. The Star Trek universe was so milked to death it all became formulaic and a case of same old same old to me but I think this one is working well.  Very high production values and a solid story (so far).

 

That said I think my favourite tv sci-fi by far is The Expanse, that is a splendid series. 

[PenrithBeacon]

16 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

 

No one mentioned

I've just looked this up and found out that the series is also available on Prime.

I like the way that Picard is developing.

Cheers

[Ben B]

Quote

I always thought it was killed off for being too expensive to make despite good ratings. It was up against the X Files where Fox & Mulder could inexpensively shine their torches around in the dark.

 

It was by the makers of X-Files too I gather..  I'd heard (through a fan vid on YouTube looking back on the series) that a major part of the problem was the network didn't really know who they were aiming it at, and marketed it poorly.  As for another X-Files connection, David Duchonvny (Mulder) guests in one episode as a killer artificial lifeform.

 

Quote

It's weird seeing Star Trek updated like this. It's only a few decades after TNG, but the change in our own technology has lead to a change in the tech depicted in the show. Going with simple touch screens now would seem quaint and antiquated when we're probably less than a decade from holograms depicted in Picard now.

 

That was something I admired with the Battlestar reboot; helped ground it in reality a bit by deliberately using 'conventional' technology.  Saved them money on production costs by using suitably exotic 'real world' things like British SA-80 rifles (which would be less familiar to US Audiences- the likes of Firefly did the same) and conventional stuff like flat TV screens, and then more schizo-tech bits like phones with wires or 3D model spaceships on the planning tables (seriously, who in the post-apocalypse was busy churning out little model starships every time they came across a new design?!).  But all gloriously excused by the 'Cylons can hack advanced technology, time to look backwards' reasoning, and Galactica itself being a half-century-old museum piece.

 

 

[Din]

10 minutes ago, Ben B said:

 

That was something I admired with the Battlestar reboot; helped ground it in reality a bit by deliberately using 'conventional' technology.  Saved them money on production costs by using suitably exotic 'real world' things like British SA-80 rifles (which would be less familiar to US Audiences- the likes of Firefly did the same) and conventional stuff like flat TV screens, and then more schizo-tech bits like phones with wires or 3D model spaceships on the planning tables (seriously, who in the post-apocalypse was busy churning out little model starships every time they came across a new design?!).  But all gloriously excused by the 'Cylons can hack advanced technology, time to look backwards' reasoning, and Galactica itself being a half-century-old museum piece.

 

 

 

It's usually a sign you don't have much of a budget to play with. You just slap some LED lights on stuff and go "THA FUTUREEEEEEEEEE". Firefly was the worst for this with the WW2 ship mounted .50 Cal AA guns in the opening scene which just has a set of blinking LEDs down the side.

 

One thing to note, it actually how cheap feeling and light a lot of these expensive looking props are. I've handled a TNG Phaser and phaser rifle and they weigh absolutely nothing.

[ess1uk]

I’ve seen 2 episodes of Picard and not sure.

will try the next one and see.

 

as for Discord in MLP, I knew I recognised him but couldn’t work out why, my daughter has it on constantly 

[Ben B]

40 minutes ago, Din said:

It's usually a sign you don't have much of a budget to play with. You just slap some LED lights on stuff and go "THA FUTUREEEEEEEEEE". Firefly was the worst for this with the WW2 ship mounted .50 Cal AA guns in the opening scene which just has a set of blinking LEDs down the side.

 

True... at least in Battlestar the props generally worked within the design aesthetic... where it fell apart was when they had scenes back home on the colonies, and particularly in the prequel series "Caprica" where they'd use normal cars and things.  One scene in Caprica had (to fit the 30's-60's aesthetic) a Morris Minor as a background vehicle- driven by someone in a society which had mastered mile-long faster-than-light capable starships.  Somehow stood-out more than the stuff on the ships itself did.  Though speaking of 60's British vehicles, that's another "Firefly" thing, an Alvis Stalwart in the 'Battle of Serenity Valley' sequence.  Honestly, where would Sci-Fi low-budget productions be without the futuristic leanings of the Alvis military design office?

 

Quote

One thing to note, it actually how cheap feeling and light a lot of these expensive looking props are. I've handled a TNG Phaser and phaser rifle and they weigh absolutely nothing.

 

I'm sure that sort of lightweight construction for TV props was mentioned in a documentary about "Red Dwarf" where the definition of a Prop was "a thing which has taken weeks to build, and which Craig Charles breaks as soon as he picks it up"

 

I'm sure Phil Parker, of this Parish, mentioned on one of his blog posts how ropey the "Space 1999" shooting miniatures are in real life; Mike Tucker, in an article about the "Dr Who" stuff the Model Unit worked on, said much the same; how when camera and television technology was more basic, you could get away with more basic, under-detailed miniatures and props.  HD being pretty much standard now means the model-makers really have to raise their game.  That said, to drag it back on topic, wasn't much of Star Trek done with models?  I think I read somewhere it didn't really go CGI until the whole Dominion War era of DS9.  I know the budgets would have been worlds apart, but 10-year-old me wasn't as aware I was looking at models on Trek as I was on, say, "Dr.Who", or "Red Dwarf".

[Din]

11 hours ago, Ben B said:

HD being pretty much standard now means the model-makers really have to raise their game.  That said, to drag it back on topic, wasn't much of Star Trek done with models?  I think I read somewhere it didn't really go CGI until the whole Dominion War era of DS9.  I know the budgets would have been worlds apart, but 10-year-old me wasn't as aware I was looking at models on Trek as I was on, say, "Dr.Who", or "Red Dwarf".

 

Nope, Star Trek: The Next Generation was CGI from all the way back in 1989, and was why the show nearly got cancelled as the visuals were so expensive and the early script writing so poor. Roddenberry trying to push the ridiculous looking Ferengei as the new Klingons representing the excesses of corporate capitalism nearly did the show in as audience feedback was they were just too ridiculous to be a proper "bad guy".

 

Feedback lead to the writers having to "up their game" and create both Q and the Borg. Scary Cyborgs saved the show and as the writing improved also convinced Patrick Stewart to actually stay on the show. Originally he was supposed to be lost forever to the Borg when he became Locutus in Best of Both Worlds and Jonathon Frakes was supposed to take over as showrunner. Stewart changed his mind with the actual decent scriptwriting and now here we are, 31 years on with him donning the uniform once again.

 

It could be argued the technology didn't "mature" until the Dominion War and could be cost effective enough for the ridiculous scale space battles that an actual war required and could be done on a TV show budget, rather than the big screen movie battles we saw in Wolf 359 in First Contact.

 

Edit: In fact an interesting tid-bit, modern Star Fleet ships were supposed to have the saucer section with all the civilians in it be able to run off to safety while a "battle core" of the Galaxy Class and other cruiser-types went into a battle mode. This is seen in a couple of episodes, but was so expensive a shot to make that the whole concept was quietly dropped and "separating the saucer section" instead became a huge, dangerous move to make only seen in a few episodes.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Din

[Captain Kernow]

We only recently signed up to Netflix and so have come across 'Discovery', which I really like, despite the already-mentioned-on-here inconsistencies in the Star Trek universe.

 

CTMK hates 'Enterprise' (and Scott Bakula) but I re-watched the first episode recently and rather enjoyed it. Not sure if I'm going to spend time re-watching any more just yet.

 

We don't have Amazon Prime, even though I'd like to watch 'The Man in the High Castle'. The problem (I've found) with these streaming services is that they make so much more available to watch, that if you succumb to this temptation, you'd never get any modelling done!

 

[Classsix T]

10 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

CTMK hates 'Enterprise' (and Scott Bakula) but I re-watched the first episode recently and rather enjoyed it. Not sure if I'm going to spend time re-watching any more just yet.

I certainly don't hate Mr. Bakula but whilst as you say Cap'n, the early episodes are quite quaint and enjoyable, he's in his thespian comfort zone. 

The trouble comes when (yawn, here we go again) they did an alternate universe of conquest obsessed Federation/Earth/Humans whatever.

Scott don't do menace! And I'm afraid, whilst I won't go as far as to say couldn't act his way out of a paper bag, his shortcomings became blatantly apparent when he failed to deliver on story and script requirements.

 

IMO, C6T. 

[Karhedron]

4 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

CTMK hates 'Enterprise' (and Scott Bakula) but I re-watched the first episode recently and rather enjoyed it. Not sure if I'm going to spend time re-watching any more just yet.

 

It could have been good without the "temporal cold war" nonsense. Humanity's first steps into the galaxy offered plenty of opportunities for drama without having to shoehorn unnecessary time-travel in there. 

 

I gather that Season 4 dropped this storyline and improved somewhat but I had long since stopped watching by then.

[Din]

3 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

It could have been good without the "temporal cold war" nonsense. Humanity's first steps into the galaxy offered plenty of opportunities for drama without having to shoehorn unnecessary time-travel in there. 

 

I gather that Season 4 dropped this storyline and improved somewhat but I had long since stopped watching by then.

 

Season 4 nudged it back a bit, but it was due to come back in a big and well written way alongside the Romulan-Earth war as the main body of the plot for Season 5, as that was going to be the big (and by then obvious) reveal who the main antagonists were in the Time War, the Romulans.

 

The problem was the first two seasons stumbled (as all TV shows often do) before the writing team found their feet and had hit the audience figures relatively hard, so instead we had the (rather amusing) concluding episode in which they tried to "salvage" a by then solid show by dropping Frakes and Sirtis in on the last episode, in which we had to pretend this older and fatter Riker was totally the same one in the TNG episode The Pegasus which aired a good 11 years earlier...

[PenrithBeacon]

I bought the box set for season 1 and although it started well by the end I was well and truly alienated. Pleased to hear it got better but I don't think I'll be buying any more.

[ejstubbs]

On 15/02/2020 at 12:34, MJI said:

What side was ST Enterprise on?

I think Voyager was BBC2

ST and STTNG definitely BBC2

 

According to Wiki, Channel 4 was the first UK terrestrial channel to broadcast Enterprise, after it had first appeared on Sky One.  I seemed to lose track of it about half way through season 2.  I'm not sure which channel I eventually caught the rest of it on - maybe one of the Channel 4 subsidiary channels (E4 or More4)?

 

Similarly, I lost track of Voyager somewhere around the end of season 2.  I eventually managed to plough through to the end when it was repeated on Channel 5.

 

TOS first aired on BBC1 in the early Saturday evening Doctor Who timeslot (after Final Score).  The Beeb then seemed to repeat it almost to death, mainly on BBC2, throughout most of the 1970s.  (When I went to work in Italy in the mid-1980s I found this very useful.  RAI was showing TOS dubbed in to Italian - a common practice, especially with US shows - which helped a lot with picking up the language since I'd watched the show in English so many times already that I knew what everyone was saying!)

 

These days TOS, TNG and Voyager seem to be on a permanent repeat cycle that shuffles back and forth on Freeview between Pick (ch11) and Horror Channel (ch70).  Both broadcast in fairly ropey 544x576 resolution.  FWIW Pick is owned by Sky.

 

DS9 pops up fairly regularly, too.  I'm not sure whether Enterprise has been repeated recently.

 

It's taking me a while to get to grips with Discovery; basically, the first few episodes haven't gripped.  Picard will have to wait until one of the Freeview channels perhaps picks it up (it might be my imagination but the Beeb does seem to manage to show some of the better non-blockbuster shows from Netflix and Amazon) or Amazon offers me another free trial of Prime (and even then I'd have to watch it on my computer rather than the actual TV ).

[J. S. Bach]

On 16/02/2020 at 08:10, jchinuk said:

I am not familiar enough with US culture to know if the language used is regarded as particularly strong.  I do know than 'damn' is called the 'D word' in polite US society.

jh

Using a certain "F" word is sometimes called "Dropping the "F" bomb.".