On Fri, 21 Feb 2003, Bryon Daly wrote: > TNG featured more personal character growth than TOS did (which isn't saying > much, really), but not as much as it should/could have had. For every "The Inner > Light" episode (IMHO the single best trek episode ever), there were 10 episodes > something like Geordi gets killed then later resurrected, the reset button gets > pushed, and it's never brought up again. The powers that run the ST franchise > seem anchored to producing stand-alone episodes and fear continuity/character > evolution; only occasionally daring to experiment with it in a deliberate way. > Contrast this with Babylon 5, where the characters at the end have grown/changed > in dramatic but believable ways gradually over the course of the show.
Yup. (Notice how I'm salivating over the B5 DVDs and ignoring the TNG DVDs...) > As for why some people like TNG vs hate TOS, I think a lot has to do with the fact > that TOS is almost 20 years older than TNG, and it's dated by many of the same > attitudes and assumptions of other 60's TV, like, say, Wagon Train. (Which is > what Rodenberry was aiming for - a "Wagon Train to the Stars"). I've never watched "Wagon Train." To me it seems as though TOS is more like an outer-space version of the Outer Limits with a recurring main cast. For example, > while Uhura may have been groundbreaking at the time, the role of women in TOS > is largely as love interest for Kirk, to be shown in those godawful soft-filter > closeups. And when the show had a social/moral point to make, it wasn't very subtle > about it, clubbing the point home (again, similar to other 60's TV). Those are good points. TNG was never very subtle about its messages, though, either. And its feminism always struck me as a little strained (hm, booty for Kirk or 7 years of Troi...hard call there) - almost like, "Ok, we have a bigger selection of rotating stereotypes - happy now?" Still, TNG does do better than TOS in a lot of ways in this regard. > My wife, who's not a SF fan at all, can tolerate TNG, but honestly thinks that TOS is > "campy", and actually intended to be so, despite my efforts to convice her it was a > serious show. See, TNG falls into unintentional camp a lot of the time, too, I think...it's just more contemporary camp. Kirk may get more than his fair share of voluptuous green-skinned women, but at least he doesn't leer and wag his tongue like Riker whenever the words "shore leave" are uttered. And TOS doesn't have holodeck episodes. Marvin Long Austin, Texas Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Poindexter & Ashcroft, LLP (Formerly the USA) http://www.breakyourchains.org/john_poindexter.htm _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
