Hi Dark, The TNG epasode you are talking about is called Skin of Evil. Tasha Yar, Enterprise's head of security, gets killed trying to rescue Dianna Troi, and at the end of the show Warf is promoted in her spot. Which is definitely what made that series more realistic. Characters could die, and did die on the show. There was no certainty that character x would survive an away mission. Sheesh, Star Trek X proved that when they killed Data which I didn't expect.
Basically, I agree with you that TNG was more credible as a sci-fi series, because over all it took things more seriously. It wasn't about punching aliens in the jaw and seeing if the captain could woo the alien ladies. Instead, TNG, inparticular, always left you with some moral imparative or lesson. You usually walked away from a good show with something to think about that was thought provoking and something to consider. For instance, Data's constant quest to discover more about humanity, how he could make himself more human, always left me with interesting discoveries about myself. In Skin of Evil at the funeral for Tasha Yar Data asks why do people cry when a fellow officer dies. That opened up a discussion of that we cry because we miss that person, but that the person lives on forever inside of us. As long as we remember them they are never further than our thoughts. Its not religious, but is a thought provoking way to view death. Basically, TNG explores a lot of issues like that, how should we handle alien races, what would we do in a first contact situation, what matters most to us, should we consider self-conscious robots like Data a living being or a machine? TNG really seemed to get down to the matter of what is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do in a given situation. It explores the good points of humanity, and gives helpful moral direction where humanity should go in the future. TNG shows us a humanity who has over come our desire for personal wealth, power, and who choose to explore the galaxy instead of fighting each other. Interesting enough TNG also introduced some novel solutions that I think would solve several issues today like divorce. In one of the Star Trek books I read, can't remember which one, they talked about marital contracts. Basically, as I understand it a couple who wanted to get maried could sign a contract specifying the amount of time they expected to last, and would agree before hand on how to end the marage if it didn't work out. Think of how much that would solve if people could agree before hand how to end the marage if the marage didn't work out. Plus if there were short term contracts a couple could sign for one year, and simply go their own way after that time when the contract was up if things weren't working out between the partners. Personally, I think this is a good idea, but some religious folks might not agree. Basically, what impressed me about TNG and beyond is the writers did try to take serious issues and give real world answers and solutions to them. Maybe they would work, and maybe they wouldn't. However, they did provide possible solutions and ideas how we might handle issues that seem to be a problem for humanity right now. Star Trek became so much more than just about space exploration. The writers tried to address serious social issues too. As for the thing with the Borg and Enterprise I agree. It seems a bit rediculous given all we know about the Borg that it would take them 100 years to get to Sector J-25 when Voyager managed to use a Transwarp conduit to get home in the final epasode and was returned to the Alpha Quadrant in a matter of minutes. Ummmm....Some Star Trek writer was smoking some dope. Lol! Cheers! On 7/11/11, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > it's just that kind of thing I've heard about enterprise that puts me off > actually paying money for the series, especially sinse it's pretty obvious > this was just a case of "woopse! didn't watch the source material carefully > enough!" > > Afterall, if the borg really had been summoned in Enterprise, ---- why did > it take them so long just to get to system j25, when they can apparently get > all the way from their home sector to Alpha quadrent within only a couple of > years, especially with their transwarp technology. > Insanity! > > For original trek though, I could accept the costumes, bad effects etc, ---- > > even lots of the old dr. who stuff I like looks pretty dated now, it's more > the atittudes plots and how the series works overall. > > Have you ever seen that sketch where Kirk is sitting on the bridge and says > "for the next mission the away team will comprise myself, Mr. spok, Dr. > maccoy, Lt ohura, Mr. Scot and crewman jones" where upon the crewman starts > screaming "nooooo! I'm too young to die!" ;D. > > The problem was, this really did! happen in original trek rather too often, > as opposed to tng where there is if my memory serves me an entire episode > where a crew member dies on an away mission and warf and various others try > to cope with her death. > > This is what I mean. Where as from the tng era starfleet is something with > morals I can respect, going by Kirk it seems most of the ethics of starfleet > are to punch jaws and love and leave innumerable alien ladies! ;D. > > This is why i can have fun with original trek, but really can't take it too > seriously as an actual piece of sf as I can with later series. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. 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