Happy Star Trek Day:
No STDs Please!
Happy Star Trek Day (9/8) everyone! On this anniversary of the very first airing of the very first episode of Star Trek ever, I had to put in my 2 cents regarding the new CBS series Star Trek: Discovery, aka STD.
:BEGIN UPDATE: This rant from 9/8/2018 was about why you shouldn't watch Star Trek Discovery (ST:DSC). However, I broke down this past summer and paid for CBS All Access to see if ST:DSC was any good since I was hearing good things about the latest season. I'm happy to report that ST:DSC is not that bad. If you can get past weird Klingon makeup and USS Discovery's weird propulsion system and JJ Abrams inspired weird special effects, season 2 will grow on you! In fact, season 1 did a good job with Klingon culture and language. So, do yourself a favor, and pay for the CBS Pay Wall now!
:END UPDATE:
Sorry to say, I may not be following this series. I have not missed a first airing of any Star Trek episode since 9/8/66! I was there on Thursday night at 8:30PM on NBC. And I was there for every first airing of every single episode of every single season of every single series of Star Trek on Broadcast TV ever. In fact, I'm a proud member of Star Trek's 700 club having watched all 700 episodes (no bloody reruns, no bloody VHS, no bloody DVD, no bloody DVR)!
Well, actually there were 703 episodes all together not including ST:DSC (TOS:79, TNG:178, DS9:176, VOY:172, ENT:98). If you wanna catch up, you have a lot of binge watching to do. It would take you over 29 days to watch from start to finish and that's if you take NO breaks: no eating, no sleeping, no bathroom, no nothing else but Trek 24 hours a day! I see the makings of a new cable station. Oh, wait, they already do 5 hours of Trek per day, 6 days per week, not Saturdays, on H&I: Heros And Icons network (there even used to be 6 hours on Sundays with 2 episodes of ST:TAS).
There's 22 half hour TAS episodes with some cool stories contributed by Larry Niven, David Gerrold and even Walter Koenig. If we add those 11 hours we're up to 714. So, if we keep to the TV broadcast episodes of Trek, not including ST:DSC, the so called 700 club is really 714. If we add the 10 feature films (TOS and TNG, no JJ please) that would add over 25 hours or so? 714 gets pretty close to 740 then. I'm still calling it the Trek 700 Club!
Maybe we could call it the 725 club if we add all 11 episodes of ST:Continues aka ST:New Voyages. These 11 fan produced episodes were brilliant and are supposed to finish off the last 2 years of Kirk's original 5 year mission. I recently wrote this comment on ST:Continues Instagram:
"I vote to make your 11 episodes stand as cannon for TOS years 4&5 of the original 5 year mission. Your work is genius! Too bad CBS had to come down so hard on fan productions. This vote is from a long time Trekker who saw every episode of every season of every series of Trek on their first airing never missing one. I was even there for the first episode ever on a Thursday night at 8:30pm on NBC 9/8/66. I grew up with Trek and the Apollo missions making me the scientist I am today. I thank original Trek and I thank you for keeping the dream alive. The best Trek episodes were morality plays or social commentaries that made you think about how to make our world a better place. Trek was always about humanity's potential and bright future. Your artistry captured that spirit exactly and beautifully. Thank you so very much."
ST:DSC looks too much like JJ's 3 films for my taste. Long live the Prime Timeline, say I! We can do without the JJ films aka the Kelvin Timeline. You cannot kill off Spock's mom, BTW....
So, I'll watch the first episode of ST:DSC on CBS TV since I can't break my streak. But I don't want to pay $6/month for CBS All Access to watch only one series.
Actually, I did liked the first episode of ST:DSC. It's not really Trek unless there's a moral to the story, right? What happened to the Morality Play and the Weekly Monologue? Where's the positive attitude about Humanity's Potential? ST:DSC's first episode was fun for action packed SciFi with lots of special effects, but Star Trek it ain't. Oh, you can spare me the lens flares.
It's the principle, however. If they start taking every show off the air to put them on a subscription site, when will it stop? I'll end up paying $10/month for every station there is. I'm already paying for other subscription sites, you know? Anyway, I'm a long time Trek fan and supporter. This is no way to treat the fans. Don't get me started on what CBS did to fan made Trek web series like Star Trek Continues because of the Axanar debacle....
I'm really torn. I did like the Easter Eggs in the Captain's ready room. However, I have not seen episode 2 as I did not sign up for CBS All Access. I may do the free trial....
I already ran into the CBS All Access Pay Wall issue a couple of years ago. They used to have a website called CBS Rewind which had archival footage from 60 Minutes and other noteworthy shows. I used to use these videos in class with my students. However, CBS Rewind was assimilated by CBS All Access, so the archival videos are no longer free. That CBS Pay Wall has got to go! If enough of us old time Trekkers resist, they may have to do something. Is resistance futile?
I, for one, will most likely avoid all STDs.
BTW, top fave shows (not in any particular order): Original TZone, New Outer Limits (Showtime), BattleStar Gallactica ReBoot, Babylon5, All StarGates (in addition to All Star Treks, of course).
Doctor Who, Merlin, Falling Skies and Dark Mater are also in my top 10. BTW, there's a petition to bring back Dark Mater. There hasn't been much good SciFi on SyFy since BattleStar and StarGate ended. Figures, once SyFy gets something half way decent like Dark Mater, they cancel it just when it's getting good. I think that's what happened to Star Trek Enterprise also. It got cancelled just when it got into a groove.
Ok, this may be sacrilege for me to say as a life long trekker, but B5 may be a better Trek than Trek in some respects! For example, B5 is the only sci-fi show to handle issues of belief and faith so well. Even DS9 can't hold a candle to B5 in this regard. Also, the consistent high quality of the writing is unmatched. JMS (J. Michael Strazinski) is a God! Yes TGBTG (The Great Bird of The Galaxy aka Gene Roddenbury) was there first and had an awesome vision for humanity's potential, but JMS is a better writer and he kept very strict control of the entire 5 year story arc. Few series had such great writing and focus. Few series had such a satisfying conclusion. The only other series that comes close is GOT (Game Of Thrones) during seasons 1-6 where GRRM (George R.R. Martin aka J.R.R. Tolkein's reincarnation) was personally involved in the writing and maintaining the story arc. IMHO, Merlin and BattleStar Galactica had good, if controversial, endings as well!
Parting gifts: if you wanna binge BattleStar Gallactica 2004, you can watch it and the 2 episode miniseries prequel free on the SyFy or NBC apps. Star Trek, StarGate, Babylon5 and BattleStar are all on Amazon Prime. TZone is on CBS All Access. Merlin and Doctor Who are on BBCA. It was really hard to track down these series for a while, so you are welcome!
One last thing: If CBS wanted to pull out all the stops and spend megabux on each episode of a new Trek series, why didn't they do this in time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary celebration? The homage that CBS (TV rights), and Paramount (movie rights) for that mater, actually had for Star Trek's 50th birthday on 9/8/2016 was deafening due to it's absence!
:BEGIN UPDATE: This rant from 9/8/2018 was about why you shouldn't watch Star Trek Discovery (ST:DSC). However, I broke down this past summer and paid for CBS All Access to see if ST:DSC was any good since I was hearing good things about the latest season. I'm happy to report that ST:DSC is not that bad. If you can get past weird Klingon makeup and USS Discovery's weird propulsion system and JJ Abrams inspired weird special effects, season 2 will grow on you! In fact, season 1 did a good job with Klingon culture and language. So, do yourself a favor, and pay for the CBS Pay Wall now!
:END UPDATE:
Sorry to say, I may not be following this series. I have not missed a first airing of any Star Trek episode since 9/8/66! I was there on Thursday night at 8:30PM on NBC. And I was there for every first airing of every single episode of every single season of every single series of Star Trek on Broadcast TV ever. In fact, I'm a proud member of Star Trek's 700 club having watched all 700 episodes (no bloody reruns, no bloody VHS, no bloody DVD, no bloody DVR)!
Well, actually there were 703 episodes all together not including ST:DSC (TOS:79, TNG:178, DS9:176, VOY:172, ENT:98). If you wanna catch up, you have a lot of binge watching to do. It would take you over 29 days to watch from start to finish and that's if you take NO breaks: no eating, no sleeping, no bathroom, no nothing else but Trek 24 hours a day! I see the makings of a new cable station. Oh, wait, they already do 5 hours of Trek per day, 6 days per week, not Saturdays, on H&I: Heros And Icons network (there even used to be 6 hours on Sundays with 2 episodes of ST:TAS).
There's 22 half hour TAS episodes with some cool stories contributed by Larry Niven, David Gerrold and even Walter Koenig. If we add those 11 hours we're up to 714. So, if we keep to the TV broadcast episodes of Trek, not including ST:DSC, the so called 700 club is really 714. If we add the 10 feature films (TOS and TNG, no JJ please) that would add over 25 hours or so? 714 gets pretty close to 740 then. I'm still calling it the Trek 700 Club!
Maybe we could call it the 725 club if we add all 11 episodes of ST:Continues aka ST:New Voyages. These 11 fan produced episodes were brilliant and are supposed to finish off the last 2 years of Kirk's original 5 year mission. I recently wrote this comment on ST:Continues Instagram:
"I vote to make your 11 episodes stand as cannon for TOS years 4&5 of the original 5 year mission. Your work is genius! Too bad CBS had to come down so hard on fan productions. This vote is from a long time Trekker who saw every episode of every season of every series of Trek on their first airing never missing one. I was even there for the first episode ever on a Thursday night at 8:30pm on NBC 9/8/66. I grew up with Trek and the Apollo missions making me the scientist I am today. I thank original Trek and I thank you for keeping the dream alive. The best Trek episodes were morality plays or social commentaries that made you think about how to make our world a better place. Trek was always about humanity's potential and bright future. Your artistry captured that spirit exactly and beautifully. Thank you so very much."
ST:DSC looks too much like JJ's 3 films for my taste. Long live the Prime Timeline, say I! We can do without the JJ films aka the Kelvin Timeline. You cannot kill off Spock's mom, BTW....
So, I'll watch the first episode of ST:DSC on CBS TV since I can't break my streak. But I don't want to pay $6/month for CBS All Access to watch only one series.
Actually, I did liked the first episode of ST:DSC. It's not really Trek unless there's a moral to the story, right? What happened to the Morality Play and the Weekly Monologue? Where's the positive attitude about Humanity's Potential? ST:DSC's first episode was fun for action packed SciFi with lots of special effects, but Star Trek it ain't. Oh, you can spare me the lens flares.
It's the principle, however. If they start taking every show off the air to put them on a subscription site, when will it stop? I'll end up paying $10/month for every station there is. I'm already paying for other subscription sites, you know? Anyway, I'm a long time Trek fan and supporter. This is no way to treat the fans. Don't get me started on what CBS did to fan made Trek web series like Star Trek Continues because of the Axanar debacle....
I'm really torn. I did like the Easter Eggs in the Captain's ready room. However, I have not seen episode 2 as I did not sign up for CBS All Access. I may do the free trial....
I already ran into the CBS All Access Pay Wall issue a couple of years ago. They used to have a website called CBS Rewind which had archival footage from 60 Minutes and other noteworthy shows. I used to use these videos in class with my students. However, CBS Rewind was assimilated by CBS All Access, so the archival videos are no longer free. That CBS Pay Wall has got to go! If enough of us old time Trekkers resist, they may have to do something. Is resistance futile?
I, for one, will most likely avoid all STDs.
BTW, top fave shows (not in any particular order): Original TZone, New Outer Limits (Showtime), BattleStar Gallactica ReBoot, Babylon5, All StarGates (in addition to All Star Treks, of course).
Doctor Who, Merlin, Falling Skies and Dark Mater are also in my top 10. BTW, there's a petition to bring back Dark Mater. There hasn't been much good SciFi on SyFy since BattleStar and StarGate ended. Figures, once SyFy gets something half way decent like Dark Mater, they cancel it just when it's getting good. I think that's what happened to Star Trek Enterprise also. It got cancelled just when it got into a groove.
Ok, this may be sacrilege for me to say as a life long trekker, but B5 may be a better Trek than Trek in some respects! For example, B5 is the only sci-fi show to handle issues of belief and faith so well. Even DS9 can't hold a candle to B5 in this regard. Also, the consistent high quality of the writing is unmatched. JMS (J. Michael Strazinski) is a God! Yes TGBTG (The Great Bird of The Galaxy aka Gene Roddenbury) was there first and had an awesome vision for humanity's potential, but JMS is a better writer and he kept very strict control of the entire 5 year story arc. Few series had such great writing and focus. Few series had such a satisfying conclusion. The only other series that comes close is GOT (Game Of Thrones) during seasons 1-6 where GRRM (George R.R. Martin aka J.R.R. Tolkein's reincarnation) was personally involved in the writing and maintaining the story arc. IMHO, Merlin and BattleStar Galactica had good, if controversial, endings as well!
Parting gifts: if you wanna binge BattleStar Gallactica 2004, you can watch it and the 2 episode miniseries prequel free on the SyFy or NBC apps. Star Trek, StarGate, Babylon5 and BattleStar are all on Amazon Prime. TZone is on CBS All Access. Merlin and Doctor Who are on BBCA. It was really hard to track down these series for a while, so you are welcome!
One last thing: If CBS wanted to pull out all the stops and spend megabux on each episode of a new Trek series, why didn't they do this in time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary celebration? The homage that CBS (TV rights), and Paramount (movie rights) for that mater, actually had for Star Trek's 50th birthday on 9/8/2016 was deafening due to it's absence!
So, as Spock and Leonard Nimoy would say:
LLAP, PALL!
Sincerely,
A. Jorge Garcia
Applied Math, Physics and CS
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee
Applied Math, Physics and CS
http://shadowfaxrant.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/calcpage2009
NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee
Well, that's all folks.
2015 NYS Secondary Math PAEMST Nominee
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