At 06:28 AM 5/6/01 -0700, Jim wrote:
> >>Hypocrisy alert: those who knew me in college may remember that I
> >>enjoyed ST:TNG quite a bit when it was in its first run. I even
> >>went through a period when I thought old Trek was horribly dated,
> >>an embarrassment...fickle me. Now I watch ST:TNG and much of the
> >>time get struck with the same sense of "Ewww!" Its good shows are
> >>good & the bad ones bad, just like the original series, which I no
> >>longer think has anything to apologize for.
> >
> >Two words: "Spock's Brain."
>
>Ok, so that was just hostile, Ronn. Shame on you! :)
>
>Honestly, I think the episode with hippies in space searching for the Eden
>planet was worse than Spock's Brain. <shudders>
All I needed was _one_ counterexample to the statement that "the original
series [has nothing] to apologize for." Unfortunately, it would be
possible to come up with several.
How about the last 10 minutes of "The Omega Glory" for another example? Up
'til then, it's not a bad episode, but the ending kinda colors most
people's opinions of the whole episode. I, too, still think TOS was better
than any of the sequelae. Whenever it got preachy, though, look out: it
was about as subtle as the proverbial 800-pound (362.9 kg) gorilla. Some
other examples that come quickly to mind include "Bread & Circuses" and
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." (Perhaps someone has some other
"favorites" to add to those.)
Then, there were the episodes that were so muddled that no one could figure
out exactly what the heck was supposed to be going on, such as "The Mark of
Gideon" and "Jem" . . .
P.S. There's a small town named "Eden" not far from here. While I have
never visited the town itself, guess what tune rolls through my head every
time I pass the sign for the exit from the interstate . . .
-- Ronn! :)
