Star Trek XI

[Tripe]

yes, as a Star Trek fan, i think ds9 was the best of ST.  you had a place where not everybody got along and held hands, frolicking in the fields, saying how great and wonderos beimgs humans are.  They had aliens who flat-out said, "Your hypoctrites!"

Yep I'd agree with that, for the most part DS9 was the best of the Trek series so far, but then I like politics more than exploration.

[BathTub]

Yes DS9 was Star Treks best attempt at Babylon 5.

[Tripe]

Yes DS9 was Star Treks best attempt at Babylon 5.

Loved that one too, not enough Political stuff in most tv sci fi.

[Scrivener]

yes, as a Star Trek fan, i think ds9 was the best of ST.  you had a place where not everybody got along and held hands, frolicking in the fields, saying how great and wonderos beimgs humans are.  They had aliens who flat-out said, "Your hypoctrites!"

Heck, they had humans who called out the Federation.  Remember Eddington calling them "worse than the Borg"?  And he made you sympathize with his stance! (By "you," I of course mean "me.")

And as for great recurring characters, I have only one word:  Garak.

[Blueguy]

Garak, Martok, Dukat, and I'm probably not thinking of a few more.  Heck, even Eddington was pretty cool for the few episodes he was in.  He just seemed like a small bit character at first, and then he turned into this near super-villain, always one step ahead of Sisko kind of person.

[Sharktopus]

Don't forget Weyoun. I love Weyoun. All of them. Him. Whatever.

It's great to see so much DS9 love here. So many Trekkers never gave the show a chance.

[Blueguy]

I feel dirty for forgetting Weyoun.   

Whoever was responsible for casting all these absolutely perfect actors deserves to rule a small country.

[Sharktopus]

What really helped the casting is that most of those characters didn't need to be the stereotypical "TV attractive" that the regular human cast was. If you're gonna put a couple pounds of makeup and appliances on a guy's face, you can cast for acting ability over looks. Not that any of those guys were ugly or anything, but you wouldn't see them starring in regular TV.

[King Anthony]

If I ever doubted the necessity for Star Trek XI, it's gone now.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

DS9's entire cast were well-developed, realistic characters. It's almost like they tried to make a good show, rather than just another retread of the original series... What a novel idea.

I don't know...but every time I tried to watch that I had the same reaction at the end of the episode...."Great.  But what did that have to do with science fiction?"

If felt like everyone in Trek after Roddenberry died wanted to be doing anything else but Trek....but they didn't have the balls to give up the paycheck.

So they were writing police shows, "Seinfeld" episodes, you name it - all the stuff they really wanted to do - and just dressing the characters in alien costumes.

"Enterprise' was worse in that - well, in MANY ways but - when they came up with a halfway good idea, they never persued it.

Sci-Fi without controversy is BOR-ING (just look at Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes compared to the original).

This new movie is doomed from the start, IMHO because it's about Kirk and Spock with no McCoy.   McCoy was the heart to Spock's intellectuallism and Kirk's bravado.  It won't work without him.

[Sharktopus]

DS9's entire cast were well-developed, realistic characters. It's almost like they tried to make a good show, rather than just another retread of the original series... What a novel idea.

I don't know...but every time I tried to watch that I had the same reaction at the end of the episode...."Great.  But what did that have to do with science fiction?"

How are you defining science fiction? Humans living in deep space with numerous alien species isn't sci-fi?

This new movie is doomed from the start, IMHO because it's about Kirk and Spock with no McCoy.   McCoy was the heart to Spock's intellectuallism and Kirk's bravado.  It won't work without him.

Who's saying Bones won't be in it?

[RobtheBarbarian]

What really helped the casting is that most of those characters didn't need to be the stereotypical "TV attractive" that the regular human cast was. If you're gonna put a couple pounds of makeup and appliances on a guy's face, you can cast for acting ability over looks. Not that any of those guys were ugly or anything, but you wouldn't see them starring in regular TV.

O'Brien jumps to mind. You wouldn't see him as anything but the dorky slob neighbor who drops by and steals pizza on any other show, and he's probably in my top 5 favorite characters for DS:9.

[Sharktopus]

What really helped the casting is that most of those characters didn't need to be the stereotypical "TV attractive" that the regular human cast was. If you're gonna put a couple pounds of makeup and appliances on a guy's face, you can cast for acting ability over looks. Not that any of those guys were ugly or anything, but you wouldn't see them starring in regular TV.

O'Brien jumps to mind. You wouldn't see him as anything but the dorky slob neighbor who drops by and steals pizza on any other show, and he's probably in my top 5 favorite characters for DS:9.

Because he's a realistic, lovable human, which is a rarity on Star Trek. Plus, Colm Meaney's one of the most natural actors to ever grace Trek. Have you seen Layer Cake? He was great in that, too.

[Tripe]

He's pretty much great in everything he does.

One of my favorite O'Brien moments is a really quick one from TNG. Picard is talking about Ships in Bottles to the bewilderment of all but O'Brien. After Picard has beamed over to the abandon ship that inspired the talk Riker looks doubtfully at O'Brien as if to accuse him of sucking up. O'Brien counters with "I did used to make them. Ships in bottles - great fun!" It's just a nice bit of everyday banter.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

How are you defining science fiction? Humans living in deep space with numerous alien species isn't sci-fi?

Alien - science fiction or just a "monster in the dark" story that happens to be on a space ship?  Same with Event Horizon...

Who's saying Bones won't be in it?

Everything I've read about it so far.