Star Trek: The Next Threaderation

[El Barto]

Yeah, pretty much what Blob said. Another aspect of the whole thing is that most space ship crews (Star Trek or otherwise) tend to have some military organization. Ranks, career service and whatnot. In those roles doctors tend to be far more civilian, like McCoy, so they provide a completely different perspective. In The Cage (or The Menagerie) that ship's doctor played the same role of being around to provide the human perspective. Go back 10 or 20 years and you see some of the same stuff. In Forbidden Planet the ship's doctor was the captain's right hand man, for basically the same reason. Doctors aren't servicemen. In Voyager and Enterprise they had similar attribute of being non-human, thus providing the outsider POV like Spock did. ST always has to have one or more people to be the objective critiquer of humanity. 

[Kotowboy]

@reneauberjonois
@ChrErtmer Have you ever seen this. I took this photo in London a few years ago. Wonder if it’s still there. -ra

@david0akes
@reneauberjonois  I can assure you that London IS still there
 
‏@reneauberjonois
@david0akes  Touché  (o;  -ra



 

[BlobVanDam]

Kotow and Odo.

[King Postwhore]

Kotow and Odo.

 

Where's Zy when you need a photoshop gold moment.

[Kotowboy]

Kotow and Odo.

 

Where's Zy when you need a photoshop gold moment.

OdoBoy.

[King Postwhore]

That gives Zydar's couch a whole new meaning.

[Zydar]

Something like this?

[King Postwhore]

 

[Kotowboy]

I love my new hair !

[BlobVanDam]

WTF ZYDAR!

[Nefarius]

As of last weekend my Trek apprentice and I have completed my extensive DS9 selection of over 70 episodes covering all the important stuff.
She liked it quite a lot and just like at the end of TNG she's at a point where she can't imagine getting into another crew and storyline.
However my list of VOY essentials is only 24 episodes (same as TOS), so we'll be through with that rather quickly anyway.

Greetings...
Nef

[Kotowboy]

The great VOY episodes are so few and far between.

[BlobVanDam]

Even at a quick glance by name, I'd choose at least 30, surely plenty more if I read through the descriptions. Voyager is underrated.

As for ENT, just watch S3, and the S4 mirror universe episode and you're more than covered.

[Kotowboy]

Even at a quick glance by name, I'd choose at least 30, surely plenty more if I read through the descriptions. Voyager is underrated.

As for ENT, just watch S3, and the S4 mirror universe episode and you're more than covered.

I like Enterprise's Augment Trilogy. Although I thought that Soong being the creator of both Khan & Data was pushing it a bit.

[BlobVanDam]

Even at a quick glance by name, I'd choose at least 30, surely plenty more if I read through the descriptions. Voyager is underrated.

As for ENT, just watch S3, and the S4 mirror universe episode and you're more than covered.

I like Enterprise's Augment Trilogy. Although I thought that Soong being the creator of both Khan & Data was pushing it a bit.

Those episodes, like most of S4, was too fanwanky for me, partly for that reason.
The double episode to explain the TOS Klingons was the worst offender (explaining something that didn't need explaining). That's the kind of crap I expect from the novels.

[Kotowboy]

I love the VOY episode which is basically a re-shoot of Star Trek VI.

[BlobVanDam]

What?

[Kotowboy]

What?

 

The episode where Janeway and Tuvok go back to the Excelsior at the time of the Praxis incident.

[BlobVanDam]

Oh, the anniversary episode. For some reason I was getting confused and thinking Star Trek V instead of VI.

That was a good idea, but only a decent episode from what I remember. I read that they did that to give George Takei a part in the anniversary, since DS9 has Trials and Tribble-ations that same time, which he isn't in (which is an amazing episode, especially if you watch it back to back with The Trouble with Tribbles).

[rumborak]

When they released the remastered version of TOS they should have added Dax or Sisko somewhere in a corridor.

[El Barto]

When they released the remastered version of TOS they should have added Dax or Sisko somewhere in a corridor.

Part of me thinks that's way too George Lucassy, and part of me thinks it's freaking brilliant.

[El Barto]

Even at a quick glance by name, I'd choose at least 30, surely plenty more if I read through the descriptions. Voyager is underrated.

As for ENT, just watch S3, and the S4 mirror universe episode and you're more than covered.

Yeah, I certainly agree about VOY.

ENT I've decided is misunderstood. You ask anybody and they say what you did; first two seasons suck and the third is pretty good. I think it's probably more the opposite. While the Xindi storyline is very good, half of the episodes don't have anything to do with them, and a few more are only tangentially related (trying to rendezvous with somebody to get information about them, for example). Some of those unrelated episode were among their very worst. Meanwhile, despite not having a cast that's particularly interesting, there are actually some pretty good stories in the first two seasons. Certainly no less than what you find in S3. I think the good/average/shit ration was probably a wee bit better in the first two seasons. They spent too much time with the Suliban, who aren't particularly interesting, but a lot of the standalone episodes are pretty good.

When I did go back to season 4 I couldn't even make it through the first few episodes. It's really just terrible. I think I stopped at the one where Phlox's shithead friend gets a coworker killed in one of the most reprehensible acts you'll ever see in ST. I will say that while toying around with canon to force the Borg into the thing was a bad move, that episode wasn't bad at all. 

[BlobVanDam]

Yeah, the unrelated episodes of S3 were duds, but the percentage of good episodes was much higher than the other seasons imo. There were some silly horror-ish episodes that felt like B-scifi, but there were also lots of good episodes that followed classic Trek principles.
S1/2 weren't terrible, but they were very uninspired by that point, and just rehash of previous Trek, but with a much weaker cast. I'd call them redundant if anything.

Most people think S4 was Enterprise hitting its stride, but for me it was using old Trek as a crutch, and messing with canon even worse than previous seasons.

[rumborak]

I actually started watching ENT again a few days ago, and I have to say I'm actually enjoying it quite a lot. When I saw it the first time I had all the expectations riding on what it should have been; but on its own it's actually not bad at all.

[El Barto]

Yeah, it does much better the second time through for that very reason. That's why I've changed my stance on it. You might also find that season 3 isn't actually all that much better than the other two. Good Xindi stuff with a ton of typical ST filler. Upon a second trip through season 4 is painful to watch.

Season 3 also includes an episode which Brannon Braga called the singularly most embarrassing episode of ST he'd ever been associated with. LeVar Burton told the producers he was ashamed to have directed it. All the more interesting since LeVar had been featured in a very similar episode in TNG. Burton then followed that up by directed probably the best episode of ENT they made (Similitude).

[Kotowboy]

What episode is that ? I must watch it tonight


Edit : Extinction ?

[El Barto]

Yup. Pretty awful.

[Kotowboy]

that's my evening sorted.

[Kotowboy]

...That wasn't the worst thing i've ever seen.

Although I like how Archer's hair grew with the virus and then just stopped growing .

And how Enterprise could detect all the life signs from orbit but they couldn't locate them 6 feet in front of them on the surface 

[Kotowboy]

When I did go back to season 4 I couldn't even make it through the first few episodes. It's really just terrible. I think I stopped at the one where Phlox's shithead friend gets a coworker killed in one of the most reprehensible acts you'll ever see in ST. I will say that while toying around with canon to force the Borg into the thing was a bad move, that episode wasn't bad at all.

Do you know which episode that is ?

[El Barto]

The Phlox's shithead friend episode was one of the ones with Spiner and the augments. He ran the cold storage facility. I wrote somewhere that he might be the lowest scumbag in the entire ST universe. The one with the Borg was whichever S4 ENT episode it was that dealt with the Borg. No idea what they called it.

[rumborak]

BTW, totally random observation: Have you noticed how the beds in sick bay are always ridiculously narrow? I just watched an episode where T'Pol was required to have 24 hours bed rest, but it must have been hell. The slightest turn would make you fall off.

[BlobVanDam]

BTW, totally random observation: Have you noticed how the beds in sick bay are always ridiculously narrow? I just watched an episode where T'Pol was required to have 24 hours bed rest, but it must have been hell. The slightest turn would make you fall off.

And T'Pol is a only a twig as it is. Although lying down, she'd be top heavy and prone to rolling off.

Yeah, it does much better the second time through for that very reason. That's why I've changed my stance on it. You might also find that season 3 isn't actually all that much better than the other two. Good Xindi stuff with a ton of typical ST filler. Upon a second trip through season 4 is painful to watch.

Season 3 also includes an episode which Brannon Braga called the singularly most embarrassing episode of ST he'd ever been associated with. LeVar Burton told the producers he was ashamed to have directed it. All the more interesting since LeVar had been featured in a very similar episode in TNG. Burton then followed that up by directed probably the best episode of ENT they made (Similitude).

Nah, S3 is quite noticeably better than the first 2, despite occasional crud like Extinction. And while it is a terrible episode, I'm sure Braga has been associated with worse. One of the worst of the season, but it didn't jump out at me as all time awful. Just regular awful.

[rumborak]

https://io9.com/the-top-100-star-trek-episodes-of-all-time-1641565699

[El Barto]

https://io9.com/the-top-100-star-trek-episodes-of-all-time-1641565699

Lists like those tend to bug me since it's so subjective. Tons of things I could complain abut, but who'd listen. Instead I counted how many I could identify just from the picture. Got 72, including a couple of tricky ones.


And just to provide something to talk about, the top of each series:

TOS Balance of Terror (1), City on the Edge of Forever, Trouble with Tribbles
TNG Best of Both Worlds (2), Darmok, Inner Light
DS9 The Visitor (4), In the Pale Moonlight, Far Beyond the Stars
VOY Equinox (23), Year of Hell, The Void
ENT Twilight (33), In a Mirror Darkly, Dear Doctor

I'm in the CotEoF is the best ST has done camp, so I would have put it first in TOS, at least. Balance of Terror is a top 10 episode, but hardly the best of all series. Tribbles is overrated.
Thought BoBW sucked, suffering the same problem as almost all 2-part TNG episodes. Thought Darmk was overrated, as well. Inner Light is damn fine work, though.
I've got no problem at all with the DS9 list, although I think FBtS sucks, honestly. Good premise executed poorly due largely to the acting.
Equinox and Year of Hell are both good episodes. The latter might make my top 3, not sure. Timeless definitely would have, and probably Blink of an Eye; awesome premise.
All three of the ENT episodes are pretty good, although I have no idea how I'd rank them amongst the series. What I do know is that Similitude would top the list and didn't even make their 100.