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I am a complete sci-fi nut who worships at the altar of Star Trek and Doctor Who. One franchise that leaves me fairly cold is 'Star Wars' and spinoffs. Just can't get excited about that.

Do you like all the Star Trek spin-offs, Fretless?

With the ones that I've dipped into, such as Deep Space Sixty Nine, I've never been able to stomach them for more than 5 minutes.
Too much talking. Not enough action. Unimaginative, cliched alien characters.

As well as all the technical bullhsit in Star Trek. Such as: I would never go on their "beam me up" transporter because it would kill me and then create a clone of me with the same memories as me in a separate location. And yet no character ever questions it and says "Hang on! Do you realise what this device is actually doing?"

Fretless wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 6:41 pm I am a complete sci-fi nut who worships at the altar of Star Trek and Doctor Who. One franchise that leaves me fairly cold is 'Star Wars' and spinoffs. Just can't get excited about that.

I'm absolutely the same.

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:08 pm ... I would never go on their "beam me up" transporter because it would kill me and then create a clone of me with the same memories as me in a separate location. And yet no character ever questions it and says "Hang on! Do you realise what this device is actually doing?"

In the "Enterprise" series, which is set before the "original" series, time-wise, most of the crew are scared shitless by the new-fangled transporters, and much prefer shuttle,.craft.

Re science in general though, they did try to get it as right as was possible. Many devices and "stuff" in general was either nicked from theoretical science or extrapolated from existing science. Theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss wrote a book: The Physics of Star Trek, with a foreword by a superfan named Stephen Hawking. Hawking himself was a devout Trekkie, and talked himself into a cameo in the New Generation series, playing poker against Einstein, Newton, and Data. He wins the hand (obviously) by bluffing Einstein.

Lindsayt wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:08 pm Do you like all the Star Trek spin-offs, Fretless?

With the ones that I've dipped into, such as Deep Space Sixty Nine, I've never been able to stomach them for more than 5 minutes.
Too much talking. Not enough action. Unimaginative, cliched alien characters.

I do actually like all of the Trek spinoffs up to now - but they do all have weaknesses and strengths:

Next Generation - THE reboot with Picard, Data et al. Sometimes a bit too moralistic but with great character forming and interplay. Many good episodes and plenty of humour.

Deep Space Nine - somehow a bit too similar to 'Babylon 5'. Again great characters and bucketloads of humour and action. It took me a long time to get around to this series and it improves through the seasons.

Voyager - what can I say? Action-packed and the most thrilling of the spinoffs. tightly-written and well-acted.
Seven of Nine ...

Enterprise - didn't like this at first but gave it a second go and got thoroughly into it. Actually it's really good and a pity that it got killed off before it could develop further.

Discovery - Into the modern era with huge action scenes, PC characters and complex plots. Massive and enthralling.

Picard - A trip down memory lane into the dark places.

Lower Decks - Will get around to this soon. Apparently it is a hoot.

Strange New Worlds - The anticipation is killing me.

Prodigy - Animation. Could be interesting.

Area 31 - thought it was cancelled but it is still said to be in pre-production

Looking forward to Picard a bit more as apparently it has Q, which is never a bad thing. I think it will be along wait until Section 31 arrives and it will need some timeline twisting as Georgiou has absconded back to the mirror universe, however Star Trek cannon is more malleable than playdough.

On a sort of binge note BBC4 has the Zappa film on iplayer, it's a really good insight into the man. I particularly liked the Ensemble Modern stuff as the Yellow Shark is one of my Zappa favorites. There's nothing particularly new there but it's quite well done.

J. Michael Straczynski
@straczynski

To answer all the questions, yes, it’s true, Babylon 5 is in active development as a series for the CW. We have some serious fans over at the network, and they’re eager to see this show happen. I’m hip deep into writing the pilot now, and will be running the series upon pickup.
11:44 PM · Sep 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

For me, that is excellent news. I rate B5 as probably the best-ever "space opera" on the telly. It was also possibly the first series of its kind to have a multi-series story arc, which unfolded over the five seasons. Goodies became baddies, baddies became goodies, seemingly insignificant players suddenly found themselves taking centre-stage... My late wife referred to it as "War & Peace in space," due to the depth and complexity of the plotting. I bought the "ultimate" 42-DVD box set, which included all of the movies and an absolute ton of "extras." There are even online suggestions (which we followed) of which order to plug the movies into the series so that characters/things don't appear out of sequence.

Bring it on! I'm only sorry Jeanette won't be here to share it with me.

Also a big Babylon 5 fan here.

I rate it alongside 'The Expanse' which also has massive, complex plots and 'hard science' tech (mostly).

Fretless wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 3:03 pm Also a big Babylon 5 fan here.

I rate it alongside 'The Expanse' which also has massive, complex plots and 'hard science' tech (mostly).

Good call, and possibly "Farscape" too, if it wasn't for some of those God-awful puppets.

slinger wrote: ↑Tue Oct 26, 2021 2:58 pm

J. Michael Straczynski
@straczynski

To answer all the questions, yes, it’s true, Babylon 5 is in active development as a series for the CW. We have some serious fans over at the network, and they’re eager to see this show happen. I’m hip deep into writing the pilot now, and will be running the series upon pickup.
11:44 PM · Sep 27, 2021·Twitter Web App

For me, that is excellent news. I rate B5 as probably the best-ever "space opera" on the telly. It was also possibly the first series of its kind to have a multi-series story arc, which unfolded over the five seasons. Goodies became baddies, baddies became goodies, seemingly insignificant players suddenly found themselves taking centre-stage... My late wife referred to it as "War & Peace in space," due to the depth and complexity of the plotting. I bought the "ultimate" 42-DVD box set, which included all of the movies and an absolute ton of "extras." There are even online suggestions (which we followed) of which order to plug the movies into the series so that characters/things don't appear out of sequence.

Bring it on! I'm only sorry Jeanette won't be here to share it with me.

I'd seen this and was concerned, I hope it's as good a reboot as BSG started out as, but after the Legend of the Rangers attempted reboot a few years ago I have to say I wonder if Straczynski has lost his golden touch. I hope not but Legends was really poor, and lets face it Crusade wasn't exactly stellar either.

I guess we'll have to quote Delenn - Faith manages...