When I started posting here about 7 or 8 months ago, I mentioned that I had started watching Star Trek, from first to last. I actually started before Netflix put them all on their Instant Watch (Or should I call that “Netflix” now?) so was getting the DVDs. Since then, I made it through all 3 seasons of TOS and the first 3 movies. I’m also chewing up TAS like candy, have movies 4 and 5 in my queue, and am preparing to start wading my way into Next Gen.
I was surprised by TOS. First (and I know this can be a sticky subject) I was very pleased with the new CGI effects. I think, by and large, the effects added to the show or at the very least did not detract. Sometimes they did, but most of the time they were better than what I remember seeing before. In particular, the Doomsday Machine looked more… doomsday-y than it had before. And the Enterprise was just beautiful orbiting fully rendered worlds.
I was also surprised at how many episodes I’d seen before. I always said “I’ve probably seen most all of them” but I really had no proof of that, and I had never sat down before and intentionally watched episodes on any sort of schedule. However, I’d say only 1-3 episodes a season had I not seen before.
And finally, I was surprised at how well they held up. Sure, things got a little misogynistic at times and the acting ranged from fantastic to laughable - sometimes in the same actor and within minutes - and the sets were frequently done very cheaply (something I do NOT mind. At all. Tell a good story and you can call a milk crate a space ship for all I care), but the vast bulk of the episodes were above average TV and and many of them (the aforementioned Doomsday Machine for one) are among my very favorite episodes of all time.
Nothing is perfect, of course, and I started to wonder if I’d make it through Season 3 (that started with McCoy remote-controlling a literally brainless Spock with a device that didn’t have enough buttons to control a slot car, and then a couple episodes later had native Americans who would have embarrassed John Wayne with their savagery and lack of intelligence). I’m glad that I stuck with it, though, as the later episodes in the season (The Cloud Minders and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield come to mind) for the most part made up for it.
The Animated Series is entertaining, if sometimes only for the laughs. I’m finding - like with the original series - that some of the episodes are surprisingly good. That cat girl who’s sitting where Uhura normally sits has got to go, but I like the 3-armed 3-legged guy who (without explanation) took Chekov’s place.
And finally, the movies. The Motion Picture is sadly a bit too slow paced for me. I know that at the time it was stunning but we’ve gone past that now and it just feels drawn out. However, the Enterprise-A is just beautiful so watching it pan by was by no means a chore. Wrath of Khan I’ve seen so many times it was not any sort of surprise, though I haven’t seen Search for Spock since I was a teenager and I was very pleasantly surprised by it. It is nowhere near as bad as I remember, though it did not stand up to Kahn by any means.
Well, that’s enough babbling by me. I’ll try to update this thread as I go and by all means, I’d love to hear anybody else’s thoughts.
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