Star Trek: The Original Series

[Dark Raven]

A thread to discuss the classic original series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I learned everything I know about hand-to-hand combat from that show. How I am still alive is a mystery.

 

[C. Lee]

I'm not sure how many of us there are on this site....but I started watching Trek on it's original run in the 60's. Been a fan since the show started. While the sequels may have bigger budget and better effects...the original show will always be my favorite.

 

[Dark Raven]

I'm not sure how many of us there are on this site....but I started watching Trek on it's original run in the 60's. Been a fan since the show started. While the sequels may have bigger budget and better effects...the original show will always be my favorite.

Same here. I can watch that show over and over whereas I probably would do so less for the other shows (although I have watched them a lot repeatedly too).

 

[C. Lee]

I've seen each of the original episodes dozens of times each. Partly because I love it, partly because it's been on longer.

I like all the series to different extents, but I haven't yet been able to watch all episodes of DS9 or VOYAGER. When they originally aired, the local station showing them stopped airing them after 4 years each. I guess they started costing them too much. I have managed to purchase all TREK series on DVD except for DS9. I am currently watching them in chronological order (I'm almost done with ENTERPRISE) and hope to be able to get the DS9 series by the time it's needed.

There's just something about the original series though....the show was breaking new ground in so many different ways....I love it.

 

[Duke]

I too love the the original series which sometimes had serious tones & then campy plots, such as Tribbles. I love the sound effects on the bridge of the Enterprise & of course Spock's dry wit.

 

[Figs]

When I was growing up I only saw a small handful of episodes but thankfully they have them all streaming on Netflix. My wife and I have been slowly watching them in between movies. It's great seeing how it all started before the movies.

 

[Picard Sisko]

Although I always say that DS9 is my favorite, there really is something special about TOS that I just can't explain. Its beautiful in every way. Its clearly made in the 60s, but I still get a sense of the future when watching it. When people bash it for its special effects, I think they are completely missing the point.

 

[SuBe]

We watched "the Trouble with Tribbles" last night, such a great episode. I laughed so hard.

 

[Smegger56]

TOS had everything. IMO, the other shows never had the character dynamic that TOS had with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. When the others tried to emulate it, mainly with DS9 and VOY, it felt very forced.

TOS was fun, and a big part of that was those 3 characters.

 

[Pink Ranger]

TOS had everything. IMO, the other shows never had the character dynamic that TOS had with Kirk, Spock and McCoy. When the others tried to emulate it, mainly with DS9 and VOY, it felt very forced.

TOS was fun, and a big part of that was those 3 characters.

As I may have said before in the TNG thread, those TOS characters were so effective because the writers weren't afraid to highlight their very human character flaws. Spock was arrogant and condescending (and self-hating, to some extent), McCoy was grumpy and stubborn, possibly slightly bigoted but in an amusing and pragmatic way. Those two really disliked each other in the TV show, that's been my observation.

Kirk was a borderline sexual degenerate and, when he made one of his moralistic speeches, a complete hypocrite as well. But these flaws made these 3 characters to relatable to the audience, who could recognize traits they could see in themselves.

Wheres in the post TOS universe, for some reason Roddz wanted the characters (the human ones at least) to never have any personal flaws. So you wound up with Bev Crusher, Laforge, Wesley Crusher, Troi, Ezri Dax, Harry Kim, Paris, Chakotay, Belanna Torres (the two most boring terrorists in history, apparently), Mayweather, Tucker, Sato and Reed. All those character you could switch their personalities and it would take you an hour before you'd notice the difference.

I'd almost include Riker on that list too, but he was such an amazingly effective first officer (the best XO in all of Star Trek IMO) that I give him a pass.

 

[Dark Raven]

The original series was also not so constrained by what seemed realistic or not. So you had plenty of fun episodes where the crew would visit a planet where anything could happen and it would be almost like having them planted into a completely different genre (eg Nazis, gladiators etc). You only really got those sorts of scenarios in a holodeck from TNG onwards (although it did have the fun Robin Hood episode).

From TNG onwards, the writers etc seemed to limit their imagination and were overly analysing what was realistic or politically correct. By the time it got to Enterprise, at least in the early episodes, that became extremely bland.

 

[Picard Sisko]

We watched "the Trouble with Tribbles" last night, such a great episode. I laughed so hard.

"It wasn't a tribble at all!"

As I may have said before in the TNG thread, those TOS characters were so effective because the writers weren't afraid to highlight their very human character flaws. Spock was arrogant and condescending (and self-hating, to some extent), McCoy was grumpy and stubborn, possibly slightly bigoted but in an amusing and pragmatic way. Those two really disliked each other in the TV show, that's been my observation.

Kirk was a borderline sexual degenerate and, when he made one of his moralistic speeches, a complete hypocrite as well. But these flaws made these 3 characters to relatable to the audience, who could recognize traits they could see in themselves.

Agreed 100%

Wheres in the post TOS universe, for some reason Roddz wanted the characters (the human ones at least) to never have any personal flaws. So you wound up with Bev Crusher, Laforge, Wesley Crusher, Troi, Ezri Dax, Harry Kim, Paris, Chakotay, Belanna Torres (the two most boring terrorists in history, apparently), Mayweather, Tucker, Sato and Reed. All those character you could switch their personalities and it would take you an hour before you'd notice the difference.

I'd almost include Riker on that list too, but he was such an amazingly effective first officer (the best XO in all of Star Trek IMO) that I give him a pass.

I think initially, they were trying to make the characters too "perfect," as there was no conflict with other crew members like we saw in TOS. But I think they knew what they were doing didn't work, as they wrote Wesley Crusher off the show, and later added some relationship issues between Picard and Crusher, made a love triangle between Riker, Troi, and Worf (which didn't go anywhere in the end), etc.

The original series was also not so constrained by what seemed realistic or not. So you had plenty of fun episodes where the crew would visit a planet where anything could happen and it would be almost like having them planted into a completely different genre (eg Nazis, gladiators etc). You only really got those sorts of scenarios in a holodeck from TNG onwards (although it did have the fun Robin Hood episode).

From TNG onwards, the writers etc seemed to limit their imagination and were overly analysing what was realistic or politically correct. By the time it got to Enterprise, at least in the early episodes, that became extremely bland.

I think this is where the franchise ran out of gas. The reboot is what filled it up again, giving us a fresh new tank.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I think initially, they were trying to make the characters too "perfect," as there was no conflict with other crew members like we saw in TOS. But I think they knew what they were doing didn't work, as they wrote Wesley Crusher off the show, and later added some relationship issues between Picard and Crusher, made a love triangle between Riker, Troi, and Worf (which didn't go anywhere in the end), etc.

Yeah, I sense that too. But by the time they got around to doing that, the fundamental insipidness of those characters had gotten so ingrained, it seemed like it was being forced or personalities were being retconned.

 

[Picard Sisko]

I don't see it that way but oh well... to each his own.

 

[Young Superman]

Star Trek: The Original Series is my favorite version of Trek, and James Tiberius Kirk is my favotite character in Star Trek history. In my opinion, this is one of Jim's greatest moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ErkeFA-QWk

 

[C. Lee]

If PIXAR did Original TREK -

 

[Duke]

^ That's utterly brilliant. Pixar & Paramount simply must allow this to happen!!

 

[DarkKnight88]

Without getting into spoiler material, can someone who's seen the newest film give a list of TOS episodes to watch in order to catch any references? Without listing why lol, just listing the episode title.

 

[Gary Griffith]

I enjoyed TNG and DS9, but my Trek love has always been reserved for the Original Series. There's a great synergy among the big 3 that has never been equaled in the later versions.

Yes the FX is better in the later shows, and the scripts were more consistent in the future series, but that Kirk-Spock-McCoy dynamic has never been equaled.

It was like having James Bond (Kirk), Sherlock Holmes (Spock) and Dr. Watson (McCoy) at play in the sci-fi arena. Simply wonderful!

TOS will always hold a special place in my heart

 

[cabel]

Just watched "A Piece of the Action." Great episode.

 

[danoyse]

The original series is still my favorite. My dad watched it when it first aired, but I got into it as a kid in the 80s, when they aired on midnight on Channel 11. On one of the extra features of blu-ray of the '09 movie, Damon Lindelof said that was where he got into the series too - we're both from NJ.

When we got a VCR, I used to tape the episodes at midnight and watch them the next day when I got home from school. My dad bought me a book with an episode guide, and I used to check off each episode when I saw it just so I knew I'd gotten them all on tape.

I've seen the other series, but I love the original. They had no budget (and they never even finished their mission), but they had the best stories and the best characters.

 

[bunk]

A couple weeks ago I started listening to a podcast called "Mission Logs". I would recommend it to anyone who's into the original series. The two hosts go through each episode one by one and discuss them in depth, which is pretty interesting if you're like me and you've only seen them once or twice. The podcast is about 40 episodes in at this point.

 

[cabel]

Started the third season.

Loved "The Enterprise Incident," Spectre of the Gun," and "Day of the Dove"

 

[jonathancrane]

Without getting into spoiler material, can someone who's seen the newest film give a list of TOS episodes to watch in order to catch any references? Without listing why lol, just listing the episode title.

"Trouble With Tribble"
"Space Seed"
"Mudd's Women"
(FIlm)The Wrath of Khan