Text 16420, 101 rader
Skriven 2007-07-31 23:40:21 av Josh Hill (2893.babylon5)
     Kommentar till en text av rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated
Ärende: Re: [OT] Nimoy at SDCC: "It was logical!"
=================================================
On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:30:02 -0500, "Carl" <cengman7@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
>"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote in message 
>news:o6ova39c7ats2km0dr7i1i1kjrrdqu86db@4ax.com...
>> On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:56:57 -0500, "Carl" <cengman7@hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>>news:41tua3pdv6ktmig3m0mkcbkra99tgvgj6r@4ax.com...
>>
>>>> I liked it too. It was a reboot, but in a sense, it was closer to the
>>>> spirit of the books and From Russia With Love. Which in a way is what
>>>> I'd like to see happen to Trek -- recapture the spirit of the
>>>> original.
>>>
>>>I would too.  I just don't think you can do it as a continuation of the
>>>framework established by the whole TOS/TNG/DS9/VOY universe.
>>>I think they've locked themselves in and you have to go back and
>>>hit a reset.
>>
>> Agree 100%. The basics are OK, even necessary, but over time they sank
>> in the mires of over-elaboration.
>>
>>>> They've already chosen a Spock, it seems -- the guy who played Sylar
>>>> on Heroes. And Nemoy will be in it playing his older self.
>>>
>>>No idea who that is.
>>
>> Really creepy guy who decapitates other mutants and absorbs their
>> powers. Not exactly Spock-like, eh? But I can (if memory serves) see
>> it working: he has a certain deadpan quality and a somewhat Nemoyish
>> look.
>
>I am not Amy but... I believe it's Nimoy.

I believe you're right. Guess I ought to install the Vulcan dictionary
in my spelling checker.

>> Part of the challenge, I think, is to keep the limitations, even when
>> they aren't particularly realistic -- just as you want to create some
>> capabilities that aren't realistic either. I mean, IRL, a ship like
>> the Enterprise would likely be smart enough to drive itself, and its
>> reaction time would be a fraction of that of a human helmsman. But
>> where's the fun in that?
>
>I agree...the problem is that the farther you go out into the future,
>the harder it is to get away with people doing certain things that machines
>can do better.  With technology 50-100+ years after TNG there are simply too
>many things that would be available to keep you out of trouble.

>You'd
>have to be constantly meeting people even more advanced, which brings
>up another problem...anyone that's watched more than 3 episodes of
>Star Trek knows that truly advanced aliens always manifest themselves
>as energy/colored lights.

>How many times can you have a conflict with a ball of light?

In the days before CGI, I guess you'd have to say many! Which in a way
was part of the fun of TOS -- they were famously creative with
famously little (McCoy's medical instruments were salt shakers). Or
take B5's encounter suit -- I think it's a great example of what you
can do if you're improbably clever, since not only did the encounter
suit allow JMS to get around what I assume was essentially a technical
limitation (hard and expensive to CGI beings with wings in those days)
but it became a great plot device in itself, what with everyone in the
audience and most of those in the show dying to know what a Vorlon
actually looked like.

Now of course you can do much more with CGI. But always, I think, it's
the creativity that counts. TOS used a little kid to play a powerful
alien -- stroke of genius. Enterprise created a whole bestiary of
alien creatures, and fell flat on their face, because they didn't have
creative intelligence behind them.

>>>The alternative is a complete collapse of Start Fleet and a much
>>>darker and more militaristic series, which could work but I don't think
>>>they'd let it go there.
>>
>> What Andromeda was supposed to be, I think. But they screwed it up.
>
>Yeah....even though they didn't have to stay within rigidly defined 
>universe,
>they still ended up looking pretty silly.

Kind of what happens when you treat a show as a franchise rather than
as art, innit? TOS, Next Gen, and the B5 shows never made that
mistake. They had plenty of action, but also intelligence and creative
integrity rather than a desire to reach a given demographic.

-- 
Josh

"Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is
good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
	-- Samuel Johnson
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