Nancy by Olivia Jaimes for February 03, 2017

Wait’ll he gets to “Spock’s Brain”.

Still some of the best writing that made it to TV. Roddenberry described it as ‘Wagon Train to the Stars’ when he was pitching it to the network. The old ‘Wagon Train’ show was a similar program that focused on the people and their stories, quietly suggesting that we do better if we don’t fight among ourselves over differences. Still sadly relevant today…

Even though I’m a fan of TOS, I think the writing got even better with TNG, my favorite episodes being “Family” and “The Drumhead”.

I love the special effects on TOS remastered. Gives a whole new appreciation to the show.

DS9 is my favorite. The father – son bond between Benjamin Sisko and Jake, the intricate political machinations on the station, the changing dynamics of the Dominion War.And the aliens! Quark, Garak, Gul Dukat, Worf! I miss that show.

He got over Wonder Woman.

Wait until he gets to Beanie and Cecil. That’s some high drama! “I’m coming Beanie boy!”

I prefer The Next Generation.

What a sad comment Gil makes about today’s TV shows. The problem is that it is oh so true. We’ve been binge-watching NYPD: Blue, and even that short a time ago, the show had some excellent writing and stories.

We have ALL the Star Trek series available to us on H & I Network. We are working through Deep Space Nine now, which I don’t remember seeing when it first ran. Definitely dark, morally ambiguous and more complex than the original Star Trek. Then again, we are a darker and more morally ambiguous people than we were in the sixties…

And that’s why I enjoy the British, Canadian and Australian shows like Detective Murdoch, the Doctor Blake Mysteries, A Place Called Home and countless others with great story lines. Cheaper than cable and no commercials!

“A Piece of the Action” - my all-time favorite!

We’ve been in a golden age for a couple of decades now. You just have to subscribe beyond Sluggo’s means.

Unfortunately, the later Treks fell into the particle-of-the-week swamp and never got out.

When it was being made, the original Trek was consuming more than half of Hollywood’s entire special-effects budget. But primitive techniques had their problems; the most annoying one, to me, is the way that, when the Enterprise is moving away from the camera, at a certain point they stop moving the model (the trick of moving the camera instead was developed in the 70s) and instead use a zoom lens; the sudden change from the model retreating in perspective to simply shrinking is obvious to anyone who’s done serious photography. I haven’t yet seen the new version with the FX redone in CGI.

The nearest thing to the original “Star Trek” is “Babylon 5” (1993–1998). Just ask Walter Koenig, who did both.

That cat is stimulating Sluggo’s brain. Today’s observation is the wisest thing he’s ever said!