by fen,payter
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This post has been edited 1 time(s). Prior versions are displayed from the original.

Original message modified Jul 04, 2004 @ 11:13:
Topic: Rick has yet to learn...
... the elements of what makes a good ST movie.

They can bring back all sorts of characters, all sorts of situations... and the movie can still suck. That was proven with Generations, Regurgitation (or whatever it was really called; I forget) and Nemesis.

Why did these movies suck so badly? IMHO, it was several factors :

- the snippets of info about the movie promised much, but sucked totally in execution

- the continuity issues were poorly handled (for crying out loud, *everyone* has a VCR these these days, and the franchise's followers are fanatical about detail)

- but most of all, the stories really SUCKED.

In "Generations", we were 'promised' the return of Kirk. What did they do with Kirk? Wasted him! They have bumble around on the bridge of the Enterprise 'B' before getting to him run around in a sandpit only to be shot in the back. "....and Whoopi Goldberg will be in Generations..." Another stupid waste of talent and bad story telling.

In "Insurrection" (oh dear, just remembered the name; ugh, I never should have exhumed the memory) we had another lame story. This time, the movie opened with Data running around like a lunatic. Yawn! Where was the insurrection? "Ooops, we forgot about that. Sorry!"

For "Nemesis" we were 'promised' Romulus, but what we got was an over-long search for B9 or whoever (wonder if the "B" stood for Braga?) and Picard reviving the Paris - Dakar which had no real point to the key story.

They could have done great things with the Romulans and Nemesis.. but, what did we get? Shazon and Picard gawking at each other. Bleh. And it was said the sequence in ST1 inside the V'ger cloud was s l o w ...

Ah, the waste of potential...

Why did First Contact, Wrath Of Kahn, and The Undiscovered Country work so well? I think it's because we were given elements of canon in each (although the portrayal of Cochraine as a drunk seemed unforgivable at the time...). It was because an effort was made to keep *one* plotline moving throught the movie .. and it was stuff the audience wanted to see. Borg. Klingons. Kahn.

These movies worked because they had great stories. Like, the story *moved*, and got the audience *interested*. They also had elements of the most thought-provoking stories of the original TV series at their core.

A 'prequel'? LMAO. Pardon me for saying so... but, it's not a way of getting kid (read: cheaper) actors into Starfleet uniforms to play our heros and doing a version of Starfeet Orange Alert County, or San Fransciso 90210... is it? History recalls that one's been tried before.

(Oh good heavens? Is my cynisism showing?)

Tell you what, Rick; you want to make a buck on the next Trek movie? Give us a decent support cast, not like that horrible dude in "Insurrection" .. keep Dougherty out. Give us Q. Give us a decent story, maybe involving Cardassia and have some sort of parallel with the Afganistan or Iraq situation... that kind of story worked so well in TOS where Kirk et al commented on real world events in a fictional, scifi setting. Give us support characters we actually want to see and give a damn about and a support cast that knows what they're doing. If you want to pay the bucks to hire top name actors, use them properly; don't rely on them to pull in the crowds if you've got a rotten story at the core of your movie, because - get this -- the crowds won't be there.

Find a writer that cares about the franchise and knows what elements make a good ST story. And send Brannon off on a workshop in .. I don't know, some place with advanced technology ... like Sphincter, Kentucky, for the duration.

The point is, boring the fans of the show so they disown it and making movies so bad that non-fans don't want to see it isn't going to make dollars for the franchise.

Listen to your audience, Rick.. or, what's left of them.

(Oh, btw.. hello all! I'm noew here. Sorry, I won't make a habit of ranting like this...)