I just can't bring myself to pay CBS to watch either Discovery or Picard. Kirk was always the best captain anyways, so I keep rewatching TOS on Netflix for as long as CBS keeps renewing the deal.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 01:40 pm: Edit

I have seen different things on YouTube about the best Star Trek Captain, most say it was Picard.

Across all of Star Trek, I would say the best "one shot" captain (got to play a captain in a single episode) was Jellicoe.

I do not, and never have, rated Picard al that high, the exception being when he was Captain in the "Yesterday's Enterprise" episode.

Benjamin Sisko rates pretty high on my scale, until he "went home."

But DS9 had a lot of well developed and interesting characters. Gul Dumar eventually leading the Cardassian resistance to the Dominion and dying for his people. Who can ever forget Elim Garak, the "simple tailor." And the many facets of Quark. I can go on.

Janeway was more than anything else insufferable. I felt more for captain Ransom of the Equinox than I ever felt for Janeway.

The "New Kirk" of the recent movies leaves me completely cold. In fact, he more or less drove me away from Star Trek all on his lonesome.

But, ultimately, I am just not that enamored by Picard, and never have been. I do appreciate the skills of Patrick Stewart in portraying him, but I am just not impressed with Picard as a Captain.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 02:06 pm: Edit

It's all about Cisco.

Jellico was outstanding, but he was a one-shot.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 02:20 pm: Edit

Ted Fay:

I did note that he (Jellico) was a "one-shot," and will note that he is not the only Captain to appear (albeit, he got a larger role than most). But, seriously, he was better than Jeffrey Hunter's "Christopher Pike" in the little screen time he had. Matt Dekker was a commodore, but also captain, and had about as much screen time as Jellicoe, but let's admit that we saw him at a "bad time" (having had to listen to his crew die after he beamed them down from what he then believed was a doomed ship to a planet that it turned out was doomed). There are lots of other individuals who "walked across the stage" as captains and simply "were," but Ronny Cox's portrayal of Jellico made a real impression in his one (two-part) episode.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 03:38 pm: Edit

@SPP: Absolutely. I appreciated that Jellico was there to command, and it was not a democracy.

What I liked most about Cisco was Avery Brooks' ability to display a command presence, and his ability to issue unpopular orders. Yes, that whole "go home" thing was stupid. Fortunately that was (mostly) between seasons, but it was horrible for the character.

Kate Mulgrew was just not able to have a command presence. When she got "tough" it just came across as angry, and that's not what is needed.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Ted Fay:

For the record, Janeway suffered because the show writers made her a "golden child" where nothing really bad ever happened. (Yes, people died under her command.) The upshot is that when Voyager encounter Equinox, I was far more interested in the travails that Captain Ransom had endured to bring his much smaller ship with far fewer resources as far as he had. In the back of my mind it resulted in a great deal more respect for him (right up to his death) than I ever had for Captain Janeway.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, January 29, 2020 - 09:02 pm: Edit

I May be way out in left field, again... but Janeway imo needed serious counseling. On at least three occasions, she embarked on a course of action that had no other logical outcome than her own personal destruction in the pursuit of saving the lives of her crew.

Might be laudable in fiction or movies, but not a desired goal in a ship commander.

On one occasion, the bridge crew rebelled, refusing her orders (albeit with the connivance of tuvoc and chacotay warning the crew before hand.) on another occasion, she engineered the removal of officers and crew from her ship before ramming it in to the time ship in the “year of hell” story arc, which changed the timeline back. In “Endgame” admiral Janeway committed numerous infraction of law to travel back in time to “save” officials and crewmen who died during the 23 year mission getting back to Earth. Only to be thwarted by her younger self... who immediately understood the lengths admiral Janeway was prepared to go to to complete her self appointed mission.

I just figured the character was similar to the slim Pickens character in the movie Dr. Strangelove. (You know, the AirForce B-52 pilot who had to free the jammed A bomb from the Bomb bay and ended up riding the bomb down to detonation like it was a bucking bronco.)

The problem is, slim Pickens chose to complete his mission in the only way he could.

Janeway was prepared to die to stop a culture from dumping garbage in the void. Not the same thing, at all.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 10:14 am: Edit

Well, storyline issues are more the writers' fault, not the actor's fault.

I just didn't like Janeway as a captain, period, at least when played by Kate Mulgrew. Honestly, Roxann Dawson (Chief Engineer Torres) would have done a better job playing the captain. Another good pick would have been Cate Blanchett, but she probably would have been too expensive for the role.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 03:54 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

The difference is that Slim Pickens in Doctor Strangelove did not intend to go down with the bomb.

He ordered the crew to continue the bomb run while he went to the bomb bay to try to fix the problem with the bomb bay doors. In order to accomplish that, he had to climb onto one of the bombs. He very definitely did not realize it would be the bomb that would be dropped. Once it was, and he knew there was no point in pulling his ripcord, he "rode" it down. In his case, he simply "ran out of time" to get back to the flight deck and out of the bomb bay. But if he could have fixed the problem without climbing on the bomb, he would have.

Janeway simply never faced the problems Ransom's smaller ship did. No matter how much damage Voyager sustained, it was always repaired. No matter how many of the crew were killed, the ship was never "short handed" (amply demonstrated by the amount of "free time" the crew had to "play in the Holodeck" or just muck around in the shuttle bay). They were never on "short rations." Voyager might have been more interesting if each season stared with some overarching "back ground crisis" that was resolved (for the time being) by the final episode. Maybe Janeway's Dilithium Crystals are running dry and she has to seek a solution. Maybe the Replicators are breaking down and the crew spends the season grousing about the reduced rations.

But, again, nothing really bad ever happened to Janeway who could thus always afford to be sanctimonious. Unlike Ransom whose background in the "Delta Quadrant" more than indicated that he has been under a lot more stress than Janeway ever faced.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, January 30, 2020 - 09:28 pm: Edit

Steve Petrick:
I understand your point.

The problem is the underlying premise of all the Star Trek franchises (with exception of Discovery) seemed to be an ensemble cast that in general, never changes so the various writing staffs (and there were various teams writing episodes), that for the most part alternated the broadcast schedule. Oh, there were Arcs, but the characters mostly stayed the same, and seldom developed outside of a predetermined envelope.

Oh, Tasha yar got killed off. Data got an emotion chip. But Generally, things didn’t change a lot.

If Ransome and the equinox had a series, it might not have fared well, as seasons of hard challenging missions where the crew is attritioned down from what ever the normal crew was to less than twenty, a quarter of whom are bridge officers would have alienated the viewing audience.

Of course, they might have won many more awards for cutting edge writing and dramatic performances... but guess we will never know.

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Friday, January 31, 2020 - 01:24 pm: Edit

Jeff Wile:

To me, Voyager should have started with an "end state" in mind. Sure, certain characters are intended pretty much never to die (contract disputes, real life tragedies, and etc. could of course have changed that). An overall arc viewed for say three seasons, having things happen. If the show looked like it would be renewed, have a "refresh episode" where a friendly species allows them to dock and get repairs (with implications of what was negotiated for this).

Ransom lost more than half of his crew when he started the trip (due to "enemy action," Janeway and Chokotay started with reduced crews due to some effect of their transfer that apparently did not affect Equinox as we are flat told that his losses were due to "enemy action."

Really, the only reason not to map out such a thing would have been the cost of the Voyager renders to show external damage from conflict and wear and tear plus some "set dressing" inside the ship to make the same point.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, January 31, 2020 - 10:39 pm: Edit

Star Trek: Picard | Free Series Premiere Episode | CBS All Access Run time = 46:27


Garth L. Getgen

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Saturday, February 01, 2020 - 09:53 am: Edit

Three things

1) Everyone loved Kirk and Picard.... but they both had there flaws (and Picard's Enterprise blew up more times than I have had hot dinners).

2) Janeway never had the support the other captains had - it was her and her alone making decisions (Kirk and Picard both a fully trusting crew and the Federation 'at the other end of the line) - Janeway couldn't' receive direction or support and clearly there was some trusts issues with half her crew (the Marquis ones - and even Tuvoc went against her sometimes).

Janeway did 'break' once (The time changing race twin episode - 'The Year of Horror' or something) - the Doctor removed her from Command and she ignored it.

3) Wierdly - Janeway and Ransome swopped over.

Janeway when pushed and threatened remained loyal to the Federation ideas - and only when everyone was 'safe' (or had died on route) did she decide she had to break the rules to quicken the getting home.

Ransome broke every rule he could to try and get his crew home - and at the end died loyal to the Federation ideas to protect his crew.

It would also be fair to say, Voyager was the most advanced ship - but always seemed to be able to be fully repaired with the damage done.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, February 01, 2020 - 03:28 pm: Edit

That was one of the better things about "Enterprise"; during the third-season arc where they were in the Delphic Expanse, the ship did accrue damage, which was carried forward from episode to episode.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, February 01, 2020 - 10:38 pm: Edit

Ode to Spock

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/01/enjoy-this-star-trek-fans-de.html

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Tuesday, February 04, 2020 - 03:22 pm: Edit

In good news, industry rumors have it that the additional live-action series that has not yet been announced will in fact be Anson Mount's Captain Pike on the Enterprise.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, February 26, 2020 - 06:36 pm: Edit

https://boingboing.net/2020/02/26/if-everyone-on-star-trek-tng.html

smirk.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Saturday, March 07, 2020 - 11:37 am: Edit

Star Trek Picard episode 7. The Kzinti are now "officially" canon in the Star Trek universe. I have no doubt having them in the SFU for the last 40 years helped them become more accepted then their brief animated appearance.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Saturday, March 07, 2020 - 08:51 pm: Edit

I watched episode 7 but didn't notice kzinti. When were they mentioned?

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Saturday, March 07, 2020 - 10:16 pm: Edit

When Riker activates the shields around his home as they have been having problems with Kzintis.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Sunday, March 08, 2020 - 11:35 am: Edit

What do people think of Picard so far?

Writing seems to be pretty good and acting is good.

Nice to see the 'old friendship' still being there!

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Sunday, March 08, 2020 - 12:07 pm: Edit

I enjoy the easter eggs and seeing the legacy characters. Not happy about the deaths of some of them. I can't really get into the new characters although I like Elnor and the Romulan housekeepers. Everybody (new and old) has baggage.

By Nick Blank (Nickgb) on Sunday, March 08, 2020 - 05:08 pm: Edit

I am enjoying it so far.

By Daniel Eastland (Democratus) on Monday, March 09, 2020 - 08:34 am: Edit

Not a huge fan.

Stewart is a great actor. But the writing is weak and the plot is more of, "try a bit of everything and then see what sticks" approach.

They needed to focus on a primary thread and follow it with some kind of focus.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, March 09, 2020 - 04:08 pm: Edit

This story line on Picard, is very dark.

And instead of being inspirational, like TOS and TNG were, it is very negative as the body count increases. Heck, I think it was stated that in excess of 93,000 people were killed on the ship yard attack in the program set up.

(Besides, I thought the planatia ship yards were in Jupiter orbit, not Mars. Sounds like the writing staff didn’t do very much research of the Star Trek universe...)

Any one besides me, think it’s going to have a “bob newheart” ending where Picard wakes up from his nap in time to make the Poker game at the end of episode “All Good Things....”