Shari Lewis co-wrote Star Trek episodes? Does Lileks know this?
I watched it last night before going to bed. I didn’t think it was particularly well written.
[Update a few minutes later]
Speak of the devil — he has a fresh review of the first episode of TNG.
It holds up, with some caveats. Still seems odd that Geordi had to wear that thing; surely they’d fixed blindness by then. Picard dismissing WW2 as those stupid days when humans fought over stupid things was an eye-roller, and reflects poorly on his historical knowledge. The limitations of Troi are on display from the get-go: SHE FEELS PAIN. GREAT PAIN. And later, she senses that the creatures are very, very happy. The graphics look cheap, and the bridge is lit wrong, but they’d figure that out. My main problem: it is ridiculous to attempt a saucer-separation at warp speed. Once the saucer exits the warp field it will have a catastrophic deacceleration, and don’t tell me the inertial dampeners can handle it. They’re designed to minimize fluctuations in normal-space speed and compensate for power rerouting when the shields are absorbing energy weapons. I mean please.
Didn’t Picard also have one of his many surrenders of the Enterprise right from the get go?
Well, he was French.
Yet every member of his family–including him–had an English accent. Obviously, the UK conquered the French and eliminated their language sometime between now and the 24th century.
the UK conquered the French and eliminated their language sometime between now and the 24th century.
Thus explaining Picard’s view of WWII.
Forget blindness — what about Picard’s male pattern baldness?
I’ve noticed the same thing with every TV series set in the Roman times. You know they’re “ancient Romans” when they talk all posh-chip-chip-cheerio and stuff.
Probably my second-least favorite episode (beating out Spocks Brain by a hair). I’m in the middle of my every-three-years-or-so run through right now (watched David Soul last night.) I’m still amazed Roddenberry OK’d “Jean Luc Picard” as the next Enterprise captain. Not that I’ve seen all of them, but I’m guessing you can count the number of times he closed his fist (let alone striking anyone with it) on the fingers of one hand.
A Frenchman from wine country whose beverage of choice is Earl Gray tea?
I rest my case….
Josh, the sun never sets on the British accent.
Yet every member of his family–including him–had an English accent.
That simply shows that their teachers were British, rather than American. This only seems odd because every other character on the show speaks with an American accent (except Troi, who speaks with an exotic accent that no other member of her species uses).
If you want to nitpick accents, you should ask why the movies always have Tarzan speaking with an American accent, when it should be French.
I’m not quibbling with one-offs–Sean Connery playing a Russian is no more jarring than an American doing so–but the entire family was British. I guess casting an actor with a French accent in the midst of all of that would’ve been a jarring reminder of the lack of Frenchness in the French captain.
Well, if they made him British to fit the actor, then they might have suggested lineage to Lord Nelson, and probably in their minds, would have prevented him from being pacifist.
“Sean Connery playing a Russian”
Ramius . . . Marko Ramius . . .
A Russian? This was a central plot point. His character was a Lithuanian, you insensitive clod!
Paul,
That’s right–I stand corrected.
ummm…Lambchops! How did she ever manage to get a writing gig on Star Trek?
Hey, wasn’t he the Russian that doesn’t take a shit without a plan? Fred Thompson said that, and he’d know if he was a Russian or Lithuanian… Oh wait, wrong blog.
As a 9 or 10 year old, Lights of Zetar scared the willies out of me. I think I may have even had a nightmare or two…
RE: Roddenberry picking a pacifist as Captain for TNG…that’s entirely in keeping with his political views at the time. Along with “no money”…”no alcohol”…panacea in other words.
Once Gene passed, the Star Trek worlds started moving away from this theme…got a little more interesting. Gold Plat Latinum anyone???
The early seasons of TNG had some serious issues.
Picard (probably named after the famous Swiss explorers) was prone to yell “I surrender” at the first sign of trouble. He was notionally French.
Spock in TOS was split into different characters. The strong, intelligent and unemotional aspects were given to Data. The mind-meld capability was given to Troi.
Troi was pretty pathetic. She was the one most often taken over by the aliens. She was weak and gutless. She was a freaking psych-major whose communicator ring tone should’ve been a duck call with all the psychobabble she spouted.
Wesley should’ve been flushed out of an airlock just on general principle.
It seems to have been nepotism. Apparently, it helps to be married to the other co-writer.
“Wesley should’ve been flushed out of an airlock just on general principle.”
I guess that should be every True Fan’s reaction, but actor Wil Wheaton and his character Wesley Crusher had a certain geek cool about them that somehow transcended the TV-network-suit-mandated-cute-kid-in-peril-from-Lost-in-Space.
Yeah, yeah, the bald Captain’s paternalistic nepotism about allowing his Chief Medical Officer’s kid on the bridge and proclaiming, “Wesley, you are Acting Ensign in name only” or some kind of lame thing when the kid saves the day.
But there was a little more depth to the character than that, developed first in his interactions with Barkely, one of the minor crew members who was even nerdier than Wesley, who really wasn’t that much of a nerd after all and had a certain social poise and leadership sense about him, continued with the episode where Wesley is in the Academy and has to decide whether he should stand for the group or stand for the truth in the incident where his hot-head cadet commander gets someone killed in an airshow accident, and developed further with the relationship between Wesley and that strange-headed dude who can grok warp fields or some such thing.
this is usually the point where I scowl about the various Star Trek series being piss-poor representations of real SF (Heinlein, Asimov, Pohl, van Vogt, W.M.Miller Jr., Ellison (his single Star Trek episode being the proof of the pudding), Niven, Pournelle, Sheckley, R.A.Wilson, Shea, Zelazny, etc…), but I just don’t have the energy :-/ You’re welcome 🙂
I like Wil Wheaton fine, but Wesley sucked. He was unbelievable and annoying. A frequent issue with kids in science fiction, I might add.
cthulhu,
TV anything rarely compares to its sources in literature.
How could anyone have a problem with Troi? She looked very healthy in her uniform.
Yes, “The Lights of Zetar” was defintely way down there in terms of original series episode quality. Not quite “Spock’s Brain” level, but certainly the bottom quintile.
Yess, Troi could meld with me anytime 😀
Plus, I think they toughened her up a bit for the movies after the series died out.
Of course Troi was going to be the one most likely to be taken over by the aliens: she was the empath. In a sensible universe, there would be several pages in the Starfleet contingency plan manual covering what to do when your empath is inevitably taken over by the aliens.
“Puny Humans! Now your empath belongs to us!”
“As we expected. Why do you think we had the least dangerous member of the crew do the mind-meld?”
I still don’t see why they kept inviting her to poker games, though.
I love the moment when the Ferengi are compared to yankee traders and Riker says something like: “Hah, Americans are the best, go red white and blue.” Picard says: “Of course the proper order is blue white red, as we French would know.” Then Worf says: “I am a Klingon, we should just kill the enemy and stop talking!”
Character development.
Speak no ill of Troi, varlet! Marina Sirtis is one of the yummiest babes in the history of a franchise notable for yummy babes.
Some others, in no particular order: Nichele Nichols (Uhura – TOS), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine – Voyager), Jolene Blalock (T’pol – Enterprise) Arlene Martel (T’Pring – TOS “Amok Time”), Donna Murphy (Anij – ST: Insurrection), Nana Visitor (Maj./Col. Kira – DS9), Barbara Anderson (Lenore Karidian – TOS “The Conscience of the King”), Leslie Parrish (Carolyn Palamos – TOS “Who Mourns for Adonais?”), Susan Howard (Mara – TOS “Day of the Dove”), Chase Masterson (Leeta – DS9), Susan Oliver (Vina – TOS “The Menagerie”), Kate Woodville (Natira – TOS “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”), Beth Toussaint (Ishara Yar – TNG “Legacy”), Rosalyn Landor (Brenna – TNG “Up the Long Ladder”), Sherry Jackson (Andrea – TOS “What are Little Girls Made of?”), Nancy Kovack (Nona – TOS “A Private Little War”), Barbara Luna (Marlena – TOS “Mirror, Mirror”), Cyia Batten (Irina – Voyager “Drive” & Navaar – Enterprise “Bound”), Angelique Pettyjohn (Shahna – TOS “The Gamesters of Triskelion”), Mariette Hartley (Zarabeth – TOS “All Our Yesterdays”), Madlyn Rhue (Lt. Marla McGivers – TOS “Space Seed”), Susan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms – TNG “Booby Trap” & “Galaxy’s Child”), Famke Janssen (Kamala – TNG “The Perfect Mate”), France Nguyen (Elaan – TOS “Elaan of Troyius”), Padma Lakshmi (Kaitaama – Enterprise “Precious Cargo”), Diana Ewing (Droxine – TOS “The Cloud Minders”), Louise Sorel (Rayna Kapec – TOS “Requiem for Methuselah”), Molly Brink (Talas – Enterprise “Proving Ground”, “Babel One” & “United”), Noa Tishby (Amanda Cole – Enterprise “Harbinger”).
That’s two and half dozen. Target-rich environment!