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For those who didn't read my last work related blog, I have been watching an obscene amount of Star Trek lately. I am a bit of a completionist when it comes to series I get into as well. Despite having seen the Original Series before, I started with NCC-1701 and have since worked my way up to the NCC-1701-E coming up through the end of The Next Generation (hereby referred to as TNG), and starting for the first time on Deep Space Nine.
I don't have a problem, I can stop any time.I swear.
Today this obsession was made manifest as my girlfriend and I took the short trip to the Mall of America for her to do some shopping for work, and for her and I to check out a small exhibition currently touring the states, and at the Mall of America for the next few months.
Just to touch on the Mall of America, it apparently is a big tourist spot, and is/was one of the largest malls in the United States back when it was originally built but as a Minnesota, a more apt description is that it is just a shit show. I mean there is good people watching, but going there for any serious amount of shopping is just overwhelming and overstimulating. It is the non motorized experience of having two cars, on a two lane highway, driving exactly the same speed so no one can get by to do shit.
Now that we got that out of the way, which was completely necessary, I'll show you the few bits I managed to sneak out, and I say sneak because technically you weren't to take photos in the exhibit, and it wasn't exactly a crack squad keeping track of the items, but I'd rather avoid being told not to do anything by someone whose job it is to stand in a poorly lit room minding scale models for a living (CSI and Barbi both had an exhibit, it was abundantly clear who was going to which exhibit just from the line in front of the register.)
Barbie dream house clearly pictured in the back, only poster for Star Trek, directly behind the girlfriend
The exhibit itself, was hit and miss. I had no real concept of what to expect, but as an aspiring Trekkie, my hope was that it would be by and large authentic props and costumes of a variety that most people would recognize even if they weren't the most hardcore fans of the series.
Various medical equipment from the original series and TNG, which in some cases are directly, restickered tricorders.
Klingon costume, with the only real looking Bat'leth in the exhibit. Not the biggest deal, but all other Klingon weapons and models looked like cheaply painted plastic with incredibly obvious imperfections.
Kirk's original uniform left and movie uniform right, you can see it better straight up but Shatner was nay quite as svelte in the later films.
Section of Main Engineering from TNG's Enterprise D, probably one of the more iconic set pieces, though they had the original bridge as well as replicas of the Enterprise D Sick Bay
Data's Uniform from TNG, for the early to mid years, I found it interesting that the more you looked at these costumes, shoes seemed to be the hardest bit to get to be just futuristic enough.
The big chair, Picard's chair from TNG, which you could lamentably not sit in as you could the original set. They did have other chairs but the Enterprise B, always looked like shit to me, and this was the only chair on display, original Enterprise not withstanding, that didn't look like it was pulled from an Eighties era coupe with some other bits tacked onto it.
I enjoyed myself, despite some of the glaring gaps. Geordi's visor for instance, was a child's size replica, not even well painted which I thought was a massive oversight considering how iconic it was in TNG. What was really interesting was getting a chance to look at some of the scale models and early effects used on the show to get that in space, on a string look that I adore. I'll take a good puppet over what will become shitty CG almost any day. Have you gone back and looked at Golem in Lord of the Rings since it came out? Not even close.
You could see all those details that considering the definition at the time, it was no wonder they didn't stand out on TV. Bits of glue, holding costumes together, masks and make up that were meant for a time of standard definition, and Data's head from Nemesis or rather B-4's which falls squarely into the uncanny valley.
The largest, single piece, was a Scorpion class fighter from the Nemesis movie. You can see a picture here, if you're really interested. I found this an odd choice, as while Nemesis was the last of TNG movies, this was a really minor, and awkwardly fit in bit to the movie and the space could have been more effectively used.
I am continuing onto the bitter end of Star Trek through DS9, onto Voyager, and through Enterprise, despite any protests from the girlfriend. Because even though she would give me shit, for queuing up another episode, today when she was at the exhibit, she busted out some TNG knowledge that I was impressed she had retained. Push come to shove, we have two tvs and access to multiple Netflix accounts, I think her coming into a room and demanding I change the content is unjust. There is another room for you to watch Girls hun, not right now, Commander Sisko is about to solve some shit.
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I'd pee my pants if I found myself on the Enterprise bridge.
Ds9 is very good albeit different from TNG in many ways. More of a continuing story/space opera. It's perfect for binging I'd thnk. I must say though, I'd be very impressed if you could continue your binge through even the first 2 seasons of Voyager, especially after just watching the vastly superior prior series'.
and please PLEASE just don't watch any of Enterprise. You'll only regret it.
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I've never been a true trek fan myself, but have always been wanting to get into it after seeing an exhibit in NYC two years ago with a friend of mine. Sadly I do not have the amount of time really needed to dedicate to starting it, so I am intimidated a bit. The exhibit was really cool and the culture behind Star Trek seems unmatched.
Cool photos and good read!
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lol MOA, when i went there i counted 7 caribou coffee's and i didn't get coffee from any of them...
the nice thing was that the two gamestops demoed different games which kept me busy while my relatives wallked around.
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On May 27 2014 16:57 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
lol MOA, when i went there i counted 7 caribou coffee's and i didn't get coffee from any of them...
the nice thing was that the two gamestops demoed different games which kept me busy while my relatives wallked around.
I wind up there maybe three times a year, all related to my gf wanting to go shopping. I have to be enticed, generally with promises of free rides in whatever the hell Camp Snoopy is called now.
On May 27 2014 11:52 DannyJ wrote:
I'd pee my pants if I found myself on the Enterprise bridge.
Ds9 is very good albeit different from TNG in many ways. More of a continuing story/space opera. It's perfect for binging I'd thnk. I must say though, I'd be very impressed if you could continue your binge through even the first 2 seasons of Voyager, especially after just watching the vastly superior prior series'.
and please PLEASE just don't watch any of Enterprise. You'll only regret it.
I think DS9 is pretty interesting thus far, and that the station, rather than a star ship definitely has its advantages. Where it gets strange is the last time we see the Enterprise it is the Enterprise D, and there was never really a mention of the fact a stable wormhole being found on TNG, which is a bit of a lapse in the mythos. I am being a bit comic book guy about it, but TNG in Gamma Quadrant would have had potential. By the time DS9 was up and running properly, they had kind of shifted Picard from explorer to the more Militant type in the movies, and TNG had come to an end anyway. I think there was only a year overlap.
Enterprise I am reluctant about because it is going back in the timeline, I don't know how faithful it is to everything, but steps back like in Generations have never been my favorite. Older ship designs look really bad to me, like I said the Enterprise B looks like absolutely shit imo.
I have a bit more hope for Voyager, but we'll see.
On May 27 2014 12:37 vult wrote:
I've never been a true trek fan myself, but have always been wanting to get into it after seeing an exhibit in NYC two years ago with a friend of mine. Sadly I do not have the amount of time really needed to dedicate to starting it, so I am intimidated a bit. The exhibit was really cool and the culture behind Star Trek seems unmatched.
Cool photos and good read!
I definitely had to force myself to sit down some at first, everything seemed a bit telegraphed in terms of how it played out. I came to the conclusion talking with a buddy of mine, that the show is better enjoyed watching each episode as more of a play than teledrama. DannyJ mentioned it as a space opera, which isn't far off. I definitely started really getting into things once I was using the third person omniscient, sort of Shakespeare idea.
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Voyager was very good, just obviously not as good as TNG.
Don't watch Enterprise, it got cancelled for a reason.
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I must have watched the whole TNG series 4-5 times, it's that good.
Sad that there's nothing new on the horizon.
Why not make a Star Trek playing in the 26th century?
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On May 28 2014 01:17 urboss wrote:
I must have watched the whole TNG series 4-5 times, it's that good.
Sad that there's nothing new on the horizon.
Why not make a Star Trek playing in the 26th century?
I would watch it, just in DS9 there is ample opportunity with the Gamma Quadrant to do another Exploration based series with what I suppose would be the Enterprise F, or a shift away from the Enterprise having Starfleet retire the name after Picard and lighten the load on the show in terms of requisite expectations going into it.
Would require a lot of work though, sorting things with problem juggernaut races like the Borg, which as far as I can tell are still present in Voyager as an ASSIMILATE, kind of enemy. Longer term fans would be interested in the state of Romulan/Klingon/Cardassian/Federation affairs moving forward, which would be difficult to remedy with the volumes of Star Trek Novels.
I already know I want a new series on TV, the amount of work to make it amazing though is pretty daunting depending on where you put it. I would want to see it be father out in the future though, rather than going back to warp 5 ships.
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Just posting to stand up for enterprise. Seasons 1 and 2 are bad yeah but 3 and especially 4 are good. It got cancelled way too early. Even tng only really got good in s3. It deserved to go longer than voyager, at least it didnt have an infinite speed evolving into lizards episode.
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On May 28 2014 01:48 Faggatron wrote:
Just posting to stand up for enterprise. Seasons 1 and 2 are bad yeah but 3 and especially 4 are good. It got cancelled way too early. Even tng only really got good in s3. It deserved to go longer than voyager, at least it didnt have an infinite speed evolving into lizards episode.
Oh god certain things in Voyager really annoyed me and was shocking how much the writers just didn't give a crap.
The amount to which they butchered the Q was obscene.
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Awesome photos! I really like the Data uniform.
My favourite TNG episode is undoubtably 'Darmok'. Paul Winfield plays the main alien character, the whole of the episode revolves around he and Picard learning to talk to one another through metaphor. Fucking brilliant.
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On May 28 2014 03:23 Deleuze wrote:
Awesome photos! I really like the Data uniform.
My favourite TNG episode is undoubtably 'Darmok'. Paul Winfield plays the main alien character, the whole of the episode revolves around he and Picard learning to talk to one another through metaphor. Fucking brilliant.
I always wondered how humanity would discus advanced physics vocally using Greek mythology after that episode.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TMGAyGT.png)
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On May 28 2014 02:51 Figgy wrote:Show nested quote +On May 28 2014 01:48 Faggatron wrote:
Just posting to stand up for enterprise. Seasons 1 and 2 are bad yeah but 3 and especially 4 are good. It got cancelled way too early. Even tng only really got good in s3. It deserved to go longer than voyager, at least it didnt have an infinite speed evolving into lizards episode. Oh god certain things in Voyager really annoyed me and was shocking how much the writers just didn't give a crap. The amount to which they butchered the Q was obscene.
Didn't Tom Paris like by himself figure out how to go warp fucking 10 after having an epiphany watching Nelix baking a cake or some shit? Blasphemous and offensive! And that wasn't even the bad part of that particular episode which I will refrain from talking about further for the sake of us all.
Hated Voyager...
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You're in for a treat with DS9! I just pretty much binged watched it all for the first time a few months ago and although it is vastly different from the other Star Treks it is still brilliant with some great character development. Although I was never really a fan of the whole Bajoran/Prophet stroyline
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On May 28 2014 05:11 Chewbacca. wrote:
You're in for a treat with DS9! I just pretty much binged watched it all for the first time a few months ago and although it is vastly different from the other Star Treks it is still brilliant with some great character development. Although I was never really a fan of the whole Bajoran/Prophet stroyline
Anything prophet related in Sci Fi can do no worse than Battlestar Galactica's reboot. I am ready.
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On May 27 2014 11:03 ThomasjServo wrote: Kirk's original uniform left and movie uniform right, you can see it better straight up but Shatner was nay quite as svelte in the later films.
Kirk actually wore the costume on the left in the movies, and the costume on the right in the TV show.
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