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Minnesota, land of 10,000 Lakes and 10,000,000,000 Mosquitos
Yes, but film/visual versions of said pointy-eared chicks were seen in Star Trek prior to Lord of the Rings, even if Lord of the Rings was written first. (That is, according to Wikipedia, Trek started in 1966, whereas the first Lord of the Rings film adaptation was in 1979)
Man, 45 years since Trek first hit TV screens. Hard to believe it's been so long. Even though I wasn't alive when it started (heck, I can only vaguely remember watching the occasional episode of Deep Space Nine as a kid), I've seen every episode of The Original Series, most of The Next Generation, and almost the entirety of Deep Space Nine. It's quite a feat for a series (or set of them) to be so influential and well-done to survive for nearly 50 years. Even with its various hiatuses (it was what, 18 years between TOS and TNG?), even now, 45 years after the first series began, movies are still coming out.
I don't know about anyone else, but Trek's influence and longevity just awe me. Doctor Who is the same way, having lived since the black & white days to continue making shows now.
My Armies:
Kal'reia Sept Tau - Farsight Sympathizers Da Great Looted Waaagh! The Court of the Wolf Lords
I've never considered Star Trek to be particularly good show. TOS had some good episodes and moments of strong writing, but it had poor production values and questionable acting. Some of the show's flaws come from it being made in the 60s and are excusable. However, there are aspects of the universe that are just plain corny, primarily basing Romulans so heavily on the Roman Empire and using the name of a Roman god for the Vulcans.
TNG was much improved (I actually recently finished watching the entire series over again on Netflix, it was much better than I expected). Reinventing the Klingons was a stroke of genius. Not only are Klingons iconic, but they've also heavily influenced the portrayal of Orcs in more recent fantasy works. WoW Orcs are ultimately green Klingons.
TNG also had better writing and improvements in special effects greatly helped the show. Still there are quite of few episodes that are very weak.
DS9 is in my opinion the best of the series (probably because it was a rip off of B5...). It's hard to describe why... There's more political intrigue, war, everything just seemed more developed and serious. The days of roaming around the galaxy playing with the alien of the week were over. Star Trek had grown up.
DS9 had a really solid cast. Sisko was a good commander, second only to Picard in my book. Kira was annoying at times and her fight scenes were atrocious, but she was a decent character and her mirror universe counterpart was delightfully depraved. Worf was at his best. Both of the Daxs bugged the hell out of me. The character was too much of a Mary Sue for me to tolerate. Quark was awesome. Dukat gave Khan a run for his money. It was just a really good series, through and through.
Voyage was okay and Enterprise ventured too far from the other series and rewrote too much history for me to like it. I gave up on it after the first season.
BUT!
Back to the most important thing. Star Trek was by no means the first Scifi story, but it was the first successful science fiction movie/show of its type. Without Star Trek we would have no Star Wars, no Battlestar Galactica, no Babylon 5, no Farscape, no Firefly, none of the beloved shows that were given a chance to exist thanks to Star Trek's early success.
Amaya wrote:
Back to the most important thing. Star Trek was by no means the first Scifi story, but it was the first successful science fiction movie/show of its type. Without Star Trek we would have no Star Wars, no Battlestar Galactica, no Babylon 5, no Farscape, no Firefly, none of the beloved shows that were given a chance to exist thanks to Star Trek's early success.
Yes that's very true!
I'm not sure about Enterprise. I really tried to get into it, but it was just missing something. The production values were there, but it just seemed to not have some of the character. And perhaps most of all it didn't really feel like I was watching Star Trek most of the time.
DS9 got a lot of flak from Trekkies due to how deviated from the 'alien of the week' storyline and dark episodes such as "In the Pale Moonlight" got slammed by some who claimed that it went completely against Roddenberry's vision. Enterprise was the first show that felt like it really wasn't a Star Trek show. It always came across to me as being a poor rip off of Stargate. Things like the Temporal War timeline and the Klingon Augment virus were simply idiotic.
Why didn't Klingons have ridges in TOS? Because they didn't have the resources or vision to create what is now the accepted Klingon appearance. Not because of some stupid virus. Worst retcon ever.
Yes, maybe that was it. It didn't really 'feel' like Star Trek, and the cast were too recognisably humans from our own time.
Those in TNG and other series felt like something more to aspire to, perhaps in some more romantic version of the future where we are beginning to remove the more animalistic aspects of our nature.
Perhaps that was always one of the appeals of Star Trek.
I find it amusing that on Star Trek's birthday I unknowingly wore a "The Empire Strikes Back" shirt and I didn't even know that it was Star Trek's birthday until one of my friends pointed it out to me.
Glad to see a franchise last for so long and have such a lasting impact on western culture and the world.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2011/09/12 01:57:21
It's 45, eh. I remember when the 25th Anniversary game came out for the PC. I played that thing on my 386 everyday after school for months. Good times, especially blowing missions by shooting the first person you'd meet on a planet.
Kal'reia Sept Tau - Farsight Sympathizers 
Da Great Looted Waaagh! 
The Court of the Wolf Lords 
