tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post1324945391958534741..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: To Boldly Go (But Not to the Right)Jonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-50031844819129120652009-12-25T11:00:01.095-06:002009-12-25T11:00:01.095-06:00Thanks for the comment...
I think what I'd sa...Thanks for the comment...<br /><br />I think what I'd say in TNG's favor as a show would be that compared to DS9, the writing was probably better. TNG has quite a few terrific episodes, in my view, that are based on really good science fiction ideas. I think both shows have more than their fair share of clunkers, but DS9 doesn't really have anything, I don't think, that compares to "Yesterday's Enterprise" or "Remember Me." Also, while neither cast is going to make anyone forget Gallactica, for me at least mediocre acting was always a much bigger problem in DS9. <br /><br />I did a Monday Movie Post about DS9 a while ago, BTW:<br /><br />http://plainblogaboutpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/09/monday-movies-post.htmlJonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-41153255848853817192009-12-24T22:11:33.609-06:002009-12-24T22:11:33.609-06:00Re DS9: no 'perhaps superior' about it, Jo...Re DS9: no 'perhaps superior' about it, Jonathan.<br /><br />TNG's politics are essentially the belief in 'human progress' taken to an extreme: that not only will living standards inexorably improve, and human happiness increase, but that human nature itself will move beyond the selfishness, materialism and short-sightedness that Roddenberry saw marking 'today's world'. And so to illustrate this point he filled his perfect world with perfect people. Certainly, Picard and co can be angry, infatuated, and sometimes make misjudgements, but they are fundamentally good, enlightened, thoughtful people out to make the universe a better place through sheer altruism. Except Worf, who likes to fight people.<br /><br />This is a noble ideal. It's a terrible basis for a TV show. So DS9 -- which examined the real consequences of a universe like that, where the Federation is at one point compared to the Borg, where the Federation needs a leather-jacketed secret police to make their idealistic policies workable, where the little colonies which get in the way of a tolerant, peaceful solution to the Cardassian conflict get squashed, where humans remain, more or less, HUMAN -- has more room to manoeuvre, and is, to me, a lot more dramatically satisfying as a result.<br /><br />Just one man's opinion, though.Black Magenoreply@blogger.com