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Post by Toph on Jan 7, 2014 21:57:16 GMT
Great picks, everyone! I thought that the Borg were originally going to be insect guys? Yes they were, but this was changed as it was impractical/too costly. -Ralph Which I feel was the right choice. They made something truly iconic, creepy, menacing, and outright creepy. Had they gone with the insect idea, i think they would have ended up fairly forgettable and outright hoaky dudes in rubber suits, like a lot of the ToS " monster of the week" aliens. Even by Voyager and Enterprise when they could do inhumanoid concepts fairly well, those types ended up being forgettable. ( the xindi insects, species 90210, or whatever they were called) |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 8, 2014 2:49:47 GMT
8472/Boothby.
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Post by Toph on Jan 22, 2014 21:09:52 GMT
Got the eaglemoss NX, warbird, and voyager today.
Ive come to the conclusion that its the diecast thats ruining their designs.
Ships that have simpler designs like the NX, and E-refit dont suffer as badly, but it just positively devastates the complex details on Voyager. Especially when you flip it over and see it's magnificently sculpted underside, which is plastic.
Seriously, diecast is an awful medium that ruins toys and models. It makes complex toys weak (here's looking at you original MP Optimus), it gobbles up details, dulls, and ruins sculpts, and worst of all, jacks up the prices.
On the flip side, the warbird came out magnificent.
I've never seen a sculpt so sharp on a diecast surface. In an odd choice, the windows are all raised . Its an odd choice, but actually works, and makes a nifty effect.
Also, its a bit on the large side, but might be in scale with the micromachines separating E-D.
The NX is a pretty good representation of a fairly unremarkable ship. Paint apps could be better.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 23, 2014 0:41:55 GMT
Saw the Miranda is out now and it isn't actually too bad looking! Just a shame I am not a fan of the design so will pass.
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Post by Toph on Jan 23, 2014 2:35:38 GMT
I do wish they had ditched the diecast and used the savings to do better paint jobs, and having movable/removable parts when they apply.
I love the magazines. I want this ambitious line to be as great as it could be.
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Post by Philip Ayres on Jan 23, 2014 7:08:38 GMT
Saw the Miranda is out now and it isn't actually too bad looking! Just a shame I am not a fan of the design so will pass. It's better the other way up! |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 23, 2014 8:08:23 GMT
Saw the Miranda is out now and it isn't actually too bad looking! Just a shame I am not a fan of the design so will pass. But but but - ! -Ralph |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 23, 2014 8:09:05 GMT
Saw the Miranda is out now and it isn't actually too bad looking! Just a shame I am not a fan of the design so will pass. It's better the other way up! Looks pish that way. The movie makers made the right call. -Ralph |
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 23, 2014 23:38:37 GMT
Akira class out now. Unfortunately unlime the magazine the model doesn't say Thunderchild on it or I'd buy it like a shot.
Not sure about the quality of the magazine research. Not only have we recently had a Borg sphere crewed by as many drones as a cube, but both the Miranda ans Akira class appear capable of speeds in excess of the Galaxy class.
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Post by Toph on Jan 24, 2014 0:25:37 GMT
Akira class out now. Unfortunately unlime the magazine the model doesn't say Thunderchild on it or I'd buy it like a shot. Not sure about the quality of the magazine research. Not only have we recently had a Borg sphere crewed by as many drones as a cube, but both the Miranda ans Akira class appear capable of speeds in excess of the Galaxy class. Not sure about the akira, but in TOS, ships routinely broke warp 10. And they solved that in TNG by modifying the warp scale to be higher, with an absolute warp 10. All the modern era ships beat the snot out of the pre-tng ships in speed. But by the old scale, many are listed with top speeds "equal" to or "exceeding" the Galaxy. At least on paper. So, I'd say unless it specifically points out that it's the new scale, it doesnt really go against anything established. At least not severely. Older mirandas on the old scale may top out at 7 or 8 (i doubt it since they wanted it to be a threat to the enterprise), but newer mirandas with more modern engines may easily push the high 9s on the old scale. I've noted statistical and layout errors in the magazines, but for the most part, its a lot of the design articles i really enjoy. Never realized the BoP was inspired by a football player's profile. But i really see it now. |
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Post by blueshift on Jan 24, 2014 0:27:13 GMT
Yeah I don't remember Kirk ever turning into a newt
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Jan 24, 2014 9:37:11 GMT
Continuing my run through of TNG as SyFy air them, into S6.
The admiral at the start of Chain Of Command Pt.1... I mean sure it's a small part, but couldn't they have got someone better to play that role?
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 31, 2014 12:32:40 GMT
Courtesy of Pick TV and some channel hopping at my girlfriend's abode last night, I have finally seen the Enterprise season 3 finale. **$€¥ me, that was awful. What a dreadful piece of telly. I also noted that ten years on the CG in the show looks really bad. It has not dated well.
I need to see some good Star Trek soon to cleanse the awfulness!
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Jan 31, 2014 12:41:00 GMT
Courtesy of Pick TV and some channel hopping at my girlfriend's abode last night, I have finally seen the Enterprise season 3 finale. **$€¥ me, that was awful. What a dreadful piece of telly. I also noted that ten years on the CG in the show looks really bad. It has not dated well. I need to see some good Star Trek soon to cleanse the awfulness! -Ralph Ten years? Jesus. Yeah, I never got on with Enterprise. It's odd, as in many ways on paper it feels like it should work, but it never did to me. |
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Post by Bogatan on Jan 31, 2014 16:12:42 GMT
It wasn't helped at all by the constant efforts to tie it to the future series. The reinvented Vulcans could have been interesting but were handled badly as I remember it. And the ending. Dear god, that ending.
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Jan 31, 2014 18:29:36 GMT
Courtesy of Pick TV and some channel hopping at my girlfriend's abode last night, I have finally seen the Enterprise season 3 finale. **$€¥ me, that was awful. What a dreadful piece of telly. I also noted that ten years on the CG in the show looks really bad. It has not dated well. I need to see some good Star Trek soon to cleanse the awfulness! -Ralph Take away that man's copy of Star Trek V! |
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Post by Toph on Jan 31, 2014 18:35:06 GMT
Anyone can overlook some inconsistencies, but Enterprise suffered far too many, combined with terrible writing, to be good.
While i dont like it, i can overlook the style choices, as the stuff ToS set up for this time period just arent cool to the audiences they were trying to attract. That said, basing the NX off of the akira was a stupid choice. Though i read in a few sources that there was a battle over basing it on the more appropriate daedelus class.
The actors generally did a pretty good job with what they were given to work with (except scott bakula. I usually love him, but his performance as archer feels like a muted shatner impression).
I've heard fans complain about the existence of the Xindi as a villain, and "if they were so important, why haven't we heard of them?" Which, that never bothered me, especially in an age where the soviets are becoming an increasingly obscure footnote to history.
But, the entire concept of doing a prequel series was flawed to begin with, as Star Trek is all about boldly going forward.
Combined with generally bad writing (the temporal cold war was just...bad. As was all the time travel, and all the "cave of the week" episodes), enterprise wasn't as terrible as it gets trashed for, but it certainly wasn't a great watch.
They had some nice ideas, but suffered from terrible execution. Best part of the Abrams reboot, was it finally got rid of Burman and Bragga.
Bring on MJS for the next trek series! Or RTD!
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 2, 2014 20:45:04 GMT
Roughly every 18 months I have a Star Trek novel relapse. Thankfully the general standard in recent years has been much better as writers/editors realise they can do what they like (unlike IDW in comics) with the only new Trek on screen being set in an alternate timeline retread thing. Alas, the ongoing adventures of the Enterprise cast in the 22nd century (Rise of the Federation) are fucking awful, being poorly written and relying on appearances by relatives of folk from other shows. By contrast, 'Cast No Shadow' by James Swallow follows up on what Valeris Did Next 7 years after Star Trek VI. An intelligent and well written thriller with the courage to focus on original characters with cameos from Spock and Sulu (though the cover misleads with a giant picture of Spock on, suggesting he is the main character)!
The Edinburger library system is quite good at getting Trek novels in as they come out so when I feel the need to dip in to see what is currently going in the Proper Trek Universe it costs me...nothing!
-Ralph
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Mar 2, 2014 22:44:04 GMT
Say what you will, but this is still evidence of your foolishness!
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Mar 4, 2014 9:49:08 GMT
As I close in on finishing my SyFy TNG viewing, Amazon convert LoveFilm to Amazon Prime Instant Video freeing up ToS and Voyager for me to watch.
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Mar 10, 2014 17:20:04 GMT
OK, so Season 7 really is trying to tie off some loose ends. Lots of family and back story revelations. Oh and... {Spoiler}Worf and Deanna kiss was pretty awkward. My start on TOS has been one of sheer delight. There's such a dark sinister note to the episodes I've watched so far, definitely not the camp space romp I thought I remembered. |
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 10, 2014 17:37:43 GMT
The reason why TNG had a glut of family related stories in the last season was due to the writing staff being either burned out or overstretched as it coincided with DS9 being retooled for its third season along with pre-production on Voyager and Generations. The writing teams and producers were literally running out of ideas and family stuff was all they had to reach for with it being a standard 'go to' feature of US drama of the period. I recall a candid interview with Jeri Taylor in the Captain's Logs books that Boxtree put out where she recalled the production was at one point two weeks away from potentially being shut down as the creative staff were so burned out. S7 was mostly a case of just trying to keep the show going until it hit the allotted number of episodes!
-Ralph
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Post by Toph on Mar 10, 2014 17:52:39 GMT
That's a fascinating bit of information that's new to me.
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 10, 2014 19:04:48 GMT
The long out of print Captain's Logs book were a fabulous source of the most candid comments you'll ever read by the folk who made the shows and included my most favourite Jonathon Frakes quote ever which featured on the section on Yesterday's Enterprise: "To this day I have no idea what the fuck it was about but I loved the look of it."
-Ralph
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 11, 2014 8:44:22 GMT
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Mar 11, 2014 9:07:36 GMT
Hard to port! Hard to starboard!
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Post by Fortmax2020 on Mar 11, 2014 9:10:05 GMT
The reason why TNG had a glut of family related stories in the last season was due to the writing staff being either burned out or overstretched as it coincided with DS9 being retooled for its third season along with pre-production on Voyager and Generations. The writing teams and producers were literally running out of ideas and family stuff was all they had to reach for with it being a standard 'go to' feature of US drama of the period. I recall a candid interview with Jeri Taylor in the Captain's Logs books that Boxtree put out where she recalled the production was at one point two weeks away from potentially being shut down as the creative staff were so burned out. S7 was mostly a case of just trying to keep the show going until it hit the allotted number of episodes! -Ralph And yet they kept churning out the big hitters like Masks and Planet of the Scotsman. Astounding. |
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 11, 2014 9:35:33 GMT
I like a bits of season 7
Parallels, Masks, Eye of the Beholder, All Good Things
6 is better
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Post by Philip Ayres on Mar 11, 2014 9:36:02 GMT
Fancy a season by season top 5 ST episodes?
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Stomski
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Post by Stomski on Mar 11, 2014 11:32:58 GMT
Why do it by season? Could you not add in themes like you do TF toys? e.g. "Q", "Borg", "Data's Cat Spot" etc.
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I thought that the Borg were originally going to be insect guys?Yes they were, but this was changed as it was impractical/too costly.
