More Star Trek, RIP

A more positive retrospective from James Lileks. He grades the series thus:

Original = A
TNG = B+
DS9 = A-
Voyager = C+
Enterprise = semi-incomplete.

And here are two excerpts. First, his comment on Voyager:

A ship is stranded halfway across the galaxy; the crew is half Federation, half anti-Federation rebels. They must set aside their partisan differences to get home, a journey expected to take 80 years, or until the Nielsen ratings tank. This was the pure '90s "Trek": Instead of boldly going, the entire point was to retreat and get home. The premise crippled the show, since everyone knew they'd never get back until the last episode of the seventh season.

And his prescription for the franchise:

Give it rest, just as Star Wars languished for decades; let it come back when all the accreted expectations have been forgotten and the story feels fresh again. I watched the first "Star Trek" episode as it was broadcast, sitting in my grandfather's living room in Harwood, North Dakota. I will watch the last one in my own home and feel a sense of relief: I don't have to worry whether it's good or bad. Now it's just done.

For the moment. The Enterprise is dry-docked, but that can't last; the show is America itself, and we make Captain Kirks like no one else. It's not "The Scarlet Pimpernel in Space" that has lasted for four decades, after all. It's "Star Trek." Space is still the final frontier, and it'll be waiting when we're ready for it again.

I think the original series is interesting but the acting and plotlines on TNG were generally better (except for those da** Holodeck episodes -- at least 1-2 per season). Plus I like the Vulcans as villains more than Klingons -- the former were still underused even in TNG. Orson Scott Card's own "Molecular Detachment Device" weapon from Ender's Game is really just the theoretical endpoint of the Romulan disruptor (which DISRUPTS molecular interaction).

DS9 lost me. I didn't care about Bajoran spiritualistic nonsense. The Cardassian/Romulan/Jem'Hadar stuff was interesting but by the time the series reached that point of its arc, it had wasted too much time on Bajoran self-determination rot and the oddities of the wormhole and that's too bad. Worse yet, the casting: Avery Brooks was interesting at first, then not; Alexander Siddig (aka Brit actor Siddig El-Faddil) lacked substance; and Terry Farrell was Elisabeth Rohm's predecessor as the WoodenActressWhoLooksNice casting mistake.

Voyager as a concept started out interestingly, but tanked quickly -- even in the unknown Gamma Quadrant all the farking aliens were ugly bipeds. And after that, I never even checked out Enterprise.