Christian Harry Potter fan

I'm a Christian that's a Harry Potter fan.  Perhaps it's not as hot button of a topic as it once was.  I don't know.  Perhaps I'll expand on this thought one day.  I don't know.  I was just throwing it out there as a short vacation post.  If anyone has any thoughts on the matter of being a Christian and also a fan of Harry Potter, I'd like to hear them.

I'm a huge whiner of how the books are better than the movies, but I'm also a huge Alan Rickman fan, R.I.P.  So a couple videos to enjoy.

Weekend time again

Okay, it's the weekend again, so I don't do anything too wordy or elaborate.  I'm actually going on vacation this coming week so my posts will be sporadic... I'm usually too busy during my time off to spend a lot of time online, that's why I don't post on the weekends.  I'll leave today with part one of this interview called The Captains Summit from 2009.  When I post in this upcoming week it'll probably just be more parts of this interview session of the first two captains and their first officers.  It looks like it was a fun time.  Happy weekend.  And happy vacation to me. Back with more TNG episode reviews after the first week of August.

Fashions of Troi

In the second episode, Troi loses the cheerleader outfit.  A good move.  It seems like they had a lot of trouble keeping her dressed.  Lol.  But, I was okay with it.  As the ships councilor, I always assumed that she was dressed more casually to promote the idea that the crew would need to feel comfortable around her when they needed her services.

I believe the popularity of the early seasons of TNG was helped along by the fact that the 80's were so colorful.  Bringing back the primary color scheme of red, gold, and blue that worked so well in the sixties couldn't have been timed any better.  I miss the bright colors of the 80's, but I'm a little biased since that was the decade of my transition into my teenage years. And really, she wore the short tunic well.  But, since women's roles included more action, this would've been a very impractical costume to sport throughout the series.

Of course, this gray thing wasn't very flattering at all. Although I liked the waist color options... sometimes red, sometimes green.  And they put her hair in an elaborate bun which never looked right to me.  She had all that beautiful hair and the late 80's early 90's was the time of "big hair," so although they were trying to make her more exotic as beautiful telepathic alien, this get up was by far the worst attempt.

Enter: the unitard phase.  I'm not sure which one came first.  It was either this one or the purple choice.

But, it seems like she spent the majority of the show int he maroon unitard which seemed strange to me because the the colorful time of its production.  Perhaps Deanna was a trendsetter and helping to usher us forward into the toned-down, neutral 90's.

 The blue dress and tights combo was my favorite.  I haven't done a poll or a survey or anything, but I think this may be everyone's favorite. It's a shame they didn't hit upon this idea earlier in the series.

But, lets face it, she looked good in uniform as well.  And why shouldn't she don the uniform from time to time?  She earned her pips and deserved the same sort of respect as the other senior officers.  She probably didn't get less respect in her casual garb, but in uniform she makes the audience want to take her more seriously as an officer.

Why this post?  I'm a chick, I notice stuff like this.  Lol.

The doctor is in...

I hadn't planned on featuring a character every time I reviewed an episode, but following my train of thought from the other day I thought a tribute to Beverly Crusher would be fitting.

There's been a lot of talk in my circle of geek friends about strong female characters and how they get no representation.  They use examples like Rey from the new Star Wars and even Captain Janeway from Star Trek to promote the idea that unless the female is exceptionally powerful or at least in command, then she's being suppressed by the male dominant culture in some way.  I don't understand why it's okay to forget the likes of Beverly Crusher when these assumptions are made.

Okay, she admittedly had the easiest parenting job in the sci-fi universe with Wesley: boy genius, mature demeanor, and perfectly behaved in most scenarios.

  But Beverly was a well rounded and not only strong but solid character.  She was more than proficient in her career.








  She could thrive under pressure and was up to the challenge of survival

and covert military operations.

 










She never stopped thinking in the face of danger and really scary circumstances. 

Even in her romantic entanglements, she had the harder challenges and choices to face than Troi I think.

  I tried to find some video from Sub Rosa from the end where (again) she has to apply logic and think and be strong to end her relationship with the alien.

While lending the graceful maturity and complexity to all of them. She's an adult.  And she's a leader as well even though she wasn't put into that position often. 

I'd remarked before when talking about Janeway that other women had been in command positions but were marginalized because they weren't the primary commanding character.  I must ask what difference this makes?  Beverly Crusher in the episode "Thine Own Self" was every bit as a commanding presence as Captain Janeway even in her one or two small scenes which inspired the Troi character to push her own growth a little.  That sub plot was actually better than the main plot of that episode, I thought.

So here's to Dr. Beverly Crusher.  A strong female character, competent physician, well rounded adult and mother, and one of the best characters ever created due to a slow and steady character development over the course of 7 years.  Well done.

Star Trek TNG The Naked Now

The Naked Now is an episode that I liked when it first came out and now I've come to resent it.  I was a hormonal tweenager, so the innuendo was great fun at the time.  But as I've grown and seen more of TNG and rewatched episodes from TOS, I've come to think of this episode as really embarrassing.  If I were trying to sell a non-Trek person on this show, this is not an episode I'd choose to show them as an example, and one of the many reasons why I'm amazed that TNG lasted as long as it did ratings-wise.

Basically, if you've seen the episode The Naked Time from TOS, you've seen this episode.

TOS The Naked TIme

TNG The Naked Now

                



Starting with similar openings, there are very few differences.  In the original it was an intoxicated state bringing out hidden personality traits.  In this one it was an intoxicated state just making people act as if they were intoxicated. Even most of the people involved with the episode are embarrassed by it.  A writer's strike is blamed for the blatant recycling of the script but in the trivia on the episode it admits that Roddenberry wanted to recycle a lot of them.  And he did in one way or another.  That's why I called him a one-trick pony before.  Not to be degrade, but to be honest.  Dan Curtis had the same problem.  He started the Dark Shadows revival series in 1991 running the exact same story lines almost down to the letter, seemingly with the only purpose to take advantage of a bigger budget and better effects.  Really, I understand that desire.  Roddenberry created a show that was so far ahead of its time that he had to feel almost ripped off once technology that was more accommodating to science fiction began to expand.  But it was very much a gamble.  Star Trek's large following may have saved the series, but it could just as easily have sunk it with theses assaults on the fans' intelligence.
They chose to make it a comical episode and play with the "relationships" within the cast.  It was genuinely funny.  But, for crying out loud,this is the second episode - we just met these people!  And it was established in the pilot that Riker and Troi had history as well as Crusher and Picard.  The closer it's examined the less it makes sense and the more inconsistencies there are.

Obviously, Data is the big one.  This is the one and only time he is ever affected by a biological plague or disease of some kind.  His multiple techniques was really funny as a kid, but now it's a silly way to explain that he's functional in that capacity. 
Also Worf remained unaffected.  I suppose one can assume he wasn't affected because he wasn't human (neither was Data), but he was becoming the token race of this show.  They wanted to move the political climate forward by making peace between the Federation and Klingons and then putting a Klingon on board the Enterprise.  And then they had no idea what to do with him.
But he wasn't the only one.  Riker wasn't affect too much either apart from a little sweatiness and indecisiveness.  When the show first started I was worried that there may be too many main characters and this would seem to prove that theory correct.  The engineer woman wasn't overly affected either.  It didn't help matters that there was no chief engineer at this point.  There was usually a different one in every episode that required a supervising engineer.  It made things awkward because while you're seeing all the characters' drunken fits effect their work, you're not seeing all work stations affected.  As a further trivia note, Wesley's solution to the asteroid problem was also done in a different episode of TOS according to the trivia I looked up.

It's also notable, as a curiosity more than anything, that this is the only time I remember seeing face to face communication within the ship on the main viewer screen. I could be wrong but I only mention it as a way of pointing out things that are never seen again as I was doing with the Encounter At Farpoint episode.

But, I want to think of some positives to end on since I don't want to sit here and bash every episode from the first two seasons.  They're a part of the show as a whole as well, and even some parts of this episode are referenced again later on, particularly Data and Tasha's brief encounter though in a more mature fashion. 

So this juvenile writing escapade was turned into something more meaningful as part of Data's character development.  Crosby had better guest roles after Tasha was killed off it seems, and this affair added layers to later episodes featuring her as well as a one-off episode featuring Tasha's sister.  In fact, a lot of what was done early on was retooled and fixed after Roddenberry passed on.
I did like the way they thought to write Data's ability to still function as a proficient machine even while compromised, as he put the isolinear chips back towards the end.  That showed promise and ingenuity amidst a strange reboot script.
It was also a solid showing of Beverly Crusher's abilities even though she was behaving childishly as well.

When you look at all of Dr.Crusher's problem solving scenes throughout the entire series, they all look pretty much like they do in this episode.  It was unique to her character.  It was something Gates McFadden brought to the character, too, not anything that could be written in.  She established the character of the doctor early on as being different, personality-wise, from Dr. McCoy.  She was a strong character in the sea of first season remade and lackluster scripts.  When she returned in the 3rd season they tapped into this uniqueness and one of the best characters ever created flourished.
 There were also no political or religious implications in this episode, which is always a plus for me.

On the whole I give it 2 of 5 stars for these few positives I could glean from the episode.

 

Fandom musics

Speaking of music... I'll close out the week with some random favorites from my various fandoms.  Have a great weekend.

Our man O'Brien

When I watched the TNG finale, All Good Things, it had been so long since I'd seen Encounter at Farpoint that I couldn't remember if O'Brien had actually been in it... I was suspicious that they were just throwing him in there because his character had become such an integral part of the show and moved on to become a primary cast member of DS9.  But, sure enough - there's our man O'Brien!

As a secondary character, he gave the audience one of the most unique perspectives of the show.  Eventually they worked in other secondaries like Nurse Ogawa, but O'Brien was there from the beginning.  I wonder if they'd always planned to use him periodically?  I guess I could research this stuff before I blog, but I like wondering and imagining.

Miles O'Brien started in red, working ops on the Battle Bridge and the Main Bridge in the finale.  Then he moved on to the Transporter chief and he figured in prominently in the engineering techno-babble scenes.  It's good to have someone reliable that you can turn to and stick into an episode.  Someone that can say the lines and become familiar to the audience.  Then his character took an unexpected turn.

They gave him a family.  Who was O'Brien that he should have a family?  Not a main character, that's who.  The main characters are the most important, but they're limited because they need to be used for the main storylines.  (I don't count Beverly Crusher and Wesley because they came into it as a set, both primary characters.)  Troi, Riker, Picard  all got to experience parenting in one-off episodes that didn't leave them committed to a family full time. Worf had Alexander, but they could only use him sparingly because Worf had to be used in every episode without being overly tied down to his family.  And really, it's a shame because Alexander was a child character that I sort of liked.  I liked the alien children better than Wesley or Jake because they're ultimately a part of the cultural development of the alien race.  But, anyway, with a secondary character, they were free to build a family from the ground up and follow it through different stages.  The wedding.  Their life together discussing things like food and trying new things from their different ancestral cultures.  Their child, the birth of which provided one of the most golden moments of comic relief in the whole series. The family unit functioning on a starship in the 24th century made a great distraction and addition to many episodes of TNG.

I was even a little surprised when I learned that O'Brien would be a main character in DS9.  That meant transplanting the whole family.  I mean, Worf having Alexander was one thing.  That was just one small child character that could be written off as being in school most of the time.  As could Molly, I guess.  But I wondered about Keiko.  I don't think her character was as popular on the whole.  I admit, she's not my favorite either, but she's such a part of the O'Brien character, she's necessary.  So they had her working on the station and she remained a secondary character and it worked.  That was the unique thing about DS9...it was a stationary space station, so it was like a permanent home instead of gallivanting around on a star ship trying to raise kids.  "Kids" plural, because they decided to write in another child as part of an expanding family.  For a main character!  It ended up as one of the most creative pregnancy coverups ever. The character of Kira could no more have realistically committed to parenthood than Troi, Riker, or Picard.  But, they hid Nana Visitor's real life pregnancy as her character being a surrogate for the O'Brien/Keiko child.

It was made all the more entertaining by the fact that the man who played Dr. Bashir who preformed the transplant to make the surrogacy possible was the father of Nana's child in real life.  One of my favorite stories ever.  And the O'Brien character and his family proceed throughout DS9's run depicting as normal of a life as can be depicted in a science fiction setting.

Who knew when he was on the Battle Bridge in Encounter At Farpoint that O'Brien would become such and indispensable part of the heart of the Star Trek franchise?  It may make him the most important part of that first episode.  I found a great tribute to our man O'Brien to end with :

Star Trek TNG Encounter at Farpoint: sundry points made and remade.

I was going to do a kind of good idea/bad idea list of moments from the first episode that never happened again, but there aren't that many and that sort of thing happens again throughout the first season.  However, I will mention the good idea of the forward facing shot of the enterprise.

The falling forward movement in the very opening is a great look for the Enterprise.  With the right effects around it, it would've been a great shot to reuse in a battle sequence.  Enterprise to the rescue!

Also, I'll mention the idea that Riker could hear Troi telepathically because they'd had an intimate relationship.  It's something that never happened again in the series regarding any relationship had between human and empathic races.  It's probably a good thing that they scrapped this idea.  It would've complicated things.

I also forgot to point out yesterday that one of the things that they introduced into this incarnation of Star Trek was the notion that the First Officer leads most of the away teams.  I liked this immediately.  It makes sense to protect the captain.  Also, they could make the captain more of an adult without losing the playfulness that often comes with away team antics.  And even the dangers.  The captain commanding the endangered team from the ship is a powerful look at the captain's character.
                           









And really, I don't mean to harp on the whole man-skirt rant from yesterday, but I remembered another point that I forgot to make.  After they decided that men would wear skirts

in answer to the misconception that the short skirts from TOS were a form of objectification of women, TNG proceeded to be even more sexist than the American society they were condemning.

Notice how Tasha Yar got to wear pants.  It's because she had the athletic, tomboy build and doing what, in the 60's, would've been considered the man's job - head of security.  Meanwhile Troi gets the "cheerleader outfit" (Sirtis' own words) because she's got the pretty hairdo and headband and the exotic alien powers and the gentle personality; more lady like.  Perhaps they noticed this too and that's why they gave her some long pants to wear immediately afterwards... Still, I snicker at the attempt to keep women in a perpetual state of victimhood and seeing it backfire.  I'll stop talking about man-skirts now.  Promise.  There's so much more of this nonsense in the first season, there'll be other opportunities.

Besides, I don't want anyone to think that I hated this episode.  It's one of the best ones in this particular season because of a unique villain like Q, the wonderful but not overused special effects, and the strong script.  I wouldn't be yammering on about TNG if I didn't love it all, good and bad.  Hashtag Love!

Star Trek TNG Encounter At Farpoint cont.'d

Here's an interesting picture of the cast.  They seem to have originally put Tasha Yar in a skirt as well.  I'm glad the whole dress nonsense stopped, but what is really embarrassing is why it was there in TNG to begin with.  Nichelle Nichols said on numerous occasions that they didn't put her in that skirt to objectify her.

She explained that it was part of the women's liberation movement and getting to wear the short skirt with all the leg and kick pants showing was a liberating and freeing feeling.  I can't believe how stupid and gullible political correctness has made people.  So, in the 80's they now assume that sexual equality was represented by putting men in the dresses too. Now we're going to emasculate men as revenge for women being objectified by the short skirts in the 60's... smh.

Or, I guess you could call them tunics.  Whatever. I could go on and on about how doing "black face" in the Vaudville and early cinema times was simply a celebration of other cultures when they weren't allowed into the mainstream, but now it's considered racist and we're banning the black centaur women from Fantasia, etc.  This man dress thing is another example that keeps cropping up throughout the first season. and one of the reasons I squirm with discomfort when watching the earliest episodes of TNG.  Personally, I just thought the skirts seemed unprofessional, even in the old show. I know it's a fantasy show, but they took care to make it seem realistic, and since the women's movement involved bra burning and scantily dressing just to prove a point that had long been proven, it was really time for the skirts to go.

The plot of the pilot episode was actually a very simple one.  I'd label it as a classic Roddenberry plot, comparable to the plots devised for TOS.  It was actually simple enough to fit into one episode, but, of course, being the first episode of the next big thing a lot of time was devoted to character introduction which is not a bad thing.  It was a well constructed script.  Not everyone in the first episode was seen all at the same time.  It also took time to show everyone how this show was different and could stand apart.  In particular, the way this new Enterprise could separate the saucer section and now had a battle bridge that would only be sparsely manned in case of very dangerous situations.

This was such a smart, smart improvement since the ship was depicted as having so many people on board (even in TOS it was over 400, I believe) and although the ship's ideal purpose was one of diplomacy and mundane tasks, it was in one dangerous situation after another because it wouldn't have been much of a show otherwise.

The antagonist for this episode was Q and he was a very charismatic and formidable presence.  I've complained in general about the political implications of TNG before and I'll probably complain specifically with each episode.  I think this is an attack on the progress of civilization.  To paint America and even Europe in the colonialist sense; conqueror's; pillagers; quick to go to war with people who are different than us because that's the only reason, in the person's mind who believes such things.  However, John de Lancie was charming enough to make that part of the script bearable. Omnipotent beings were not a new idea, and even in TNG there were allusions to other types of omnipotent creatures, but the Q Continuum, was a very unique idea and my hat's off to the writer's for coming up with something unique right off the bat when so much of the first couple seasons was just copycatting of TOS.
I also thought it was clever that there was a Klingon in Starfleet now, but they chose not to address it.  To me, that's more of what equality is. Equality means that nobody is given special consideration because they're different.  Nobody on the bridge thought it was unusual that a Klingon was serving in the Federation.  After a few episodes though, it became obvious that they just hadn't thought this character through much yet and had no immediate plans (at least in the first season) to develop him, making him almost a throw-away character... just there to be the muscle... which was disappointing.

On the whole I rate the pilot episode 4 of 5 stars for special effects, a well balanced script and the smallest hint of originality in Q.

Departing with music from the soundtrack.  I mentioned yesterday that I like music scores and they're very much a part of directing the audience's emotions even without them knowing it.  This is the pretty music played at the climax when the two ship-like aliens are reunited.  Aww!  Lol!

Star Trek TNG Encounter at Farpoint

Without further ado, I'll begin reviewing every episode of Star Trek TNG.  But I won't do it overwhelmingly.  I tend to ramble on when I start writing out my opinions, so today I thought I'd start with some interesting video to get warmed up.

Beginning with the trailer for the first part of Encoutner At Far Point Part 1:

It's an exciting new beginning to Star Trek.  Still colorful, but brighter.  You get to see that the command color has changed from gold to red.  There's Klingon crew member and an intriguing bad guy.  Lot's of familiar theatrics.  Bigger sets and more extras to give it a more believable atmosphere. And even though the effects budget was considered low at the time, they spent a lot of it to make a good first impression with the pilot episode.  Even as much as I say I cringe when watching the first two seasons, I can't help but be hooked in by this trailer.  There's a lot of promise for a great show in it.

Next a montage of best moments.  I have to agree for the most part.

I was so happy to see Deforest Kelly in the first episode.  His character's name was not mentioned.  I think it was very brave of them not to work in too many guest appearances of people from the old cast.  They were determined to stand on their own. Not like they could've had them all turn up aged like this, but they could've inserted them in small roles as bar tenders as kind of a wink-wink to the audience, but they didn't go in that direction.
I noticed that they never used this particular Enterprise entrance into the scene as with the opening of this episode again and I always thought it was kind of a shame.  It was a unique perspective.

I also found an interesting comparison of Encounter At Farpoint in SD and HD. 

I'm just blown away by how far technology has come even since this show was on the air.  All of it's effects were raising the bar at the time and even when they're put under the HD microscope they stand the test of time.  And the music score alone is a bonus.  I love various music scores from movies and television.

Top Ten Lists

As you may have noticed, my weekends are busy and I don't have a lot of time to sit and blog.  So I thought I'd start the weekend with some Mojo lists.  Once I start watching these Mojo videos I find it hard to stop.  Here's a few that I was watching and loving today.

I don't appreciate the way they called Stargate a mediocre movie.  Hopefully they're just referring to box office receipts.  It was a great movie.  Here are their Top Ten Sci-Fi Televison series.  I've loved a few of these myself.  And Star Trek gets itself in there twice... *snicker*

Next is the Top Ten Star Trek Villains.  Obviously, I wish they wouldn't include New Trek, but I agree with most of these.  And their favorite is my favorite.  <3

This is my favorite of all the videos I saw today.  I've seen and loved most of these Top Ten Sci-Fi Movie Duels.  This is a great list.

Happy Weekend everyone!

Star Trek The End: Star Trek Reboot

I had already decided that I would quit all forthcoming Star Treks when I was gifted the 2009 reboot movie so I watched it patiently.  It didn't offend me in the same way that the new Star Wars movie did.  The Star Wars film was being marketed as a sequel and that's why it riled me. (See two previous posts on the subject from last month.)  This was advertised as, more or less, a remake.  Perhaps a little prequel thrown in since the characters were first meeting, but you can't just recast all of the old characters and call it something new.  It had some nice homages.  Zachary Quinto is a dead ringer for Spock and Karl Urban's interpretation of McCoy is fairly true to Deforest Kelly's portrayal, which meant a lot to me since Bones was my favorite character of the first show.  But, my base opinion on all of this reboot nonsense is a very simple one:  If you're out of original material, it's time to stop.

I've been thinking a lot lately of the vitriol being spewed forth from people who get on message boards and in comment sections towards those who don't approve of the new movies and reboots of most things in general.  All though there are some out there that just go for Abrams' jugular, from what I've seen, everyone that shares my view has at least one or two good reasons and can explain them coherently. Whereas, those who accept the new reboots and remakes can do nothing but call people of my opinion "haters."  Like that means something.  But the more I think of it, the more I think I can understand where these types are coming from.  They've never had anything original to call their own in their generation.  Raised on brain dead reality shows and quite a few remakes in general, they have nothing that can mean something to them (except perhaps Harry Potter.) This trend of remaking things isn't actually new.  I've noticed that for the last 20 years or so, there's been an awful lot of remakes.  All in the name of better special effects.  When it started to strike me as getting out of hand is when Total Recall was remade.  Really?  I mean, I understand that every generation has it's hands in the classic literature adaptations that have been made and remade since cinema was invented.  No problems there. Total Recall was a great movie, but a classic?  I don't know.  Perhaps one day they'll understand when J.K. Rowling passes on and people start to reboot Harry Potter.  Then perhaps they'll understand why "canon" and original vs. expanded universes are so important to a well built story.

This meme of J.J. Abrams in an interview with John Stewart is meant to be funny, but it explains so much of what the reboot fad is all about and the people that are into the new stuff.  It's done from the perspective of someone who grew up either with the originals or watching them from the sidelines and haughtily saying, "I think I could do it better," and then telling the generations they're marketing to that grew up without it that since this is how it should have been (in their minds), it's okay to tie it intimately with the old franchises as though it were a genuine part of it.
You may say, "Doesn't everyone who write fan fiction basically saying that they can do it better?" Yes, they are. And while a lot of it is embarrassing, some of it is very good.  I liked the Dark Shadows movie.  I saw a lot of versions of things I've read in fan fiction floating around in that movie.  But it wasn't being touted as the legitimate successor to the original show or concepts. It was done for fun.  As was Maleficent.  Maleficent didn't adopt Aurora, okay.  That wasn't a part of Sleeping Beauty in any way, not even the original fairy tale.  But, it was a stand alone example of an imaginative retooling of the story.  And there was no demand for us to accept either as anything but a coloring book style of our old favorites.  That's how I see the new Star Trek movies, and I'm sorry, but this is just where I get off the ride.  That's not hate.  That's critical thinking. That's the mind of someone who doesn't like everything waved in front of her just because it's got a familiar name and logo stamped on it.  That's knowing when to stop ingesting something before it makes you sick and there's nothing wrong with that. Make no mistake, burnout can happen to anyone, even those who are in my age range and on board with all the changes, hailing them as "breathing new life into the old stories."  I'll just keep the material that was built specifically on the original foundations and continued in creativity and originality.  I'd rather binge watch Star Trek Voyager (my lease favorite of the Trek series) than continue into the "next generation" of film productions.

Yes, the term "hater" could be more applied to someone who's just sounding off that it's all Abrams' fault.  But, we take the reboots and remakes as a personal affront, so have pity.  One day you'll either understand, or you'll be so burned out on it all you'll end up hating the things you once loved and you'll be in a more pitiable state than us "haters."  In return, I'll apologize for saying that those who accept all of the changed products with no criticism at all have no standards.  It does sound cruel when I say it that way.  That's just how it looks from my perspective.  I'm sure everyone can agree that there's not much original material out there anymore and lament the fact that no one even seems to be trying to create anything new and imaginative.  It's time for a revolution in all fiction genres!  Lol.

Star Trek Beginning to End: Footnote - Major Cast Changes

Before I end these posts on the five big Star Trek series that have aired over the years, I want to give a shout out to the main characters that weren't in it for very long. 

The cast pictures I used in the previous posts were of the casts that I liked best, but they don't represent every character that had more than a reoccurring part in each respective show.  They deserve their own spot of attention.

I've already mentioned Captain Pike and Number One from the original pilot The Cage.I sometimes wonder if the actor who played Pike had known what a runaway smash hit Star Trek would become, if he would've turned the role down.  He died very young at age 42, so perhaps that would've stopped the whole juggernaut short, having to select a new captain for the movies, and it's better this way, but I liked Christopher Pike.  He had a strong command presence.  I'm sure that if he'd continued they would've introduced a suaveness to his character for the sake many brief romances, but I don't think he would've been as cliched as Kirk.  I also wish to reiterate my admiration for Number One as a strong female character.  I don't know where people get the idea that in order to be perceived as strong, the woman must visibly one-up and outdo the man and then rub his face in it, albeit comically.  Number One had silent strength.  She could have been every bit of an endearing confidant to Pike as Riker was to Picard had it gone on.  I assume that if this incarnation had continued that she would be the adult to Pike's more playful nature in the way Spock was to Kirk.  Wikipedia has an interesting article on this character, the mystery of her name and other writings regarding her.  The other character who would have been a main character had the series continued as was is Dr. Phillip Boyce.

He's an old country doctor, a motif they stuck with when casting McCoy, only this one is a little more laid back.  Not as high strung as Bones.  I don't imagine he would've been as much fun either, but I have not way to tell.

Next up from Star Trek TNG is Dr. Katherine Pulaski. 

She appears in some cast photos because she was the doctor in season two.  She has history with the Star Trek franchise appearing in two episodes of TOS when she was young and beautiful.  Or if saying "in her prime" is less offensive, so be it. The fact is, she's a great actress and knew what kind of personality to bring to a Start Trek character.  Unfortunately for her brief time there, she was being built up as a copy of McCoy in relation to her fear of the transporter and the curious dynamic between she and Data as with Bones and Spock.  I blame the fact that they weren't trying to be original and creative at the time... just one of those aspects of the first two seasons that was frustrating to me.  I think she could've been developed very well had she stayed on, but again, these things work out for the best.  Dr. Crusher's presence was much more effective and versatile on the whole.  But, I really did enjoy the actress, Diane Maulder as this character.

There were two major changes in Deep Space Nine. The first was Worf                                            

as a crossover character.  This requires no real explanation, only my personal approval as a really good move.  It's hard to say what will happen with characters when they crossover, but a Klingon in the heart of a good war story is actually a can't-miss scenario.  The other is Ezri Dax who I've mentioned before but I want to expand briefly on again.  People like me who didn't approve of Ezri get labelled as "haters" a lot because we care more for the complexity of a story than those who accept all changes happily, with no apparent standards and expectations. (This doesn't just apply to characters, but also entire movies of fandoms like the new Star Trek sets, which I'll get into later, or the newest Star Wars.)  Like I mentioned before, they started Ezri out right. 

She sought out Dax's old friend Sisko first instead of Jadzia's beloved Worf.  This made sense with the way the Trill race had been developed over the previous seasons.  Then, in order to speed things up for the sake of the series coming to an end, they just kind of threw some of that out.  And I'll admit, she probably could handle her serial killer personality with skill considering her occupation.  But, her brief encounter with Worf shouldn't have happened anyway because that breaks the rules that they invented about returning to a past relationship.  Rules taken very seriously for the episode created for it.  Then she settles on Bashir, basically saying he was Jadzia's second choice.  It's disrespectful to all three characters.  I know they didn't have time to explore the fact that she was an unjoined Trill and therefore, presumably, not up for the lifestyle mentally (as a psychologist, no less) and there was endless fodder in that part alone.  The confusion with Worf and Bashir was correct.  But, ultimately, she should've been written out as either transferring or having to return to the Trill home world to pass the Dax symbiont along to someone who was prepared to be a joined trill somehow.  Exceptions can always be made in fiction. It wouldn't have been as happy of an ending, but a little more realistic and would've fit better with the themes of this show.

Forgive me for being cynical but I see the addition of 7 of 9 as the big boob hire for this show. 

As I said before, I know I've not given Voyager much of a chance and I'm sure her character had more depth than that, but you can see already a trend towards strong female characters who are also buxom and physically intimidating as more of a graphic novel heroine than an epic tale character who is, for the most part, not physically remarkable.  And I had the same wariness of T'Pol from Enterprise, to be fair.

Speaking of, I didn't see enough of Enterprise to know for sure if there were any major cast changes over the course of its run.  I'm not counting reoccurring characters in this assessment just like I'm not counting what amounts to secondary characters (as Nurse Chapel, TOS.) If anyone knows of any major cast changes in Enterprise, I'd be delighted to hear of it.

Star Trek Beginning to End: ENT

Continuing in the posts that rank my favorite series in the franchise, but not in order of most to least or vice-versa.  I'll rank them in the order they've run.

The prequel series, Star Trek Enterprise.  I was too busy adulting to devote much time to this one but what I saw of it I liked.  And, of course, I loved Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap, so I was certain this show would be okay.

The concept and time frame of this show made sense.  Shame on humans... I think literally humans and not just Americans... makes more sense when the humans are new and green to interstellar travel and haven't really progressed out from Earth much.  But, they didn't hang on that precept the way early TNG and VOY did.  They did the fun prequel things: early and underdeveloped technology; introducing transporters and improving warp drive; things that are more familiar to modern space stories like decontamination; trouble even getting started. Of course there was a Vulcan on board to help guide.  An alien doctor made sense because they'd possibly be facing extraterrestrial diseases.  And, of course, an English guy.  (Perhaps that's where Voyager took a wrong turn, lol.)  It was a lot of fun at first.  Then it got a little weird.  This series, like the others, was casting about to find a unique primary adversary.  I think they put too much into a time traveling nemesis.  Time travel is a fun concept, for sure.  It's good for an episode here or a movie there.  But, week after week and year after year it gets kind of tricky and begs a thinking person to blow holes in it.  Or at least gives a thinking person something of a headache.  Still, this show had a lot of charm which was helpful in looking past this flaw.

All of the characters were loveable.  I didn't get to see enough of it to get a chance to become attached to a secondary or reoccurring character, but I liked Dr. Phlox and Trip was always adorable.  I was happy to see more Vulcan culture. T'Pol became a little emotional for a Vulcan as it went on, but this series wasn't as simplistic as TOS, so I suppose things like that will happen.  I did like the Trip/T'Pol romance story that weaved in and out throughout the series.  And I loved the little puppy dog!

Enterprise is my 4th favorite and I'll catch up on all of its episodes one day too.  Time travel or not. I love Star Trek.