I thought it would be fun to post something that many of you probably didn’t know about me, with hopes that a trend could be started. Of course, the chances of anybody else in my little webring of blogs doing something like this are slim, but who cares.
In Jr. High I went to a Star Trek convention with some friends, and it was awesome. My brother got a 2360s (TNG) combadge pin and a type-2 phaser to complete his home-made 2370s Type B (early DS9 and Voyager) uniform (the older style combadge was cheaper, so it didn’t matter that it didn’t match) . I wish I knew where pictures of him wearing it are, because it was one of the prouder moments of my pre-fatherhood life.
Just now I looked up any possible Star Trek conventions fully expecting there to be no such thing. For the first time in decades there is no Star Trek series on TV, and the next Star Trek movie scheduled for release in theaters is expected to be a huge departure from the standard Trek universe and lore. But to my surprise, there still are Strek Trek conventions. Lots of them. In fact, there’s one coming up in Chicago in October. I don’t expect to be going to any though…not until my kids are old enough to give me an excuse at least! 😉
Become A Robot 
Although I have always enjoyed Star Trek, I never was one for the conventions. I think they’re just fine, and the people learning to speak Klingon are pretty impressive (I would choose Tolkien-Elf if I wanted to learn a fictional second language). Also, are there people more loyal in the world than the Trekkers/Trekkies/whatever?
And, if no one minds, I will use this great post as a springboard for the ever-enjoyable “Which is the best Star Trek?” debate. For me, the answer is blindingly obvious: TNG. The original is just too hokie, though I’m sure I would’ve loved it if I had been alive during while it aired. And why does Captain Kirk always go on away missions? He’s too important! Send the others.
I award second place to DS9, which started off relatively weak but finished strong, especially with the invention of the Dominion and the addition of the Defiant. I’ve never watched the most recent Trek, whatever it is—the one with Scott Bakula as captain, but I’m sure it has to be better than Voyager, which SUCKS!! I don’t have a problem with a female captain; I have a problem with a Janeway captain. She is an idiot. The other characters on the show are obviously contrived to gain my sympathy and interest, and consequently, I could not care for them less. Bad plots, bad characters, bad show.
¡Viva, TNG!
What an awesome springboard. TNG has to win for me too, as it easily had the best characters. It took the writers a little while in the first few seasons to really figure out who these people were meant to be (isn’t it a shame that no new show even gets an entire first season to figure out how how it’ll really shine?). Once they got going though, TNG was unbeatable.
I say that DS9 comes in at a close second. Again, great characters. And once they got past the hokey plots, and especially once Sisko shaved his head and grew a goatee, it was an awesome show. Confession: I haven’t seen the entire final season of DS9. I am a loser, but I am a loser lacking Netflix right now at least.
I had high hopes for Voyager, but they fizzled. Chakotay’s a fool, and Harry Kim needed to be slapped up-side the head WAY more often than he ever actually was. The Doctor was AWESOME, Tom Paris can be my wing man any day (but what did he see in B’Elanna Torres), and I really liked Nelix…but Janeway made too many dumb moves based on some form of messed up duty/honor/ethics/etc. that I rarely agreed with. I missed the Federation, and classic villains (yes, they brought out the Borg and Romulans and Q amd everybody else in weird, contrived, rating focused episodes that felt forced). I really wanted to like Voyager, but I got bored and frustrated. Some day I do plan to go back and watch all the episodes though. I’m STILL a Trekkie. Enterprise with Bakula wasn’t Star Trek to me. Violence and Sexiness, with no brains or mysteries. It just seemed to be running on fumes right out of the gate. Like Voyager, I got bored and frustrated.
And for the record, I like Classic Trek. It’s so cheesy it works. I could quote it all day.
I’ll throw in my two (completely uninitiated) cents: I love the TNG/DS9 debate between Dan and Nathan/Nate/seemingly the rest of the rational world. I also love that everybody agrees that Voyager sucks. Perhaps it stayed on TV much like The King of Queens remains on TV–people just don’t care enough to lobby for it to be cancelled.
Perhaps I can initiate another, similar springboard that is related only insofar as Nathan and Dan disagree:
Which is the better Counting Crows album: August and Everything After or Recovering the Satellites?
For my money, you can’t get much better than August, but I leave the details to the more seasoned Crows fans…
Aaaaaand, fisticuffs.
Wait JUST ONE MINUTE. I really liked “The King of Queens”. Still do enjoy the reruns.
I digress; The King of Queens is watchable, and even funny at times.
I have to comment here!! Kyle drew me in… As for Star Trek, TNG is the best, it seems we all agree…especially because of Patrick Stewart, who rocks at pretty much everything he does. Jason is right about Sisko for DS9, though. Once that man shaved his head and grew out that goatee the whole series seemed more hardcore/better. I still remember watching that show and playing basketball on that our hoop that was hanging over our entrance to the kitchen…
As for the Crows, I’ve never thought that this argument was even close. I’ve always known that Recovering the Satellites is MUCH better!! For me, the songs on it encompass a wider spectrum of sounds…it goes from mellow to energized to peaceful to pained and back again. Plus Adam’s vocals on that album are incredible and intensely passionate!! And all the songs seem to be taking you somewhere…not that I don’t like August & Everything after, because I do love it. But the song type kind of stays in the same area (a good area, for sure) and doesn’t reach the heights that Recovering does…Plus if you give me the top 5 songs of Recovering vs. August: “Angels of the Silences”, “Daylight Fading”, “I’m Not Sleeping”, “A Long December” and “Children in Bloom” (or “Catapult”)gives the beat down to “Mr. Jones”, “Rain King”, “Round Here”, “Anna Begins” and “A Murder of One” (or whatever 5th you want to include) EASILY!! Go listen to those 5 from each and compare. Recovering the Satellites is better hands down. I know Nathan’s got my back…
I don’t know how we got onto his topic from Star Trek, but here we go.
Justin’s right; Satellites is better. Think of it as a landscape: August is the mountain range with consistent peaks–very pretty to look at, but no huge variation in altitude; Satellites is the horizon marked with spiky, jutting peaks as well as foothills and some valleys. The Crows fly consistently well on album one, but they swoop and soar on number two, and they reach higher heights even if there are also lower lows.
The top 5 comparison was a good one, though I’d question “A Murder of One” as one of the best off August when songs like “Omaha” and “Raining in Baltimore” are excluded. “Children in Bloom” isn’t too great either.
Satellites features more songs with subject matter while August is more personal. Take the title track, a song about drug users: “She sees shooting stars and comet’s tails / She’s got heaven in her eyes / She says ‘I don’t need to be an angel / but I’m nothing if I’m not this high.'” Or “Another Horsedreamer’s Blues,” a much under-rated tune about a woman running from her past via gambling: “She’s trying to hit the big one / One last time tonight /For drunken fathers and / Stupid mothers and / Boys who can’t tell one girl from another.”
Satellites has perhaps the best first three tracks on any album ever with “Catapult,” “Angels of the Silences,” and “Daylight Fading.” Throw in “Another Horsedreamer’s,” “Recovering the Satellites,” “Have You Seen me Lately?”, “Miller’s Angels,” and “A Long December,” which is their best song and one of my all-time favorites, you’re got yourself a better album than the wonderful and highly respectable August and Everything After.
I agree that RTS is the better album. I know I used to be on the other side of this debate, but it’s now come to come this, “Which album would I rather bring with me to a deserted island”. I prefer AAEA in a lot of ways, but RTS has the advantage.
I’ll admit that I was hoping for a spirited defense of both DS9 and August from our good friend Dan.
I don’t think Dan likes my blog. 😦
Ok ok, my most sincere apologies for writing so late on this – apparently I don’t have Jason’s comment feed on my feed reader. But let me just tell you that you’re WAY, WAY OFF! All you alls.
First, King of Queens is a good show. All the fat jokes are great.
Second, DS9 is superior to TNG – but just by a little. A great show needs great characters and great stories. Frankly, I’d give TNG the edge in characters. Picard was the best Star Trek captain; Riker was a loser, but still ok; Data was probably my favorite ST character of them all; and LaForge was great too. But DS9 had superior plots, especially in the last two years of the show. The battle with the Dominion was epic. Each episode was un-missable during the end of the series. I’ve never enjoyed any television show as much as I enjoyed the last seasons of DS9. (By the way, I don’t mean to suggest that DS9 didn’t have great characters; Otto, Dr. Bashir, and Quark are all some the best ST characters out there. Quark people! come on, the guy was awesome! And they had all of those Ferengi episode with the Princess Bride guy playing the Grand Negus! It doesn’t get better than that.)
Thirdsome, August and Everything After is way superior to Recovering the Satellites, not that I have anything against the latter album. I think my biggest issue with RTS is that most of the songs are INCOMPREHENSIBLE. Angels of the Silences??? The song makes no sense. Let’s do a little lyric sample, shall we? “I dream of Michelangelo/ when I’m lying in my bed/ Little angels hang above my head/ and read me like an open book/ Suck my blood/ break my nerve/ offer me their arms/ Well, I will not be an enemy of anything/ I’ll only stand here/ Waiting for you.”
Um… that’s deep. Blood-sucking literate angels, giving away limbs. Good stuff.
But I kid a little. I really like Catapult, Recovering the Satelites, Daylight’s Fading, and Long December ( easily one of the best songs of the 1990’s). But the album just cannot match up with AAEA, which, with all due respect to my good friend Nathan, seems to me to be an extremely personal album. Justin, I might take your point about the top five in RTS being better than the top five in AAEA if I went with your top five. But the real top five in AAEA is Mr Jones, Round Here, Rain King, Raining in Baltimore, and Sullivan Street – all fantastic songs. Though I might add that the Across the Wires album is pretty darn good; it has many great songs from both albums. Mr Jones is much better version on the live album – much sadder. Plus there is a great version of Round Here that works in Have You Seen Me Lately.
Finally Jason, I like your blog very much! I just need to get the comment feed going….
Did I just leave out Anna Beings in the AAEA top five? I’m an idiot, that song has to be there. But now I don’t know which one to take out… that’s how great the album is.
Dan, welcome.
You meant Odo instead of Otto, right? Shame. Way to mention Wallace Shawn (inconceivable!) as the Grand Nagus though. And I have to put in my vote for Miles O’Brien as a great character, even if nobody will back me up.
Across A Wire’s “VH1’s Storytellers” disc is great. The hidden track “Chelsea” is also amazing, even if it’s not live like the rest. The other disc, “Live from the 10 Spot” is also a great live album, but it doesn’t offer any new arrangements really.