Unofficial Tex Murphy

Just to clarify - what's the name of that game, and how is it really played?

My curiosity is officially piqued. (Even though I'm not that much of a Trekkie.)

-Fred

My favs: Original Series Movies
Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country

My favs: TNG Movies
First Contact, Nemesis, Insurection

Weekly series: Original series
Trouble with Tribbles, Piece of the Action, Gary 7, several others

Weekly series: TNG
Year 5? Whenever they started the great story lines and got away from first year jitters and all the morality episodes. The last couple of years were exciting and very creative.

Voyager:
I know this isn't going to come out just right, but all the episodes after 7 of 9 appeared. Yes, Jerry Ryan is hot, blah, blah, blah. But, more than that, the show really became more interesting with episodes of higher quality and fascinating story lines.

Deep Space Nine and Enterprise had some good moments but never approached the others in greatness.

I loved the original series with Captain Kirk and dispised the Next Generation series with Picard.

Picard was a wimp compared to Kirk and even their resident Kilingon 'Worf' was a sissy compared to the original Klingons.

A common theme in the original series would have the Enterprise encounter an alien world in which a powerful being 'took care' of all the alien world's inhabitants. Kirk would argue that "This is wrong! Men need to suffer and fight and claw their way through life." Kirk would fight and eventually vanquish the nanny-being so that people would have to learn self-reliance and freedom.

Picard was just the opposite. His view was that no one should have to work or even own personal property. Everything should be provided by the State so that we can all just sit around and sing Kumbya and read poetry.

Also, the characters from the original series were much more fun and like old friends. Scotty, Bones, Checkov, Zulu, Spock...They were all charactures. Not very deep, but because of that, we knew them completely.

In the TNG, the characters had more depth, but as a result they were inconsistent and more like aquaintances than friends.

Give me those old Captain Kirk reruns any day. I can't stand to watch TNG.

Oh, Dr. Paul, you cut me to the quick! I feel that TNG is a much stronger show than the original series. As you said yourself, TNG has deeper characters. Also, better production values, multiple story lines extending through multiple episodes. TNG even approached social issues.

However. . .

We must view each series in the context of its times and the reason they were produced. Indeed, TNG wouldn't have been produced without the success of the original series.

It's like comparing apples to oranges. . .and I love both apples and oranges.

I had to throw my dime in here. Lately, I've been getting back into some Star Trek. I was never much of a fan of the original series, because I need quality in my product, and let's be honest, if the production values aren't as new as my birthdate, I probably won't like it ... with a few exceptions. I dunno ... washed out colors don't do it for me.

Now TNG, I haven't started recieving the DVDs from Blockbuster yet, so all I remember were a few episodes, and the movies. I loved all the TNG movies, except for nemesis, which I thought was ... I dunno .. blah.

I've also started watching enterprise, and I love the female vulcan character. I don't think it's all that bad.

Never liked Deep Space Nine. Don't know why. Just not my cup of tea.

Voyager? Don't know. I get those seasons *After* the TNG seasons ... so we'll see.

The acting in the original series was terrible (except for Nimoy)! However, it broke new ground and pleased audiences for its entire run (including myself).

THG started terrible but ended with high quality acting and great story lines. Is one better than the other? Apples and oranges. Its difficult to compare series from different time periods. But it does make for good conversation on this board.

They've been showing Voyager reruns on Spike lately and now that 7 of 9 has appeared the show is much more interesting. No, I am NOT talking about her figure or beauty. It just seemed the writing took a turn for the better and these episodes are fun to watch.

I think what sets these series apart is the structure of the story. When you have a chance to construct a longer-term serialized story arch, you get a better program. I think that the best parts of each series (TOS not included) were when they implemented a serialized structure, mixed with real danger to the characters.

TNG:
The Borg
The Cardassian occupation of Bajor

DS9:
The Dominion

STV:
The Borg

Generally speaking, I feel like there's never any real danger to the characters in these shows until the writing staff gets together and plots out a long term arch or recurring villains. This is why I think that shows like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica (the new one, although not as much this season) really resonate with audiences.

I agree with you one hundred percent. It's reminds me of the X-files, sort of ... They had some very good "monster of the week" episodes, but the mythology episodes had me gripped more then anything else. The only problem with doing that kind of television, however, is that you alienate a portion of the audience who didn't get to see the show from the beginning, and they find themselves confused as to what is going on. I think the X-files balanced their shows accordingly to accomodate new viewers wanting to see what all the fuss was about, and the hardcore x-heads.

On a side note, I'm currently going through season Nine of the X-files, with no Mulder ... and I must say, although I miss the character, the acting and stories weren't hit too hard. Some of these episodes are amazing. John Doe, in particular, where Agent Dagat had amnesia and was lost in Mexico ... I thought it was amazing.

GAME!! The! Name of, what is!

And what's the rules?

*Harrumph* and other similar expressions!

-Fred

It's called Tri-Dimensional Chess


That ones the official Version. Franklin Mint make it.

http://www.chessvariants.com/3d.dir/startrek.html
and here is how you play.


eerr someone and spock having a game.

http://www.chessvariants.org/3d.dir/starboard.html
and this is how you build one.

http://www.hemptrek.com/parmen/parmen.html
and here is the lazy person's version (its a free 3D version of the game)

That sorta makes sense. Having bothered to count the squares I see it represents the same square area of a chessboard.

I also realize from the position of the pieces that the actual rules wouldn't interest me as much as I thought it would. I'm having enough of a challenge trying to beat people in *normal* chess

-Fred

You aren't kidding. I sat down and was playing this chess game that came with the computer the other night, had it at the easiest level of difficulty and the computer was smacking me all night. I have the problem of setting up a piece for an attack, thinking to myself, I have it all in hand, and a piece I didn't see takes my attacking piece. I have not know such frustration.

I'd whip your butt in a game of Scissors-Rock-Paper, Malloy

-Fred

Pong anyone?

Fred Buer wrote:I'd whip your butt in a game of Scissors-Rock-Paper, Malloy

-Fred

Actually I played a version of chess that incorporated Rock / Paper / Scissors. When the pieces confronted/came into contact with each other you'd have to play a quick game of rock/paper/scissors and the winner would see their piece smash the other, Harry Potter wizard-chess style.