.....to think that the casual racism shown towards Ferengi in ST:TNG is rather unpleasant?

[HalloweenyHerrena]

I mean, the Ferengi have been carefully designed to be irritating but come on!

Picard saying "I have reluctantly let members of a particular ethnic group on baord the Enterprise - hopefully they won't cause trouble" just sounds wrong to me and is not in keeping with the happy-clappy 'We are here to encounter new life and not judge' ethos of the whole show. Unless the ethos is actually 'We are here to encounter new life and not judge them unless we find them personally repulsive, in which case we hoick our judgy pants right up'.

I may be over-thinking this but I still don't find it nice to watch, which is upsetting as I'm an avid TNG fan :(

You've got a point jaggythistle. But I suppose it's tricky having to come up with ever-new alien species to interact with, especially since the wardrobe department are so keen that the aliens be bipedal humanoid oxygen-breathers. For the writers the holodeck could also be a retreat to the safe and familiar .

Speaking of alien variety - I do think Doctor Who does a lot better than Star Trek. Yes, The Doctor is indistinguishable from humans on the surface, but hey, it was 1963 and England, making him a bit irascable was probably considered alien enough . Daleks, sentient planets, giant eyeballs, space whales, skin stretched taut on a frame - not a biped amongst them, let alone just a standard humanoid with some strategic lumps on their face and a monochrome way of dressing. Even the bipeds were more varied - Ood, Hath, Cybermen.

I think that's why I liked Farscape too, all those space muppets Jim Henson creations.

Oh Kim, stop being so 20th century! These are hi tech man made fibre uniforms - they adjust to the climate, super cool in hot weather and waterproof too!

And they only transport down onto M class planets - they check the atmosphere first! Duh!

(I may be experiencing some fantasy-reality differentiation issues atm...)

No, they do beam down sometimes and it's stormy and then they can't beam back! There have been a couple of those, where Geordi or whoever gets stuck and then Drama Ensues.

And they had that life-form which was sentient crystal that attacked the miners. And the nano-bots Wesley built which were self-aware and attacked the ship. Not all life-forms are humanoid! Tribbles, anyone?

Naughty Wesley!

Shut up Wesley!

Do you suppose they have sleep accelerators? I'd really love to get about 10 hours (without engorgement, of course), but WHEN?!

Would it be a matter of being poised for the "slingshot round the sun" at any moment? Mine are unpredictable little buggers!

WhereYouLeftIt I really wanted to like Farscape but I couldn't get over the fact it seemed to have nicked an awful lot from been heavily influenced by Blake's 7. Maybe I'll go back and watch some more.

I REALLY detested Babylon 5.

Phyllis, I can see what you mean (although it went over my head when I watched them); but I have to say that Ben Browder is considerably sexier than Gareth Thomas . I did love Avon - that voice ... and Servelan was probably the first female character I'd ever come across who was genuinely 'in charge'.

Mind you, you could say Farscape borrowed a bit from Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Crichton being Arthur Dent, the human suddenly ripped from his planet and thrust into a multi-species universe he'd never known existed; getting into deadly peril without knowing how he's managing it, and always being slightly exasperated. Moya being The Heart of Gold, stolen.

Lets face it, you can find echoes of all of them in all of them .

Babylon 5 - was kind of light fluff in the early days. Got better as it got darker, IMO.

Surely nobody thinks that Blake was sexy? It was all about Avon and Servalan and the high camp.

I don't know if any of you have seen this before, but I was telling a friend last week about the fascinating Paramount casting memo for ST:TNG that got published on Letters of Note, and thought I'd share it here: here. Very interesting, especially the fact that Jenny Agutter was being considered for Crusher. Jonathan Frakes not even the favourite for Ryker (sic), no Wil Wheaton ... it could all so very easily have gone wrong ...

That casting list is soooooooo interesting! So Keiko might have been Yar! Mind boggling after you get used to characters being played by certain actors.

Whose voice is that, WhereYouLeftIt? I love a good voice: I was half in lust with Richard III in that film when he was played by Lawrence Olivier. And I knew Severus Snape couldn't actually be evil, since JK Rowling let Alan Rickman take the part (and in her universe, evil isn't attractive).

i also didn't like Babylon 5 showtunesgirl. the dodgy cg stuff hurt my eyes.

DH got really into obsessed with the new battlestar galactica stuff, i was kind of meh about it. it was all a bit kind of angsty and that Gaius character really ripped my knitting for some reason.

we also watched the V remake recently which was ok, i think they only made a couple of seasons though.

I believe DH scours Lovefilm regularly for sci-fi.

i must get the hitchhikers guide book out to read again. the Red Dwarf books are also ok.

I loved B5, some of the characters were awesome, I loved Ivanova and Garibaldi.
Also loved Farscape.

DH and I also got very Galactica obsessed. I spoilered the cylons in the first series. And my enjoyment had NOTHING to do with Apollo, honest.

Tasha would've been much less annoying played by Chao I think. I always hated Yar, though I can't really say why!

The rest of it is very shuddery to me, can't imagine anyone else as Riker, Geordi or Wesley! It would just be wrong

Tasha Yar is the grandaughter of Bing Crosby.

Bing Crosby was born in the 24th century?!

pmsl plutocrap

I find Bing Crosby irritating too. Perhaps it's a genetic quality [hgrin]