Star Trek original marathon

@PocketBrain I have all of these on my plex server as well.

We just finished a STDS9 marathon and we’re now in season 5 of STV. Never met a Star Trek series I didn’t like.

@baqui63 I saw their article on reconstructing lost episodes. Exciting! The Power of the Daleks is especially so.

@baqui63 if you have it all you should really get BBC those lost episodes they’ve been searching for. Harder to find than a pair of droids on a desert planet, really!

The animated reconstruction will be interesting to see!

@baqui63
I tried watching Dr Who from the first year. I simply had to stop after the 1st few episodes from way back when. Couldn’t get thru but a few, couldn’t force self to watch more.

Is it just me, or in what season do they start getting watchable?

@f00l that would entirely depend on which ones you enjoy most likely. If the modern stuff is your speed, then you should probably stick with 2005 and newer.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@jbartus
Liked the modern stuff and know a fanatic, had this idea to try to watch them all. Started w the 1st season, that older Doctor, b&w. The stories were so slow, and scripts so lifeless, it was painful to me. What am I not seeing?

Should confess I never saw Dr Who as a child or young adult. First discovered this stuff after its modern revival.

@f00l it’s just a very very different show back then.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@jbartus
so if i tried again, with the old stuff, with which Doctor should i begin? or if i forced myself thru s01, would it get better?

@f00l maybe start with ~1968 when they droped the whole educational programming idea and went pure science fiction? It’s really hard to say without really knowing your tastes. (End of 2nd doctor, start of 3rd)

@jbartus
I dunno my taste either. I hardly watched tv for 15 years so I forget. “Good TV”, whatever that is?

(Good current and recent stuff, from Biuffy to Sopranos to Mad Men to Silicon Valley to GOT to TWD and Breaking Bad and all that excellent stuff on now…love all that.)

I just couldn’t get thru more than 2-3 eps of the old s01. Tile myself was gonna watch it and after a few seasons of suffering, it would be great. Only I just couldn’t. Perhaps did 3 shows. Just too painful.

@jbartus

PS you’re up too late.

@f00l try third doctor.

Or am I up exceedingly early?

@jbartus
Pats fan. Up late.

PS will try 3rd Doctor.

So much goddam good TV now. Starting to piss me off. Perhaps quit work and become homeless so I can have time to watch. I like to fucking watch already.

@f00l early and late are simply a matter of perspective.

@jbartus
True in greater Boston esp.

@f00l I’m not really certain what you’re getting at. My whole point is I got up at like 12 AM so I was up early as opposed to up late.

@f00l I agree with @jbartus, start with Doctor Who #3 played by Jon Pertwee, who is near the top of my list of favorite Doctor Who incarnations.

Watch an episode or two of those and if that still doesn’t float your boat, jump to Doctor Who #4, played by Tom Baker, who is at the top of my list of “old series” Doctor Who incarnations and basically tied with David Tennant for the top spot of my overall favorites.

Also, if you don’t like Tom Baker (even if he’s not your favorite), then you don’t like Doctor Who and should just give up trying.

@jbartus lol… To be more precise, I have either the actual episode or a reconstruction of all 826(ish?) of them.

Though I recall reading about a year ago that copies of many (most? all?) of the 97(ish?) missing episodes were found in a closet in Ethiopia or some such place. I should see if that is true or merely a cruel hoax, and if true, get them into my collection.

@jbartus
Everyone I knew in Boston way back when always stayed up all nite. Grad students. Which is what, 1/3 of greater Boston?

@baqui63
Like eccleston and onwards plenty. Just trying to find a starting point for the old stuff.
S01 can be pretty tough to sit thru.

@f00l My wife and I tried watching from the beginning a couple years ago. I completely agree that it’s more or less unwatchable before the Pertwee years. “I’m going to throw the rope now” is still a running joke in our house.

@f00l Okay, constructive answer time. It gets fun with the Third Doctor. It gets good with the Ninth.

Disclaimer: I love the old episodes, especially the ones with Pertwee, Baker I, and Davison. But the occasional high spot aside (mostly in the time Douglas Adams was involved), it’s not what I would really call quality television.

@f00l Start with Pertwee. You’ll enjoy it.

@dannybeans I’m not sure I get your distinction between fun and good. Can you site examples of things (other than Doctor Who) that are fun AND bad? Unfun and good?

I’m not trying to suggest you are wrong (I’d have to understand what you mean before I’d do that.)

@baqui63 you might be a bit biase when you tell him that if he doesn’t like the 4th doctor he doesn’t like Doctor Who… just an outsider’s observation

Go David Tennant!

There are presently 97 missing episodes from Doctors One and Two, 44 and 53 respectively. You’re thinking Nigeria where a cache was located in 2013, that country has been particularly good to the effort as they have located no less than 15 episodes there. As of the end of the junkings there were 152 missing so 97 is a definite improvement.

@f00l Not I!

Start with the third doctor!

@baqui63 Sure can.

Fun and bad: camp, guilty pleasures, Big Dumb Fun. Works that emphasize fun over taste and/or production value. Forbidden Zone, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Flash Gordon, the live-action Masters of the Universe, maybe Pacific Rim.

Unfun and good: high art, Important Messages, some “very special episodes.” Works that are well-executed and artistically important, but difficult to watch for one reason or another. Schindler’s List, 2001: A Space Odyssey, maybe the darker parts of Breaking Bad.

(Totally subjective, of course.)

@jbartus I meant it rather tongue-in-cheek, more poking fun (not quite) than anything else.

However, Tom Baker is almost synonymous with the character (perhaps somewhat to his regret, tho I personally think he loved the role) and I feel is the defacto standard for anyone who came to the show during his tenure.

Yes, it was Nigeria… so the 97 is post Nigeria? Shame on that. I really need to hit some… er… servers… and get what I can added here. At least those 15.

When I binged them in order about three years ago (first time I’d done that), I realized that I didn’t hate Colin Baker quite as much as I thought and that I disliked Sylvester McCoy way more than I remembered. Otherwise, my opinions stayed about the same.

@dannybeans Ah. Ok. that was what I was thinking you might have meant.

I’ll buy that, though there are definitely episodes after 2005 that push the envelope on good.

@jbartus But it’s kind of cool to see how it started. I’ve watched some of the old ones. Trying to watch them in order but I’ve had a hard time. Love the newer seasons.

@dannybeans Damn now I’m going to have that theme song in my head again…Flash ahhhahh Savior of the Universe!

@baqui63 I figured, still teasing you about it anyhow!

To be fair he really didn’t star in a whole lot else that had success on the level of Doctor Who so… that might be a factor too.

Then again, I’m a biased post-2004 discoverer so for me David Tennant is and will probably always be the meterstick by which I judge everybody else. So glad Eccleston didn’t stick with it!

@dannybeans
Re 2001

Good and fun. Keep … ahhh … “consumables” handy for the trippy part, or else do a running commentary in the forums here about the trippy part as you watch it.

@f00l I liked the book. Probably because the book explained what the hell was going on.

@baqui63 I think what you said about Baker can be said of almost any of the Doctors, though - most people define the Doctor in terms of the first one they saw. I know for me his “default” setting will always be all crickety-cricket with brainy specs and an arbitrary vegetable, even if that’s not my favorite version of the character.

@jbartus
I have a fanatic friend who has everything that can be had. I think he has audio tracks of the missing stuff. His media server is mostly Dr Who.

If I ask him a q, I have to be careful, as the answer will involve the names to the show runners, the writers, the political climate at the BBC, how stuff got re-edited for PBS, behind-the-scenes Time Lord info, and so much more: and two hours will have passed, and he will not have stopped to breathe, he will not have answered my q yet, but he has not forgotten the question, he’s getting there, be patient!!!

@Bandrik free for Prime users is a bit of an oxymoron.

@jbartus
Not if you would get Prime anyway for the shipping. Most ppl I know get it for the shipping, the vid and stuff is gravy.

@f00l That’s how I see Prime. I got it to buy stuff. The rest are just perks. :3

@f00l @Bandrik still doesn’t make it free, just ‘no additional charge’.

@jbartus
Ok, alert! language police! And Pats fan! Evasive tactics!

/giphy language police

@f00l I’m just saying that nothing that involves money leaving your wallet / bank account is really free. TANSTAAFL.

@f00l Icing on the cake baby…for sure because I would get Prime either way. I mean I absolutely, positively need my order in two days for “free”.

@mehbee I prefer the ‘no rush’ shipping option, where Amazon actually pays you (credit, no cash) for waiting a week or two for the item. I regularly get Kindle books and music for free after they apply the credit to my orders. You can stack them. What, you didn’t know? My fault!

@OldCatLady I use the same option whenever possible for credit to use for books or movies. It’s a great option and I wish I could use it more. I tend to forget I need something until I need it right now…or at least right now in two days. I love Amazon…I know they ruined the other site, but I still love them. I can find almost anything and normally it’s at a comparable or lesser price. It’s funny I really didn’t remember that there were blue shirts who were killed in the earlier episodes so it was nice to learn something new. I don’t know if you watch Live with Kelly. I watch it only because its something I can put on in the background as I work. She had Chris Pine on this summer talking about the new Star Trek movie. She asked what the Beyond in the movie’s name was refering to, what we could expect from the movie. The answer he gives is brillant and touching and very unexpected. Instead of saying it was beyond where they’ve gone before, or beyond limitations, etc. he talks about how Gene Roddenbury(?) created such a diversified show at a time when there was such upheaval. I don’t know why I love what he said but if you ever get a chance to hear what he says, take a moment to listen. I’ve always thought Star Trek was about more than just space but he added even more dimensions. Ok, I’ll stop rambling.

@smilingjack I love “Decades”. They aired some Three Stooges documentaries last weekend and I remember at that time they were running promos for the Star Trek specials.

Shows I would never seek out on Netflix (or the like), I absolutely love seeing in small doses whenever they just “pop up” on Decades. These are the kind of shows that definitely have nostalgic appeal for me, but I don’t necessarily want to binge watch them.

@DrWorm Don’t tell me that! The Three Stoogers documentary was one of the things I recorded and erased to be sure I had room for all the Star Trek stuff!
I watched one and it was great. (Tip, don’t go down to a planet wearing a red shirt)(Duh)

@smilingjack Shatner is very much alive, but the Kirk character was a jerk. In Season 1, Episode 1, the blue shirts got killed too.

@OldCatLady Nooo, not the blue shirts?!? I’ve been watching the new show Better Late Than Never. Shatner is in it. I find it hysterical even Shatner who started off as a jerk and has loosened up more and more each episode.

@mehbee
Shatner has a magnificent actor quality, in that he can be/play (either as an actor or IRL) a pompous ass and simultaneously be making fun of himself being/playing a pompous ass. Most ironic pompous ass ever.
So High Five.

I understand he could be a real jerk to work with for years and years. Everything was fine as long as he was totally important at every second.

But … actor’s life: he was so poor after Star Trek got cancelled that when he did summer stock, he lived in the back of his pickup so as to avoid the cost of renting a temp room or a hotel room.

Things (including his paychecks) picked up at lot after TOS went into constant syndication in the UHF channels everywhere.

/giphy pompous ass

@f00l Well if you find him amusing like I do, you should try the show. I’ve watched 3 episodes so far and laugh more each time. Henry Winkler is freaking hysterical and George Forman is such a nice guy and very deep. He makes an observation about Shatner that was spot on…in a very kind way.

@OldCatLady there’s Klingons on the starboard bow, starboard bow, starboard bow! There’s Klingons on the starboard bow starboard bow, Jim!

@jbartus It’s worse than that- he’s dead, Jim! Dead, Jim! Dead, Jim! It’s worse than that- he’s dead, Jim! Dead, Jim, dead!

@OldCatLady That’s the best quality of that video I’ve seen yet.

@DrunkCat Now make it stop playing in my head. Please.