It's time once again for what I assume is the least-favourite topic I deal with in this blog - my enduring love for science fiction. I know many of you tune in for energy issues, sustainability, left-wing politics and what not. But it's my blog, and if I want to write about the latest DVD box set I own, then that's my right as a Canadian. Until it's outlawed by the Conservatives.
The latest DVD box set I bought turns out to be the Borg Star Trek collection of DVDs. Paramount has hit on a good business model: Even most Trek fans will admit that, all things considered, it's not worth buying the full series on DVD. For 7 seasons in each of TNG, DS9, and Voyager, there's probably less than two dozen episodes in each series worth actually owning. Depending on who you ask, DS9's count could be much, much lower. So release the few good episodes on smaller DVD packages! In this case, the Borg collection has a bunch of excellent episodes.
However, there's a problem with Star Trek that is quite beyond Paramount's control. Something has finally managed to do for me what the worst episodes of DS9, the most ridiculous dialogue from Voyager, and all the Wesley Crusher episodes of TNG never managed to do: Make the men and women of the Federation look like the nancy boys and girls they are.
That something is of course Battlestar Galactica.
Let's compare Executive Officers, shall we? In TNG, we had Riker. In BSG, it's Colonel Tigh.
Riker is crippled by self-doubt, unable to accept a command of his own. His insecurity pervades every area of his life, from his relationship with his father (they literally joust in one episode) to his on-again, off-again relationship with Deanna Troi. After seven seasons of TV and 4 movies (only one good one) Riker finally earns his own command, despite being essentially the same dope he was when we first saw him at Farpoint.
Tigh is crippled less by self-doubt (though that emerges) and more by his alcoholism and violent temper. It is no exaggeration to say that Tigh would not only kick Riker's ass, he'd do it without putting down the bottle. More than that, however, Tigh is simply a better-developed character. In only 33 episodes, Tigh has grown and changed as a character in ways that none of the TNG characters ever did.
Perhaps it's unfair to compare the Enterprise and the Galactica. After all, we never really saw what the Enterprise would look like in a wartime scenario - outside of glimpses in Yesterday's Enterprise. It's only natural that the exigencies of war would produce leaner, meaner soldiers. But DS9 was largely built around the war with the Dominion, and that crew and Commander still sucked hard enough that they had to bring in Worf and the Klingons to make it a bit more interesting.
(It's no accident that DS9 took a darker turn with the Dominion war, and came closest to BSG's tone. Moore was a major writer for DS9.)
I'm not alone in my belief that BSG makes the Federation all look a bit silly - a number of the people I know who watch BSG have said the same thing to me. I realize this all has a bit of a "could Superman beat Spiderman" sound to it, but I think it's actually an important indicator of the ways SF, and more broadly TV, has changed in the decade since TNG left the air. TV shows that appeal largely to the same audience are far more sophisticated, with better writing and production than in previous years.
There's certainly things to criticize about today's TV industry - namely, the increasingly short times that shows have to "make it". TNG was given an entire season to see if it was worth keeping on, while today a show might get as little as 6 episodes. Nevertheless, the upshot is that those of us whose shows do make it get some excellent viewing.
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5 comments:
It is necessary to compare Star Trek with Battlestar Galactica? Everyone is making that comparison, and it's like comparing a laptop from 2005 to a laptop from 1987.
Battlestar Galactica is superior in many ways, but you have to give credit where credit is due. ST:TNG really laid the groundwork in gathering a sci-fi fanbase, and showed that TV sci-fi is actually a feasible and profitable enterprise. So stop the Trek-bashing!
I disagree. Quality storytelling isn't exactly new - last I checked, "character" and "narrative" weren't discovered between 1996 and 2004.
Trek was never good storytelling, it was just the best SF they'd put on TV. Due in no small part to the fact that it was the only SF they'd put on TV.
(Aside from Babylon 5. Represent!)
Oh man... we better take this outside:
Who pissed in your Corn Flakes?
What's with all the DS9 hate? The latter half of the series was, on average, the best Trek has had to offer.
Send all your hate to Voyager and seasons 2 and 3 of Enterprise instead!
I watched the entire run of the new BSG to date in the span of a week, two weeks ago. I'm a fan. It's some damn compelling work. But I must say, your post comes off a bit as "BSG is better because Tigh is more badass than Riker".
As much as you are right that the art of storytelling was not suddenly invented in the past ten years, there have been several large changes to the landscape of television production since 1987.
Heavily serialized, drawn-out stories (for anything other than a soap) was completely impossible in 1987, especially for a syndicated show, and syndication was the only way to make such an unabashedly sci-fi show. (The post-Star Wars sci-fi mania had long since died out.)
Furthermore, Star Trek was never conceived as being a tightly-focused character drama (which is the area that BSG excels in). The original focus was on exploration, using the guise of other worlds as a idea sandbox and a way to examine current issues without triggering reflex responses. TNG followed after TOS in this regard. And, as little one-off explorations of some high-concept ideas, many episodes do stand the test of time. It wasn't until later in the franchise that the focus started to shift more and more onto the characters. (And then, you are quite right, the only time Star Trek was ever any good at that was (surprise!) when Moore was on DS9.)
If you really must make a Star Trek comparison, it should be against Voyager -- a lonely ship, far from home, in dangerous, unknown territory, with a hodge-podge crew and low resources. Voyager also tended to focus more on the soap opera of its characters.
Voyager was also atrocious at all that, and resorted to every cliche in the Star Trek playbook with alarming frequency. Moore came on board after DS9 finished and lasted only a few weeks. It's probably fair to say that what he's done with BSG is at least in part in reaction to that experience.
Oh yeah, what about science officers? Spock could beat that weenie Baltar any day of the week. Come to think of it, Kirk could take all of those BSG wusses. There would be that weird gladiator music playing, with lots of close ups of Kirk with extra eyshadow on, looking crazy...
Back then, men were men! Who took off their shirts practically every episode to show off their manly barrel-chests! None of this touchy-feely "character development" nonsense.
Kirk and Worf could totally tag-team all those wannabes.
It is therefore my conclusion, by John's silly who's-tougher comparison, that Star Trek must be superior.
And let me get this straight... Riker, who is crippled by self-doubt, is therefore inferior to the character on BSG who is more crippled by self doubt than anyone else on that show? Did you not see the episodes where he had to take over for the commander? The ones where he just stands around gaping like a stranded fish? Y'know, cause he's completely paralyzed by self-doubt?
Anyway, the comparison is silly - it's just the Star Wars vs Star Trek thing all over again, with more or less the same arguments. I do appreciate fictional universes that acknowledge the presence of dirt - but the whole point of Rodenberry's universe was that it was utopic and strove for non-violence, etc, etc. Compare the often cheesy, crippled by syndication writing of ST to the tighter, more continuous (but still cheesy) writing of BSG, and you've got more of an argument.
Bleh, dork rant over...
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