From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: Star Trek's Classics - Top 10 List
Date: 12 Apr 92 22:10:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <1992Apr12.192107.5923@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, kanamori@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Atsushi Kanamori) writes...
>In article <1992Apr11.083743.15909@acsu.buffalo.edu> v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:

>>     1. _Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan_
>>        The classic literary themes of obsession (_Moby Dick_), maturation
>>        and tragedy (_Great Expectations_) are weaved through allegory
>>        seamlessly into this brilliantly moving and dramatic and 
>>        first transforms the TOS characters, Kirk especially, into
>>        real people - without losing their archetypal heroes and
>>        villains signatures.  Absolutely the best.  Nothing will
>>        top it.

>While I don't think it's "untoppable", I don't anything Trek-related
>has topped it for me yet. 

     That's basically what I meant.  Unfortunately, I don't see any
     TNG film at this point topping TWOK, and therefore, nothing
     Trek ever topping this movie.  (Of course there are hundreds
     of better nonTrek movies...)

>>     2. "City on the Edge of Forever."
>>        Harlan had nothing to bitch about.  The rewrites gave this
>>        installment a surprising emotional weight and tragic 
>>        demeanour.  Despite Shatner's horrible acting, par for the
>>        course, his scenes with Joan Collins emote feeling and
>>        you can't stop feeling Kirk's helplessness at the climax.
>>        Best TOS episode ever.

>I thought Shatner's acting was fine here. This episode is still one
>of the most hard hitting Trek episodes I've seen.

     Fine? God. "His head was...(inhale)...caughtinanautomatic...rice picker."
     With the head cocking...  Please.  I would laugh but it's too bad to
     even do that.  I will say that Shatner gave the performance of his
     career in TWOK - nicely layered, and for him, that's a compliment.

>>         _Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country_

>Urgh. Definitely not top 10 for me, not even top 20. Once the immediate
>impact passed, I found it a supremely forgettable movie. The perestoika
>allegory was a bad idea, IMO: it tried to score points with those who like
>"Relevant" films but as far as I'm concerned, it's unimaginative
>bandwagon jumping. Its treatment largely concerned itself with surface
>allegory and largely missed the boat in treating the underlying themes.

     I don't see it that way at all.  _Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home_
     was a supremely forgettable movie.  _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_
     is a supremely forgettable movie.  What V?  
     TUC, I think, was imaginative and very intricately weaved politics,
     classic literary epic situations and nostalgia.  
     I thought Chang was a fantastic warrior, cut from the same mold as
     Kirk but on different ends of the same spectrum.  Christopher
     Plummer was just incredible in the role.  No one else could get
     away with quoting so much Shakespeare and making it work!  
     I don't agree that the perestroika theme was jumping on the
     bandwagon, because Star Trek has used the USSR-US relations as
     a major allegory for 25 years.  
     TNG successfully predicted the end of the cold war.  
     I don't see why just because "everyone is doing it" Trek can't
     do it as well, and better than everyone else's "thaw" movies
     too.

     Brilliant way to end TOS.  

          Scott