From: AT.MLM@forsythe.stanford.edu (Mark Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Another View on Space Rangers
Date: 7 Jan 1993 13:46:35 -0800
Organization: Stanford University
NNTP-Posting-Host: morrow.stanford.edu

A few people have written in, commenting about how CBS' new series
Space Rangers "sucks", "is crap", etc.  Well, I'd like to offer a
somewhat different view.  First, as others have commented, the FX
are at best mediocre (the morphing was ok, though it tended to
remind me of the floating Klingon blood in Star Trek VI--without
the fuschia coloring), and at worst awful (just one example being
the flying and chase scenes in space...terrible!).  Also, the male
lead is a real stiff, at least as of the first episode.  Clearly
they're going for a kind of more grizzled Han Solo kind of character
but this lame-o doesn't appear to have the acting skill to pull it
off.  And the comic relief engineer with the phony-looking arm was
swill.  Having the computer/android completely become unglued when
faced with an unfamiliar situation and/or a too-smart humanoid was a
groaner.  (Very Trek-like, unfortunately--very *TOS*-like
especially--reminded me all too well of "The Ultimate Computer" and
"The Changeling", for instance.)

Perhaps the biggest problem is simply the concept...cops and
robbers/the wild west taken to the stars?  Not an original idea,
but one that CAN work if executed well.  This one didn't work as
well as it needed.  (Even if it does work, the "sci fi" seems to me
to be completely secondary to the cops and robbers/wild west
part--it's just a different set of clothes, which might gall some
people who prefer their sci fi to be "fresh".)

On the other hand, they took a wise approach by casting it in "the
near future", and making it a future where things are grimy, and not
altogether functional--very much of an Alien(s) approach.  This
tends to give it a feeling of being different, yet somewhat
familiar, to the viewing audience.  (Note for example that they
didn't use phasers or some such "beam" but sophisticated automatic
weaponry.  Those are all TOO familiar these days.)

Plus several of the characters have potential--most notably, the
female pilot and the blind martial arts expert.  Both have strong
characters, yet have flaws to make them interesting.  (On the other
hand, as I've see all too often here on r.a.s.c, people oftentimes
have problems with flawed characters--they either want their
characters pure and unsullied, or think if there's a flaw it's a
glitch in the writing.  The squabbling I've seen about Riker and
Worf are examples; in fact, a classic example was when Tim Lynch
and Atsushi Kanamori were having one of their classic knock-down,
drag-outs over Riker's attempt to keep Worf from committing suicide
in "Ethics".  What didn't come out at all in their discussion and
what the writers were clearly doing was showing us the passions, the
strengths, and the *flaws* of the men.  They were both being *true*
to themselves over a crucial, emotional issue.  They weren't being
paragons of nobility, either one of them.  But they *were* being
true to themselves.)  I especially liked the pilot--it's rare to see
truly strong, powerful, independent women in either movies or on tv,
and she's *nobody's* cupcake.  (On the other hand, I was really
annoyed that they cut the legs from under their efforts by ending
the episode by having her, out of everyone else in the crew, become
trapped in a net and have to plead for a big strong man to save her
butt.  They write a strong woman character, then in the first
episode they fall back on one of the oldest bits in the history of
cinema and tv.)  Also, any show with Linda Hunt in it at *least* has
her going for it.  She's a wonderful actress (though I did think she
was rather tentative in the first episode, as if she were still
feeling her way along in trying to discover her character).

It seems to promise a fair amount of action, for those who need
that, though it was paced fairly slowly I thought in the premier.
And the villain, who appears to be set up to be a continuing bad
guy, was fairly interesting.

Other random reactions:  (1) A *lot* of violence, which makes its
time slot rather odd (I don't think this one would be good for most
kids to see, if they keep up the violence level).  (2)  It's nice to
see Clint Howard get a job in something other than a movie directed
by his brother.  (3)  One of the producers was listed as Herbert
Wright--didn't he produce TNG in its first (or was it the second?)
year?  (4)  It was created and exec produced by Pen Desham, who
(among other things) created the godawful Robin Hood movie with
Kevin Costner.  I *don't* take that as a good sign.

So all in all, the first night didn't remind me of my favorite TNG
or TOS episodes (e.g., "Yesterday's Enterprise", "The Doomsday
Machine") but I do think there is some *potential* there that, with
some nurturing, could turn into a reasonable show.  And at any rate,
it wasn't very different in quality, overall, from "Encounter at
Farpoint".  (I know, that's damning with faint praise.  ;-)  )
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current