TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

This forum is for discussing Chuck's videos as they are publicly released. And for bashing Neelix, but that's just repeating what I already said.
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3892
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by McAvoy »

Offhand the only ones that did an OK job mixing Sci-fi with religion is Stargate. And no I don't mean the Gould or the Asgardians. I mean the Ancients and Ori.

I mean the idea of the ancienr gods and goddesses were actually aliens posing as gods either through their own name or taking up the mantle of an established god, isn't bad.

But actually having ancient beings, like the first generation of humans ascend to near God-like status and then have them split apart due to certainly fundamental differences in philosophy once they did this is quite good. I know not many actually enjoy the Ori arc but I did.
I got nothing to say here.
User avatar
Durandal_1707
Captain
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:24 am

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by Durandal_1707 »

clearspira wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2024 4:40 pm Religion and Star Trek does not mix. I cannot think of a single example where it has been done well. Even the Prophets do have glaring issues, mostly surrounding the Pah Wraiths.
I think the Prophets were done extremely well right up until the paghwraiths arc started. So, for five and a half seasons—not a bad run.
McAvoy wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:26 am Offhand the only ones that did an OK job mixing Sci-fi with religion is Stargate. And no I don't mean the Gould or the Asgardians. I mean the Ancients and Ori.

I mean the idea of the ancienr gods and goddesses were actually aliens posing as gods either through their own name or taking up the mantle of an established god, isn't bad.

But actually having ancient beings, like the first generation of humans ascend to near God-like status and then have them split apart due to certainly fundamental differences in philosophy once they did this is quite good. I know not many actually enjoy the Ori arc but I did.
I loved the fact that they were finally having the guts to take potshots at a major religion for once instead of just beating up on gods worshipped by ancient brown people. Felt a lot more like "punching up" than what they did with the Goa'uld.
User avatar
clearspira
Overlord
Posts: 5666
Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:51 pm

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by clearspira »

Ironically Stargate Universe was really going in for the kill on Christianity in that there was a Christian fundamentalist who led his people to their deaths by believing that he had found the Garden of Eden in planet form, got resurrected by ''God'', and then led his people to their deaths again. All the while preaching about how God is love.

That is my only regret about SGU not getting a season 3. Destiny literally chasing down a message from ''God'' is an interesting idea if done well but it probably would have ended up coming off like The Final Frontier. It never would have been the actual Christian God lbh.

In fairness to the idea that they were just beating up on gods worshipped by ancient brown people the writers were hamstrung by the movie. A follow on series had to continue with Ra's people, had to continue with Abydos because Daniel was there, had to continue with the pyramids being landing sites for aliens, had to continue with the Egyptian theming etc. They had already changed a lot to begin with such as changing Ra from a Grey to a snake and changing the location of Abydos so they were kind of on thin ice.
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3892
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by McAvoy »

Yeah Stargate was initially hamstrung by the movie to do Egyptian mythology. They did go past that though TBH, it did kind of get a bit ridiculous with what gods were aliens.
I got nothing to say here.
User avatar
Durandal_1707
Captain
Posts: 788
Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:24 am

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by Durandal_1707 »

Having the gods that were worshiped by ancient blond haired and blue eyed people turn out to be super noble and benevolent and way more advanced than everybody else, though, was pretty unforced.
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3892
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by McAvoy »

Durandal_1707 wrote: Tue Oct 29, 2024 12:27 am Having the gods that were worshiped by ancient blond haired and blue eyed people turn out to be super noble and benevolent and way more advanced than everybody else, though, was pretty unforced.
And they were the Grays. That part I like.

Its just my knock on the series and not even a serious one where why can't religions just be something just man made and not based on alien contact. Yes I am aware that out of the thousands of gods mentioned in Earth history that they were not mentioned as aliens in the series.
I got nothing to say here.
Scififan
Officer
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:42 pm

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by Scififan »

clearspira wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2024 10:50 pm
pilight wrote: Sat Oct 19, 2024 7:42 pm I always just assumed Cheron orbits fast and thus has very short years.
In the same way that fans like to think Janice Lester is a nutter instead of ''actually'' being banned from commanding a starship, Charon's years being radically shorter is the best explanation but not the intended one.

I have never known Star Trek to acknowledge time as being anything else other than what is on Earth. I think it is exactly what is implied which is just ridiculous really. As much as we may roll our eyes at the likes of Farscape or OG Battlestar Galactica when they make up new words for the passage of time, it is very much for a reason. These words can mean whatever the writer wants them to mean because they are never actually defined. And amusingly enough, Star Trek was savvy enough to work this out when they replaced bytes for quads.
Janice Lester just couldn't get over the fact that it was her own mental instability that caused her to not be chosen as Captain. We can see when she takes over Kirk's body that she was too unstable to be Captain or even be in any kind of leadership position.
Scififan
Officer
Posts: 150
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2018 4:42 pm

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by Scififan »

McAvoy wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:26 am Offhand the only ones that did an OK job mixing Sci-fi with religion is Stargate. And no I don't mean the Gould or the Asgardians. I mean the Ancients and Ori.

I mean the idea of the ancienr gods and goddesses were actually aliens posing as gods either through their own name or taking up the mantle of an established god, isn't bad.

But actually having ancient beings, like the first generation of humans ascend to near God-like status and then have them split apart due to certainly fundamental differences in philosophy once they did this is quite good. I know not many actually enjoy the Ori arc but I did.
The difference between the Ori and the Goa'uld is that latter were aliens pretending to be gods whereas the Ori were essentially gods or at least ascended beings.
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3892
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by McAvoy »

Scififan wrote: Thu Nov 14, 2024 4:18 pm
McAvoy wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2024 1:26 am Offhand the only ones that did an OK job mixing Sci-fi with religion is Stargate. And no I don't mean the Gould or the Asgardians. I mean the Ancients and Ori.

I mean the idea of the ancienr gods and goddesses were actually aliens posing as gods either through their own name or taking up the mantle of an established god, isn't bad.

But actually having ancient beings, like the first generation of humans ascend to near God-like status and then have them split apart due to certainly fundamental differences in philosophy once they did this is quite good. I know not many actually enjoy the Ori arc but I did.
The difference between the Ori and the Goa'uld is that latter were aliens pretending to be gods whereas the Ori were essentially gods or at least ascended beings.
Yes I think those of who watched the series caught that distinction.
I got nothing to say here.
User avatar
CharlesPhipps
Captain
Posts: 4937
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:06 pm

Re: TOS: Let this be your last battlefield

Post by CharlesPhipps »

I also believe they utterly ignored the distinction and only the fans pointed it out. They treated the Ori as completely unlike gods just like the Gould.
Post Reply