Is Chuck scaling down the tone of his video content for the best or worst?

[Formless One]

I think that it should be remembered who the oldest reviews were written for: members of the now defunct Alt.starwarsVSstartrek for his oldest written work, then Stardestroyer.net and Spacebattles.com when he first started translating the reviews into video format. Back then all of these boards took on such a tone (Spacebattles a bit less so, but SDN until the last year had "mockery of stupid people" in its motto). It made sense for him to just continue on the tradition of mocking the stupidity of Voyager because that was what his original audience expected.

But when he got small-time famous on Youtube, his audience changed, and he also started changing the content. He went from just reviewing Voyager to reviewing Voyager and Enterprise; then adding TNG and DS9 initially so that he could put the Q and Borg episodes of Voyager into context, but then people liked those reviews so much they kept asking for more of TNG and DS9. And those shows predated the decay of the Star Trek franchise, so there was naturally less to mock except in TNG's first two seasons. They demanded a different approach in his writing. Then he did the movies, TOS, TAS, and invited reviews of other science fiction until eventually, SF-Debris was a very different show than when Chuck started it. People liked the positive reviews as much as the negative ones, Madoka Magica proved he could provide a unique and interesting perspective on anime, he started doing video game reviews, and all of these things were interesting because he shifted a bit away from merely saying "what" is wrong with a work to "why" the work was good or bad.

A lot of other reviewers don't go to the same lengths to explain the "why". Hell, for many reviewers there is no uncertainty that the thing they are about to review is bad. You go into a review by Linkara knowing that the comic is going to suck because he specifically seeks out comics that he knows will suck. Or at least, he knows to have content he can riff on. I remember watching his reviews of the X-Men/Star Trek crossovers (yes really, that was a thing) and I remember a comment he made in the second crossover review. Someone asked him if he would ever review the Dr. Who/Star Trek crossover, and he said... no. Because in his opinion, it was actually good. Now I'm not saying that Linkara is a bad reviewer, I'm just saying that going after only the bad things in the genre is limiting for him, while Chuck has a backlog because he reviews the good, the bad, the ugly and the average. And because most episodes of Trek are average then of course, there won't be as much to viciously mock in an episode. He already got all of the episodes that rate a 0 in his rating system out of the way, after all. Remember, there can only be one episode with a score that low per-series; they have to actually damage the franchise's reputation to get that distinction. And I suspect most of the episodes that score a 1 are also out of the way.

Ultimately, I think the premise of the OP is flawed. Just look at the most recent Christmas review. He absolutely savaged Into Darkness, even toying with his own movie review format by dismissing any relevance its backstory might have had: "So, here is my patented behind the scenes look at the making of Into Darkness: a bunch of assholes dropped their pants and crapped all over a film reel. Now, on with the review of the film". He still explained why the movie was so shite, of course, but he savaged it all the same. So I don't think this is a case of Chuck changing the tone of his videos merely because he feels vicious mockery is no longer appropriate. Its a change of tone because its not appropriate for all reviews, and it never was. But time has softened his view of Voyager to the point he doesn't feel the need to crap on it as a whole show, and his change of audience has caused him to review more and more things that... well, are actually good. And yeah, that has always caused some people upset, because "Opinionated" is part and parcel of his review style. Its in the name of the show. Sometimes he is going to say something you disagree with or gloss over something you thought was important. This has always been true. He has never shied away from the fact that these are his opinions. That's inescapable.

[Sir Will]

^ *clap, clap, clap*

[Makeshift Python]

Recently I got into a debate over this, and no, it wasn't over whether he's updating less - it's how he was a lot more, um... please forgive me for this, if you're reading, Chuck, but... VERY toxic in his early videos, and is less so these days.

To be fair his early episodes mainly consisted of VOY and ENT reviews specifically from the early episodes, which is enough to drive anyone insane.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I think that it should be remembered who the oldest reviews were written for: members of the now defunct Alt.starwarsVSstartrek for his oldest written work, then Stardestroyer.net and Spacebattles.com when he first started translating the reviews into video format. Back then all of these boards took on such a tone (Spacebattles a bit less so, but SDN until the last year had "mockery of stupid people" in its motto). It made sense for him to just continue on the tradition of mocking the stupidity of Voyager because that was what his original audience expected.

When were these earlier written reviews and initial videos? I became aware of SF Debris when I was an avid Confused Matthew fan in 2008-9.

[Steve]

I think that it should be remembered who the oldest reviews were written for: members of the now defunct Alt.starwarsVSstartrek for his oldest written work, then Stardestroyer.net and Spacebattles.com when he first started translating the reviews into video format. Back then all of these boards took on such a tone (Spacebattles a bit less so, but SDN until the last year had "mockery of stupid people" in its motto). It made sense for him to just continue on the tradition of mocking the stupidity of Voyager because that was what his original audience expected.

When were these earlier written reviews and initial videos? I became aware of SF Debris when I was an avid Confused Matthew fan in 2008-9.

The written reviews and his earliest YouTube videos. SDN even used to see threads for each review go up (I recall the Tuvix one was particularly active).

[Yukaphile]

I think his written reviews were from the era of 1998 through to the early 2000s, because I recall seeing a comment about "Sonnenburg" and how an author was gathering more hate than he was in a StarDestroyer.net fanfic from that time - "The Best of Both Worlds," a pro-Star Trek Star Trek/Star Wars crossover that presented the Star Trek universe as superior.

[Formless One]

I think that it should be remembered who the oldest reviews were written for: members of the now defunct Alt.starwarsVSstartrek for his oldest written work, then Stardestroyer.net and Spacebattles.com when he first started translating the reviews into video format. Back then all of these boards took on such a tone (Spacebattles a bit less so, but SDN until the last year had "mockery of stupid people" in its motto). It made sense for him to just continue on the tradition of mocking the stupidity of Voyager because that was what his original audience expected.

When were these earlier written reviews and initial videos? I became aware of SF Debris when I was an avid Confused Matthew fan in 2008-9.

The earliest written reviews date back to when Voyager was still on the air. Yes, really. He's been doing reviews for that long.

FYI, Alt.startrek.vs.starwars (I got the name wrong the first time) wasn't a website or forum, it was a usenet group meant to get all of the VS arguments out of the usenet groups for Star Trek and Star Wars, respectively. Usenet itself is now defunct and obsolete, and has been for a long time. Google Groups has a lot of it archived, but there are other archives that are more complete in other areas. But anyway, as I understand it, his early written stuff went on the Star Trek usenet group. I don't know when he moved them onto his own website.

As for the earliest video reviews, 2008 sounds about right. Maybe a year or so earlier than that. Steve would remember better than I, because I didn't join SDN until 2008, whereas he is one of its earliest members. But yeah, as soon as Chuck was on Youtube he opened the door to new audience members from outside of those communities. Especially Confused Matthew fans, for whatever reason (I don't know much about Confused Matthew). Keep in mind that when he had to migrate from youtube to... wherever he went next (doesn't matter, its gone now) he already started revising and re-recording videos because of audio issues and writing gaffs. For instance, in his first review of The 37's he famously stated that Torres "couldn't identify shit without a tricorder," but due to feedback that got revised to "even with a tricorder!" Similarly, in his current review of Prototype he says that it was the first review he ever did in video, and he never wants to watch the episode again because he's redone the review about 4 times now.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Thanks guys.

Yep. Usenet was what I figured ^you were getting at. Never dabbed in those kind of boards myself.

And yeah I was confusing vitriolic for something else when I first replied in this thread. I can understand the fun or maybe catharsis in manic expression videos.

[Beastro]

When you go away from a site for a few months...

quote=clearspira post_id=36215 time=1549136752 user_id=1779]
This obsession of yours is not healthy Yuka. I genuinely think that nothing short of Chuck yelling 'HOW DARE THEY DO THIS AWFUL, HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING THING?'' would be enough for you.
We can see the sexism in this fifty year old work, we know its there. That is enough for most people.
[/quote]

Yukie uses this site as one of mostly many online outlets to vent while avoiding his personal demons.

That's not armchair psychology-ing either. It can't help but not be given what he's posted about in the past.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

When you go away from a site for a few months...

This obsession of yours is not healthy Yuka. I genuinely think that nothing short of Chuck yelling 'HOW DARE THEY DO THIS AWFUL, HORRIBLE, DISGUSTING THING?'' would be enough for you.
We can see the sexism in this fifty year old work, we know its there. That is enough for most people.

Yukie uses this site as one of mostly many online outlets to vent while avoiding his personal demons.

Oh he's quite open about his demons, and quite literally.