Jump to content

Worst sci-fi spaceship?


Recommended Posts

I thought the Liberator was a good design, suprisingly good for BBC, pitty it was made from washing up bottles and yogurt pots.

Oh please, if you're going to comment on a model, at least base your comments on fact. The Liberator model - built in the main by Martin Bower - is an utterly stunning piece of work, that is not only incredible in terms of size and presence, but also the detail and finish that he applied to it. Having seen it close up and discussed its construction with Martin, I can assure you that it is far from being made from 'washing up bottles and yoghurt pots".

Jeez, where do people get these ideas..?

As for JJ Abrams, he's finally made the Star Trek franchise and the films spawned from it worth watching. Gone are the shiny ships and a instead with have a gritty reality that keeps you on the edge of your seat rather than snuggling down into it, contemplating a nice kip. And in Benedict Cumberbatch we have the ultimate actor playing what appears to be the cannon's ultimate villain - I can't wait to see 'Into Darkness' - something I never said about any of the previous films before Abrams took the reigns.... Star Wars in his hands will be epic rather that the dross that that particular series became...

Spence

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone seen "Plan Nine From Outer-Space"? The flying-saucers in that are supported by wires about a quarter-inch thick (and VERY visible)! Legend has it that if you watch it at the cinema, in one shot you can see the "puppeteers" hands dancing away across the top of the screen. They get my vote, any road.

PS: Who remembers the strangely-shaped ship used by Dr. Flexi Jerkoff in "Flesh Gordon"?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

But it is no longer Trek. Abrams has jettisoned everything which made it Trek. Spock and Uhura in a physical relationship? Spock summarily marooning a crew member on an inhospitable planet where he could be eaten by badly animated monsters?

Whatever it is now, it is not Trek.

Let see. Kirk, check. Spock, check. Enterprise, check. Starfleet, check... What elements made up the best of the TOS and the TOS movies: Kirk/Spock bromance, check. Humour, check. Action, check.

I'd like to know what makes Trek "Trek". What has thus far been absent from JJ Trek is the kind deus ex machina technobabble so beloved of Brannon Braga ("if we reverse the polarity of the EPS conduits it may emit a tachyon beam to split the nano particles that will leave the Klingon's quadra spazzed on a life glug..."), Dennis McCarthy's tedious music, Nazis, Nelix, Wesley Crusher, meeting God...

What did TOS/TNG movies Trek do which could be considered non-Trek: they gave Kirk a son, they killed off Spock (ish), they travelled back in time to save some whales, they killed off Kirk, they killed off the Enterprise (twice). Even original Trek played fast and loose with its own canon rules, much to the gnashing of Trekkies in their too-tight tunics. Heck, without warring Trekkies on fan forums, we may not even have had an internet!

What did JJ do? Came up with an ingenious way of rebooting the Trek franchise from the dead by introducing the conceit of an alternate time line - this in a show that has played hard fast with time travel and alternative universes. Has he replaced TOS? No, all he's done is use the existing "rules" (such as they are) in the Trekiverse to revive Trek for the next generation (sic).

As for a "hack" who's going to ruin Star Wars... well I think George Lucas did a pretty good job of that from about "Jedi" onwards!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As for a "hack" who's going to ruin Star Wars... well I think George Lucas did a pretty good job of that from about "Jedi" onwards!

Frankly, "hack' is too good a description for George Lucas - the guy couldn't write a shopping list, let alone a decent stream of dialogue. The best Star Wars film was Empire Strikes back - and that's because it was the only one not written by old Georgy...

JJ Abrams will ramp-up Star Wars and make it great again - I'm just sad he won't be doing it arm and arm with Christopher Nolan. Now that really would be something...

Spence :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the ST reboot, but then again I also liked SW 1-3. I spotted the Emperor in 1 straight off. Ok Jar Jar Binks is an acquired taste.

I'd forgotten about Space Balls. So bad even the minor satellite channels don't use it as schedule filler.

Trevor

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone seen "Plan Nine From Outer-Space"? The flying-saucers in that are supported by wires about a quarter-inch thick (and VERY visible)! Legend has it that if you watch it at the cinema, in one shot you can see the "puppeteers" hands dancing away across the top of the screen. They get my vote, any road.

PS: Who remembers the strangely-shaped ship used by Dr. Flexi Jerkoff in "Flesh Gordon"?

Plan 9 is one of my favorite fims of all time. Ive got it downloaded on all my devices plus a hard copy. The ships in that are still available via Atlantis Models (just leave the "jet engines" off ang paint everything (including the canopy) silver

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's Trek for a new generation. We had our Trek and loved it. Now it's time to give it the kids and let them enjoy the characters in their way

Sure, it's just that there's very little comparison to be made between the original '60s TV series and subsequent movies. The original has wonderful kitsch appeal, almost tongue in cheek - though I bet they were perfectly serious about it... There's a possibly apocryphal story about a manufacturer approaching the production team of ST to ask about a licence to market the amazing automated sliding doors onto the flight deck of Enterprise: he was disheartened to be told they just had a couple of guys out of shot, pulling and pushing the doors...

Re "Plan Nine From Outer Space" I have an idea this also had an alternative title but I can't recall... Certainly a great totem of cheesy SF movies. Actually I think I might have seen (decades ago) a Three Stooges film that was sort of SF, featuring fearsome (!) Amazon/vampire female aliens. The Three Stooges were just about as cheesy as movie comedy ever got, not excluding Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin, or Norman Wisdom...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let see. Kirk, check. Spock, check. Enterprise, check. Starfleet, check... What elements made up the best of the TOS and the TOS movies: Kirk/Spock bromance, check. Humour, check. Action, check.

Caricature of Kirk - check

Caricature of Spock - check

Very good characterisation of McCoy - check

Rab C Nesbitt - check

Caricature of everything else - check

Total rejection of all Trek canon - check.

Standard JJ Abrams writing. Use of spectacular set pieces with little logic or storyline linking them. Predictable dialogue. Humour which was rejected by the Goodies as being too puerile. Attempts to mask all previously mentioned flaws with yet another gratuitous and overblown action scene - check!

The sense of awe, wonder and - above all - hope which made Trek Trek is totally missing. It's all spectacle with no soul.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'd qualify worst as ones - pre CGI of course - where there's not been much though put into modifying or disguising kit parts without them being too obvious kit parts. Now there's Panther hulls on the Millennium Falcon which are there if you know what to look for, but then I give you, from "Saturn 3" (1980):

Screenshot2013-05-12at154001_zpsc48fa587

Holy Harrier!

Now that's cool! Stealing that! IIRC the Falcon had Harrier bits as well, from the 1/24th kit.

Drop Ship in Aliens had Phantom intakes and CH-53 rear end.

Edited by Dave Fleming
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Caricature of Kirk - check

If he was playing as Shatner complete... with... dramatic... pauses... thenspeedingupattheend, I could see your point. Nimoy didn't think Quinto was caricaturing Spock. Total rejection of Trek canon? How does "Enterprise" fit into this, or indeed all the other little modifications and oopsies that the Trek writers on TOS, TNG, DS9 and STV managed over the years? Or indeed then trying to write themselves out of a hole by explaining why the Klingon's in TOS didn't have knobbly heads and said "Ker-Plunk"? TOS I seem to remember still had the death penalty, ST:E didn't but it was supposed to be a prequel! Holy canon mess Batman!

You want caricaturing? I give you Star Trek V: The FInal Frontier - or Carry On Trekking as I like to think of it!

mr-spock_zps4d709ce3.jpg

Edited by Jonathan Mock
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Caricature of Kirk - check

Caricature of Spock - check

Very good characterisation of McCoy - check

Rab C Nesbitt - check

Caricature of everything else - check

Total rejection of all Trek canon - check.

Standard JJ Abrams writing. Use of spectacular set pieces with little logic or storyline linking them. Predictable dialogue. Humour which was rejected by the Goodies as being too puerile. Attempts to mask all previously mentioned flaws with yet another gratuitous and overblown action scene - check!

The sense of awe, wonder and - above all - hope which made Trek Trek is totally missing. It's all spectacle with no soul.

You do realise that Star Trek by it's very nature, is utter nonsense and that any reworking is simply making what is essentially throw-away fluff, into a more spectacular ball of said fluff..?

No..?

Just askin'...

Spence

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Anyone seen "Plan Nine From Outer-Space"? The flying-saucers in that are supported by wires about a quarter-inch thick (and VERY visible)! Legend has it that if you watch it at the cinema, in one shot you can see the "puppeteers" hands dancing away across the top of the screen. They get my vote, any road.

PS: Who remembers the strangely-shaped ship used by Dr. Flexi Jerkoff in "Flesh Gordon"?

Hey sounds great? just got it out,looking forward to disagreeing with you....

003-2_zps4dec79b4.jpg

good plot,sounds like being married though?.....cheers Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...