Quote from: Spike;1126327So you haven't heard the rather pithy comment that gets leveled constantly at almost everything produced by hollywood these days: "Get Woke, Go Broke".  Its not exactly satire, I know, but Disney especially has practically created a cottage industry of youtube film critics utterly savaging their films and shows.

Its called "outrage marketing" and is all the rage as marketing pushes it as "free advertising". Added bonus is that the SJWs will defend it. Which is more free advertising and more outrage advertising. Win-win they tell the execs and pocket their consulting fee. Others in marketing are just ruthlessly pushing SJW stuff for a buck. And then add in any execs or "creatives" with an agenda on top of all that and its a train wreck succicient to make Gomez Adams proud.

Quote from: Spike;1126327So you haven't heard the rather pithy comment that gets leveled constantly at almost everything produced by hollywood these days: "Get Woke, Go Broke".  Its not exactly satire, I know, but Disney especially has practically created a cottage industry of youtube film critics utterly savaging their films and shows.

I have heard the phrase a lot, but I see no evidence that Disney is, in fact, going broke. I actually see a lot of evidence to the contrary, from financial news and assessments. Sure, they're taking a covid-19 hit right now, but they have done great over the past 10 years, and analysts say they have plenty of cash to weather the storm.

Hollywood won't be fixed by Hollywood. It will keep cranking out woke crap, reboot crap, woke reboot crap, sequel crap and eventually the woke sequel reboot crap as the summer blockbuster. And all this garbage makes (enough) money to justify making more of it each year.

It will require success from the outside to shake up Hollywood. Some non-USA company has to create a fresh new IP that kicks ass and chews bubblegum, pleasing fans and racking up stacks of cash. When that happens, Hollywood may reconsider its trajectory.

Quote from: jhkim;1126368I have heard the phrase a lot, but I see no evidence that Disney is, in fact, going broke. I actually see a lot of evidence to the contrary, from financial news and assessments. Sure, they're taking a covid-19 hit right now, but they have done great over the past 10 years, and analysts say they have plenty of cash to weather the storm.

The rumors I've heard (and they are rumors, not evidence) is that the merchandising for the SW sequels has been disappointing, and the merchandising for Discovery and now Picard has been almost non-existant.

[video=youtube;YdPekRYOsJ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdPekRYOsJ4[/youtube]

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1125391Haven't watched the show (I don't stream ) but the 'toughest ship Starfleet has ever built' has the old-time Trekkie/Niner in me curious: were they Defiant-class or a recognizable descendant of that type?

It would have been nice, I guess, but not essential.

Defiant was "pound for pound" the toughest ship in Trek at the time, but it was a scrappy underdog more than a fleet killer. A wolverine, rather than a Bengal tiger.

Something the size of a Galaxy class ship, but a purpose-built warship without the elementary school, nightclub, suites of holodecks, luxury accommodations, and all the other nonsense, and with technological improvements, should outclass Defiant pretty handily.

The idea of a "Federation dreadnought" has been around in fan fiction and lesser canon for a long, long time.

The enterprise wasnt a warship though. Heavily armed. Yes. Pure warship. No.
Hence the luxuries.
Its the presence of families and children on the TNG enterprise that makes one go "wha?". Star Trek space is abserdly dangerous. And exploration just magnifies that problem by going out and looking for these things.

Voyager better fits the warship build as it seemed to lack the more posh accomodations. The "wha?" there comes from Janeways obsession with trying to play exploration vessel at every opportunity. Several of which the ship was barely able to handle because its not a straight up exploration ship or hybrid like the Enterprise.

Quote from: Lurkndog;1126398Something the size of a Galaxy class ship, but a purpose-built warship without the elementary school, nightclub, suites of holodecks, luxury accommodations, and all the other nonsense, and with technological improvements, should outclass Defiant pretty handily.

No argument. I was asking out of curiosity and a sense that for the management on Picard (as opposed to the fans), DS9 is sort of the forgotten sibling of TNG-era Trek.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1126493No argument. I was asking out of curiosity and a sense that for the management on Picard (as opposed to the fans), DS9 is sort of the forgotten sibling of TNG-era Trek.

Which sucks because it's by far the best. The management sees Star Trek as something they have complete contempt for. It feels like a property the people there have no love for, and where foisted.

Here's a discussion about SW merchandising slowing down from Disney's 2018 report
https://www.jeditemplearchives.com/2019-01-14-disneys-2018-annual-report-sees-star-wars-in-decline/

Motley Fool did an article on Star Wars merchandising. TL;DR it's a giant pile of cash
https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/12/31/how-big-is-star-wars-for-disney.aspx

Here's Payments.com's thoughts. Again, giant pile of cash
https://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2019/star-wars-disney-movie-merchandise-revenue/

Quote from: Armchair Gamer;1126493No argument. I was asking out of curiosity and a sense that for the management on Picard (as opposed to the fans), DS9 is sort of the forgotten sibling of TNG-era Trek.

I consider Babylon 5, warts and all, to be the franchise of choice from that period, and it's not even close.

That said, I have a lot of love for TOS, and for the basic "Forbidden Planet meets Voyage of the Space Beagle" concept of Trek. But most of the recent Trek has not been to my tastes. I liked the first JJ Abrams movie, and if you count them, GalaxyQuest and The Orville.

Though frankly, I appreciate The Orville more than I actually love it.

Quote from: Lurkndog;1126603I consider Babylon 5, warts and all, to be the franchise of choice from that period, and it's not even close.

I tried babylon 5 because it heard that it came around DS9 and was a point of comparison. And I was ready for a fantastic experience. I assumed DS9 was the 'Safer' version of B5.

It was like opposite-vill. Babylon 5 was sacharine, and stupid and in hindsight reeks of liberal BS mentality that led to the rise of SJW-ism.

At first I assumed the war between the humans and the not-vulcans ended like 100 years ago or so.....Maybe even 30....But 10??  10 years for everybody to be hunky dory after a war of planned genocide?? And the people calling for more military action and distance from the aliens where the BADGUYS?

I remember the scene that made me want to wretch when it was 'Show us your culture' day and the captain guy just had a bunch of different religeous folk all lined up just waiting patiently to tell the not-vulcan. Instead of feeling inclusive it felt like the multi-cultural tokenism we have today. Sure the captain guy talks about how all the values are equal, but in practice his morality is really the one in charge.

This is something that DS9 avoided and questioned itself on a fundemental level. 'Are we really friends to all or do we really absorb things into us and wash out all the kinks we don't like?'. It was afraid to act on the fact that the answer was 'Yes' but it had the balls to ask that question.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee;1126659At first I assumed the war between the humans and the not-vulcans ended like 100 years ago or so.....Maybe even 30....But 10??  10 years for everybody to be hunky dory after a war of planned genocide?? And the people calling for more military action and distance from the aliens where the BADGUYS?

Not many were ok with it. The Minbari warrior caste were especially pissed off and that was a major plot point throughout the series.

QuoteI remember the scene that made me want to wretch when it was 'Show us your culture' day and the captain guy just had a bunch of different religeous folk all lined up just waiting patiently to tell the not-vulcan. Instead of feeling inclusive it felt like the multi-cultural tokenism we have today. Sure the captain guy talks about how all the values are equal, but in practice his morality is really the one in charge.

I like Babylon 5, but I remember that episode and I didn't much like that par. I thought to myself the lack of diversity among the alien cultures was more a failing of the writers imagination than any kind of real world analogy. Why would't the aliens have 1000 different cultures and religions?

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1126662Not many were ok with it. The Minbari warrior caste were especially pissed off and that was a major plot point throughout the series.

I meant the humans. And more specifically the human writers that wrote that the correct opinion (as in opinion of the captain guy) after nearly loosing a war of extermination and suffering millions of casualties the default assumption should be blind nievete. That anybody who disagreed was a paranoid angry guy.

I just found the solutions to so many of the problems being the writers taking the easy way out. The episode that got me to quit was indeed just a early one, but it was where captain guy just says 'Il give funds meant for military to the union guys'. Like just 10 years ago you all nearly died because you encountered a powerful and extremly stupid alien species. All that could be avoided if their teeth could be kicked in before they went on the stupid warpath. Maybe then they would bother to do a genetic exaomination of their enemy more then just before they planned to kill them all.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee;1126664I meant the humans. And more specifically the human writers that wrote that the correct opinion (as in opinion of the captain guy) after nearly loosing a war of extermination and suffering millions of casualties the default assumption should be blind nievete. That anybody who disagreed was a paranoid angry guy.

What I found hard to believe was after watching "In the Beginning", that humanity had put itself back together so quickly. The Minbari had humanity backed up all the way to earth, and were one volley away from glassing the planet when they stopped.

QuoteI just found the solutions to so many of the problems being the writers taking the easy way out. The episode that got me to quit was indeed just a early one, but it was where captain guy just says 'Il give funds meant for military to the union guys'. Like just 10 years ago you all nearly died because you encountered a powerful and extremly stupid alien species. All that could be avoided if their teeth could be kicked in before they went on the stupid warpath. Maybe then they would bother to do a genetic exaomination of their enemy more then just before they planned to kill them all.

Good luck with that idea. The Minbari were a thousand years more advanced than earth. The war wasn't even a desperate cause. It was a complete curbstomp. Only one Minbari cruiser was even lost during the war. One.

I will say that your criticism of Sinclair are addressed in season 2+, if you care to give the show another go. The first season was pretty rough, and the show gets much better. IMO anyway.

I watched Babylon 5 for a while but it was very inconsistent and by later seasons increasingly too bleak for my liking.