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If anyone here notices a trend and has a copy of the "Independence Day" movie go to the scene where the president visits Area51, when they are behind the glass door for the 'Clean Room' look at the wall behind the actors, you will see an emblem, take a look might be familiar.

ive seen that movie a few times on cable. Whats the emblem of? Spare me the suspense!
 
ive seen that movie a few times on cable. Whats the emblem of? Spare me the suspense!
From the way he's built it up, it's got to be either a swastika or the Hammer and Sickle :D

(Or maybe just the Starfleet logo.....)
 
I don't know enough about the new Trek movie to be offended by it.

To me the most offensive Sci Fi movie of all times was "Starship Troopers". A great book by Robert Heinlein, an absolutely awful movie that completely missed the most important ideas of the book, or went 180 degree's counter to them.
You do know what irony is, don't you? That's the film in a nutshell.

As for the new movie, I'll probably see it, but I'm not going to have very high expectations. Then again, it CAN'T be any worse than Star Trek V.

And chalk me up as another person who thinks DS9 was the best series of all the Trek shows, and may be the best SciFi series of all time -- at least starting halfway through Season 2 (sorry Babylon 5)
 
And chalk me up as another person who thinks DS9 was the best series of all the Trek shows, and may be the best SciFi series of all time -- at least starting halfway through Season 2 (sorry Babylon 5)

Really? That show had some moments, but it turned into such a soap opera at the end. I think the franchise peaked with "Next Generation."
 
Really? That show had some moments, but it turned into such a soap opera at the end. I think the franchise peaked with "Next Generation."
No way. Next Generation was too far up its own backside. All the fun was removed and replaced by blah blah blah about Directives and other moralistic daydreaming.
 
From the way he's built it up, it's got to be either a swastika or the Hammer and Sickle :D

(Or maybe just the Starfleet logo.....)

Close but no cigar. Its actually one of many symbolisms to represent the elite, you can find it on one of your american dollars. I shall not state exactly still what it is though, dont want to start a big thing about it.
 
No way. Next Generation was too far up its own backside. All the fun was removed and replaced by blah blah blah about Directives and other moralistic daydreaming.

Like it or not, this was very much in the spirit of original show, and what differentiated it from all the other stuff on TV. At its best, Star Trek was "about something." Take that away, and you're left with "T'pol is hot!"

Which, is pretty much what it became -- another dumb action-adventure program with babes.
 
The only thing TNG didn't have that TOS had was Kirk ripping his shirt off and firing diamonds at giant lizards with a wooden canon.
 
Like it or not, this was very much in the spirit of original show, and what differentiated it from all the other stuff on TV. At its best, Star Trek was "about something." Take that away, and you're left with "T'pol is hot!"
But with the original Star Trek they got the balance right. It wasn't so obviously in your face as with the Next Generation. It's possible for a show to mean something and still be entertainment, but Picard and Co. were too far off to the preachy side for my taste.

The only thing TNG didn't have that TOS had was Kirk ripping his shirt off and firing diamonds at giant lizards with a wooden canon.
Case in point. That's absolutely GREAT television!!! :D
 
I loved TNG. Freakin' awesome show. Voyager... DS9.. Enterprise... never hooked me whatsoever. Maybe I just outgrew them, but .. no let's face it TNG had "really great" actors playing "really great" characters in "decent to great" plots. Even the cheeziest episodes of TNG were still entertaining as hell compared to the latter series which had "competent" actors playing bland characters in the same plots.
 
I also agree than TNG was the best series. I never got into DS9 and Voyager was only mediocre. Let's not discuss enterprise :)

Everytime i was the Original series i wonder what the whole hullabaloo is about.

Although i will admit that i think the movies from the kirk era were the best, better than all the TNG ones bar first contact.
 
I am not going to watch this movie, perhaps for different reasons the the OP though. I think that they ruined Star Trek with Enterprise, because they went back in time. I think they should have kept on going in time and continued the series with new discoveries of creatures and new technologies. They decided to take a wrong path, and now they want to replace the original crew with new actors, I am not buying it.
 
i thought DS9 was so boring, like watching Eastenders in the future, but suppose most americans dont know of Eastenders..
 
Virgil, people like you are what is wrong with the world. ....
You get so much wrong here, I don't know whether to believe you that the intro/trailer is actually being tailored to each country audio-visually. In any case the similarity to the "Enterprise" intro that I noted was in the visuals, so we shall see when the movie comes out if they take the trouble to splice in Sputnik et al. I find it doubtful that they would, given Bermans and the studios', track record.

I'm going to cut out most of your argument because my argument was built on the idea that the original show *was* multi-national and that this carried over a bit into the next generation before the long slide into flag waving "USA AOK" stuff. I am thinking you didn't understand my point there as most of your examples are from the old show and he next generation show which kind of proves my point.

One must also take into account, at least in terms of Enterprise, that most of the images used were historically accurate. They had the Wright Brothers,
Don't get me started on that whole "Wright Brothers invented the airplane myth." (hint: it's really more of an American "interpretation" of history than it is reality if you look into it a bit closer) ;)

... Chuck Yeager, the NASA Space Shuttle (not the Buran Shuttle), etc, not because they are American, but because they are the most widely recognized symbols of flight and space travel. ...
Yet they left out Sputnik, (probably the most famous historical space-icon of all time), and substituted (here I am quoting the "Enterprise" titles), the first American space-walks for the Russian ones that were actually earlier etc., etc.

... Anyone who says that Star Trek is US-centric has never really paid attention to the show.
Nah, I think I know who isn't really paying attention to the show here. ;)

I was watching reruns of Star Trek before most of the folks on this forum were born I bet. Barring the twin travesties that were "Voyager" and "Enterprise" I have watched each show as it came out on the day it came out and all the re-runs, movies etc. many many times. I own all the movies and all the original series and have watched them literally hundreds of times also. I've even read some of the books, the slash-fiction and watched most of those dreadful animated cartoons as well. :eek:


... Captains Kirk, Archer, Sisko, and Janeway were American (the last one was not suppossed to be). Picard was was French (with a slight English accent due to the death of the French Language), Checkov was Russian, Uhura was African (from the United States of Africa), Scotty was from Scotland, Hoshi was from Japan (or Brazil), Malcom was from England, Travis was from space, Geordi was African (from the African Confederation), Miles was from Ireland, Julian was a British Arab. The only show to be "American" was Voyager, hense everyone's distain for it.
Here you prove my point again in that most of these characters are from the first two series'.

What's distressing is that you seem to not really understand much beyond what is presented to you "prima facia" in the script. The meaning of the stories and the characters, let alone the subtleties of propaganda are lost on you perhaps.

... Where do you come up with the idea that the movie is about the USA? ...
Well again, there are many many hints and clues that are perhaps too subtle for you to detect, but there are many obvious ones as well.

My favorite (again from the analogous "Enterprise" opening scene), is the GIANT WAVING AMERICAN FLAG. :)
 
Well again, there are many many hints and clues that are perhaps too subtle for you to detect, but there are many obvious ones as well.

My favorite (again from the analogous "Enterprise" opening scene), is the GIANT WAVING AMERICAN FLAG. :)

Okay, I've watched the trailer three or so time now, and I still haven't seen a giant waving American flag. So either you're hallucinating or I'm blind. I still refuse to believe that this movie will be "all about the US" unless you have more proof than your magical giant waving American flag or your revisionist history of the origins of flight.

EDIT: I just rewatched the opening of Enterprise, and yep, you guessed it. No "GIANT WAVING AMERICAN FLAG."
 
Is no one in this thread aware that the original Star Trek is ALL about the United States?

Yes, it had a wonderfully multinational (English-speaking) crew and all that. But the analogy of the entire series is that the Federation is the glorious United States.

Earth is the U.S., center of a network of allies (NATO), aligned against a common threat (Communism).

The Klingons are the Russians, the evil enemies of the U.S.

The Romulons are the Chinese: the mysterious other enemies, less understood but equally dangerous in the end.

The Vulcans are the Japanese: similar in appearance to the Chinese (by 1960s U.S. standards), but close allies to the U.S.

It's all quite in your face and difficult to ignore, if you know anything about the political situation of the times. There's even an episode about the U.S. and U.S.S.R. — I mean the Federation and the Klingons — each arming two sides of a 3rd-world conflict. Just this time it is literally 3rd-world. :)
 
I am offended that the original poster is offended by the United States of America. ;)

The welders representing America during WWII? I thought it was a play on the fact that the movie is under contraction and see theyre building the space ship and we're all like, yeah it's being built and I'm like yeah woo hoo Christmas (Another one of those damn American references and their damn RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS)! :p
 

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Obviously Star Trek has always had its roots in the USA. From a production standpoint, being an American TV show, I think that goes without saying.

In Star Trek IV, they travel back in time to 1980's California. Actually, in several different episodes across multiple series and movies, they travel back in time to 20th century California.

They make many mentions of people from American backgrounds, e.g. Riker is from Alaska.

Everyone seems to have a built-in knowledge of 20th century America... our songs, our idioms, Picard and Riker seem to enjoy bars and detective stories that hail from our time.

It's always been this way. It hasn't offended me because I am aware of the limitations of the show. If Starfleet had been headquartered in China and everyone in the Federation spoke Mandarin Chinese, I doubt it would have developed quite the cult following that it did (that's what Firefly is for, I guess) :D
 
Actually Star Trek promotes a Marxist society of the future without any need for money.

Yes, Roddenberry was trying to say that the U.S. should be more open-minded. But the point is he was always talking about the U.S.
 
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