Weekend Update 3/24/13

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Kinda...  I'm a fan of TOS, the movies, and sometimes TNG, but I never watched any of the spin-offs.

My take has always been Star Wars had the way better stories and characters, but Star Trek had better physics.

I'll take Orbs, Daxes and even a Quark or two over a Jar-Jar or Ewok any day.

[Dave V]

I'll take Orbs, Daxes and even a Quark or two over a Jar-Jar or Ewok any day.

Jar Jar was an abomination.  But Kirk has nothing on Han.

Nerd fight!   

[mmagliaro]

M.C. Fujiwara's landscaping and scratchbuilt structures.... yikes.
Whelming.... whelming...... still whelming...
Okay, that's it.  I'm overwhelmed.

I made a little wooden split-rail fence to go around my cows.    Pieces of small dowel, all hand shaved to make them
irregular, then drilled and elongate the holes in each one to accept the rails, which are thin scale lumber hand-split with
an Xacto.   This makes it all slightly irregular.   I'm surprised nobody makes wooden pieces for a fence like this.
It's a lot of work just to make a short length!    Neolube did the gray weathered wood look.

[PRRATSF]

Star Trek vs. Star Wars, Give me the holodeck/holosuite any day. Just imagine the layout you could build!!:D And Dax wasn't bad either.

[bbussey]

Daniel,
DS9?  Really?  Next you'll tell us Voyager is your accompaniment for all your outstanding vehicle builds.   

Star Trek - Go Spock or go home!

Grew up with TOS and loved all five series, and without TOS there would be no Trek franchise.  But the last four years of DS9 covering the Dominion War was gritty outstanding television, particularly the ten-episode arc that closed out the series.  DS9 was darker than TOS and TNG, and had stronger character development and a larger well-defined recurring guest cast due to the stationary nature of the series.

[MVW]

As long as we're taking the opportunity to offer up opinions on Star Trek, I'll say this: For most of its run, I'd say TNG had some of the best writing in television.

Only problem with it I found was that the show would spend 50 minutes developing a strong story, then usually provide a ridiculously easy way out for the good guys in the final few minutes.

Never got into the other spinoffs, but maybe should have.

Jim

[bbussey]

Kinda...  I'm a fan of TOS, the movies, and sometimes TNG, but I never watched any of the spin-offs.

My take has always been Star Wars had the way better stories and characters, but Star Trek had better physics.

Must be a generational thing.  There would be no Star Wars if there had been no TOS either.  But TOS examined important social issues of the era under the guise of being a sci-fi show, in order to get the stories past the television network sensors.  It was much easier to discuss war, civil rights, racism, discrimination, women's rights, and other issues if talking about blue-skinned aliens rather than humans.  Star Wars was strictly adventure with two-dimensional characters.  Trek had a profound influence on the science and technology industry, with a number of appliances that are commonplace today based on Trek technology - automatic sliding doors, flip phones, computer tablets, and floppy disks for example.  No Star Wars technology has become reality since it wasn't grounded in science to begin with.  The four Trek sequels also focused on important social issues, but were able to do so more openly.  TNG touched on war, poverty, ageism, discrimination, sexual orientation and human arrogance.  DS9 expanded on those themes and how war affects civilians and combat personnel, particularly when on the losing side.  VOY dealt with similar issues and the re-assimilation of combat veterans into society.  ENT dealt with xenophobia and the acceptance of new experiences.  None of the six Star Wars movies made any social statements and were strictly escapism.  And 18 consecutive years of Star Trek presence on television (21 years in total) is matched or surpassed by very few television franchises - 60 Minutes, Gunsmoke, maybe Law & Order, and maybe one or two others.

The argument could be made that the early Star Wars movies persuaded Paramount to launch the Trek movies, which helped pave the way for the Trek TV sequels.  But none of it would have happened if TOS didn't happen first.

[bbussey]

As long as we're taking the opportunity to offer up opinions on Star Trek, I'll say this: For most of its run, I'd say TNG had some of the best writing in television.

Only problem with it I found was that the show would spend 50 minutes developing a strong story, then usually provide a ridiculously easy way out for the good guys in the final few minutes.

Never got into the other spinoffs, but maybe should have.

Jim

Little-known fact:  Both TOS and TNG were Emmy-nominated for Best Drama Series - TOS for Season 1, TNG for Season 7.  TNG also was the first-ever syndicated drama to be nominated.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

No trains for me, which us why I'm all about Star Trek this week.

If anyone dismissed DS9 as a non-Star Trek like series, I can understand. But the series stands in its own merits far better than most other sci-fi. There was some direct dialog between DS9 and Babylon 5 that influenced both series. You can see a lot of influences in Battlestar Galactica, with the mood, lighting, extremely complex character development and multi-season plot arches. I won't even mention the parallels between the philosophical arguments of God or aliens as higher beings. Its just damn good television.

Berman and the other creators of TNG sat down and took a long look at what TNG lacked and built a new series that fixed almost all of those problems. I forget where I read it, but one of the creators  cited how the events of Inner Light should have massively altered Picard's personality for months after. This is why you see them stick the prop flute in a few episodes and movies. You can draw a line straight from the last scene of inner light to Sisko dealing with his wife's death throughout the entire DS9 series. 

[Chris333]

Mid-weekend update.

Added ladders and some weathering. Then glued it in place. Also added a fascia board.



My theme music.

The real  coal trestle was once wood and along the Erie mainline in Youngstown.


Now that it is concrete it still have the exact overall dimensions as the drawing. I wonder if they poured the concrete around the timbers...

Here is the whole coal yard back in 1950, I model 1948:

[up1950s]

Looks natural Chris , what is the cement outer skin made of ?

[Lemosteam]

Seriously, Chris, do you guys clean the airbrush between weathering colors or do you just dump the next color in?

[chicken45]

I really love Star Trek and Star Wars. I got in to Star Trek first, though. My first episode was "Cause and Effect," with Kelsey Grammar at the end. That was in third grade. I didn't get in to Star Wars for another year after that. I dressed up as Data for Halloween for a few years. None of the others got it. Then in college I ended up assembling a screen accurate Darth Vader costume because it's more fun to go around as the most iconic villain of all time then it was Data. Although I am ordering a screen replica TNG uniform...together with my beard and trombone, William T. Riker will be out in Toledo!
It's hard to really compare them both. Star Wars is a melodrama based on fantasy/space opera. Star Trek isn't. You don't dislike one because you like the other. It's usually just not your bag. I see these discussions of Star Destroyers shot lasers which are just light and starships can block all that with shields, then superweapons like the Death Star and the Borg....ugh. It really is apples to oranges. I rage every time I see one of those types of comparisons. Star Wars isn't political/social commentary the way Trek is. And again, that's OK.

Don't forget that George Lucas himself said that TOS was an inspiration. People like to make it a competition, but it's really not. There should be a Star Trek episode about that!

But Bryan really nailed it on DS9. Because of the new "plot arc" concept, we really got to dig in. I didn't like the characters at first, but they really grew on me! Quark....outstanding. I love how they changed the Ferengie from ther TNG days. Who can forget the Magnificent Ferengi where they try to rescue Moogie, and are confronted by none other than... Iggy Pop. Best performance by a guest star EVER, if you don't count Mick Fleetwood:


Again, to Bryan's point, it may be generational. I mean, TOS was in the 60's. Television was a lot different back then. Just compare sitcoms of then to sitcoms of now. The world was different. TOS most definitely holds up, but it's pacing is a bit different. It's a little slow by today's shows, but that's OK. Watch it with that context. It was more about social issues than space. Folks can argue that Star Trek got away from that vision after TOS. But really, who cares? Let those folks get bent on principals of a TV show. It's the passion for the series that makes them maniacs.

[DKS]

We now have a proper place for Trek/Wars discussion:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=29218.0

[sixpakpop]

We now have a proper place for Trek/Wars discussion:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=29218.0

Thank you for those coordinates. I will beam right over there.
ENERGIZE!