Incremental progress meets Zeno’s Paradox

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L.I. Underhill is a media critic and historian specializing in pop culture, with a focus on science fiction (especially Star Trek) and video games. Their projects include a critical history of Star Trek told through the narrative of a war in time, a “heretical” history of The Legend of Zelda series and a literary postmodern reading of Jim Davis' Garfield.

9 Comments

  1. FlexFantastic
    February 6, 2014 @ 11:22 am

    The "five year mission" thing never bugged me since it's pretty easy to reconcile: years 1-3 are TOS and years 4-5 are the two seasons of TAS. That doesn't mean their couldn't be more adventures, but the Nerd Lizard Brain part of me always felt fairly content that we got a snapshot of all five years.

    Also, the "Final Mission" miniseries surprises me, since if there's one thing Nerds hate more than anything (it seems to me), it's the idea of the things they love concluding or changing.

    Reply

  2. Jack Graham
    February 6, 2014 @ 12:38 pm

    I demand a comic book series of Doctor Who Series 6b, in which the Second Doctor (reunited with Jamie and Victoria) lands in lots of technocratic bases with unstable commanders and defends them from external threat by aliens while saying things like "When I say run… run".

    Oh, hang on… No. Actually, I don't.

    Reply

  3. Josh Marsfelder
    February 6, 2014 @ 12:55 pm

    What is this "Animated Series" of which you speak?

    If there was a two-season animated incarnation of Star Trek set after the Original Series that would make a lot of sense: As you say, we would have had a decent overview of the Five Year Mission, though still leaving open the possibility other adventures could have happened (which would be left for tie-in novels, etc.). Certainly if such a show existed, it would render a project like Star Trek: Year Four pointlessly irrelevant and petulant, wouldn't it?

    Too bad. I probably would really have enjoyed an animated Star Trek series. I'm a big fan of animation and I think the franchise and the medium would be a perfect fit for each other.

    Reply

  4. Josh Marsfelder
    February 6, 2014 @ 12:56 pm

    Jack gets it 🙂

    Reply

  5. Jack Graham
    February 6, 2014 @ 2:53 pm

    Show me some more of this Earth thing called 'irony', Captain.

    Reply

  6. Adam Riggio
    February 6, 2014 @ 5:47 pm

    What if we had a comic book series of Doctor Who Series 6B where the Second Doctor is sent on a series of adventures interfering in various cultures' histories, constantly under the surveillance of his masters at the Celestial Intervention Agency, picking up a variety of one-off sort-of-companions (something like David Tennant's Specials year), growing continually callous and bitter as he chafes at the bit of being forced to work with authorities until he finally snaps and is forcibly regenerated into Jon Pertwee and exiled to mid-70s Earth?

    I sometimes think that the main reason Star Trek TAS never caught on in the long term was because American animation from that period is ghettoized as poorly animated kiddie programming. The only way most of us engage with it over the last few years is through ironic appropriation into hipster culture, like Harvey Birdman.

    I've just gotten sick to death of irony.

    Reply

  7. Josh Marsfelder
    February 6, 2014 @ 6:18 pm

    "I sometimes think that the main reason Star Trek TAS never caught on in the long term was because American animation from that period is ghettoized as poorly animated kiddie programming. The only way most of us engage with it over the last few years is through ironic appropriation into hipster culture, like Harvey Birdman."

    If such a series existed, I would imagine I'd defend it with a very similar argument. I have a hard time believing an Animated Star Trek would be cheap, disposable throwaway television, in spite of the problems with the animation industry in the 1970s.

    Reply

  8. Daru
    February 11, 2014 @ 1:06 am

    Yeah, its the biggest crime in Star Trek's history that this vision was never followed through.

    Reply

  9. Daru
    February 11, 2014 @ 1:09 am

    It should have happened.

    Reply

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