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Blondbeard
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We tried Firefly out, but the violence level seems way too high, and the general cruelty (sugestive pictures of implied torture, threat about rapes, and being flayed alive etc.). I hadn't expected this, not even from Oneiromancers comment about a fistfight in every episode. Unfortunatly my girlfriend thinks it's too scary for her, and we'll try something else. Perhaps Six Feet Under or Star Trek Voyager. As far as I can recall the violence and cruelty level of the few episodes I saw of Star Trek Voyager wasn't anywhere near this. I might recall wrongly, though. If anyone who recently saw it, and has also seen Firefly can comment on this I would be hughely grateful.

Also: What about the other Star Trek Series?

[Last edited by Blondbeard at 11-26-2008 11:54 AM]
11-26-2008 at 10:13 AM
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Briareos
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Blondbeard wrote:
As far as I can recall the violence and cruelty level of the few episodes I saw of Star Trek Voyager wasn't anywhere near this. I might recall wrongly, though. If anyone who recently saw it, and has also seen Firefly can comment on this I would be hughely grateful.
Well, I haven't seen Firefly, but except for a few episodes where the ship was heavily damaged and lots of people were wounded or worse Voyager is really low on violence...

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11-26-2008 at 10:43 AM
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noma
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*wince* Sorry about that. It's been a while since I watched the series and I hadn't remembered that level of violence. I have seen all of Voyager and still catch episodes now and then in re-runs: it's got very little violence of the Firefly calibre, but it's still there. Mostly people getting knocked out now and then. They do occasionally encounter "hostile aliens", but old Janeway usually tries to find a "peaceful resolution." There are some explosions, where people get a bit burned and tossed about and such. And over the entire series some crew memebers have died, but only a few on-screen.

Violent episodes that pop to mind: the series debut, explosions, quite a few characters die; the Year from Hell, a two-parter, lots of death, battles, etc; also, ironically enough, the episode about a race that had banned violence; another one you might need to pass on is the episode in which Tom Paris is framed for murder and has to re-live it over and over.

Hmm, now I'm wondering if I can safely recommend Voyager. Those are just the ones I remember. I mean, it's all pretty "tame" violence (if that makes sense) but it's still violence.

Maybe you should go for Will & Grace. The most violent thing in that series is sarcasm.
11-26-2008 at 02:14 PM
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Blondbeard
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Hmm... Let me try to explain a bit closer. That which really can be scary about Firefly is that it seems to be using some scary movie teqniqes, where the viewer has to fill in the details. I guess you can say that the series in a way encourages you to imagine someone being tortured to death. Like the whole story about Rivers (the overintelligent girl) past, with flashbacks of the gouvernment experiments. We have only watched two episodes, but the threat of being killed in the most horrible fashion was very present in both these episodes. Also the violence there is was a bit too graphic. Hitting someone with a massive bar chair. Throwing a knife into someones shoulder.

As I recall it the violence and threat picture was more "tame" in Voyager. Also: I don't think it's a catastrophe if we can't enjoy every episode. As long as the majority of the episodes feels good to her I think that's enough.

Also: I don't want anyone to feel bad about having recomended Firefly. I will definitly watch it, but I might have to do it without her.

I hope all of this made some kind of sense :)
11-26-2008 at 04:05 PM
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NiroZ
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Just out of curiosity, I'm interested to know what the strengths of the various star trek series are. Not that I'd get into it any time soon, but I'm curious.
08-09-2009 at 05:39 AM
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Snacko
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The first is easily the best. It's the least flashy, but the stories are actually about something.

It's downhill from there, with Voyager representing the worst the series has to offer. Deep Space Nine was a significant change in tone, and it's better for it, just nowhere near the first two series.

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08-09-2009 at 06:45 AM
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Dischorran
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Technically, I think Enterprise would be the worst the series has to offer.

The original series is, of course, a somewhat campy classic and basically mandatory sci-fi viewing.

TNG is also a classic, although its success is largely due to Patrick Stewart bringing the Shakespeare; it's about half-and-half really neat "idea" episodes and nearly unwatchable preachy or unbelievable alien culture episodes. Still, the strongest episodes of any of the Star Treks were here.

DS9 is my favorite of the five; it's the only one not to be entirely shiny and optimistic, and keeps a partially successful story arc going. It's particularly interesting for being the former home of the creative staff behind Galactica, which by all accounts wasn't entirely satisfying either for them or for the network suits trying to keep it accessible and largely dumbed down. Still, many of the themes of Galactica can be seen here in early form - difficult politics, mystical overtones, ambiguous characters, and "let's see how much crap we can pile on O'Brien before he cracks". It's at its best when explicitly undermining the Next Gen utopian society, and at its worst when doing the Ferengi episodes.

Voyager is perfectly watchable, but is pretty much by-the-numbers Trek with a vast excess of technobabble (which is a horrible misuse of its really neat setting). It's precisely designed to be the sort of thing that can be tuned in by casual viewers and watched instantly - shallow but flashy plots, one-dimensional characters, and an aggressive avoidance of any sort of continuity between episodes. Returning to Galactica, it's probably more interesting when viewed as what that show was specifically reacting against - in principle, one could have gotten something very similar to Galactica from the premise set up in the pilot, but they opted for generic Trek instead. Oh, and they neuter the Borg.

Enterprise should have been good, but ultimately never justified its own existence. The pilot is worth watching, but that's about it.

For what it's worth, I own the Next Gen and DS9 DVDs, and watch the original series and Voyager when I run across them on cable.

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08-09-2009 at 09:04 AM
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Maurog
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Please ignore the gaping Babylon 5 shaped hole in this thread.

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08-09-2009 at 09:24 AM
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Banjooie
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Blondbeard's criteria:
* Can't be too violent onscreen
* too violent includes 'hitting with a chair'
* Can't be too violent offscreen
* Must not require watching every episode to make sense
* Can't be too scary
Might I suggest Full House, or, if you're feeling adventurous, Roseanne?*


* Roseanne does have an episode where people are struck with fish.
08-09-2009 at 09:57 AM
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B.J.Earles
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Maurog wrote:
Please ignore the gaping Babylon 5 shaped hole in this thread.
Thank you Maurog! I can't believe that B5 hasn't been mentioned before that. It's the best SciFi series ever!

As for whether or not Blondbeard should watch it, well, here's what I think:
Babylon 5 is violent, but most of it doesn't leave much to the imagination. There are a lot of spaceships blowing up and people getting shot with PPGs (an energy based weapon that leaves a nice burn wound but not much blood). Some episodes get bloody, like TKO, but episodes rarely center on the violence. You could probably skip TKO as it's a stand alone story.
Thankfully, the series also has a great deal of humor to it. It's what I would call good quality humor, that is very little of it is crude.
A few of the episodes can be a little scary, I'll grant you that. One in particular comes to mind. It's called Gray 17 is Missing and is my least favorite episode. However, it is important and can't really be skipped if you're watching the series for the first time.
And now the big issue: Yes, you must watch most of the episodes and watch them in order if you want them to make sense. The series contains a five year story arc that was written before the first episode was shot. As I have mentioned, there are a few stand-alone episodes that can be missed (I would recommend skipping Infection, as it is one of the worst episodes in the series), but on large, you'll want to see as many as possible. Here's the thing though; once you start watching B5, it's very hard to stop as the stories and characters are deep and very engaging.

In short: Any self-respecting SciFi fan needs to watch B5. It's violent, but it's never just about violence. It's humorous, deep, emotional, and has some of the best writing I've ever seen.
08-09-2009 at 10:25 PM
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