(0:36-end mark from the theme from the final season of American Gladiators original run play the camera moves back to see James on top of the slab with the words “The Last Of The Americans” on it then cutting to James in his chair)
TLOTA: I’m James Faraci, The Last Of The Americans and the views I’m about to express are that of my own & some of yours and welcome to another edition of "In Defense Of..."(Show pics of maligned pieces of pop culture while the fanfare from the Olympics play and James comes up after Vanilla Ice slides back and his right hand thumbs up and the words "In Defense Of..." before cutting to scenes from "Star Trek: Beyond" as James does a voiceover)
TLOTA (Voiceover): This year marks the 50th year in the history of one of the best Space themed Sci-fi series of all time "Star Trek" and to commemorate it Paramount released "Star Trek: Beyond" the third in the Kelvin timeline version of the franchise and I can't talk about this unless I talk about the recent tragedies with the passing of both Leonard Nimoy and sadly Anton Yelchin and while Leonard's was sad and Anton's came out of nowhere and obviously there had to be changes to...The THIRTEENTH movie?! (Cut to James physically)
TLOTA: OH MY GOD! IT'S AN ODD NUMBERED "STAR TREK" MOVIE! RED ALERT! (Alarm Blares as James looks as it cuts to everyone panicking as Rebecca Yaun and Nick Yaun start looting the vaults and then cutting to Paulo Fonseca as he holds a book with the title "To Serve Man" bumps into Rowdy)
Paulo: IT'S A COOKBOOK! IT'S A COOKBOOK! (Cut to James looking at the chaos)
TLOTA: Yeah, it seems that everyone has that reaction to odd numbered Star Trek movies. (Cut to clips of Star Trek Movies as James does a voiceover)
TLOTA (Voiceover): I don't know why but people seem to go bonkers when an odd numbered Star Trek movie is released or even mentioned. Originally I had thought about doing simply Star Trek V & Star Trek: Nemesis but then I'd be only scratching the surface. Until I remembered that everyone dislikes all the odd numbered Star Trek movies so even though I've got a lot of work to do I feel if I talk about all the Odd Numbered I might understand why everyone dislikes them or to make people understand why they're not as bad as everyone thinks they are. So let's start off with the first movie "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". Okay First off, this had to do three things at the same time. One) Invite newer audiences who had just seen "Star Wars" into their folds and Remind the older audience to what they liked about the series like the Characters, The Enterprise and all that. Two) They had to tell a new story featuring the characters Trekkies grew up knowing and loving and introduce new characters in the process and Three) They had to stretch what was an hour long episode format into a movie that had to be twice as long if not three times that much. So they had a lot to do. The fact that "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" turned out the way it did kind of had a lot to do with "Star Wars" having been such a success and Paramount taking what the success of "Star Wars" meant they needed Gene Roddenberry's property to give them the same success it had. But I think Gene had great ideas for the movie but were poorly executed not by Director Robert Wise but by Paramount getting antsy as to whether or not the movie would be done or succeed but while it wasn't the critical or commercial success it should've been. It did get a second chance with "Wrath Of Khan" but only if Roddenberry was out in any way shape creatively and Paramount brought in Harve Bennett to do something with Gene's franchise and while "Wrath Of Khan" was the Critical and commercial success Paramount was looking for it made "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock" difficult to escape the shadow and believe it or not for my money it's one of the better Odd Numbered Star Trek Movies, which unfortunately leads to one of the more ridiculed odd numbered Star Trek movies "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" which as far as I'm concerned doesn't deserve it. To me Star Trek V was a momentary stopgap respite . I mean after facing the consequences for what they did in "Search For Spock" at the end of "The Voyage Home" I think putting William Shatner in the Director's seat or Writer's position was NOT a bad decision I think Paramount needed to reign him in certain areas or get Gene Roddenberry to kind of tell him to tone down certain things. I mean yeah the comedic moments in II, III & IV were funny because they were downplayed for the most part and as for the dramatic moments they worked because of investment in all the characters, Not just Captain Kirk which is why the Sixth movie was the way it was. Originally it was meant as a send off to the original cast while introducing new actors as the characters. While the idea of a younger version of the characters we've known wouldn't happen until 2009 it was a great send off to the original cast. Now onto the movies of the Next Generation and with the first movie having to bridge the original cast to the Next Generation cast in the movie franchise happened though not well in "Star Trek Generations" getting only William Shatner, James Doohan and Walter Koenig though from what has been reported most of the Original cast want William Shatner's head and private parts on their mantelpieces but what kind of got everyone hot under the collar when the Enterprise-D went Kablammo and when they killed Captain Kirk. But as the first movie with the Next Generation crew it wasn't as bad. I mean Malcolm McDowell as Soran was a hoot to watch. "Star Trek: Insurrection" yeah it's greatest weakness is that it feels as if it were a two part episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" but that is what also makes it kind of watchable. A mix between a lost episode of "Star Trek TNG" and a movie as to where the crew are now as it entwines with where the Star Trek TNG universe as on the series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" the characters were in the middle of the battle against a force known as "The Dominion" and the Federation was getting it's backside handed to it on a platter and if the Federation were to have lost the cost would've been 800 BILLION PEOPLE! It's no wonder "Star Trek: Nemesis" takes place after the war ended but yeah it sucks not only as a finale to the cast of "The Next Generation" but also as a movie that is connected to an illustrious sci-fi franchise that led to ultimately the franchise's demise. So with many people wondering if there could be something to salvage from everything that went wrong J.J. Abrams took the challenge with the eleventh movie which just so happens to be a reboot which is something fans by this point wanted done properly and not just tell the story as to how the Enterprise became the flagship of the Federation and for me the eleventh movie works the way the First movie should've. Reintroduces us to the characters we've known and loved in a new way, brought in a new audience while welcoming the older one and introduced Star Trek to a much broader audience and broke what many think when it comes odd numbered Star Trek movies so much so it hurt it's sequel though honestly everyone saw the twists coming a mile away but by no means was "Star Trek Into Darkness" bad. (Cut to James physically)
TLOTA: So with all that has been said Are the Odd numbered Star Trek movies really that bad? Well...(Cut to clips of the Star Trek movies as James does a voiceover)
TLOTA (Voiceover): I understand why the Odd Numbered aren't as liked but as far as I'm concerned they're not truly as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Some of them are entertaining for all the right & wrong reasons but overall, I could actually say that these movies deserve as much respect as the even numbered ones. (Cut to James physically)
TLOTA: I'm James Faraci The Last Of The Americans and that's my opinion!
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