
All Star Trek Episodes from Every Series to Stream on Netflix - mhb
http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/04/08/all-star-trek-coming-to-netflix-make-it-so/
======
staunch
When I was growing up my father had dubbed copies of Star Trek: The Original
Series. I watched every fuzzy episode dozens of times. Eventually enjoying
TNG/DS9/Voyager/Enterprise as well. One of biggest hopes in _life_ was to own
every single episode of each Star Trek series on VHS so I could enjoy them at
will. The boxed VHS sets were always way too expensive for me then.

It's strange to think back because now I have all of them sitting on a tiny
little corner of a 1TB drive.

I still often watch them to this day while I program. I'll go through a dozen
episodes (playing on a second monitor) in a day.

Kids growing up today have it so damn good.

~~~
sliverstorm
It of course remains to be seen whether it's actually good.

Perhaps I'm looking at things through rose-colored glasses, but things like
having to look in the dictionary to learn about things and words (and I wanted
to learn about a LOT of words), hunting snails for nickels, working as a
stableboy... it's usually said these days with a mocking tone, but I have
become at least a bit of a believer in the old, "it builds character".

~~~
sstrudeau
I had an interesting debate with some friends after sharing this Tom Waits
quote: "This is what's wrong with the world. Everything is explained now. We
live in an age when you say casually to somebody 'What's the story on that?'
and they can run to the computer and tell you within five seconds. That's
fine, but sometimes I'd just as soon continue wondering. We have a deficit of
wonder right now."

Via [http://www.bnox.be/2009/11/tom-waits-and-deficit-of-
wonder.h...](http://www.bnox.be/2009/11/tom-waits-and-deficit-of-wonder.html)

I tend to agree that there can be some value in the gap between wondering
about something and actually finding out (or never finding out). Letting your
mind chew on a question means you have an opportunity to imagine your own
answer or your own story. When you tighten that gap those creative mental
wonderings get clipped short.

I don't think he is saying a world where you can never look things up in 5
seconds is preferrable, but noting the effect this has on the underappreciated
benefits of wonder.

~~~
noonespecial
Ahh yes, but wondering something, running to the computer and finding out that
its very likely that _nobody else knows either_ is a rare pleasure unavailable
in times past.

~~~
albemuth
Not when that thing nobody knows is how to compile that damn library in your
specific environment :(

~~~
noonespecial
But when I finally figure it out, I get the elation of knowing a tiny thing
that no one else knows... and then going and posting it on stackoverflow.

------
JoelMcCracken
YESYESYESYESYES

Sorry, but Picard influenced me as much an any person in my life. This makes
me so happy.

~~~
thwarted
One could pick a worse role model than Picard.

~~~
powertower
It would be interesting to do a poll in relation to favorite star-trek
character (TNG) and then cross-reference that to respondent’s job/career.

I bet there is a strong correlation between Data (the character) and a
programmer.

What do you think the correlation to Riker, Picard, Worf would be?

~~~
pgbovine
_I bet there is a strong correlation between Data (the character) and a
programmer._

seems a tad cliched, don't you think? i'd bet that most people wouldn't want
to self-associate with an emotionless android

~~~
antipaganda
Emotionless? This proves that you're not a Data fan. He had tons of emotion.

------
DanielBMarkham
I liked all the various configurations of Trek; some more than others.

It's interesting to see in this thread the split between TOS trekkers and a
STTNG trekkers. I was always more of a TOS person myself: I think the creative
tension that the networks put on Gene by making him "dumb it down" actually
made for better, sharper analysis of the sci-fi involved. TNG seemed to
meander a bit. But that's me.

What I find interesting about looking at the shows from decades later is the
way the topics were addressed. Things like the episode where Daystom's M-9
computer took over the Enterprise and basically was a smart machine with a
weapon -- we seemed to have come down on the side of that being okay, at least
for now. But back then there were a lot of very important questions raised --
questions that are still valid. Or the Darmok episode, where the culture spoke
only in metaphor. That still twists my noodle because that's all any culture
really does -- speak in various metaphors. When you're asking a bunch of users
from a certain societal niche to tell you what they want, not only is their
jargon going to be unique, but the way they compare things and discuss things
are too. (Insert Wittgenstein discussion).

Taking a short dramatic format and making a bunch of pimply-faced teenagers
start _thinking_ about what's important in their lives is an awesomely good
thing. Let's hope Trek keeps doing that for years to come.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Trek has always had two important elements which explain its continued
popularity.

On the one hand there are rich, deep characters that we come to care about,
become interested in, and become invested in. Just about every character in
TOS fits this mold. They are all iconic in various ways. Later series did
nearly as well, the characters in TNG and DS9 are also largely iconic, Voyager
and Enterprise somewhat less so with a few exceptions. This creates the
opportunity for rich story telling and character development and also greatly
facilitates people becoming attached to the characters and the show. The last
season of DS9 is an excellent example of this phenomenon with long running
story arcs rich in development of multiple characters.

This in turn facilitates the flip side of Star Trek. A cast of characters that
viewers are heavily invested in and a setting that viewers are intimately
familiar with creates the opportunity to put on one-off stories that are more
engaging than they would be otherwise. In this way most Star Trek shows become
a kind of science fiction anthology. So the show can explore various
standalone stories within a familiar context, elevating the emotional
investment in the story.

This combination elevates Star Trek to an amazing level and many other SciFi
shows have adopted a similar format to attempt to recreate Star Trek's
success. Many of people's most memorable and favorite episodes of various Star
Trek shows are one-episode short stories founded on their own unique premises
(Inner Light, City on the Edge of Forever, Hard Time) rather than stemming
from pre-existing story elements or being part of a multi-episode story arc.

------
pstack
How far will anyone make it through watching them, before they all start
showing "Available until a _date two weeks from now_ ", like 20% of my queue
almost always does?

~~~
jeffgreco
They will be streamable for at least two years, under the deal.

------
GoodIntentions
Star Trek was my favourite television show back in grade school. Never got to
see them all as a kid, because TV was limited to a few (crappy) channels where
I grew up, but I really loved it. To this day, an episode of ST can side track
me fairly easily. So I was pretty pleased by this headline.

Unfortunately, it turns out this release is only for the U.S. Seriously, wtf
Netflix? You don't need to translate the episodes into Canadian, just let me
watch the damn things.

~~~
wladimir
It's indeed too bad. I'm from Europe and I don't think such a service will be
available here in the forseeable future.

Due to sticky politics it's impossible to have a proper global video streaming
service. Sad, really.

~~~
tomjen3
It is certainly possible - you just have to ignore copyright.

At some point we are going to have to realize that we have enough movies,
books, etc that we can't read/watch all of those which interests us and just
kill copyright.

It is already half happened because most people flatly ignore it and the
amount of draconian enforcement necessary to uphold it is too large for people
to accept.

~~~
wladimir
Ignoring copyright is what I'm doing right now. Downloading movies/series is
not illegal in the country where I live.

But I would _like_ to pay for streaming sci-fi series online, to support them
and make sure they are continued being produced. It's sad that the laws that
are meant to protect copyright status are preventing me from doing that.

~~~
trotsky
You could probably find some poor US based star trek fan that is pirating
their content and pay for a netflix streaming account for them. I know it
sounds a bit odd, but you could kind of look at it like buying carbon credits.

~~~
abofh
Which would acquiesce the moral issues, but not the legal ones. Sorta like
papal pardons <g>.

Don't know of a better idea though if the content isn't reasonably available
in your area.

------
nkassis
I live in Canada

/facepalm

~~~
noonespecial
I go to Australia fairly often and know quite a few people who live between
the US and AU. Finally frustrated beyond the breaking point by iTunes and
Netflix goe-location nonsense, I got one of these small servers(1).

I loaded openvpn(2) server on it and put tunnelblick(3) on all our macs (and a
few openwrt type devices)

Cost of a tiny dedicated Atom server payable with paypal: $39/month. Having an
IP address that that says I'm in New Jersey wherever in the world I happen to
be: _priceless_.

1\. [http://www.interserver.net/custom-managed-dedicated-
servers....](http://www.interserver.net/custom-managed-dedicated-servers.html)

2\. <http://openvpn.net/>

3\. <http://code.google.com/p/tunnelblick/>

~~~
comex
For what it's worth, you're paying too much; if you don't need much CPU or
RAM, just a network connection, you'd be fine with a cheap VPS or EC2.

------
Osiris
When Netflix first came out, I used the 3-at-time plan to watch every single
episode of Star Trek available on DVD. I think I watched 4 a day for a very
long time. Nice to see I can repeat the process now without even having to go
to the mailbox =)

------
kingkawn
This is the perfect Hacker News article. I learned something new and
mathematically-interesting about the world, the author came up with a niche
development to get us excited, and we learn how to apply that to improve our
own lives.

~~~
mhb
How far we've come:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1014567>

[dead] Hackers News with Vuvuzelas (vuvuzela-time.co.uk)

~~~
kingkawn
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2419815>

------
sathyabhat
Wake me up when Netflix moves outside the US.

(To add to that list: Pandora, Hulu, Spotify. Atleast last.fm is available as
a paid subscription option.)

~~~
ig1
Spotify and last.fm are both European

~~~
cabalamat
And spotify only works in 7 EU countries, due to copyright laws.

~~~
ig1
Not really due to copyright laws more down to licensing rights, historically
licensing rights have been sold on a per-country basis.

If it makes you feel better the record companies hate it too, I know the
popular fad is to blame the music industry, but there's so much legal red tape
over contracts it's actually very hard for them to innovate.

~~~
cabalamat
> Not really due to copyright laws more down to licensing rights

Without the copyright laws, there would be no need to obtain licensing rights.

> I know the popular fad is to blame the music industry, but there's so much
> legal red tape over contracts it's actually very hard for them to innovate.

The whole copyright-based legal infrastructure needs to be torn down and new
ways to pay artists need to arise which don't rely on freedom- and innovation-
resricting laws.

------
StudyAnimal
What, no ST:TAS?

~~~
subsection1h
They can be watched here: [http://www.startrek.com/videos/star-trek-the-
animated-series...](http://www.startrek.com/videos/star-trek-the-animated-
series/all/full/episode)

~~~
navs
What a find!

Unfortunately I'm not in the correct geographic region to enjoy this.

------
zephjc
All I can say is <http://i.imgur.com/eCOz1.jpg>

------
thwarted
You can also hit <http://www.allstepisodes.com/>

Not sure of the legality though.

EDIT: seems to be more ad laden than I remember.

~~~
henning
full of annoying ads, unsynced audio, constant buffering, low resolution. it's
a very poor viewing experience, and it's copyright infringement.

~~~
thwarted
Agreed on the ads, which are thankfully only on the website and not during
playback. I don't have any issue with unsynced audio or buffering. The TNG
episodes only appear crappy if you full screen it, but NTSC resolution is
crappy anyway. The Enterprise episodes are terrible quality because those were
all filmed in HD, so of course. It's no worse than watching just about any
random copyrighted infringed video on Youtube.

It's the modern equivalent of staunch's dad's dubbed copies.

