{"id":2497,"date":"2009-09-10T11:40:23","date_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:40:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2009-09-10T11:40:23","modified_gmt":"2009-09-10T16:40:23","slug":"on-ranking-the-star-trek-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=2497","title":{"rendered":"On Ranking the Star Trek Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Science-fiction author John Scalzi ranks the Star Trek<\/i> film directors<\/a> for American Movie Classics’ website. Who’s best, who’s worst?<\/p>\n

Here’s Scalzi’s list (though without his commentary):<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nick Meyer<\/li>\n
  2. Leonard Nimoy<\/li>\n
  3. Jonathan Frakes<\/li>\n
  4. J.J. Abrams<\/li>\n
  5. Robert Wise<\/li>\n
  6. David Carson<\/li>\n
  7. William Shatner<\/li>\n
  8. Stuart Baird<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The problem I have with Scalzi’s list is that he’s confusing whether or not the film is any good with whether or not the director was any good. Yes, the director is a big part of whether or not the film succeeds, but so to is the writer, the production design, the acting, the cinematography.<\/p>\n

    Ergo, I disagree with Scalzi entirely. \ud83d\ude06<\/p>\n

    Here’s my list:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Nick Meyer
      I can’t disagree with putting Meyer at the top of the list. Meyer’s direction for Star Trek II<\/i> is more than adequate, but for Star Trek VI<\/i> he had a distinct visual flair that amped up the intensity.<\/li>\n
    2. William Shatner
      Say what you will about Star Trek V<\/i>, but the film looked fantastic<\/i>. Shatner had a great rapport with the camera, he elicited solid performances from the cast. Shatner’s film looked different<\/i> in all the right ways. It’s unfortunate that his direction was in service of a less-than-stellar story.<\/li>\n
    3. J.J. Abrams
      It’s really unfair to compare Abrams to the rest of the directors, because he’s coming at Star Trek<\/i> from such a different angle. Much as Nick Meyer did, really. I thought Star Trek<\/i> looked wonderful, he had a great sense of shot composition. The thing I really fault Abrams for is the lens flair. Hopefully, he’ll tone that down next time.<\/li>\n
    4. David Carson
      Yes, his film was absolute shit, but it looked great<\/i>.<\/li>\n
    5. Jonathan Frakes
      I would actually rank Frakes higher if he hadn’t directed Star Trek: First Contact<\/i>. Frakes’ direction on First Contact<\/i> was dire, frankly, with uninspired camera set-ups and an overreliance on medium shots. I find First Contact<\/i> a boring film to watch. Insurrection<\/i>, on the other hand, has some truly wonderful camera work and Frakes makes a film that’s fun to watch. Unfortunately for Frakes, the film isn’t particularly enjoyable in other respects, but that’s largely down to Patrick Stewart gutting the script.<\/li>\n
    6. Stuart Baird
      Baird’s problem, like Jenuet on Alien Resurrection<\/i>, is that he had no feel for the material. Baird didn’t know Star Trek<\/i>. In spite of that, Baird managed to shoot a film that has some moments of beauty and, dare I say it?, scope.<\/li>\n
    7. Robert Wise
      There’s a reason the nickname for his film is “The Motionless Picture.”<\/li>\n
    8. Leonard Nimoy
      As a director, Nimoy was awful. His shot composition is generally claustrophobic. He elicits decent performances, but there’s no visual style to Nimoy’s direction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      That’s my list. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Science-fiction author John Scalzi ranks the Star Trek film directors for American Movie Classics’ website. Who’s best, who’s worst? Here’s Scalzi’s list (though without his commentary): Nick Meyer Leonard Nimoy Jonathan Frakes J.J. Abrams Robert Wise David Carson William Shatner Stuart Baird The problem I have with Scalzi’s list is that he’s confusing whether orContinue reading “On Ranking the Star Trek Directors”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[709,4089,670],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek","tag-leonard-nimoy","tag-star-trek","tag-william-shatner","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}