These anniversaries just sneak up on you. Yesterday marked ten years since the finale of Enterprise.
I have to admit, I was never a really big fan of the shows after TOS (which I saw when it first aired), although Pepper Mill was a big fan of all of them. The very first series gave us scripts by noted SF writers (or by those who would become noted) – Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, Norman Spinrad, David Gerrold, Jerome Bixby, a supposed adaptation from Fredric Brown. And Harlan Ellison as the Beaver. That’s an impressive lineup. They were also incredibly original and ground-breaking. Great Suff. Phase II looked poised to go the same way – they had scripts lined up by major SF talent as well. Even the Animated Series, which pretty often was juvenile, still had some of the spark – scripts by David Gerrold, again. And one adapted from Larry Niven (!)
I never quite got the same feel from the revival in 1987. The CGI effects were much better, but too many of the scripts felt like retreads oif TOS. I stopped watching, but was eventually re-interested, and watched Deep Space and Voyager as well.
I was hoping that a new series might make it to TV for 2016 for the 50th anniversary but it looks doubtful. It looks like there will at least be a movie for 2016.
Hard to believe it’s been a whole decade. I have mixed feelings about the J.J. Abrams movie reboots, but they’re fun, and I understand why CBS and Paramount aren’t interested in having another ST TV show, at least for now.
Enterprise was becoming half way decent, despite being written by a fan-fic author, when it was canceled.
Captain Archer continued to act as if he had leapt into a starship captain, and did not know what to do.
Doesn’t that make sense though? I mean, warp 5 tech was new to all of them. So to me, it makes sense that they all seemed to be going by seat of their pants.
A wise Picard-like captain would not have made sense in that series.
I just finished DS9 on NetFlix, which is my favorite. Very gritty, not a lot of vanilla diplomacy. In the Pale Moonlight is the best Trek episode. Ever.
I’m watching Voyager now, then I’ll follow with Enterprise. We’re getting to the part where Seven of Nine joins the ship, which I think is where Voyager started to get better.
Star Trek was always as good (or as bad) as the Captains, IMO. And they needed to be flawed – Kirk was too impulsive and rash, sometimes; Picard was sometimes inflexible and plagued by self-doubt after being captured by the Borg; Sisko had the occasional anger problems; Janeway didn’t seem to have a flaw (which was a big reason I wasn’t a big fan)…
And then there’s Captain Archer, whose flaw was being an incredibly indecisive decision-maker, which means shitty captain. Quite a flaw, but I think it really hurt the show.
Better no Trek than a Trek series without anything interesting to do or say.
DS9 worked partially because they were away from the mainstream of the Federation while still having exploration to do through the wormhole. I watched a season of Voyager (no relation to my Doper name, btw) and got fed up, because I’m not a fan of “will they make it home this week? Not the end of the show, guess not.” shows. I only saw a few Enterprises. I’m working on watching everything, slowly but surely.
If there is a new series it should be either set in the time of TOS, when things weren’t so well under control, or after TNG, which would be interesting since the technology was already becoming non-understandable. But that the second movie was pretty much a remake doesn’t give me hope that there are a lot of original thoughts at Paramount these days.
Just do the obvious thing and make “Starfleet Academy”, the TV series. Plenty of material to get a fresh take. For our youth-obsessed culture, cast plenty of young attractive actors and give them some fan-service stuff to do. Throw in some grizzled veteran professors for contrast. Tell us what it was like for the folks back on Earth with the Federation-level tech.
We saw a glimpse of it with Picard’s French vineyard and Sisko’s Louisiana gumbo restaurant. Show us more of that.
We saw Wesley’s academy squadron doing acrobatic maneuvers around Jupiter. Show us more of that.
When the cast attends class, we should get to glimpse some brief academy lectures about Federation tech, the future society, known alien species, and other interesting stuff. Maybe even see some battle analysis (for example, a move-by-move analysis of Kirk versus Khan in the Mutari nebula) or deconstructing other key moments in Federation history.
Show us the “alienation” of other species residing on Earth. Show us more of Earth-based Section 31. Show us more of the folks outside Starfleet – maybe some people are so bored with their cushy worry-free lifestyle they eventually become suicidal or extreme risk-taking thrill seekers.
And if they can’t secure the Trek rights or it’s too expensive, just call it “SpaceFlotilla Academy” instead. Just make it.
Oh, she had flaws all right-the problem was that her flaws rarely resulted in any, you know, actual drama. One reset button after another to cover up her numerous sins…
I have said this in multiple thread but I really believe we need Star Trek back on TV. I am tired of dark and gritty. I want a bright future I would hope to live in that shows humanity at its best.
You mean, like a show about incredible buff and beautiful 20-somethings who spend more time having sex in classrooms, shuttlecraft and whatnot, whining about their personal lives, rather than actually doing star-treky things? No thanks! We have far too many of those shows now.
Since a cadet saving the world was stupid even when that cadet was Kirk, a bunch doing week after week would be too absurd even for TV. So it would soon become soap opera. Which is what most TV people understand.
Me too. If I want dark I can watch the news on TV.
