
Tonight I see
Star Trek.
5 1/2 years ago, I saw and reviewed Star Trek: Nemesis. Around the same time,
Star Trek: Enterprise had been on the air for about a year in a widely-reviled first season. The show itself wouldn't find its footing for quality until the 4th season and by that point it was too late. It was at this point that I was willing to let
Trek fade into memory as something I loved, but even the best stick of gum loses its flavor.
As I said back then, Rick Berman had ruined the franchise and allowed it to die a slow and painful death. To be fair, it's hard to keep anything fresh that was as overexposed as
Trek, but that's exactly what he was responsible for. Spanning a whole decade after the original's cancellation, the show survived in nothing but reruns and a short-lived animated series. Then for about 3/4 of another decade, the franchise survived on films alone. Eventually, by 1993 and for almost a decade after that, there were at least 2 series rolling at any one time, plus more films. I can imagine studio heads looked at it as a "franchise" and Berman probably saw lots of dollar signs with every new show. But as anyone in Hollywood will tell you, more usually does not equal quality.
Most will agree there were hits and misses (lots of hits with
TNG, plenty with
DS9, few with
Voyager and even fewer with
Enterpise), but the simple concept of overexposing the current audience with little allowance for expansion of the audience is what did
Trek in. All the technobabble plus the rehashed storylines, plus the contrived peripheral characters who always somehow managed to get an undeserved story arc of their own (really, did anyone
ever care about Ensign Harry Kim?) made people like me stop watching. I care about the exploration of both space and self - that's what the franchise was always about.
From quoting Shakespeare to shoving a torpedo down a Romulan's nacelle,
Trek always seemed to borrow from the classic literary sources that thrilled intellectuals. After hearing Picard's dialogue with Q in
Hide & Q, I read
Hamlet. I read
Henry V after Data performed it on the Holodeck. The best iterations of Trek were inspiring and in my formative years, often shaped my ethos and morality just as much as parents did*...
They taught me the first duty is to the truth, whether it be scientific, historic or personal truth.
I learned that the greatest danger facing us as a species is ourselves and our fear of the unknown and those unknown things should be considered only temporarily hidden waiting to be understood.
I learned that the instinct to be war-like can be fought and overcome. I learned that we are killers but we can make a choice not to kill every day.
I learned that in this galaxy that there's a "mathematical probability of three million Earth-type planets. And in all of the universe, three million million galaxies like this. And in all of that and perhaps more, only one of each of us."
I learned that history has proven again and again that whenever an advanced civilization interferes with a less developed one, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous.
I learned that when the first speech is censored, the first thought is forbidden, and the first freedom is denied, it chains us all irrevocably.
And I was taught via
Trek, that "it is the unknown that defines our existence. We are constantly searching, not just for answers to our questions, but for new questions. We are explorers. We explore our lives day by day, and we explore the galaxy trying to expand the boundaries of our knowledge."
But when all they did was fly around, get fired at, figure out some convoluted solution involving tachyons and graviton emitters, I and millions of people lost interest. All those dateless wonders who dressed up like Klingons and walked around convention halls were apparently the last ones watching despite the claims they hated the shows just as much as anyone else.
Based on the reviews, this movie is going to be a fun adventure ride, which is fine, but my concern is seeing the elements that made Trek a relevant commentary on politics, science and morality merged into an exciting science fiction premise. Beyond the cheesy costumes and hammy acting of the original series, there was something special there - an idealism that you just can't manufacture or reproduce without truly beleiving it. Some see in this film a chance for something potentially valuable and important to re-enter the public lexicon. I think people are envisioning, possibly unrealistically, that
Trek's promise of an Earth without poverty or war is further in reach because of the Obama administration and the progress that will occur as a result. I can't say with any certainty that will happen even remotely as
Trek depicted, but Roddenberry was a visionary in the sense that he had faith that mankind was capable of overcoming its problems and creating a more perfect society. And as Edith Keeler said, "Those are the days worth living for."
*
To be fair, my Dad was a Trek fan to some degree long before I was born.