Star Trek

Space, the final frontier! I first heard those words back in the late 1960s when I would curl up in front of our 19 inch, black and white TV to watch Star Trek. I was lucky enough to see the original series when it first aired although I was more enamored with the Enterprise, phasers and photon torpedos than I was the characters or the plots. Some of the plots were great for my age but I was really a little too young to really understand many of the them.

There weren’t many good science fiction shows on when I was young. Star Trek was the best with shows like “Lost in Space” and “Land of the Giants” a distant second, from my point of view. Luckily Star Trek was quickly syndicated, after it was canceled, and came to the local station where my friends and I could watch it every day.

This was a heady time with all kinds of Star Trek “swag” being sold. I had models of the various star ships, blue prints of the Enterprise, Star Fleet Technical Manuals and so much more.

My friends and I could name all the episodes and we’d discuss which ones we liked the most and why. In our hearts we would wonder if maybe some of it was true.

Remember this is all before Star Wars and all the major science fiction movies that followed. The only major science fiction space movies at the time, were 2001 and the older Forbidden Planet. None of us really understood 2001 but we loved the special effects! This was the state of things in the early 70s, science fiction wise. We did have Apollo which was very real and way better than science fiction! That helped.

One of the highlights of my young life, around that time, was seeing Leonard Nimoy in person. It was, believe it or not, at a car show in downtown Denver. He would come out every so often and do a 15 – 20 minute talk and then a question and answer. As I recall, Star Trek conventions hadn’t started yet so I felt pretty lucky to be able to meet Mr. Nimoy.

I have never seen any of the other cast members as I’ve never attended a Star Trek convention. I guess I’m a big fan but probably not a full fledged “Trekkie” or “Trekker”.

In any event, what got this thought process started was watching the final season of Star Trek Discovery. For those that may not know, Star Trek Discovery is available on Paramount+. I didn’t signup for it until Star Trek Picard was released in 2020. That series I really wanted to see as I was a big fan of Star Trek The Second Generation.

To simplify the rest of the post, I’m going to shorten the series names: Star Trek Original (Original); Star Trek Second Generation (SG); Deep Space Nine (DS9); Star Trek Voyager (Voyager); Star Trek Enterprise (Enterprise); Star Trek Discovery (Discovery); Star Trek Picard (Picard); Strange New Worlds (SNW). Star Trek has had a lot of series with more to come!

As I mentioned above, when I was a kid, Star Trek was all about the ships, the technology and the adventure. As I got older, I realized that while these were all part of Star Trek, there was a bigger part that spoke to the social issues of the day. That was really the most important part of a lot of the episodes and one that still makes them so relevant to this day.

This is something that science fiction does so well at communicating as it is easier and “safer” for people to understand a science fiction story vs. bringing up the same social issues based on “reality”.

This is something that has held pretty true across all the Star Trek series. Star Trek, as a whole, is a place where, if you choose to, you can really expand your thought process and see that all races and people are important and contribute to the better and greater whole!

As I mentioned, I started with the original series and it holds a special place in my heart. Then came SG (after the movies) and although it had a slow start (still not a fan of Q or season one) it became a strong series. Then came DS9, Voyager and Enterprise. Finally Discovery, Picard and SNW.

I watched a few episodes of DS9 but it never really caught on with me. I never watched Voyager or Enterprise as the show concept and/or actors just didn’t appeal. The same with Discovery. Then one day, a few years back, Netflix was offering all the years of Enterprise for streaming. I decided to give it a chance and I’m glad I did.

It was more of a serial series vs. an episodic series so I’m not sure I could recommend any single episode like I can with the original or SG. But as a whole it holds a special place with me as the characters continued to build throughout the series and they became family. It may have something to do with watching an episode a day, I don’t know, but it is an excellent series as long as you let it develop for a bit.

I finally watched the first two seasons of Discovery when I purchased access to Paramount+ to watch Picard. Discovery turned out to be like Enterprise as far as being more serial vs. episodic. It is also probably the darkest Star Trek series. Until season 3 when things change a bit. It was sad to see the last season and the especially the final episode. They wrapped things up well though!

Discovery was ground breaking in many ways and has been the catalyst for the current rebirth of the Star Trek franchise. In that way, it is one of the most important Star Trek series.

Now, Picard. When I watched the first season the first time, it was great to see the SG characters again! I think I ignored the storyline a bit because of that. After I watched the first season a second time, I decided it was a little weak story wise. Season two was better and the final season better yet as the entire SG cast returns!

Bouncing back to Voyager and DS9. I’m going to give them a chance, like I did with Enterprise, at some point. Hopefully I find I enjoy them as much as I did Enterprise.

For me though, the best Star Trek series, by far, is the newest! SNW has been exceptional the first two seasons with great character building and a return to an episodic format which I like better than the “save the galaxy” serial format. The characters, actors and scripts have all been exceptional and they’ve had some fun with some of the episodes. I can’t wait for season 3!

There’s a quick, very high level look, at most of the Star Trek series with a few of my thoughts on the series I’ve seen. If you haven’t seen Star Trek, take some time and watch a few episodes of any of the series and think hard about what some of them have to say about society and people in general.

Who would have thought that Gene Roddenberry’s idea of a “Wagon Train to the stars” would become what it has.

Live long and prosper.