Star Trek, from then to now

Oh no. not only is she a doctor who freak, but Star Trek as well??? really??

yeas really.

One thing you need to understand about me, when I find something that fascinates me, I will go on a continues search to learn everything there is to know about the franchise. and the older and more elaborate a franchise is, the more delighted I become.

I gotta be honest, I didn't really grow up with Star Trek. but it's one of the things I have been digging up upon in a long time, and seen everything what has to do with it.

Also what I really want to say, I know nobody is reading any of this, but if someone is anyhow, and want me to elaborate something specific in any franchise I might mention, please do so, as of now. I will do it, I can write articles pin pointing something very specific, in fact I would be delighted to, even more delighted to write an article on demand, that would be cool.

Anyhow, Star Trek. What star trek basically is, or what it's origins is and it is meant to be but not always is, is a morale show disguised as a space adventure.
Dealing with morale human questions and dilemmas, just in space, and with a smile on it's face.
It really sets out to trick the children and young people who watches it to think about the human condition. and it works, or at least. it mostly does.

Anyway, lets as yesterdays article, start from the beginning.

Star Trek for the very first time saw the light of day in 65 but was dropped as quickly as it began. a pilot had been produced and killed.

in 66 they had a new try, the only cast member who had survived since the first pilot was Leonard Nimoy playing the green blooded logical alien Spock. At first the show had bad reviews, and was even cancelled after mere 3 seasons. but it wouldn't stop the fan domn from growing, and it would become one of the most beloved sci-fi franchises in the world. And the crew of the short lived series, considered to be the holy grail of the Franchise.

William Shatner playing Captain Kirk, which to this day have become a cliché all in himself, with his ability to snog every hot alien chick he meets, and have ripped the shirt off on a daily basis.

Leonard Nimoy playing Spock, as I mentioned before. who is also a cliché, with the way that he shows no emotion, is a being of logic who talks kind of like a polite machine with logical words. and of cause his pointy ears and Beatles hair cut is today a cliché.

Lastly among the three main characters we had DeForest Kelley, playing the Doctor McCoy. whom with his grumpy personality and his "Dammit Jim I'm a doctor not a xxxxx" also became a cliche all in himself.

Hard to believe there were actually so much more behind these characters. all three of them was dimensional and supported each other in a way that can't be planned nor fabricated. They just fitt together and not only make each other seem good and many layered, but also made funny situations work, they had a humour between each other that was just spot on and worked.

The episodes in their three years run sprung from both being incredible clever deep and sad, to just really funny, to downright silly bad. but always fun and enjoyable, no matter how silly.
The Actors were just brilliant and fitted their parts perfectly, and complicated each other in ways you need to see to understand.

After the shows kill in 69 the show was sat on re-runs in children's hours, and that's when the fan base really started to grow. and it just continued growing.

a two years primitive cartoon was produced which covered the last two years of their official 5 years journey.

And then in 79, ten years after the cancellation a movie was produced. the entire cast was brought back to bring new life to the franchise.
fortunately, despite the first Star Trek movie being rather bland and unimaginative, it cashed in at the box office, and the green light was given to the sequel.

The world is a big and bizarre place, and sometimes there are miracles. the sequel to the first bland movie turned out to be what people consider to be the best Star Trek movie ever. "The Wrath of Khan" is a movie show casing everything Star Trek ever was about, it's aware of itself and it's character, and brought the layered dimensional thinking back to Star Trek.

Of cause after such a success a movie number 3 and 4 was put in the works.
There are mixed feelings towards the third movie "the search for Spock" and personally I just find it to be okay, it isn't exactly good. just okay.
movie number four. "The voyage home" is just a really fun and charming movie, and it never tries to be anything different, though it actually became the highest grossing movie of the classic Star Trek era.

In fact the grossing was so high that a new television show got the green light, "Star Trek the next generation" or just "TNG" but we get to that when we are done with the classic movies.

As TNG had its first season and gained quick popularity, another Star Trek movie had to be produced. Star Trek 5, The finale frontier.
This is considered to be the worst Star Trek movie produced, I have to disagree with that.
Is it bad? hell yeas it's bad. Then why not the worst? because I personally think TNG have produced worse movies.

Because like bad Doctor who, the Finale Frontier is downright kinky, it's weird and dosn't have respect to neither it's origins nor characters, but it have a charm and fun to it. At least I can laugh at this, most TNG movies puts me to sleep.

After that disastrous movie, and another Star Trek series on the run, it seemed like the end for the original crew. but coming neared to the shows 25 years jubelium in 1991, it was decided to give the old crew a finale move and a last good buy.

Star Trek six, "the undiscovered country" was the last movie, and it was a worthy send off, bringing back the writer and Director from "The Wrath of Khan" it re captured the feelings from Wrath of Khan, and even though it wasn't quite as good as that, it was good enough. a good mystery plot with a clear message in the end.

Well, time to talk about TNG.

The series that started in 87 and ran for seven years until 94.
It was a totally new start, and instead of re-casting the old crew for a new start, they made an entire new crew, with new values and the setting is almost a hundred years past the original series. Which as it turned out to, was a rather brilliant idea.
Star Trek TNG is a fun series, it have major high points and major silly low points, kind of like the original series, only this one lasted longer, and was actually a hit while it was running, plus actually became pop culture while it was on.
The series started at a low point as it tried to be like the old original series, than became a high point after two seasons where it found it's own ground, and ended on a low point again as the writers ran low on ideas and stories, though the last season finale, is one of the better series finales ever produced.

And after it's cancellation in 94, they started making movies.. boring, boring, nonsensical sad movies.
I am seriouse, these movies are just so boring and bland, with the possible exception of the second movie "first contact" wich many considers being a high point of Star Trek history. the remaining 3 out of 4 TNG movies are incredible boring, bland and even dumb, but I can't even laugh at the stupidity as I am in fact sleeping.

Well, in a transition to the cancelation of Star Trek TNG in 93, while TNG had one of it's last run another Star Trek show was aired with a new crew and a new concept. Star Trek Deep space 9, or just DS9

This show is really overlooked by pop culture, probably due to that it's squirmed in between TNG and Star Trek voyager.
And probably also because it's not so much as a "Trek" series as it is a intergalactic war series.

The show is rather brilliant, it started out as being an medi ocre TNG, but then also found it's own feet's and grew, with brilliant story arching and fascinating character growth, this series is something else. up until that point Star Trek had been about exploring, and each episode would be a one shoot, this really was story arching. and though it may not seem like a Star Trek series, all though it took place in the same universe within continuity and with the same aliens, it wins where TNG tended to fall short.
Some of TNG's characters often came out as pretty one dimensional, that is with the exception of Captain Picard, and Data, but except for does two characters, the rest really only worked within an interesting story and setting.
No one is one dimensional in DS9, they even managed to have one dimensional former permanent TNG character on-board, the klingon Worf, and make him one dimensional.
Even the Worf humour works tons better at DS9 than in TNG.

Seriously, I never laughed once in TNG when Worf did something stupid, but when he was pissed at Quarck in Ds9... I laughed.

The show was an underground hit, and as such kind of transition turned out to work well, they decided to do it again. in 95, as Ds9 was far from being over and was in it's best age. another Trek show saw the light of day.

Star Trek voyager.... darn it.

This is where things started going wrong. Star Trek voyager is considered to be "The show" of missed opportunities. and quite frankly, the show is stupid. of cause it had its high points with some good episodes, but does were the exception.
And I don't care what people says, a show where a good episode is the exception is still a bad show. That's like saying Twilight is a good book cause it have one interesting supporting character, doesn't work that way, it's still a bad book (yeas, I faced that argumentation)
In this show everybody but one is one dimensionel, and that one being The doctor.. no not the doctor from doctor who, I am talking the doctor who neither have name... darn it. He is a hologram and that's why he dosn't have a name other than his proffesion, at least his a real doctor. but even he lost dimension as the series progressed, by the end he was just as flat and wooden as everybody else. Wooden acting by half the cast even supported the one dimensional characterisation. Some episodes were kinky bad, and some was just boring, it was fifty fifty situation, whit and occasional good episode. but that still makes for a bad show.

As Voyager finally had it's end in 2001, a new show started the same year. "Star Trek Enterprise" a bloody prequel show.

If there are something I have learned as a movie and television watcher, it is that Sequels and continueation can be a good thing, and sometimes it really is. Like in doctor who, or batman or X-men or Toy story or what ever.

but Prequels... you can run and hide right now, they are never ever good, and absolutely never better than the original things. Personally I also think peoples imagination when they are told a good background story within the movie, is so much more powerful than what could ever be shown on the screen, plus when making prequels, you will probably sooner or later screw around with continuity.

Well, Star Trek Enterprise really lived up to that statement, it's a bad show.
At least it's kinky bad that keeps me away, but bad is still bad. there have been fans who thinks it fixed itself towards the end, and to and extent I agree, but then I just have to watch the series finale to totally disagree, it really ends as it starts. Badly.
and it didn't get to run for 7 years like any of the other modern Star Trek series, even the bad Voyager, it was cancelled after 3½ season.
It's always a bad sign when a show is cancelled in the middle of the season.

I guess this is the thing people find really interesting, last year in 09 new life was put into the franchise with a new movie, simply called "Star Trek"
going back to the basics by re-casting the old crew rather than making a new one, which usually was the tradition. There have been strong feelings towards this, both love and hate have been showered by the fans.

I can understand both why Fans can love and hate it.

They can love it, because it's an entertaining movie that pays homage to the old. Star Trek had it's major low points, and this movie isn't anything near as bad as like half the prior star Trek movies, and the last two series. It simply isn't that bad.

They can hate it because it's nothing like the best of Star Trek, and as standing as an action movie on it's own. it's sadly medi ocre, entertaining, but medi ocre.

What I personally believe should be done should be fire the writers.
The direction was good, the casting was excellent, and it was a very good looking movie. but it was written by the two same dumbo's who wrote Transformers 1 and 2.
With writers like that, aren't you just happily surprised that it's not a bad movie? I am.

I believe the two dumbo's, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman if you really wanna know their names, have no conception of human conditions, the real world and just good old fashion human reality, to me they seem like action fan boys, which is good in a action movie writer, but only if you have that other thing with you, especially when regarding Star Trek who's origins is to be a morale show mirroring the human condition.

And it's not like there are happening nothing in the world they could write about and fitt into a fictional universe. Economic crisis, War, to fast evolution of the U-countries, integrates. the world is open to them, but they don't seem to see it, or figure what power the pen can have in the right hands, especially when regarding Sci-fi and other fiction.

Like doctor who this franchise is far from over, the 09 movie was an instant hit, and so a new movie will be released in june th 29, 2012, bringing back everyone (including writers, yuck)

Maybe it will only be another movie and then the end, maybe it will be two movies and then the end, maybe it will start a new tely series starting the whole thing over again.

I have no idea, which also makes it pretty exciting.