I cannot for the life of me believe it's taken this long to get to Star Trek.
Star Trek forms one-third of a science-fiction trifecta alongside Doctor Who and Star Wars. Please don't flood the comments asking me why; it's wholly arbitrary on my part. My reasoning is that these three are long-running franchises which made an indelible stamp on the public consciousness, from saying that someone with a heavy cold "sounds like Darth Vader" or knowing that Star Trek's communicators inspired Motorola's flip-phones.
Writer Gene Roddenberry conceived of the series in the early 1960s as a mélange of Forbidden Planet, Buck Rogers, Horatio Hornblower, and a TV Western called Wagon Train, in which a central cast traveled the frontier in covered wagons. (The similarities between Train and Trek end with the idea of having the central cast visiting other places and meeting guest stars.)
The series' first season was a hit, with writers such as Harlan Ellison and David Gerrold contributing cerebral, thought-provoking stories like "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Man Trap." Past the quality of the stories, the original series lasted so long because of the camaraderie of the main cast, with the central trio of Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) grounding the out-there premise with good humor and total commitment to their world.
Though the series lasted only three seasons, it lived on in reruns, at conventions, and in motion pictures.
My involvement with Trek started and ended with the second series, The Next Generation. At one point, I had a good number of the figurines and playsets, but none of the videos save The Motion Picture, The Voyage Home, and "pirated" copies of II, III, V, and VI, dubbed from Blockbuster's copies.
I started on Deep Space 9 two years ago, but never got around to finishing it or starting on Voyager and Enterprise, and I might get around to Disco? Very! and Picard one of these days. As for the J.J. Abrams movies...The first one was pretty good, but ultimately forgettable.
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| Picture courtesy eBay user jj_jazz And, here is the Trek Millennium Collector's Plate. Starting clockwise at 3:00, we have the Enterprise from the TV series. At 6:00, what I believe is the Voyager. At 9:00, the Motion Pictures' Enterprise, which might be 1701-A. And, at 12:00, the Enterprise-D from The Next Generation. All four ships are coming out of warp and heading off to new adventures. As with most of the things on this site, this plate acknowledges the history of Trek while also looking toward the future. |
