For as long
as I remember I have been a ‘Star Trek’ fan. It all goes back to the original
series and the first few movies they did in the 80’s. My Mom told me my love
for space science fiction actually began when my parents took me to the drive
in to watch ‘ET’ in 1982 when I was 2. Apparently I stayed up for the entire
movie glued to the screen the entire time, shortly thereafter was when I probably
discovered ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’.
Although I am
a ‘Trekkie’ I have from time to time stopped watching Star Trek shows due to
issues I had with them. Back in 1997 I stopped watching ‘Star Trek: Voyager’
halfway through season 3. At that time I had issues with some of the logic
associated with the premise of the series. How can Voyager sustain extreme
damage from the Kazon in one episode then in the next episode it is clean and pristine?
Voyager is literally 70+ years away from the nearest Federation space dock, cut
off from the engineers and materials required to repair the ship… Then in
season 4 it became the ‘Borg Babe and funny hologram Doctor Show’. I’ve gone
back and watched some of the episodes I missed but I’ve never watched the
entire series, yet I consider myself a Trekkie. Just because you are a fan of a
franchise doesn’t mean you have to accept mediocre storytelling. I knew before ‘Voyager’
even launched that the premise of a Starfleet vessel being lost in space 75
years from the Federation was a doomed concept. To their credit they played out
the premise for the entire 7 year run but I think it would have been better to
see this show take place in Federation space. There are always plenty of
stories to tell in the Alpha quadrant.
‘Enterprise’
(later wisely renamed ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’) was another example of me
dropping off of a Trek series. In season 3 they started a ‘Xindi’ war story arc
which I did not care for so I stopped watching. If Earth had been attacked by
this unknown ‘Xindi’ race and they intended to use their version of the ‘Death
Star’ on Earth why was this never refereed to or mentioned before in the
original series, TNG, DS9 or Voyager? Enterprise is after all a prequel series
and that is the root of what makes it a flawed series. If the NX-01 Enterprise
really is the first Federation ship again why was this not ever mentioned in
the previous Trek series or movies?
Prequels;
when not executed with continuity in mind are doomed to suck. Enterprise at
times ignored established Trek continuity and suffered as a result; likewise
with ‘Star Trek: Discovery’. Say what you will about the ‘Star Wars’ prequels
at least creator George Lucas had it (for the most part) planned out to work
with the continuity he had already established with the original trilogy.
Discovery, more so than Enterprise, completely ignores continuity and relies on
special effects, lens flares, macguffins, and lazy writing to tell their
stories while at the same time completely ignoring established continuity. So far ‘Star Trek: Picard’ is doing a better
job at working with established continuity and doing a better job weaving the story
they are telling.
Bottom line
I wish ‘Star Trek’ would simply return to their roots. And no I do not mean
they should reboot Captain Kirk or Captain Pike yet again (sorry Anson Mount,
love you as Captain Pike but I really don’t need a show with that character),
but rather a new show with a new crew, new cast, new ship but same mission as
the original series. A Starfleet ship in the 25th century that goes
on missions every week to “Seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly
go where no one has gone before”.
Sorry
Michelle Yeoh but I am not looking forward to the proposed ‘Section 31’ series.
I want more “Star Trek” in my STAR TREK.
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