A Brief Guide to Star Trek (43 page)

‘The themes that got me excited honestly had less to do with
Star Trek
and space and more to do with optimism and humanity, of finding your purpose through unity’, said Abrams of his first
Star Trek
film. ‘It ends up being a guiding principle of the movie – it needed to be faithful to the optimism that Gene Roddenberry wrote with during a time of fear and hate and suspicion. He was writing of our future where we were not just surviving it, but by cooperating and collaborating, we actually thrived. That to me is, more than ever, a relevant idea.’

Given the huge box office numbers of
Star Trek
, a follow-up film was inevitable. All the major cast members were already signed up for at least two sequels, but given the triumphant reinvention of the whole
Star Trek
franchise, it is possible there may be many more. The second movie was scripted during 2010–11, with shooting following towards the end of 2011. Release was set for the summer of 2012. This
Star Trek
was set to go on for a while . . .

Former
Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
writer Bryan Fuller had publicly talked about his desire to bring
Star Trek
back to television since at least 2008. Fuller followed his
Star Trek
experiences with his own series –
Dead Like Me
and
Pushing
Daisies
, and a role as consulting producer on
Heroes
– but felt that
Star Trek
belonged on television, even with the J. J. Abrams film then entering production. ‘I would love to return to the spirit of the old series’, Fuller told
iF Magazine
. ‘[The later series] seem to have lost the 1960s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin.’

Of course, that’s exactly the approach taken by Abrams with his movie, although Fuller wanted to feature
Men in Black II
and
Sin City
actress (and well-known Trekkie) Rosario Dawson as a lead in his proposed TV show. Even if he might not be the one to do it, Fuller remained convinced that
Star Trek
would eventually return once more to its natural home on television. ‘I think after the second [ J. J. Abrams]
Star Trek
movie comes out, they will start to have serious conversations again about a TV show. I think
Star Trek
always has a home on television. It is the defining piece of science fiction for the United States, [as]
Doctor Who
is for the UK. It’s all about the vision of the storyteller.’

‘
Why does
Star Trek
continue to survive, to touch people, to intrigue? One of the major reasons is that
Trek
is a meritocracy. It doesn’t matter who or what you are, your colour or race. None of that matters
.’ Leonard Nimoy

Star Trek
has been a pop cultural phenomenon for over forty-five years, given new life by the huge success of the 2009 movie. That reinvention – and its sequels – succeeded where the later television series had failed, by returning to
Star Trek
’s iconic characters and thrilling storytelling.

Although the original show finished in 1969, the continual airing of episodes in syndication and the reappearance of the original cast in movies meant that the first incarnation of
Star Trek
was ever present. The new ensemble cast of characters of
The Next Generation
had to establish themselves alongside the originals for much of the time. It was only the later trio of spinoffs –
Deep Space Nine
,
Voyager
and
Enterprise
– that were not overshadowed by the iconic characters of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. That’s when the rot set in . . .

Star Trek
had three hugely successful periods before its re -invention by J. J. Abrams:
The Original Series
, the 1980s original cast movies and
The Next Generation
. Ask the average television viewer who they remember from
Star Trek
, and the answer will invariably be Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with a smaller but
significant number remembering the bald Captain Picard and Data, the yellow-faced android – and even those two characters were arguably versions of Kirk and Spock.

Gene Roddenberry developed all three successful incarnations, but many of the best individual instalments of
Star Trek
came after he had stopped having any creative involvement.
The Original Series
was his brainchild, seen in its purest form in the failed pilot ‘The Cage’. This was
Star Trek
as the Great Bird of the Galaxy saw it, unadulterated by the concerns of networks, sponsors or fandom – yet it failed to sell. It was the more action-adventure based second pilot – Roddenberry’s
Star Trek
filtered through writer Samuel A. Peeples – that sold the series to NBC, launching the first flight of the
Enterprise
. And it was only when other storytellers (like Fontana, Gerrold and Coon on
The Original Series
) got their hands on Roddenberry’s
Star Trek
that the concept truly came alive.

A decade after that show’s cancellation, when the storytellers had all but departed the show, Roddenberry once again had the chance to realise his version of
Star Trek
– this time for the big screen.
The Motion Picture
is a slow-moving, lumbering film that dazzles with its visuals, but fails to engage on a human level – ironic, given that the marketing slogan was ‘The human adventure is just beginning’. But once again, the successful and satisfying original cast movies only came after Roddenberry’s forced departure, involving Harve Bennett, Nicholas Meyer and Leonard Nimoy in their creation:
The Wrath of Khan
,
The Search for Spock
,
The Voyage Home
and
The Undiscovered Country
. The movies that failed were
The Motion Picture
(under Roddenberry) and
The Final Frontier
(largely the creation of Kirk actor William Shatner).

Finally, there was
The Next Generation
. Roddenberry’s new take on
Star Trek
for the 1980s – in which he hoped to achieve a better representation of his original intentions for the 1960s version – was most fully achieved during the show’s rather inert, lacklustre and undramatic first season.
The Next Generation
debuted in syndication and managed to survive due to a unique
business arrangement. In order to persuade the independent stations of the syndication network across the United States to run
The Next Generation
, Paramount made taking the new show a condition of renewing the right to rerun
The Original Series
, Paramount’s ‘seventy-nine jewels’. Even in the late 1980s, the original
Star Trek
was still a significant show for many stations. The deal guaranteed
The Next Generation
a safe environment in which to debut. It is doubtful the series would have survived its first rocky couple of seasons as a network show. But it did survive – and outlived its creator – only to really flourish in the third year, which culminated with the invasion of the Borg in ‘The Best of Both Worlds’. That 1990 cliffhanger gave dramatic new life to
Star Trek
, although it is arguable whether Roddenberry would have recognised that storytelling as true to his perception of
Star Trek
. Yet, this two-parter is one of the series’ best remembered, over two decades later, and one of scripted dramatic television’s true events.

Gene Roddenberry failed to create anything as successful as
Star Trek
. He spent much of the 1970s making one failed pilot TV movie after another and his attempts to break into film were unsuccessful. His biggest post-
Star Trek
television successes came with
Andromeda
and
Earth: Final Conflict
, shows sold by Majel Barrett Roddenberry, using her husband’s name prominently, long after his death. Roddenberry seemed more content as a figurehead for
Star Trek
fandom, revelling in his Great Bird of the Galaxy status, promoting his own myth and the legend of his creation of all-things
Star Trek
. Only much later did it become clear that he was not above shamelessly exploiting those same fans (in the 1960s and 1970s his Lincoln Enterprises sold copies of
Star Trek
scripts, without authorisation from either the individual writers or Paramount). For a man whose utopian vision of the future did not include cash, it was often money that was his main motivation, not propagating a future-focused philosophy. ‘I had to get some money from somewhere’, Roddenberry said of his claim to half the royalties on sales of Stephen Whitfield’s 1968
The Making of Star Trek
book and
Alexander Courage’s theme tune (to which Roddenberry wrote unneeded lyrics). ‘I’m sure not going to get it from the profits of
Star Trek
!’ This Great Bird had feet of clay.

Until the 2009 movie, nothing in
Star Trek
was ever again as successful as
The Next Generation
. The Borg-based
First Contact
was a huge blockbuster, but the other movies featuring
The Next Generation
cast failed to capture the same energy and intensity.
Deep Space Nine
embarked on an interesting anti-
Star Trek
experiment in hard-hitting storytelling and serialisation – and it succeeded, especially when executive attention was elsewhere with the launch of
Voyager
. The space station series was probably the furthest removed from Roddenberry’s view of
Star Trek
, escaping quite decisively from Michael Piller’s concept of ‘Roddenberry’s box’ of storytelling limitations. Producer Rick Berman ensured that Roddenberry’s utopian vision of the future was faithfully adhered to in all the follow-up series, with both
Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
faithfully following
The Original Series
’ liberal humanist creed, featuring an African-American and a woman as their leading characters. However, with
Voyager
(and the final series,
Enterprise
), a step backwards was taken in an attempt to recreate elements of
The Original Series
within the template of
The Next Generation
-style
Star Trek
. Now the original cast was gone from cinemas, the new television shows could cannibalise the past to recreate what had worked in terms of characters and stories.
Star Trek
was continuing without the original icons of Kirk, Spock and McCoy or Picard and Data, those that had successfully emerged from
The Next Generation
into popular consciousness. The last years of
Voyager
and
Enterprise
attempted to draw upon the past, without the character archetypes that had captured the world’s imagination.

Star Trek
could now be ruthlessly satirised due to its creative stagnation. There had always been comedy skits and sketches making fun of Spock’s pointed ears and the danger of donning a red shirt. However, 1999’s
Galaxy Quest
was of a different order. This mainstream movie affectionately spoofed the on-screen icons of
Star Trek
, the reported behind the scenes
squabbles among both cast members and fans, while also delivering a great comedy science fiction adventure story in its own right. For this movie to succeed it required the audience to be familiar with
Star Trek
’s image, but also for that image to be fixed and unchanging. The failure to innovate within
Star Trek
itself opened the door for
Galaxy Quest
to exist.

As the producer of
Star Trek
for eighteen years between 1987 and 2005, Rick Berman used the term ‘franchise fatigue’ to describe what happened to
Star Trek
after
Deep Space Nine
. That show had run in parallel with
The Next Generation
and
Voyager
for its seven-year duration, meaning that there were always two
Star Trek
shows on air between 1993 and 2001. That period also saw the release of three big screen movies –
Generations
,
First Contact
and
Insurrection
– only one of which was creatively successful. After
Voyager
, and with
Enterprise
in a lacklustre second season,
Nemesis
made its abysmal debut at cinemas in 2002, killing off the
Star Trek
movie franchise for seven years.

Berman saw the problem as simply too much
Star Trek
, with movies and television shows exploring the same concepts and with similar characters competing with each other. Not only was the new product saturating the market, the old series and movies were widely available, first on VHS tape, then on DVD, as well as in endless television reruns around the world. If current
Star Trek
wasn’t to your liking, then your favourite show or movie from the series’ long history was easily available to you at the flick of a switch.

That issue may have been a factor, but there is no denying that
Star Trek
had become trapped within a static formula: its later years were missing characters that audiences could believe in and storytelling they found accessible. Berman and his various creative teams were struggling with how to create not only new science fiction television shows, but also new
Star Trek
, with all that the concept implied.

With the end of the original cast movies and the arrival of the Borg,
The Next Generation
had finally found itself and successfully created a new way of telling
Star Trek
stories that succeeded
with a mass television audience. After that, it was a case of rapidly diminishing returns. Each new series would debut to huge viewing figures as a curious public were seduced into checking out what the latest version of
Star Trek
was like. They then discovered each show and its new characters simply didn’t match up with their vivid memories of the originals or
The Next Generation
. Without exception, every series after
The Next Generation
suffered a catastrophic fall in viewing figures across each full run, culminating in the ignominy of cancellation for
Enterprise
in 2005. The franchise had turned inwards and begun to service only the die-hard fans – often with very well-told stories – but it failed to reach beyond the fan base. Each subsequent series featured either characters from
The Original Series
or
The Next Generation
in an attempt to bring back the mass audience and appeal to fans of those individual shows.
The Next Generation
’s Worf became a regular on the later seasons of
Deep Space Nine
, while the Borg (and even Sulu) appeared on
Voyager
, and
Enterprise
fell back on regular appearances by Klingons and Vulcans (and even controversially concluded with a story built around
The Next Generation
’s Riker and Troi).