OTF's Blue Publication May 2009
I said to Polson 'I'll write a history of Trek!' To my horror, she agreed. This meant that I would have to sit down, think of coherent, interesting things to say. Do some research. Discover facts – dates, people, places – I couldn't just make stuff up as you lot would rumble me. And a lot of Trek's history is well known to you already so how could I make this stuff appealing? Something that you'd want to read, rather than yet another dry re-run? So here's what we'll do. I'm going to blast through the history in one sentence and then get onto what I decided to write about instead. Ok? Allow me to draw a deep breath:
Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry who was nicknamed the Great Bird of The Galaxy though he wasn't a real bird and it was about Captain Kirk and his intrepid crew traipsing round space in the Enterprise and over the years various other series and movies depicted the ongoing adventures of Kirk and co and other ships and their crews and then it got boring and everyone stopped watching it the end.
Well, it was a little more complicated than that. A LOT more complicated and therein lies the problem. Years and years of accumulated history weighing down on writers and fans alike. The dreaded word 'canon' , a time line convoluted and twisted to breaking point. Many fans and mainstream viewers voted with their 'off' buttons at a Trek grown stale and old. The final series, 'Enterprise' , was cancelled and Trek was in a state of cryogenic sleep. What was to be done?
Answer: bring in one of the most innovative and exciting talents working in movies and TV today to freshen up, reinvigorate trek. JJ Abrams, famous for Alias, Lost, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible: III amongst others, got the job. Fans seemed pleased by this; here was a top-notch talent, here was a real chance for Trek to be reborn. Would we see a new ship and crew? Well . . . no. We were going back to Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest.
Naturally, fans were filled with trepidation. Not least of all me. When I was little TOS was the only Trek. The first run of trek ended in the UK in December 1971, I was four years old and have vague memories of being glued to it with my mam and dad. I loved all the space stuff, I watched the moon missions without knowing what I was watching, yet I was fascinated by it. It was the same with Trek. I suppose that I equated Trek and those moon missions – they were both on our black and white TV, they were both about space, weren't they?
I remember the cartoon series arriving in 1973 very well. We talked about it at school, ate the chocolate bars (white chocolate with coloured crispy bits in them) and fought about who was going to be Captain Kirk when we played Star Trek. The cartoon didn't last long and I pestered my mam all the time, asking her when it would ever come back. Of course, it did, with the reinvention that was The Motion Picture, in 1979. Seeing Trek on the big screen with state of the art special effects was amazing. Brand new Trek – we'd have preferred a series, I dare say, but we got the movies and they were responsible for reigniting the public interest in Trek.
Would we have had The Next Generation and the rest without the movie series? Doubtful. The cartoon even played its part in keeping some public interest in Trek going. The Motion Picture has its critics but it brought Trek to a new audience, brought it up to date and put new life into Trek – a job that would be fully completed with Wrath of Khaaaaaaannnnn! (Sorry, old habit.) Khan came out in 82, Search for Spock in 84 and Voyage Home in 86. By this time, of course, The Next Generation was being readied for its own debut in 1987. And so it carried on through Deep Space 9, Voyager, the TNG movies and finally Enterprise.
The problem was that Star Trek became, in my opinion, processional, formulaic, dull. There were some fine stories, absolutely, some good writing and acting. But there was too much that was mediocre and average. The same mcguffins being used over and over to resolve a situation. Trek's reputation for technobabble was founded in this period and was well deserved. There are many fans who love the later series – unfortunately, the mainstream viewers did not share their enthusiasm. Trek was dying.
We're back to Abrams. Abrams had to address all of this. Had to take a scythe to all that was choking Star Trek, had to look for ways to reinvigorate, reinvent even. I'm not going to tell you how he did this - go and see the movie! - but what I will tell you is that he has succeeded. Brilliantly. He has managed to bring Trek bang up to date while staying true to the important things. Star Trek taught us to seek out and explore. Not just about other beings and places – but about ourselves.
Trek is back, the movie is a hit and people are talking about it everywhere It's relevant. It's new, yet it's familiar. It's cool to be a Trek fan again! I sincerely hope that the history of Trek remains incomplete for some considerable time to come. After all – 'the Human adventure is just beginning'!