The US Post Office stamp designs above are in recognition that 2016 marks 50 years since the first episodes of Star Trek aired on NBC. (Where has the time gone?) Star Trek is returning to television as a new series via CBS. While the initial episode will air on the network, subsequent episodes are going to be streamed via CBS All Access on a pay to view basis. (All of the previous Star Trek series are available now.)
Much remains up in the air; exactly when/where in the Star Trek universe the series will be set, what the basic set up will be (New characters, different ships?), and other details are yet to be determined.
Looking backwards from 2016, it’s hard to appreciate now how groundbreaking the series was. A multi-racial, multiethnic cast was not your usual fare on television in the 1960s. The special effects look cheesy by today’s CGI standards, but at the time they were pretty imaginative. While we were watching the race to the moon where three men in a space capsule was big news, the idea of a star ship carrying a crew of several hundred on a mission lasting 5 years was quite a leap forward. (Alas for fans of the dreaded styrofoam planets, the original series has been ‘restored’ with updated scenes and effects, especially the views set in space.)
That being said, there were some things that don’t hold up all that well. Some of it’s a matter of taste, some of it is just that we’ve moved on. Which, means rebooting the show while improving on it is going to be a challenge. Aaron Williams at Do Gooder Press has been pondering how to relaunch the show while learning from past mistakes. He put together some thoughts on how to go about it.
Some of it is basic — Williams suggests the show needs a head writer, someone to keep it on track from week to week so there is continuity. No more “amazing discovery of the week” or character development that is never referenced again for example. The show should ideally build on its ‘experiences’ — and its characters should be consistent with them.
...I’m hoping the anthology structure will mitigate all the chefs cooking this particular meal. Episodic shows where the reset button gets slapped right before the credits roll may have worked in the past, but I think today’s audiences want some continuity to raise the stakes and give them a reason to keep tuning in.
Along with emphasizing how important casting is, Williams also covers some other critical points:
...Star Trek needs to reinvent Star Trek. I’ll cite the recent movies as an example of this. Back in the day, the original series had Crayola-colored uniforms that looked cheap because that’s what was affordable. The uniforms for women featured miniskirts and go-go boots because the 1960’s had just happened, and even sci-fi TV wasn’t terribly progressive on that front. When Star Trek the Motion Picture came along, it was like getting the ‘Trek we always assumed was there, forced to wear hand-me-downs because it was working two jobs and taking classes at night. The uniforms looked like actual uniforms! Even the security dudes looked like they could actually take someone in a fight without getting themselves killed.
emphasis added
Read the whole thing. Williams throws out a few more ideas, such as keeping the techno-babble within bounds, the stories shouldn’t be dominated by the same characters every week, no time travel plots (the Star Trek universe is convoluted enough as it is!)
While Star Trek TOS as just a TV series can be dismissed as another artifact from the 1960s, Star Trek the phenomenon still resonates today. The show made science and actual expertise cool; it made tolerance seem matter of fact; it inspired people to work for a better future. It took a stab at Big Ideas…
Williams does one more thing. He links to a hilarious, vulgar, insightful commentary on Star Trek in light of the 2009 JJ Abrams reboot by one Mr. Plinkett. It’s definitely NSFW, not for small children, and definitely not for people who don’t like crude language. But… you’ll get an entirely different perspective on Star Trek.
So, what annoys you about the Star Trek Universe? What do you like? What would you like to see, what do you want to avoid — and what do you think about a new series? What other Science Fiction series do you enjoy — or prefer over Star Trek?
For the not faint of heart, here’s the Plinkett review mentioned above. (Again — definitely NSFW, not for small children, and definitely not for people who don’t like crude language.)