Space, the final frontierThese are the voyages of the Starship EnterpriseIts five-year mission, to explore strange new worldsTo seek out new life and new civilisationsTo boldly go where no man has gone before
Almost certainly the most famous monologue in television history, these words opened a show that would become a cultural phenomenon. From its humble beginnings as a television show Star Trek has gone on to become the largest science fiction franchise in existence, one which shows no signs of stopping.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry certainly had no idea what his show would evolve into when he was trying to launch it back in the 60s. After all, he had trouble even finding a TV network that was willing to broadcast it. CBS turned it down (a decision that in hindsight ranks alongside that of the record label who turned down the Beatles), and NBC rejected the first pilot, but took the unprecedented step of commissioning a second pilot.
Even once the show was on the air, it still faced problems. Viewing figures were low, and NBC planned to cancel it after the second season. A campaign by the fans was able to save it for another season, but at the end of the third season NBC pulled the plug.
And that’s where it should have ended. Failed TV shows don’t go on to become a worldwide phenomenon.
Well at least that’s how it usually works. However, Star Trek took another course. Reruns of the show led to a new generation of fans, and pretty soon Star Trek conventions and the stereotypical Trekkie were born.
Maybe some fans did take it a bit too seriously, but there are some double standards involved. What is it considered sad and geeky to put on pointy ears and wear a Starfleet uniform, yet perfectly acceptable to paint your face and dress in the kit of your favourite sports team?
As fans increased, plans were made to create a new Star Trek series which would see some of the cast members reprising their roles. However, the success of Star Wars resulted in the plans being scrapped, and the decision to make a movie being taken, leading to a successful movie franchise.
There’s probably been a lot written about just what made Star Trek so popular, and I don’t claim to be any expert regarding it. But I do have some thoughts.
One of the reasons for its success was the detail that went into the background of the series. The Enterprise crew were officers of Starfleet, the spacefaring arm of the United Federation of Planets, so there was the sense of there being something much greater than just the adventures of the a single spaceship. And although most episodes were simply the Enterprise dealing with something new each week, the reoccurrence of aliens such as the Klingons and the Romulans helped to add to this.
Along with the creation of the fictional universe, a lot of detail went into the design of the technology that appeared on the show, and an effort was made to maintain some degree of consistency in the way it was dealt with. Roddenberry’s decision to bring in science fiction authors as writers and consultants played a role in this, as there were people involved on the show who knew how to create a plausible futuristic setting, rather than just having experienced TV writers who might be under the impression that as long as it looks futuristic, you don’t need to worry about anything else.
The science fiction authors also played a role in the type of stories that appeared on Star Trek. Written science fiction had often dealt with issues that couldn’t easily be handled in a normal literary context, and Star Trek brought this notion to television, with episodes that dealt contemporary issues from the 1960s, such as global war, sexism and racism. In fact, Star Trek is notable for showing the first inter-racial kiss on American television, even if it was passed off as the characters being under mind control, and the kiss is never clearly shown.
Thanks to a Musica sale, I recently managed to pick up the entire third season on DVD for half price (I probably still got ripped off, but it was too good an opportunity to pass up). This gave me an opportunity to watch some episodes before writing this article – a better much prospect than relying on a vague memory of watching Star Trek over 20 years ago while in the UK.
So what do I think? Firstly, the show is dated. It’s almost 40 years old, and production quality and special effects have improved a lot since then, but the show was cutting edge for its time, so you can’t fault it for that.
As for the storylines themselves, well there certainly are some bad ones. But on the other hand, there are some that still hold up fairly well.
Star Trek was a show that a lot of thought went into, and took itself and its viewers seriously, to which they responded favourably. It wasn’t passed off as a joke, which is why it attracted so many devoted fans, why it still has an appeal today, and why it led to ten movies, and countless books, ten movies, and (most importantly for this column) four spin-off TV series which I’ll address in future articles.