Captain's Log: Stardate 20090603. Following receipt of a message indicating that there is going to be yet another Star trek film, I wondered again at which point the film and television industry stop flogging the horse once it has died.I love the original Star Trek. I grew up with it. It always seemed to be on television after school during the summer months (at least it was where I lived - but of course, these would have been syndicated repeats as even I am not that old!).
The Original Series was something that was greater than the sum of its parts. My own feeling is that it succeeded even in spite of what Gene Roddenberry might have wanted at times, but without a doubt he created the best science fiction television series we are ever likely to see.
OK, the effects were at best dodgy and there are some episodes which are just so awful I still can't watch them (especially the one with all the singing and Spock grinning like the devil while playing the lyre. grrrr!), but the stories were so brilliant and the ideology so spot on and outward thinking you don't really notice the bad bits. It's like watching a stage production. Does anyone who is at the theatre complain that the sets are made of cardboard? “The play's the thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king” (Hamlet and Star Trek)
It's hard to believe that it was also scandalous - with the first inter-racial kiss ever on TV between Kirk and Uhura and one episode ('The Empath') banned because of the torture scenes. Hot stuff back then! Imagine a television series now advocating peace, diplomacy and equality! I have two favourite episodes, which are practically poles apart in style. 'The Trouble with Tribbles' was just so funny. The Klingons were funny. Cyrano Jones was funny. The tribbles were funny and Kirk and Spock were funny. Everything worked.
One the more dramatic side, 'City on the Edge of Forever', with a script by Harlan Ellison could easily have been a stand alone feature film. Performances from Joan Collins and the regular cast were just superb. You know the story...McCoy gets a superdose of something from a hypo, goes mad and beams down to a planet where there is a gateway to the past. He goes back in time and changes something. Kirk and Spock follow through the gate after discovering that the change McCoy makes wipes out their existence. In the past Kirk falls in love with the Joan Collins character, Edith Keeler. The dilemma is that the change McCoy has made relates to whether Edith Keeler lives or dies. The friendship of the Kirk, Spock and McCoy triangle is really at the centre of the work and the dynamics of those three characters is really what sets the series apart from all those that followed.
OK, the original series also had some pretty cool gadgets. The transporter was one, but the tricorder was the most fascinating...funny how life has imitated 'art' and now, on my rather small mobile phone, I can not only take photographs and video recordings, send email and access the internet, but also use the GPs map system to know where I am and plan where I am going and will soon be able to pinpoint where friends are located. (If I'm lucky, sometimes it works as a phone as well).
Alas, it was probably the reliance on gadgets, though, that made me lose interest. The Next Generation was just dull, despite having updated special effects and hence, gadgetry. The Next Generation seemed introspective and detached and too much focus on tech stuff. There never seemed to be any believable interaction between the main characters and I always felt that rather than advocating equality and integration, the differences between the characters were given too much prominence. Lt. Worf was different because he was a Klingon, Engineer La Forge was different because he was blind, the counsellor was different because she was a woman and so on. Data was just irritating. The idea of kids in space was also very bad. If the whole idea wasn't bolted onto the idea of Star Trek, it never would have got off the ground (pun intended).
As for what came next...Deep Space Yawn, Voyager to the Bottom of the Sea, and Lack of Enterprise...let's just say I was never an avid fan of them.
I really, really lost interest in the whole Trek business when people started constructing and speaking the Klingon language and courses were offered on such at Universities. Hello? It's only a television show...it's not real!
Slowly getting around to the point - I was also never that fond of the films. With the exception of The Wrath of Khan (II), the Voyage Home (IV) and the Undiscovered Country (VI), they were a pretty dire bunch. It is well documented that the first film was only made because of the success of Star Wars and the general feeling was that it was so long and dull, the only thing that the Nicholas Meyer could do on the second feature was to pretty much ignore the first film. Isn't it funny how in the Wrath of Khan everyone was more or less reunited again? I would also have to agree with the idea of the 'Star Trek curse' that it was only the even numbered films which were any good. I would only add that this was true up until number six, after which they were all rubbish. By the time of the Voyage Home I had pretty much stopped keeping track and don't remember seeing any of the ones after that at the cinema.
So it was with a sinking heart that on hearing about the new film that I read the snippets of information. It's going to be about the younger years of Kirk and crew (groan), about how they met up (louder groan) and set off of their first adventures (just kill me now).
But wait...'What's this?' I thought, on seeing that Wynona Rider was to be involved. Wynona is usually a sensible type. Is she short of cash? This was something curious. But there was more. Simon Peg? I'm sure I must be one of the five people that actually watched 'Hippies'. OK, now I'm getting curious - maybe it will be a comedy? Wynona, huh. I think the last film I (sort of) saw her in was 'A Scanner Darkly' - which was far better than I thought it would be (yeah, I'm a Phillip Dick fan and had read that story years ago...). Spock's mother they say.. Very curious.
Next thing I see is a logo. Well, they would have to use the same style logo, really, wouldn't they? Maybe. It's a rather nice logo, though.
Then the trailer...not a good start. A teenager. In space. Then...well, actually that guy does seem to do a pretty good Spock impression. Was that someone that looked like Captain Pike? Is that *gasp* an original style uniform? OMG was that Uhura? And was she wearing a red tunic? That set looked a bit like a simple coloured Bridge! Oh, explosions, special effects and a fat bald bloke with a tattooed face wanting to take over the universe. Well...still I had to watch it again. I have never done that before after seeing a Trek trailer.
Do I dare to hope that this time it will be a good one?
One last chance. Set phasers on stun, just in case!
In the meantime, since I finally found the Spizz song 'Where's Capt. Kirk' on MP3 enjoy!
Athletico Spizz - Where's Captain Kirk?
