| It has become my opinion that the Star
Trek legacy that I grew up with has ceased to exist. To put a finer
point on it, when Gene Roddenberry died, the vision that was Star Trek became
nothing more than the *ka-ching* of the cash register. Paramount,
Viacom, and to a lesser degree UPN just saw Trek as something to make bucketloads
of money. (Not that I have any problem with the Capitalist system
we live under. After all, we ALL make money off of someone or something
else.) Yes, Gene wanted to make money for himself, but he also wanted
to tell a story. The travesty that Star Trek has become virtually
negates that story. I have been a Trekkie ever since I can remember. One thing that had (emphasis on HAD) always impressed me about Trek was the great attention to detail. Of course, there were more than plenty of mistakes (otherwise there wouldn't have been the Nitpicker's series of books), but by and large the stories attempted to stay within the established norm to create a cohesive universe. All of that has changed. Admiral Janeway just finished charging to the rescue in the past and Captain Sisko was called to the Celestial Temple by the Prophets, and my life would have to be Trek-free, at least until the next movie. Then I heard there was going to be a new series. I was elated to say the least. I wouldn't have to wait until another movie came out to have Trek in my life! And then the bombshells started dropping. A ship that had never been mentioned before (did Starfleet simply FORGET the first starship ever launched?), not to mention a design that was far from original (the Enterprise 1701 was groundbreaking, the NX-01 was an Akira with the nacelles flipped up and missing the deflector bump on the bottom of the saucer - oh, wait, they DID put a different set of nacelles on it, it must be original). Why on Earth pick Scott Bakula (aka Captain Quantum Leap), except for the obvious T&A value? The theme song is a POP song for crying out loud! Where's the grand orchestral number I have come to expect from Star Trek? Wait a minute, alien species we've never seen? But isn't this ship "Boldy going where everyone has gone before..."? The list goes on and on, you get the idea. Even with all of my reservations (including no "Star Trek" in the title, I guess they didn't have the guts), I gave the show a chance. Well, three actually. I got through about ten minutes of the premier before I had to change the channel in disgust. Since then, I've seen parts of other episodes, but can't stomach more than a few minutes at the time. What was once great storytelling of the human condition on a "Wagon Train to the Stars" had deteriorated into mindless T&A, hollow and wooden, totally unbelievable characters, and the "let's see who we can shoot at this week" philosophy. What Rick Berman and crew have done to Star Trek is unforgivable. They took something that millions of people hold dear and twisted it, all to make a name for themselves. They totally trounced on Gene's vision and turned it into their own, formula-based show. In trying to make a name for themselves, they have alienated the fan base that has made Star Trek what it is today. Evidence that Berman holds contempt for Gene and wants to go his own way: TNG ended with Captain Picard finally playing a game of poker with his officers. We then jump forward to "Generations". All throughout the movie, almost every room onboard the Enterprise-D is shown as dark and dank (possibly alluding to the "dark days" when Gene was running the show?). Through an almost totally unbelivable series of events, the Enterprise-D, the Galaxy Class flagship of the Federation Fleet, is blown out of space by an 80 year old Bird of Prey that should have been NO MATCH for it. The characters go so far as to say so themselves (one of the Klingon sisters L'ursle or B'tor - be kind about my spelling please - says "That is a GALAXY CLASS starship, we are no match for them."). In spite of that, they manage to be able to fire through the Enterprise's shields and "rip her a new one". That in and of itself MIGHT be able to be explained away, but the fact that for every six or so volleys of disruptor fire the Bird of Prey unleashed, the Enterprise (mind you, even though it's an exploratory vessel, still has weapons facing every possible direction) can only fire once, maybe twice, is even harder to explain (ESPECIALLY with a Klingon manning the trigger). Also, Geordi tells the bridge that "there's nothing he can do" when the coolant starts to leak and the core will breach, even though he HASN'T TRIED A THING. Hardly Starfleet engineering material if you ask me (what would Scotty say?). This ends up with a very dramatic, if not unlikely, crash-landing of the saucer on Viridian III (an event that had me on the edge of my seat, I can tell you). It seems to me that the writers (or the producers) tried extraordinarily hard to destroy this ship, to get it out of the way. After the romp through the Nexus, Captain Kirk makes one final appearance, and promptly dies. Apparently, they not only wanted the Enterprise out of the way (it's a little inconvenient for the stories that lie ahead anyway), but also wanted to make it quite clear that TOS was gone. At the end of the movie, Captain Picard looks up towards the Viridian star through the broken dome of the bridge (possibly alluding to the "brighter"days ahead?) reminding us once again that TNG is finished and it's time for a new version. In one fell swoop, they leave the broken hulk of the D and the body of Captain Kirk, the last vestiges of the hopes and dreams of the man that helped create Star Trek, smashed to bits on the deserted surface of a far away planet, never to be seen again. I'm going to leave VOY to the side because that is an issue that is hotly debated everywhere else and jump to "First Contact". Here, we're introduced to the Enterprise-E, a ship obviously built from the "keel-up" as a warship. She no longer carries families (a design introduced to make deep-space exploratory missions more liveable) and carries some of the most advanced armament in the fleet. Her interiors are brightly lit (well, until the Borg incident) and airy, getting rid of that stuffy old D for good (even many of the design elements are changed - Gene had always contended that wood would be a precious commodity in the 24th Century and used it sparingly. I see wood all over the place on the E, so I'm a little confused here.) The uniforms are updated from the "pajamas" look of the TNG and DS9 two-pieces and jumpers to a definately more military-looking uniform. To clarify to all of those who have been conditioned to think differently: Starfleet IS the military arm of the Federation, providing a defensive (emphasis DEFENSIVE) force in a hostile universe. However, big guns and blowing things up is NOT what Starfleet is supposed to be about. They are scientists and explorers (something that seems to have been forgotten lately), with a sprinkle of diplomat thrown in for good measure. Did anyone ever notice how there were science labs out the yin-yang on the Enterprise-D, making the science (blue-suited) personnel the largest force on the ship, but most of what we get to see on the E is the weapons-lockers and security (yellow-suited, for the most part) personnel? This is not even going into the hoops that had to be jumped through to get the story of the "Phoenix" worked into the history. We go from there to "Insurrection", where at least they TRIED to tell a story about humanity. It was so lost in the "shooting people and blowing things up" aspect of the story that it lost all meaning. It took liberties (again, BIG surprise) with what we know of the Federation and Starfleet (how in the world the Federation would EVER get involved in something like the B'aku relocation I'll never know). Oh, but that can be explained away (they tend to do a lot of that, don't they) by the fact that the Admiral was running the show. (Who knew that you could build a holo-ship, a duck-blind manned by Starfleet personnel, and provide the aliens with support without ANYBODY ELSE KNOWING ABOUT IT.) It also took the E in a different direction (I thought that was the quantum torpedo launcher, where did the Cousteau come from? Who in the HELL put a joystick - oh, I mean a "manual steering column" - on the bridge of the Enterprise?). I do applaud them for trying to tell a real story and not just a collection of explosions and battle scenes, but all they did was demonstrate that they know NOTHING about humanity or how to tell a story. Lastly came "Nemesis". Quite obviously, this movie was written as an "oh my God there's a maniac on the loose with the ultimate weapon" story. Here, we're introduced to Shinzon, who's Captain Picard's clone, why - I don't know, but look at all the pretty 'splosions! He builds the ultimate weapon (just HOW many torpedo tubes did they say that ship had?) to go destroy Earth because....well, that's not really important, what's important is that you get to see a whole lotta shoot-em-up action! Oh, and then there's B-4 (I wonder how long it took them to come up with that one - ugggghhhh). It's AMAZING how Dr Soong built THREE state-of-the-art androids and just, whoops, forgot about one of them. Well, he was getting old anyway, he'd have probably mentioned it eventually. I guess we REALLY have to read between the lines on B-4, cause they sure don't try to explain it. But why, when you can drive through the desert on your go-cart...that's ahhh...powered by futuristic stuff that's...ummm...evidenced by the little control panel glued to the dash. Yeah, that's it. All this movie proved to me is that Berman and Co know how to write action scenes, but have NO IDEA how to tell a coherent story, ESPECIALLY when that story is set in an already well-established area like Star Trek. This kind of butchery may fly for something along the lines of "Captain Proton", but not for Star Trek. Please, do what you can to help us save Star Trek. I for one can only say this (to paraphrase Captain James Tiberius Kirk): "I've never trusted the producers, and I never will. I can never forgive them for the death of my Star Trek."I'm sorry this was so long, I hope I hadn't bored anybody. E-mail me if you'd like to let me know what you think. Live long and prosper, Phillip phillippbo@cox.net |
