Trekkers Rejoice!

February 20, 2001 5:49 AM

Trekkers Rejoice! Word is a new Star Trek television series is in development. Time to pull those rubber ears out of the dresser and head out on the SciFi convention circuit again.
posted by darren (25 comments total)

Rick Berman won't spill the beans, but the word is that it will be a prequel to the original series.

Personally I think they need to give the franchise a rest for a while. There are enough episodes of the various series to keep people content with reruns for a couple of years while they hammer out a really good series instead of another Voyager.
posted by briank at 8:19 AM on February 20, 2001

31 years old and I still haven't seen an entire episode of Star Trek.

I'm so proud.

posted by bondcliff at 8:26 AM on February 20, 2001

A question during an interview with Berke Breathed (of "Bloom County" fame) kind of sums it up:

Q: Assuming you were, at one point, a fan of Star Trek, are you still one now? How do you feel about the current state of the franchise?

A: I quit cartooning because I wanted to go out before things exhausted themselves. Its a pity others don't do the same. Haven't watched in ten years. Although I did sit with Jonathan Frakes the other day while he directed a movie. I had to pretend that I had watched more Trek than I had. Seemed the right thing to do.
posted by shauna at 8:27 AM on February 20, 2001

Parents' basements are awash in joy ;-P
posted by tj at 9:04 AM on February 20, 2001

word is that it will be a prequel to the original series

Maybe they'll shoot it in black and white, then. I certainly expect to see a return to the old style of sets, props, costumes, and makeup.
posted by kindall at 9:30 AM on February 20, 2001

... and those '60s miniskirts? Hope so!
posted by darren at 9:49 AM on February 20, 2001

I'm a closet Trekkie (Trekker?) and as such, am quite pleased by this latest announcement.

I've heard that the new series will either be a prequel that documents the early history of the Federation, or a 90210 style program about Starfleet Academy.

I hope and pray that it's not the latter . . .

Goodness, I've just revealed myself to be a complete and utter dork. Hope y'all don't think less of me.
posted by aladfar at 9:51 AM on February 20, 2001

Some of us not only knew this was in the works, but have been trying to have it our way.

Die-hard trekker? You betcha!
posted by frykitty at 9:51 AM on February 20, 2001

As long as they don't bring back the cheesy effects. Old-school Star Trek looks like something from the Screen Gems Network.
posted by Brilliantcrank at 10:02 AM on February 20, 2001

I'd be happy to watch a good Star Trek series. The problem is, if they had the ability to make a quality show, then Voyager wouldn't suck so much now.
posted by quirked at 11:56 AM on February 20, 2001

Ummm... ...anyone want to explain why everyone hates Voyager so much?

Personally, I thought it was light years beyond DS9. (*shudder*)
posted by tsitzlar at 11:58 AM on February 20, 2001

I think each of the incarnations has been enjoyable during the "sweet spot" that occurs once the characters are developed and before the writers run out of interesting story lines. For me, the sweet spot was very brief for Voyager. It's all a matter of personal taste, though.
posted by gimli at 12:56 PM on February 20, 2001

Gimli: exactly. For everyone that complains about Voyager, I recommend re-watching "Encounter at Farpoint", the premier for TNG. Ew, ew, ew!

Season three is usually when things start rockin'. As for Voyager, I've been enjoying it in the last few years. But Janeway and Chakotay need to get it on, dammit. ;-)
posted by frykitty at 1:26 PM on February 20, 2001

It's simple: Voyager is Wagon Train (or Lost in Space). The plots are pretty much all in line with "the strange thing we run into this week". DS9 is General Hospital and the plots are pretty much "the strange thing brought to us this week". TNG was a combination of both. In any case, it's a soap opera and those are only as interesting as the characters and their interactions. Voyager's characters struck me as flat.
posted by plinth at 1:43 PM on February 20, 2001

At the risk of being exposed for the trekker I am, I will share with you how I would like to see Voyager end. I think it would be pretty wild if Wesley Crusher were to show up and help them get back. Remember, he disappeared with that weird space-folding alien guy in order to learn his secrets. It would kind of tie everything together. Okay, I'm out now! I'll wear the ridicule as a badge of honor.
posted by gimli at 1:44 PM on February 20, 2001

The thing with "Star Trek" in general, and "Voyager" in particular, is that in each incarnation we see a snapshot of current culture. And certainly since the advent of DS9, we're not liking the future vision we're seeing in the mirror.

Cap'n Tubby was a rootin' tootin' commie shootin' do gooder, out to solve the ethical problems of the galaxy while always making the universe safe for Democracy and free Enterprise. Righteous might makes right, and the point of a phaser helped the obstreperous see the error of their way. Yaaay!!!

Eventually, he was followed by Cap'n Xavier - the corporate explorer. Where there's a problem, there's a subcommittee, and every problem can be solved if we think-tank it into submission. Theoretically, it was a Federation that was powerful enough NOT to fire first and fix things later, and all the bad guys of the past were sundered and became helpful sidekicks. We'll just reason with the rest of the fractious kiddies, and they'll come around.. Umm... a little dull, but at least we're winning...

Cap'n Shaft, the stay at home officer, found that life was just a little more complex. He had to make do with what he had. He tried to do his job on a rented base under the critical eye of rightful owners of the property, all the time trying to be a valid presence of a larger power in an area where where big brother was not respected. He was a juggler - a power player without any real power.

Finally, Cap'n Joyce Brothers. Disenfranchised, her slowly disintegrating ship lopes from world to world, begging for assistance, trading futuristic wampum for food and gas, running away from any serious threat, making questionable deals with known enemies, just to survive. They come in peace, get threatened, and run away like curs.

The only possible place to go from here is a new series featuring Cap'n Mini-Me, in which the Federation is bought by a larger interstellar consortium, and his mission is to downsize his department into profitability, or explore the depths of the Federation's unemployment benefits.
posted by Perigee at 2:04 PM on February 20, 2001

It's simple: Voyager is Wagon Train (or Lost in Space). The plots are pretty much all in line with "the strange thing we run into this week".

Gene Roddenbery pitched the original Star Trek first to CBS, and finally to NBC as "Wagon Train to the stars"
posted by darren at 2:16 PM on February 20, 2001

Perigee, that was beautiful. :)
posted by Optamystic at 3:54 PM on February 20, 2001

It was. I'll never see Star Trek the same way again. Great links too.
posted by rodii at 5:59 PM on February 20, 2001

I was under the impression that both the starfleet academy and prequel ideas had been dismissed.
Out of curiosity: is it possible to kind of like Trek? It seems to me that a lot of people think that in order to like it you have to be a proper Trekkie/er. I don't own a pear of spock ears but I do quite like it. Sometimes.
Actually the best thing about it was that you really only had to watch the first and last five minutes of most episodes to get what they were about.
posted by davidgentle at 7:54 PM on February 20, 2001

I think there's a "mushball middle" for Trekkers out there, davidgentle. I've enjoyed the various Star Trek series myself, and can usually rattle off major characters/plotlines, but I've never sped home from work to avoid missing a given episode, much less discussed "warp field" semantics in Klingon or anything.
posted by youhas at 8:45 PM on February 20, 2001

David, that would only leave Captain Sulu, time-travelin-Fed-agents, and Fed-SEALS as the remaining known concepts. But the prequel idea is the one most often mentioned (as it has been ever since concept-kicking-around days for TNG).

I used to be more of a Trekker than today, but I don't consider myself ex or anything. I liked DS9 a lot in certain ways, but other things consistently annoyed me, and it had a kind of stuck-here-make-the-best-of-it dullness about it at times. Voy started out a little bit like a throwback to TOS (The Old Show), but quickly succumbed to story-by-committee techniques perfected in TNG, only with a quixotic desire to completely destroy in the fourth act whatever had been interesting in the first three. It got immediately much better when Seven of Nine showed up and actually started challenging Janeway's Federation-quasi-liberal orthodoxy, but even her character was worn down over time, and I stopped watching. Seven and Ensign Ro were two of my favorite characters in all of Trek, actually, precisely for this reason. They didn't let the Captain beg the question i.e. presume underlying arguments were accepted: he generally had to justify his assumptions. But writing like that on a regular basis takes guts, I guess.

David: Trekkies wear Spock ears. Trekkers debate the plots. Trekkists work to create a Star Trek future. At least that's the breakdown Bjo Trimble (original leader of Trek fandom) laid out in the 70s. Trust me, though, all the Trekkers in the world watching the show together wouldn't keep it alive. 90% of the audience is just regular folks who think it's a fun TV show.
posted by dhartung at 9:20 PM on February 20, 2001

All I hope is that the next series shows us what 24th century bathrooms look like. Maybe that'll be the whole premise of the show. Star Trek: Bathrooms. I can see it now! The sequel to toilet paper! How people brush their teeth! Why a sonic shower is better than a water shower!
posted by hijinx at 9:33 PM on February 20, 2001

Babylon 5 already covered that, and also debated the merits of fastening, then zipping, or the other way 'round.
posted by kindall at 11:46 PM on February 20, 2001

Wagon Train? I beg to differ. Gilligan's Island, the magnum opus of schlock television producer Sherwood Schwartz, is the obvious model for Voyager. They even substituted Mary Ann and Ginger for the sinuous Six of Nine and that half-Klingon, half-human engineer. 'Nough said.


posted by ed at 9:58 PM on February 21, 2001