By
Pike on
Tuesday September 10, 2024 12:25 am
Earthdate 2024.9.
I spent most of my life not being aware of Star Trek apart from being a nerdy old show from the 60's and a few more boring 90's shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation—everyone knows about the Picard memes or has stumbled upon Star Trek on TV by coincidence. I remember the countless references to Star Wars in The Big Bang Theory series and had fun laughing at the geeks from the series, spending too much of their time talking about the series and, hell, even dressing like the characters. I remember an episode where they go to a Star Trek convention, only to be stuck somewhere because of a vehicle malfunctioning, if my memory serves me well. Being like Leonard or Sheldon? Not for me, thank you! I've got taste. I love
Breaking Bad,
Twin Peaks,
The Wire, not...
Star Trek. Please. Who do you think I am?
FOX MULDER AND CAPTAIN KIRK
As a die-hard fan of
The X-Files for quite some time, I still had some sort of an implied connection with Star Trek, without even realizing it. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are, somehow, such as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, search for the truth. Mulder gazes up at the stars hoping to find the truth, whilst Kirk and his crew are actually face to face with the unknown on a daily basis.
TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY
As the years went by, I kept saying that, one day, I would try to watch The Original Series. How could I even remotely say I had a strong knowledge of television series—and paranormal ones—without having seen this classic? It's like being a moviegoer and never having seen The Godfather. Comon. I can do better and the clock is ticking, better start moving.
SPECIAL EDITION
In April 2019, I discovered that TOS (The Original Series) had had a kind of facelift, with the episodes having new special effects. I remembered George Lucas' special edition of the original Star Wars trilogy. Thanks, but no thanks. But upon looking deeper, I realized that, unlike for Star Wars, it was done with care and respect for the original material. It wasn't about adding as much CGI stuff onto the screen, but about taking the original and trying to use today's tools to actually and make the journey far more interesting for today's audience.
As a deep fan of original material, which I believe should be treated religiously, I actually welcomed this initiative, especially even more since I had no particular emotionally attachment to the Star Trek saga.
BOXSET
Therefore, I bought myself a very nice looking Blu-ray boxset of Star Trek: TOS, including these updated SFX and started my Star Trek journey.
The first thing I noticed, looking at the number of seasons and episodes, is that contrary to what imagined, TOS didn't have a gazillion number of seasons to sit through. Because the show is so popular, I was really surprised. Why would a series so classic and known worldwide had only three seasons? And then I learned that Star Trek was actually not that popular when it originally aired and that it became a phenomenon once it went to syndication.
To be fair, and some of you might not appreciate this comment, I actually liked this fact as well. Every TV enthusiast will know what I am talking about: some series are brilliant, but doing a complete rewatch is like entering a world of dedication, which sometimes takes months of your life.
As you grow older and have a family or a job, it becomes very challenging to be able to go through a series of hundreds of episodes. Therefore, I was very pleased to know that Star Trek: The Original Series only had 80 episodes—if you include the originally unaired pilot as well,
The Cage.
ENGAGE!
Yes, the episodes last longer than the average 45-minute episode from the 90's series which I grew up with, clocking at around 50-minute mark, which quickly add up when you have 80 episodes, but still, the journey is not as difficult as doing a rewatch of The X-Files, for instance, which includes 217 episodes (at the time that I am writing these words), without including spin-offs, novels, movies, comics and more original material.
I then jumped into my journey and watched the entire series and wrote a review for each episode. Since I am a strong believer in incremental progress, I knew that this journey would require a few more rewatches before really considering myself knowing the series. You can obviously always expand your knowledge about a particular series, but once you have rewatched it a few times and with reviews for each episode, at least you can consider the job done and move on to the next series.
THE CAMARADERIE
I started with The Cage, the originally unaired pilot. And you know what? It was actually quite decent. And even fascinating. The character of Pike is interesting. Oh, there are a few bad moments and cheesy ones and some costumes are clearly cheap and outdated. But it works!
Moving onto the real episodes, I immediately started to feel a bond with the main characters. One of the very important aspects I sensed right from the start was the connection between the characters and sense of a camaraderie. The characters are military ones, but you can clearly see their bond and friendships. Yes, Captain Kirk is their leader, but he is also their friends. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Sulu, Uhura and Scotty. They form a really interesting team. Not only that, they keep mocking each others but with something very important and dear to my heart: without malice. Yes, Dr. McCoy is at times finding Mr. Spock and his lack of emotional responses infuriating. Yes, he teases him more than he should, but the result is simply wonderful. It really struck me and it seems obvious that you cannot appreciate a series if you dislike the characters. I quickly understood why the series was such a classic: Kirk and Spock are the Mulder and Scully of the 60's. They have "it", whatever that is. A magical bonding that only great writing and great casting can create. It is so very rare that witnessing it for the first time on screen is one of the reasons I love movies and series so much. It's always about finding the magic. And the magic is clearly there, in TOS.
THE UNKNOWN
But of course, you cannot solely base your material on characters. You have to mix it with interesting stories. As an X-Phile (the term for X-Files fans), I know very well the difficulty of writing stories about the paranormal. Sci-fi is hard, painfully hard. Like The X-Files' creator Chris Carter explained perfectly, you have to find the "what if...?", which is by far the most challenging aspect of writing a new sci-fi show every week. I cannot even imagine the pressure of being in the 60's (all the way through the 90's and early 2000's), when executive producers and their team had to write and produce between 20 to 30 episodes a year. That's a pressure that no one in their right mind would want to go through. As many series became more focused on quality during the late 2000's and therefore reduced the number of episodes to about a dozen a year, series like TOS had 29, 26 and 24 episodes in seasons 1, 2 and 3 (once more, I've included The Cage in season 1, which I probably shouldn't).
But regardless of the number of episodes, writing sci-fi means that you have to throw yourself at ideas that might sound totally crazy and, yes, often stupid. Look at how Star Wars' original film was saved in post to realize how complex it is. Therefore, executive producer Gene Roddenberry and his team went ahead and wrote stories about odd creatures, paranormal phenomenons, strange planets, battles in space and more!
SOMEONE IS ABOARD THE SHIP!
The first episodes all seemed quite similar. The crew of the USS Enterprise would beam down on a strange planet, only to come back with an intruder coming aboard the ship, whether a new character or through a presence. Still, I find the result outstanding and, like Mr. Spock would say, fascinating.
The Cage, The Man Trap, Charlie X, Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Naked Time and The Enemy Within are all terrific episodes. I found myself really invested with the stories and even though it was clearly shot in the 60's at a time where special effects where not what they are today, I really loved the result. And as I mentioned, many VFX were updated, which probably made my journey a simpler one than watching the original episodes in their original format.
THE BAD ONES
Then, there were some very bad episodes, such as Mudd's Women, Miri, The Squire of Gothos or Arena—the famous episode that many people know where Kirk fights a lizard-man with a very cheap costume during an equally cheap battle. Still, this is part of TV's History and I must say I enjoyed watching some scenes of these bad episodes as well. I would never watch a series by skipping the bad episodes, this would be sacrilegious.
TIMELESS CLASSICS
As with any cult series, there are always a few timeless masterpieces. I didn't know when they would come or if they would be any, and then I watched The City on the Edge of Forever, and I'm not sure if I could consider myself a Trekker after that, but I surely watched it with my jaw dropped and ended up with a tear. This episode was an absolute masterpiece and this ensured me that my journey was not only rewarded, but I had the confirmation that I made the right choice and invested my time—the most valuable asset—in something worth doing.
This episode probably marked a point of no return for me. I would forever be linked to Star Trek, not just as a series I once watched, but as a series that was by then part of my top list. Breaking Bad, The Wire and The X-Files had a new companion. And it was good.
THE END
At the end of the series, I was so proud of myself and pleased with the journey. Finishing a series always leads to this odd moment of feeling both satisfied and sad to leave your beloved characters. When you end up finishing the series finale, the characters, somehow, die as well, which always make for an emotional journey. But... Star Trek's journey only starts after the first series, as the saga expanded onto the big screen and into further series with more stories and more characters.
Would the new characters be as great as Picard, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the friendly team? Probably not, but let it try!
THE END IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Once more, as a structured person, I would often love to be able to go from place to place, watch part of TOS, then jump onto some of the movies, then watch the series from today to quickly compare the SFX. I literally absolutely cannot wait to see Star Trek: Strange New World or Star Trek: Picard. I have never seen any and will simply not tolerate myself from going out of order. If I want to watch Picard, I have to watch every single episode and movie of the saga in order before I get there. This is the sacred pact and I will not move once inch.
MOVIES
I then moved on to The Animated Series—which is hopefully quite short and easy to consume—and then moved on to the first movies. I don't remember much from these, as it's been already five years and I have watched them only once, but I vividly remember the appearance of the USS Enterprise in the first movie, with that fancy Hollywood music playing at the same time. This feeling of grandiosity, of a movie with a strong budget, which even shows in the costumes of the crew. I remember Khan and the infamous Khaaaaaaaaan! I remember the actors aging.
THE NEXT GENERATION
I then moved on to Star Trek: The Next Generation and this is where things became more difficult for me. I quickly became... bored and failed upon the daunting task ahead of me. I just couldn't sit through 176 episodes of this series. Sci-fi in the 90's on TV had this kind of very slow pace and there seemed to be no real conflicts between the characters. I learned through my friend Kimmy—which wrote outstanding reviews of many TNG episodes, check the episode guide—that Gene Roddenbbery initially wanted TNG's character to have no conflicts between one another. This made for very, very boring TV. But I don't remember it well. Looking back, I can see that I died on the TNG battlefield after watching 2x03 Elementary, Dear Data, which I actually remembered and see I gave it a good score.
But yes, the characters were not as remotely interesting as the crew from TOS, which I will forever remember fondly.
My initial journey lasted for a bit longer than a year (14 months), when I gave up and went on to other projects.
REPORTING FOR DUTY
Now, five years after my initial journey, I am back and reporting for duty. One of the thing that is motivating me to come back to the battlefield is that, as stated earlier, I really want to see Star Trek produced in the 2020's. I haven't watched any trailer of the new material, but I can see in some pictures that these new series seem to have money allocated, and, once again, have the luxury of modern SFX. I fear that the technology will be there but not the characters. And I would be disappointed along the journey.
Still, I roll up my sleeves for the second time and am ready to start. Since it's been five years, I am not allowed to pick up from TNG 2x04. Yes, I will have to go through TOS once more as well as The Animated Series before I can rewatch the original films and then arrive to TNG, which I will have to go through in order, and, this time, through the seven seasons.
I'm not going to lie, I am a little bit afraid, as I lay at the bottom of Mount Everest, seeing all the work ahead of me. But, hopefully, the journey will lead me to strange new worlds and expand my TV and movie horizon, in my never-ending journey towards knowledge and wisdom.
THE ORIGINAL SERIES, AGAIN
So, I have restarted watching TOS from scratch and one thing struck me. As I rewatch the episodes and re-read my reviews, I am surprised to see what some episodes I initially found very bad are actually excellent! For instance, I had marked The Galileo Seven (1x16) as a bad episode with no Captain Kirk. Rewatching it today, I absolutely loved it and find it to be one of the best episodes of the series, with outstanding interactions between Spock and the crew, as well as the fascinating dialogue on top of an extremely efficient and equally fascinating story: a TV version of Ridley Scott's The Martian, but with great characters! I gave it a score of 5 this time. This shows how important it is to rewatch a series a second time before starting to make peremptory statements. And, as one grows older and has more knowledge about series and movies, the things we watch today have suddenly new meanings that we might have never seen before. I remember recently rewatching the first season of
Little House on the Prairie and being absolutely stunned by the sheer quality of the series, often ending up episodes in tears.
PRESENT (September 10, 2024)
So, we are now to the present. I have just finished rewatching the infamous Arena (1x18) episode, and still have two seasons and 11 episodes in front of me, before I can move on to The Animated Series. I am carefully adding quotes for each episode and expanding my reviews and adding trivia and more.
My goal is to finish season 1 by the end of this week, then move on to season 2 next week. Usually, I am able to watch a few episodes quickly, then lose interest and do other things. So it's important I at least try to keep watching one episode per day to keep the ball rolling.
I will go back to this topic once I finish TOS and continue to share my Star Trek journey.
TRAIN MOVING
One last thing before I stop for now, is that as there are still multiple Star Trek series in production at the moment, it means that I need to go faster than the airing of new episodes, otherwise, I will forever be stuck in a situation when I watch Star Trek but am never able to watch new material as it is airing, always playing catch up. It is paramount as well that I do this, not only to have the fun of watching the episodes as they air and being able to talk about it with fellow Trekkers, but also I am fairly certain that new Star Trek movies will be released and it would be a shame not to watch these onto the big screen because I failed to have watched the entire saga yet.
Still, I have some time since they are not actively producing any movie right now. But it's time to kick the second gear and stay focused.
And let us do this: I will not consider myself a Trekker until I have watched all the series and movies.
ENGAGE!
