by Ger Francis

Created on: January 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Star Trek was innovative in its time. It was essentially an anthology show and aired topics relevant to the time it was made. As such it made for compelling viewing. Okay, so it's dated very badly. Some of those fashions are a bit tooo 60's looking, as are the haircuts, but if you look past the production values, some of the early scripts, especially toward the end of the first season containing some fascinating (whoops apologies Mr. Spock) messages and themes, which reflected the times.

Star Trek petered out toward the end of its run through a combination of network neglect, studio budget cuts and the departure of much of its creative forces. By the end of its third season, the show was being produced on such a low budget that massive script changes were required which diminished the shows impact. The third season is widely regarded as being well below the standards set by the previous two.

The movies made from 1979-1991 ranged in quality. ST-IV is thought to be the best while its follow up ST-V the worst.

The spin off TV shows also varied in quality. Star Trek The Next Generation, while pushing the boundaries mid-way through it's 7-year run, suffered from being 'too politically correct' and lacking the action and adventure of it's parent show. Star Trek Deep Space Nine started slowly before developing its own multi-season story arc which had many of the elements that TNG lacked. Arguably it peaked from seasons 5-7 and is perhaps the best of all the spin off shows. Another new show, Star Trek Voyager, was a tired retread of TNG with a cast that lacked any real chemistry. The basic premise was promising...a Federation shipped trapped on the far side of the galaxy making its way slowly home. But it soon developed into another story of a ship encountering the same kind of jeopardy and malevolent aliens. The galaxy it seemed was the same no matter what quadrant of it you ended up in. By now the franchise seemed to be running out of steam. Star Trek Enterprise was a bold attempt to try something different in going back to the days before Kirk's era and thus telling the story of mankind's first tentative steps into a new era. But once more, it became another series dealing with imminent threats to the series regulars, and falling back on old formulae.

It's interesting to note how the latter day spin off shows all found it difficult to establish their own kind of identities. One would be hard pushed to even pick out one musical score from all the shows that remains in the memory. The incidental music from the original show still has musical themes and cues that are instantly recognizable and used in documentaries, computer games and even comedies (see Comedy Central's Roasting of William Shatner). What kept the shows from evolving was a lack of will to break what was seemingly a successful formula which had served the mid season's of TNG well. Eventually this lack of progression or evolution on the part of the producers coupled with too many trips to the well, was also what led to the TV audience moving on to new more dynamic shows, such as 24, Stargate SG1, Alias and the newly updated Battlestar Galactica, while the Trek franchise began to seem outdated and sterile by comparison.

40 years on, the original series is still affectionately remembered. Will Star Trek Voyager achieve the same distinction? It's highly doubtful.

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