by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: September 12, 2008

Star Trek was, in its heyday, one of the most revolutionary TV shows ever made. Quite apart from the high production values, glossy special effects and multi-racial cast, the original series managed to inspire the developers behind cellular phones and hyposprays - not to mention the generally optimistic view of a harmonious future society that the series depicted.

On its original broadcast, the casting of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura was a major step in the Civil Rights Campaign, and her eventual on-screen clinch with William Shatner was apparently TV's first inter-racial kiss (although with a wimpy get-out that it could have been influenced by alien mind control), and played a real part in the changes that were sweeping America. The show's 'racism episode' (which involved men whose faces were half black and half white, not exactly subtle) provoked national controversy.

The irony of all this development and progressiveness is that the show's basic rationale was incredibly conservative. Creator Gene Roddenberry wanted it to be more like a Western series - pitching it as 'Wagon Train in space'. Does that sound like a harbinger of social revolution to you?

Now, 40 years on, Star Trek has had a lull for a few years, following the cancellation of Enterprise. There's a film on the horizon based on the original series (where Kirk, Spock etc have been recast).

But why? There are very good reasons why Star Trek should be left in the past.

1) No one really cares. There are legions of fans, millions probably. But the simple fact is that Star Trek just can't wield the major social clout it used to. The inter-racial kiss rocked a nation. The lesbian snog in Deep Space Nine just about raised a couple of eyebrows. It can't have the impact it used to.

2) It was never really very good. Another attempt was made to make 'Wagon Train in space.' It was called Firefly and it was much better. And it was still cancelled after one series.

3) What is Star Trek anyway? The series drifted so far from its roots with each fresh launch. The Next Generation stayed fairly close to the roots of the original series but got weirder and weirder as its seven seasons went on, with dozens of episodes that would have been better in a soap opera. Deep Space Nine made a mockery of space exploration by having them all stuck on a space station and occasionally exploring the other side of a wormhole. Gradually story arcs were developed that tied together whole seasons, partly in response to Babylon 5. This reached

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>