General

Enterprise
Photo Source: Me

One thing that can't help but be noticed, is how some tv and movie franchises just keep ticking along. This year's blockbuster, the Star Trek movie is an example of that. It seems like the idea is immortal. It was 1960 when Gene Roddenberry first thought of creating a science fiction series. It was going to be named “Wagon Train To The Stars”. He had gotten the idea from Gulliver's Travels. Well we all know that the Wagon Train title was quickly changed to Star Trek. Would the show have endured with the old title? I really don't know, it did sound awful corny didn't it? I have always loved Star Trek and I jokingly call myself the world's oldest Trekkie. I have collected different memorabilla from over the years and while I don't have a valuable collection, I do have about 30 or 40 pieces.

There have been so many successful Star Trek television programs that it boggles the mind. There was the original Star Trek, it first ran from 1966-1969. It had debuted on NBC on September 8, 1966. What a lot of people don't know is that it was considered a dramatic show and was nominated two years in a row for an Emmy. Leonard Nimoy was individually nominated for three years in a row as best actor. Different individual episodes also won Hugo Awards. Hugo awards are given every year for the best science fiction or fantasy show. One episode also received a WGA award for Best Dramatic Episode The WGA award is given out by the Writer's Guild of America. The show was cancelled after three years, but the fan base grew as more and more reruns were played.

Enterprise Shuttle Next Generation
Photo Source: Me

Fans were screaming for more Star Trek and the television executives began to listen. Did they have any other choice given the amount of mail they were getting to air more Star Trek stories? They answered with an animated series. That ran from 1973-1974. It had even a shorter run than the original Star Trek. Most of the original cast had consented to be the voices for the characters. The series was not put together with the proper quality and it suffered. Desilu owned the rights to Star Trek, but was taken over by Paramount Studios. The original show just kept coming back, it had many admires. It landed up on Nickelodeon in the mid 1980s, because the owner of the station loved the show. In the 1990s it was broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel. It had also been put on VHS tapes and Laserdisc.

We almost had another series called Phase II that would have had the original crew set out for a five year exploration mission, but there were problems. Nimoy had refused to return and Star Wars had become very popular and the idea was dropped. This was not the end of the Star Trek however. We had all thought that no other crew could ever be as popular as the original crew captioned by William Shatner, but that turned out to be wrong. A new Star Trek series was launched that lasted from 1987-1994 and that was The Next Generation. The crew of this Enterprise quickly filled the void left by the original crew and the performances by Patrick Stewart and others were actually better. Not to say that we would ever forget our beloved Captain Kirk. The Next Generation took place about 70 years later than the original show and the ship was the Enterprise-D. It now held over 1000 people including entire families and its missions were even more fantastic. Reruns of this show continue on television to this day.

Federation Academy Ring (No Enlargement Available)
Photo Source: Me

Before The Next Generation was even finished, another Star Trek series was launched. It was called Deep Space Nine and it lasted from 1993-1999. It was also known as DS9. There was no enterprise, but instead a space station was commanded by Avery Brooks who played Benjamin Sisko, the commander who tried to keep that part of space quiet. The space station was not built by the Federation, but taken over from a race known as the Cardassians. The main security officer was a shape shifter. There was a lot of action for this type of show, including a great space battle with the Dominion, creatures from another dimension. A lot of elements that were in this show were not allowed to be put into any of the previous Star Trek shows by Gene Roddenberry. This was the last Star Trek series that Roddenberry was involved with before his death.

The next Star Trek series to air was Voyager. It lasted from 1995-2001. It was used to launch a new network owned by Paramount called UPN. Kate Mulgrew was Captain Kathryn Janeway. She piloted a ship that had been transported so far from Federation space that it was believed that even at full speed there was no way that any of the crew could make it back in their lifetimes. The area of space where they were stranded was known as the Delta Quadrant. I have seen where it was estimated that they were about 70,000 light years from earth and at full speed this was said to take about 75 years to return. This gives us an estimate of what the ship could do at full speed. This translates to about 933.3 light years in a year. I cite this for all you Star Trek fans out there that have wondered what the actual speed of the ship was at full warp.

Original Crew From Star Trek Invited To See Space Shuttle Enterprise
Photo Source: NASA

The least popular of the Star Trek television series was Enterprise. It lasted from 2001-2005. It was a prequel to the original series and took place on the very first Enterprise, a warp 5 ship. Scott Bakula played Jonathan Archer, the ship's captain. Even though the show lasted for four seasons, a short version of four seasons, its change in direction made many trekkies unhappy. It started out being composed of different episodes much as the original Star Trek, but then became more like chapters of the same story. You had to watch the show from the week before to keep up with things. As I said, this did not sit well with some fans. Even the Vulcans were almost enemies, being the ones that were stopping us from progressing in engine design and trying to get earth to leave space travel for many more years until they were “READY”. I enjoyed the show, but there was something missing. The first officer was a Vulcan woman, but this Vulcan showed emotion from time to time. Someone had changed the basic idea of how Vulcans should behave.

I for one would welcome another new Star Trek derived television series and hopefully one will come down the road. The success of the latest movie seems like that is a given, but certainly I could be wrong. Roddenberry was a genius and many things that we have seen on these different series have come true. I am talking about the area of inventions. Remember that cell phone like communicator that Kirk used to talk to his ship? The University of Washington is experimenting with a tricoder like device. The military is experimenting with transparent armor, remember transparent aluminum? A phaser gun is being developed by Lonatron. It is a laser that is said to be able to disable people or vehicles. Anyone that has been keeping up with the science news knows that we have developed a clocking device to make things invisible, much as the Romulens had done. There are many other inventions too numerou to mention.

We need a new Star Trek series and I for one can't wait for it to happen. Hey guys, Friday nights would be good.