One More Time

Again I return to this blog and to my readers, whoever you might be. I'm tempted to do a diary like entry but honestly, that seems kind of lame, especially given the lack of notable activity I've had today. This temptation would probably not occur were it not for an unusual lack of ideas for writing. Perhaps it is time to peruse my large library of random thoughts and pick an odd one to write about.

How about Star Trek? I really do love Star Trek, well, most of it at least. The Original Series struck me as a little to 60s for me to declare it a great show, but I like to watch it every now and then and it has a few outstanding episodes. The Next Generation rocked, Picard was awesome, as were Worf and Data. I loved the way it delved into the high-level politics of Klingon/Federation/Romulan diplomacy. Early on there were a couple episodes that didn't hit their mark and every now and then you'd get an episode that was too dry, but overall the series was one of the best dramatic shows I've seen on television. Deep Space Nine is also up there. The greater plot value of the series added to the pull of the story, though it tended to occassionally indulge in silliness which was just annoying. Again it had it's off episodes but it was an overall triumph. Voyager, not so much. The concept was nice, but in hindsight the concept was part of the problem. Stranding a starship so far away from home and making it move constantly means that the interstellar politics central to the last two series has to be pushed back a little, especially since the politics that were actually in the previous two series had to be excluded since they were in a different area of the galaxy. It had a few nice episodes here and there, but it was too willing to be silly, the characters often fell flat and the plots lacked the conceptual depth and dramatic complexity you expect from Star Trek. It felt dumbed down. Star Trek Enterprise also suffered from this complaint, but it also had too much baggage. While Voyager suffered from being to far away from the mainstream Star Trek universe, Enterprise suffered from being intermeshed in the center of the Star Trek universe. This gave it so many constraints that it had to indulge in annoying and convoluted time travel storylines (something which bugged me about Voyager too) to get some original drama going. It's failure was not something I mourned.

Except I did mourn it, not because it was a good series, but because it meant that somewhere out there Star Trek was still being made. The death of Enterprise was especially hard when coupled with the failure of the last several Star Trek movies. While books are still being made, Star Trek was made by a tv series and it was supposed to always be a tv series, so I would like a new tv series. I heard rumors about a possible klingon series which would be very cool, but I'd like something, anything. Actually, I want something to capture the old glory, but it would be comforting to know Star Trek is still going strong and moving forward (that's another thing I had against Enterprise, it wasn't telling new stories, just fleshing out the past), even in a diminished form. I hear there's a new movie coming out, which gives me some hope, but it sounds like it's set in the era of Kirk, which saddens me. Star Trek was meant to be forever marching into the future, not mired in its own backstory. But that is the way things are. Maybe if I ever have a voice in Hollywood I can change things, but for now, I can only hope, dream and watch reruns.

That's enough for this session. I hope it entertained or gave you food for thought or something, and if you're a wheeler or dealer in Hollywood, I hope it inspired you to once more boldly go where no man has gone before.