Speaking of Star Trek

This is directly influenced by The Zombieslayer... what can I say, you inspired me.

Ok, so yesterday I flick on the Space channel and I find the latest Star Trek cash cow on, "Enterprise." I had heard that it was cancelled, and I was not surprised. I am not even sure of how long the show ran, I have watched maybe a handful of episodes, it just did not catch my attention at all. I have higher hopes for the next attempt, and there is absolutely no doubt there will be a next attempt.. it is just too much in demand.

Star Trek and The Simpsons, they will continue for a very, very long time yet I am sure. Long after any of us presently watching television are long dead and buried and our far removed loved ones forget to bring us flowers, or even where we are buried anymore. There will still be Star Trek and The Simpsons. The voices for Homer, Bart and the gang will undoubtedly have to be computer generated, but I am sure they will pull it off.

Now the last attempt, Enterprise, was a flop from the credits on. First off, the leader or musical torture-device opener that every regular show seems to need to have, basically depicts the American race to space. Nothing against Americans, I am in fact very fond of many, many of them, but if Star Trek was anything, it was definitely NOT about that. I understand that this worked with the content of the show, as it was supposed to be about the first 'star trekkers'. Depicting images of our present and past attempts at getting into the ' great out there' is supposed to tie us all in to the whole Star Trek universe.

The problem with that was that by turning the inside of the first Enterprise into something that closely resembled the inside of a submarine or navy vessel they eliminated the futuristic appeal of the ships. Then they used an actor who already is well known for a previous sci-fi series, to play the captain, and he pretty much just plays the same character he did in the other show. On top of this they have characters who are not enlightened in the ways of 'federation directives', and come off as being petty and hot under the collar, even racist with the way they treat the Vulcan on board. Again this may be the way some of us are today, but it is not the way that the futuristic officers of a Star Trek ship have been known to behave. Altogether the show was a big failure. I even liked some of the actors, thought they were good, even hot, but they writers and maybe producers failed them, I think.

I remember being a kid and sitting down with my mother and older brother to watch the first run of the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was an instant fan. Loved the philosophy, the idealism and hopefulness with which the future was presented. Grew up a trekkie, after a fashion... I never did get into Star Trek DS9, but I loved Voyager most of all. When it ended I looked forward to the next show, thinking it could only get better and they probably learned their lesson from DS9. Obviously needed another lesson.

I think its the adventure of exploration for the sake of exploration, and the idealism of such a cooperative and abundantly healthy and moral future of humankind that the people really hunger for. Not to mention the cool toys, like really, really fast warp drives, androids, borg and the nobility to break the rules properly. That kind of future could only be come by great change and bravery, which satisfies even the most rebellious young soul. Give us back our potential to be groovy and dignified adventuring hero's, and keep the realism for Law and Order.