A Brief Guide to Star Trek

Enterprises sold copies of
Star Trek
scripts, without authorisation from either the individual writers or Paramount). For a man whose utopian vision of the future did not include cash, it was often money that was his main motivation, not propagating a future-focused philosophy. ‘I had to get some money from somewhere’, Roddenberry said of his claim to half the royalties on sales of Stephen Whitfield’s 1968
The Making of Star Trek
book andAlexander Courage’s theme tune (to which Roddenberry wrote unneeded lyrics). ‘I’m sure not going to get it from the profits of
Star Trek
!’ This Great Bird had feet of clay.
    Until the 2009 movie, nothing in
Star Trek
was ever again as successful as
The Next Generation
. The Borg-based
First Contact
was a huge blockbuster, but the other movies featuring
The Next Generation
cast failed to capture the same energy and intensity.
Deep Space Nine
embarked on an interesting anti-
Star Trek
experiment in hard-hitting storytelling and serialisation – and it succeeded, especially when executive attention was elsewhere with the launch of
Voyager
. The space station series was probably the furthest removed from Roddenberry’s view of
Star Trek
, escaping quite decisively from Michael Piller’s concept of ‘Roddenberry’s box’ of storytelling limitations. Producer Rick Berman ensured that Roddenberry’s utopian vision of the future was faithfully adhered to in all the follow-up series, with both
Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
faithfully following
The Original Series
’ liberal humanist creed, featuring an African-American and a woman as their leading characters. However, with
Voyager
(and the final series,
Enterprise
), a step backwards was taken in an attempt to recreate elements of
The Original Series
within the template of
The Next Generation
-style
Star Trek
. Now the original cast was gone from cinemas, the new television shows could cannibalise the past to recreate what had worked in terms of characters and stories.
Star Trek
was continuing without the original icons of Kirk, Spock and McCoy or Picard and Data, those that had successfully emerged from
The Next Generation
into popular consciousness. The last years of
Voyager
and
Enterprise
attempted to draw upon the past, without the character archetypes that had captured the world’s imagination.
    Star Trek
could now be ruthlessly satirised due to its creative stagnation. There had always been comedy skits and sketches making fun of Spock’s pointed ears and the danger of donning a red shirt. However, 1999’s
Galaxy Quest
was of a different order. This mainstream movie affectionately spoofed the on-screen icons of
Star Trek
, the reported behind the scenes squabbles among both cast members and fans, while also delivering a great comedy science fiction adventure story in its own right. For this movie to succeed it required the audience to be familiar with
Star Trek
’s image, but also for that image to be fixed and unchanging. The failure to innovate within
Star Trek
itself opened the door for
Galaxy Quest
to exist.
    As the producer of
Star Trek
for eighteen years between 1987 and 2005, Rick Berman used the term ‘franchise fatigue’ to describe what happened to
Star Trek
after
Deep Space Nine
. That show had run in parallel with
The Next Generation
and
Voyager
for its seven-year duration, meaning that there were always two
Star Trek
shows on air between 1993 and 2001. That period also saw the release of three big screen movies –
Generations
,
First Contact
and
Insurrection
– only one of which was creatively successful. After
Voyager
, and with
Enterprise
in a lacklustre second season,
Nemesis
made its abysmal debut at cinemas in 2002, killing off the
Star Trek
movie franchise for seven years.
    Berman saw the problem as simply too much
Star Trek
, with movies and television shows exploring the same concepts and with similar characters competing with each other. Not only was the new product saturating the market, the old series and movies were widely available, first on VHS tape, then on DVD, as well as in endless television reruns around the world. If current
Star Trek
wasn’t to your liking, then your favourite show or movie from the series’ long history was easily available to you at the flick of a switch.
    That issue may have been a factor, but there is no denying that
Star Trek
had become trapped within a static formula: its later years were missing characters that audiences could believe in and