Axiom’s Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

(Continuing our Summer of Star Trek series)

By John J. Joex

I make no bones about the fact that when it comes to Star Trek, I am a devotee of the original series first and foremost.  That is the one that I grew up with and that was the one that defined Science Fiction television for me (along with the original versions of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits).  I know that Star Trek: TOS gets knocked for its cheesy production and descents into camp.  I know that fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine consider those shows the direct translation of the word of God (Gene Rodenberry).  But I don’t care.  What you can’t deny is that the original Star Trek changed the face of television.   And in doing so, it impacted both the Science Fiction genre and the medium of television in general.  The series gave us one of those turning points in our culture and its impact has reverberated ever since.  And the fact is that when the original series soared, it provided engaging and challenging viewing that few shows, before or after its three year run, have equaled.  With that said, any guesses as to which series tops my list?

1. Star Trek: The Original Series – Gene Rodenberry pitched it to the networks as “Wagon Train to the Stars”, but it became much more than that.  This series broke new ground for Science Fiction and television in general.  It veered away from the “kiddie space operas” that preceded it and tackled more mature themes packaged in Science Fiction trappings to make it more palatable to audiences and network executives.  This series also set the bar for all Science Fiction and Fantasy series that would follow and only relatively few have succeeded in measuring up to that standard.  (Watch full episodes of Star Trek: TOS online for free at TV.com)

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation – In 1987, this series boldly went where the original series had already gone 20 years prior.  Still, it blazed a new trail in syndication making that market a viable outlet for Science Fiction and Fantasy television, which the networks at that time had all but shunned, for the next decade and more.  This series suffered from a smug attitude and where its predecessor’s episodes could descend into melodrama and camp when they missed the mark, TNG was just plain boring when it miss-fired.  Still across its seven seasons, the show hit the mark at times as well and produced quite a number of exceptional episodes that compared favorably to the original series and that rank among the best in Science Fiction television.

3. Star Trek: Enterprise – This series often gets derided as a last gasp effort to keep the franchise running on television, but personally I thought it breathed some new life into the Star Trek universe.  It lacked the haughtiness that made Star Trek: DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager at times unwatchable to me.  And it harkened back to the original series at times, drawing on that spirit of adventure, yet still managed to blaze its own unique trails.  The series definitely derailed some in its second and third seasons, and I never really got into that whole “Temporal Cold War” thing, but Season 1 and 4 gave us some really good episodes.

4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Hardcore fans of this incarnation are quite vocal in their belief that this series represented the pinnacle of the Trek franchise.  But this one just never quite did it for me.  Star Trek: TNG had an off-putting smugness to it that DS9 took to a whole new level.  At times, I wondered if the creative team thought that viewers should feel privileged to be allowed to watch their wonderful little show. True, the series had its share of good episodes, but it wasn’t as good the writers and producers thought it was.  I do have to admit that I gave up on it after the fourth season and I understand that the best came after that.  I did still tune in from time to time, though, and never found enough to keep me coming back.

5. Star Trek: The Animated Series – This show often gets dismissed, but it really wasn’t all that bad.  It was just the original series done as a cartoon instead of a live action show and it carried over most of the cast, many of the writers, and Gene Rodenberry at the helm.  And he wisely balked at NBC’s suggestion of adding kids to the bridge to make it more Saturday Morning friendly.  Admittedly, the animation could be a bit crude and some episodes veered more closely to the kiddie-fare that the show shared its timeslot with, but the show still managed to produce its share good episodes.  (Watch for my more comprehensive review of this series in the coming weeks.)

6. Star Trek: Voyager – This series showed a lot of promise.  The idea of stuck-up Federation officers forced to work together with the dissident Maquis at the far side of the galaxy presented a wealth of potential stories.  Unfortunately, the producers’ insistence that there is no conflict among Starfleet officers led them to chuck out the most interesting possibilities of this scenario early on.  Memo to those producers: conflict makes for interesting stories.  In fact, you can’t have real drama without it.  I’m not saying you have to have fist-fights and space battles, just some point of strife that the characters need to overcome.  Look at some of the best examples of the Star Trek franchise and you will usually see that conflict between characters (including the Starfleet officers) plays a significant role.  In addition, this series took the smugness we had previously seen in TNG and DS9 to an almost unbearable level and I abandoned ship on the series after its second season (though Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine brought me back for the occasional look-see).

Of course I have to admit that the general Star Trek fanbase has a much different view of the series order than myself.  Based on our recent poll asking which series was the best, Star Trek: TNG took top honors among the six series with DS9 in second place and TOS surprisingly taking a distant third.  Rounding out the second half were Enterprise and Voyager with TAS in the caboose with only a paltry 18 votes.  Here are the results after 1,762 votes cast:

1.    Star Trek: The Next Generation (53.0%, 942 Votes)
2.    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (16.0%, 290 Votes)
3.    Star Trek: The Original Series (12.0%, 210 Votes)
4.    Star Trek: Enterprise (9.0%, 161 Votes)
5.    Star Trek: Voyager (8.0%, 141 Votes)
6.    Star Trek: The Animated Series (1.0%, 18 Votes)

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