How Kirk and Spock Got Their Groove Back
By Ben McNeely, bmcneely@modernfilmzine.com
The problem with “Star Trek” is that it jumped the shark 15 years ago when producers Ron Moore and Brannon Braga created “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”
It stopped being an allegory about the human condition and start getting into hardcore canon mythology storytelling.
“Deep Space Nine’”suffered through what “Star Trek: The Next Generation”
began: It moved away from fun character interactions and action-packed
stories and began to take itself too seriously.
They expanded the “Trek” Universe way beyond Capt. Kirk’s pay grade into a
long-sustained war narrative that cut the rest of us off (including ‘Trek’
fans) and catered only to those fans that immerse themselves in canon.
As “Deep Space Nine” fizzled, “Star Trek: Voyager’”sent us into the Delta
Quadrant, and deeper into obscurity. Its only pop culture hook was the
voluptuous Borg Seven of Nine, played by the beautiful Jeri Ryan.
“Enterprise,” which had the most potential to bring back the masses to
‘Trek,’ failed miserably. The crew didn’t boldly go as hard as they should
have. We found out where the technology — like phasers and the transporter
– came from, but that’s about it.
Scott Bakula wasn’t a cowboy, like Kirk, but more of a whiny brat who felt
he was entitled to explore space because his father designed the new
generation of warp drives.
T’Pol, the curvy Vulcan science officer played by, again, the beautiful
Jolene Blalock, only served to reinforce the marginalization of geeky fan
boys. The paternal conflict between the humans and Vulcans was also
hackneyed. If Kirk were in charge, he’d just go on the mission and damn the
Vulcan Council.
And when the writers got Capt. Jonathan Archer caught up in a ‘temporal cold
war’ somewhere in the first few episodes, that was it. I was done with “Star
Trek.”
The franchise, for me and for a lot of others, was dead, and everyone knew
it. Whenever I saw “Deep Space Nine” or “Voyager” episodes on T.V., I flipped
on through without a beat.
Moore, Braga and “Enterprise” co-creator Ronald Moore had created a universe
so dense and so dependent on points of canon that it had become
inaccessible. And ‘Trek’ fans became more and more marginalized as a group.
So much so that I hid my own affinity for “Star Trek” for fear of being seen
as a rubber-ear-wearing, canon-quoting, convention-attending geek boy.
I wandered through the entertainment universe, watching “Spider-Man” and
“X-Men” reemerge on the scene in a splash. ‘Superman Returns’ was
disappointing and dashed my hopes for another childhood hero.
“Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” were excellent, excellent reboots and
has set the tone for how a franchise should be restarted.
Even “James Bond” got a makeover and now is the British badass we all knew
he was.
Still, “Star Trek” languished in the wilderness, being kept alive by
fan-made Internet series and the ubiquitous conventions. It took a veteran
T.V. director in J.J. Abrams to bring back the venerable ‘Trek’ and give it
new life.
In promotional tours to conventions, Abrams would start off his speeches
with, “I’ve never been a fan of ‘Star Trek,’ but …” The fans went nuts,
saying he was insulting them.
I said, “Thank God.” Thank God Abrams wasn’t a fan — it meant he could
bring fresh eyes to the dense canon and sort through it all, choosing what
was important and what should go.
At its heart, “Star Trek” was a John Ford western set in space, whose
characters were bound together to explore the galaxy. This was Gene
Roddenberry’s vision and Abrams and writers Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
brought The Great Bird’s vision back to where it should be.
And, I argue, that it is closer to Roddenberry’s ’space western’ vision than
Roddenberry ever got when he was writing the show.
Roddenberry, like many ‘Trek’ writers, fell victim to their progressive
ideals and wrote that into the show. Which was fine. ‘Trek’ became a
ground-breaking show in pop culture because of including Nichelle Nichols, a
black actress on television in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement.
It was ground-breaking for its commentary on racism (‘Let That Be Your Last
Battlefield’), the nuclear arms race (‘The Doomsday Machine’), humanity vs.
progress (‘The Infinite Computer’), and life and death (just about every
episode ever).
Roddenberry and the writers carried that tradition over to ‘The Next
Generation’ and the show thrived with a large audience. But even at that,
‘The Next Generation’ took Roddenberry’s liberal utopia to an extreme.
Commander Data, the android wanting to be human, expressed himself through
the classical forms of painting, theater and music.
What would have been the harm in Data learning to play Rock and Roll? I
think the writers would have had a much more enjoyable time with the
character, but that would have never happened on Jean-Luc Picard’s
Enterprise.
But in these post-post-modern, post-partisan, post-9/11 times, we don’t want
twisted and complicated mythological stories wrapped up in snazzy special
effects (Ahem, George Lucas). And we don’t want the U.S.S. Enterprise to be
commanded by some nerd spouting techno-babble.
We want action, adventure, sex, humor and, yes, Spock.
And that is what Abrams and Co. deliver.
Forget the die-hard fans complaints. Their day is done. No one complained
when they rebooted Batman. It was a fantastic choice after Joel Schumacher
and George Clooney killed the franchise with “Batman and Robin.”
The same needed to happen with ‘Trek.’ It is too good to fizzle out the way
it did after ‘Enterprise.’ Remastering the classic series was a step in the
right direction and has introduced Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley to a whole new
generation.
But more importantly, ‘Trek’ has gone back to its roots: Good, strong,
character-driven storytelling, which is what made ‘Trek’ fantastic in the
first place.
Now I realize there will be constant debate in the blogosphere and at
conventions about the new film. But, really, this is a no-brainer.
If you didn’t like the reboot for canon reasons, well, as the Shat would
say, “Get a life.”
