h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Should Star Trek continue to live?

Star Trek first appeared on people's TV screens back in 1966 and took the world by storm. This original series only lasted three seasons before being axed but, in that period, created many, many fans. After years of re-runs and continual hounding by it's followers, it was resurrected in a feature film. Realising that millions of people were hooked, more films were made and brand new series' appeared on TV. "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" both lasted seven seasons each, generating an even greater fandom. But, now the forth incarnation, "Star Trek: Voyager", is in it's seventh and last season, and the ultimate question has to be asked...

Is Star Trek dead?

On the one hand, after such a long time, has it has reached the end of it's shelf life and be thrown away into the big sci-fi rubbish bin?
On the other hand, will a new series be even better with fresh characters, new story lines and even more special effects?

Should Star Trek live on in another series?
(If so what would you like to see in the new series?)
Or should it just keel over and die and make way for the newer Sci-Fi programs such as Farscape?

Hmmmm.

They could well be running out of ideas, in which case it's not a good idea to stretch things any further. My favourite series is, I reckon, TNG... Deep Space Nine I quite like but it was never compulsive viewing... and Voyager I miss a fair proportion of.

Then again, I can't see that there are any obvious replacements.

*shrug*

26199

I'm of the opinion that since TNG (my favourite too) it's all been downhill. Seemed to lose it's edge and certainly it's attraction for me with the start of DS9. And as for Voyager, I just could never believe in the Captain and I'm female too so it's not a sexist thing - there was a venerable female admiral turned up in TNG a couple of times who I could believe ran a starship with authority but not Jane Way (apologies to any fans if I got her name wrong)

As for alternatives, well I've not seen much of Farscape but it's a possibility. I do like the blue woman but that puppet character is a bit too cute for me.
I would have voted for Babylon 5 but that's finished too now.

Unfortunatly B5 finished, and after Warner Bros., I would spit here but it is against site rules, jerked JMS around so much that series 5 was a bit of a let down. Still the final episode was damn good (better than DS9's flashback show), and now we have Farscape which is very good Earth:Final Conflict, which I really like, more than any of the Star Trek (except maybe series 4 of Voy) so plenty to watch Indeed there is a glut of pretty good TV on (except on Tuesday, a truley dead night) G vs.E, 10th Kingdom (tho' its finished) series 2 of First Wave can't go wrong
BCNU - Crescent

'I`m a Doctor, not a TV Producer!'
I think Star Trek has got more to tell, but it depends on the setting.
Talk of a StarFleet Acadamy show would be a BAD idea, but the voyages of Capt. Sulu in the Excelsior, might be OK, as the ideals of StarFleet are still a bit raw at this point in time.
This might provide us with a series that was nearer to the style of StarTrek TOS, Less potification and less instant, 'getting out of a tight situation,' technology, and more relying more on Human capabilites again. A series about the Enterprise B could prove interesting. I`d like to see how the inept Capt. Harriman actually managed to cope with his new toy after he got it mended!

Some Trek groups have suggested that a series about the Time Travelling Division of StarFleet in the 29th Century would be a good idea!, but I'm not sure. On the face of it, the idea is sound, but I can see writers degenerating it into a 'lets go back into Earth's history and repair the timeline' sort of show, ala Time Trax or Quantum Leap.

Awwwww.
I think that there is always a lot to be said for any original.
That said, of the spinoffs I reckon Voyager to be the most inventive and satisfactory. Whether my view would be the same if Seven of Nine were a fat old gent ...
Farscape seems to be a more recent, bigger budget version of ... er ... you know that "Dark Zone" thing with the bio-organic ship, ornithopters and guy who keeps gettting dragged out of his cryostasis.
"Merckxx"?
Perhaps I'm just too old. (Thinks of 7 of 9 & decides he's not.)

pant pant pant pant .... (also thinking of 7 of nine.

There can never be enough Star Trek! Personally I'd like to see more of my favourite TNG. Maybe we could follow the adventures of a retired Jean Luc as some kind of intergalactic super sleuth.

I grew up with repeats of the original Star Trek. Richard and I are trying to build up a complete collection of the videos, but it's not easy. We've got all of series 1 and some of series 2 and 3, and we're still working on it. Comparing it with the recent incarnations, it's so bad it's brilliant (technology-wise), but still great fun.

Of the recent incarnations, we never got into TNG or DS9. The BBC made the 'mistake' of always screening them at 6 p.m. on a weekday evening, when we're not home, and we never got into the habit of setting the video for them. Having said that, I quite enjoyed some of the episodes of TNG that I saw, but it seemed a little too cosy - no friction between crew members (or not much). I understand that Roddenberry wanted it this way, in the original series and in TNG, but I feel it gives an unrealistic feel to the situations. I much prefer Voyager. Of the recent incarnations it is definitely my favourite (Richard's too). It goes back to the old idea of 'where no man has gone before', and it does have friction between crew members, which you would definitely get if 150+ people were stuck together in a confined environment for any length of time!

Now for my 2 cents. Personally I have watched star trek for a while, I didn't really start watching TNG till the end but re-runs caught me up. That was a very good and inventive series. I liked DS9 and felt there were a lot of good episodes, but I also got intensely bored with all those Dominion war episodes that went on for 3 seasons. Overall I disagree about the voyager being most inventive thing. Of course it is all subjective so if you like it then fine. Personally I thought that it did have some good episodes, and still does something good every now and again (like that recent episode "lifeline"), but overall got very repetitive and unoriginal. not to mention it re-writes all those little rules the other series put in their science, one of the interesting things in star trek was that they couldn't do everything and had to think up some way to get around the no-beam through shield rule or something. voyager just pretends to invent something new every week that cancels out the problem

Sounds like "Inventive" to me.

Not quite what I meant. There is a difference between being inventive in story concepts and telling the audience that the characters are inventive by yelling some odd star trek gibberish at them. I still watch voyager occasionly, but it now seems to be all about ratings with silly crossovers and even the use of a wrestling star from UPN not long ago. Personally I kinda wish they had just gotten home a while ago and continued as a crew back home. The whole lets get home thing got a bit dull. It was a good concept to cut off the federation crew from their support and gave some nice opportunities for their starfleet morals to be tested as they all wondered whether they still applied in the alpha quadrant. Eventually though, it seemed to me like every 2 episodes they managed to cut 5 years or so off their journey through some odd piece of luck. I know that it is just a tv show and I should really just relax (line attributed to mst3k), but I get annoyed that they are managing to invent some weird electronic gizmo that cancels out a century old problem every week on a ship with a hundred people (yet thousands of extras?) that is cut off from resources, and nearly blown up every episode. I'd hate to be on the maintence crew on that ship.

I used to love trek me.
But of late, in last seasons of ds9 and voyager, the FEEL isnt the same. Can anyone else identify with this?
I can tell you one thing that botherd me though how come throughout the entire war with the dominon did we not once see the flagship of the federation the NCC-1701E USS ENTERPRISE fight? strange it being the most powerfull starship in the federations arsenal.....

I am not really sure what you mean by feeling, but I think It feels different to me too. Ds9 at the end was getting a bit repeditive in my mind. The whole dominion thing went on for 4,034 years and I started hoping they would just do stand-alone episodes again like TNG did. You know, episodes that stand on their own and don't require the following of a huge story arc. Was quite odd that the ship never showed up though, and I don't think I even saw a ship with the same design.

It seems that this forum has fizzled out a bit!
Lets try and get it going again, there must be someone else out there with thoughts on the shelf life of Trek.

Personally, I don't think that Star Trek is dead. With the following that it has got, it will never die, so a new series is inevitable (recent rumours say it will debut in September 2001).
With respect to the story lines of Voyager, I think that it has got better and it isn't too repetitive. Some of the episodes really got me sitting on the edge of my seat! If they can come up with a new series that is as enjoyable as those, I will be a very happy bunny!
Myself, I hope it will be another ship based series, with more of the one-off or double-parter shows, without the dragging out of the same subject over half a season or more (e.g. DS9's Cardassians, Klingons, Dominion, etc). I am against the 'time travel' idea - it would be too corny and too difficult to get it to work correctly (make it too easy for the nitpickers).

What does anybody else think?

I still hold on my position that voyager has been the worst of the Star Trek series. If you like it, then fine, I respect any opinions expressed here. I do still watch it occasionly, and there are good episodes, I just think that the show has got some core problems that hurt it. Details on what the new series (the new series is a definite thing) will be about are sketchy. The producers keep claiming that it will be something big, and a large change for the franchise. Also, a new movie is in the works (the TNG crew), and rumors galore about that one. It is being directed by a guy who directs action movies, and one big rumor is that data will die. I think I read that all at the scifi.com website a long time ago, but then they changed their format and I don't like it anymore.

I think it's dead. Watch the really old stuff (we're talking 35 years ago!) for the nostalgia quotient, but stop trying to flog a dead horse

Did somebody say 'nitpickers'?1? Are you one? If not, and if you like spotting things that are 'wrong' in films, head over to http://www.nitpickers.com. It's a web-site where you can post nitpicks about things that don't add up in films (but not in TV series, 'cos there would be too many of those). You don't have to be a registered nitpicker to submit nitpicks, but they won't keep count of the number you've submitted if you aren't registered. Also, you can't submit comments on other people's nitpicks if you're not registered.

I've been a nitpicker for over a year, and I've even made it on to the 'Top 15' list!

Back to the topic. I don't think Star Trek is dead. One of the things the original Star trek did was to take sensitive issues and present them in space with alien chariters so no humans will be offended but, still making you think. The newer Star Treks have lost that edge. They need to bring back shows where the basic story is on race relations, wars, the hungry, the oppressed…..

Jim, it's worst than dead, it's been corporatized.

There is a new series (which will be the 4th spinoff, 5th overall) in the works, as well as a 10th movie. The plot of both is uncertain at the moment.