One Last Time

One thing I've noticed as we celebrate and remember the life of DeForest Kelley is that we seem to have mislaid any photos from his work in the movies.

So here's our nod to the Southern Doctor in what would be his final movie - and final scene playing McCoy on the bridge of NCC-1701-A.

Happy birthday Bones!

A Little Unfair on Rick Berman

Going all the way back to January I decided to go easy on JJ Abrams and even defended him in light of the ferocious revelation that he would soon be helming Star Wars Episode VII. 

Then I spent some of March blubbering on about whether or not we should recognise the JJ reboot universe visualised in 2009's Star Trek and it's 2013 sequel as official material. Then it dawned on me that we had been in a similar situation some time ago with another individual. His name wasn't JJ Abrams but the anger directed at him from fandom was probably just as vehement (although after seeing some of the comments about Star Trek Into Darkness I'm tempted to retract that). 

My fingers flew over the keyboard and an article took form however, I let it piece fester and wallow around in the backwater of Draft Hell as the reboot sequel came and went; then the DVD and blu-ray came and went...and before you know it, it's Christmas 2013. Indeed, what could be a better time to dust this piece off as, appropriately, it's also Rick Berman's birthday. 

Already some of JJ Abrams' comments have, apparently, placed him in deep water with Trekkies since he wants his Star Trek to be the only one that's remembered etc etc... with fans supposedly crying out for a return to the "old ways"  of Star Trek that was known and loved from 1966 through to 2005; what JJ was doing "just isn't Star Trek".

Flip back a few years and the odd thing is that towards the end of Enterprise we were a grumpy old lot especially when it came to Rick Berman. As the cartoon I was inspired by (top) goes to show, we didn't like what he'd done to the franchise when it came to Enterprise and, dare I even write the name, Star Trek Nemesis. The grass had to be greener so to speak. Manny Coto had taken over the reins of the faltering, stumbling Enterprise but alas it was too late and the franchise disappeared into a Bajoran-sized wormhole for the next four years. A real shame given the quality of that last season. Circling the back of beyond is precisely where Abrams found it, kicked it a few times and  rebooted it - and then we all started grumbling again....you get the picture I'm sure.

But was the "Berman Era" really THAT bad? Should Trekkies/Trekkers across the globe be as disgruntled with Rick as history suggests? I would say not but I'll make sure I back this up with some evidence. 

Rick Berman was pretty much at Gene Roddenberry's side from the inception of The Next Generation in 1986 until the Great Bird's death in 1991. During those years he would take on more and more of the day to day production of the series and helm the show to its end in 1994. It's a harsh thing to say, but once Gene was no longer part of that Star Trek equation there was more freedom for the writers and we were presented with some intensive character development and edgier stories. It was interesting to watch Trek Nation which has helped map my thoughts for this piece as Ronald D Moore notes that there was more they could do with the Star Trek universe post-1991 even though Berman appeared to keep hold of the reins fairly tightly.

Yes, he allowed the infamous space pirates two-parter, Gambit, in the shows final season but we got to understand the characters a lot more if we dig deeper than that superficial yet very entertaining story. Look at where the writers went in the second half of the fifth season for instance. The earlier stories are very much science fiction based whereas there is a definite flexing of wings when we hit installments such as The Outcast, New Ground, Hero Worship and Perfect Mate to name but a few. These were stories tackling slavery, sexuality, childhood trauma and more which were never attempted just a couple of years before. 

Now Rick was never The Next Generation's most prolific writer, penning as he did two episodes in the entire run from 1987 to 1994; Brothers and A Matter of Time. All other episodes that Berman was directly involved with in the scripting paired him either with Michael Pillar or latterly Brannon Braga. That said, he had the final say on what would make it to the screen and let the writing staff explore the cultures of their characters in a great deal more depth especially the Klingons through Worf in season five and further more with Birthright and Rightful Heir the following year. Data was expanded with the dream programme, Troi got a uniform, a promotion and dare I say it a significant amount more respect from the viewers. It was the heyday of Star Trek and the characters were not stagnating. I'm not sure we can really complain about his input into The Next Generation but could this be due to the fact that it was built on such a solid base to start with by Roddenberry? It's certainly a thought to ponder over but then how do we account for Deep Space Nine? In my opinion the greatest of any Star Trek generation. Is there more to this?

Perhaps most revealing is the interview Berman conducted with startrek.com back in 2012. He truly believed in Gene's vision of the 24th Century and fought to uphold those elements that the shows creator held dear even after his death. However Berman knew, just as Abrams did in 2009, that Star Trek had to change and develop if it were to survive. Maybe his choices weren't as extreme as those that have enshrouded the latest two big screen adaptations but by taking Deep Space Nine and Voyager into the uncharted depths of the Gamma and Delta Quadrants respectively there was chance to do something different under the security of the franchise umbrella. Now significantly with both these shows Berman held overall control but the day to day decisions were in the hands of others. Michael Piller and Ira Steven Behr ran the show at one time or other on Deep Space Nine while Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga did likewise on Voyager. 

Now I think this shows a great contrast between Abrams and Berman - while JJ's attitude appears more hands on, Rick allowed those who understood the material and "lived" the experience of each show to develop it and nurture the creativity. He seems to have placed people in particular spaces to ensure the quality of the franchise continued. It would only be when Enterprise became the sole focus of the production team that Berman would be more directly involved and certainly more influential in the direction of the show. Notably Enterprise would be the series where Rick received more credits for stories than any of the other Star Trek series he had worked on.

This change in focus might reveal where Berman wasn't as strong. Enterprise would be more in the hands of Braga than anyone else during its four year run but it would be the first series Berman had not created or run in the Star Trek universe with Michael Piller. 

Piller himself is highly regarded for his work on Star Trek especially when it comes to a certain Borg-based two-parter from 1990. Maybe his influence was more than we can appreciate in just a few blog paragraphs but without Rick Berman managing the overall shape of the franchise these pieces would not have been in place and the show would not have lasted in some form on TV until 2005. Since Berman took over the franchise in 1991 there have only been 8 years where there has not been an episode of Star Trek in production and during two of those the Abrams movies were released. If it had been "killed" by Gene Roddenberry's heir-apparent would we have seen so much Star Trek over three decades? Would we have even had the films in 2009 and 2013? Potentially not. If Berman's involvement in the franchise was indeed so toxic towards the end, why are they releasing Enterprise on blu-ray and why do Voyager and Deep Space Nine continue to sell DVDs, magazines and a million tons of other material? If the effect had been that bad then the franchise would not have survived nor evolved.

What really gets me is that fandom complained so bitterly about how Enterprise was ruined by Berman especially in its second year. I would challenge fans to look back at any of the previous three series and say that the early years of those shows produced consistently brilliant material. All three took time to evolve and only really hit their stride in the third and fourth years. Enterprise's problem was the whole prequel premise and the Xindi attack which you just knew had to work out fine in the end because of the effect it would have on all other series thereafter in the timeline. 

While the Xindi were a bit like a knockoff Dominion, Berman directed the show to do something that no other generation had attempted. Not only was he showing how it all began and in some way reinventing the wheel (or warp drive) but he upheld the beliefs and standards of Roddenberry and created a season long arc which did work in my opinion. Bringing Manny Coto in for year four was another good move (whether his choice or not) but it left Rick in charge of Star Trek with some great three-part concept stories only tragically let down by THAT horrific finale that did nobody any justice.

JJ Abrams had the chance to reboot from the beginning; to do what he wanted with the franchise and make it his own; a new version of someone else's creation. A re-imagining as we're fond of calling it. Berman had to remain true to the fold and the finale is an attempt to pull everything together when it was apparent that the series was being cancelled and there would be no more new Star Trek on TV. But it failed. While you can see the attempt to make it cuddly, warm and in some respects have a similar feel to something like All Good Things... it nosedives. Producing something new for the show week in week out for such a long time can't be easy. After all there are notoriously only seven types of story and after a while things can get a bit "samey". I still stand in the belief that everything Rick did was in the name of the fans because he knew what Star Trek meant direct from its creator. 

Abrams might have regressed the show back to a fist-fight-of-the-year concept with low impact on themes and characterisation but even at its worst points under Rick Berman these were key factors that were always maintained and time invested in to make sure they retained the mythos. You have to consider that when one or two series were in production there would also be one or two movies hovering in the background. Berman must have, for a fair few years between 1994 and 2000, been spread quite thinly in his control of the franchise which might well have contributed to some of the stories surrounding Ira Steven Behr tricking Berman into allowing certain actions to take place on Deep Space Nine.

Berman allowed the Dominion War which was something Gene might never have allowed. He also brought in conflict among the main cast (but not Starfleet characters) which added not only dimensions for the actors to explore but expanded the potential of the Star Trek universe. While this added another level of action and adventure to the story it didn't stray from ensuring there was always a theme or a motive underlying each story - something JJ might want to reconsider for his third big screen Star Trek outing. Playing on the unexplored was key to the vision of the universe while, in some respects, Abrams has stayed on safe ground, close to Earth - oh, that and blowing up Vulcan. 

Let's be honest here, Rick Berman wasn't afraid of trying new concepts which is easily highlighted by the very existence of Enterprise. His role lay in ensuring that the series remained true to its origins and that it really was "Based upon Star Trek" as created by Gene Roddenberry. Maybe things went the way they did because he felt constrained by that Big Picture and the need to stay true to the Great Bird. Abrams has no such concerns and even Roddenberry himself, as part of an interview I saw on Trek Nation, was keen for someone else to put their spin on the Star Trek universe. Abrams did and so did Berman - so much so his bust of Gene now, legendarily, wears a blindfold. 

He could take risks and allow more exploration and still be the preserver of the Roddenberry vision. Perhaps look at it another way - if Gene had remained in the seat for another 10, 15 or 20 years, would we have seen Deep Space Nine develop from the "adventure of the week" format that had pervaded The Next Generation and The Original Series? I suspect not - which might have seen it dwindle and die after three years because I think we can be certain that the arrival of a certain squat warship in The Search, Part I would not have been the first or last thing Gene would have done - nor perhaps would we have had the Klingons withdrawing from the Khitomer Accords in The Way of the Warrior.


OK, OK, so clearly I like to defend Mr Berman. Why? Because he put the right people in the right places to make a difference and make the shows what they were. Piller, Berman, Moore, Braga, Echevarria, Taylor...all were brought in during Rick's tenure and made Deep Space Nine and Voyager especially into their own. They made us care and he helped and directed that evolution. It can't have been easy juggling three series at various points in their lives plus a motion picture series and maybe that's the problem.

There was, eventually, too much. For me there was a Star Trek peak around the mid to late 1990's, probably reaching a climax with What You Leave Behind. Once that had closed the quality seemed to take a dip. We, as fans expected a lot and didn't get it. There were a lot of good things that did come out of the Star Trek stable by this stage but it needed something fresh and the people that had made it successful in the Golden Age of the 1990's had moved on. Braga was a good writer but as a producer his inexperience, I think, showed through which led to the arrival of Manny Coto which was too little too late. I think his work on the final year of Enterprise is superb and produced some moments of true brilliance. A fifth season and the Romulan War would have really set the show apart but we never got the chance to see how it could have evolved. 

Is it Berman's fault he stayed so long? Maybe not. He was doing something he was passionate about and was doing it for the audience and more significantly he believed he was doing what the fans wanted. His over familiarity with the material by 2004/5 may well have assisted the toll of the bell for Enterprise and after such a long run the franchise was more than a little out of puff. A break was due, it needed a holiday and a change of management. Berman had done his best and given his all to uphold the standards but, as someone once said, All Good Things...must come to an end.

So let's thank Rick Berman for giving us some damn fine shows and classic stories over the years and you know what, it wasn't that bad after all - and for the record he had nothing to do with the movies that are rated at the bottom of the pile. So let's start lighting the torches for JJ and Shatner shall we or are we all waiting to see who will be taking the reins for the third reboot movie? We'll be keeping track in 2014 you can be assured of that.

Star Trek: VHS: A Trekollections Curveball (Part I)

In the days before DVD and blu-ray, there was but one way in the UK to get your quickest fix of Star Trek.

VHS videos from CIC were that answer, Two episodes per cassette with, more often than not in the case of The Next Generation, a blurry shot or three from the featured episodes on the case, a brief bit of story blurb and cleverly a lot of the two-parters were split over two volumes to ensure maximum spending and much reduced shelf space if you were only buying select episodes. Now these were also the days when the season would air in the US in September/October and the first VHS cassette would arrive on the shelves of Woolworths, Boots or WH Smiths in February the following year. In today's media savvy world where you can expect the latest episode the following - of not the same - day as it's aired in the States to be on SKY that's just unbelievable. How did we manage and without the internet to get a fix?!

We just did! That's the answer! 

Being a teenage student when The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager were being released my budget was finite. My first foray was actually the 25th Anniversary box set of the first five films and the 25th Anniversary Special but what I really want to focus on is the wonderful material that presented itself with the series releases as featured above. I never bought any of the Original Series video releases because I'd seen a lot of them on terrestrial TV. I would eventually get some of the 60's series on the re-releases which, if you got the full set, read "We are the first to reach this far..." which I believe is a Spock quote from The Corbomite Maneuver. The rear of each tape carried three stills and episode details and was nothing spectacular. To start me off, probably unintentionally, my grandparents bought me Encounter at Farpoint and some of the first season before I got started on expanding the collection myself. 

Now don't get me wrong, DVDs and blu-rays are a far sight cheaper - £12.99 for two episodes on VHS vs 26 episodes for £12 on DVD is a no-brainer really - but there was a certain anticipation about getting down to the shops and seeing the latest releases. Oddly I'm not looking at the episodes themselves here but the box they came in. They were magnificent examples of 80's, 90's and 2000's art. The Next Generation effectively followed the theme set by the Kirk and co. era. Simple box art accompanied by a shot taken from one of the featured episode on the front, two more stills on the back from Story A and Story B with some microscopic synopsis of each into the bargain. Each VHS box was numbered from 1 to 89 and this number coloured to reflect the series it was from (I recall season one was white, three pink, six red and seven orange).

When you look at each first volume from each of the seven seasons (and All Good Things...) you start to see minor changes - Riker gets a beard drawn on for season two, Crusher is replaced by Pulaski and then reappears for season three, Troi gets a new hairdo, Geordi, Worf and Wesley get some new clothes. Season three sees the uniforms gain collars and Beverly gets a new picture. For the fourth season, Guinan appears and Wesley changes into his ensign uniform. Season five means Picard changes into his captain's jacket ensemble, Data gets a picture change while Alexander and Ro also squeeze into the picture. Troi also gets a costume change to grey. Season seven maintained the picture but for the final volume everyone (who was still alive) got their older versions featured on the cover - definitely the early days of photoshop and I remember being shocked at how bad it looked.

Don't get me wrong, it was exciting to get to the shop to see what was featured on the box and what clues you could work out from the stills but some of them were just bad. The worst offender was the season one volume which featured The Last Outpost - someone forgot to pick the image with the blue screen edited to the swirling atmosphere of the alien world Riker is standing on...! Another classic blunder had to be the cover for Descent which totally gave away the big cliffhanger. Well done, CIC. It also seemed they got the blurriest of screenshots possible to produce the videos but in the 80's and 90's it was all about working out what might be happening...!

When  the series was re-released I didn't purchase any of the volumes which had four episodes per cassette (that's a lot of fast forwarding to get to the one you want to watch if it's the last one!) and the box art was more graphic artist than photo as seen here with the first volume of the show. While more expressive of the stories contained and less reliant on a headshot which was a favourite of the original run, they just seemed a bit wrong, outdated and out of place. 

While I was having a sort out I also found two magazine/flyers for one of the box sets that pervaded The Next Generation universe following its departure from TV in 1994 (there was also a Data box set I have failed to mention). Of all the series that came and went, this was probably the one most plundered for VHS re-releases over the years after. There is a second - the compressed movie box set - shown here but it was a dire release which meant that the even numbered films were all second on the tapes aside from First Contact which got its own volume. Bad planning there! Anyway, this set focused on two episodes from each of the main cast as a celebration of 10 years of the show (1997). There are a couple of clunkers in here to fill up the space but on the whole this is very much a best of The Next Generation. As with a lot of the special editions it seemed to be more about shifting boxes than it was about presentation (see the movie box set here for additional proof). Very basic packaging and artwork with non of the splendour we were seeing at this time on Deep Space Nine. Also note the error on the Riker volume - the second episode was The Pegasus and not a second helping of The Next Phase! What you did get extra was a Patrick Stewart documentary. On that I can't comment as I've never seen it but I doubt it was directly linked to the series. Please don't try and order as I suspect the lines have been closed for a couple of years at the very least...

When Deep Space Nine came along it was a big change. Gone were the dodgy headshot stills from the episodes, replaced by classier shots of the crew (for season one) blended with the wormhole and a third of the eponymous space station. Beyond the Final Frontier and From the Makers of The Next Generation were the accompanying slogans which almost seemed to be begging you to purchase them and seemingly apologising for their nature in the same phrase. Anyway, this wasn't everything that was great about the Deep Space Nine cases. The backs now carried a cast shot of the crew and the movie style Starfleet delta badge (to season three) alongside the two episode synopses. An additional piece and something I had a list of a while back in more annoraky days, was a quote from one of the episodes. I can only now remember "It is the unknown that defines our existence" from Emissary. Not bad after 20 years mind. That wasn't the end to it though.

Each of the Deep Space Nine volumes was more than just a cover. When all the volumes were lined up from Emissary to What You Leave Behind there was one long scene that featured planets, ships and the station. Cracking open the case, each box also featured a character profile of someone starring in one of the two featured stories including some minor stats on first appearance and stardates. Emissary and Way of the Warrior however were different - the former was also released with a special ten page collectors booklet while Worf's arrival was marked by not just a fundamental design change but also a foldout cover with information on the Klingons and Cardassians. There seemed to be a lot more thought in the design of these sleeves and the whole experience of getting new Star Trek, even down to some of the rather poor posters you could collect tokens to buy during the season (three and four mainly) or sign up to the newsletter which provided news on upcoming releases (I'll talk about them next time).

Seasons one to five added stardates to the front of every case, some of which were made up as not every episode included one, leading to Our Man, Bashir being held on 49300.7 (work it out!). Aside from the random switch to season/volume numbering from The Search, the design remained very similar for six years bar a change in the angle of the station and shades of blue/black/grey around the featured character. The back too remained the same on the whole although the cast photo was updated and the film era badge (odd choice to begin with) was replaced by the First Contact combadge. Season six saw the removal of the stardate from the front of the cases as Voyager also got a VHS makeover. 

The final season did away with almost everything and I wasn't a big fan however stunning some of the images created were. CIC introduced a bizarre triple photo of Sisko, Worf and Kira that made no logical sense. Each volume from 7.1 to 7.12 including the aforementioned artistic image related to one of the two episodes included that had no recurring thematic element except the triple portrait and series title. The interior of each box retained the individual profile layout of the previous six seasons although the final volume, 7.13, had a reversible cover to give either a "movie style" one-off image or retain the themed picture as shown above. Of all the series box art they produced, the Deep Space Nine volumes were easily the best because of the extra information and the more unusual ones that occasionally cropped up in the first six seasons - each of the final year was a unique pic and so not quite as awe inspiring when you saw it!


My favourites from the run have to be the images selected for Trials and Tribble-ations,  Call to Arms and Sacrifice of Angels. At some point at least two of those have ended up as phone wallpapers or lockscreens. Minor note on volume 5.3 above which you can't see is that they got the science and support services badges the wrong way round. These were great images and the times when there was an unusual picture you knew it was for a special reason or a season highlight (also see Tears of the Prophets). Anyway, I had a lot of the Deep Space Nine volumes piled up and they got a lot of watching over the years. Of all the shows it's the one I connected to the most and easily spent the most on. Scary to think that each one cost as much as a full box set now and we were only getting 88 minutes of Star Trek for the price - but that was the cost of seeing it first!

Sensibly before I parted with them a year or so back, I managed to scan a few of the interior sleeves in to show the character profiles they contained. Here are a couple I selected. The detail inside was usually confined specifically to the featured stories which only gave away what might be involved. It was almost like a written trailer for the episodes.

Season One Duet inner sleeve focusing on episode character

Season Four Our Man Bashir inner sleeve

What The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine did have in common was that they both carried (for some time) a good five minute trailer for Star Trek including clips from The Original Series, the movies as well as Picard and Sisko's era. It was always a challenge to work out which episodes managed to get snipped to feature in this. I think it faded out in the middle of season three of Deep Space Nine to be replaced by a trailer for Star Trek: Generations and whatever else they happened to find that was franchise related thereafter, namely Star Trek First Contact and Insurrection I think which was the last Star Trek movie I purchased on VHS the same day as I bought What You Leave Behind - even worse I think it was a couple of days after Christmas. Strange how you remember these things after a few years...

In Part 2 of this special Trekollections I'll be looking over Voyager and Enterprise as well as the Paramount Home Entertainment newsletter.

This article was originally published on United Federation of Planets and is shown in updated format here.

Trekollections III: Your Life As It Has Been Is Over

"Guess who's coming to dinner..."

The last voyage; the final final frontier was about to be reached by the original crew of the Enterprise as Star Trek VI premiered in 1991. It would be the end of an era for one crew but one more important turning point in my relationship with the series.

As you may recall from Part II we had moved to Lincolnshire earlier in the year which meant adjusting to a new school and new friends. This sixth film more than anything would redefine my relationship with Star Trek. I had the movie tie-in novel, the movie magazine and would hunt out anything I could find  to tell me more about The Undiscovered Country. It was an incredible film and easily vanquished any of the misgivings that The Final Frontier had raised two years previously - after all, it had an even number if nothing else.

As with the fifth film, my first glimpses of The Undiscovered Country were on the late night movie show before America's Top Ten. If I can go all flash-back and blurry for a second, it was the scene where Chang confronts Kirk via the viewscreen raging that his ship will "...blow (them) out of the stars!". 

"Signal our surrender!" orders Kirk as the Klingons right their ship and prepare to fire; "We surrender!"  

It didn't take long to find out what happened next as we went to see the film at Lincoln's Ritz Cinema (now a chain-pub) one Saturday afternoon. This film had everything that The Final Frontier hadn't as well as a good smattering of Shakespeare thrown in. It was more than a fitting conclusion to the voyages of Kirk's crew with the final space confrontation between the Enterprise, Excelsior and the cloaked Bird of Prey an absolute and instant Trek classic. 

I bought the accompanying official film magazine (now AWOL) and the novelisation which included some great additional scenes, some of which would turn up on the extended VHS release the following year. I even managed to use it for a book review in my end of year English exam. I seem to recall I received quite a good mark and the comment of "What a surprise!" from my English teacher - in red pen of course.

As previously, aside from Dad there was still nobody to talk to about Trek as I stopped being looked after during the holidays so I had to look elsewhere for Trek inspiration. Filling holiday time with Trek viewings of the films or episodes I had recorded wasn't too difficult. One thing that it did help with was my writing.

I started to write a lot more after watching Star Trek VI and getting further embroiled in the adventures of the Next Generation crew on TV. I created a whole new range of Star Trek adventures, imagining a new crew taking over the Enterprise-A and at one point even sticking a Gorn security chief and an Andorian waiter among the crew. Of course Star Trek Generations would technically make this entire series "non-canonical" with the introduction of the Enterprise-B but it was great fun to write. I had the ship abandoned and revamped (almost Knight Rider-style), a lot of crew changes and appearances from classic Trek characters including the Talosians for one in what became quite a lengthy series. 


Admittedly for a 12 year old they were much more about action and adventure than character-driven but that was probably to be expected! Star Trek was one of the key drivers that made me want to write, eventually leading to five years as an on-off journalist and sub-editor and three years studying English at university (sadly with no Trek texts to read). The stories I watched each week were inspirational and even though I took elements from what I saw to create my own narrative it still sparked the imagination enough for me to develop new worlds and new civilisations....

I wrote about forty "short" stories that seemed to get longer with each one. Over the years I would experiment with writing Trek stories set on moonbases, smaller ships (like the Sydney-class from "Relics"  and even a Runabout, but they never amassed to the longevity of that original spurt of imagination.

This period marked the time I was watching the third season of TNG on BBC 2 and starting at secondary school. Certain this was a big change in my life - a significantly bigger change than adding collars to the crew uniforms and removing the piping (which took me about half the season to realise). There was homework to contend with, a blazer to wear everyday, moving around lessons every hour and a lot of new teachers and classmates to get to know.

Now it had been a while since I had met anyone outside of my immediate family who was a proper fan of Star Trek but within the first year I discovered that both my English and Technology teachers were fans and Trek would get a few throw away references in lessons if I could get away with it. At some point in 1991 I managed to catch the Shatner and Nimoy hosted 25th Anniversary programme which had included not only material from The Undiscovered Country but also some tasty tidbits from "Tin Man" and also clips from the 100th episode and fourth season cliffhanger "Redemption".

Season Three changed the dynamic and was a massive improvement over the previous two seasons. The writing was tighter, the characters more comfortable and the show had a spring in its step from the off.  Oddly one memory of that year is getting told off for something by my mum  and being banned from watching that week's episode. For reference it was "Booby Trap" and it took about two years before I worked out which installment it was and got to see it off SKY's daily repeats. This was also true in the case of "The High Ground" which was banned on its first airplay due to the Irish reunification reference.

The '89-90 season was one good episode after another and it just seemed to flash by in a matter of weeks while I went through my first year at "big school".  When we reached "Yesterday's Enterprise" I was totally addicted and at that time it became both my and my dad's favourite episode - for me that lasted only a few weeks because of a certain cliffhanger; "The Best of Both Worlds" landed and Trek would never be the same again.  The Borg were pure focused evil, determined to make the universe in their image and only the Enterprise could stop them.  To this very day it is still in my eyes THE best cliffhanger any generation of Star Trek has ever produced bar none and is in my top three favourite episodes of all time. I was bowled over in every sense. The story was incredible; I "got" the Riker sub-story about his future (linked to Michael Piller's own job choices); Picard's capture by the Borg was overwhelmingly dramatic; his transformation into Locutus even more so. Nothing like that had ever been attempted before - the captain was truly in danger and by the end of the first part there really seemed to be no way back, The situation was dire, all was lost and it was left to Acting Captain Riker to make the biggest decision of any generation of Star Trek ever; save Picard or save Earth; "Mr Worf........fire."

While Part II was a superb Michael Piller-penned conclusion it didn't live up to the drama and finger-chewing that had proliferated its predecessor.  At least we now had the fourth season to look forward to and - 

Sadly not.  As Picard gazed out of his ready room window, beginning to come to terms with his recent rescue and return to humanity, the credits rolled and the BBC announcer informed us that TNG would be returning in the near future. That was not what we were expecting. Actually it was both good news and bad news because while we lost Picard and his crew from the small screen we gained a chance to see the complete original series including - for the first time ever on UK TV, "The Cage".

Oddly we were in Cornwall for the day on which "The Cage" aired which seemed ironic that I should be back in the same part of the country only a few miles from where I had seen my first few episodes of the original series. In fact it was probably in a hotel in Truro to be exact. I won't dwell on this too much as it's been done to death but for me it was so different to what came after it and it was hard to believe that this was how it all started! There's a certain familiarity to it but in some respects it's quite far removed from the series that we came to know.  If they thought this was cerebral who wonders what they would have made of stories such as "Frame of Mind" for instance?!

So the next 79 weeks flew by and I was treated to the whole of the original series in airing order. I remember a lot more from this run through than from any previous showings. Maybe it's because of age or maybe it's just because of my passion for the show by this time. I recorded a fair few episodes from this run including my beloved "The Tholian Web", the Gorn-bashing "Arena", the mesmerising "City on the Edge of Forever", crossing universes in "Mirror, Mirror"; in all honesty there weren't many that I didn't enjoy and I could easily watch them all over again (and no doubt will!). What amazed me about them was the quality of the series and just how well these stories had stood up to the test of time. It was truly a classic in every sense. While this was happening on terrestrial TV, up in the sky there was something else going on; SKY had acquired the rights to The Next Generation and they, not the BBC would be showing Season Four.

Who would have seen that coming? Admittedly today we would be shocked if a major US TV show was premiered on a UK terrestrial channel. The challenge was going to be how I would manage to watch them as a it could well be light years before they reached the BBC and buying the videos every two or three weeks they were released would get mighty expensive for a teenager. Luckily for me there was a saviour in the wings...

From my reckoning this puts us around 1992. A significant point in my Trekollections because it was the year I received the five-movie box set for Christmas. Now usually at Christmas we didn't watch TV on the Big Day but we'd had quite a tough few weeks in the buildup and I was allowed to watch "The Motion Picture" while I waited for my turkey fritters and chips to cook. Yep, it was definitely an unusual year! Recalling this snippet also made me remember that several years before, most likely while we were in Cornwall, I had seen "The Motion Picture" but the recording had chopped the last ten or fifteen minutes. While I hadn't missed much of note, the arrival of this box set marked the completion of a lengthy journey.  All five were in widescreen which added a whole new dimension to my viewing; as did the additional scene of Spock and Saavik speaking in Vulcan after Kirk arrives on the Enterprise in "The Wrath of Khan" - but there was one other significant thing about it.

For those of you who have been tracking my story you will know I have something of a challenge with the third film.  Well, early 1993 meant I got to see it thanks to my rather generous grandparents' Christmas present. I wasn't disappointed and I am happy to admit that I love "The Search for Spock" as much as the even numbered installments. It has a lot going for it - the theft and destruction of the Enterprise, Scotty and the Excelsior, the first appearance of the Bird of Prey and of course Spock's rebirth. What's not to like? It did seem as though it had been a long time coming to get through it and at times I was probably keeping my fingers crossed against any power cuts or chewed video tape. Neither happened which brought about an end to my Trek III curse!

My birthday a few weeks before Christmas in 1992 meant that I became the proud owner of my first "proper" Star Trek book; the TNG Technical Manual. What a book.  For the first time I found out that the Enterprise-B was an Excelsior Class ship, exactly how a phaser worked and what setting would cause major geological disturbance (16 if you must know), how to pilot a starship, what shuttles were carried in the three bays; the list is endless and the book was pretty exhaustive on every subject.  The photo here was taken a couple of weeks ago. The corners are a bit worn but that's mainly due to excessive reading over the years.  It's a big thank you to Messrs Sternbach and Okuda for this one because once I'd digested each and every page of this tome I was on the look out for the next opportunity to expand my Trek library.  

For the same birthday I also received the Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual and at the time I didn't realise how BIG a book this had been when it was produced. As with its later TNG counterpart, it was packed with diagrams and data on just about everything but leaned much more to the schematic side while Sternbach and Okuda included a good deal of explanation with each item and picture. The Starfleet Technical Manual really opened up the Kirk era for me with the deck by deck plans of the Enterprise and the original series uniforms and props. It was easy to get lost in the intricacies that Franz Joseph had covered on every page even down to the listings of all the ships in service for each class that "existed" in the Star Trek universe. 


The Dreadnought still looks impressive today (below left). Both books were impressive pieces to read and only increased my hunger for more.  These days there are very few Trek reference books produced in comparison to the number that were written/available back in the 1990's.  Then, there seemed to be at least two or three every year and all were of excellent quality and essential purchases as we shall see.  I was never a big reader of the novels at this point as I was only interested in things that were canon  - but anything that could tell me about the background of the show, the actors, Roddenberry, effects, the episodes, trivia, artwork or tech specs was purchased and devoured in a matter of days (or more likely hours). 

One of the more curve-ball tomes I bought was the Nitpicker's Guide for Next Generation Trekkers. Some great trivia in there and certainly made rewatching a few episodes interesting the second or third time over. As an admission though, it's not been until recent weeks that I've finally tried reading Trek fiction again and have been more than pleasantly surprised (see my review on The Persistence of Memory if you're wondering!). Star Trek was still giving me that way out. I wasn't the most popular kid in school (and I don't think my admission that I liked the show helped here).

When I was younger, the reason I spent so much time endulged in Star Trek was because I was had a non-existent social life outside of school until I was about 18. Partially this was due to moving around the country and never really having any long term friends or losing touch with those that I did make. The other side of it was that I had the (mis)fortune of over-protective parents. It felt like I was on lockdown outside school and in the evenings. I was unable to interact outside school with anyone I knew. Schoolwork took 100% priority in the evenings until it was done, no matter what and between 1991 and 1998 homework, GCSEs and A-levels took precedent over everything. I became quite competitive about results and didn't like to come second (only now am I able to stop doing this all the time). I had to be the best and would beat myself up mentally about not getting top marks. I suspect this didn't enamour me in the eyes of my peers and no doubt came across as a bit of a boot-licker and an arrogant so-and-so. I looked to Trek in some respects for role models particularly in the more commanding positions - the Kirk's, Picard's and Sisko's - because that's what I thought I should be doing. That was the position in life I believed I was destined for. In hindsight I'm probably more suited for the first or second officer role!

This wasn't intentional however. Over time, because I thought I was better than everyone else, it's a role I grew into and it became the person I was then. I know now I wasn't but it took a long time for things to change; we're talking years, I imagine this will become more evident as we get further into the next steps of my story. While my friends were out getting worldly-wise thanks to more liberal-minded parents I was home and having to make my own entertainment. It wasn't that I didn't want to go out, I wasn't allowed the opportunity which had some less than welcome effects after I left school in 1998. Star Trek became even more of an escape - if I couldn't get away from home physically then there was always another way and I would while away time reading about it, watching it or writing about it. I would spend hours devoted to personal research and became thoroughly obsessed with it 24/7. 

As you can see my interest was growing just as I was and I was going to need a lot more space for storage very, very soon - and that seems like a good place to pause for thought. We're now somewhere around the early 1990's and on the cusp of what was probably the most Trek saturated few years of my life what with the range of episodes, films, books and everything else that would be on the way. 

You can also read Part 1 and Part 2 of my Trekollections here!

The Amazing Telepathic Holodeck: TNG's "Schisms"

"Schisms" is just plain weird. 

Admittedly the teleplay is from the mind of Brannon Braga but don't let that put you off. We have the infamous "Ode to Spot", some of the oddest/secretive aliens ever to grace TNG, great use of a fish-eye lens, the most subdued fade-out into the opening titles and virtually no answers. Oh - and I love it. Forgot to mention that but don't let that put you off reading the rest of this blog! 

The pre-titles sequence is one of the great misdirections of the entire TNG run and cleverly I think this is one of this episode's strengths. It's all about build-up, what we don't see but are enticed to imagine. The first few minutes are Data's classic poetry recital including the aforementioned piece for his trans-gendered cat at which Riker falls asleep repeatedly as the android trundles on regardless. Played for comedy it provides no real insight into the story even though it actually sets up the whole episode through Riker's actions - not that youo would know it at the time. In many other episodes the pretitles give us some kind of hint of what to come in a much more obvious fashion to make viewers want to stay tuned. Another example where this occurs would be the season six cliffhanger, "Descent". Anyway, let's skip the plot summary and get back into the weirdness of "Schisms".

Along with "Conspiracy" from 1988, I class this as as one of the two episodes that could have received a televised sequel (or prequel?!). As with the terrific season one episode, the ending leaves it open for a return that sadly never happened. We're left wondering who these subspace creatures are and what their reasons for abducting the crew could have been - research? Experiments? Testing for an invasion attempt? Looks like we'll never get to find out - although if you are a Trek novelist and writing this, I'm willing to assist with some input....

According to Ron Wilkerson, who was responsible for the original story from which Braga developed the teleplay, "Schisms" came about due to the executive producers wanting an enemy that were a big threat to the crew (I asked him about it on Twitter). Indeed, this is a very similar idea to the creatures hinted at early in season one and seen in the brilliant "Conspiracy" which is left with a signal beamed out into the depths of space. Here we have an eerie, clicking, shrouded race that we learn exceptionally little about. We only see one room of their subspace home and learn absolutely nothing about them. Why is this weird? Well, with TNG we usually got to understand the characters who popped up each week; getting to know a little about their motivations, background...something! Here it's an episode shrouded in mystery backed with a wonderful sci-fi concept that the Enterprise crew are being taken in their sleep and being subject to macabre experiements

While we have the investigation into sleep deprivation there's the "B" story regarding a disturbance forming in one of the cargo bays. Eventually these two tales intermix at the conclusion and that's something else a little different about this episode.  Usually there's a distinct "A" story and on occasion a "B" story or even rarely a "C" thread but they stay separate and conclude individually. Also, as opposed to a lot of the other stories I have/will discussed as part of SKOST there isn't any real "theme" to the story. It's not moralistic, there's only one death of a character we never really get to know but "Schisms" is about paranoia, shadows, restlessness and mystery - and all those unanswered questions that remain, well, unanswered.

It's great seeing the crew seeking some kind of explanation for their sleep deprivation and then realising that they are victims of some weird alien race. Worf has a hair-raising encounter with Mr Mott and a pair of scissors, Riker looks shattered for most of the episode (even falling asleep as we drift into the titles), Geordi's VISOR plays up (again) and even Data is affected when he loses an hour and a half for no apparent reason while in the cargo bay.  Soon it's all drawn together and the eeriness gathers several of those affected to the holodeck; now this has to be one of the best pieces of Trek ever - for potentially all the wrong reasons.

 I named this blog "The Amazing Telepathic Holodeck" and by jingo is it awesome in this respect. Troi assembles Riker, Worf, Geordi and one "civilian of the week" (no doubt for budget reasons) to visualise what they have experienced or at least think they have experienced. The end result is a little off from what is seen in the aliens' home environment but that's easily explained away through personal interpretation and recollection. The really clever bit here is the speed at which the holodeck - a device not exactly renowned for its accuracy or safety all the way through TNG ("The Big Goodbye", "Elementary Dear Data","Emergence" et al) -  becomes amazingly intuitive.  The wooden table that is initially created gets swapped out for an inclined one (which is totally different to the original) but the best switch is when the metal table this is in turn changed for IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! It's now much more chair-like than table-like (see below).
I'm guessing this is all for pacing but looking back it's amazingly shoddy that the holodeck works out precisely what table the crew want in about three moves and they then spend the remainder of the time making precision tweaks to the restraint, surgical blade and control panel. OK, I'm being pedantic and it's all easily covered but I still find it funny that the holodeck just helps out, makes its own decisions and produces a near-perfect end result in the space of minutes. 

What we get as a conclusion is a bit mixed although I still enjoyed it. Riker chooses to be the lab rat and get sent back into the rift but surely they would realise he's awake?! The whole point being that they're being taken when they are asleep or at the very least are made unaware that they are being secreted off the Enterprise. The aliens' environment is a bit disappointing but the fact that we find nothing definite about their reasons for their experiments keeps the mystery in place. Riker rescues Rager but that's it. We are left to muse what it was all about and whether of not this is something that will rear its head in the future. In both cases, they didn't but we are still left uneasy.

Here, in "Schisms" we are left to imagine what is going on and how the tests have been conducted (such as Riker's amputation and reattachment). We only glimpse a fraction of Ensign Rager's experience which seems to be something to do with her blood. The instance where the crewman returns with his blood converted to a liquid polymer. It is the possibility that more could have been killed and there was very little to stop them until  their actions were noted by several members of the crew that is haunting here. Even when we do see the aliens they are shrouded in the shadows and greyness of their medical chamber, hooded and wrapped from head to foot. Actually, that's another point - the masks, as seen in the superb Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 book aren't the greatest so the shadows are doing them a favour - as for the shuffly walk...what is that all about? There's no hope for them to stop Riker when he legs it with Rager at the climax.

This is probably one of the more uneasy installments of TNG. The first five minutes really put the audience on the wrong foot before we get into the main story. Perhaps considering the nature of the previous season and the bulk of the episodes around it in season six it's also a little out of place. At this point in its evolution TNG was aiming more towards "intelligent" sci-fi and this does stand out because of the absence of a moral or particular character focus. It's almost as if we're having a break from the heavier story-lines that made up a large part of the later seasons.

My opinion - watch it, enjoy it, but it's not likely to make it into your list of top ten episodes, or top twenty. I haven't watched it for years and so I welcomed it quite lovingly for a second/third viewing after such a long gap since it was last on my TV. Great hooded aliens, magnificent uneasiness, paranoia and probably one of the three best attempts at mild horror TNG ever produced alongside "Conspiracy" and "Genesis". Now who's up for writing the sequel?