A Final Insult: Nemesis?

About two years ago I started writing a post on Star Trek: Nemesis that never made it beyond a few straggly lines. It rested in Development Hell until +James Patrik happened to mention he fancied drafting up a piece on the tenth motion picture. Who was I to refuse so, with a major rewrite, James and I can finally present one of SKoST's Lost Posts seemingly perfectly timed as Beyond begins filming and I actually managed to watch this movie again over the weekend...

Nemesis.  In the thirteen years since its release, its very name has become an epitaph to a bygone era of Star Trek.  

Hammering the final nail into the “Prime” universe’s coffin, its critical and commercial failure signalled the end of the Berman/Braga paradigm and the start of a long period of hibernation for the franchise.

While painfully aware of its terrible reputation among fans, we are firmly in the minority who appreciate the film for the fantastically flawed piece of Star Trek that it is.  Released at a time when interest in the franchise was at an all-time low, Nemesis exists as a curious beast when compared with the rest of the film franchise. Perhaps it's one that deserves more attention than the lauded First Contact if only for its shortcomings.

Four years after the previous film, Nemesis gathers all the familiar faces for what Paramount’s marketing department was quick to bill as a ‘generation’s final journey’.  But right away, things don’t look right.  After such a lengthy break, the characters look noticeably older, and sadly, appear to be operating on autopilot.  Having Stewart and Spiner involved in the production ensures the movie rapidly degenerates into the Picard and Data Show perhaps giving only Frakes as Riker an opportunity to spread his action wings.  Much like Insurrection before it, the growing influence of its stars during production only served to dilute the original story and satisfy ego. That over-familiarity with the subject matter could well have been a major thread in the unravelling of the franchise as it hobbled into the 21st Century.

Indeed, it is in the film’s story that the most significant problems can be found.  An ardent Trekkie, John Logan (an otherwise superlative writer) proves that fanboys aren’t always the right people for the job.  Culling elements from The Wrath of Khan, Logan’s theme of mirror images is an intriguing one, rife with storytelling potential.  Tom Hardy delivers an able performance as Shinzon, but alas, never really feels like Picard.  Much like Nero after him, his motivations remain unclear, robbing the film of its narrative spine. For Data, the discovery of yet another Soong-type android in the form of B-4 feels contrived and tired. Almost as bad is the egregious dune buggy sequence in which he is discovered (supplanting the gimmicky ‘manual steering column’ of the previous film). B-4 might even be seen as a huge insult and the biggest deus ex machina ever to grace Star Trek. Kill Data but hey, if all fails we can still bring him back. This kind of stuff might have worked in 1987 season one of The Next Generation (cue synth score) but not in cinematic 2003 territory.

It has often been said that Star Trek’s main draw-card is its characters.  Nemesis is a film that finds these characters out of focus, lost to action sequences and scenes of boring exposition.  The film’s deleted scenes reveal the mindset of the film-makers in the kinds of edits that were made.  For those who own the Blu-ray or special edition DVD, you can see a proper scene with Wesley, a final farewell for Beverly, the arrival of Riker’s replacement and a poignant reflection on the passage of time between Picard and Data. But the cuts also reveal an even darker edge to the film which would have seen Troi encounter Shinzon in a terrifying telepathic attack and add weight to the flimsy story which gives the counsellor very little to do.

The blame for these unkind cuts is often laid at the feet of director Stuart Baird.  While clearly able to put together a cracking action sequence, Baird shows little regard for the beloved The Next Generation crew, excising the more character driven scenes in favour of action, action, action!  While he has never commented on the film in the years since, numerous cast members have publicly criticised his direction, citing on set conflicts (referring to LeVar Burton as “Laverne”) and a fundamental misunderstanding of what Star Trek was about.  The end result is a story that feels emotionally bankrupt.  Compared to Spock’s funeral service, Data’s wake (and Sirtis’ crocodile tears) lacks emotional punch. It's almost gut-wrenchingly bad and comes close to ruining 15 years of hard work in minutes.

There is no payoff for the audience, and the film simply sputters to an end. Tragically the closing moments have Picard and B-4 engaging in little more than a sing-along which, while it reveals Data is still around - somewhere - it's a bit limp given the significance of the hour and you're left hoping that there will be another movie to give the crew the send-off they richly deserve. Even numbered this may be, high quality it ain't.

For a film that makes so many mistakes, it does get quite a few things right.  Tonally, the film is refreshingly dark – enhanced by a foreboding (and excellent) score from Star Trek stalwart Jerry Goldsmith who deftly weaves electronic elements into an otherwise traditional sci-fi film score. Linked intrinsically to the franchise on both the big and small screen though it could be said that his involvement had been as overstayed as Berman's tenure at the top. Certainly one thing that can be applauded in the JJ-verse is that Michael Giachinno's score has brought a dynamic versatility to events. However, Goldsmith does solidly deliver with Nemesis, more aware of his material than the director may have been.

The climactic battle in the Bassen Rift is without a doubt one of the most exciting sequences in all of Star Trek.  Featuring the final on-screen appearance of the Enterprise-E, Nemesis makes good use of much improved CGI technology, delivering a battle unlike anything seen in Star Trek before.  For the first time, viewers saw redshirts despatched into the vacuum of space as the main bridge was blown apart, not to mention the Enterprise ramming the Scimitar in a sequence that is both exciting and terrifying. The Scimitar itself is a work of art. Rightly noted as a predator by Picard upon decloaking it's one of the most vicious, dominating and memorable ships ever and does get to bear her teeth. There is a great Attack Wing miniature available and hopefully we'll get to see an Eaglemoss entry in the Starships Collection soon when they manage to work out all the finer details. 

It is in this way that Nemesis points the way forward, offering Trekkies a sign of things to come; more action, faster pacing and huge set pieces (and ships).  After examining these high octane elements, one might speculate that at this point Berman had become aware of the shifting demands of modern audiences.  Was it too little, too late? Potentially but by the time he might have realised it was time to move on the final nail was in the coffin and the drastically diminished box office takings revealed how bad things actually were.

Alas, all speculation is moot. This film now stands as the final instalment in the “Prime” movie franchise, replaced in 2009 by JJ Abrams Nu-Trek.  Though the two films released thus far have been resounding financial successes, they continue to polarise the fan base in a way Nemesis never did.

Set in the year 2379, Nemesis represents the farthest point in future history depicted on screen.  With series Star Trek Enterprise scrapped in 2005, and the Nu-Trek films continuing, Star Trek has effectively been trapped in prequel-land ever since. Even the majority of the more well-known fan films tend to rely on the cheaper-to-produce classic era.

I have always felt that The Next Generation crew deserved better - a fonder, more definitive farewell. Before the film’s 2002 release, Patrick Stewart claimed that there were plans for a sequel; however those appear to have been consigned to the dustbin. With the third rebooted Star Trek film being released next year, and a number of dormant media properties being reborn (The X-Files, Heroes, Full House) there may still a slim chance that Picard and co will be seen on screen one final time.

Who can be certain?  It’s sci-fi.  It’s Star Trek.  And there are always possibilities - at least that's what Spock said...and he was right.

Have we got it right? Go on - you know you can't resist commenting about Nemesis...

@45 @30 @15

When I started out on this post there was but one thing on my mind; The Search for Spock; 1984 - 2014.

Thing is that sometimes a post doesn't end up where you expected and I'm kind of glad it didn't on this occasion. You see, this week is something special in Star Trek history - an alignment of the heavens if you will, with three important anniversaries all falling in the space of just THREE days.

First up and probably getting the most coverage is the 30th anniversary of everybody's favourite mid-trilogy Star Trek movie on June 1st. 

Coming off the back of The Wrath of Khan was never going to be easy and the third motion picture still does take some hack for being overly dark in light of the events which closed the previous movie. Indeed, the main plot is pretty obvious - hint - it's in the title.

I really like Star Trek III as there's a lot going for it and a lot does happen here. Christoper Lloyd isn't ground-breaking as Kruge and the Vulcan stuff at the end might drag just a little but overall it's a solid entry into the movie library. Stealing the Enterprise is a brilliant scene especially with their pursuit being captained by the pompous and over-confident Styles on the Excelsior. Returning home in battered glory, breaking McCoy out of prison, saving Spock are all excellent snippets from this sometimes shunned sequel. It's only real fault being that it lies in the middle of two Star Trek movie heavyweights in II and IV.

The Search for Spock is heaped with firsts believe it or not; both the Excelsior and Oberth Classes debuted here and would become a staple of the Star Trek universe most notably in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.  For those who want more of USS Grissom, have a look at this audio series which focuses on their mission in the two weeks before the events of Star Trek III.

The Bird of Prey decloaked for the first time over the Merchantman and has also been a staple of the franchise to this day. That freighter too was reused many times in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine  but made its debut here. Leonard Nimoy became the first Star Trek actor to helm a production; Saavik was the first character to be recast mid-series as Robin Curtis replaced Kirstie Alley; we got to see the officer's suede bomber jacket (ok, little stretched here but indulge me) and the Head of Starfleet too. It's jam-packed with stuff to keep going back to and finding. 

And at 45...

But while we've gone all hysterical over facts from The Search for Spock let's look back at what we said right at the start; three anniversaries over three days. June 2nd marks 15 years since the premiere of the final episode of Deep Space Nine while the 3rd is 45 years since the first airing of the last episode of The Original Series. While each of them merits a nod at least, it's more interesting to look at their positions within the franchise history. Standing at 1969, 1984 and 1999, these are anniversaries that also mark distinct snapshots of the different place Star Trek has had throughout it's near-50 year lifespan.

Turnabout Intruder marked the end of the original, curtailed, five year mission and 45 years later look where we are. Think about it - at that point it was all over, two fan campaigns had brought the show back but this time the network had cut the budget and buried the show in the Friday night Slot of Death to ensure that there would be no season four. For all intents and purposes Star Trek should have died that night - another short-lived show that would end up as a great pub quiz answer. You can imagine it; "Ok...question five; What space-based series starring William Shatner (what happened to him?) aired between 1966 and 1969 and had two pilot episodes?"

Lots of head scratching, murmours and some guy in the corner is the only one to get it right. Everyone else puts either Blakes 7, Lost in Space or The Outer Limits.

At this time all we had were those 79 episodes and the unaired pilot. That was it; your lot. This was Star Trek at its most pure and undiluted, untouched by anyone else but Roddenberry (and latterly Fred Freiberger). Turnabout Intruder also belays that splendid male-centric attitude of the 1960's - only men can command starships, something that would only be seen to have changed onscreen in the opening minutes of The Voyage Home and the USS Saratoga. Notably that would also be a female, black captain - and a black captain would also be helming a space station in later years.

Now, flash forward (again) to 1984 with the help of your Bajoran Orb. Off the back of $139,000,000 from The Motion Picture and $96,800,000 from The Wrath of Khan, the franchise is heading high. (Just a quick side-point too that this week (June 4th) is also the anniversary of the premiere of the second motion picture.) It's been revitalised thanks to Star Wars and also thanks to syndication which meant that many thousands were able to enjoy the 79 original episodes, leading to huge convention numbers, the naming of the space shuttle after the USS Enterprise and the possibility of a new series entitled Phase II.

The last bit didn't happen and we got The Motion Picture instead but with The Search for Spock it's a calm before a storm. While resolving a small matter of resurrecting Spock and tying up a few loose ends from it's illustrious predecessor, this was the time that Star Trek was on the way to some of its greatest successes. We were still two years away from  The Voyage Home and three away from the premiere of The Next Generation and yet there was genuine excitement about the show. This wasn't a cheap sequel, clocking in at $18,000,000 (six more than Star Trek II) and blowing up the Enterprise was a statement that things would be getting shaken up - and even the ending declared The Adventure Continues. There was no doubt there would be more to come.

If you look at this, the Harve Bennett era, you'll see the opulence of the sets, the grandiose entrance of the Enterprise to Spacedock, the "WTF" attitude to blowing up a screen icon and the ability to woo Christopher Lloyd to the film. It showed that Star Trek was accepted in the big time. People wanted to be linked to it and it was an important part of American culture and had been embraced by countries across the world too. By this point, 15 years after Turnabout Intruder, there had only been The Animated Series and two multi-million dollar motion pictures added to the library. This was Star Trek in the midst of its big screen era without a TV series to support it but that situation would be rectified very, very soon after.

Closer to...

Slingshot yourself around the sun again and take a trip to 1999. How different a moment in Star Trek history is this? 

Here we are at the final episode of the third series. What You Leave Behind isn't as good as All Good Things... (and I'm a HUGE Deep Space Nine fan) but it's probably the most final finale of the lot. Sisko is gone, Odo is gone, the war is over. Voyager still had two years to go and at the end of that series all the crew were still alive if not together (as Neelix was still in the Delta Quadrant).  Like The Next Generation it could have easily continued in some form and rumour has it that there had been considerations to bring her home earlier and have some episodes set in the Alpha Quadrant.

This story rounded out the story excellently although I'm still not sure how long Dukat and Winn are in the Fire Caves considering they're pottering around in them while Sisko goes all the way to Cardassia, fights a war and comes back.  I was sorry to see this show go because I felt that the quality and differences it brought to the franchise were not as strong in Voyager which was much more in the vain of The Next Generation.

I digress...back to Deep Space Nine. By this point in time we'd had 176 episodes of Picard and crew, 174 episodes of Sisko and his team, 79 episodes and an unaired pilot of The Original Series, 22 animated tales 120 episodes of Voyager and nine movies. That's a lot of material and most of it from after The Search for Spock. But What You Leave Behind also comes at a rather crucial point in the story - the start of the slope in popularity and ultimately the axing of Enterprise in 2005. For me this was the "golden age" coming to a close - we'd had a great run from 1987 on both small and big screen but the engine was starting to wind down and two years later with the finale of Voyager and the start of Enterprise it was even more evident.

The three anniversaries stake out three different takes and management eras too; Roddenberry, Bennett and Berman. Three very different styles and temperaments in control. Roddenberry's vision guided the two that followed but Bennett moulded his Star Trek into the classic "space opera", much more militaristic than his predecessor might have liked. Berman on the other hand, with input from Roddenberry in the earlier years of The Next Generation returned to the origins laid down by the Great Bird but once he passed, the doors opened to countless new possibilities and the finale of Deep Space Nine in 1999 for me is the culmination of all that. It was a closure, the most ceetain ending of any Star Trek series intended or not. The final frontier was safe once again and Berman's work was done - at least it maybe should have been.

What You Leave Behind mirrors the times just as the big bangs and OTT of The Search for Spock mark out the cash-rich '80's, Deep Space Nine's closer was dark, ominous and less than happy. Darker times were ahead and the future was uncertain but even then there was time for celebration. Not many were convinced this was going to work but it had and even managed to go out in true style with its head held proud.

It has been a few years since I last watched both Turnabout Intruder and What You Leave Behind but that doesn't mean I don't remember them as good quality segments of both series. I'll get to the latter in due course as I'm re-running Deep Space Nine currently (up to The Way of the Warrior at the moment). As reflections of their times we've seen here just how much a window into each era of the franchise they can be, spread evenly over 30 years from '69 to '99 - and what changes we saw in management, style and execution. 

If you're counting, don't worry, we've not forgotten and we'll be marking 25 years of The Final Frontier in due course!

Do you think that these three anniversaries mark out the differences in Star Trek over the years? Do you have a particular memory of Star Trek III? Turnabout Intruder? What You Leave Behind? Talk about them below!

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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.

One of Seven: Voyager Year One – Part One

In the first of a two part retrospective, Matt Goddard turns back the clock to 1995 as he ventures into the Delta Quadrant to relive the initial season of Star Trek's fourth incarnation as he begins a seven season rewatch...

So how does Star Trek: Voyager Series 1 shape up?  A Year of Hell, displaying Lifesigns or signalling Future’s End..?

This post comes with an air of inevitability, just like Voyager making its way home.  Was that ever in doubt?  It might be if Voyager was made today, but times have changed.  When the third Star Trek live action sequel series started, it wasn't immediately evident, but each of its forebears had laid down an impressive gauntlet.  As Voyager met her fate in the Badlands, Deep Space Nine was still in its infancy, but the intervening years have seen its stock rise considerably.  Of course, the other Star Trek series had achieved incredible success in their own lifetime on the small and large screen - but viewers of the awkward Deep Space Nine were always a little more partisan.

Post-Deep Space Nine

Voyager departs Deep Space Nine on its fateful journey

Earlier this year I completed a long and leisurely retrospective of that Deep Space vintage.   It was so leisurely that the Federation could have discovered the Dominion and kicked off a war in the same three year timeframe it took me to complete all seven series.  Satisfyingly however, the conclusion came in this the show’s 20^th anniversary year.  Even more satisfyingly, it confirmed my suspicions:  Deep Space Nine is an incredible achievement.  It took its position as the younger, difficult brother of TNG, with cynical and audience grabbing stunts and a flash new non-syndicated competitor and melded them with the strengths of its strong cast to produce something really special.  Something that Trekkies should be proud of.  I might tell you about it some time, but you hopefully know it already.

That’s the problem I had.  Fresh respect for Deep Space Nine.  So for my next mission I was torn where I should go. Jump backwards?  Hmm, perhaps forwards, ready to lap myself when Deep Space Nine makes it on to Blu-ray?  I was at yellow alert for some time before... Then I accidentally started watching Star Trek: Voyager. 

1995

It was Caretaker I couldn’t resist.  At the show’s launch in 1995 I read more about Voyager than I had about any other Trek show...  The American import Star Trek Magazine, The Radio Times coverage, the Telegraph article addressing Geneviève Bujold’s sudden departure.  I dutifully bought pilot on VHS and waited for the BBC to screen the full series...  Only to find it on Sunday afternoons. Pretty inconvenient. The result was a distinct lack of fond memories.  Oh, I was familiar with it.  I watched the first couple of seasons more than intermittently.  I was at university by the fifth season and was then routinely pulled back by the Borg (and the founder of this blog I may add – still, as far as I’m aware, un-assimilated) a couple of times after that. 

But that’s where the inevitability comes in.  I was always going to return to consider the series in its totality one day...  And that day has come.  I’ve just completed the first, shortened season so I’m about a seventh of the way through...  One of Seven sounds like a fairly average Borg, but how does that first season stand up now?

Well, put simply, it’s not as bad as I remember.  There are good points, as you’d hope with the talent involved.  It’s certainly watchable, there’s some great acting and it’s more cohesive than I remember...  But those points just serve to highlight the opportunity that was missed. Unfortunately, glaring problems are evident.  Painfully evident.  My biggest challenge viewing Voyager now is to remove the 18 intervening years of prejudice as well as a massively changed TV climate and scan the show anew.

Montagues & Capulets. And Neelix.

Voyager’s Premise

A quick and unnecessary recap shows that Voyager marked a further simplification of the Star Trek story. The five year mission had turned into the continuing mission which led to Starfleet’s incursions into the Gamma Quadrant and then led to a journey home.  The Voyages of, er, Voyager.  Not the Earth-threatening 20^th century satellite but the latest ship in the fleet, carrying bio-neural circuitry, 42 photon torpedoes and the unexpected weight of a 75 year journey back to Federation space with a skeleton crew of Montagues and Capulets. 

It sounds interesting.  More so perhaps than a space-station orbiting a ravaged planet of spiritual people.  As Voyager’s so utterly in line with the core exploration ideal of Star Trek, it’s a shame that the comparison with Deep Space Nine necessarily comes up.  The first two seasons of that second sequel were hardly classics.  In fact, of all the Star Trek shows, only The Original Series has any claim to hitting the ground running.  But at Voyager’s launch, while Deep Space Nine was starting to forge forward with genuine originality that would not only lay the path for Battlestar Galactica and all manner of other arc shows but also inadvertently undo the grip of star ship shows on American TV, Voyager was moving in the opposite direction.  And that perversely is at odds with the format of that long journey home.

The ingredients were all there.  The separation from the Federation, a whole new quadrant almost entirely untouched and that single minded quest to return home.  One of the greatest one-sheet pitches in Trek history surely?  Deep Space Nine got stick for its anti-exploration agenda, but DS9 personnel could disappear for months infiltrating the Orion Syndicate or taking shore leave on Earth.  Not on Voyager.  On that starship there were two nuanced enemies forced to work together to find a way home against adversity. 

The Star Trek Mould

The problem is that didn't quite work out that way.  Perhaps the myth of Star Trek was too great.  There’s almost a sense that it had the potential to rock the Star Trek ship too much.  Perhaps it was a natural response to Deep Space Nine’s early criticism, perhaps a sign that too many Star Trek stalwarts were involved, perhaps that too much rested on it as a launch show on the brand new United Paramount Network.  The show should have had more confidence to break the mould for its own dramatic good.

The under-exploration of the Maquis rabble suddenly forced into Starfleet uniforms was a major criticism levelled at the show when it premiered.  Another case of over promising in pre-publicity, it’s up there with Doctor Who promising every Dalek ever in a season premiere...  At the time I thought that Voyager had pursued diversity at all costs, but I was wrong.  There was nothing especially wrong with that differentiation from previous shows.  Yes, the Captain was female, the First Officer a Native American, the Helmsman a criminal, the Security officer a full Vulcan but it wasn't the diversity that was the issue.  The problem was the show's failure to confront and use that inherent diversity. 

"We're all in this together": State of Flux

Why have the Maquis aboard if you are not going to use them as the main fuel?  Maquis issues had virtually dissipated by the end of the pilot and the unfortunate mantra “We’re all in this together” (State of Flux) became a watch phrase for that under-explored dynamic.  But it wasn't just the crew dynamics that were scuppered by the Star Trek mould.

The Voyager Sigh

Failing to adhere to a clear and direct mission, the Voyager ‘sigh’ quickly developed.  That’s the sigh that came whenever an episode began with a variation of “We've taken a diversion from our journey home to...”.   With just the slightest of pretences, too many stories of the first series are ones that could have featured in any Star Trek show.  It’s an issue that Deep Space Nine soon found a release from thanks to interesting arcs and the benefits of its static soap-style locale. In Season One, Voyager barely took its finger off the episode reset button.  Each week, despite tackling profound issues that could have carried serious weight, there was little arc implication.  As the series progressed, it was easy to forget that the ship was speeding along in one direction as the journey often felt arbitrary in a format that gave it little concession. 

This wasn’t just The Next Generation's early, harmless rip-offs of The Original Series shows like The Naked Time, but a horrid mix of limited danger and repetition.  Within three episodes you had seen two incidents of multiple USS Voyagers and several rather dull discussions about contravention of the Prime Directive.  Incidents like this, possibly poor scheduling, perpetuated the idea that Voyager lacked ideas, but the main problem was they diluted the purity of its central story.  Instead of creating danger, Voyager’s mission decreased it.  While the Prime Directive seemed pointless from the beginning, the brig is constantly dismissed as a luxury.  All in all, that court martial is a long way off. 

Janeway's disciplinary technique meets the Voyager 'Sigh'

Of course, Voyager delved into the Holodeck, choosing to move away from Deep Space Nine‘s questionable suites to holonovels.  While I’m mindful that the season split doesn't help, it looks half-developed.  In the last episode of Season 1, Janeway’s struggle as a governess in her holodeck has clear parallels with Tuvok’s later tackling of the Maquis – but these aren't drawn out.  Future seasons would touch back on the brig, holonovels and the Prime Directive, but here I’m only looking at the season that surfaced in 1995.  While Batman was simplifying on the big screen, Star Trek simplified on the small screen.  

As with any Star Trek series, Voyager must be judged on the strength of its characters, cast and plots.

In part two of this retrospective, I’ll look at those elements as well as what went right and what went wrong...

Matt Goddard is a spectacularly accomplished writer, providing articles for the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper and in particular two pieces relating to the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness earlier this year which can be found here and here. If you want you can follow his thoughts and meanderings on Twitter as @JokerMatt

You can read Part Two right now by following this handy link