Fellowship & Fairydust

I don’t call myself a Trekkie, but Star Trek has been part of my life since I was a kid. My earliest memory is from when I was maybe five years old, sitting on the couch eating mashed potatoes while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. When I was eleven or twelve, my dad sweet-talked our local librarians into buying Star Trek: The Original Series, which we promptly watched. One of my friends loves Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so in my twenties, we sat down and watched all seven seasons over the course of a year. I caught the first few episodes of Star Trek: Voyager at a friend’s house but didn’t pursue it further.

With the advent of the newest Star Trek television series Discovery, I needed to get my Star Trek fix somehow. So, I turned to Netflix and embarked on the only series I hadn’t seen any episodes for – Star Trek: Enterprise. This series often gets reviled as having a horrible first and sometimes even second season. But I haven’t found that to be so. I enjoy the characters, and while some of the plots or events are cringe-worthy, this is not new to Star Trek. All of the other Star Trek TV shows have had at least a few turkey episodes (although Deep Space Nine has the fewest of these), especially in the first season when a show is “growing the beard.” (Thank you, Riker!) Plus, I don’t think a lot of people take into account that Enterprise takes place hundreds of years before The Original Series (TOS), so certain rules like the Prime Directive that Trekkies take for granted haven’t been established yet. Captain Archer and his primarily human crew are literally stumbling around the galaxy trying to figure all of those things out, making those mistakes that future starship captains will hopefully be able to avoid.

As I was thinking about the comparison in quality between Enterprise and other Star Trek shows, I came to a realization, something that I knew was true for TOS, but actually applies to all of them: we don’t watch Star Trek for the special effects, cool aliens, or super-engaging plots. We watch them for the people. For the characters. And those characters have been with us for so long that they’ve become family.

TOS had a shoestring budget to do something that no one had really tried on the television screen before. Some of the plots had excellent writing or delved into powerful themes or presented “firsts” in television (like the first interracial kiss on TV). But even the better episodes still lack in the set department, and the aliens are pretty much always humans with extra brow ridges, pointy ears, or colorful skin. In that sense, TOS does not hold up well under modern scrutiny. But people watch and love it anyway for the characters. We’re there for Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, not so much the science fiction aspect.

The same held true for Next Generation. While the budget had a modest increase and the set design got a sleek, new sci-fi finish, the same kinds of problems and successes followed these new Star Trek characters. Some aspects of the show are more realistic (like not having the entire command crew beam down to an alien planet into hazardous situations every day), but still had its fair share of turkey episodes, weak plots, unbelievable or contrived scenarios (even for soft science fiction) that plague a monster-of-the-week style of story-telling. But once again, we don’t watch Next Generation for the science fiction. We watch it to see Captain Picard deal with Q’s meddling, to see Geordi use his disability to his advantage, and witness Data’s many flawed attempts to become more human. (And the fact that they have a counselor on board, the first concession to dealing with mental health I’d ever seen on television?! That’s pretty major.)

The place where the sense of family and humanity is strongest is, oddly enough, in the most diverse Star Trek series: Deep Space Nine (DS9). A lot of people rag on DS9 for being too dark or complicated, the black sheep of the Star Trek family. But I found it to be the most satisfying in terms of emotional connection, character development, plot construction, and theme exploration. You have a wide variety of both human and alien ethnicities, each with their own history, values, and emotional baggage which they bring to the table with them. Because all of the characters are in one place, having the disruptive elements in the stories come to them, you get to really see how they operate and interact. I love the squabbles between Constable Odo and Ferengi barkeep Quark, the confrontations between the Bajorian freedom fighter/terrorist Kira and Cardassian station overseer/war criminal Gul Dukat, and the flirtatious friendship between station doctor Bashir and sometimes tailor, sometimes spy Garak. The quality of storytelling and character realization in DS9 is, to me, above and beyond the rest of Star Trek.

But even with good plots, societal milestones presented on TV, and the increasing quality of special effects, Star Trek remains best known for the characters, and each series is usually embodied in the leading captain. There have been endless debates (most friendly, some not) on who is the best Starfleet captain, who you grew up with, and who is your favorite. And really, I couldn’t possibly pick a favorite. I love all the Star Trek captains the way I would uncles and aunts. They’re all unique, all with their own strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and foibles; you can never mistake one for the other. Over the years, the captains of Star Trek become part of your extended family:

• Uncle Kirk is the smooth-talking ladies’ man who takes you out for a drink and ends up in a bar fight, but he’s so funny and charming that you always tag along, even though you will inevitably get into trouble.
• Uncle Picard is the intellectual with a dry sense of humor who takes you to art and history museums, thinks that books of classic literature are good gifts for anyone on any occasion, and lets you only drink tea because you’re not old enough for alcohol yet.
• Uncle Archer is the enthusiastic outdoorsman who takes you on hikes, teaches you to fish, and invites you to come on camping trips (although you always doublecheck your gear to make sure he didn’t forget anything important… like insect repellent.)
• Uncle Sisko, affectionately known as “Papa Bear” because he’s jovial unless someone crosses him (in which case, a mountain is about to fall on them), is the best listener and advisor when you have a problem, but he’s just a little obsessed with good food. (Uncle Sisko and Uncle Archer get along well because the former loves to cook, and the latter loves to eat!)
• You don’t get to see Aunt Janeway very often because she’s always travelling, and even though she’s a little stern and sharp-tongued, she always has the wildest, most interesting stories which you’re pretty sure are all true, even the really outlandish ones.

It remains to be seen if the new Star Trek: Discovery will have the same staying power as these previous incarnations. I have yet to really latch onto the characters in the series or really figure out what kind of aunts or uncles they will become. It may take a long time, or never happen at all, but at least we know that the family reunions we do boldly go back to, will always have that emotional connection, that human core (even with alien species) that gives Star Trek such wide-ranging and lasting appeal.