Star Trek

The original series may be a bit hard to watch with a modern mind set, but the episodes still contain the key discussions on what it is to be human. Really the show was a great platform for modern thinking and is worth watching to understand the process that people went through to get to the modern day. Yes it is Science Fiction, but really it is Social Commentary.

Before Star Wars, this was a fan favorite for sci fi fans alike! It was campy, cheesy, entertaining, and a little bit pervy! I mean, C'mon, there were scandidly clad women in the show, even for the 60s! And don't get me started on the Starfleet women's short skirts! Probably my best highlight of the show! 😅 But yeah, the original series was the best.

Star Trek (AKA Star Trek The Original Series, AKA STTOS) is a series that has had a dramatic influence across much of the science fiction genre, and as some have suggested, influenced culture around the world. The writing, directing, and cinematography of Star Trek are top-notch, even by today's standards. On par with more recent series like Battlestar 2004. From the top writers and directors of science fiction of that era, sophisticated storylines across the series deal with challenging topics that are risqué even today. Star Trek was radically ahead of its time in the 60’s having a multi-racial main cast including things like non-white character’s and women holding officer positions in Starfleet (unheard of at that time and for decades after) Warning: Some female characters wear mini-skirts (a fade in the 60’s). Some creatures had campy costumes (state of the art in the 60’s). I would recommend checking out “The Original Series Remastered Project” which has the series remastered at 1080p with updated CGI graphics.

I think I am required by law to like this the most, right? Even if I am a Voyager fan? I mean, if I don't they will strip me of all my credentials. I will be kicked out of the club and banned from every comic book store across America... ... actually in 2022 that doesn't sound that bad... ... but, Yeah, you have to love Kirk, the country boy in space. The womanizing sailor. I mean, some people call him the space cowboy, some call him the gangster of love. He was just brilliant. Spock was just brilliant... and the show was a Star Trek first, it established the franchise, and.... like ALL great science fiction shows, it got canceled too soon. And then came back in movie form to establish one of the greatest franchises of all time. So, yeah, I have to like it.

Really hard and often boring to watch. Most stories lack a clear goal or motivation. Things just happen. At the same time its full of overacting and empty dialogue. Let me explain what I mean by comparing a Star Trek episode with a similar episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation: In episode S01E03 of the original Star Trek named "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the Enterprise happens to leave the galaxy and while flying through a nebula one of the crewmen is bestowed with supernatural powers and over the course of the episode develops extremely high intelligence and psionic powers. The crew immediatelly assume that he will become dangerous, talk about it, while he remains in the medbay and reads books at supernatural speed, can hear the thoughts of everyone on the ship, move objects around, etc. But there is no motivation to all this. He simply gets arrogant, forgets everything about being a human connection, empathy or his duties. The crew distrust him and think about killing him almost immediatelly. That itself is portayed as a shocking development. Then they decide to maroon him on the planet, where Kirk and him punch it out, another crewman weakens him and Kirk kills him and thats it. There is almost no substance, almost nothing to remember this episode. Contrast this with a similar episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation, named "The Nth Degree". The basic premise is that the crewman Barclay that we already know to be very shy and awkward around other people gains supernatural intelligence. We know his normal traits from previous episodes and its also highlighted in the beginning of the episode. Therefore, its fun to see how he changes to an intelligent and confident man who charms Diana Troy. The crew is not immediatelly afraid of him and only gets hostile towards Barclay after he takes over the ship - it makes sense. His takeover happens because the Enterprise needs to solve a problem quickly and therefore he becomes the ship's computer in an emergency situation but then wants to stay connected, because his mind would not fit into his old brain anymore. There is a motivation for this - it makes sense. So he stays connected and takes over the Enterprise and makes the Enterprise travel tens of thousands lightyears where the crew and we find out that his transformation was initiated by those aliens who use this as a way to explore other races. They make the other races come to them, because the aliens don't like to travel. Not the best motivation, but its a motivation. So after having watched ST:TNG it really stands out how most of the episodes of the original Star Trek are plain, boring, with overacted dialogues, with the obligatory fist fight and love interest of Kirk. I don't understand how anyone can like this show without a huge portion of nostalgia.