I became a big fan of Star Trek when the original series was rerun in the 1970s. In the 1960s, I hardly gave it a thought because I was into a new age religion at the time.
In its first year in 1966, it placed 52 out of 94 TV series. Not very good. It's highly likely that its subject matter was over the heads of many people. It wasn't escapist action science fiction. Serious subjects like prejudice, racism, weapons of mass destruction, cults and the dangers of tampering with low tech cultures were discussed openly. There is also evidence that part of the motivation for Star Trek came from the U.S. Navy's "Secret Space Program".
After three years, the series was terminated because mankind wasn't ready for realistic meaty outer space adventures. "They couldn't handle the truth" as George Bush said recently, but that was back in the 1960s, it is now the biggest franchise of all time.
From the hundreds of Star Trek episodes and movies, I distilled my top ten stories from the different series and movies.
What I like the most were stories that challenged my mind or touched my heart. Here they are:
- Generations: Obviously, this movie was more that Captain Kirk passing the touch to Jean-Luc Picard. Kirk gets caught in "The Nexus"(a false heaven) where all your dreams come true. Picard brings him back to reality. The climax was action packaged and exciting.
- The Killing Game: The Hirogen (a reptilian species) who ally themselves with the Nazis take over Voyager's holodeck and try to defeat the Voyager's crew. Incredibly, realistic and scary.
- All Good Things: Picard almost annihilates the human through his own sickness, but discovers what he has to do to solve a massive problem in three time periods. "Q" with his god-like powers actually helps him this time.
- City On The Edge Of Forever: Kirk and Spock have to follow McCoy to the late 1930s to stop him from altering the outcome of WW2. Joan Collins and Kirk were a hot item in this episode. Sad ending.
- Spectre Of The Gun: Kirk, Spock and some crew members encounter "The Melkotians" who are able to use part of American history (The Gunfight at the OK Corral) against them. A different kind of Western.
- Death Wish: One of "The Q" is tired of being all-powerful and all-knowing. He seeks asylum on Voyager and Janeway ends up deciding whether he should be allowed to die or not.
- Star Trek, The Motion Picture: This was the first Star Trek movie in 1979. It was very underrated. A sentient AI (V'Ger) wants to become one with its creator (Earth scientists) and achieve some kind of transcendence. Moving, but not understood by most.
- The Survivors: A couple on a destroyed planet are its only living inhabitants. They hold a horrible secret. It's both moving and thought-provoking.
- The Offspring: Data builds a female android that has emotions. Hard to believe that I cried at the ending of this story, but I could relate to the problems the androids were having.
- Cause and Effect: Fascinating story of deja vu with temporal irregularities. Groundhog day in outer space.
