the star trek saga

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The Trek phenomenon, thirty-one years in the making, is a show which lifts its viewers far into space and the future, and their hopes and ambitions into Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations...Today, there are over three hundred episodes filmed, seven movies, over one hundred novels (41 of them bestsellers) and two interactive CD-ROMs bearing the ST name and reputation. Star Trek is produced by Paramount Pictures.

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     It was a new Haven for Trek fans to once again go Where No One Has Gone Before. At first, it was a Battle; some fans thought it was Too Short a Season, while others believed it was already time for The Big Goodbye. But soon, most saw that TNG was Coming of Age, and not even a Skin of Evil or a Conspiracy could keep it from being popular.

     The Child of TOS began Loud As a Whisper, but when it came down to The Measure Of a Man, TNG climbed Up the Long Ladder and reached Peak Performance. Its Evolution continued, however, and despite a Booby Trap from The Enemy, TNG took The High Ground. But was it as good as the original series? It was A Matter Of Perspective. The Offspring of Yesterday's Enterprise may have merely been the Hollow Pursuits of writers who wanted The Most Toys-- or was it really The Best Of Both Worlds?

     "Remember Me," cried the Legacy of Kirk's crew as they continued their theatrical Reunions. But although the Future is Imperfect, the Final Mission of Picard would go beyond First Contact. This Galaxy's Child had a few Night Terrors, some of which came to The Nth Degree, but TNG felt no risk of living only Half a Life. In Theory, Trek was coming up on Redemption.

     Ensign Ro's arrival turned out not to be a Disaster, and soon, Picard met Spock to continue Trek's Unification. It was only A Matter Of Time until they would hit New Ground and create what would become a Masterpiece Society. Yes, they wanted to create a third series, and so Star Trek went on to The Next Phase of Time's Arrow.

     From Relics to Rascals, The Quality of Life improved throughout the Chain of Command. It was TNG's Birthright to become successful; they just had to remain in the right Frame of Mind and avoid a Descent of ratings for one more season.

     As DS9 turned a Dark Page, TNG remained Attached to its own Forces of Nature, flying like The Pegasus, Homeward. It wore no Masks, for its greatness was in the Eye of the Beholder. Though the Journey's End was coming fast, protests were less than that of the cancellation of the Firstborn, since DS9 was reaching its Emergence. Besides, All Good Things must come to an end.

Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS: Stardate 1513.1 - 5298.5)

On September 7, 1966, this brainchild of sci-fi neophyte Gene Roddenberry was born. Despite its campiness, TOS taught of the peaceful exploration of space in the 23rd century and covered many social issues of the time. We saw Capt. Kirk, the wisecracking "Bones" McCoy, the ever logical Cmdr. Spock, Scotty the "miracle worker" and Lt. Uhura, Chekov and Sulu overcome all kinds of space dangers. I haven't really seen a lot of it, but it was able to gather small but devout group of fans. Small enough for the series to be cancelled in scarcely three years, but devout enough for Paramount to consider a "Star Trek: Phase II", which later ended up in the form of six okay movies in the '80's era.

Let's see...the once was a man-god (at least to himself) called Capt. James Tiberius Kirk, and he travelled in his starship, the USS Enterprise "no bloody A,B,C or D" in the wild early days, picking fights with lizard aliens and basically forging the Federation with his "cowboy diplomacy". Heck, he even stopped alien probes from attacking Earth TWICE, went to the centre AND the outskirts of the galaxy and made peace with the Klingons. In The Motion Picture(TMP), the Enterprise must stop the alien probe V'ger, which is later found to be the modified Voyager 6, looking for its builder. In The Wrath of Khan(TWOK), Kirk et al plays cat and mouse in a nebula with Khan and his eugenic supermen. In The Search for Spock(TSFS), the Enterprise must be destroyed, but the crew are able to rescue the resurrected Spock from the planet Genesis. In The Voyager Home(TVH), the crew travel to 1986 to save two humpback whales, who in turn save 23rd century Earth from a sterilizing probe. In The Final Frontier(TFF), one of the worst movies of all time, the Enterprise-A is taken by Spock's half-brother Sybok to see God (needless to say, he was wrong). In the final movie, The Undiscovered Country(TUC), manage to make peace with the Klingon Empire, despite the workings of saboteurs.

Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG: Stardate 41153.7 - 47988.1)

Of course, a Trek sequel was planned, and became TNG, which appeared on September 28, 1987. While Roddenberry et al had some more money and fan support, would hard-core Trekkers accept a new ship and crew? Obviously yes, and millions others, including me, started watching the Renaissance man Picard, Cmdr. "What the hell is going on?!?" Riker, the emotionless LtC. Data, the empathic Conslr. Troi, the grumpy Worf, Dr. Crusher, LtC. LaForge and the annoying Wesley Crusher in the further adventures through the great unknown. TNG is now the #1 syndicated drama series in history. Of course, "All Good Things" must come to an end, and TNG left with a bang on May 25, 1994. In Toronto, hundreds of people packed themselves into SkyDome to bid farewell and watch the season finale on the stadium's giant JumboTron. So far, there has been two TNG movies, the latest being (First Contact). In Generations, Picard and Kirk team up to stop the mad Soran from destroying a planet in order to enter the Nexus, a temporal, timeless Eden.

A century later, we have Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. He was a stiff French grouch, but he knew his stuff. He did soften up, and the NCC-1701-D was able to destroy the Borg, help the Klingons out of civil war, survive the omni-everything Q's countless "humanity sucks" tests, save 19th century Earth from time-travelling energy vampires and make a decent "tea, Earl Grey, hot".

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9: Stardate 46379.1)

In many ways, DS9 was a lot different from TNG. It was darker, and was set on a derelict Cardassian space station,and later, the USS Defiant, a little spitfire of a ship. However, it played second fiddle to TNG for several years since its appearance on January 5, 1992; it wasn't bad, it was just average. Until now. In Season 4, DS9 bucked this trend with bigger stories and character development; DS9 has become the top syndicated drama on TV. And the characters are: Capt. Sisko, the tempered Major Kira, Lt. "Old Man" Dax, Dr. Julian Bashir, shapeshifting Constable Odo, Quark the Ferengi, and Chief O'Brien and Cmdr. Worf from the Enterprise.

The inexperienced crew assembled on a grimy space station over Bajor. The crew included Cmdr. (now Captain) Benjamin Sisko, and he was a very melancholic, antagonizing soul. The crew discover a wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant and the whole place turns into an interstellar busstop. Now, they have to deal with marauding Klingons, the control-freakish Dominion, the unsettled Cardassians and occasionally the odd conflict with the spiritual Bajorans.

Star Trek: Voyager (VOY: Stardate 48315.6)

And then there is Voyager, a small vessel with a mixed Federation and Maquis crew lost in space. It premiered on January 16, 1995, and features the stout Capt. Janeway, the spiritual Cmdr. Chakotay, the first ever-seen black Vulcan LtC. Tuvok, cranky half-Klingon engineer Torres, Ensign Kim the freshman, The (hologram) Doctor, the rebellious Ensign Paris, morale officer (and comedy relief) Neelix and the medical assistant Kes. In the fourth season, a new female Borg character, Seven of Nine will appear. The episodes have ranged to the pretty good to the profanely poor, but there's hope yet!

While that's going on, a little weakling of a ship in command of Capt. Kathryn Janeway, the USS Voyager, has been tossed over at the Delta Quadrant, and is currently trying to get home, explore, consistently lose fights with cargo ships, beat the universal record for lost shuttlecraft and generally get into big messes. Everyone hates them now. When Lt. Torres hollered "Get that cheese to sickbay!" she may have been referring to the show...

"'End program' I said, and the world vanished, leaving me a world more bewildering than the last."
-- Gregory Lam

HoTaMaLe! LtC. Gregory Lam's Website
gregory.lam@ablelink.org
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