*****STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS*****

“As it was in the time of the beginning, so it is now…”

“Star Trek” began in 1966 as an episodic TV series, and it would eventually change the pop culture landscape forever… though not at first. The show struggled with less-than-stellar ratings, and was later cancelled (despite massive letter-writing campaigns) after three seasons, in 1969–only a few months before humans landed on the moon. Star Trek conventions began several years later in 1972, and in the fall of 1973, the series returned in an animated format for 22 new episodes, before it too, was cancelled in 1974.

Five years later, and after several false starts (including the aborted “Phase II” TV series), Star Trek found its way to the big screen in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”. A series of theatrical sequels followed before the show returned to syndicated television, beginning with “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (TNG). Star Trek then remained on the air in various versions (“Deep Space Nine” [DS9], “Voyager” [VGR] and “Enterprise” {ENT]) for 18 years until “Enterprise” was cancelled after four seasons from the now-defunct UPN network

Note: UPN was Paramount’s not-quite ready for primetime version of today’s Paramount+.

Discovery: Serialized Star Trek

In 2009, indefatigable Star Trek returned for a new trilogy of movies (2009-2016) set in an alternate timeline. Some of those involved with these new “Kelvinverse” movies (producer Alex Kurtzman, designer Neville Page, and others) returned to help birth a new series set in the prime timeline called “Star Trek: Discovery” (DSC). TV shows like “Babylon 5”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “The Sopranos” ushered in the heavily-serialized format in the 1990s, with newer shows like the “Battlestar Galactica” remake, “Dexter,” “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead” following suit in the 2000s.

While previous Star Treks had experimented in serialization (most notably DS9 and ENT), DSC would fully embrace this readily bingeable format which had became the new standard for TV drama in the early 21st century. I don’t blame the producers of DSC for pursuing serialization for Star Trek’s latest incarnation; to quote Sarek of Vulcan, “At the time, it seemed the logical thing to do.”

Serialization, at first glance, has some advantages. In theory, it allows greater freedom to develop ongoing character arcs, with ample time to explore the full ramifications of a given story, with no more annoying ‘reset buttons’ (where everything is magically & maddeningly returned to status quo by the hour’s end). The potential seemed obvious. However, as author/screenwriter/producer/director Marc Scott Zicree (DS9’s “Far Beyond The Stars”) once noted (and I’m paraphrasing), “If a central story arc isn’t very strong, then the show is stuck with it.” While there’ve been some solid scenes and characters within DSC, the central arcs themselves have been the show’s greatest weakness. The season-long arcs feel like they could’ve been much tighter and more engaging if told over two or three parts (as ENT did with the ‘mini-arcs’ of its final year).

Structure-wise, DSC’s seasons usually open with a strong, compelling season opener, only to meander a bit the middle-act episodes, and then hurriedly (confusingly) wrapping things up in dense, unwieldy finales that are loaded with action, but little resonance.

DSC’s time-jump into the 32nd century in its third season was strategic and wise. This time-jump steered the show clear of past Star Trek continuity. This time-jump opened up new avenues of exploration for Starfleet and the Federation–both of which in the process of regrouping, following a galactic calamity known as “the Burn.” This ‘Burn’ (which occurred some 120 years before Discovery’s arrival) left the Federation in disarray, disabling warp drives galaxy-wide. The light-years between Federation worlds suddenly isolated them in a century-long quarantine. While this somewhat dystopian vision of Star Trek’s future didn’t agree with some fans, I rather enjoyed it, since it reiterated those core values of Star Trek; the need to unite the various worlds and learn to work together again. It allowed us to witness a rebirth of the Federation.

Yes, DSC’s third and fourth seasons certainly had issues, but they showed a lot more confidence than the show’s first two years (a credit to new showrunner Michelle Paradise). Nevertheless, the fourth season arc later fell into some of the same issues that have plagued serialized Trek to date; a promising beginning, followed by a meandering middle, topped off by an overloaded ending.

This nagging pattern would repeat with the second live-action serialized Star Trek series…

Star Trek Picard: What Goes Up…

In January of 2020, the post-TNG sequel “Star Trek: Picard” (PIC) continued story of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), who’d resigned in protest from Starfleet and was living on his chateau in France when he’s pulled into a mystery involving two causes he’s long championed; the haunting legacy of his late android friend Data (Brent Spiner), and the forced relocation of alien refugees from the now-decimated Romulan Star Empire (see: “Star Trek” {2009]).

While uneven at times, PIC’s first season still managed to tell a good story, wrapping up the dying Jean-Luc Picard’s story in an almost “Twilight Zone”-fashion; downloading the admiral’s consciousness into a newly-minted synthetic body (one that is cosmetically aged to match his newly deceased biological one, of course). Personally, I would’ve been happy if PIC had ended right there, as it elegantly wrapped things up for the character. The longtime advocate for android rights (TNG’s “Measure of a Man,” “The Offspring”) becomes an android himself… a final ‘gift’ from his friendship with Data.

A second season debuted earlier this year (following a year-long COVID-mandated delay), and its season opener, “The Star Gazer”, was very compelling. It had the energy and pacing of a Star Trek feature film, rather than a TV series. Rarely has a season of Star Trek began so well, only to sputter and crash so spectacularly afterward. “Star Gazer” clearly demonstrated that the current production team has the tools and skillsets to do great Star Trek. However, the chapters of the second season quickly fell apart, ending with a cacophony of storylines that didn’t mesh particularly well with each other.

Note: The third season of PIC was filmed right after season 2 wrapped–to be released in early 2023. The new season also promises the return of TNG cast members Gates McFadden (“Beverly Crusher”), LeVar Burton (“Geordi La Forge”), and Michael Dorn (“Worf”) as well as the return of Marina Sirtis (“Deanna Troi”) and Jonathan Frakes (“Will Riker”); both of whom were previously seen in season 1’s “Nepenthe”.

Assuming readers have seen this latest season, there are so many lapses in logic that it becomes downright exhausting. Jean-Luc’s thirty-something mother Yvette is revealed to have killed herself when he was a young boy, leaving him traumatized and unable to commit to longterm relationships (too Freudian, if you ask me). This nearly ignored the fact that we saw a much older Yvette Picard in an early episode of TNG (“Where No One Has Gone Before”). Granted, the older Yvette seen in TNG was a hallucination, but her age discrepancy in Picard’s memory had to be explained away after the fact with a clumsily-inserted line of dialogue (“I often used to imagine her as an old woman”), making it feel as though the writers just remembered her appearance in TNG halfway through writing the scene. This retcon felt shoehorned and awkward.

Note: I appreciate this season of PIC attempted to address mental illness, but using Yvette’s suicide for shock value isn’t the same as offering constructive insight or sensitive commentary.

I won’t delve too deeply into this season’s sloppy time-travel mechanics, which contradict themselves at multiple points. However, after landing in 21st century Earth (blissfully undetected by satellites/radar), Dr. Agnes Jurati (Agnes Pill) warns the crew of the La Sirena to be careful about ‘butterflies’–a warning not to interact with, or otherwise alter fixed elements of Earth’s past by seemingly small actions.

Note: See Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” (the novella, not the horrible 2005 movie).

Agnes’ dire warning is, of course, completely ignored at nearly every turn, as the La Sirena crew openly reveal themselves to a government agent, kill a group of Borg-ified mercenaries (did any of those people have futures?) and release a bus filled with ICE-detainees in order to rescue an imprisoned Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera). While I’m certainly fine with liberating groups of desperate human beings from unjust captivity, one can’t help but wonder (in a Star Trek-context) just how this would affect the multiple timelines of those now-freed detainees–to say nothing of the dead Borg-ified mercenaries later on.

The season began with the creation of an alternate fascistic 25th century timeline, one that Picard and his friends have to fix. Despite his own protestations to the contrary, this entire scenario was created so that a dying Q (John de Lancie) could help Picard cure his commitment-phobia (brought about by Yvette’s suicide). How many people were harmed, killed and/or traumatized just so Picard could heal his pain and romance his Romulan housekeeper, Laris (Orla Brady)? That’s like creating all of World War 2 so that a US soldier might meet his future bride somewhere in France…

In fact, this entire bizarre chain of events could’ve been undone if the masked Borg queen we saw at the climax of “Star Gazer” simply revealed herself to be a Borg-ified Agnes Jurati, instead of hiding her face and hacking into the Federation fleet sent to meet her. Queen/Jurati’s initial hostile act almost destroyed her own attempt to peacefully coexist with the Federation. If only she took off that stupid mask…

Oh, and there’s another subplot about Picard trying to help his moping astronaut-ancestor Renee Picard (Penelope Mitchell) get over her fear of screwing the pooch before a 2024 mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa (an awfully ambitious mission, considering 2024 is only two years from now). Renee Picard is destined to discover a microbe on Europa that will, of course, magically cure all of Earth’s climate issues in one fix–making both the oceans and the atmosphere clean somehow. It’s utterly ridiculous that one single form of alien microbial life could somehow eliminate pollution, global warming, oceanic plastics, etc. Oh dear…

Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek has long held the idea that humanity will somehow solve our current issues when we migrate to the stars. However, it has (until now) wisely avoided the mistake of explaining exactly how we do it. Yes, Star Trek tells us that humanity will make it, but the exact mechanics of how it will be done are left up to us.

For some odd (and unexplained) reason, we also see Q join forces with yet another evil Dr. Soong ancestor (once again, implausibly played by Brent Spiner) to actively sabotage Renee Picard’s Europa mission. This, of course, makes no logical sense, since her goals will actually align with Q’s stated desire to help Picard. Luckily, Picard gave Renee a pep talk, as does her sacrificed Romulan guardian angel ‘Supervisor’ Tallinn (Orla Brady). So, Renee is okay now…?

Note: To be clear; there’s no such thing as a “reluctant astronaut.” The few real-life astronauts I’ve met, including Dr. Buzz Aldrin (Gemini, Apollo) and Victor Glover (ISS), are competitive, ambitious and deeply self-motivated people. Anyone less than wholly committed and eager to fly into outer space would never make it past NASA’s, Roscosmos’ or the ESA’s grueling and challenging Astronaut Candidacy programs. Yes, some astronauts have suffered depression after returning from space (that’s well-documented, in fact), but until then, they are very driven and highly motivated. If Renee Picard had such crippling anxiety, she would never be on a shortlist for such a dangerous mission as a flight to Jupiter space. I also disliked that Renee Picard (not too unlike Yvette Picard) seems more defined by her depression than anything else; I never got to know her as a character.

PIC’s second season is, in my five decades as a fan, the single worst season of Star Trek I’ve ever seen, and yes, that includes the wildly uneven first season of TNG.

YouTuber Jessie Gender (whose opinions I admire very much) does a detailed (but loving) summary of everything that went wrong with Star Trek: Picard’s second season:

Lower Decks and Prodigy: Re-Animated Trek

While DSC and PIC were knee-deep in serialization, two new animated iterations of Star Trek were returning to the standalone style of storytelling that arguably defined the franchise for most of its 55-year history. For context, Star Trek hadn’t had an animated series since the mid-1970s.

The franchise’s “ongoing mission” of exploring new planets and aliens every week, is, by its very nature, perfectly designed for episodic storytelling. Every week, a new planet with new aliens. And if one story doesn’t work? No sweat. There’ll be another one next week. These two newer animated series, “Star Trek: Lower Decks” (LD) and “Star Trek: Prodigy” (PRO) have deftly blended episodic structure with character/plot threads, but the singular episodes stand on their own fairly well–with definitive beginnings, middles and endings. The risqué LD is designed with a more adultish audience in mind, while PRO is more family-friendly.

In previous columns, I’ve been fairly vocal in my disappointment with LD; its manic, reference-heavy, often obnoxious sense of humor simply doesn’t jibe with mine. That said, LD has a vocal and passionate following, and I respect that, so I won’t rehash my many criticisms with the series.

Note: You can use the search engine and/or archives at the bottom of this site’s main page to read more of my thoughts on the first three Lower Decks episodes.

PRO is much more what I’d hoped for in a new animated series, with quality that is closer to Disney’s “Star Wars” offerings in animation quality, and its twofold appeal to both younger audience members and adults (the crew uses a holographic-Kathryn Janeway as instructor/mentor) Like LD, PRO also tells standalone stories with ongoing threads. By the end of the show’s first season, most of PRO’s lingering threads (including a villainous pursuit by Gwyndala’s father) have been resolved, leaving the show free for unmoored storytelling when it returns in season 2.

Strange New Worlds: “Hit it.”

Which brings us to the latest Star Trek series, the live-action prequel show, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” (SNW) which chronicles that largely unexplored period of the USS Enterprise’s history before Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) turns over the keys to Captain James T. Kirk, sometime in the next decade or so. Perfect window of time for a series to flourish.

With Pike, his “Number One” Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), and science officer Spock (Ethan Peck) already reintroduced to us during the second season of DSC (not to mention TOS), the show had a built-in audience already lined up, so there wasn’t as much need for the ‘getting to know you’ phase of the show, at least not for its three lead characters.

In the first few episodes, we’re already seeing nice development from secondary characters such as Cadet Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), Dr. M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), Lt. Ortegas (Melissa Navia). Uhura, Chapel and M’Benga are, of course, legacy characters from TOS as well. This mix of classic & new characters working side-by-side is a nice way of welcoming new characters into the fold, while getting to some old favorites a little better–a Star Trek mixer.

As the title ‘Strange New Worlds’ suggest, this series is firmly rooted in episodic storytelling, promising a ‘strange new world’ with ‘new life and new civilizations’ each week. The most prominent character thread in the show comes from Pike’s time aboard the Discovery, when he gained foreknowledge of his own future as the mute, immobile, radiation-scarred victim of a training exercise gone horribly wrong, in the engine room of an “old class-J starship” (TOS’ “The Menagerie,” DSC “Through the Valley of Shadows”). Pike knows this will happen, and in the first episode we see him struggle with it, but unlike Renee Picard’s lingering doubts with herself, Pike puts on a brave face for his crew, still managing to find joy in his work (“I like this job,” he stage-whispers to Number One).

Given that SNW is a de facto continuation of Roddenberry’s original pilot “The Cage” (longest pilot to series pickup ever), it’s fitting that the show follows the structure of the series’ original concept.

Summing It Up.

Given the overwhelming positive audience and critical response from just the first few episodes, it’s safe to say that Star Trek has found its groove. That said, I don’t think the prior attempts at serialization were misguided either, as they came from a good place–the desire to do something fresh and new.

If Star Trek never took bold chances during its history, we might not have Deep Space Nine, or even “The Motion Picture,” which was critically trashed at the time of its release, and is now heralded as an under-appreciated gem. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see serialized Star Trek just as fondly remembered by more fans someday.

I certainly think serialized Star Trek created some wonderful new characters, and it deserves kudos for its championing of better diversity and representation (particularly with LGBTQ+ representation), something former longtime Star Trek producer Rick Berman should’ve done during his 18 years with the franchise.

At any rate, I’m grateful that SNW seems to have found “the best of both worlds”–more inclusive casting combined with easier-to-digest solo stories. SNW is a reminder that episodic storytelling is woven into Star Trek’s DNA.

Where To Watch.

“Star Trek” (all series) is streaming exclusively on Paramount+ in the United States. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” can be streamed on Crave in Canada (it will also air on CTV’s Sci-Fi Channel). Paramount+ will also be unveiled in the UK on June 22nd, and in other European markets later on, so all of Paramount+’s Star Trek content, including “Strange New Worlds”, should soon be accessible to overseas fans as well. Hopefully all fans everywhere will soon enjoy this new incarnation of Star Trek. Live long and prosper!