STAR TREK FADING TO BLACK

     Star Trek: Nemesis is not a bad film. But it's still standard Star Trek material we've had for 35 years.
     I have been a Star Trek fan since 1971 discovering the series on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I had all the models, action figures and my favorite episodes on cassette. 
     Over the years I never became the obsessed fan dressing in the clothes and attending conventions every chance I got, but it did affect my life in subtle ways. 
     In 1980 I joined the U.S. Navy serving aboard a nuclear powered submarine (an underwater spacecraft?) as a missile technician and went on to work on aircraft and spacecraft which take satellites and so forth into space. 
     Star Trek has affected many people on such a level, possibly without them knowing - much less thinking about it. I didn't for a long time. 
     As a fan I was ecstatic when the Next Generation aired for the first time. Amazed when the second spin-off series Deep Space Nine came to syndication. This series, by far the best, took the franchise in a new direction pushing the Gene Roddenberry franchise beyond the normal storylines. Fans were then brought back to the lazy reality of the Star Trek Universe with Star Trek: Voyager. A series which turned into nothing more than the monster of the week serial. 
      Deepspace Nine introduced many new ideas to Star Trek. Fans were treated to an overall storyline with smaller stories told each week. The stories were darker, character driven, and a bit more dark than the standard Star Trek fare.  Rick Berman was uncomfortable with the direction of the series and pulled back from the show, leaving it in the hands of the producers and writers to take chances and push the envelope. It was different, exciting and even fun to watch each week for what might happen next. 
     After ten films based on two of the Star Trek series, nothing has changed. The stories are predictable, the action the same.  It changes but remains the same. Paramount complains about the franchise being stale, and wants change. Not really. Star Trek has generated billions of dollars for Paramount. Has Paramount ever spent $100M of that money for a single Star Trek film budget? No. Have they ever gone out and gotten a big name actor or actress to cast as the lead villain to go head to head with James Kirk or Jon Luc Picard? Wow, they haven't. Paramount has yet to offer fans a dark action packed script in the likes of Terminator or Aliens.  
     Star Trek works on an ensemble cast of characters. How many from the five series or ten films have been killed off? Kirk? Hell, he died twice in the same feature and was nearly 60 years old. Jadzia Dax in Deep Space Nine? Nope, Dax returned inside a new host. Spock maybe? Oh yeah, He was brought back to life in the third film. 
     Rick Berman and Paramount talk more for the fans than any real action. They play it safe and complain when it doesn't work. There's no fresh ideas or big budgets reserved for Star Trek. Smoke and mirrors my friends, smoke and broken mirrors. 

     The sad truth is that most die hard fans are indeed happy with the status quo. They don't like change, and enjoy the same outings each and every week. New fans, and real fans, want more. We want to be amazed. We want exciting character driven material dealing with fresh ideas. Enterprise was to be that. But Rick Berman was involved and and brought the dull with him. He promised fresh ideas and wonderful writing. What we got was most of the writing staff from Star Trek Voyager. That's fresh?  What Next Generation and Voyager brought in time travel stories or adventures stuck in the halodeck we ended up with in Enterprise. The new series has been plagued with poor writing, crappy storylines and yes, time travel. Nothing special, nothing fresh, exciting or new. 

     It's amazing that Star Trek has lasted 35 years. It's incredible when anything lasts that long. But without change people lose interest. 

    There are only so many chances in anything. Star Trek is on borrowed time. Change is way past due.  It isn't fun to sit here on my ass pointing out the problems with something I enjoy so much. I am nothing more than a fan, like many, with every series on VHS tape personally recorded by me.  I'm not some critic who knows nothing about science fiction or the Star Trek realm. I'm down with it, from the first series to the last film, I'm there.  

     No other television show has done what Star Trek has achieved. No series likely ever will again. Fans are far from done with Star Trek, but is Paramount? The question goes to them. If it is done, why not risk it all and take the franchise in a new direction.  Dark, gritty, action packed... There's a few ideas. 

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