When NBC cancelled “Star Trek” in 1969 after only three seasons, the “five year mission” of the Starship Enterprise to explore new worlds was an unfulfilled promise. And yet, “Star Trek” fans defied the network and the program continues to thrive half a century on. Like many cancelled shows before it, “Star Trek” went into syndication, but unlike “I Love Lucy,” it became more than nostalgic entertainment. It inspired the future.
The 79 episodes, available to own since the advent of VHS, have been repackaged as “Star Trek: The Original Series—The Complete Series Remastered.” The attractive 25-DVD set includes previously seen bonus documentary material, but the main focus is on the episodes themselves. Beautifully transferred to digital, “The Complete Series” is a look back at “Star Trek’s” role in mainstreaming science fiction and fan culture—and in spurring not so much the Space Age as the Computer Age with its Tricorders, Communicators and other devices depending on advanced miniaturized technology.
While running on prime time, “Star Trek” already earned praise for intelligently presenting compelling ideas in an entertaining shrinkwrap. Clearly, “Star Trek” was operating at a higher level than Flash Gordon. It had a philosophical dimension. Reason versus emotion was the perennial theme, enacted in the sometimes testy, sometimes good-natured dialogue between Mr. Spock and his fellow Starship officers. “Star Trek” also touched on instinct versus civilization, androids versus humans, the hubris of genius, theories of parallel historical development, the subjective nature of perception and the melancholy of eternity.
“Star Trek” offered a glowing vision of the future based on the promise of the 1960s. It was the Great Society writ galactic, with a liberal Federation pitted against authoritarian empires. Women were on the bridge of the Enterprise alongside Africans, Asians, white Americans and the alien Spock. While acknowledging the darkness and complexity of reality, “Star Trek” was fundamentally optimistic in outlook. Even the theme music was a call to go boldly into the future.
Occasionally the special effects and sets fell short, but more often than not, “Star Trek” achieved a sense of wonder with plastic models and painted backdrops and invoked alien worlds with orange or magenta skies above Hollywood back lots. The screenplays contained poetry, pulp and hardboiled noir. And even when the plot lines were defective, they could convey concepts that were, as Spock would say, “fascinating.”
