Star Trek-Voyager: Caretaker

                      Captain Kathryn Janeway,commander of the Starship Voyager journeys to a Federation Penal Colony in Australia to temporarily release imprisoned Marquis sympathizer Tom Paris to help her pilot Voyager through the Badlands,an area of intense fire storms,to locate a Marquis vessel containing her undercover chief of security Tuvok. Upon arriving at the Badlands,Voyager is thrown forward by a powerful energy field and half the crew either killed or knocked unconscious. When the captain awakens,her operations officer Harry Kim informs her they are now 70,000 light years from from where they started-in the distant delta quadrant. They find a mysterious alien array before them,firing energy pulses to a dead planet below. After they revive the EMH (emergency medical hologram) to treat the injured,they suddenly disappear. With the array as the only possible culprit the Captain,Harry and Tom transport on board to find what seems like an Earth style barn yard dance. In a barn on the premises,Harry detects indications of Sporosystian life. They suddenly find themselves dangling on platforms,in an enormous chamber,with the rest of their own and the Marquis crew. When they are returned to their own ship,Janeway finds Harry is missing. He is being held with Marquis engineer B'lanna Torres by a race calling themselves the Ocampa. 

                   The Ocampa claim the two have a disease they are asked to treat by an alien called the Caretaker,who overseas their world after their planet turned into a dessert and the Ocampa were forced to live underground. Voyager,for their part,soon encounter a Talaxian scavenger called Nelix who promises he can help them find their missing crew member. He takes them to the surface to a group of aliens called the Kazon Ogla who,in exchange for water,release Neelix's Ocampa lover from their custody. Despite Neelix's  odd methods,this allows the Voyager crew and the Marquis team,who've elected to join forces to get to their home quadrant,to rescue their crew mates and confront this caretaker. Turns out the caretaker blames himself for what happened to the surface of the Ocampa home world,and has been bringing aliens from other parts of the galaxy to try and procreate. Because the Kazon wish to commandeer the array,Janeway is forced to destroy it-along with the crews one chance of getting home,in order to maintain the balance of power in this region. While making an enemy of the Kazon,Janeway manages to unite Starfleet and Marquis personal in a mission of exploration of the Delta Quadrant,while searching for another way to get home.

               As with the Deep Space Nine pilot,this is a very busy story. Not only are we introduced to a one set of new characters but two,as the central theme of the show is two divergent crews coming together for a common goal. And a diverse group it is. We have Torres,an intelligent but aggressive Klingon/Human hybrid. There's the holographic doctor with no bedside manner. There's the new alien Neelix,a mildly mischievous rogue who is looking for little more than love and to reform his vagabond ways. And his girlfriend Kes,who offers their services to Janeway as guides to the quadrant. The title character is one we learn very little about. He comes off as compassionate but too powerful to fully comprehend human needs and therefore has a mildly sinister quality. One theme that carried on from this story through the rest of the series was Janeway's controversial choice to destroy the crews one way of getting home-to keep from violating the Federation's Prime Directive. While it shows her strong moral fortitude,which is at the heart of Star Trek itself,it is a source of contention between her and Voyager's crew on many occasions throughout the series.

Deep Space Nine-Emissary

                   Three years after his wife was killed when the Borg,led by Locutus,destroyed the ship he was first officer of,Commander Benjamin Sisko is assigned by Captain Jean-Luc Picard to the space station Deep Space Nine in orbit around Bajor following the Cardassians withdrawing their occupational forces from that world. The reluctant widowed officer,along with his son Jake,arrive on the station to be greeted by a wrecked station partially crewed-with most of it's original occupants preparing to leave. He meets up with the equally reluctant Bajoran nation Major Kira Nyrys,who is convinced the Federation has no place administrating on the station now that the Bajoran's are finally liberated and cynically believes he and the other Starfleet officers will be gone in a week. She convinces Sisko to visit the Bajoran's spiritual leader Kai Opaka. Upon arriving Sisko is introduced to an orb Opaka calls "the tear of the prophets",which reveals Sisko's first meeting with his deceased wife. When his new Trill science officer Jadzia Dax arrives,she studies the orb and suggests she and Sisko,with whom she had been friends in her past host body, take one of the Federation runabouts on the station to investigate a source signal from the orb in the nearby Denorious belt.

                             Upon arriving their they find themselves in an unusual wormhole that Dax discovers to be the only stable wormhole encountered by the Federation-with the end destination in the Gamma Quadrant 75,000 light years away. On the way back,the runabout mysteriously touches down inside the wormhole,Dax believes she is in a tranquil garden while Sisko on a rock face in the middle of an atmospheric storm. An orb appears and whisks Dax away,but envelopes Sisko. He finds himself speaking to aliens who appear as his comrades and loved ones,claiming to be aliens existing in this wormhole outside. As he uses metaphors to explain linear time to the aliens,Kira and Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien attempt to fend off invading Cardassians as they look to stake a claim to the newly discovered stable wormhole. O'Brien manages to re-engage the shields to provide enough power to move the station to the edge of the wormhole-just in time for Commander Sisko's return,after which he formerly accepts his new assignment to Captain Picard.

                            This is an extremely complex premiere that,in approximately 90 minutes,attempts to sum up a number of very complex plot points. There's the shape shifting security chief Odo,attempting to maintain order on Deep Space Nine following the Cardassian desertion and Quark,the conniving Ferengi bar owner who Sisko assigns as a community leader on the new liberated station. The main thrust for Sisko in this story is actually an extension on what was attempted in the original Star Trek pilot The Cage-a tortured man in a command position who is forced to confront his demons with the help of powerful aliens. Only this time while the wormhole aliens are able to express to Sisko he is living in the past,he manages to help them explain linear time effectively through examples like baseball.  Though Deep Space Nine would be a series that was very uneven in quality through it's seven year airing,this counts as one of the best Star Trek pilot episodes ever aired.

Star Trek:The Next Generation-Encounter At Farpoint

                      En route to investigate Farpoint Station,a star base built for Federation use by the Bandi of Deneb IV,Captain Jean-Luc Picard becomes better acquainted with the state of the art Galaxy Class U.S.S. Enterprise he is now commanding. His ships counselor Deanna Troi senses an unusually powerful mind. Suddenly a mysterious man addressing himself only as Q materializes on the bridge of the ship. Changing in wardrobe from an ancient ship captain,to a Korean War era GI and a drug controlled 21'st century shock troop he accuses humanity of being a dangerously savage child race who must return to Earth. Picard convinces him that he is a self righteous life form only looking to prosecute and judge lower life forms. This inspires Q to put the crew on trail,in a post apocolyptic 21'st century Earth Kangaroo court,for the crimes of humanity after Picard separates the saucer from the rest of the Enterprise to avoid a confrontation with the Q entity.

                 After taunting the crew by freezing two of it's personnel including security chief Tasha Yar,for standing up for humanity Picard insists Q tests humanity as to it's virtues. He insists the Farpoint mission will be an excellent test. And he sends them on their way. When the Enterprise arrives to pick up,among other new crew members,it's first officer William Riker at Farpoint it is only the star drive section that arrives. After being briefed on their encounter with Q,Commander Riker successfully re-connects the saucer and reveals his past romance with Counselor Troi.  Riker has been curious,after his encounter with the ellusive Bandi leader Grappler Zorn,how Farpoint could have so many contradictions-such as in his own description near magical attempts to please visitors. When it's also clear the only technological advantage the planet has is a mass of geothermal energy. 

           Upon Riker organizing an away team,Troi senses great emotional sadness in the Grappler's office and later in the mysterious caverns beneath the city. Amid Q's continual harassment,the Enterprise notices a large flying saucer approaching Deneb IV. Interestingly enough,it fires weapons on the Bandi city but carefully avoids Farpoint. With Q encouraging weapons fire,Picard decides to send an away team to the ship. There they find identical corridors to that below Farpoint. Troi senses first anger here,than satisfaction at the destruction of the Bandi city. Upon capturing Zorn,he reveals to Picard a space fearing entity of this sort arrived on their world and was injured. They provided it with enough energy to keep alive,but only so they could use it to curry favor with the Federation by using it's shape shifting ability to create a suitable star base. The Enterprise releases the entity after evacuating Farpoint,where it meets what turns out to be it's mate in orbit.Having passed Q's test and the Bandi agreeing to rebuilt Farpoint,Picard and his new crew head into space to "see what's out there".

             It was an enormous gamble for Gene Roddenberry to re-imagine Star Trek,a century in the cannons future and with an entirely new crew,in 1987 having failed to do so already with the original cast for the aborted Star Trek Phase II series in the late 70's. And in syndication no less. This pilot succeeded on all levels. It had to tell little introduction stories for each member of the crew: Picard,Riker,the android Data,the Klingon Worf,Geordi,Counselor Troi,Tasha Yar,Dr.Crusher and her son Wesley and their new adversary: the aggressively arrogant and omnipotent Q. John DaLancie brings this character to life almost fully formed,if far more adversarial than was later portrayed. As for the rest of the cast,there would be a lot of room to crew. Data is far more mechanical in personality and a stronger "babbler" than later. Captain Picard lacks much of the strong personality he'd develop later and is more a straight laced authority figure. And Deanna Troi's emphatic reactions are far more pronounced.  It's Johnathan Frakes as Commander Riker who is the most fully formed of the new characters. Overall a wonderful and visually stunning introduction,with it's far higher budget FX,  to a new series that would expand Star Trek's audience from a cult following to a viewership large enough to change everyone's perception of the show.

                

Star Trek-Where No Man Has Gone Before

                          On a mission to discover what happened to the late 21'st century space vessel S.S. Valient Captain James Kirk,commander of the Enterprise and his crew,including a newly arrived psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Dehner,attempt to leave the galaxy in search of the lost spaceship. After transporting aboard a flight recorder,Mr. Spock recovers information from it indicating the Captain of the vessel ordered it's destruction a midst extreme chaos on board. The Enterprise then encounters an energy barrier at the galaxies end of extremely high energy. Not only does it drain the ship of energy,but also knocks out both Dr. Dehner and navigator Gary Mitchell,an old friend of the Captains who suddenly has developed oddly glowing eyes. Spock recovers yet more information that before he destroyed the ship,he was searching frantically for information in their records of extra sensory perception. 

                               While in sickbay,Mitchell is exhibiting similar symptoms. Dr. Dehner observes he is able to read and retain information faster than the average human being. He also observes decay in a thruster pack before the ships helmsman Lee Kelso could. Mr. Scott observes at a conference later that parts of the computer had earlier began activating themselves. During this conference Dr.Dehner shows an unusual obsession on Mitchell's case and willingness to pursue it. Spock advises Kirk to set a course to the nearby Dilithium cracking station on Delta Vega to restore ships power. This will also give him the opportunity to deal with his other problem: Gary Mitchell,growing more and more dangerous and megalomaniacal  as his powers grow,will have to be destroyed to save the ship,it's crew and possibly the rest of humanity. 

                               On the planet,an attempt to imprison Mitchell fails as he kills Kelso and,as it turns out,Dr.Dehner eventually exhibits the same powers as himself. When Kirk returns to the surface to fight his friend with a phaser rifle,he confronts Dr.Dehner. He pleads with her as a psychiatrist to understand Mitchell's abuse of power. She observes this in his needlessly cruel behavior to Captain Kirk,his friend,during the ensuing confrontation. She herself battles Mitchell,weakening him enough so the captain can throw him into a grave that Mitchell intended for him and use the phaser to bury him alive with a rock slide from a nearby cliff. The energy Dehner uses weakens her physically and she dies shortly after. The Enterprise leaves Delta Vega with power fully restored,but with Kirk facing the loss of two of his comrades,one of whom was an old friend.

                                As the then unprecedented second pilot for Star Trek,Gene Roddenberry had the opportunity in this story to refine his idea for the series. The major addition was William Shatner as James R.Kirk,an interesting continuity issue of name cleared up later. While still closely linked to the cerebral nature of his original concept,this story is more character driven and in his own words "at least ended in a bare knuckle fist fight". Gary Lockwood's is amazing in his portrayal of Gary Mitchell,a somewhat above average human being suddenly granted extraordinary abilities-yet is not able to acquire the emotional compassion or wisdom to use them wisely. Mitchell's already advanced mind was indicated if the viewer pauses the episode and watches his profile on the bridge of the Enterprise as Mr.Spock is. 

                                In perhaps a compromise for Gene not getting the female first officer he'd originally hoped for,the strong female presence comes from Sally Kellerman's Dr.Dehner,a professional women who only becomes emotionally obsessed with Mitchell's power when she herself has begun to become effected by it herself. Characters that would become central to the show later are present,such as James Doohen's Scotty and George Takei's Sulu. Both are in much smaller roles and in very different positions on the ship than they would be later: neither are bridge personnel in this story.  The costumes,the sets and even the model of the Enterprise itself are still very similar to The Cage. However this second pilot had a very human quality that caught the interest of the NBC network executives and they decided to buy the Star Trek series this time around.

Star Trek-The Cage

                        En route back from the planet Rigel 7 the Starship Enterprise,under the command of Captain Christopher Pike,receives a distorted distress beacon from a survey ship called the Columbia,which had disappeared near the Talos star system eighteen years earlier according to science officer Mr. Spock's research. Captain Pike,himself deeply affected by the loss of seven crew members (including his yeoman) on Rigel returns to his quarters and takes council from ships physician Doctor Boyce. Upon arriving at Talos IV,sensors indicate their are survivors. When Captain Pike beam down,he and the away team encounter survivors-one of whom is a young orphan named Vina,who convinces the Captain to remain to see the secret of their survival. In truth,there are no survivors,Pike is abducted by a pair of aliens and despite Spock and Mr. Taylor's attempts to phaser him out,the have to return to the Enterprise to attempt to rescue Captain Pike.

                     On Talos,Pike awakens to find himself in an underground menagerie surrounded by many unrecognizable alien specimens. While attempting vainly to escape he soon encounters the aliens who abducted him,who communicate with him telepathically in regard to the fact they created the illusion of survivors to lure him to the planet to begin an experiment. While the Enterprise crew reach the same conclusion,and even try equally in vain to blast through the area where Captain Pike was abducted by transferring ship's power,Pike himself is subjected to one illusion after the other. Using his attraction towards Vina as a lure the Talosians allow him to recreate the encounter on Rigel,a domestic scene in his home town,and a titillating encounter with Vina as a green Orion slave. While punished for her revelation by the Talosians,Vina reveals at Pike's insistence that the Talosians were nearly destroyed by war millennia ago,and concentrated on developing powers and how they were trying to re-populate their world with other species who could breed and thrive.

                  Onboard the Enterprise,the systems begin to fail as the Talosians run through the ships computer records at lightning speed. On the surface the Talosians also abduct Pike's female first officer and yeoman from the transporter while going to mount a rescue. This done on the assumption of Pike's rejection of Vina as a mate. During this,Pike blasts a hole through the wall while he and the trio of women exit to the surface. When offered a life on the surface with the "female" of his choice,they Enterprise away team elect to destroy themselves save of being enslaved. The records taken from the Enterprise then reveal to the Talosians that human beings are not well suited to captivity and are free to return. When Pike offers Vina a chance to return to the Enterprise with him,it's revealed that her appearance is an illusion-that she is an adult survivor of the Columbia,the sole survivor and was badly deformed in the crash,since the Talosians didn't understand human biology when treating her. Upon Captain Pike and the away team leaving Talos IV to continue his mission,Vina is given an illusion of the captain for her companionship.

                  When Gene Roddenberry presented this story to NBC in early 1965 he pitched it as a "wagon train to the stars". Considering the popular of machismo celebrating Westerns at that time,it was not surprising the network rejected this pilot. Also there are some elements to the story that,while typically thought provoking as Star Trek is,were rather controversial for the era. The plot itself is extremely psycho sexual. For one Vina,played compellingly by Susan Oliver,has an interaction with Jeff Hunter's Captain Pike that plays up not only his dreams,but perhaps his physical fantasies to the degree of near fetishism on occasion. Pike's openly hostile reaction to the emotionally distant but mentally powerful Talosians reflects the characters own conflicts in the story,but also make him seem callous and even mildly cold hearted at times. The sexuality of Majel Barrett's nameless female first officer Number One,an implicitly independent female character was another sore spot with test audiences as well.

               This was also combined with the fact that each of the female characters are played very much to certain sexual archetypes. Number one is portrayed almost as a bibliophile,Pike's female Yeoman as something of an immature "fan girl" of the Captain and Vina as a tortured,and somewhat possessive woman suffering from a good deal of survivors guilt. This led to NBC pronouncing the story as "too cerebral",with it's emphasis on the psychoanalysis on human imagination and psycho sexuality. These were concepts rather frightening to the mid 60's. However this story superbly introduces the very qualities that made Star Trek such an enduring and successful phenomenon. It's intelligently written,superbly acted and the plot is filled with elements that excite the eye and the mind as well. Not only that but it anticipates both the sexual revolution and woman's liberation by several years. Following this pilot Roddenberry would completely recast the series and,for the first time in network history commission a second pilot for Star Trek. Still this is one of the highlights,at least for me, of the original Star Trek series,even if it wasn't aired for decades after it's creation.
         

THE NEW STAR TREK MANIFESTO

                                 Welcome! For a long time now I have spoken to Star Trek fans of all walk of life. The fundamental theme stated is that these people wish to see Star Trek on television again but in some different way then before. Some wish to complete story lines from past Star Trek series’, some want more action and most only want to see new Star Trek episodes on television once again. Unfortunately the world of entertainment today seems continually unfriendly to programming such as Star Trek. So the idea of seeing it on television anymore seems daunting.
                          
            More then four decades ago Gene Roddenberry set out on one mission; to create a high quality and socially relevant science fiction series for television. For the first decade and a half his vision worked far beyond his expectations; Star Trek went from a successful syndicated television show into a cultural phenomenon that spawned Star Trek The Next Generation, during whose time Star Trek went from an phenomenon to almost a way of life to some people. Tragedy struck when Mr. Roddenberry passed away in 1992. A year later Star Trek Deep Space Nine was introduced and very gradually through the decade Star Trek’s retreated from it’s golden age.
                            I share a belief with many others that the reason for this occurring is a change in popular culture. Those who once embraced Star Trek’s sense of hope, optimism and humanity began wanted their contemporary, but shifting interests and concerns reflected in the show. So in the two spin off series’ and movies of that time Star Trek showcased a more contemporary, cynical message. While the emphasis on sci-fi violence and conflict certainly did a lot to sell Star Trek as a franchise the show ceased to be a phenomenon and merely another successful sales bonanza. The result was a Star Trek with much surface value but little underneath.
                             
                        By the mid 90’s the vision of cultural diversity in the show gave way to the most politically correct of stereotypes- each spin off had an Asian, female and brown skinned  cast member. The episodes began focusing on operatic, serialized plots that forced one to watch week after week, offering nothing in the way of story development. Also Star Trek was beginning to have serious detractors. A slew of TV programs and much literature was being written on the science of Star Trek, again applying the shows imaginative subtext towards “real life”. Even some Star Trek fans began seeing the show they once worshiped as out of reach, as unrealistic for the future. 
                               
           However not too long ago another unusual occurrence in Star Trek occurred. Star Trek's 50 th anniversary is upon us with no new Star Trek series' on television. The most recent spin off  Enterprise didn't inspire very much attention from viewers and promoters and is the second shortest lived Star Trek series in history, outlasting the first Star Trek with a mere four season run from 2001 to 2005. So now many nay Sayers have gotten their wish- we now more or less live in a world without Star Trek. Counter to the old saying Star Trek no longer lives.
                         
             Yet now there is something stirring in the air. The internet hosts many Star Trek related fan groups, some sponsored by the shows official website and a large community on sights like my space and tribe. And this is how I discovered that there are a number of individuals who wish to see Star Trek live and thrive again. Some merely speak about their opinions on it and others are seriously committed to bring it back to television. This gave me an opportunity to use the internet to revive the Explorer and put the idea back on track again.
                            
                      It’s also important to state that if Star Trek is to move into the future successfully, it needs to keep in mind the mistakes and mishandling that led to it’s current state. Many I am sure have their own opinions what these are but here are my own ideas. First off,  any new Star Trek should have a member of the Roddenberry family involved in the production. It was them after all who helped the most in keeping the series surviving in it’s time of need. In the same spirit Star Trek worked best when made direct to syndication-time has proved again and again that under a TV network Star Trek simply fizzles out of public acclaim quickly. And is usually poorly promoted. 
                                   
                         This manifesto is about re accessing the past, about moving into the future of Star Trek while talking into account various aspects of it’s past. And most of all it is about helping find a way to bring Star Trek back to bring a message of hope and human unity to people, as well as many unique scientific ideas. It’s about using imagination to accomplish something great in reality.This is dedicated to all of those who have lived through and loved Star Trek over the years and who wish to see it continue. In this blog designed to forward the mission of my manifesto,I will be reviewing every episode of Star Trek in chronological order. The point being to emphasize not a stereotypical obsession with the show,but rather the important messages each conveys. Enjoy!