The End of Star Trek
Several commentators have remarked on the passing of Star Trek: Enterprise and lack of any Star Trek show currently on the air. For the best commentary seek out James Lileks. Click here for the mainstream version and here for the uber-geek version.

What do you get out of Star Trek and what should the series do? Simple. I want the next Star Trek to be more like Deep Space Nine and Babylon 5. I have a very simple set of rules culled from DS9 and B5, which the Star Trek creators should adhere to:

• Create alien races with some depth. Too often, in both TOS and TNG, aliens were defined once and every one of them fit the caricature. The writers should realize that every Klingon is not a warrior and every Romulan is not a ruthless killer. B5 created fascinating alien races. The Centauri were interesting people, and they didn't all believe the exact same thing. Likewise did DS9. Not all Ferengi are money hungry and not all shapeshifters want to destroy human life.


• Don't insult my intelligence with "Treknobabble." This is perhaps the most infuriating thing about Star Trek, at least in its modern incarnations. If you have to rely on a deus ex machina ending derived from some randomly generated piece of Trekish dialogue, you have failed in the story-telling art. If the resolution of the plot consists of "reversing the polarity of the field emitter to redirect it through the deflector array" you have lost. Create you universe. Then live in it. It's okay to stretch the rules sometimes, but don't give into this temptation on a weekly basis. B5 was attacked by Earth forces. It did not get out of trouble by "generating a positron wave from the field emmiter." It prevailed in the story because many people died and it showed the spaceships crashing and burning. Realism within the space of the universe that you have created is not too much to ask for.


• Have a compelling story arc. The only series to actually achieve this was DS9. Voyager almost got there, but became mired in silly plot devices and cheesecake sequences with Jeri Ryan (not that I'm complaining about the latter). The granddaddy of compelling story arcs is B5. The story is so tightly integrated that even today when you watch an episode from the first season, you see reverberations in the fifth.


• Do not create omnipotent characters and/or technology. It worked on a limited basis in DS9 with the wormhole aliens. It also worked in a limited way with Lyta Alexander and the Vorlons in B5. It did not work with Q in TNG and Voyager. An all-powerful alien is probably completely uninterested in what goes on among mortal humans and humanoids.


• Do not use ridiculous plot devices. No holodecks. No Nazis. I for one consider a Star Trek serial to have lost it if it succumbs to a Nazi episode. DS9 got the holodeck concept to work by portraying it as a diversion. Miles O'Brien and Dr. Bashir would use it to reenact famous battles, allowing them to troop through the set in ridiculous garb. But the "holosuites" in DS9 were probably meant for something a little more kinky than the holodeck on the Enterprise D. Finally, you can't be reminded of this enough: there are no Nazis in space.


• Avoid time travel. In fairness, time travel is a staple of science fiction so you should be able to use it occasionally. Do not use it as a regular plot device. Enterprise used it as an intrinsic plot element from day one and Voyager used it numerous times. Both examples failed. But it has been successful. In the Voyage Home, the device is put to good use. It was also used to good ends in the DS9 episode sending the crew back to the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode. B5 tightly integrated a time travel arc into its main story (as a matter of fact they did it two times in the story arc, both in the first season and the third). Normally, I'd say this is a mistake, but it was so well done in this case that I think it added to the plot.

Where should Star Trek go? I say into the future. Trash the Federation. Let's see what happens one hundred years after it has fallen. The Federation created in TNG was uninteresting. If science fiction writers have created a universe centuries from now that involves space travel and contact with diverse aliens and it's boring, there is something wrong at the heart of the concept. Let's face it, utopias are boring. Making the Federation one in TNG was ultimately a mistake. Giving it some scales in DS9 made it watchable. Destroying it would make a good series.
- posted by Base10 @ 7:10 PM