Star Trek: La serie original

This show changed the way we looked at science fiction forever. Before there was The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the prequel Enterprise. There was Captain James T. Kirk and crew on the Starship Enterprise. Exploring new worlds and new life. Traveling through time and space. Leonard Nimoy is great has Mr. Spock, the half human/half alien science officer and second in command. Deforest Kelly is also great Has Dr. Leonard Bones Mccoy, our favorite whiney Doctor, who came out with favorite sayings like "He's dead Jim" and "I'm a Doctor not a brick layer". The special effects may have seemed hoaky at times. But the show was still great in it's day. Gene Roddenberry was a genuis when he created this show. The show was well acted by everyone . So Star Trek fans live long and prosper.

This show made all of it's principles into cause celebrities & in fact did the same for it's producers & almost everyone involved with it. This was one of the last series produced by Desilu studios it's first season. Then Desilu was sold to Paramont in order for Lucy & Ricky to separate their business interests after the divorce. Oh, but what a way to end their partnership.

This original series & it's films & syndicated sequels have produced more money for Paramont than any other franchise. William Shatner became so famous for his role in this, that he went to to advertise Promise Margerine, do TJ HOOKER (a Cop series) in the 1970's for ABC. Then he kept working on other stuff until now he has managed to become a TV regular again on Boston Legal.

Lenoard Nimoy(Spock) went on to do several other projects including hosting the syndicated series "In Search of". All the others came back for the movies as well. The big thing that made this series so popular was the plot lines which especially in the first seasons were so imaginative. These were from creator Gene Roddenbury who had learned his craft in the unusual Western series hit Have Gun, Will travel.

Roddenbury made morality a major strength in plotting these original episodes. He tapped some talented science fiction writers as well for ideas. This was really his wagon train to the stars. This original series has a couple of fine veteran Western folks behind the camera with Gene L. Coons & Fred Friedberger who worked on action series like The Wild Wild West. The resemblance of Kirks fight scenes in Star Trek to the Wild Wild West are no coincidence.

Towards the end, as NBC kept cutting the budget, the show suffered too, but by then, NBC still had not realized what they had & killed off the series. Thank goodness for re-runs, then video & now DVDs to keep this original going. The guest list for this series was small, but it had some excellent guest stars including William Windom, Roger C. Carmel, Michael Dunn (Dr Lovelass on Wild Wild West), Ricardo Montoban, & others (Most did guest shots on West too). It is one of the rare Science Fiction series to combine serious themes & comedy successfully & really be inventive. After all, to me it seems like these guys invented the cell phone style of communication in the 1960's. European Scientists are still experimenting to see if beaming people up can be done. What a legacy this series has left all of us.

This has to be one of the greatest series in history. I really enjoy watching a lot of the episodes especially those from the second and third seasons when Chekov was on and the supporting cast really became complete. I especially loved the episodes that dealt with what happens when someone upsets the natural course that a planet goes on (eg. "A Piece of the Action"). In the case of those episodes, usually someone wants to help a planet achieve its destiny at a faster rate or leaves a form of literature or technology behind leading to disastrous results as was the case with the Ekosians who followed the Nazi model or the world that used the model of 1920's Chicago to base their societies on. This pretty much is a moral for any world including our own and how we should leave not only people follow their own path but let nature take it's own path.

In our household we are all Trekkies, so the ongoing adventures of the Federation Star Ship Enterprise constantly enthrall us. My husband will stubbornly watch only TOS, while my teenage son feels nostalgic about TOS, but secretly prefers Voyager. As for myself, while I find some of the Next Generation plots compelling and enjoy the dangerous drama of Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant, there's nothing quite like the characters from TOS. The series has an innocence about it unmatched in the later ones. My compliments to the late Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator.

Captain James T. Kirk is the audacious, impulsive, and womanizing Enterprise commander. In almost every episode he has some gorgeous new love interest, seldom exhibiting much restraint! Kirk frequently engages in physical hand to hand combat with his opponents, torn shirt & sweat being common. Yet he does manage to come up with some bold and brilliant moves such as his legendary ruse, the Corbomite Manouever. Perhaps his primary task is serving as referee between the constantly sparring First Officer Spock and ship's doctor, Bones McCoy.

The heart of the series is Mr. Spock, the half Vulcan First Officer and ship's Science Officer. Actually however, Spock would maintain that he is the HEAD of the series, since he prides himself on his unfailing logic and lack of emotion. The inner conflict between his logic driven paternal Vulcan half and his emotional maternal human half form an ongoing theme. Spock possesses two useful Vulcan abilities, the neck pinch and the mind meld. The most engaging character interaction is between the logic motivated Spock versus the highly emotional ship's physician, Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy, who is basically a country doctor in space, a humanitarian leery of all this newfangled gadgetry. McCoy is famous in the Trek world for his expression, 'I'm a doctor, not a ----' (many phrases have been used here).

Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott is a hot tempered Scotsman with a fondness for his native country's whiskey. Scotty constantly bemoans that he 'cannae change the laws of physics' all the while working assorted engineering miracles with the warp core and anti matter this or that. As for Communications Officer Uhura, she is most notable for her regular phrase, 'Hailing frequencies open, Sir.'

To be sure, some of the episodes have less than brilliant plots, notably Spock's Brain, though the character interactions always compensate for any inadequacies. However, some ideas were masterful, including The Enterprise Incident, The Menagerie, and City on the Edge of Forever. The series took on issues of overpopulation (The Mark of Gideon), social class disparity (The Cloud Minders, with its clever cloud city, Stratos), and racism (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield), which involves laughable hatred between two races, one black on the left side & white on the right, the other race vice versa. I personally enjoyed The Naked Time (Nurse Chappel admits her love for Spock), A Taste of Armageddon (computer war), This Side of Paradise (Spock frolics), and Is There in Truth No Beauty? (the Medusan ambassador's incredible ugliness causes madness in the hapless onlooker). However, my absolute favourite is unquestionably the absurd Amok Time, with Spock's ridiculous pon farr mating strife.

The Enterprise crew consists of a racially diverse group, with its black Communications Officer Uhura and Oriental helmsman Sulu. The ship's navigator, Chekov, is Russian...quite a revolutionary idea for that Cold War era. The cast are perfect in their roles, including William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), and all the others. Special tribute to the late Deforest Kelly (McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty), who are sadly missed.

This is the series that gave us such technologies as the transporter, tricorder, and cloaking device...high tech weaponry including phasers and photon torpedoes...futuristic games like three dimensional chess...miracle drugs such as cordrazine...and gourmet delicacies like Saurian brandy & Romulan ale. Some of the gadgetry gave a sneak preview of such later real life technology as computer floppy discs.

In addition to the highly logical Vulcans, Star Trek gave us glimpses of such alien species as the honour driven Klingons and the sneaky Romulans (the Federation's two primary enemies), also the xenophobic Tholians, the reptilian Gorn, and many others. It treated us to the endearing rock like, silicon based Horta and the cute & fuzzy but all too prolific Tribbles (which caused no end of Trouble). And it acquainted us with such planets as Sarpeidon, Eminiar & Vendikar.

In the episode Metamorphosis, we were all introduced to the heroic Zephram Cochrane who invented the warp drive way back in 2063. In constant demand is the dilithium vital to the warp engine's functioning. Star Trek also acquainted us with the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet & Starfleet Academy, and the Federation's much vaunted strict rule called the Prime Directive, which is frequently mentioned but universally ignored!

Star Trek is simply an incredibly fun and entertaining science fiction series, though it was hardly appreciated back in the 1960's when it originally aired. Fortunately, it lives on today in re runs, giving Trekkies the ongoing excitement of regularly 'boldly going where no man has gone before'. Live long and prosper, everyone!

I have loved Star Trek since I first watched it as a child. However, the series which followed - Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Enterprise - although generally still entertaining, seem to me to have left out the element which made the original series so special. Namely, the interaction between the characters, particularly Spock, Jim, and Bones.

So well written, and generally well acted.

With Bones (Dr Leonard H McCoy) being the opposite to Spock in terms of personality, so that the two of them always found something to argue about. Jim (Captain James T Kirk) in the middle, as a referee, displaying faults and strengths taken from both extremes. Extremes in the sense of McCoy being a very caring, compassionate, yet also highly emotional character. Representative of humanity, perhaps. Spock, the dry, cold, logical, emotionless Vulcan. Jim "a man of deep feelings", as Spock once said, yet also no stranger to thorough analysis of whatever situation the crew found themselves in. Bones seeking always to heal, to return everybody he met (whether friend or foe, human or otherwise) to as close to perfect health as possible. Frustrated by the fact that he (Bones) could not fully understand, for example, Spock's Vulcan anatomy. All three of them the closest friends. All three displaying unwavering loyalty toward each other - even though Spock would have found the suggestion of his displaying such a human quality to be insulting.

The dynamics involved, the interaction, led to brilliant moments of humour. A science fiction programme to be not only enjoyed for the imaginative stories and the themes, but also for the humour, for the humanity.

Which is not to suggest that the other characters were in any way second rate. Scotty's loyalty and his supreme confidence in his engineering abilities, Chekov's almost adolescent playfulness and humour, Sulu's loyalty, honour, and physical prowess, Uhura's dedication to duty and femininity in a masculine world, all added important and welcome elements to what I still consider to be the best science fiction television series ever.

The special effects were often laughable, the sets cheap and often reused, but the humanity, the character interaction, the stories, imagination, the brilliant writing... all added up to something very special indeed.