The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek

Loved this Star Trek 55 anniversary documentary! I am not sure how I missed this when it was first released, but I am happy I found this recently. It is a lovely summary of 55 years of Trek with new tidbits of info I never had heard before. I am so glad to add this to my Star Trek DVD collection. I like the layout starting with the beginnings and then covering each show. I hope they do something similar in the future when the 60th anniversary rolls around. There have been new shows since thiw doc was made. Specifically ST Strange New Worlds comes to mind. And I felt that Gates did a great job narrating.

I was born in the late 60s, my dad liked Star Trek TOS when I was a youngster in the 70s and so mum was ok with me watching it too. I really enjoyed the animated series at the time but quickly forgot it as when I was 11 The Motion Picture turned up. Since then there have been a succession of films and series and there's been something new in terms of Star Trek for most of my life.

Having watched now the first 5 episodes it has been wonderful to revisit the beginning, the talented and creative people and real world things that happened. Disputes, tight deadlines and plan B, C or D situations that still somehow came together to create something that has always been really special in my life and that if so many others.

It's been so interesting to see archive footage of some of the team who aren't with us anymore and also learn so many things already (only half way through) that I didn't know before.

I can't say that I'm happy with my assessment and I'm sure most others won't be as well, but the pace and editing of this first episode are so bad that I'm having trouble finishing it and may not watch the other three I've recorded.

In Philadelphia, there is the Franklin Institute, a center for science, scientific history, science demonstrations, and industrial scientific testing. It's quite a place and I've gone there since I was very young. It's been a while since I visited, but the last time I was there, drinking in the exhibits around me, I watched as schoolchildren too immature to understand what they were seeing absolutely raced from exhibit to exhibit trying to find the button to push to make the display do something. They would rush up to it, frantically hammer away at whatever initiated the demo, and hunted to see what would happen. If it moved, lit up, make a sound or whatever, they watched for five seconds. If pushing the button didn't result in an INSTANT payoff...two seconds, then on to the next exhibit. Nobody stopped to look, wonder, read, or try to understand what was happening.

I am sure that the editor of this series was one of those kids.

Hyper-fast cuts, contributors flashed on the screen for so short a time that you can see what they look like, what their name is, or what they are saying, pick any two, cut-ins of scenes from shows that might well be funny but go by so quickly that they are blips...this bears all the hallmarks of someone too young to know how to edit for an audience who is seeing the material for the first time, not someone who has been spending hours with each scene. It's an absolute mess. No attention span whatsoever. No depth of examination. No desire to discover, just to get to the next bullet point.

I'm going to boldly go back to the TV now. I think there may be 15 painful minutes left of the fist episode. There are other "history of Star Trek" films and videos that are not frenetic and juvenile that tell the same story.

Harlan Ellison; story of how unhappy he was with the rewrite of, "City on the Edge of Forever" is mentioned. I can only imagine how irate he' d be if he was around to see this mess.

The Star Trek franchise does a celebratory 11-episode documentary series on itself. As with this type of shows, one has to be weary about personal slants of its creators. Of course, Gene is long gone and nobody has to tip-toe around his drug use. Nobody is deliberately trashing the man, ok except for one guy. They do walk that line of celebrating the show while not hiding its warts. This is very much for its fans. There is some fun information. Quite frankly, I remember the Desilu logo but I didn't know about Lucy fighting for the show. I do have a question or two which the show fails to answer. That's fair enough. This has good info and has some fun.

It's obvious that the interviewees spoke at some length, but the editors appear to think that the audience has no attention span. So their responses and recollections are clipped to show clips from the various shows. Much is left on the virtual cutting room floor.

Gates McFadden is a great narrator, though.

Star Trek deserves a Ken Burns style documentary, not this.