So there is a new Movie outside and most people are happy with this reboot. I also enjoyed it despite some flaws. It’s not the best Star trek ever made, but also not the worst, just good enough to be over average. More interesting than the question of the quality of this new film is why they made it. For the answer we have to look on the last two series of this great franchise, Star Trek Voyager (VOY) and Star Trek Enterprise (ENT).
These two installments are the most disputed objects among fans and it is very realistic to point out that they where a failure and a disappointment. Confronted with the dislike among fans, the two main executive creators showed two different reactions. Brannon Braga played the spoiled child and stated that not all of his work was bad. Rick Berman expressed his dislike for the “usual people” on the internet who bashed his shows, but he also admitted that VOY was produced on the pressure from the Network who wanted a Star Trek show after TNG was ended. Based on this he also reasoned, that maybe something get lost on the way to this new series.
What was lost can be summarized in the following statement: They didn’t have had their own playground.
Another point is the crappy writing, exemplified by aliens dress like Nazis, a plot device which was okay in the sixties, but is expired in today’s postmodern times. What’s up with the communists, the evil Chinese man, the terrorist Arabian? What’s up with good stories who deal with themes of extremism and dictatorship in a subtle way? When an alien dressed like Nazi I am actually waiting for a scene where it threatens a cute little bunny.
When you look at the forerunning series, everyone had its own character. The Original Series (TOS) introduced us to this universe, continuing with The Next Generation (TNG) which presented an updated version of Gene Roddenberry’s Vision and finally Deep Space Nine (DS9) the series about a Space Outpost. Every series managed it to create its own topics and issues. There are some discussions about DS9 breaking with Roddenberry’s Vision, and I have to agree with that. On the contrary I have also admit, that TOS is also not a one to one transition of his ideas. When you have seen the very first pilot of TOS named “The Cage”, who didn’t aired because he was to sophisticated, you have to admit, that the closest thing to Roddenberry’s vision was TNG, but this discussion leads us to far into Nerdland.
Star Trek Voyager didn’t had its own character neither did Star Trek Enterprise. Both are maybe the best example how to create a generic installment based on a franchise.
The premise of the former is as followed: The Starship Voyager and a crew of the resistance group The Marquis are stranded due a contrived chain of events far away from home. The voyage back to earth would take over 70 years. According to the creators The Marquis was created directly for this series. But everything I know about this organization I learned in TNG and DS9. Where it came from, why they are fighting and how this rebellion finally ended. Additionally to the minus section is the fact, that I never get the feeling that they are lost. The characters say they are lost, but when they say or complain about it, it sounds to me like my father who complains that he has to buy new beer. The feeling that there is an entire crew lost far away from home never comes to be urgent.
VOY takes everything what is known to be famous and attractive in the former series. We have a Vulcan, a half Klingon, a Woman in charge, a Native American and two newly picked up Natives of the Delta Quadron. Later a Member of the Borg will join the crew.
A maybe not so obvious problem with this exposition is, we already knew those species. Even when you are not a Trekkie who wants to marry as a Klingon, you know what the Vulcan, Klingon or Borg are, because they are among the most famous components of this universe. No matter what series you take, when a Vulcan enters the room you automatically knew Vulcan = Logic, Nervpinch etc.
Gene Roddenberry gave out following parole at the beginning of TNG: “No Vulcans”, because they were already famous and he was afraid that every new Vulcan would be compared to Spock, the first and most famous of this pointy eared people. And he was very right about this. So they came up with new species and new characters. Thus the original Trek theme “seek out new live and new civilizations” was bonded as a background to every episode, like it was Spock purpose in TOS. He was there as a message to the viewers “This is the future, where humans and aliens are working together”. Spock was the token alien. And now we have a token Vulcan, a token Klingon and later a token Borg.
When DS9 started they took different already established species like the Ferengi, Trill, Bajorans etc. who played a minor role in TNG and would have had the chance to be further developed. The Ferengi for example where originally planned to be a major adversary in TNG, but their introduction is known as one of the greatest failure in the franchise. On DS9 they had the chance to grow from hilarious little pain in the neck to a three dimensional species with an own personality, which is still hilarious by the way.
Concerning VOY the question has to be; what’s up with the Bolians, the Deltans or the Andorians? Those are all already established species without a background and they are waiting for to be explored.
We’ve got also two clear examples for the traps that are waiting when you are dealing with diversity. The most popular failure is the positive Racism which is here embodied in Chakotay, the representative of the brave and honest Native American. This man has so less character development, that he stays the entire series a poor stereotype. William T. Riker from TNG has in one scene with six sentences more development than this poor guy the entire run. It wouldn’t make any difference if he put some feathers on his head and start a rain dance on the bridge. He actually meet in one episode his ancestors on another planet and they look exactly like some brave Indian from some Karl May story. Oh, and he of course likes to tell stories from his people. Well, good that this point is brought up, because my people were once torn apart by a wall, but they managed it to put it peacefully down and this incident is since then a shining example for direct democracy in my native land.
The other example is what I like to call “Black Retarded Lesbian”. (This expression is actually taken from a song called “Even black retarded lesbians can be annoying” written and sung by the one and only Funny van Dannen).
B'Elanna Torres is the already mentioned Klingon/ Human hybrid, who had a troubled childhood. When she grew up she joined, rebellious that she is, the Marquis and when she finally came on board of the Voyager she was assigned to the post of the chief engineer, which is even in the Trek Universe mostly a male domain. Wow! We have three different focal points, for only one character in a nine person ensemble. You could maybe admit that the charm comes with the third one, but it is more likely here, that three is here one too many and that the creators should have spend a bit more attention on the poor Chakotay.
Another example for the wrong development of the characters is the Talaxian Neelix, together with his fiancé Kes the token Delta Quadrant Representative. Neelix displaced Wesley Crusher as the most hated and most annoying character in this universe. Wesley was the whiz- kid in TNG and left the series as an example that there are other things than the great Federation. Neelix is the annoying cook, who always throws his in opinion when it is not required. Concerning the Vulcans TOS managed it in three seasons to introduce us to cultural values like the Nerv- Pinch, the Pon farr, their salute, their concept of logic with its enunciator Surak and that their blood is green. Concerning the Talaxians VOY managed it in seven seasons to introduce us to a annoying cook who always throws in his opinion. You could remove this pain in the neck with his people from this series and it would make it even more endurable.
When you would remove the Klingon Worf from TNG, a lot of episodes concerning the Klingons wouldn’t take place or would lose the personal focus.
His girlfriend Kes, who was developed in the first three seasons to a much more serious character than he, was at the beginning of the fourth season replaced by a blond bombshell named Seven of Nine, the formerly mentioned Borg Drone. Jeri Ryan who portrayed this new member of the crew bluntly stated: "I knew exactly what I was in for when I had my first costume fitting. Clearly my character was added to the show for sex appeal, which remains the one way to get attention very quickly. I don't think it's the only way to get viewers to watch strong women, but it worked. "
So every female character is now a superficial strong person and after we had positive racism already on board, he can go and play with positive sexism. Kes wasn’t a weak person; she just had an openly soft side.
Continuing their experience from this series Bermann and Braga put all their knowledge together into the next installment called Star Trek: Enterprise. And what was messy became even messier. Due the successful introduction of the female Borg the crew of the new starship has right from the beginning the female Vulcan T’Paul who looks like Angelina Jolie. The difference between those two is, that Seven of Nine was much better written; she had wit, intelligence and strength. T’Paul looks like Angelina Jolie. To have an eye candy in the series is not a bad thing, Uhura was back in the sixties also a Hottie, but when we are talking about a main character this candy has to have something inside. When I want to look at hot women, I go to the internet, search for some nice pictures and enjoy them. When I watch a Star Trek, I want to have characters who explore the galaxy.
Much more worse is that the exploration theme is just a secondary plot device. The creators were obviously the opinion, that they need ad more coolness and more reality. So they contrived a storyline about a “Temporal Cold War” and frictions between the Humans and the Vulcans. This conflict is brought to us with the undertone, that the Vulcans are control freaks who want to supervise the humans on their way outer space. You can also say, that the writers bash the Vulcans, the most famous and beloved species next to the Klingons. They are bashing everybody’s darling. What a great and cheap twist.
Finally we also get a closer look on the Andorians, who have the title of fan favorites, especially in fan fiction. And what do we get? A warrior like race who are very easy to anger, because we don’t know something like that from other already established parties. Like the Klingons. It would have been an interesting take to see how the original concept of the ridged foreheads is realized, a culture with three different castes. But for something like that you need to make a show which is centered on exploration and strange new civilizations.
The latter series only lasted for four seasons; the last one was very welcomed by the fans because of numerous references to TOS. You can take those references as honorary mention or you can take it as an cheap method to get the attention of fans and audience. But this point is open for argument.
Last but not least, another important point as an explanation of those failures: The Overproduction. VOY was broadcasted concurrently with DS9 due its first five seasons. In the same time the Star Trek movies First Contact and Insurrection were released. Berman and Braga were the main responsible persons for all of those productions. Maybe this was not only too much for them but also for the fans.
Maybe Star Trek Enterprise is what its look like when this franchise is exhausted.
No comments:
Post a Comment