Lower Decks

Considering that this was the first year in a very long that people really felt okay respecting Star Trek, I wouldn’t want to end it talking about anything else. I’ve already talked it quite a lot this year, whether in anticipation of the new film, reacting to it, trying to give my idea of primer material, or celebrating the tenth anniversary of my personal favorite series’ conclusion, I’ve been all over the map, but I have yet to properly address the Star Trek that made me a fan, what was at one time considered its own risky little revamp attempt, ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation.’

Launched more than twenty years ago, ‘Next Generation’ was the first time fans got a look at a new cast since the second pilot of the original series (or at least, when they finally got around seeing the first pilot). That was an experience for older fans, though. In 1987, I was just turning seven, and at such an impressionable age, I already had memories of watching the original series in afternoon syndication, a show my mother confessed to having been a fan of in her own youth. We watched it as a family before we really knew what we were doing, when, yes, we were already formulating our collective obsession with Star Wars. Since ‘Star Trek’ couldn’t stay in syndication forever, our interest in it eventually waned, but ready to take over was this new show, which seemed like a completely different experience. When I first saw it, I wonder just how much I was aware that this was also Star Trek, just like the one with Captain Kirk. Still, my earliest memories were of the little, original action figures, of the visor Geordi wore (having at that time still been a recent convert to the glasses community, it wasn’t heard to, erm, see my interest in that character) and the other one, who vaguely appeared to have a rigged forehead, not to mention the novelization of the pilot I was able to find on a classroom bookshelf. It looked like the most exotic thing in the world, a simple black cover concealing things I thought I was familiar with. I never read it, only pulled it out from time to time and admired it.

Soon, however, it became another ritual, like watching the original show had been. I especially remember watching “Conspiracy” for the first time, the first season episode where there’s the parasites trying to take over Starfleet, and Remmick, the man whose torso graphically explodes (just the other day, I saw the episode “Coming of Age,” which introduces Remmick, because it’s suddenly good to have Star Trek in syndication again). By 1994, I was among the many who were sad to see ‘Next Generation’ come to an end. I made it an obsession to track down the comics adaptation of “All Good Things…” before realizing I was cutting it short to watching the real thing!

Who wouldn’t come to admire Captain Picard, the noble counterpart to his dashing predecessor, Kirk? Countless times, a more impulsive past had been hinted at, and even revisited. It was as if this new iteration was saying, yes Star Trek has a future, and even Kirk can mellow out in the end. But Patrick Stewart was no William Shatner. It’s perhaps no longer treason to suggest Stewart, at least, was the better actor. Unlike Shatner, who struggled for ten years before the movies revived his career (which still flourishes), Hollywood seemed to immediately grasp Patrick’s potential. Whether in TV movies, hilarious cameos in film, or being drafted to headline another franchise, he was always respected, and it didn’t hurt that he always engaged himself on the stage as well. With Picard and Stewart leading the way, the ‘Next Generation’ cast was always primed to earn respect.

Where the original series relied almost exclusively on Shatner, with Leonard Nimoy’s iconic Spock and DeForest Kelley’s sardonic leading a memorable supporting cast, ‘Next Generation’ was always an ensemble, which didn’t always keep the same shape. Tasha Yar and Beverly Crusher didn’t make it past the first year. Denise Crosby was unhappy with the quality of Yar’s work (even though her exit in “Skin of Evil” was one of that first season’s most memorable episodes, and she remained an iconic element frequently revisited), and Gates McFadden was replaced for the second year, only to return for the third. The rest of the cast, however, remained firmly in place throughout the run, and their progress became a signature of the new Star Trek era. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) gradually from the bridge staff to chief engineer, Worf (Michael Dorn) inherited the role of security chief, Riker (Jonathan Frakes) grew a beard, Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton) eventually left his boy wonder role and joined Starfleet, Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) took on increasing prominence and Data, well…

If there was ever going to be another Spock, Data was it, the observer caught precariously between worlds, a reverse Spock, really, an individual looking to expand his experience of humanity, rather than limit it. Brent Spiner was given a far less enviable task than Nimoy with his pointed ears, being covered in gold make-up everyday (in contrast, Dorn “only” had to have a large forehead applied) and forced to eliminate virtually every identifiable human element from his performance. If Nimoy had to act without emotion, Spiner had to convey his character to an audience he was meant to be totally alien to, and yet remain vaguely identifiable.

Still, Data was the new Spock, which was difficult to accomplish. The writers went out of their way to express the nature of this android character, to make him as different from Spock as Picard was to Kirk. Did it ever succeed? Creatively, sure. But with the fans? Even as wildly successful as ‘Next Generation’ got, its ultimate legacy rested more with Data than it ever did with Picard. Did Data become an icon?

Well, maybe that doesn’t matter anymore. With an entirely new incarnation of Star Trek around these days, things are looking up again for fans of ‘Next Generation.’ With the same murk of material around to remind them of what the franchise used to be, it’s easier to simplify what Star Trek was into the original Kirk and his original successor, Picard, who adventures left plenty of milestones themselves, not the least being “The Best of Both Worlds” and the early encounters with the Borg, but perhaps most memorably. It’s still a great time to be a fan of this Star Trek.

In the next several weeks, I’ll be talking about the previous ten films, and something known as ‘The Animated Series,’ and in 2010, I’ll finally be getting around to ‘Voyager’…