Star Trek is one of the true zeitgeists of TV history, a show that is about as unlikely to be popular as imaginable, but it caught on to the audience eventually, and today, half a dozen more series (not counting the *animated* Star Trek TOS), ten or so movies, and a mind-boggling number of Trekkie conventions, have come out of its wake. To be honest, I'm not a usual "Trekkie"- I'd probably turn down an offer to go check out a convention, or pose questions about episode 2.5 and what cre # 5 wore on the planet next to blah-blah. But even when the show gets corny- and it gets corny and cheesy and reveling-low-budget often- it attempts to surpasses things that make it melodrama into the realm of smart science fiction. It's rousing action and daring-dos, and it also probes in questioning form here and there the nature of the universe, of man in conquest, dominance, subversion, submission, mind-melds, monsters, Platonians, ships-that-are-she's, evil goatees, and so on and so forth.
I know, I sound like I'm not taking the show seriously. But as a piece of pop entertainment it can be as absorbing as anything that was produced in the period or since. Through the cheap sets and the very "plastic" special effects, and even through William Shatner, who can ham-bone at times like it's some kind of manic art-form (just watch the last episode of the series- before it was canceled- as Kirk's soul is taken over by a jealous ex-lover in hysterics, or the "ship-called-she" episode), it has good storytelling, and strong ideas expressed from time to time. One can't admire the episode when McCoy goes nuts and gets transported back to depression era America, and the hand of fate falls down hard on Kirk and Spock. Or the much heralded classic first featuring Ricardo Montebaum, who has just as much sneaky charisma as in the movie (minus the fake chest). Or when Sulu suddenly went all Errol Flynn in a manic state. Or even... well, this could go on a while. Suffice to say Roddenberry had it right: get some good writers, make things always punchy with dialog and situations of peril and the most asinine moments become enthralling TV.
And, in a strange way, the original series carries a pathos with it, a charming quality with the stories and the characters, as well as some creative uses of mind control and the misuses of power, by the enemy or those on the Enterprise, that might be a little absent in the other series. While the acting quota might have been higher with Picard and the others, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and all the others allow their stars to fill their shoes proudly, with many scenes that end up surprising those that expect the same shtick every episode (Nimoy crying, or singing, is enough to give belly laughs for about a week). In retrospect, it might be difficult to differentiate how much of the show works as legitimate science fiction theater and how much of it is fun cause of the 'so-bad-it's-good' quality that has it just a notch above most MST3K movies. But Roddenberry and the Star Trek crew straddle that line wonderfully, allowing moments of guilty pleasure and real delight in a series that worked, in its 78/79-ish episode run, consistently. It's the kind of show that you may start watching on TV a few minutes after it starts, and it sucks you in, as if in some Vulcan mind-meld.
I know, I sound like I'm not taking the show seriously. But as a piece of pop entertainment it can be as absorbing as anything that was produced in the period or since. Through the cheap sets and the very "plastic" special effects, and even through William Shatner, who can ham-bone at times like it's some kind of manic art-form (just watch the last episode of the series- before it was canceled- as Kirk's soul is taken over by a jealous ex-lover in hysterics, or the "ship-called-she" episode), it has good storytelling, and strong ideas expressed from time to time. One can't admire the episode when McCoy goes nuts and gets transported back to depression era America, and the hand of fate falls down hard on Kirk and Spock. Or the much heralded classic first featuring Ricardo Montebaum, who has just as much sneaky charisma as in the movie (minus the fake chest). Or when Sulu suddenly went all Errol Flynn in a manic state. Or even... well, this could go on a while. Suffice to say Roddenberry had it right: get some good writers, make things always punchy with dialog and situations of peril and the most asinine moments become enthralling TV.
And, in a strange way, the original series carries a pathos with it, a charming quality with the stories and the characters, as well as some creative uses of mind control and the misuses of power, by the enemy or those on the Enterprise, that might be a little absent in the other series. While the acting quota might have been higher with Picard and the others, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and all the others allow their stars to fill their shoes proudly, with many scenes that end up surprising those that expect the same shtick every episode (Nimoy crying, or singing, is enough to give belly laughs for about a week). In retrospect, it might be difficult to differentiate how much of the show works as legitimate science fiction theater and how much of it is fun cause of the 'so-bad-it's-good' quality that has it just a notch above most MST3K movies. But Roddenberry and the Star Trek crew straddle that line wonderfully, allowing moments of guilty pleasure and real delight in a series that worked, in its 78/79-ish episode run, consistently. It's the kind of show that you may start watching on TV a few minutes after it starts, and it sucks you in, as if in some Vulcan mind-meld.