Friday, September 08, 2006

Tim Cavanuagh: Why Captain Kirk’s story is the story of America

(Deep Space Nine is easily the best Star Trek series--the one I cannot stand was the last one, a prequel that fed off the conservative impulse of Post 9/11 culture.)

Happy 40th Birthday, Star Trek: Why Captain Kirk’s story is the story of America
Tim Cavanaugh
Reason

As an American story, Star Trek is not just about resurrection but about production, and there’s been plenty of that: Fan books such as Dave Marinaccio’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned From Watching Star Trek, a tome that more than lives up to the promise of its title. Fan films like the Star Trek: New Voyages series (freely watchable at newvoyages.com, and executed with an astonishing degree of commitment and creativity). Fan fiction in which Captain Kirk, a man whose robustly heterosexual libido made satisfied customers out of white, black, brown, and green women, finds his true soul mate in Mr. Spock.

And that’s just the unofficial stuff. Paramount declines to say how much money Star Trek has made for it over the years. A 1999 Salon article estimated that the Star Trek franchise had earned $2.3 billion in TV revenues, more than $1 billion in movie box office, and $4 billion in merchandise sales; there have been more series, movies, and merchandise since then. But any dollar amount is dwarfed by the overall content amount the franchise has produced.

On the big screen, there have been 10 movies so far. Paramount and J. J. Abrams, the creator of the hit TV shows Lost and Alias, have announced development of Star Trek XI, though seasoned Trek numerologists are wary of the movie’s place in the series. (Just as you should stick with the odd-numbered Beethoven symphonies, you’ll have better luck with the even-numbered Star Trek films.)

On the small screen, in addition to the cartoon (now remembered mainly for bringing Lucien the goat-man into many an already troubled childhood in the ’70s), there have been four live-action spin-off series. Star Trek: The Next Generation featured Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard and the only post-Kirk crew member this viewer can fully endorse, Data, the coolly curious and helpful android played by Brent Spiner. Deep Space Nine, a darker, more pessimistic show, moved the action to a space station and explored the ugly, sausage-making dynamics of maintaining the Federation on a daily basis.

Voyager featured Kate Mulgrew as the franchise’s first woman commander as well as a sexy but unapproachable “Borg” character played by Jeri Ryan, the actress who later gained fame in her divorce from sex-club-addicted Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan. (Scientists may never be able to calculate the number of teenage geeks whose adolescences were soothed by the women of Star Trek.) Enterprise was a prequel cleverly set on an earlier, ramshackle version of the flagship. For many viewers (including this one), Captain Kirk’s is the one true Trek, but it should be noted that each of the spin-off series ran through many more episodes than the original show’s 79 and won many more Emmy awards than the original’s zero.

None of this stuff—the successful TV series, the big-screen Trektaculars, the video games and action figures and merchandise—would have happened if the decisions had been left to the actual owners of the brand. The value of Star Trek remained hidden by some Romulan cloaking device until the Trekkies, doggedly gathering at fan conventions and bombarding Paramount with letters throughout the ’70s, demonstrated the franchise’s potential. The commitment of those fans (along with the unprecedented success of George Lucas’ Star Wars, which may yet turn out to be merely an epiphenomenon of Star Trek) eventually persuaded Paramount to bring Trek to movie theaters in 1979. With a less rabid fan base, Wise’s disappointing film would have been the end of the franchise, but the Trekkies hung on, demanding more movies, more television series, more Star Trek crap than there were tribbles on the Enterprise. For in the resurrection story of Star Trek, the fans are the Holy Spirit.

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