I’ve never watched Star Trek.
Sorry, that’s already a lie. I had never watched a Star Trek television show. My entire experience with Star Trek is limited to the Chris Pine movies and the first six Shatner films.
I’ve always had a tickling feeling that I should be into Star Trek, that I’m somehow supposed to be. When I was younger I always fell deep into sci-fi franchises: Star Wars essentially since birth, Stargate and Hitchhiker’s Guide starting in middle school, and Doctor Who in high school and college. Star Trek never made its way into my life. That’s most likely because Star Trek was in its post-Enterprise hangover during the ages I was most susceptible.
That changes now. 2024 is the year of Trek in this house! I figured it would be fun to check in with my thoughts and expectations after each season. I started this year knocking out the first season…
… and felt like I spent most of the season waiting for the show to become Star Trek. The first half of the season was a well done if somewhat repetitive 1960s drama – somewhere between Twilight Zone and a sci-fi Misson: Impossible. The starship setting acted as a backdrop for stories involving the philosophy of perception and knowledge. Can I truly trust my own senses? How do I know I know what I know? Intriguing! And yet I wasn’t seeing was the show that would inspire a franchise with the most famously dedicated fans on the planet.
And then, suddenly, it was.
I know exactly when it happened, too. Episode 14, “Balance of Terror.” At this point, McCoy had yet to inform Jim he’s a doctor and not something else, Scotty still hasn’t given her all she’s got (will he?), and Spock has found a couple things illogical but not highly so. So my ears pricked up when I finally heard a familiar word: Romulan, of all things. The antagonists of the 2009 film! The episode deals with intergalactic treaties and threats of war, our clearest indication that there is a stable universe outside this ship after all!
From there, especially to someone who has only experienced Star Trek through cultural osmosis, he back half of the first season is a landslide of familiar phrases. Khan shows up in episode 22 “Space Seed”—I must have been aware Wrath of Khan was a followup to some original series episode, but to that film’s credit Khan’s backstory is totally unimportant to following the plot. McCoy decides in episode 25 “The Devil in the Dark” that he’s a doctor and not a… bricklayer? And Klingons! I went from waiting for the Star Trekkiness to arrive to being hit with it all at once.
Favorite Episode: This Side of Paradise
To me, you can summarize Star Trek in one scene: Kirk, left completely alone on the Enterprise, pondering what good is ambition when presented the alternative of idle contentment. (I have seen 29 episodes.) Sure, we’re here for fun space romps, but we’re also here to Think. In this episode, a plant on the planet’s surface triggers a state of blissful ease to all who encounter it. Such a mood swing from the usually high-strung crew motivate some excellent performances from the main cast and guest stars, a dose of humor, and a whole lot of Spock up to some Spocky and not-so-Spocky antics.
Least Favorite Episode: The Alternative Factor
Frankly, this one just bored me to the point that I don’t remember a whole lot about it. Couldn’t even tell you what the appropriately vague title is referring to. Weird pacing and a double dose of technobabble make this one hard to stick in the mind.
Other Thoughts
Spock continues to puzzle me a little, as I’m surprised which elements of his character are and aren’t present from the jump. In particular, he divulges his half-human ancestry matter-of-factly within the first few episodes. I expected that to be a later-season retcon, though that’s likely personal trauma from the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie. I’m still awaiting a Vulcan salute and an instruction to live long and prosper. The Vulcan abilities to force someone unconscious and read minds however are already established, the former being a particularly convenient plot device.
Two questions I had going in was “Does Star Trek have time travel, and if so how do they handle it?” The answers are “yes” and “extremely casually.” After accidentally abducting a modern-day human in Episode 19 “Tomorrow Is Yesterday,” the crew’s attempts to rectify the timeline play more comedically than dramatically. On the other hand, Episode 28 “The City on the Edge of Forever” tries the same sort of set-up but actually creates personal stakes. “What a good episode,” I thought, and then I saw Harlan Ellison’s name in the credits. Makes sense! I didn’t know he wrote one of these.
Related: It’s always fun to see how sci-fi shows find excuses to return to the modern day, or at least to settings that resemble modern day. Outer space is tough on the budget!
Finally, I think I’m realizing that when I decided I finally wanted to watch Star Trek, what I actually wanted to watch was Star Trek: The Next Generation. All in time. I have about 60 more ’60s episodes to go. And maybe an animated series too?
