The postmodern destruction of Star Trek
The 4 phases of Star Trek show us how it has been slowly destroyed
For most of the 1970s and 80s, because Star Trek was the most re-run tv show in the world (and with a little help from TJ Hooker), at any hour of day or night, at least 1 million people were watching William Shatner on a screen.*
Star Trek is among the most popular stories ever told, and perhaps the most popular story (alongside namesake Star Wars) of the modern era. Which makes sense. With its warp drives, teleporters, starships and phaser pistols, Star Trek was the peak of modernity.
But then Star Trek…changed.
To understand that change we can chart the progress of Star Trek through 4 phases
Phase 1 : The Original Series (1966–69)
Original Star Trek. With emphasis on “original”. Trek was always a weird story of characters in primary coloured uniforms warp driving between planets that were obviously located in Los Angeles county. But it was 100% original.
Phase 2 : The Next Generation (1979–2001)
From The Motion Picture to Enterprise. Over twenty years that included Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and a brace of Original & Next Gen movies. In this period Star Trek found a solid identity. This is the Trek most know and love.
Phase 3 : The Kelvinverse (2009 —2016 )
The JJ Abrams reboot Trek. Which is, deliberately, not Trek as we know it. Instead of advancing Trek, JJ Abrams performs his now standard trick of feeding on the past of a major franchise. But the decision to “reboot” tells us something important about the changes Star Trek was going through.
Phase 4 : The age of DISCO (2017 — )
Discovery is an aggressive deconstruction of the Star Trek mythos. The values of modernity Trek once championed come under attack. Bold adventurers are replaced with uncertain souls filled with Millennial angst. An optimistic utopian future becomes a bleak new reality.
Picard replaces the great stoic philosopher king who guided the Enterprise through seven seasons and multiple Borg encounters, with an emotionally driven old man hung up on old traumas.
And Strange New Worlds…we’ll get to that.
So what changed?
Regardless whether we like, love or loathe a given phase, there’s a notable trend through the development of Star Trek.
Each new phase becomes more dependent on, and self-referential to, what came before.
That self-referentiality, the trend to reboot and deconstruct, are all key characteristics of the era of postmodernity…
…that is eating Star Trek alive.
Watch the full video essay on the Science Fiction channel
*this factoid was reported in a Shatner related news article on BBC in the late 1980s. I consider it unverifiable but credible.
