Best Star Trek?

This website is about Important Things. About Discussions That Matter. About the Debates That Move People. If persistence of a discussion is any marker of its broader significance then, my friends, there is little more important than a considered analysis of Which Star Trek Is Best (and which Captain, and which villain, and so forth). Because I am all about the Big Issues, I am here to explain it all for you. Short answer at the end; you have to wade through the Weighty Analysis to get there.

Star Trek. The original has many positive attributes. Some are unique to it. First off, Star Trek has no colons in its name. That is key. As anyone who reads law review articles knows (all seven of you in America), colons are common in titles, especially when the author can't say succinctly what's going on in their work. Second of all, Star Trek started the franchise, obviously, which is closely related to the crucial lack of a colon title.

The original series did many things well. With scripts penned by many leading science fiction writers of the day, it explored social issues by allegory, especially issues of race relations and war, and also of cultural relativism, issues at the heart of social unrest in the late sixties. The characters were well-drawn and likable including the immortal (well, until they killed him off in Wrath of Khan) Mr. Spock. Spock (including his byplay with Kirk and McCoy) was the first if not the best exploration in the ST universe of the tension between logos and passion in the human spirit. Of course, there was James Tiberius Kirk (totally unrealistic: he's from Iowa City and nobody from Iowa would ever use the name of an ancient warlord, that's a strike against him), one of the most compelling heroes in science fiction, parts fighty and cerebral, a kind of futuristic Western hero. Who can forget the episode where he fought like a gladiator with huge Q-Tips!

The series struck a blow for diversity by daring to suggest that in an interplanetary future, there might be people other than English-speaking North American white men controlling everything. Concededly, they were more bit players: helmsmen (George Takei's Officer Sulu) and communications officers (Nichelle Nichols' Lieutenant Uhura -- and is she allowed to wear something below the hip?), but the show sent its own message about reconciliation by having a Russian officer at the height of the Cold War (Walter Koenig's Mr. Chekhov, a message borne out years later by the Soyuz hookup). To me the show was swashbuckling, a little silly, a fun adventure, and food for thought for a young guy growing up watching it. But the special effects could be cheesy, Kirk was a little too fighty, the plots sometimes a little too pat, and short on dialogue. With props for starting it all, but demerits for cheese, I rate ST a B+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation. After the hyphen (yeah, the title is poor), it's mostly uphill. Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard (why does a French guy have a British accent? Is this a result of centuries of the European Union and the use of the Euro?). Picard is historically-minded, more cerebral than Kirk, and is the focus of the series, with separate and interesting rapports with Lt. Worf, Commander Data, and his First Officer Riker, mentoring each of them. Picard is a just a great character. The quality of the plotting and writing is generally better than in ST, which adds to the depth and color of Picard's character; conflicts are more subtle and more intricately plotted, with less swashbuckling.

Among the other major characters, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) is my favorite supporting character; to me he perfects the tension between rationality and emotion. Data's theme of aspiring to be human in eveything that means finds another voice in the Federation's fight with the supervillain, the assimilationist, totalitarian Borg cubeworld. This is another "best" within ST: TNG -- best villain. The Borg are so powerful, so ominous, so alien, so quintessentially evil. The Romulans are also much more nuanced and interesting in this go-round. Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) brings Klingon to the bridge, and stays in character while stepping through family and romantic issues. (Left unresolved is why the Klingon forehead ridge became so much more pronounced from ST to ST: TNG.) The byplay between Lavar Burton's Geordi LaForge and Data is excellent, as is Whoopi Goldberg's Guinan.

There are modest weaknesses in ST: TNG. To paraphrase the President, Will Riker is likeable enough, but not Spock-worthy as a sidekick; he is no candidate for best First Officer. And unlike ST, where Uhura was a bridge officer relegated to a go-go outfit, the women in ST: TNG can be responsible -- Dr. Beverly Crusher, for example -- but that doesn't make her character any more compelling than Riker's. Tasha Yar, working in security, was so interesting she was brought back by fan request from a death in season one. And judging from the casting, the TNG future is largely African-American, but not really Hispanic. For its many good points, I give ST: TNG an A.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine should be called Star Trek: The Stationary Years. How anyone thought that the Star Trek franchise would be improved by siting an entire series in a space station that sits in one place is beyond me. How adventurous. Not. The station's commander, Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) has depth and is played well, and has a son who managed for me to be interesting without being cloying or cutesy. Shapeshifter security officer Odo (veteran character actor Rene Auberjonois) is great too. But come on! What can Sisko do with a space station stuck in one place? I can hear Chris Rock's SNL character in the back of my mind: "They finally give a brother a command in Star Trek -- but The Man won't give him warp drive!" So true, Chris, even if you never said it.

Aside from the whole stationary thing, I have a big problem with suddenly being asked to focus on the byplay among alien species that just never happened to appear significantly either in ST or TNG, the Bajorans and the Cardassians. And I care about their issues, because, um, why? Oh wait, I don't. There are positives within the characters: Dr. Bashir is witty and erudite, First Officer Kira Nerys is Riker-like in her adequacy. All in all, I never understood why this was my brother's favorite ST. I rate it C+, and that's being polite.

Star Trek: Voyager. The hidden gem: the multiyear story of one Federation ship sent to the furthest reaches of the ST galaxy, fighting over several seasons to return to the Federation and its capital of sorts, Earth. (Yes, they get there.) I am the only person I know who liked this show a ton. Voyager had a strength unique among the ST franchise -- a plot arc across years. The ship's travels continually took it through new systems, encountering different alien species and novel situations. It admirably fused DS9's facility with new aliens and novel situations with original Star Trek's shoot-em-up spirit of adventure.

The core question of each Star Trek is the quality of the lead. Voyager's, Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), was the first woman ST lead, and in my view a great one. She's kind of a woman Picard. A crusty overlay, tough, clever, and wryly funny in some of the same ways Picard is, Janeway was a tenacious, likeable heroine. Others were not so enamored of Janeway, especially not the 18-34 male demographic so central to the ST franchise. She had excellent support in the form of Robert Picardo's fussy holographic Doctor, and Robert Beltran's thoughtful Chakotay (again, ST seems to have a future that's almost all races and peoples, including with Chakotay Native American, just not Hispanic, I don't get it).

The characters are almost all quirky: a fussbudget holographic Doctor, vulcan uberpowerful elflike psionic Kes, her boyfriend, the meek ship's cook Neelix, iconoclastic Tom Paris. But all pale beside the remedy for the aforementioned disinterest of young men: Jeri Ryan's eye-candy Borg woman, Seven of Nine. Her visual impact is such that some missed that she artfully played out the now familiar Spock/Data theme of striving to be human, and what it is to be human; the Janeway/Seven of Nine byplay is for me up there with Kirk and Spock, but that's just me. I give ST: Voyager an A-.

Star Trek: Enterprise. Do I have to say anything about a thud-and-blunder prequel where Scott freakin' Bakula is the Captain? No, I don't. F. On to our conclusion:

In summary: Best Star Trek is The Next Generation. Best Captain for me is a tie, Picard and Janeway. Best First Officer is Spock by a mile. Best villain? Easily the Borg. Best theme: Original Star Trek. Cronkite voice says: And that's the way it is.

http://dagblog.com/arts-entertainment/best-star-trek-827