A Brief Guide to Star Trek

dooming him to die during the fight (a necessary event, so Scotty can take over). A tribble even turns up, purring contentedly in Scotty’s workshop. And there’s some love for Porthos, Captain Archer’s dog in
Enterprise
, when Scotty references ‘Admiral Archer’s beagle’ as an unfortunate victim of a transporter prank. By the film’s finale, Pike isconfined to a wheelchair; however, it is not as high-tech (nor is he as disfigured) as his counterpart in the two-part
The Original Series
episode ‘The Menagerie’. Most of these references would have been unnoticed by the majority of casual viewers – many of whom were content with the big character moments reinforcing the idea that this Kirk, Spock and McCoy were the same as those they recalled. That audience was happy just to hear the well-worn catchphrases and character comments, such as Scotty’s ‘I’m giving it all she’s got’, McCoy’s ‘I’m a doctor, not a physicist’ and his ‘Are you out of your Vulcan mind?’ However, for fans of the series, these little in-jokes and throwaway moments showed a reverence (and knowledge) of the long-running
Star Trek
franchise on the part of those who’d made the 2009 movie.
    ‘The themes that got me excited honestly had less to do with
Star Trek
and space and more to do with optimism and humanity, of finding your purpose through unity’, said Abrams of his first
Star Trek
film. ‘It ends up being a guiding principle of the movie – it needed to be faithful to the optimism that Gene Roddenberry wrote with during a time of fear and hate and suspicion. He was writing of our future where we were not just surviving it, but by cooperating and collaborating, we actually thrived. That to me is, more than ever, a relevant idea.’
    Given the huge box office numbers of
Star Trek
, a follow-up film was inevitable. All the major cast members were already signed up for at least two sequels, but given the triumphant reinvention of the whole
Star Trek
franchise, it is possible there may be many more. The second movie was scripted during 2010–11, with shooting following towards the end of 2011. Release was set for the summer of 2012. This
Star Trek
was set to go on for a while . . .

    Former
Deep Space Nine
and
Voyager
writer Bryan Fuller had publicly talked about his desire to bring
Star Trek
back to television since at least 2008. Fuller followed his
Star Trek
experiences with his own series –
Dead Like Me
and
PushingDaisies
, and a role as consulting producer on
Heroes
– but felt that
Star Trek
belonged on television, even with the J. J. Abrams film then entering production. ‘I would love to return to the spirit of the old series’, Fuller told
iF Magazine
. ‘[The later series] seem to have lost the 1960s fun and I would love to take it back to its origin.’
    Of course, that’s exactly the approach taken by Abrams with his movie, although Fuller wanted to feature
Men in Black II
and
Sin City
actress (and well-known Trekkie) Rosario Dawson as a lead in his proposed TV show. Even if he might not be the one to do it, Fuller remained convinced that
Star Trek
would eventually return once more to its natural home on television. ‘I think after the second [ J. J. Abrams]
Star Trek
movie comes out, they will start to have serious conversations again about a TV show. I think
Star Trek
always has a home on television. It is the defining piece of science fiction for the United States, [as]
Doctor Who
is for the UK. It’s all about the vision of the storyteller.’

Chapter 14

Legacy: Can
Star Trek

Live Long and Prosper?

‘
Why does
Star Trek
continue to survive, to touch people, to intrigue? One of the major reasons is that
Trek
is a meritocracy. It doesn’t matter who or what you are, your colour or race. None of that matters
.’ Leonard Nimoy

    Star Trek
has been a pop cultural phenomenon for over forty-five years, given new life by the huge success of the 2009 movie. That reinvention – and its sequels – succeeded where the later television series had failed, by returning to
Star Trek
’s iconic characters and thrilling storytelling.
    Although the original show finished in 1969, the continual airing of episodes in syndication and the reappearance of the original cast in movies meant that the first incarnation of
Star Trek
was ever present. The new ensemble cast of characters of
The Next Generation
had to establish themselves alongside the originals for much of the time. It was only the later