Star Trek is back!

[daffy]

Erin Gray (Wilma Deering) also appeared in Star Trek.  Well, at least in an episode of the webseries Star Trek Continues (2013 > )

http://www.startrekcontinues.com/gray.html

[NeMo]

Sorry Nemo I didn't mean to upset, I totally agree with you about the future and indeed our Children and Grandchildren and their Children need to be able to live where there is no wars and hostilities, but even in StarTrek there is conflicts between Klingons and Romulians. So it will never be perfect I am afraid.

Not upset at all! Welcome any opportunity for open discussion. Merely wanted to clarify that the show isn't about finely performed drama. In fact most episodes are pretty dumb when you think about it, but what they are, to me, are modern versions of medieval morality plays -- the point isn't what happens, but the lesson they teach us about the human condition. How do we make difficult decisions? Such as how do to choose between the needs of the many (innocents we don't even know) and the few (who happen to be our friends)?

Quite right about the wars with Klingons, et al (though don't forget rather beautifully very early on in the show it's prophesied that humans and Klingons will be firm friends, despite the rocky road ahead of them). 'Star Trek' is science fiction, after all, and space battles are important! Most episodes were more cold war in tone though, about finding ways to avoid all-out conflict.

A lot of better-made dramas are about how humans really are. 'Star Trek' was unique in suggesting what we can be, if we really tried.

And yes that young Jewish boy tried to tell them then and even now.

There's a great poem by Paul Gallico called 'Good News' that features (in the form of a cat) the Devil, who explains that he's actually behind everything that affects humanity. The gist of the ending is that the cat explains that God was just some minor poet who tried to explain to us a few lines about love that we never really understood.

Cheers, NeMo

[Adam1701D]

With everything in the world seeming to be going backwards - Trump, Brexit, ISIS, etc, we need the optimistic message of Star Trek more than ever. Mankind will one day evolve beyond petty notions of nationalism and religion and work together to reach the stars.

So long as there are still trains, that will be fine 

[Stevie DC]

I watched the first two episodes of Discovery on Monday night and other than having issues with the ship designs looking too modern for pre TOS (although they do seem to be keeping more with the JJ Trek look) and the Klingons (what on earth!), I enjoyed it (and loved the hand phasers!). I think there is room for improvement but not too bad for the pilot episodes. What I'm not looking forward to is the Discovery itself - why did they pick that design for the ship? There was a reason why it was rejected for the look of the refitted Enterprise for Star Trek Phase Two/Motion Picture!

Going onto the previous series, I'm a big fan of the TOS, TNG (from season three anyway) and DS9 as well as Star Trek Continues, New Voyages and Prelude to Axanar (shame about the issues with CBS regarding the last one, although given the set up the first two episodes of Disovery, hardly surprising in hindsight). Voyager left me feeling a bit cold as it always seemed a bit disjointed to me (and how many shuttles and torpedoes did they get through!) and the characters seemed to jump around to whatever the story theme dictated. That said, there were some great episodes, Year of Hell (both parts) being one of them and I enjoyed some of the Borg story arcs. Enterprise caused me to stop watching after season two but I'm slowly making my way through it on Netflix and have to say that season four generally improved.

However, for me the best Star Trek is Wrath of Khan, great story, brilliant (for the time) effects and really captured the human aspect to Star Trek - also notable as Kirk and Khan never actually meet in person (and didn't need to) throughout the whole movie. Into Darkness, while really quite watchable had too many nods to the previous Khan movie and personally, I think that they should have done something completely original.

Star Trek for me has always been about optimism, overcoming adversary and identifying/tackling our own prejudices. The apparent grittier nature of this new series will work as long as they don't forget these core values.