I think I’ve written enough about my 50th birthday, so let’s just pretend that it was for no particular occasion or reason that my brother Steve and sister Randi each sent me lavish gifts this week- specifically, seasons one and two of the classic Star Trek series on DVD. I’ve been coveting these ever since I first spotted them behind the cash register at Barnes & Noble- but I could never quite bring myself to plunk down the money to buy them. They would be Guilty Pleasures, plain and simple, unlike the opera videos on my shelf which have something to do with my professional life and career. But Star Trek? Kirk and Spock? Tribbles? The Romulan Neutral Zone? That’s just pure fun. (And pure foolishness, my wife would probably add- although good-naturedly.)
Like most Trekkies, I never watched this show during it’s initial network run (1966-1969) It was maybe four years after it went off the air that it experienced its spectacular renaissance in syndication- and as a thoroughly nerdy 13- year-old I was part of that first wave of new fans who could not get enough of this show. I remember buying some kind of calendar at Ben Franklin that had all kinds of little stickers and decals that you could put on various dates, but all I used that calendar for was to keep track of what Star Trek rerun aired each afternoon. Just why that was important information to keep track of, I have no idea! But I meticulously filled in that calendar with the names of all 79 episodes as they aired and then dutifully kept on as the episodes were replayed in exactly the same order. (At least back then, they were aired in the order that they were filmed.) I also so vividly remember the first time I met another kid who was as nuts about Star Trek as I was. His name was Gene and he was actually a year older than I was, and if anything was an even more avid Trekkie, to the point of fashioning his own homemade costumes and props. That was never my scene; I was perfectly content to plant myself in front of the t.v. and lose myself in this amazing world… to the point where I had the dialogue of my favorite episodes (like “Corbomite Maneuver” and “The Doomsday Machine”) completely memorized. I did buy a plastic model of the Enterprise (and wonder of wonders, I even assembled it!) and bought all of the books you could buy. But mostly for me, it was about watching the show. Again and again and again.
Of course, we Trekkies were never fully satisfied with the reruns. We wanted more- and we first got it with the Saturday morning animated series that aired while I was still in junior high and which superseded its bargain basement animation with some compelling stories and the voices of the original cast. Then came the amazing news of a Star Trek motion picture, which unfortunately turned out to be an absolute disaster. The movies that came after it were a bit better (there was no way to go but up) although even the best of them did not equal the best of the original series by a long shot. Then came Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. . . honorable efforts all, but never able to displace the original in my affections. (Next Generation had its moments, but most of the time it drowned in its own verbiage. Evidently, none of its writers ever heard of the adage “less is more.”) If there has been anything that really equaled the original in my book, it was the recent motion picture reboot of the original – which I fully expected to hate and ended up loving. It captured the spirit of that old series in a way that I would not have thought possible.
So what’s the big deal about these DVD’s which my siblings so generously gave me this week? (Especially since I own the entire series on VHS?) It’s because these episodes have been remastered- and basically all of the exterior shots of the Enterprise (where we see the ship flying through space or orbiting a planet or battling the Klingons) have been completely redone, utilizing the best that current technology has to offer. And while some purists might feel like it’s akin to painting party hats on “The Last Supper,” I find the revisions to be amazing and most welcome- and for an old geezer like me who has been watching these episodes for 37 years, it is so cool for them to have new life breathed into them this way.
Of course, even the most innovative remastering will never turn William Shatner into a good actor. But he was never the reason I loved the show. (I was always more of a Mr. Sulu fan.) It was the world that Gene Rodenberry created and brought thrillingly to life – a world of amazing promise.
pictured above: a moment from one of my very favorite episodes, “The Corbomite Maneuver,” when the Enterprise is confronted by a gigantic alien spacecraft.