The Art of Star Trek (1995)

The Art of Star Trek (1995)

Authors: Judith + Garfield Reeves-Stevens | Illustrators: Various | Page Count: 298

'If we define art as "the activity of creating beautiful things," then STAR TREK's futuristic, alien, often bizarre imagery most assuredly qualifies.'

I do sometimes 'state the obvious' for the benefit of folks that are curious but aren't a part of a particular franchise's fandom, but a book titled The Art of Star Trek explains itself. So if there's anyone still in any doubt as to what the content is, then you're probably reading the wrong blog.

What can't be gleaned from the cover alone is the sheer range of content inside, from rarely seen production sketches to familiar but still awesome key art, some of which has been used on posters and commercial home video formats for decades, and all presented on lavishly glossy paper stock.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: TV Movies (1987-94)

Star Trek: TNG: The Complete TV Movies

Dirs. Various / 10 feature-length TV Movies / 835 mins (approx total)

I've covered the individual seasons of The Next Generation elsewhere on The 7th and Last blog, but in order to keep those posts at an acceptable length I didn't dwell too much on the two-parters; aka the TV 'movies'. This post indulges my desire to give them a little more attention.

There are ten in all, and because there's some TNG moments in Deep Space 9's pilot episode I'll add it, too. Naturally, given the number, it'll be longer than my usual post length.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 7 (1998–99)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 7 (1998–99)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

The religious aspects that are a defining feature of DS9's scripted world play a major role in the series closing season. As before, the pairing is arguably as damaging to the whole as it is beneficial. There's a weighty revelation centred around such that I'm sure will divide viewers. Unfortunately for me, I'm one of the folks that feels it was too convenient - but I acknowledge it may have been planned from day one, it's not something that's completely left field.

A new primary character is introduced; it might seem a little late in the day to be doing such a thing, but that shakeup makes sense when put into context. I won't go into further detail because it's spoilery.

The holographic Vic Fontaine (James Darren) character that made his début in S6 gets a lot more screen time, functioning as a kind of advice-giver to the crew. It's a silly idea that sometimes works.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 6 (1997–98)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 6 (1997–98)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

Note: I do my best to avoid spoilers in my posts, but the following text will refer to events that happened in Season 5, so if you're as sensitive to spoilers as I am and haven’t watched all of Season 5 it would be advisable to not read beyond this sentence.

Anyone still reading will maybe know that the long-building Dominion War is finally underway and that the entry-point into the Alpha quadrant is guarded by Starfleet and its allies. But not everyone in the Alpha quadrant sees the aggressors as a threat; some see the invasion as an opportunity to (re)gain power, forcing Sisko and his team to fight a war on two sides. That situation is the basis of Season 6.

Furthermore, even though they're Federation allies, some races are enjoying the war (the Klingons, naturally) and are happy to see it take shape. But their presence on DS9 causes problems of its own.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 5 (1996–97)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 5 (1996–97)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each

Looking back, quite a lot of significant events and reveals happened in S5, but not all of them are in episodes that I'd call completely memorable. Along the way we learn more about some of the primary cast members, and a few of the secondary ones get more screen time than they'd had previously.

The threat of the Dominion/Founders builds, with both the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar on the front line.

A trio of old faces make a return, separately, and stay around for differing amounts of time. Interestingly, all three influence Sisko's moods, with one of them being a lot more direct than the other two.

As before, the best episodes are the ones that revolve around either Odo or Garak, or is that just my bias showing? Yes, they're two of my favourites. But let's not forget the Chief, who also gets a lot to do.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 4 (1995–96)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 4 (1995–96)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

S4 kicked off with another two-parter, the fan-favourite The Way of the Warrior, which saw a new regular crew member join the existing family. It's a character that was new to DS9 but not to Trek.

Unusually, after his timely and eventful introduction he isn't used much for the next few episodes. It's a situation that I rather enjoyed because it meant that he wasn't brought in with the intention of upstaging anyone else. He was treated as just another crew member, equal in stature and screen-time.

Also of note, at least to me, is that Sisko finally looks just like he does on the box art that was used for all seven seasons. He shaves his head and, like some kind of reverse Samson, turns into a stronger character.

There's a saying amongst DIY enthusiasts that if you have a roll of gaffer tape and a can of WD-40 then you can mend 90% of anything. Which brings me to one of my favourite DS9 crew members, the underappreciated miracle-worker that is Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney). The Chief can mend 90% of everything with just his hands, but give him a hyperspanner, an ODN recoupler and enough time and he'll hit the 99.9% mark.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 3 (1994–95)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 3 (1994–95)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

S3 is DS9 coming of age, so to speak. Set approx two months after the end of S2, it finally begins to feel like the crew are becoming a team, interdependent, loyal, more than just co-workers thrown together in a metallic grey space-doughnut. The actors began to exhibit what was missing from previous seasons, the most difficult ingredient of all: a level of convincing heart and warmth toward each other, just like a family should have.

It's just as well, too, because 1994 was also the year that TNG ended its run (with S7), meaning the DS9 crew had to carry the weighty Trek flag alone.

With no new TNG adventures airing, it's surely not a coincidence that the station received a proper, non-runabout class starship. Smaller than the Enterprise D, it's a rather unassuming vessel at first, but quickly proves itself in battle. (Trek space battles had never been that exciting, to be honest, because a TV budget didn't allow for the kind of logistical set-ups that we'd see in the movies, but DS9 made some attempt to address that with battles that were faster, more aggressive and altogether more spectacular.)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 2 (1993–94)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 2 (1993–94)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

The second season kicks off with a single story stretched over three full episodes. It's a Bajorian themed tale, which means Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) plays a key role. I'm not a fan of the character. Her quick to anger attitude grates me, and how she jumps all over every opportunity to remind everyone within earshot that she was a member of the resistance, carrying out guerrilla attacks against Cardassian military from age twelve... yadda yadada.

It's the fault of the producers/writers, not the actress; proof of which comes later in the season when, without going into details, Nana gets to show a very different side of the character. And, to be fair, when the regular Kira is allowed to smile, to experience joy (of the non-religious kind), then she is somewhat likeable; if only it wasn't such a rare occurance.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 1 (1993)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 1 (1993)

19 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

When DS9 launched it ran concurrently with TNG for a couple of years, but differentiated itself from the other show in a number of ways, the most obvious being that it wasn't set aboard a spacefaring vessel.

With a premise that was perhaps (i.e. likely) inspired from an idea that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski pitched to the studio, the action was situated on a space station positioned near a planet. The self-contained environment served as a stop-off point for diplomats, traders, rogues and all sorts of nasty characters intent on doing harm to one another.

The location of the station is both a profitable and tactical one for Starfleet, enabling them to keep a cautious (and controlling) eye on both a newly discovered wormhole and on the aforementioned planet, Bajor, a war-ravaged place recently liberated from an aggressive occupation by the Cardassians.

Star Trek: Fan Collectives (2006-09)

Star Trek: Fan Collective: Borg (2006)

Dirs. Various  |  Number of episodes: 12 + 2 feature-length (FL) movies

The Fan Collective box sets are a collection of various themed episodes culled from each of the live action Star Trek TV series and packaged together in shiny new boxes. The cynic in me thinks it's nothing more than a lazy cash-grab from Paramount, once again exploiting fans who'll buy anything with a Trek logo on it. The optimist in me is forced to agree.

So, with Paramount's shameless tactics established, what do we actually get in each Collective box?

First up, the Borg ("Sounds Swedish") collection contains every episode from both TNG and ENT in which the semi-mechanical, drone-like menaces appeared, which amounts to six TNG and one ENT.

The remainder of the four-disc box is VOY episodes. The Borg played a major role in the VOY series, but it was too much of a good thing. The overuse turned them from a mysterious threat into a collective of chumps. Although it did give us Seven of Nine, who turned out to be one of the best characters in the entire VOY series, in my opinion.