The coming of a new year always comes with a feeling of new beginnings. Whether it’s hearing the bells at midnight or planning a list of new years resolutions to forget about by February, the changing of numbers and another year ahead can bring us a sense of starting over. To commemorate another year passing, and the beginning of a new Star Trek milestone, we’re kicking off with our usual list looking at five times Star Trek itself was able to give itself a fresh start.
GROWING THE BEARD
Between the first and second seasons of The Next Generation, things changed. A lot. A lot of the Next Generation was just carrying over from the abandoned Phase II and Roddenberry’s constant rewrites led to a very inconsistent start for the show. By the second season things has calmed down a little bit and after finding their feet, and with slightly less backstage chaos, the show came into it’s own, delivering episodes like Measure of a Man and thankfully never going back to the embarrassment of Angel One or Code of Honour.
Something else changes between seasons, though. Commander Riker’s striking young look was now hidden behind a beard. Later on Riker would say it was an intentional change to build a more mature presence. In reality, Jonathon Frakes just grew a beard and everyone went with it. Yet for all that changed in the shows production ahead of season 2, the beard was given credit for the massive jump in quality and now, decades later, is still the go-to term no matter the genre for a TV show that survives a poor first season to find success later on.
STARFLEET IS A PROMISE
Discovery as a show was filled with firsts. It was the first show to have a lead star that wasn’t in charge, the first to begin without it’s leading ship and of course the first F Bomb among much more. But it was also a show about reinvention…
Leading the USS Discovery, Captain Lorca always seemed a bit off. A damaged and calculating Captain with a more tactical mindset than most. Oh, and also turned out to be a Terran imposter using the scientific mission to cross back into his universe and overthrow the Empire. The effects of Lorca’s style and eventual betrayal were summed up with Saru rallying the crew at the end of the season, but it wasn’t until the second that the crew had a Captain who could inspire more than intimidate.
Instantly changing the tone, a brash and confident Captain Pike pushed to focus on everyones skill, knowledge and strength as a collective turning Burnham, Saru and the rest of Discovery from on-edge tension by the design of their former captain, to inspired rising stars ready to walk a remarkable journey together.
THE TONE OF KHAN
Captivating a growing audience with it’s over the top style and bright colour palettes, the original series was reimagined with a stylised neutral tone in the Motion Picture that never quite lived up to the iconic style of the 60’s. Normally that means you pivot from the beige back to the bold colour choices. Yet for the Wrath of Kahn, the style of Star Trek took an even more dramatic shift…
Giving up the bright white sets for a darker tone and tighter framing, the Enterprise went from a feeling of spacious comfort to claustrophobic submarine style to mirror the change in it’s character traits; Kirk was past his prime with his past coming back to haunt him, giving the story a more grounded feeling along with the style changes.
The biggest change though were the uniforms; a massive departure from the originals, the uniforms were now formal and militarised with inspiration from ancient naval looks instead of 60’s futurism. While the look became iconic, the characters became even more so focusing on friendship, personal struggles and growth and more grounded conflicts with both personal stakes and more personal consequences – a move that helped to redefine and extend the Star Trek name for new generations.
VOYAGER AND THE BORG
Part of Star Trek’s formula has often focused on the outsider. Spock, the rational alien. Data the naïve android who can’t quite grasp humanity (at first). Even Deep Space Nine had it’s Odo and Enterprise it’s own iteration of the Vulcan trope in T’Pol. Voyager had it’s stand in’s, but they never quite fit the mould until Seven of Nine changed the cast dynamic.
Often overlooked for the obvious Berman-era sex appeal, Seven’s impact on Voyager went well beyond the catsuit. She was the missing ingredient. Assimilated as a child, Seven’s knowledge of humanity was largely what came from a shared database. After being a mindless drone for most of her life, her story of reintegrating and learning what it was to be both human and part of a community was key to changing and humanising the show after her arrival.
Seven was smart and capable in being the de facto science officer, but her lack of understanding on social dynamics or seeing the bigger picture – combined with her severe inability to be anything but blunt and direct – would often put her at odds with Janeway, challenging the Captain in ways no one else could. The conflicts added to her re-learning of what it was to be human, sometimes having to learn when to walk away, and sometimes having to put a mirror up to the biases of others, helping to create a fascinating character that enriched the show with a lasting legacy.
THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR
Considered the odd one out when it was first launched, Deep Space Nine has over time been regarded as one of the franchise’s best entries thanks to it’s leaning towards more serialised story telling and a growing list of interesting characters who change and grow throughout the series. But while a lot of the foundation was laid in earlier seasons, it wasn’t until the fourth that the show escaped the Next Generations shadow and was given new life with a new arrival.
In Way of the Warrior we see Captain Sisko embrace the bald as he prepares for an inevitable conflict with the Dominion and a new Klingon problem as Gowron decides to get involved under the belief that Cardassia’s already been infiltrated. To help guide them forward, Sisko calls for Word, now out of a job thanks to the destruction of the Enterprise and mirroring Sisko’s journey in the early days as he’s looking to leave Starfleet.
Bringing in the Klingons was a bit of a side step to the Dominion plans, but it worked. With Worf joining the cast and bringing the political chaos of the Empire with him, the show found a new beginning as it mixed familiar foes with DS9’s already messy backdrop and helped push the show into a more action-centric set of plotlines that would increase the stakes, the drama and the quality of the show to all new levels thanks to lead producer Ira Stephen Behr realising that with TNG over and Voyager far from home, the Federation was their playground now and they could start to show the ugly side to the utopian vision…
It’s reinvention has always been seen as a second pilot and helped escalate DS9 to becoming a huge influence on future generations that brought a true sense of reality to the otherworldly conflicts of the final frontier.
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