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.
About the author
A Fistful of O’Brien
Entering the Star Trek world as an unnamed extra with a few bits of dialogue, O'Brien soon became a fixture on the Enterprise D as it's transporter chief before moving to Deep Space Nine to head up engineering and operations on what was thought to be a backwater outpost before it became one of the most strategically important stations in the quadrant!As the only enlisted or non commissioned officer to feature in the main cast of any Star Trek show to date, O'Brien stands as the only working class hero in the Star Trek universe with a vast and varied career taking from the front lines of the Cardassian war as a soldier, to the front lines of the Dominion War as an engineer, retrofitting DS9, keeping the Defiant from blowing itself apart, and even sniping Dominion troops. All in […]
[Q2&A] Career Track
SFC has always structured it's internal reward and recognition system on the command structure of Starfleet on screen. Newbies are cadets. When they become full members, they become Ensigns. And those eager to take on a leadership role can rank up to Commander or Captain. Even the board of directors are mirrored within the theme as Commodores and Admirals! It's always been the way, but the path of an officer isn't for everyone... Despite the original idea of all star ship personnel being highly trained astronauts, therefore nullifying the need for enlisted crew, the enlisted ranks have existed in some form since the original series. More defined in the film era, particularly under the revision of style and structure in The Wrath of Khan, they have been slightly more prominent since. Most notable of the enlisted members of Starfleet was […]
[Retro Review] Space Seed
By chance, the Enterprise comes across an ancient Earth ship drifting through space. On board they find a whole bunch of people held in suspended animation, wake up the leader of the gang and accidentally unleash one of the most iconic villains of the franchise. Being coy with his identity at first, ship historian Marla McGivers becomes fascinated with a glimpse at the past while Kirk and the rest of the non-historians figure out that he just happens to be one of the most notorious war lords in Earths history... Star Trek, Season 1 , Episode 22 For all the action and adventure of deep space and the idea of using alien make up to mask more down to earth stories, Space Seed gives the first real glimpse of Star Trek's history. Khan is a relic of Earth from long […]
Resistance Is Optional: Choose Your Adventure!
Our trials of bringing the fleet together have been hit and miss with scheduling and dates being a bit slim. So we're opening the floor to the fleet to pick the next date and theme! You can make your selection below on what works best for you ahead of our next fleet event! The final outcome will be shared at Europa on Facebook and in Fleet Alert in the Officers Hub as soon as we have a comfortable number of notes. For more information or to get direct updates on non-Discord online events, you can the subscribe to Twitch channel, visit twitch.tv/sfcq2. Google Meets events are hosted by our google account - you can add sfcquad2@gmail.com to your whitelist to ensure direct notification. Info and invite confirmations may also come from jt@sfcq2.com directly.
Sixty Year Mission…
It's been a really weird year already for the world of Star Trek fans. We started 2026 with a new venture into a strange new future with Starfleet Academy. Then just as the show had won people over, we found out it's the latest in a long list of recent productions to get a cancellation order, is a bit of a weird way to start the 60th anniversary of a legendary franchise. The past few years we've kind of spoiled. Growing up it was exciting to have Deep Space Nine run alongside the Next Generation. In modern times we had multiple shows going at once with Discovery's launch spawning a new world of story telling from revisiting Picard in his post-Starfleet years, to animated comedy with Lower Decks, to finally telling the story of Captain Pike and even a peek […]
[Retro Review] Let This Be Your Last Battlefield
Often shown in highlight reels and quoted in discussions about Star Trek's more forward thinking messages, Let This Be Your Last Battlefield is at it's simplest, a story of the ridiculousness of segregation. En route to a vital mission of mercy, Kirk and his crew end up in the middle of a political minefield. Interrupted in the mission by a stolen Federation shuttle carrying an injured alien, Lokai from the planet Cheron, they're soon further interrupted by Commissioner Bele, an official representing Cheron who announces Lokai as a political traitor and demanding custody. One asylum request later, Kirk's stuck between the two trying to find the right course of action knowing he has orders to follow beyond the situation. The separation between Belle and Lokai is a simple context. And also a strangely charged one looking at it from a […]
Related
A Fistful of O’Brien
Entering the Star Trek world as an unnamed extra with a few bits of dialogue, O'Brien soon became a fixture on the Enterprise D as it's transporter chief before moving to Deep Space Nine to head up engineering and operations on what was thought to be a backwater outpost before it became one of the most strategically important stations in the quadrant!As the only enlisted or non commissioned officer to feature in the main cast of any Star Trek show to date, O'Brien stands as the only working class hero in the Star Trek universe with a vast and varied career taking from the front lines of the Cardassian war as a soldier, to the front lines of the Dominion War as an engineer, retrofitting DS9, keeping the Defiant from blowing itself apart, and even sniping Dominion troops. All in […]
A Fistful of Justice
Although it's one of the worlds most legendary science fiction shows, Star Trek has always dabbled with format and genre's, all dressed up behind deep space adventures. Whether using the holodeck for a touch of fantasy, or diving into the horrors of war through Deep Space Nine's run, the variety of story telling never seems to fit one mould. But out of all the different tales told in the wonderful world of Starfleet, one that always promises to deliver is the court room drama. This month we're diving into the most captivating of Star Trek's courtroom drama's with a Fistful of Justice! AD ASTRA PER ASPERA Strange New Worlds, Season 2 One of the most modern examples of Strar Trek's court room drama saw Pike's own Number One, Una-Chin Reilly, under court martial for a serious breach of Starfleet regulation […]
A Fistful of Sisko
In the past few years, Star Trek has made several nods to it's past. But while The NExt Generation and Voyager had their continuations, Deep Space Nine continued to 'black sheep' of the family with it's history and name drops being few and far between. Until Academy when we had an entire episode based around the legend of Starfleet's most complex captains. Starting his show as a widower and single parent, Benjamin Sisko started his time in Star Trek as a reluctant hero turned religious icon who's become a prime figure in Bajoran history, the Federation-Dominion war and much more. If you missed his series, first of.... why?! And also, if you want a quick intro - here's our Sisko top five to see what the fuss is all about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzBkvzPoofQ IN THE PALE MOONLIGHT Season 6, Episode 13 Lets […]
A Fistful of Honour Beyond Bloodshed
Feared throughout the galaxy due to being fearless warriors who thrive on battle and bloodshed, the Klingon's are one of Star Trek's most iconic races and yet, with all their history, perhaps the most misunderstood. Starting off in the original series as authoritarian and distrustful antagonist, they were written as a parallel to Russia with the Klingon Empire in a cold war with the Federation following a long conflict. The Klingons would have a bit of reinvention in the movies thanks to higher budgets giving the producers a chance for a more alien look, while their culture and history would get a little more depth on The Next Generation thanks to the inclusion of Worf, the first Klingon member of Starfleet. But Worf's views on the Klingon culture weren't quite spot on. From a noble house, Worf was displaced and […]
A Fistful of Familiar Surroundings
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo. President Forward During the Next Generation multiple set pieces were re-used and recycled from the set pieces built for the film franchise. From the obvious re-use of internal corridors, to smaller pieces such as Dr Crushers office being McCoy's, it's hard for a keen eye to ignore how much the productions shared between them. But as The Next Generation became the dominant forcer with ongoing production and full standing sets, eventually the turn tabled and by the final original cast instalment, it was the TNG stages that became the obvious redress solution. The most jarring of the films set re-uses was the office of the president. As Kirk and McCoy were charged with assassination, a political poop show begins and the Federation […]
A Fistful of Forgotten Technology
Travelling the stars is a lot more fun when you have engineers who can turn rocks into replicators and scientists who come up with some crazy ideas on a whim and bring some brand new tech into creation to solve this weeks problem. But sometimes you have to wonder what happens to the inventions that didn't last the week.... Borg Again Once upon a time, Neelix died. Then Seven came along, casually unstuffed some Borg probes in him and suddenly he's back to life again. Mortal Coil is an episode that focuses on Neelix's belief and psychological after effects of being dead, even if just briefly, only to experience nothing but his revival. It's a common story throughout all genre's of TV. It's just this time there were nanoprobes to speed up the 'coming back to life' part. Seven's nanoprobes […]
