Resurrecting Star Trek

Caution: High Geek Quotient Ahead

I have to agree with Adam Yoshida on this one: the Star Trek franchise has pretty much sucked since Deep Space Nine. I gave up during Voyager with Captain Katherine "Let me toss a coin to see if we stick to the Prime Directive this week" Janeway. I kept wanting to send a memo to the writers: Guys, take a meeting and figure out who the hell Janeway is before her next command decision.

I gave Enterprise a chance purely because I am a fan of Scot Bakula (Capt. Archer) from his Quantum Leap days. Too bad the show couldn't keep me interested. Not even Jolene Blalock stripping down to her skivvies on a regular basis kept me tuning in. Then again, Jeri Ryan in a really hot bodysuit barely kept me interested in Voyager either.

Adam proposes three ideas that combine concepts from other hit shows and splices them to the Star Trek universe. Star Trek: Smallville, where we get to see the adventures of Academy Cadets, is his first. Whether we see new characters or the school days of later characters, there will still be the problem of having the faint odor of "Wesley Crusher saves the day" all over again.

His third idea is CSI: Vulcan. Not a chance. The entire concept of CSI relies on cutting edge verisimilitude, while technology in Star Trek has already solved just about every problem there can be. The techniques that an investigator for the United Federation of Planets would use would have to be invented by the writers, and it would be impossible for viewers not to end up feeling gypped by a plot that is resolved by a technology that only exists for that purpose.

Now, his idea of Star Trek: The West Wing has some potential. Adam's request that the viewers be allowed to experience the Federation in itself as opposed to what lies beyond it is on point. A brave crew can only save the Federation so many times before people start to wonder what's so great about the Federation to begin with. A politically themed storyline with only the occassional foreign policy issue would reconnect viewers with the wider quadrant. I'd escpecially interested on how any semblence of an economy could exist with replicator technology providing anything anyone could want.