Star Trek Must Die

By Mark Morgan

The final season of the original Outer Limits had no money, no supervision, no effects budget, no audience. In other words, it should have been uniformly horrible. Instead, it has two of my favorite episodes of televised science fiction: "Demon With a Glass Hand" and "Soldier," both by Harlan Ellison. This isn't about Ellison.

Star Trekhas a huge franchise base; an army of writers, producers, directors, actors and effects technicians; and enough money to put a real damn starship in orbit by the end of the year. Voyager's best episodes aren't much better than those two Outer Limits episodes. This still isn't about Ellison.

Cowardice and safe harbors are the rule of television, not the exception. Get any amount of money involved, and the bland creeps in like coliform bacteria into a school's water supply. Nervous producers look at the script and delete anything remotely risky. A gay starship captain? Never happen. An episode showing that democracy is a joke? Never happen. Too much money involved. And frankly, too many fans watching the show with a microscope to complain about life-changing issues like "What about the Eugenics War?"

That's right, I mean you. You think anything groundbreaking is going to be written when the producers are convinced the only way to make money is to placate you? It's not.

It's too late to save the series. Oh, sure, I've heard it from Berman: "Let's take a break from Star Trek. Time for it to rest." And what, churn out the same bland glop, only wait an extra year so that the fans will be in a frenzy to see the next scale model ship whip across the screen? That will solve the storytelling problems. That'll break through the blandness.

Time to kill the show. I don't mean take a one year break. Or a five year break. I mean, kill the thing. No more Trek. Period. Get to the point where you and I and everyone else have forgotten the thing. Let it sneak back in, unencumbered by hype and marketing or budget or attention. Let it be dangerous and risky to do Trek.

Then I bet you'd get some kick-butt stories. Because the show would only have its writing to depend on. The writers could write whatever they wanted to, because no one would threaten them with a Batt'leh attack for forgetting that Star Trek headquarters was supposed to have been destroyed in the Dominion war.

Otherwise, expect it to get only worse. Expect it to continue down the road to mediocrity. And expect me to keep watching, this time with tears in my eyes. Because I've seen what television can do with SF, and Trek ain't it any more. I mourn the loss of, if not a friend, at least a companion.

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