Star Trek is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary. The original series first aired in 1966 and has been on a roller coaster ride of sorts since that time, having seen multiple motion pictures, feature films, and animated projects under its belt. It has ridden the wave of fan support that produced a multitude of side material such as novels, comic books, interactive games, action figures, starship models, and other things. And it currently has a hit show on the Paramount+ streaming service. It should be a great time for Star Trek.
“Oh, but here comes crusty old Dave to rant and rave about how the current product sucks and how he misses the old days.”
Well, you’re half right. I do miss the old days when I actually looked forward to new Star Trek shows and movies. You’re kinda wrong about the show sucking, though. I’ve yet to see Starfleet Academy – never been big on young adult fare and me being a not-young adult anymore doesn’t help matters either – but I’ve heard generally favorable things from those who have. It’s hard to be invested in a franchise whose future seems to be in a state of flux, what with all the rumors surrounding ownerships and mergers. Will there even be new Star Trek after this current crop ends? Should there even be new Star Trek at this point?
I’m not really going to answer those questions here. Hell, I don’t even want to consider the possibility. I’m at the point where I am at peace with what’s happens going forward. So long as they produce good comic books and maybe shoot out the occasional quality novel or audio program, I am more than satisfied with my Star Trek fix. Hell, I’ll even give the new Voyager game a buy once I clear out my current backlog of stuff for the month. And if all else fails, I’ve got old DVDS, Blu Rays, comics, games, novels, and other things to go back and revisit for old times sake. They made a bunch of this stuff back in the day and some of which I have yet to fully explore.
So rather than post a commentary of doom and gloom about a beloved franchise that has gone to complete and utter shit – which I don’t think Star Trek has, for the record… yet – I want to highlight a few Star Trek things that I did sample over the past couple years that I enjoyed immensely and think they’re worth sampling if the current television product isn’t quite doing it for you. There’s a possibility that I might do a similar thing for Star Wars in the May commentary, but for now, here are seven Star Trek things that I sampled that are worth your time.
STAR TREK: KHAN (audio drama)
Conceived by Nicholas Meyer – he of Star Trek II, VI, and Seven-Percent Solution fame – what we have hear is another take on everyone’s favorite superhuman Augment person, Khan Noonien Singh. I say that because the subject of Khan’s exile on Ceti Alpha 5 has been touched on a couple times before. Notably, Greg Cox did a wonderful novel duology covering the Eugenics Wars, along with a third book covering this period (though obviously not the same story.) There was also an IDW miniseries that touched on this period as well… though, again, not the same story.
Those stories mentioned are also non-canon based on their non-screen status and truth be told, one wonders if anything that happens in this audio program or others like it will be part of the current canon. Set all of that aside and you’ve got a hell of a series with stellar performances and some tight storytelling. There’s also a framing story aboard the USS Excelsior featuring George Takei and Tim Russ reprising their roles as Capt. Sulu and Ensign Tuvok, as they pair up with a scientist person to discover some untold truths about Khan’s period of exile.
All in all, it’s a damned good series and the people behind it should be commended for their parts in putting this together. It’s too bad that Star Trek is unwilling to produce further stories in this format because there’s potential to explore things in ways that a visual medium can’t. That, and you don’t have cause to complain about the special effects or set designs because that’s left to the imagination… you folks know how to use that, still, no?
STAR TREK VOYAGER: ACROSS THE UNKNOWN (2026 video game)
This one came out recently and in all fairness, I’ve only played the demo for this thing, but it left enough of an impression on me that I might consider giving this a buy later down the road. Basically, you’re guiding Voyager through its journey across the Delta Quadrant and have to manage resources, explore sectors, and basically try to get your ship home however you see fit… even if it means using the Caretaker to get home and forgo the whole journey thing… which you can do if you want a short game.
The big selling point of this game is its open-endedness. While you can try and replicate the journey as it played out in the series, Across The Unknown really wants you to go in different directions. Whether this means making choices that go against the grain or dealing with unexpected losses (your senior staff can change radically from one sector to the next). Explore new branches of technology, recruit potential allies thought unattainable. To use a tired cliche, there are possibilities.
Bare in mind that Across The Universe is a tough game; even on the easiest skill setting, you will not always get the ideal results you wanted and this will sometimes necessitate a restart until you do get the desired result. Regardless, if you can learn its mechanics, Across The Universe has potential.
STAR TREK RESURGANCE (2023 video game)
This one came out a couple years ago, features a new crew, and is basically akin to a choose-your-own-adventure, where you pick responses to dialogue and partake in little activities to manipulate the story. Admittedly, I’ve only played a bit of this before other stuff came up, so I can’t properly tell you whether the whole thing is worth its while, but what little I played showed promise and from what I’ve seen, a lot of love was put into this in order to create as much of the old-school Berman-era Trek vibe as you can get with a relatively new ship. That and the guy they got to voice Spock is pretty spot on.
STAR TREK: THE LAST STARSHIP (IDW ongoing series)
This one series did something that neither television series set in the 32nd century managed to do; made me care about The Burn. The Burn, for those who don’t know, is a cataclysmic event that caused all dilithium to collapse and explode every warp core in the galaxy… and then we found out a kid was crying… yippee. But none of that matters because we have THE LAST STARSHIP, which takes place shortly after The Burn has happened and features the ragtag crew of the kitbashed U.S.S. Omega attempt to save the Federation from collapse. Considering the state of the Federation in Discovery, it’s safe to assume that it didn’t go well.
The Last Starship definitely surprised me in taking a concept that I really didn’t care for and giving it a different spin, presenting the Burn and the immediate aftermath as a sort of no-win scenario for the Federation. Fact is that you know it’s going to end badly, so the task falls on exploring the journey to where we’re at compelling. It’s the kind of story that’s rarely touched on in Star Trek with any real sense of urgency and I actually look forward to the next chapter in this story. How about that?
But if you don’t fancy any of that NuTrek stuff – seriously, this shit’s over a decade over; get over it, already – might I suggest something more classical and yet… not?
STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS (IDW Miniseries)
Yeah, sure, why not? It’s a miniseries focused on a group of Starfleet security officers who must defend an outpost from spies. Yes, it’s about a bunch of red shirts who die in many different ways. It’s an absurd premise that’s played pretty straight… and it’s great. The comic does a fine job of giving each other of the officers some personality and background so that you actually care a little bit about these people who are going to bite the dust eventually… and most of them do. That’s not a spoiler, either; there’s a reason that meme exists. And this book exists because that meme exists.
Fun read, kinda graphic, but still a fun time. I wrote some more words here if you want to check it out. Honestly, I’d probably tell you to check out the great majority of IDW’s Trek output, but they’ve been consistently great… a few stragglers notwithstanding. But we’ll move on to other things such as…
STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY (PC Game)
Before there was Starfleet Academy 90210 or whatever your modern-day young adult equivalent, there was Starfleet Academy the computer game… and there was also Starfleet Academy the console game, but we try to ignore that one.
It’s available on GOG.com for a fairly cheap price and if you can get the thing up and running, it’s quite the trek indeed. Also worth a mention (and also available on GOG.com) is Bridge Commander, a game that I haven’t touched in well over a decade, but have heard good things about.
STAR TREK CONTINUES (fan production series)
In the wilderness years when Star Trek was off TV and all we had were the Kelvin films, the void was filled by countless Star Trek fanfilms of varying quality. You had some low-budget green-screened stuff, you had cheap productions that used other means of telling their stories… and then there was the period where people managed to build full sets that were similar in quality to those of the original series. That’s when you started getting stuff like Star Trek: New Voyages, Starship Exeter, and other things. All fun stuff if you can put up with the amateur acting (fan films, after all.)
Of all of these, Star Trek Continues is the one I often fall back to. Granted, the “fans” in question are tenured actors and voice actors who have been in the business and the production is such high quality that it almost feels like a cheat to call it a “fan production” of sorts. That said, the series does a fine job of trying to match the tone of the original show while also progressing things further here and there. The winks and nods could have been toned down, but then again, all these fan things are winks and nods, so you can hardly blame Continues for this one fault.
They did about a dozen episodes before Paramount dropped the hammer on fan productions, but it did eventually get around to its intended goal of giving the five-year mission closure… or at least, some version of it. Whatever you want to label this as, Star Trek Continues is quality Trek.
That’s the seven off the top of my head. There are other avenues of Trek fare to get your fix. Hundreds of novels that are widely non-canon, but still hold up as pinnacles of Trek storytelling. A lot of the comics and video games, which I dabble in, prove their worth if you’re willing to give them a shot. And if all else fails, you could always go back and rewatch all the old movies and shows. Those still hold up, even if some don’t.
As for the current state of Star Trek? Well, who knows what’s going to happen next. I hear people say all the right things, but then it’s easy to get a false sense of hope when people are saying the right things. And as we’ve observed in the past when it comes to these long-running franchises that are being mined to the core, people can say the right things and then deliver the wrong product, which results in a negative reaction.
For now, all we can do is wait and see what the future holds, but at the moment, we can hold off the autopsy. Let’s wait until the current Trek shows finish their run and then we’ll see what happens.
That’s all I have to say on that, so… how do I end this?
Take us out. Make it so. Let’s go. Coffee. Black. Might as well toss an “Engage” in there, too.
Peace, live long, prosper, and learn how to spell “lap” properly.
Later.
dtm666 