Star Trek Guide

Space – The final frontier…

Now, quickly: What other four-word expression is so commonly known in English-speaking cultures? What pop culture-based reference is so universally known, including by an entire generation who has never seen a first-run episode bearing Gene Roddenberry’s famous lines. In the future, perhaps in those shiny and sleek centuries of which the various Star Trek stories have made us ponder, the Star Trek series and movies will go down as 20th-century America’s key contribution to world entertainment, and “Space – the final frontier” is the USA’s “to be or not to be.”

StarTrekGuide is devoted to this all-time great American icon, its creators, its stars and its fandom. We love everything about Star Trek (OK, maybe not that one episode when Captain Janeway “evolves” into a slug) and, like proper fans, we want all the news and information on this greatest of all science-fiction stories. Our pages contain Star Trek news aggregated from around the web, as well as reviews of all 13 Star Trek movies and episode guides for each season of each series written by our lead writer and top ST geek (he refuses to call himself a Trekkie) Os Davis. Enjoy and, as always, live long and prosper!


The latest news on the TV series, movies, people and worlds of Star Trek
 

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise…

That’s the starship Enterprise, Enterprise-A, -B, -C, -D, -E and mark 1. Also the starships Voyager, Discovery, Cerritos, Defiant, Excelsior, Shenzhou, Zheng He and Titan, plus the privately-owned vessel La Sirena.

Since the days of cardboard backdrops and rubber monsters, Star Trek has expanded over a half-century to encompass what has subsequently been rebranded as the Star Trek Universe(TM) of characters, places, mythology, politics and history. Through six television series and 13 feature films, the ST universe has grown like a malevolent nebula from the series, the franchise’s expansion across the globe similar to the story’s own Federation spreading throughout the galaxy.

Star Trek Guide realizes that we can’t scratch the surface of the massive depth that is Star Trek in the 20s; we just want to share some of the enthusiasm and interest that this apparently infinitely malleable creation affords its fans. On the pages of the website, we’ll bring you lots of ST-flavored goodness, including essays, writeups, news, mini-reviews of all 754 televised Star Trek episodes to date, full reviews of all 13 movies and thorough critiques of the Discovery episodes as they happen.

(For the record, yours truly, who will be writing over 97% of all content on Star Trek Guide, has seen every episode of Star Trek to date – all but about one-fifth of Voyager and Enterprise season 3 more than once, and every ST:TNG about 14 times each.)

Its continuing mission…

And in the 50th anniversary year of the original Star Trek series, a seventh TV series was launched; Star Trek: Discovery debuted its premiere episode in September 2017 to rope in old devotees, the burgeoning audience for TV science-fiction and a wider demographic in general. As this is written, the typical initial enthusiasm for a new ST series – even Enterprise drew decent attention at first – has yet to prove staying power, but the diehards should certainly be able to keep Discovery in the skies for a good few years.

To explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations…

Sure, trippy aliens and stunning spacescapes are often the grabber for a new Star Trek viewer but nearly any ST fan will happily tell you that most of the best stories are character-driven. Well beyond the concepts, ideas and even plot twists remain the idolism of Spock, Kirk, Picard, Data, Worf, Sisko, Kira, Odo, Janeway, Seven, the EMH, Archer, Tucker, T’Pol, the Vulcans, the Klingons and just dusting the surface with the most popular favorites here: The point: Often the “strange new worlds” and “new life” are inner.

To boldly go where no one has gone before…

Like Star Trek itself, the first TV show to elicit and sustain what we today call a “cult following.” Or how The Original Series was one of the few in US TV history to be resurrected by fan outcry – doing so twice, if you count the creation of the Animated Series. Like Star Trek: The Motion Picture, an American movie that represented the first time a television production had made the jump to the big screen (Yes, I know about the 1966 Batman, but this was shot and released in tandem with the TV show with a teleplay as shooting script.)

Or like Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first big-budget TV production to start in syndication, and the first to become no. 1 in syndication with its inaugural episode. Or Deep Space Nine, one of American TV’s most successful spinoffs, but more importantly the only show featuring an African-American lead on US airwaves at the time. Even Star Trek: Enterprise earned an interesting first as the first-ever prequel TV show.

Finally, in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery becomes the first mainstream network television program launched in online-only format.

Sometimes Star Trek Guide wonders if the Star Trek franchise will slowly disppear from the collective consciousness in the 21st century, the way former pop culture giants such as the Lone Ranger and Tarzan faded as relics of days gone by. The adaptation of this franchise to the times from the 1960s to present give one hope for Star Trek’s continuing vibrancy, but the excitement and satisfaction of fans really drives the show.

Fingers crossed for Discovery, and enjoy your time here at StarTrekGuide.com!

Live long and prosper.