Sept 8 marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, one of the most important sci-fi series of all time. I have long had an affinity for the franchise, dating back to when I was a child and would watch episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation with my family. Star Trek has always been a part of my life really. When I was in elementary and junior high school, I would come home and watch repeats of Star trek Voyager ( which I can’t watch anymore as I can only see the flaws now) and later got into Deep Space Nine.
I didn’t see the original series until I was 15, when the first episode I saw was the season 2 episode “A Piece of the Action”, the episode where the crew encountered the Iotian people who have based their society on 1920’s gangsters. It was a quirky show and after that I watched episodes like “The Squire of Gothos” which is the one that got me hooked. After that episode, I came to enjoy the original series a lot more and it helped me to truly appreciate the series that came after it. When I first decided to see the movies, I didn’t know what to expect. The first one was just confusing but from The Wrath of Khan onward they were good, yes even the odd numbered ones.
My personal favourite Star Trek series has always been Deep Space Nine. It was the darkest of the franchise but had the most character development. The characters who started the series were not the same at the end ( literally in one case). It showed a captain who was willing to do whatever it took to get the job done, but Captain Sisko was also haunted by his actions. The episode “In The Pale Moonlight” is the greatest episode of the series in my opinion, simply because it showed that war makes everything a shade of grey. It had memorable characters such as Quark, Odo, Major Kira and coming from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Worf. It also had amazing villains such as the Dominion and Gul Dukat. If you haven’t seen the series, then I recommend you check it out as soon as possible.
Star Trek inspired so much in society, from societal progress to technological innovation and influenced the entire genre of science fiction from that point onward. This is the franchise that boldly went, where no one had gone before!