Wil Wheaton’s been watching classic Trek, specifically the episode where Kirk fights the reptilian Gorn, which Wil hasn’t seen in years:
I’d … forgotten about Spock’s suggestion that maybe the Gorn were protecting themselves when they attacked the human outpost on Cestus III, and Kirk’s initial refusal to consider it. It was pretty brave to put the idea out that someone you automatically assume has evil intentions may have a very good reason — from their perspective — to think the same thing about you. A big part of American mythology is that we’re always the Good Guys who are incapable of doing anything evil or wrong, and I thought it was daring to suggest — on network television in 1967, no less — that maybe it’s not that simple.
Even though Star Trek frequently looks silly and cheesy, I think it says a lot about the writing and the stories that audiences have not just overlooked that, but embraced it, for the last 40 years. I’ve seen movies that spent more on special effects for one shot than Star Trek spent in an entire season’s worth, but I didn’t care about the characters, and the story didn’t stay with me for one minute after it was over. We know it’s just a guy in a silly rubber suit, but when Kirk empathizes with him and doesn’t kill him, it’s still a powerful moment, and the message it sends about compassion and empathy is a powerful one that’s just as relevant now as it was then.
Yep. That’s why Star Trek endures. It’s got nothing to do with the dated special effects that everyone seems to be so concerned with these days. It’s the one quality that classic Trek consistently had and which all its successors achieved only intermittently, and that’s good storytelling that actually has something to say. Something that, more often than not, remains relevant — or at least interesting — even after 40 years. God, I love this show… and I’m thinking that maybe I’ll throw a few of my Trek DVDs onto the agenda for my holiday break…
(Incidentally, if you didn’t catch it, this post’s title is a play on another classic Trek episode I’ve always especially liked, “That Which Survives.” Lee Meriwether turning sideways into a two-dimensional line and shrinking into a dot, the way the picture on the old black-and-white TV I had as a kid used to when I turned off the set, really freaked me out when I was young. Still does, actually… a very eerie effect.)
