Star Trek Season One!

This is arguably the best season of Star Trek. When I say that, I mean to say the best season of Star Trek of any kind or variety. I am a fan of the TOS, "The Original Series" as the fans dub it. Later incarnations of the series have held my attention for periods of time, but none of them caught lightning in a bottle like this  first season of this first series did. It was simply not possible for them to have done so. So much was new for the time, so much was not the way TV usually worked or felt. We have become all too accustomed to television series which are thoughtful with a point of view. That was not usually the case back in the heyday of broadcast television when the main mission was to attract as large a crowd as possible. One fear was always to make a show too smart for the audience. Science fiction shows were rare for that reason as they relied on knowledge of the physical nature of world to fully deliver their themes. But the late 60's was a serious time and was about to get even more so as a foreign war was eating at the soul of one nation and demolishing the culture of another. 

Most American TV shows are all to happy to throw the audience into peril alongside the heroes, but work especially hard to make sure that world has been righted by the end of the episode. Endings needed to be upbeat to make sure the audience left with a positive feeling and the illusion that the status quo had been restored. The endings of many if not most of the episodes in the first season of Star Trek end on somber notes, and most often focus on the man who carries the responsibility for the ship -- the captain James T. Kirk. In this first season there was no doubt that William Shatner as the captain of the Enterprise was the focus of our attention. 

As the season progressed his dour ally Mr. Spock played by Leonard Nimoy became increasingly a focus of fan attention. And when oddly it became necessary for folks to lobby NBC for a second season much of that effort pointed to the Spock character as being especially fascinating. But the good ship Enterprise was a place in which not humans and "Vulcanians" could work together, but a place where different kinds of humans could work side by side. Unlike the real world of the United States, the future of this new Federation was filled with a variety of humanity. While the parts were smaller it was not insignificant to see Nichelle Nichols as a black woman on the command bridge, nor was it unimportant that George Takei, an Asian man was often the pilot of this enormous spaceship which housed over four hundred crew members. 

As open-minded as the show was about race, it was still rather backwards in regard to women in many cases. Majel Barrett was only a nurse helping Deforest Kelly's "Bones" McCoy, and Yeoman Rand played by Grace Lee Whitney was a woman meant to serve the captain, yet also intended early on to become a romantic interest. Sexual harassment was not yet a concern it seems in the 23rd century. That James Tiberius Kirk became something of a "lothario" during the show was an unfortunate relic of the time even on a show which looked to the future. Perhaps that had to do with Gene Roddenberry's own tendency to use the casting couch to his benefit. In the real world the elevation of D.C. Fontana to script supervisor gave her enormous influence on the show and on Star Trek long after the end of the brief three-year run.

Watching the series again after many years, I tried my best to come to each episode with fresh eyes and that redounded to me with positive effect. I came to appreciate some shows that I'd dismissed in years previous. Shows which improved with time and perspective were "Charlie X", "Miri", "Dagger of the Mind" and "Court Martial". But I still savored shows which have long been favorites such as "What are Little Girls Made Of?", "Squire of Gothos", "Arena", and "Devil in the Dark".  One show is a big favorite is "Shore Leave" and that one just doesn't click for me as much as others, though still a nice diversion. There are of course the great shows like "City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Naked Time". The first season was strong science fiction, if at times mediocre television. 
 

In Marc Cushman's These Are The Voyages - TOS Season One a reader will find an amazing cached of detailed information, memos, and images which open up the series in new ways. We read about Roddenberry's struggle to get his "Wagon Train of the Stars" on the air. (Sam Peeples likely came up that description by the way.) I learned for instance something a lot of folks might've known and that was that Nichelle Nichols was a girlfriend of Roddenberry's, a guy who apparently cheated on his wife a lot. Majel Barrett was current flame at the time the show was getting made. The casting couch seemed in full use in Roddenberry's office. I gained new respect for William Shatner who worked diligently to make the series succeed. Likewise Leonard Nimoy who required the first season to get a handle on the offbeat Mr. Spock. Nimoy's popularity is what in many ways kept Star Trek on the air for more than one season, that and a dedicated fan base which discovered the show despite NBC's indifference and failure to promote it. 

More next time when I take a gander at Season Two, when things lighten up on the show. 

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