"These Are The Voyages..." and How Stories Impact Us

               

              Here we go. Day four of Bad Shakespeare’s ode to Star Trek, which is slightly better than Data’s Ode to Spot. While both have great literary merit, I think it’s best if we explore the non-feline version of odes.

                We’ve explored stories that that don’t end as neatly as we expect with “City on the Edge of Forever.” Picard learned how to play the flute (and how stories need to be passed down) in “Inner Light.” And Voyager’s Doctor was a “Living Witness” to how stories can get twisted around. But, what can we do with those stories?

Star Trek: Enterprise – “These Are The Voyages…”

Archer, Picard, Kirk: "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before."

                The last episode of Star Trek: Enterprise was met with a lot of negative reviews. A lot of people weren’t happy that Riker and Troi from The Next Generation “stealing the spotlight” so to speak, of a crew that they’d grown to love over the years. Some even argued that Enterprise had found it’s voice, and this took it away. Me, personally, I enjoyed it. I thought it was kind of the perfect ending for a prequel series that didn’t really need to be prequeled.

                Star Trek was a brave new vision of the future. We really didn’t need to see Dr. Sam Beckett and his backwards adventures of pre-Kirk, moving slower and finding all the alien races we’ve already grown to love. Or tolerate, in some cases. But towards the end of the series, it really made it work. I hated seeing it go when it was just getting good.

                But that’s part of the point of the last episode: it’s the prequel to everything we’ve seen before. Meaning, in the history of the show, Riker when to Starfleet Academy and learned all about the adventures of Captain Archer, Trip Tucker, T’Pol… all those people who came before him. (presumably. Maybe he just failed history?) He learned their stories. So when he’s given a difficult choice, given within the framework of the Next Generation Episode, “Pegasus” it would make sense that he’d go back to those stories to draw strength and find inspiration.

                “These Are the Voyages…” (I really shouldn’t be writing this so short after my Voyager post, I really want to keep typing “These Are the Voyagers” which would have been a cool name for an episode. Why didn’t they get on that?) features Riker having to make a bold choice: rat out the Admiral that had him do something highly illegal, or be honest. He goes back to the stories of Archer and the founding of the Federation and watches it in Holograph form. At one point, he watches the sacrifice that Trip Tucker would ultimately make, and was able to ask him about it. It’s actually a fitting sendoff for the show.

                But it also concerns itself with the idea of stories, and how we can draw inspiration from them. As we know, Riker would eventually ask that he be put under arrest, along with the Admiral, for his actions. Now, the original episode didn’t feature anything Star Trek: Enterprise. At this point people were more concerned with creating Voyager, so it does require suspension of disbelief that he would have time to go and do all of this during the original “Pegasus.” However, once you believe that we have starships that visit alien planets with green skinned women, well… you have to start accepting other things. Riker had to focus on his belief in stories (or history… I’m going with stories. I’ll be honest with you, when I started this I’d hoped to focus on literature, but ended up focusing on stories. Literature is tomorrow.) to find what he wanted to do.

                “City on the Edge of Forever”, “Inner Light,” “Living Witness”, and “These are the Voyages…” all showcase an aspect of stories that are important. Whether it’s the idea of a twist ending, or how we pass on  stories, or how those stories can get changed, or finally, how stories change us, they all focus deeply on what it means to have a story, or be a storyteller. Star Trek is a series that understands that. It uses the idea of stories to its advantage. Deep Space Nine even has an episode called “The Storyteller” and focuses on the importance of that role. It’s not just green skinned alien girls and phasers. It’s real people, affected not only by the stories they’re creating, but also by the stories that have come before them. Not bad for a series that started out being cancelled after two seasons, revived, then cancelled again.

                Tomorrow: We discuss Deep Space Nine… the Star Trek series ahead of its time, and one of the more literary things to grace our television. You’ll note, I’m not going to be discussing one episode. I’ve been looking forward to discussing Deep Space Nine for a while now, and considered following Breaking Bad Shakespeare Fridays with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Fridays. I still might.

                Some point in the future: this isn’t a movie blog, but what the hell, a review of both Star Trek Into Darkness and The Great Gatsby are on their way for you. The last one isn’t Star Trek related.

Computer: Activate the Emergency Medical Story Generator

Those of you who have been following for the week, you know the drill. I’m writing about an episode of each of the Star Trek series in order, with one glaring exception that you’ll note today. Rather than covering Deep Space Nine, I’m jumping right to Voyager. There’s a reason for that, and we’ll get to it on Friday. But each of the episodes we discuss have some significant literary element I want to discuss.

    To recap, on Monday we explored the “City on the Edge of Forever” from the original Star Trek, and the fact that it doesn’t have a standard, “good guys win” ending. Then, we kept our Wesley Crusher jokes to a minimum as we discussed “Inner Light” a fantastic hour of television that explored the importance of stories, even if it involves being zapped with a beam of light. Originally I was going to discuss the underrated Voyager episode, “Prototype” but then I realized there was one even better that explored the themes I wanted to discuss. How important are stories?

    Star Trek: Voyager - “Living Witness.”

    The Doctor: “What's going to happen to me now? Will you put me on display? The holographic Rip van Winkle?"

    Star Trek: Voyager was one of the more... let’s say “problematic” Star Trek series. Not exactly beloved by fans, it had it’s share of problems. While I never felt it was horrible, I could see where some of those problems came from. But overall I enjoyed it, one episode in particular that sticks with me even today.

    We’re all concerned with our legacies. What will the world think of us once we’re gone? What kind of impact will we have made. Star Trek: Voyager asked that question once. Voyager was about a starship that was cut off from Starfleet and hurled 75,000 light years away from home in their first episode. (Sort of like Lost in Space, but with more Klingons and less robots flailing their arms uselessly.) One of the more interesting characters is that of the Doctor. When Voyager was thrown that far away, most of the important senior officers who names weren’t in the credits were killed. When the doctor was tragically killed by an exploding somethingorother, and for some reason a ship of 300 people only had one doctor on board, the logical solution was to build a holographic one.

    I like Star Trek. A lot. But I’ll be the first to admit that some solutions don’t make sense. It’s science fiction. As the song says, “repeat to yourself it’s just a show, you should really just relax.”

    “Living Witness” asks the question, “what impact did Voyager have while it was flying through space, trying to get home?” 700 years in the future, the Doctor (or his backup program... it’s all very fuzzy on what exactly happens) is activated in a museum and told about Voyager’s path of destruction through their world. Of course, we, the viewer know that something is up; Voyager is a peaceful ship, if prone to stumble upon things. Never once did they send a Borg attack army against people, at least not on-screen. Apparently they got involved in a dispute between two alien worlds, and through the years they got a reputation as destroyers. The Doctor does everything he can to change their minds; eventually the museum is destroyed because the Doctor attempted to tell the truth; people wanted to stick to their stories of martyrs and claim themselves as the “good guy.”

    I chose this episode over “Prototype” specifically because it has the element of what a story is, but with deeper consequences. (and a lot less killer robots. Except the Doctor. In fake-flashback.) It shows how much we hold onto our stories, and how beloved they can become. In the end, the Doctor... an artifact of Voyager, an actual witness to what occurred.... is able to set the record straight. And when he didn’t say what people wanted to believe, they rioted. When he went against the stories these people believed, they couldn’t accept it.

    The episode ends on a note of hope, showing that eventually the warring alien races put aside their differences and worked together as the Doctor tried to rejoin his friends back home. (or his backup program did. Like I said. Fuzzy.)

    Tomorrow we look at Enterprise’s ending and the importance of those stories we tell with “And These are the Voyages...”

The Next Generation and the Power of Stories (and the Horror of Crusher)

This week, as we count down to Star Trek Into Darkness (an English Teacher’s punctuation nightmare), Bad Shakespeare is taking a look at some his favorite episodes of Star Trek, and how they helped influence his love of literature. Yesterday we visited the Original Series with “City on the Edge of Forever.” Today we look at The Next Generation and Captain Picard’s “Inner Light.”

Picard: “Seize the time, Meribor. Live now. Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.”

    Mention “Inner Light” to any true fan of Star Trek, and it will launch the nerdiest debate ever on whether this episode was the best of Next Generation, or if “Best of Both Worlds” was the best. The answer is simple: “Inner Light” isn’t handicapped by the presence of Wesley Crusher (Wil Wheaton can pretend he’s embraced now... never forget Wesley Crusher. Those who forget Wesley are doomed to repeat him.)

    “Inner Light” is a fantastic hour of television. It’s actually a pretty simple scenario: Picard is zapped by a magic space beam and lives out his life on another planet. Ok, maybe it wasn’t that simple. In the end, it turns out that the magic space beam is actually the memories of another planet, designed to help preserve the memories of an ancient race.

    Star Trek is usually at it’s best when it’s telling a story that is helped by science fiction, but is understandable to just about anyone, and “Inner Light” is evidence of that. When Picard is zapped, he’s transported to another world, and he ends up living out an entire life, experiencing a culture, learning what it’s like to live on that world. The stories of this world (it turns out that the world died shortly after the probe containing the magic space beam was sent out) needed to be told, they needed to live on. Picard absorbed the knowledge of this world by living in it first hand. (All while his friends ran around, afraid that he was dying. Maybe the people who live on the world had a strange sense of humor?)

    Stories. Stories are important, especially the stories that make us who we are. I always liked the fact that “Inner Light” understood the importance of stories.  At the end of the day, stories will continue long after we’re gone.

    Tomorrow, we visit Star Trek: Voyager’s very strange, very twisty, “Prototype.” (Deep Space Nine is on Friday.)

Now for the Adventures of Uncle Georgy's Rockin' Rangers!

                This past weekend movie came out entitled: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, based on a novel. There was also a musical that came out called Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson that tells his story in rock musical form. The idea of this is sheer brilliance. Take an established figure and just add some monsters or some strange contemporary thing. Half the work is done for you! It takes Historical Fiction to a brand new level. In this case you just really have a guy fighting Vampires in a stovepipe hat. And let’s face it: Everything is cooler in a stovepipe hat.

                In the spirit of this, I’ve developed several ideas for more Historical Fiction stories that are just aching to be told.

                -George Washington and the Real Ghostbusters. Following his first term in office, George Washington must team up with a group of Ghostbusters to take down the ghost of Benedict Arnold.

                -Benjamin Franklin vs. Zombies. He uses his kite and key to raise the dead, then challenges them to a drinking challenge across all of the newly formed United States’ bars. Obviously, Ben wins.

                -The Adventures of William Taft: Space Ranger. William Taft is taken into space to save us from an alien invasion.

                -Theodore Roosevelt: Gun for Hire. Because why not? Maybe he could hunt ghosts. I don’ t know. He’s a cool guy.

                -Thomas Jefferson and the Deathly Hallows. In order to beat Lord Voldemort, Thomas Jefferson and his two friends must travel across America to find the 7… you know, this one may have been done already.

                -Andrew Jackson vs. a Wild Rampaging Bear. This one isn’t a story so much as just an event I would have liked to have seen. Apparently he was a pretty tough guy.

                -JFK vs. the Moon Men. Why do you think he wanted to go there so badly? We give him a space ray gun, maybe fix his hair a little.

                -Richard Nixon’s Action Force Five! Think of the spinoff potential! Think of the action figures! This one practically markets itself!

                -Elvis Presley vs. Everyone. Do I need to explain why this works, people? He could get a time machine, and prove once and for all, he’s the king.

                All these ideas are script ready. Feel free to call anytime, Hollywood.