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How did Trek Become Such a Phenomenon?
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6159268" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>I think that question may be attempting to forget our TV history a bit.</p><p></p><p>As I said upthread - Trek has always been first and foremost a series of morality plays. Rather like an RPG, for the series as a whole, "the story" is only an emergent property, seen only in retrospect. The Original Series and Next Gen were neither written with one united "the story". TOS has no long-standing arc or character development to speak of. Next Gen has a little of it, as writers created episodes that referred back to the canon they'd previously created. </p><p></p><p>The genre was, at the time, dominated by anthology and episodic shows (like "Friday the 13th: The Series"). Babylon 5 brought one new thing to the table - a pre-designed arc plot. This was what set B5 apart from all other major genre shows at the time. Now, there's some argument as to whether or not the writers and producers for DS9 had always intended to do the same, but the fact of the matter is that B5 beat them to the punch, and was the first genre show to *have* "the story". </p><p></p><p>So, if what you're looking for is B5-type story, you really need to look at stuff written and aired after B5 started. DS9, being poised for it, was able to jump on it fairly quickly, but they couldnt' travel back in time and do it beforehand.</p><p></p><p>I, personally, don't find, "failed to be ahead of its time" to be much of a criticism.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, we forget about the world pre-9/11 somtimes. DS9 started in 1993. The IRA was still an issue. There was war in Bosnia. Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center Bombing, and other terrorist actions were going on.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6159268, member: 177"] I think that question may be attempting to forget our TV history a bit. As I said upthread - Trek has always been first and foremost a series of morality plays. Rather like an RPG, for the series as a whole, "the story" is only an emergent property, seen only in retrospect. The Original Series and Next Gen were neither written with one united "the story". TOS has no long-standing arc or character development to speak of. Next Gen has a little of it, as writers created episodes that referred back to the canon they'd previously created. The genre was, at the time, dominated by anthology and episodic shows (like "Friday the 13th: The Series"). Babylon 5 brought one new thing to the table - a pre-designed arc plot. This was what set B5 apart from all other major genre shows at the time. Now, there's some argument as to whether or not the writers and producers for DS9 had always intended to do the same, but the fact of the matter is that B5 beat them to the punch, and was the first genre show to *have* "the story". So, if what you're looking for is B5-type story, you really need to look at stuff written and aired after B5 started. DS9, being poised for it, was able to jump on it fairly quickly, but they couldnt' travel back in time and do it beforehand. I, personally, don't find, "failed to be ahead of its time" to be much of a criticism. Well, we forget about the world pre-9/11 somtimes. DS9 started in 1993. The IRA was still an issue. There was war in Bosnia. Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center Bombing, and other terrorist actions were going on. [/QUOTE]
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