TV Gold

I guess what sparked this off was the 'How William Shatner Changed The World' program shown on FIVE back on Wednesday 24th May 2006...

Anyway just to get the ball rolling...

With so much material to choose from you?d be right in thinking that it?s a challenging almost impossible task to highlight one particular story from each of the four series that Star Trek has generated. Its probably easier to pick out a half a dozen per series replete with reasons for justifying your choices however the four that I?ve specifically chosen are both highly memorable and leave me feeling good and well satisfied whenever I return to watch them. I?m sure we?ve all got our own favourites (be it those featuring Tribbles, Borg, Klingons, Ferengi etc) but for me here are the particular stories that stand out from the ?Original Series?, ?The Next Generation?, ?Deep Space Nine? and ?Voyager?.

If I had to pick a favourite from the original series I guess I?d probably go for the highly amusing second season story <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?A Piece of the Action?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> with the Enterprise visiting Sigma Iotia II where the inhabitants have modelled their entire civilisation on the contents of the book ?Chicago Mobs of the Twenties?. Attempting to fit in Kirk and Spock dress the part of Chicago gangsters in a story that provides great comedic moments, such as Kirk attempting to drive a vintage Iotian automobile and teach the dim Iotian gangsters to play ?fizzbin,? a card game the quick-witted captain improvises on the spot. Shatner?s Kirk really gets into the spirit of the piece and comes across as a very convincing gangster particularly when attempting to negotiate peace between rival gangs by adopting the tough guy stance ? not to mention the lingo ? the Iotians have come to respect. <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?A Piece of the Action?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> is, I feel a lightweight piece of easily accessible storytelling entertainment that is not overly burdened by Science Fiction elements.

Generally held as a more polished incarnation than its franchise initiator, ?Star Trek : The Next Generation? has indeed produced some fine stories during its seven year run however my favourite still remains <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?The Wounded?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> from Season Four. In this tale you have a renegade Federation starship Captain destroying Cardassian ships, threatening the fragile peace that the Federation and the Cardassian Empire have achieved after years of skirmishes. <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?The Wounded?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> presents actor Bob Gunton with an impassioned, believable performance as Captain Benjamin Maxwell in an episode that introduces the Cardassians to the franchise for the first time with Marc Alaimo (later an important semi regular over on Deep Space Nine) as the main protagonist Gul Macet. Coupled with Gunton?s Ben Maxwell <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?The Wounded?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> is a particularly strong story for series regular Colm Meaney. We gain a lot of background history for Meaney?s Chief Miles O?Brien character including his serving with Maxwell as his tactical officer on the U.S.S. Rutledge, a time that led to his witnessing the atrocities committed in the Cardassian massacre on Setlik III. This story neatly follows on from the previous <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Data?s Day?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> story where O?Brien and his fiancée Keiko Ishikawa are married by Captain Picard in a beautifully touching Japanese ceremony in Ten-Forward. In the final analysis <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?The Wounded?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> is for me the most satisfying due to both its introduction of the Cardassians and the background history it provides to married family man Miles O?Brien before he made the switch a couple of years later to become Chief of Operations over on Deep Space Nine.

Now I make no secret of the fact that I personally love the gritty nature of ?Star Trek : Deep Space Nine?, taking to the regular characters and alien environment of the old Cardassian space station orbiting Bajor straight away. With the standard over its seven years so consistently high it seems on the face of it a nigh on impossible task to single out any one episode as my favourite whether you are looking for comedy (Ferengi) intense drama (<!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Reunion?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->, <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?In The Pale Moonlight?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->), action (Jem?Hadar) or political intrigue (Bajor or Section 31). Despite this one story from the third season always seems to convey a good lasting impression on me no matter how many times I watch it. <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Equilibrium?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> begins ordinarily enough with Jadzia Dax attending a friendly dinner gathering in Sisko?s quarters. Whilst the others are talking the young woman is attracted to a keyboard belonging to Sisko?s son Jake on which she begins (although unskilled) to expertly play a beautiful piece of music but has absolutely no memory of how she remembers it. This episode delves deeply into the structure of Trill society, ultimately taking us to the home planet and the calming environment of the caves of Mak?ala where the symbionts exist, swimming around cloudy pools prior to joining. It is a particularly strong piece for actress Terry Farrell who portrays her characters anguish and fear at her situation, I feel, with an entirely convincing level of believability. I particularly enjoy the sequence where she is running though the empty darkened station, replete with excellently chilling incidental music and is confronted by mask-wearing figures. With <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Equilibrium?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> not only does the surfacing of a previously unknown past host emotionally destabilise the usually implacable station Science Officer but by its conclusion it questions the effectiveness of the entire symbiont selection process in current Trill society. This episode, together with <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Facets?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> later in Season Three touches on the many lives that the Dax symbiont has lived with which further makes one postulate the meaning of our own existence in relation to the world around us.

Personally I find ?Star Trek : Voyager? a less than satisfactory entry in the franchise and still remain amazed that it actually hobbled through seven long years before ultimately being replaced by the frankly appallingly awful ?Star Trek : Enterprise? series which was finally put out of its misery after four gruelling seasons. However having said that there are indeed rare occurrences of story brilliance to be found amongst those many episodes under Captain Janeway?s command. If I had to pick one significant entry from this series I would turn my attention to the second episode from Season Two. By providing an interesting alternate-reality ?what if?? plot <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Non Sequitur?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> has I feel a rather atypical Star Trek franchise feel about it. This story offers up some interesting background history to Garrett Wang?s handsome, likeable Ensign Harry Kim with the youngster finding himself back with his girlfriend Libby in a picturesque suburb of San Francisco. In a story entirely centred around Wang?s character you intriguingly get to see what Harry?s life might have been like had he not stepped aboard the Intrepid Class starship later to become lost in the Delta quadrant. In this reality he regularly stops off at the nearby café for a coffee chatting with proprietor Cosimo before making his way on towards Starfleet Command, which no doubt utilises impressive footage from the Star Trek films to effectively realise its exterior. In the course of this story Harry encounters a rather down-on-his-luck Tom Paris, shooting pool in a seedy Marseilles bar before <!--coloro:#009900--><span style="color:#009900"><!--/coloro-->?Non Sequitur?<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--> hits the ?series reset button? and restoring Harry back to the U.S.S. Voyager.

There are some fairly good moments during the film series however for me I would have to say that 1996?s ?Star Trek : First Contact? closely followed by 1991?s ?Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country? are the best cinematic entries in the big screen adventures of Gene Roddenberry?s Science Fiction franchise. It seems rather ironic that in 2006, the fortieth anniversary year ?hailing frequencies? are most definitely ?closed? on Star Trek which are no doubt due to the truly awful ?Star Trek : Enterprise? series dieing a ratings death and a disappointing tenth big screen entry ?Star Trek : Nemesis? back in 2002. At present there seems little for fans to celebrate however the news that JJ Abrams, famed for his success with television series ?Lost? and recent big screen blockbuster ?Mission Impossible III?, is currently considering working on a possible eleventh movie in 2008 raises the possibility that there may still be some life in ?Star Trek?. Time will tell if such a length of time between the last television series/film and this future project will sufficiently reinvigorate the franchise for the general public who have undoubtedly become disenchanted with such a continual plundering of Roddenberry?s original concept over the past four decades.

anyway that's enough from my, over to you guys! B)

Favorite TOS Episode: City on the Edge of Forever

Favorite TNG Episodes: The Big Goodbye & The Inner Light

Favorite Movie: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Although this one goes without saying!)

However, with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009190/" target="_blank">J.J. Abrams</a> (Lost, Alias) helming Start Trek XI we could all be in for a big treat!!

For me, most of the best TOS episodes are from season 1:

Charlie X: the powers of that overgrown pubescent "teenager" out of control were well handled. One of my sons (aged 13) will only watch this episode as he identifies with the rebellious Charlie as much as he does with Harry Enfield's "Kevin" character which he now unfortunately models his bahaviour on these days

The Corbomite Maneuver: a tense episode right from the beginning as the Enterprise tries to outwit a menacing spinning object in space. The "mask" at the end - which was subsequently used at the end of many of the end credits used to send my sister hiding behind a cushion till it was off-screen again (she was 7 when we first saw it in 1971; she's 41 now, and won't thank me for revealing this little family secret!)

The Menagerie: 2 part story was a brilliant way of reusing the unused pilot footage. For me, it gave the feeling that Star Trek really had a "history" - Kirk wasn't the first Enterprise captain. Although Bill Shatner was great as Kirk, wouldn't it have been fascinating to have seen more episodes with the annoyingly handsome Jeffrey Hunter as Capt Pike?

However, my favourite episode of all has to be from season 2 - The Doomsday Machine. This has great pacing throughout, with a menacing robotic destructive machine that seems impossible to destroy. For episodic television in the mid 1960's, produced on a budget and turned around in a week or so, this was - for me - a brilliantly entertaining episode with fantastic music heightening the tension. For me, those last ticking moments as Kirk waits to be beamed over from the doomed Constellation starship which has been rigged to explode, with the transporter malfunctioning at the last minute, is an absolute classic that knocks spots off the dull, plodding plots of so much modern sci-fi trash that seems to attempt to exist on rare bursts of expensive CGI to make a lasting impression rather than maintaining a high-action pace like this 40 year old episode does!

If I ever get marooned on a lost island, just give me a portable dvd player with these episodes and I'll happily watch them again and again until rescued.