Season 1 - that's all folks?

[Warped9]

What if Season 1 had been all there is?

What if despite all the pressure, incredibly long hours and great creativity on a inadequate budget as well as fan support and critical reviews hadn’t been enough to get Star Trek renewed for a second season?

I think it would surely have gone down as one of the travesties of television history. The show could likely have become a cult favourite and an example of science fiction adventure on television done right yet unappreciated by the suits and not given its fair chance.

We would have missed the excellent episodes of the second and, yes, even the third season (there were some). Of course, we also would have been spared the overt silliness of some of the second season as well as less inspired outings of the third.

I think it’s reasonable to assume that even if the show became a cult favourite there likely wouldn’t have been a resurgence with a growing franchise of films and spinoff series as well as tie-in merchandise. It might have been a long time, if ever, before someone tried to reboot Star Trek for a feature film.

In reviewing Season 1 we see Star Trek hit essentially all the things it was aiming for. It was straight-up space adventure with doses of dramatic social allegory and a generally light touch of humour. It presented a far-future setting in dynamic style and an overall convincing manner. There is so much right with Star Trek’s first season and very little wrong. Granted this approach continued in general into the second season and even into the third even as it began to stumble and get watered down. But we wouldn’t have seen any of that. We would have had only the first season with which to judge the series.

Assuming real world technology progressed much as it did then perhaps Star Trek’s single season would have eventually made it to the home video market on DVD and then perhaps later Blu-Ray. And maybe then we would finally get to see the original unaired pilot “The Cage” whereas we would have had only a tantalizing glimpse of Star Trek’s prehistory in the two-part “The Menagerie.”


***** Excellent (16 episodes = 55.1%)
“Where No Man Has Gone Before"
“The Corbomite Maneuver”
“The Enemy Within”
“The Naked Time”
“Balance Of Terror”
“What Are Little Girls Made Of?”
“Dagger Of The Mind”
“The Galileo Seven”
“Court Martial”
“Shore Leave"
“Arena”
“Tomorrow Is Yesterday”
“A Taste Of Armageddon”
“Space Seed”
“Errand Of Mercy”
“The City On The Edge Of Forever”

**** Good (8 episodes = 27.5%)
“The Man Trap”
“Charlie X”
“The Menagerie” (Part I)
“The Menagerie” (Part II)
“The Squire Of Gothos”
“This Side Of Paradise”
“The Devil In The Dark”
“Operation—Annihilate”

*** Fair (5 episodes = 17.2%)
“Mudd’s Women”
“Miri”
“The Conscience Of The King”
“The Alternative Factor”
“The Return Of The Archons”

** Poor (0 episodes = 0%)

* Bad (0 episodes = 0%)

Although Star Trek does stumble occasionally in Season 1 it never really drops the ball in any significant way. Out of twenty-nine episodes there isn't a bad or even genuinely poor episode in the lot. Wow! (of course, your mileage may vary)

Not long ago I became familiar with the original The Outer Limits (predating TOS by a few years) and from that one can clearly see that Star Trek in the early goings had very much of an Outer Limits feel to it. But Star Trek goes one better than The Outer Limits on at least two points. Firstly TOS had generally better production standards overall (although there's a lot of good stuff and a helluva lot of imagination in The Outer Limits) and TOS benefits from a regular cast. Being familiar with a good and well executed cast allows us to be more easily drawn into the stories which leads to greater emotional empathy and impact for the viewer. Also TOS in its first season benefited from generally consistent writing and acting---rather few offbeat moments or performances.

Season 1 delivers pretty much everything or at least most of what the show's premise promised: action/adventure, drama, some humour, range of stories and even periodic allegory. And even with limited f/x resources it still managed to give us non human, or at least non humanoid, lifeforms, the most visually prominent being the Salt Vampire, the Gorn, the Horta and the insanity inducing parasites. We've no idea what Trelane or the Metrons or the Organians really look like.

If Star Trek had been cancelled after its first season it would have been a travesty because here we have not only one of the very best seasons overall in the Trek franchise (and I'd argue the best), but it is one of the very best seasons overall for science fiction on television, period.

When I think of Star Trek at its best and what one would do well to emulate when embarking upon a project with Trek's name on it, particularly TOS, then Season 1 holds much of Star Trek at its very best. This is Star Trek done the way it should be done, the way it deserves to be done.

 

[Harvey]

It wouldn't have become a phenomenon if there had only been one season. There wouldn't have been enough episodes for much of a life in syndication, and you wouldn't have The Making of Star Trek, Star Trek Lives!, The World of Star Trek, or anything like that. And without those books, and especially without the long life in syndication, you probably wouldn't have Star Trek conventions, either.

Star Trek would be fondly remembered by TV history fans like you and I, but for the rest of the public, the title would just elicit a blank stare. Not unlike the fate of most short-lived, well-regarded shows of the era, if you think about it.

 

[Melakon]

Yes, with only a single season, we'd likely remember Star Trek in the same manner as we do The Time Tunnel.

I was 12 when The Outer Limits first aired, watching it from the first episode. I was critical of Trek when I first saw it because OL had better looking aliens.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Yes, with only a single season, we'd likely remember Star Trek in the same manner as we do The Time Tunnel.

I'd go so far as to say more like The Prisoner. The Time Tunnel isn't all that fondly remembered outside of fans of Irwin Allen (like me). It was a pretty light show, just a fun adventure with no real content and zero interest in scientific accuracy or social commentary. The Prisoner aimed for the same heights as Trek and wasn't appreciated at the time.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Did 'failed' TV series get movies back in the sixties? Would we have had a Serenity style Trek movie for a big screen adventure of the Enterprise crew a couple of years after cancellation? Of course it probably would have been more Barbarella than 2001, at least in terms of visual style and realism.

Or would it have gone Battlestar Galactica, and been reinvented for 'modern' audiences circa 1990? Which given the state of the world at the time, the collapse of communism, the apparent end of the Cold War, only 'minor' problems in the Middle East, would possibly have resulted in a series even more positive, forward looking, hopeful and optimistic than the original series, and TNG.

 

[Elder Knight]

Perhaps it would have gone like The Paper Chase, a failed-but-acclaimed network series that got picked up by a cable channel later on. I doubt that the fans of that show were as pushy as the trekkers would have been.

 

[Warped9]

Yes, with only a single season, we'd likely remember Star Trek in the same manner as we do The Time Tunnel.

I was 12 when The Outer Limits first aired, watching it from the first episode. I was critical of Trek when I first saw it because OL had better looking aliens.

No, I think Star Trek would be remembered more along the lines of The Outer Limits than any of the Irwin Allen brain cramps.

Did 'failed' TV series get movies back in the sixties? Would we have had a Serenity style Trek movie for a big screen adventure of the Enterprise crew a couple of years after cancellation? Of course it probably would have been more Barbarella than 2001, at least in terms of visual style and realism.

Or would it have gone Battlestar Galactica, and been reinvented for 'modern' audiences circa 1990? Which given the state of the world at the time, the collapse of communism, the apparent end of the Cold War, only 'minor' problems in the Middle East, would possibly have resulted in a series even more positive, forward looking, hopeful and optimistic than the original series, and TNG.

I don't recall failed TV series getting translated to the big screen back in the day.

It's conceivable that after some time someone could have rebooted it in much the same way Chris Carter rebooted (in a sense) The Night Stalker into The X-Files. The Night Stalker was cool overall, but inconsistent in its only season--certainly it wasn't anywhere near as consistent as Star Trek's first (or second) season.

 

[Harvey]

I think The Outer Limits is a good comparison, although that show has always lived in the shadow of the more well-known The Twilight Zone.

I doubt Star Trek would be living in the shadow of, say, Lost in Space or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. There's a reason those shows have receded in the public memory while The Twilight Zone has remained constant.

 

[Melakon]

Yes, with only a single season, we'd likely remember Star Trek in the same manner as we do The Time Tunnel.

I was 12 when The Outer Limits first aired, watching it from the first episode. I was critical of Trek when I first saw it because OL had better looking aliens.

No, I think Star Trek would be remembered more along the lines of The Outer Limits than any of the Irwin Allen brain cramps.

Well, wait a minute. You established the premise of Trek running only one year, which is why I chose Time Tunnel. Outer Limits got a second season, but only got halfway through it. The Prisoner was a great show, but it was British and not an American production. The only other U.S. genre series from the 60s I can remember running one season was Roald Dahl's horror series Way Out in 1961, but it only ran 14 episodes.

 

[BillJ]

Perhaps it would have gone like The Paper Chase, a failed-but-acclaimed network series that got picked up by a cable channel later on. I doubt that the fans of that show were as pushy as the trekkers would have been.

I think it would be about 12-15 years too early.

 

[Warped9]

Yes, with only a single season, we'd likely remember Star Trek in the same manner as we do The Time Tunnel.

I was 12 when The Outer Limits first aired, watching it from the first episode. I was critical of Trek when I first saw it because OL had better looking aliens.

No, I think Star Trek would be remembered more along the lines of The Outer Limits than any of the Irwin Allen brain cramps.

Well, wait a minute. You established the premise of Trek running only one year, which is why I chose Time Tunnel. Outer Limits got a second season, but only got halfway through it. The Prisoner was a great show, but it was British and not an American production. The only other U.S. genre series from the 60s I can remember running one season was Roald Dahl's horror series Way Out in 1961, but it only ran 14 episodes.

The Time Tunnel is remembered, but not widely and not as a high point of SF on television. Indeed none of the other Irwin Allen shows are remembered in that regard. UFO was a single season show that was more worthy than any of the IA shows. Allen had interesting concepts, but generally sloppy execution.

If Star Trek had lasted only one season I can see a lot of folks later wondering why it didn't click given the overall calibre of that first season. In terms of science fiction it is hands down superor to pretty much anything else that was being done at the time and essentially on par with The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.

Now if there had been no more Star Trek and consequently no enormous fanbase and growing franchise one is left to wonder what effect that could have had on science fiction on television. As it happened no one could help but take notice of Star Trek's popularity and thus seek to emulate it in some form or fashion in later years. So might decent SF on television have stagnated without Star Trek's three seasons and subsequent popularity?

 

[Harvey]

Perhaps it would have gone like The Paper Chase, a failed-but-acclaimed network series that got picked up by a cable channel later on. I doubt that the fans of that show were as pushy as the trekkers would have been.

I think it would be about 12-15 years too early.

Indeed. Showtime didn't pick up The Paper Chase until 1983, four years after the show had been cancelled by CBS, and that was spun off from a popular film with that film's Academy Award winner in the cast.

Also, the show was much cheaper to bring back than Star Trek or any other science fiction show would have been. Showtime didn't start dabbling in expensive properties like that until The Outer Limits and Stargate SG-1 in the mid-1990s.

 

[Melakon]

UFO was a single season show that was more worthy than any of the IA shows.

But that's another British show.

Now if there had been no more Star Trek and consequently no enormous fanbase and growing franchise one is left to wonder what effect that could have had on science fiction on television. As it happened no one could help but take notice of Star Trek's popularity and thus seek to emulate it in some form or fashion in later years. So might decent SF on television have stagnated without Star Trek's three seasons and subsequent popularity?

What disappointed me during the 60s was other than Star Trek and Allen's series, there was no other science fiction on U.S. television. The 70s brought spinoffs of Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes, and Ellison's disowned Starlost, but otherwise it was a very lean time on television for sci-fi fans. Remember Future Cop, anyone? I'd say good sci-fi stagnated even after Star Trek ran three years. One year? We probably would have had to wait for Star Wars to give sci-fi a kick in the ass. 2001: A Space Odyssey didn't even inspire anything.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I don't know. There are still fan clubs of The Prisoner in spite of its short-lived-ness and I have fond memories of Time Tunnel. I was very young when I last saw it but it was one of these old series that made me dream. I especially liked the one where they meet the people from the Trojan war and the locals keep thinking that they are gods and therefore nothing they do or say astonishes them. I think that's exactly how people of that time would have reacted if they had met people with superior technology and knowledge.

 

[Warped9]

Until Battlestar Gallactica in the late '70s sci-fi on television became rather lowkey. I'd say the most successful of them all was the Six Million Dollar Man. Yes, it was quite lowkey by space adventure standards, but the first two seasons were generally pretty decent (I revisited the early seasons not long ago). So there was a continued interest in genre ideas, but the suits might have been wary of going out on a limb for it. Now Space: 1999 wasn't an American series, but it was available to the U.S. and Canadian markets. That could have whetted some viewers' appetites for more space adventure type SF until Battlestar Gallactica came along at the end of the decade.

Now this is while TOS reruns were going strong in syndication and that, too, likely fueled interest is space adventure SF on television. But if TOS hadn't been there the wait for space adventure could have gone on longer than it did.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

Until Battlestar Gallactica in the late '70s sci-fi on television became rather lowkey. I'd say the most successful of them all was the Six Million Dollar Man. Yes, it was quite lowkey by space adventure standards, but the first two seasons were generally pretty decent (I revisited the early seasons not long ago). So there was a continued interest in genre ideas, but the suits might have been wary of going out on a limb for it. Now Space: 1999 wasn't an American series, but it was available to the U.S. and Canadian markets. That could have whetted some viewers' appetites for more space adventure type SF until Battlestar Gallactica came along at the end of the decade.

Now this is while TOS reruns were going strong in syndication and that, too, likely fueled interest is space adventure SF on television. But if TOS hadn't been there the wait for space adventure could have gone on longer than it did.

Well some things were very good in Six Million Dollar Man, like at some point the bad guy makes an android that fools every one, including Steve Austin, even though it's his own boss. He only managed to tell him from his boss in the end because the robot didn't sweat (an oversight since he was able to eat and drink)

 

[BoredShipCapt'n]

I once read somewhere that Star Trek was exceptional in being syndicated for reruns with only 3 seasons, and that normally a show would have needed 5 seasons to be considered for syndication at that time.

 

[Warped9]

I once read somewhere that Star Trek was exceptional in being syndicated for reruns with only 3 seasons, and that normally a show would have needed 5 seasons to be considered for syndication at that time.

I don't know if that's true or not, but they certainly got a lot of mileage out of those seventy-nine episodes. Speaking for myself back in the day I watched them tirelessly and never seemed to get enough. Considering how things unfolded I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I once read somewhere that Star Trek was exceptional in being syndicated for reruns with only 3 seasons, and that normally a show would have needed 5 seasons to be considered for syndication at that time.

I don't know if that's true or not, but they certainly got a lot of mileage out of those seventy-nine episodes. Speaking for myself back in the day I watched them tirelessly and never seemed to get enough. Considering how things unfolded I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one.

I count 80, since I always include "The Menagerie" in my viewing.

 

[Push The Button]

UFO was a single season show that was more worthy than any of the IA shows.

But that's another British show.

Now if there had been no more Star Trek and consequently no enormous fanbase and growing franchise one is left to wonder what effect that could have had on science fiction on television. As it happened no one could help but take notice of Star Trek's popularity and thus seek to emulate it in some form or fashion in later years. So might decent SF on television have stagnated without Star Trek's three seasons and subsequent popularity?

What disappointed me during the 60s was other than Star Trek and Allen's series, there was no other science fiction on U.S. television. The 70s brought spinoffs of Logan's Run and Planet of the Apes, and Ellison's disowned Starlost, but otherwise it was a very lean time on television for sci-fi fans. Remember Future Cop, anyone? I'd say good sci-fi stagnated even after Star Trek ran three years. One year? We probably would have had to wait for Star Wars to give sci-fi a kick in the ass. 2001: A Space Odyssey didn't even inspire anything.

True, about the only things that 2001 really seems to have inspired is some of the look-and-feel of Space: 1999 and endless comedic parodies of HAL.

Had Trek only survived for one season, I never would have known about it until much later in life.