Great Trek eras

[Quantum21]

What do you think of as great Trek eras? A fit of nostalgia hit me as I was going though the list of shows on streaming, and made be think about this. By this I mean not just the quality of the productions, but also real world fan reaction.

First on my list, and the one I barely knew was the 70s. It was the era of anticipation and endless reruns, culminating in a massive return film. I don't want to forget TAS in this mix either. This was the era that built fandom into what it became: cons, fanzines, etc. I'm not forgetting the 3 years of the 60s show, but I feel this is the period that built Star Trek.

Next, the movie era. While a lot of us wanted a TV show, there's no denying the anticipation of a big noticeable movie every 2-3 years was exciting and memorable. Terry Matalas' nostalgia comes from this period.

TNG. While the story goes that lots of fans resisted, the truth is most people were happy to see it, and it set records! It set the tone not only for 18 years of Star Trek, but spawned a scifi TV revolution. The last 3 years of the show were probably overall the most popular Trek has been in every aspect...

Related to this is the 90s in general. New TV series, movies and everything under the sun but with a noticeable downward creep after 1998.

The Kurtzman era. Not sure what else to call this...Secret Hideout era? CBS destabilization era? While the middle 90s hit all cylinders, this period from about 2017 to 2023 had its own highlights. It could be said the streaming show licensing sub-era from Netflix and Amazon led to the widest and most immediate viewing audience in Trek history. Modern communication makes the effects a bit different than the 90s but there's no doubt it's a significant part of Trek history with a big following.

The era is technically still going on, but in a holding pattern. Will the 60th anniversary, new movie and Hideout contract ending change things? Stay tuned, Trek isn't going anywhere.

 

[Adventerprise]

Call it the streaming era.

 

[Quantum21]

Call it the streaming era.

It's a bit too general for me, but not inaccurate.

 

[The Hanuk Kai]

The Piller-Behr era. Great stories, great focus on character, lots of episodes, new writers, ... .

 

[Greg Cox]

The Bantam Books era, the Pocket Books era . . . .

Not to be confused with Gold Key era, the DC era, the Marvel era, the DC era again, the Marvel era again, the Malibu era, the IDW era . . .

 

[publiusr]

I think TNG is what most folks think of if asked to name a Trek Era.

 

[Greg Cox]

I think TNG is what most folks think of if asked to name a Trek Era.

I don't know. The TNG era is just one era of Star Trek, not the era.

Star Trek was a phenomenon, with a famously active fandom, long before TNG came along.

And a whole new generation of Trekkies is growing up on the modern shows and movies.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm going to look at it by decade.

'60s --> New episodes of TOS every week.
'70s --> TOS reruns, TAS, and TMP as the punctuation mark.
'80s --> Most of the TOS Movies along with the first three seasons of TNG.
'90s --> The majority of TNG, all of DS9, most of VOY, the final TOS Movie, and three TNG Movies.
'00s --> The tail-end of VOY, all of ENT, the final TNG Movie, and the 2009 Movie.
'10s --> Into Darkness, Beyond, and the first two seasons of DSC.
'20s --> The majority of DSC and everything since.

Hmmmm. In the '70s, TMP would be THE Star Trek Event. In the '80s, new Star Trek still felt like an event. The '90s had Star Trek overload. The '00s had Star Trek fatigue. The '10s were back to Star Trek feeling like an event. Now we've got the 2020s (just typing the "the '20s" still makes me think of the 1920s). I'd say Star Trek is on overload, except it's not true because of the long gaps between seasons and how short they are.

Looking at it this way, I'm going to go with the '80s as the Great Era. Star Trek would've felt like an event from start-to-finish, if you include that TMP was still in theaters for much of 1980. If "The Best of Both Worlds" had aired in 1989 instead of 1990, it would frame up together perfectly. It still can, if you don't want to leave it out on account of a technicality.

In the '90s, Star Trek starts to feel too common place. Even though "The Best of Both Worlds", TNG's 100th Episode (namely "Redemption"), "Unification", Star Trek VI, "All Good Things", the premieres of DS9 and VOY, Generations, and First Contact would all feel like Big Events. There are others too, but those are arguably the main ones. Quite a few episodes and movies that felt like events in the '90s, the more I think about it. But the '80s didn't have oversaturation the way the '90s did as time wore on.