Nine more days until Episode 3's release and I'm looking forward to it.
That said I have been reflecting.
In the space of about a year STC has managed to give us three episodes. That's a pretty impressive accomplishment given the challenge of mounting these productions. It has certainly helped maintain interest on top of their overall execution.
From the beginning STC's stated intent was to continue TOS' depiction of the Enterprise's 5-year mission. The stated goal was to recreate the overall look and feel of TOS aas close as possbile using contemporary resources and occasonally straying a bit beyond what TOS could have done (unless they had had more extensive resources of the day). Largely I think STC has done that. They've done some things that could have been done on TOS if better resources of the day had been available and really haven't done much if anything that TOS couldn't have done.
That isn't to say that STC hasn't done things TOS wouldn't have done. By introducing a ship's counselor they are retconning an idea that wouldn't exist for another twenty years. I understand the reasoning behind it, to introduce a better balance of gender roles to appeal to a change in viewer expectations. But I do wonder if they couldn't have done this a little more deftly. The McKennah character is used more like a psychologist and she is a doctor so why couldn't they have just called her the ship's psychologist? By invoking the title of Counselor they are making a direct connection to the TNG era. On the other hand I find McKennah far more appealing than Deanna Troi and nowhere near as annoying.
There is some debate about the inclusion of a prototype holodeck which is such a familiar staple of the TNG-VOY era of Trek, but then again they're not introducing an idea that didn't exist back in the day. Roddenberry had conceived of something like the holodeck way back during TOS (and it was seen in TAS), but they simply had never had the opportunity realize the idea. And given what we had already seen on TOS (in terms of depicting convincing illusions (in universe) I've little doubt that something like the holodeck could have been done on TOS.
In terms of overall execution STC has earned top marks. In many respects the production looks and feels near imdistinguishable form TOS and the divergences are minor. On this issue STC has hit their target dead on.
In terms of story I think, so far, things are a bit murkier with STC's stated intent. Their first episode, "Pilgrim Of Eternity," was also essentially a proof of concept to show they could deliver what they were aiming for. The overall execution of the story itself works well enough, in my opinion. That said I still question the choice to do a followup episode because I don't think it's something TOS would have done. We know that Gene Coon was fond of the idea of revisiting certain characters and places, but it wasn't something Gene Roddenberry, Dorothy Fontana and Robert Justman were interested in. Revisiting the familiar is something that would happen in TAS and certainly would happen again in the films as well as extensively in the TNG-ENT productions. But it's not likely TOS would have done it. So in that sense "Pilgrim Of Eternity" feels like an oddity in terms of continuing the original series as if it hadn't been cancelled.
I think the second episode, "Lolani," is well in keeping with the spirit of TOS. It's a fresh story that doesn't rely heavily on the familiarity of previously established characters or places. It's an effort that fosters discussion and debate (perfectly in keeping with many TOS episodes) and it goes beyond what was done on TOS previously. In an overall sense "Lolani" feels very much like something we could have seen originally.
Which now brings us to the forthcoming third episode, "Fairest Of Them All." This will again be a revisit as well as a step back in time (they're going back to TOS' second season). The story is purportedly a direct sequel to TOS' "Mirror, Mirror" and depicting what happened when the Mirror Universe Kirk and his landing party were returned to their own universe. Again, now, they are doing something I highly doubt would have been done on TOS. TOS had already been there and done that and likely wouldn't have felt any need to answer the question of what happened to those characters. In that sense this story strikes me as pure fan indulgence rather than a genuine effort to pick up where TOS left off. It could still be fun and well executed, but it's not really fulfilling STC's original stated intent. In my view they have really done that only with "Lolani" so far.
I can understand the challenge of mounting these productions as well as the temptation to revisit things that appealed to us originally. But it should also be remembered that a large elment of what made TOS work was the creativity to always move forward and introduce new things that added to TOS' overall tapestry. That's why I'm impressed with "Lolani" because it feels very much in keeping with what TOS would/could have done.
It's my hope that after Episode 3, regardless of how entertaining it may be, that Star Trek Continues gets back to the kind of thinking that spawned a story like "Lolani" and refrains from revisiting the familiar. Let Phase II and others do the fanfic and continuity porn and strive to keep STC feeling like a more genuine continuation of TOS.
