Is Star Trek "great?"

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I don't mean 'is it cool" or "a fun way to pass the time," etc. I'm talking about how it ranks with other great works of literature, from Lord of the Rings to Dickens to Superman.

I thought of this topic after seeing the Enterprise on Newsweek. Then i thought of Ebert's Nemesis review a few years ago where he said something like "Star Trek used to be kind of great once, but now it's a copy of a copy of a copy."

Thoughts?

 

[Anticitizen]

Purely a matter of opinion.

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I think it varies in consistency. Across the 40-or-so years, its ranged from Unleaded Awesome to Concentrated Craptasticalness. Though in my opinion, the general quality declined as time went on.

 

[JustKate]

Hmmmm....

I just don't know. I enjoy it a lot - I love it, in fact - but I enjoy and love lots of things that aren't great. I think I'm going to have to agree that it just doesn't have the consistency in quality that it takes to make something great.

 

[KimMH]

A lot of people agree that Dickens work wasn't great Literature - it was practically a penny dreadful, but it was enormously relevant. Lord of the Rings fares better as a work of Literature, but isn't important historically as Dicken's work. Superman hardly qualifies as GREAT but he is socially relevant. In that view Star Trek is a social phenomenon no less that Superman but the wriitng behind the canon often was/is wretched. Some TrekLit I would say is truly great - Pocket has/had some extremely talented writers in it's stable -some of the work is more than cozy with great writing.

 

[Myasishchev]

I think I'd say, yeah. At any rate, it has a lot more to say to me than any Dickens novel.

 

[JustKate]

But I think even Dickens fans would agree that not all Dickens novels are "great." No author (at least none who wrote more than a very few novels, and Dickens wrote dozens) wrote only great ones. They vary in quality, I think (though I am not a major fan myself). So the question, I guess, is are the various pieces of Trek that can be considered great enough to make the whole thing great? I don't know.

 

[RyuRoots]

In a word: no.

I feel that Star Trek has one of the coolest science fiction worlds out there, with some of the best stories and characters I've seen. I love the franchise overall, but is it "great" in the truest sense of the word? Don't think so. Inconsistency in quality, consistent breach of previously established fact, the occasional out-of-character episode due to different writers, etc. etc. I think if Star Trek was one long book instead of a series of television shows of movies, nothing abridged or cut (that'd be one huge book huh?) there'd be more than a few parts of it would just make you go

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

When I say great, I wasn't referring necessarily to the stories themselves, or even just the characters.. what about the vision... and the execution of that vision? do these things make it "great" in a historical/cultural sense?

 

[NCC-1701-B]

yes

 

[JustKate]

Is Star Trek culturally significant? Sure. Does that make it great? Depends on your definition of "great."

I don't want to get us in the position here where we have to admit that, say, American Idol (or its counterparts in other countries) is "great." Call me a snob, but there it is.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

No. But it is surprisingly good for what it is.

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

i agree with anticitizen about this topic

 

[Navaros]

TOS = yes, it surely is great.
DS9 = yes, it surely is great.

Others = not even close to being great.

 

[JustKate]

So...a show that added a character because he reminded the creator of the sort-of lead singer in a bubblegum band is definitely and undoubtedly "great"? With no qualifications at all? I love TOS - a wonderful and ground-breaking show - but oh, Lordy, does it have its share of flaws.

 

[Myasishchev]

So...a show that added a character because he reminded the creator of the sort-of lead singer in a bubblegum band is definitely and undoubtedly "great"? With no qualifications at all? I love TOS - a wonderful and ground-breaking show - but oh, Lordy, does it have its share of flaws.

Huh?

Was it McCoy? That guy was a teenage heartthrob.

Seriously, I don't know.

 

[JustKate]

Huh?

Was it McCoy? That guy was a teenage heartthrob.

Seriously, I don't know.

Walter Koenig. He supposedly looked like Davy Jones of the Monkees. I hope that wasn't the main reason he was chosen, since personally, I don't see it (and when I was a bubblegummer, I liked Spock better anyway - I had good taste ), but that's apparently what Gene saw.

 

[TheGodBen]

DS9 was great. TOS was great for its time, and this new film franchise has the potential to make it great for a modern audience. TNG could be great, but it could also be ho-hum. Voyager and Enterprise are nowhere near the level of greatness.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

It's great enough...

 

[lceb]

Only with time can something qualify as great or not. I'm not sure that the historians of two hundred years in the future will consider Star Trek great, but I believe it will be considered important and relevant of our society. And probably they'll have a lot of fun trying to interpret it's true meaning.